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John Kettler's Omnibus Post


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1 hour ago, John Kettler said:

Was this a dead on muzzle strike?

Oh dear me.

No John, that's a British 2lber (probably abandoned at Dunkirk at a casual guess) the barrel was deliberately destroyed by its previous users in order to render it unserviceable, it's colloquially known as 'Spiking The Gun'.

Here's some AA guns at Dunkirk that received the same treatment:

equipment-left-at-dunkirk-wwii-DRCX63.jp

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Spiking the gun actually is from when they had old cannons that shot cannonballs.  They had an icepick spike and driving it into where the fuse went with a hammer broke the cannon.

With modern guns yes grenades down the barrel or doing something to the breechblock from what Ive heard.

That gun if a grenade wouldnt fit.. Perhaps they deliberately sabotaged the end or ammo and fired it from distance? A round detonating in chamber (say if they stopped the end up) would maybe do that?

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Spiking a gun involved driving a nail into the touchhole, disabling the gun until the nail could be drilled out, a task requiring hours back then, sometimes even dictating drilling a new touchhole. To permanently ruin a cannon back then, the drill was to break the trunnions, which were integral to the barrel. A shot into a cannon's muzzle can petal the barrel, but I have no issue with the argument being made that the British wrecked their own gun in the case of the 2 Pounder, even w/o knowing how. Removing the breech block will put the gun out of action until replaced, but thermite will utterly ruin the gun.

Changing topics, here is a remarkable TED Talk by a brain researcher on the effects of action games (FPS based on other things later show) on brain performance. Much of what's been found is decidedly counterintuitive, with an array of strong positive effects identified. There is a stunning difference, too, between in-game multitasking and job and personal life multitasking performance. Not addressed is anything whatsoever to do with violence desensitization issues and similar. 
 

Regards,

John Kettler

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This is as good as it gets. Imagine Band of Brothers if the action were confined to half a squad. This is the true of a handful of guys in the Scout Platoon of Canada's famed Black Watch Battalion, which took the heaviest casualties of any Canadian unit during WW II. The Scout Platoon led the way via scouting and sniping. Its story is the story of every place the Black Watch went. The narration is terrific and poignant, the incident reconstructions well done, and the extensive interviews (and not just with the veterans but those they liberated)  informative and moving. Nice toys, too. This docudrama moved me to tears in places!
 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Was looking for footage of the battle for Paris during the uprising, but found this delight first. This is superb quality footage of fighting in the city after the US and French forces arrived. Features infantry, POWs, Shermans, Stuarts and De Gaulle! Almost like being there, but no audio and it's BW.
 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Here's a wonderful WW II pic and the story behind it. Have seen a photo recently of two GIs standing side by side. The smaller one, helmet on, doesn't so much as reach the taller one's shoulder and is swallowed by his uniform.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7813500/Tallest-German-surrenders-to-short-soldier-in-Second-World-War-picture.html

Regards,

John Kettler
 

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Was looking for Ampulomet miniatures for brother Ed's Russian horde, when I came across these URLs. The first has, hands down, the most information I've ever seen on this critter, including a page from the manual and a stack of close range pics of several preserved examples!

https://www.armedconflicts.com/SOV-Ampulomet-1941-System-Kartukov-t26894

This has not only some useful Ampulomet info but also gets into where the Russians were with their antitank grenade launchers and how that became the RPG-1, in that ever expanding family of weapons. Photos, line drawings and color rendering.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php/10309-Red-Army-Anti-Tank-Weapons-in-WW2

War Is Boring has a mostly correct article, but what's wonderful about it are two crisp clean BW pics of the weapon being operated on both the German and Russian sides. To be clear, the incendiary fill was never napalm. It was WP in some burning oil (suspect flamethrower fuel).

https://warisboring.com/the-soviet-ampulomet-launched-glass-bombs/

Regards,

John Kettler

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Of the US artillery then, she was: 280 mm vs 240 mm. Read about a guy who found the old Renwal Atomic Annie model and came acros all the relevant manuals for the gun in a surplus store. As a result, he was able to accurize and super detail his own model. 

Shifting topic, an outfit called Gonzales Firearms posted a meme on the differing views of riflemen, machine gunners, snipers and artillery on desired shot placement. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/GonzalezFirearmsFanPage/photos/a.404448539643516/2186088381479514/?type=3&eid=ARC8RnEdDfgaRQAQtHJyOZ1Hie0f1RxUOG4K9I9lKBlQ6PlZrOXpUrcEI213AHvm54jFAgkkdOBJ8a_5&ifg=1

Also, upon further review of the Paris footage, can now understand my own confusion as to the troops' nationality. At 13 seconds through 20 seconds or so, you can see soldier/s using the M1 Garand. Later on, the '03 armed soldiers areclearly  seen firing in support of the Sherman tank. It therefore would appear the French unit was in rifle transition and had a mix of '03s and M1 Garands.


Regards,

John Kettler
 

Edited by John Kettler
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6 hours ago, Michael Emrys said:

406.4mm

That's more like it!  ;)

But in Soviet Russia big guns come on tracks:

18t9hhtq2kd1jjpg.jpg

2A3 Kondensator (406mm Nuclear)

v41774_Russian-420mm-_and_039.jpg

2B1 Oka (420mm Conventional)

PS - Ironically some of the best Images of Kondensator that I've found were labelled as Oka.....Which is a pretty poor effort as you can't really miss Oka's not very subtle suspension mods!  :rolleyes:

hqdefault.jpg

I didn't notice at first, but this image has both:

fyTeLao.jpg

Kondensator in foreground, Oka in background.....That's a lot of 'Boom!' in one photo!  B)

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Andy,

The Russians built theirs because their generals made a fuss out of envy and Khrushchev had to let them build some. We know this, because he and JFK discussed it, both concluding it demonstrated the small mindedness of their militaries. The Russian guns had to be so big because their nuclear miniaturization severely lagged ours then. That they looked absolutely terrifying was a delightful bonus.

Am now going to jup back to the Middle Agers or, I should say, the fabrication techniques of the period, as exemplified in what could be done in hewing using simple tools. Love living archaeology, and this is a fabulous example. Though the specific piece is for a church, this is how, say, the tapered arm of a massive trebuchet could've been made. The video is also calming, never a bad thing, I think.
 

Regards,

John Kettler

 

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1 minute ago, John Kettler said:

The Russian guns had to be so big because their nuclear miniaturization severely lagged ours then.

Now, now JK, do I really have to point out that Annie's maiden name was Leopold?  :rolleyes:

At least the Soviets designed their own gun!  :P

4 minutes ago, John Kettler said:

That they looked absolutely terrifying was a delightful bonus.

On this we can agree.  :D

 

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Here's a tasty treadhead tidbit. Not all captured T-26s were used for security work. Some went into battle and were still at in 1943!

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/german-t-26-recon-platoon-t319465.html

If that didn't get your salivary glands going, I bet this will.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/friday-various-ebay-auction-images-for-the-weekend-t319488.html

Regards,

John Kettler

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Andy,

That's cool. How nice it must be to finally have the necessary research in hand.

Speaking of models, the quality and ingenuity of these at the 2019 Moson, Hungary, Model Expo may provide permanent SAN loss. 

https://www.facebook.com/wolfram.bradac/media_set?set=a.2249189008475913&type=3Regards,

John Kettler

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This warms my heart, makes me smile and also feel a bit sad. Regardless, that someone his age would do this verges on incredible. Believe the oldest jumper I can recall was ~80.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/13/d-day-veteran-harry-read-94-parachute-into-normandy-75th-anniversary?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard&fbclid=IwAR3YrOoC66K5MhHG_1ShJbZEeqZMkvr_BxLWou4s0-4PP-oEKQgx73sgIKU

There will be 30+ C-47s re-enacting the airborne drops.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/28/parachutists-to-fill-skies-over-normandy-on-75th-anniversary-of-d-day

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited by John Kettler
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Andy,

Never heard of it. (not surprising for someone whose last model finished was the Tamia 1/35th scale SU-100 which I built in high school), but you made me curious... Glad I looked into it, for the stunning header pic alone was worth the trip. Back then, using artist pastels was cutting edge. Also, don't know whether the app still exists, but something called Monzo allowed you to build plastic models in virtual space. 

http://alamosquadron.com/Newsletters/2015/Alamo Squadron Oct 2015.pdf

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited by John Kettler
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10 hours ago, John Kettler said:


There will be 30+ C-47s re-enacting the airborne drops.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/28/parachutists-to-fill-skies-over-normandy-on-75th-anniversary-of-d-day

Regards,

John Kettler

His comments are interesting.  Eg:  "We had the sten gun, which was very basic and accurate only up to 50 yards. And they put this little thing on the end to serve as a bayonet, but you wouldn’t want to be that close. It was a pathetic gun”.

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