Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
One has to wonder how weirdly unbalanced that M3 was with three full mags bodged together under it...
Canada had a bicycle regiment as well, the Corps of Guides. SOrta recce, int op dragoon cyclists.
"After the war, the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence (DMO&I), Col J. Sutherland-Brown, had planned to convert the C of G Units and to use the newly created Cyclist companies as divisional Troops for security and protection duties. Using the Cyclists for screen protection was the old role of light cavalry Units, however, and traditionally not a function of the C of G.
Only a few companies were formed and training was limited. No training was authorized in 1920, and between 1922 and 1924, it was restricted to 50% of the establishment. In 1926, the company establishment was changed to one Major, one Capt, four Lieutenants, one Warrant Officer level 2, one Company Quarter-Master Sergeant, one Sergeant (artificer), four Sergeants, eight Corporals, one driver, two cooks, six batmen, and 88 Privates. Equipment consisted of 2 horses, 117 bicycles, and 1 wagon. The horses, wagon, and, at least in the early days, the bicycles, had to be hired for the camp period. The organization was much the same as it had been in wartime, consisting of an HQ of 10, and 4 platoons of 27, for a total of 118 all ranks."
On Day-2 to the 70th anniversary for the Invasion we where watching "The Longest Day" at the house we had at Grand Camp Maisy in Normandy and I commented that in one of the scenes the bunker looked just like the Longues Sur Mer observation bunker. I was then informed it looked like the Longues Sur Mer bunker in the movie, because it IS the Longues Sur Mer bunker used in the movie. Pretty cool that actual battlefields and emplacements where used in making the movie The Longest Day.
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Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
The Maunsell Sea Forts, Thames Estuary. A faint shadow of what they were:
Several were installed...
Several were installed...
Yesterday I bought airline tickets for a 3 wk trip to France this spring. It's been 27 yrs since I was there last. At that time there was some silly France-Canada fish war going on over Cod fishing around St Pierre/Miquelon so you needed a visa to go there, unlike the thousands of Canadian "tourists" who visited in 1944. We've planned a week of Paris in the spring and a special BD party for "Mrs Purple", followed by wine swilling and sightseeing in the Loire Valley then on to the WW1 battlefields of northern France and back to Normandy.
My wife is actually pretty keen on seeing Vimy Ridge and Juno beach.
I've been extolling the other joys of Normandy so that I can make enough time to re-walk the ground where Cdn operations "Totalize" and "Tractable" were unfolded in the effort to close the Falaise Gap. My biggest challenges will be to stuff enough clean underwear in my suitcase on top of all the reference material that I want to take along, as well as to get my 40 yr old DND French language training oiled up and working. For sure I'll take a copy of Brian Reid's excellent book, "No Holding Back" which deals with Cdn ops along the Falaise road in great detail. I'm already hearing the melodies of Edith Piaf's "Je ne Regrette Rien" and "La Vie en Rose" banging around in my head.
My wife is actually pretty keen on seeing Vimy Ridge and Juno beach.
I've been extolling the other joys of Normandy so that I can make enough time to re-walk the ground where Cdn operations "Totalize" and "Tractable" were unfolded in the effort to close the Falaise Gap. My biggest challenges will be to stuff enough clean underwear in my suitcase on top of all the reference material that I want to take along, as well as to get my 40 yr old DND French language training oiled up and working. For sure I'll take a copy of Brian Reid's excellent book, "No Holding Back" which deals with Cdn ops along the Falaise road in great detail. I'm already hearing the melodies of Edith Piaf's "Je ne Regrette Rien" and "La Vie en Rose" banging around in my head.The Maunsell Forts remind me of the sea fortresses in Orwell's "1984". God, that must have been a bleak existence for the troops manning them!
Were they effective or did they just drive the Germans to use other routes, a better killing ground?
Were they effective or did they just drive the Germans to use other routes, a better killing ground?
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Bicycle regiments seem to come and go... Such a simple, utilitarian vehicle.
I'm half waiting for some spec ops units to pick them up again... Bikes can be more of a hindrance than a gain in a lot of terrain, but where they work, they work really well.
I would think a dirt bike (motorcycle) would be the modern equivalent. Or an ATV. I use a 250 cc 4 wh drive ATV all the time, and often tow a small trailer equipped with fat tires. Seems to me to be the kind of rig some soldiers could use.
USMC Recon LAVs have a folded mountain bike on the side, for quick road recces.
The Thames was the main flight path leading into London for the Luftwaffe and the estuary was mined by the Germans. The Mausell forts gave depth to the AA defenses and are credited with numerous aircraft (21 and a number of V1s) being shot down.
http://www.project-redsand.com/history.htm
The problem with motorbike (dirt bikes) and ATV's is three things:
Weight: Harder to drop from a plane, throw into the back of a jeep etc.
Fuel: They need it. You run out, you have a very heavy push bike.
Noise: They tend to make a lot of it.
DARPA (yay for mad military science! ) is actually funding development on a hybrid gas-electic motocross bike, that can run on batteries for 2+ hours for silent recon type purposes. That would solve the Noise issue. But fuel and weight still matter as well.
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/hybrid_bikes/
There you go, disproving the "Dumb Marine" myth again...
The Dutch Army still has a bicycle band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo8DlBkSW_w
A hold over when all armies had bicycle units.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo8DlBkSW_w
A hold over when all armies had bicycle units.
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I personally took the same pictures from the same angle (as well as inside) during our tour last August 2014.
Probably as did many thousands of other battlefield tourists.
I tried to delete this post and repost it with quote.
Mods, please delete. Thanks.
Probably as did many thousands of other battlefield tourists.
I tried to delete this post and repost it with quote.
Mods, please delete. Thanks.
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On Day-2 to the 70th anniversary for the Invasion we where watching "The Longest Day" at the house we had at Grand Camp Maisy in Normandy and I commented that in one of the scenes the bunker looked just like the Longues Sur Mer observation bunker. I was then informed it looked like the Longues Sur Mer bunker in the movie, because it IS the Longues Sur Mer bunker used in the movie. Pretty cool that actual battlefields and emplacements where used in making the movie The Longest Day.
I took the same pictures from the same angles during my battlefield tour in August 2014.
Probably as did many thousands of other tourists.
They toured Canada in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of WW2 as an expression of gratitude for their liberation by Cdn troops. I attended their performance in Edmonton. Quaint, but certainly heartfelt.
Ok then, how about McQueen with a grease gun . . . in one of the greatest WWII movies . . .
Yes, I have seen it. "Hell is for Heroes"
