Picture of the day

I posted this a couple of years ago. It is some London Scottish chaps posing for a photo/post card. The interesting part is that they all have Arisaka rifles and bayonets.

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I believe the British got 160,000 Arisakas from Japan for training rifles in the early part of the Great War.

Rifles were used for marksmanship training, then mostly handed to the RN/RMLI. When those formations got the Rosses, a bunch of the Aris went to the Middle East for the Arab Army. "The Arabs," wrote T.E. Lawrence, "knowing their worth, promptly threw them away."

It would be interesting to know exactly WHICH Arisaka went to the Desert War. Shipments to England contained a very large proportion of the already-obsolete Type 30 rifles, a smaller number of the Type 38.

Think a guy could use a ticket to the Hejaz..... and a shovel. Type 30s are VERY thin on the ground.
 
Ganderite said:
A Lancaster pilot told me of landing in Russia. the next morning the plane was found to have been moved to a new location on the grass field. It was a crude airfield with no plane mules. "How did you move the plane?" he asked. (It was fully bombed up.) Women. "Lots of Russian women."

He told me that when he got into the plane he found that the parking brake was still on.

This was a raid on the Tirpitz. They flew to Russia, refueled and then attacked. (They put it out of commission.)
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The Russians packed airfields in the snow for their frontline aircraft by having 400 men link elbows and stomp in unison.
 
fraserdw said:
Did the PPCLI ever use the Ross, I thought they were a British Colonial Regiment to 1915?
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Yes, for a short time until they were re-armed with the SMLE. They went to France before the rest of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in a British Division, so it made sense from a supply and maintenance point of view for them to use the Lee Enfield.

They were mostly ex-British regular soldiers who of course knew the Lee Enfield well. Kitchener is said to have remarked ironically about the PPCLI: "So that's where all my old soldiers have gone!"

Cdn303 said:
He looks like he would really appreciate a thick steak and a big baked potato.
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The best troops in North Africa and the equal of any in the world. Rommel particularly admired the Kiwis. It's a pity the Canadian Army wasn't sent out to North Africa as well; it would have been over sooner.
 
XRCD011 said:
True, my bad (but I bet he would not turn down a Bitburger or St Pauli or the aforementioned Fosters either).
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What's funny about beer and the Middle East is that my guys liked beer a lot as they always do anywhere, but they wouldn't drink the German Dab brand, even as a freebee. There are some fine beers brewed in the region. Egyptian Stella and Israeli Maccabbee brands are very good. Do not ask for a beer in Syria. It is very low grade weasel pi$$.
 
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