Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
"Jesus, Karl Heinz, this thing weighs a ton". If the whole squad had these, Tante Ju would never get off the ground..."
gewehr76
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
look at that mud on them. That is really what makes up all the weight
"Jesus, Karl Heinz, this thing weighs a ton". If the whole squad had these, Tante Ju would never get off the ground..."
"Jesus, Karl Heinz, this thing weighs a ton". If the whole squad had these, Tante Ju would never get off the ground..."
Which reminds me -- I knew there was something else about that picture that was odd... everybody knows it's the smallest guy in the squad/section that carries the crew served weapon.
Mothball Fleet
Suison Bay, California
what is the ramp shaped thing towards the bow of the upper most 2 vessels?
Charlemagne70
Regular
- Location
- Monteregia,Kebekistan
The Wizard
CGN Regular
- Location
- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
That so he can provide covering firing for the guy still "up in the air"!
Fallschirmjäger jumped with only a pistol and a knife on their person. Their primary weapons came down in drop canisters. The Germans simply could not jump with all their combat equipment because of their parachute design and the door size of their JU-52 aircraft. Their chutes deployed very quickly ( but with little control) and they were known to make jumps from as low as 100 meters.
Once they landed they would quickly run to the drop canisters, open them, grab their weapons out and start fighting (madness).
Obviously not in a hurry in this picture.
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I believe that Allied Paratroopers jumped only with personal weapons - rifles, SMGs. Support weapons would also be in canisters like the Fallschirmjaegers. I remember being surprised to hear that mortar crews each jumped with a component of the gun - barrel, base plate, rounds, etc.
They were carried in a weapons bag/rucksack and lowered on a bungee to hit the ground before the soldier. If they were unable to lower the equipment, they were in for a hard landing even with the 32 ft. parabolic T-10 chute.
I wasn't Airborne qualified, but after an initial 10 static line jumps, I amassed 319 free falls with many guys who were, most with the Rhine Army Parachute Association out of Sennelager, Germany. I often wondered why our Airborne used the "legs together" Jab exit position as opposed to the spread eagle of the German Paras and sport free fallers. Perhaps it was adopted due to the prop vortex of the DC3, but that couldn't have been any worse and likely less than that associated with the Ju52.
The spread eagle aids in stability (which is why sport parachutists use it) and results in fewer 'lines over' malfunctions which the soldier may or may not have time to clear before landing.
They were carried in a weapons bag/rucksack and lowered on a bungee to hit the ground before the soldier. If they were unable to lower the equipment, they were in for a hard landing even with the 32 ft. parabolic T-10 chute.
I wasn't Airborne qualified, but after an initial 10 static line jumps, I amassed 319 free falls with many guys who were, most with the Rhine Army Parachute Association out of Sennelager, Germany. I often wondered why our Airborne used the "legs together" Jab exit position as opposed to the spread eagle of the German Paras and sport free fallers. Perhaps it was adopted due to the prop vortex of the DC3, but that couldn't have been any worse and likely less than that associated with the Ju52.
The spread eagle aids in stability (which is why sport parachutists use it) and results in fewer 'lines over' malfunctions which the soldier may or may not have time to clear before landing.
Those appear to be Belknap class guided missile cruisers, while they were still held in MARAD Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay. In which case you're looking at the missile house (holding the reload missiles) for the Mk 10 Mod 7 Guided Missile Launcher System (GMLS). One missile (Standard Missile SM-2ER Block I or ASROC, at the time of decommissioning) could be reloaded every 30 seconds per launcher rail.
