Picture of the day

[Dark Alley Dan]

That was certainly the point of silk scarves in WW1, or so I've heard. Saved your neck from chafing and made it more likely one would look around a little more and thus live.

By WW2, it was both practical and stylish.

(Bader, God bless him)

Mölders and Galland...

 

[purple]

The faces look pretty stressed all around. My old pal said that he watched a lot of young men grow old from the stress of combat in a very short period of time.

 

[nowarningshot]

The life expectancy of recruit pilots in the battle of Britain was about three weeks. Luftwaffe pilots had been in combat since Spain in 1936. PhD vs kindergarten, but the casualty rate was not zero for the Germans. Eventually attrition and better plane types leveled the field, and the Allies superior manufacturing capacity and recruit pool won the day.

 

[bdft]

Read Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson and then watch the BBC miniseries. And then read every thing else that he wrote.

 

[fat tony]

The german guy on the left appears to be holding a shotgun. Maybe the infamous Luftwaffe drilling?

 

[woodchopper]

My understanding of the lack of tight collars and ties had more to do with the potential for chafed necks then anything else. At that time a fighter pilots survival depended a lot on "situational awareness" . Never looking in one direction for more than a few seconds. The "bad guy" at your six was a definite cause for concern! A silk scarf or soft sweater was much better for the neck "swivelling" which was very much necessary to stay alive.

much like today where everyone is wearing a scarf with body armour and Load bearing kit to keep all that crap from chafing.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The Karl Gerat 40 siege mortar:

Rifling looks good...

Seven made, 124 tons, self-propelled (if you can call 6.2 mph self propelled), 600mm / two ton (or twenty-eight million grain) projectile. At the angry end, it does stuff like this:

One remains, at Kubinka:

 

[Auggie Doggie]

Boy, how many bottles of Hoppes #9 to clean that monster?

Auggie D.

 

[diopter]

And bed sheets or table clothes for patches. Soviet flags perhaps.

 

[AP]

much like today where everyone is wearing a scarf with body armour and Load bearing kit to keep all that crap from chafing.

It could be worse .... you could be wearing 'Battle Dress' -- in 100deg heat

 

[dryfire]

Rifling looks good...

Looks more like drive splines

 

[P9S]

drive splines!
made me chuckle.

 

[grinder08]

Boy, how many bottles of Hoppes #9 to clean that monster?

Auggie D.

But at least you can climb down the bore to check and clean every grove.

 

[buzzmagoo]

All most scared to ask bore brush ?? Must be a monster !

 

[Grizzly Adams]

All most scared to ask bore brush ?? Must be a monster !

Guy with a scrub brush, to crawl in there.

Grizz

 

[Bubba Yugga]

Guy with a scrub brush, to crawl in there.

Grizz

With a discip corporal hovering over you.
Been there. Done that. Just not quite so big.

 

[Forcedair]

The faces look pretty stressed all around. My old pal said that he watched a lot of young men grow old from the stress of combat in a very short period of time.

True. My late father was a WWII spitfire pilot. At age 21 he had a streak of grey hair that he carried the rest of his life until the rest of his hair caught up.

 

[Brookwood]

The faces look pretty stressed all around. My old pal said that he watched a lot of young men grow old from the stress of combat in a very short period of time.

My Grandfather was a Fallschirm-Flak Artillerie N.C.O. in the Luftwaffe. He had a very interesting career from '40-'45 that took him across France, Africa, Italy (Anzio) to finally being captured in a skirmish with the U.S. 260th infantry Regt, 65th infantry Division in their thrust across Germany. They had a firefight with what left of my Grandfather's unit in a little town called Munchen (not Munich) as his group was heading toward Linz to regroup. The fight is documented in the 260th's regimental history, including battlefield pics of the captured troops and equipment.

Here he is in mid 1943 -

Same guy, April of '45 shortly after being captured, exhausted but happy to be alive and in American custody. He started loosing his hair during the war in an odd pattern, and it never grew back.

He's 24 years old in this picture. At this moment he had already lost an infant son in a bombing raid and his wife was in Berlin in the cross hairs of the advancing Soviets, with no way to contact her. When they finally re-united, she was shocked that he had turned into an old man.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

I have no personal military history. Never signed up. But I've always been fascinated with the culture of the military and the experience of warfare. We ask these young men (and women on occasion) to give absolutely everything, from precious time with their families to their lives, in service to their nation. Everything else goes on hold. No career advancement, no watching the baby's first steps, no quiet time at home with the Mrs, no social life outside the unit... It's a huge thing to ask of someone in the prime of their lives. But they do it. They sign up. They go. And thank God they do.

But a price is paid.

The experience can be more than a person can handle. It can eat at a person and age them prematurely, like Brookwood's grandpa. It can break a person. And I don't think anyone signs up for that.

In my hometown, back in my youth, there was an old fellow drank at the Legion. He shook so badly he had to hold his beer in both hands to get it to his mouth without spilling it. I was told his time as a POW did that to him. I don't think he signed up to spend the rest of his life a tremulous shell of a guy. He offered up his life, but lost everythng that could have been his life after the war.

These guys are in their twenties:

It's a hard thing we ask them to do. It takes a toll. We should always remember that.

 

[diopter]

Captioned: Instant firebase.