Picture of the day

Lee Enfield said:
I'm sure you would have enjoyed military prison...H:S:

to tell the truth the only difference between a sten and an MP38u40 is the external length of the mag, (back to front) and some ergonomics.

Reliability would have been the same, unless you got a defective gun.
Click to expand...

I've seen other pics of Canadians using German weapons....you're saying someone would have been jailed for doing so?
 
Lee Enfield said:
I'm sure you would have enjoyed military prison...H:S:

to tell the truth the only difference between a sten and an MP38u40 is the external length of the mag, (back to front) and some ergonomics.

Reliability would have been the same, unless you got a defective gun.
Click to expand...

the mag housing... on the MP 40 it was on the bottom not the side... made all the difernace for controlling the muzzle. It made the gun more accurate.
 
If I placed my GPMG when i was in in such a hap hazzard way in a trench like bunker, I would get my ass kicked . the way ots placed he would have to exposehimself more to reload it, its not sand bagged sown and the tripod should be dug into the ground
 
Now this is what i am talking about :) loving the chit chat about the pictures! Almost makes me want to keep posting pics tonight! But I have to control my urge LOL. New picture tomorrow morning :)

Woodchopper- The best scenario so far :)
 
Have you shot both? I have....i'd take the MP 38 and the chance at jail, stens where/are miserable, especially the early marks. And had a very poor reputation for reliability.

Lots of allied troops "aquired" and used berreta's and MP 38's where the fighting was close. More then a few prefered these weapons over the much overweight (but oh so fun to shoot) Thompsons.

And every now and then when it got noticed the MP's would come around and confinscate everyones favorite toy and force em back to the sten again :( Party poopers!

Lee Enfield said:
I'm sure you would have enjoyed military prison...H:S:

to tell the truth the only difference between a sten and an MP38u40 is the external length of the mag, (back to front) and some ergonomics.

Reliability would have been the same, unless you got a defective gun.
Click to expand...
 
The pic of the gent in the dispatch rider helmet standing up and clearing the room blows me away. I'm new to military history and all these pics where guys look casual even when crouching and returning fire is amazing. I'd be glued to the ground. I guess when you were in action long enough, it just got to be a normal everyday thing.

I'm watching WWII HD on netflix these days. It's totally americanized, but it's still really a great tv documentary. I'm just now, at age 33, starting to understanding what it must have been like. I'll admit, I have taken it for granted what vets went through. I never will again.
 
AdrianM said:
The pic of the gent in the dispatch rider helmet standing up and clearing the room blows me away. I'm new to military history and all these pics where guys look casual even when crouching and returning fire is amazing. I'd be glued to the ground. I guess when you were in action long enough, it just got to be a normal everyday thing.
Click to expand...

Many of these photos were staged, including our dispatch rider.

In my copy of Battle of the Bulge Then and Now, there is a photo series by a US photog who is killed at the end of the series. What is developed from the retrieved camera are probably the most uneventful series of photos.

They simply show individual US soldiers moving up. No explosions, no gun fire, nothing.

Yet this action cost a man his life. A very eerie photo set. The last things this man saw.
 
Danish Underground used the Sten by laying the left hand OVER the barrel shroud with the mag over TOP of the left wrist. Made the Sten MOST useful in back alleys and steets, also for clearing bunkers. The gun then pulled from left to right; all you did was haul back on the trigger and let the gun sweep the whole alleyway.

Works.
.
 
Talking about the photo of a lifetime, there was actually an American correspondent in 'Nam who shot the mine blast that killed him.

Lousy picture.

Not worth dying for.
.
 
I remember reading somewhere about guys using captured German SMG's and being ordered to lose them because the different sound was recognizable and had people spooked that the enemy had infiltrated. Maybe just a story, but someone here should know.
 
chalkriver said:
untitled.png

untitled7.png


These were before radar and are listening devices used to detect aircraft .

Check out the thread I started with lots of pics of devices like these.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=700164
Click to expand...

hahaha... I thought this was part of a Monty Python gag!
 
Just my $0.02 but I think if you were going to do some housecleaning you pick up any SMG handy to have volume of fire going in. I read that after WW2 the Americans did a study and found that a lot of fire wasn't aimed fire but directed fire (ie letting loose at the enemy with volume) hence part of the reason of the move to .223 from .30/06 - smaller, lighter rounds more your able to carry/load into a mag before you have to reload. You can never have enough ammo/grenades.

re. the Sten vs all the others debate - I've heard that the Sten was OK until it broke then you couldn't fix it so you threw it away. But then you have no weapon - not good in a fire fight. So I could see soldiers p/u something better even if it was an enemy SMG. Reliability was supposed to be an issue with the Sten.

Problem with that is sometimes soldiers shoot at sound so if they hear the sound of a burp gun they let loose/toss a grenade before identifying the target. My father who was in WW2 said that was the big reason why you didn't p/u and use a MP40.

Re the Thompson - this is what my Dad used - even though they were told to leave them in Britain when they went over in '44 (re-equipped with Stens). Needless to say they kept their Tommy guns. Heavy yes - but when your life depends on it being reliable and you want to stop the enemy dead then its not so heavy. For killing he and his mates preferred the big .45 to 9mm.
 
http://www.perthregiment.org/rperth11.html

Picture #7 shows a Canadian soldier still with a Thompson in Europe.
 
Harley-Davidson WL in jump mode.

Can't tel if it's a WLA or WLC. WLA was US milspec version, had ignition suppression for FM radios, WLC was Canadian version, suppressed for AM.

45 cubic inches, silicon-aluminum alloy 5:1 heads for better cooling, 30-tooth motor sprocket for convoy driving. They were supposed to do 45 mph in convoy, about 75 tops, but I had one to 102 after I planed .030" off the heads, giving me about the 6:1 of a WLD.

Nice bike. Hand shift, foot clutch. Front brake was there to keep the cops from asking questions; it served no other purpose whatsoever. Rear brakes REALLY decent. Only 24 BHP but gallons of torque; you could pull away from the curb at about 350 RPM. Max was 4600 and you were supposed to run them on top-grade gasoline: 74 octane or better. They were 560 pounds but handled light as a feather. Stable enough that you could GET OFF, stand on the running-board and turn around at 45 MPH, get back on.... or you could run off pavement and onto gravel without upsetting, at any speed: TRY that with a Jap bike. Stable enough for just about anything and low enough that you could dance through the traffic if you had to. Reliable as a BRICK, likely the safest motorcycle ever made.

They were WONDERFUL.

Canada bought 23,222 of them just by Order-in-Council, plus others by contract, mountains o spare parts and enough critical components to build several thousand more. That's why you run into them with no frame number under the seat and no motor number on the left-hand crankcase: spares. Numbers should be on both parts and they should match: my bike was 42WLC12551 which gives you the year, model and number, all in one.

If they were being built today, I would buy a new one.

Thanks for the picture!
.
 
Wicked pic. I'm a bit of a motorcycle nut (not to the level of smellie mind you) and I can appreciate a man with the talent to ride a big bike with little suspension and get it that far off the ground! Makes Steve McQueen in the great escape look like a novice.

Do you think he was stunting for the camera or just using speed and a jump to clear a nasty bit of road rather than getting stuck?
 
Jumping like that was part of the DR course. So was laying it down at speed. LOTSa fun!

I met a couple of ex-DRs. Never did meet one that I would consider 100% sane, so we got along.

US Gummint had a GREAT manual: Motorcycle - 1942. Complete teardown on the 45 Harley, Indian 101 Scout, good photos of Harley XA and the Indian equivalent with the motor like a Guzzi.

Saw an XA once: looked like a Harley version of a BMW but it was a flathead.

Nuthin' like a flathead. Dead reliable and so simple that even I can work on one!

People call those bikes "crude". There were close to 200 bearings in a Harley 45 clutch and gearbox. NOTHING that uses 200 needle and ball bearings is crude! Thing with Harley bearings is that they are so precise that you can use them to set your micrometer. Standard bottom-end bearing is .250", first OS .2502", 2nd OS .2504", 3rd OS .2506", 4th OS .2508", 5th OS .251" and that's what they gauge, dead-on.
.
 
Thought this picture was so awesome when I first saw it a few months ago I decided to use it as my avatar. I have huge respect for anyone who can jump a bike that heavy like that. Anyone can jump a modern motocross bike but imagine how much physical strength it would take to pull that thing back when it gets way out of shape. Not to mention the ergonomics there aren't quite set up for it. Ha ha! Gnarly is the only word I can think of to describe that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom