Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
A Somali WSLF Fighter with an STG-44 during The Ogaden War, 1977.
The WSLF or The Western Somali Liberation Front was a rebel group fighting to reunite with the rest of Somalia.
Somebody else has an M14 ? One has to wonder which junk yard their supplier was ?
Grizz
Somebody else has an M14 ? One has to wonder which junk yard their supplier was ?
Grizz
Every nation that went into Somalia left a lot of their weapons behind.
The Somalis were quite proficient in taking them away from those invaders as well.
That picture is so full of history.
Italian, American, Egyptian, Dutch, Spanish, Czech and German weapons easily identifiable.
They all look well used but they appear to be well maintained, therefore, if they have ammo, very dangerous in the hands of those rebels.
Western troops, as well as the Italians and Russians found out the hard way just how effective the Somali private militias were.
Italian SMG
The age old question being, Would your brain have time to process it before failure??
I hate mines. Damned effective though and definitely mentally destabilizing to those on the receiving end.
The Claymore Mine
Does the Canadian Army have stocks of the Claymore mine , or did Lloyd Axworthy in his land mine crusade to ban land mines , get the Claymore banned from Canadian inventory
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
A command detonated device is legitimate. I was inside the classified floors of NDHQ when there was a press story about mines in Kabul. By chance one of the second row observers spoke up to Gen Hillier that he had been the OC of some particular unit, and explained his use of Clays. It was a remarkable coincidence and timing. Hillier was one of the very few generals I've met or watched who had the stones to let someone speak forthrightly to him and he'd respect their honesty, and then turn to tell off whoever was yapping ignorantly.
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
On a patrol in Zangabad are in 2011 an ODA cat took out a Taliban a$$&Ole with his short barrel M4 at over 400m. Later that night he says he's never gonna find himself relying on a 5.56 at distance again and he goes and grabs an M14 EBR from thier (substantial) armamentn sea container. He re rigs all his gear to 7.62 and the next day takes her out on a patrol. When he came back in he went straight back to the M4. Said the M14 felt like carrying a boat anchor in comparison(of interest is that they deployed with 2 main personal weapons. They each had their AR and also a SCAR. I spent months patrolling with them and they all chose the M4.)
I was on KAF 07-08 and one job in the shop was to take a particular file down to the other end of the runway to an OGA. One day I had my bicycle and offered to go. (A bicycle on an airbase is a remarkable advantage.) Along the way I passed a military contractor site, and observed some swarthy chaps with old two-blade UH1s and I spotted a guy with an M14. We knew their boss from meetings he'd attend in our shop. A day or so later at supper I mentioned this to a different OGA rep whose dinner company I sometimes enjoyed. Hmm? He said. What makes that significant? Well, at the time SEALs were the only US group I knew who openly using them. He processed that and thanked me for the observation. A few weeks later I noticed some line grunts with clean unencumbered M14s with scopes on their way through camp.
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Old comment, but worth telling another Africa story. My colleague Jim went to Addis Ababa on one of Canada's generous missions in sub Saharan Africa. He was out looking for a couple skids of paper maps that had been printed in Canada and sent over. He found the skids, less the top foot of maps in a warehouse along with a dozen guys from one of the countries further south. Between him, his companion and the soldiers it was revealed they had been sent to help out - to show their country's flag - and immediately forgotten. No food. No water. No sim cards. No money. Being a reasonable chap he figured out what he could do. The Cubans weren't the only army ignoring their soldiers.
That is not an unusual predicament in Africa, the men usually become bandits or rebels as they have nowhere else to go, once they've sold their equipment, if they were left with any.
Third world commanders have a bad habit of confiscating the resources that are supposed to go to those troops and selling it on the black market. Their political peers, take their cut of course.
Third world commanders have a bad habit of confiscating the resources that are supposed to go to those troops and selling it on the black market. Their political peers, take their cut of course.
I had never heard of the Trench of Bayonets until I read about this in an older Legion magazine:
"In 1916, the nine-month battle of Verdun claimed over 300,000 lives, and left more than 300,000 wounded.
The field of battle is today marked by the Verdun Memorial. The most chilling place in this eerie landscape is by far the so-called “Trench of Bayonets.”
In June 1916, this entrenched position was a part of Fort Douaumont, which the Germans desperately wanted to take. On June 12, Germans unleashed a hailstorm of iron and lead upon French positions. The attack caught the French by surprise.
The 137th Regiment of French infantry was annihilated almost to the last man. Years after the war, French teams exploring the battlefield uncovered the first clues of the horrific fate of this regiment. One of the trenches was discovered completely filled in, with only a neat line of bayonets sticking out of the ground. The bayonets were still fixed to their rifles. A body was found next to each one. Under relentless bombardment, the soldiers had been effectively buried standing up, perhaps even while they were still alive.
Or so the story goes. Today, historians believe that a great deal of myth-making influenced the eventual construction of the Trench of Bayonets monument, which was built by an American patron. In reality, it’s unlikely that the soldiers were buried alive in the manner typically described by this common myth. What’s indisputable is that both French and German forces lost a huge number of lives during this battle."
Mujahideen fighter with a bolt-action rifle, shortly after the Soviet–Afghan War had begun, 1979-1980.
The Afghans have a lot of equipment left behind by every country that has ever invaded them. I'd only be a little bit surprised to hear that somebody recently got killed with a knife dating back to Alexander the Great.
Flying to Tete : Period between 1968 / 1969.
- With the wounded safe on stretchers under the supervision of the doctor, the plane can finally head to the hospital in Tete, Mozambique.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tete,_Mozambique
