Picture of the day

Good day Men!! New day new picture :)

34a.jpg


Cheers
Joe
 
Every time I'm outside when it's cold - minus 20C or so - and I fancy myself uncomfortable, I think back on Gus Sajer's book and get some perspective.

- It's not -40C.
- It hasn't been this cold for 120 consecutive days.
- I slept warm and dry last night, not cold in a trench.
- I don't have lice.
- My clothes are very adequate for conditions.
- I could make a fire without attracting arty.
- I ate a hell of a lot more than 200 calories today.
- There isn't a Russian out there about 120 yards to the east in his own trench, just as dirty, lousy, ill-fed and miserable as me, who wants to kill me more than he wants his next breath.

...and on and on and on.

Were I a survivor of the Eastern Front, I'd be very inclined to find every SOB responsible for sending me there and do unspeakable things to them for hours on end. What an absolutely awful place to be, and what a terrible job to do there.



If ANYONE does not get this reference...

You're missing out!! Big Time!!!

''The forgotten soldier'' by Guy Sajer

Find it, Buy it, Read it, Again and again and again
 
There were a whole bunch of Johnsons done up like that in the 1960s. They were available in .270 and .30-'06. You could even have a 7x57 if you wanted one!

Most of the Johnsons in circulation seem to have come out of Indonesia and the Philippines and have a great deal of "character" (spelled r-u-s-t) and corroded bores from that lousy US War 2 ammo. The small lot of 7x57s came out of Chile and were in really nice shape; I think these are many of the ones used to convert to sporters as in this photo.

NICE thing about it is that you need only 2 major parts (Stock and Barrel Assembly) and you hve a MilSpec Johnson once again. That barrel changes-out REAL fast!

Interesting point about a Johnson: the whole rifle can be stripped into 3 parts and stuffed into a duty bag, fully loaded, then you can do a drop like that. You hit the ground, it takes less than 15 seconds to have the rifle functioning from the time your boots touch ground and you get the chute harness unlocked.

Another neat point: the entire rifle (or the MG version) can be stripped right down to the last part, by using only a live round (for the Barrel Latch) and ONE tool (for everything else): a screwdriver. For good measure, the Bolt Handle was cut specifically to BE this screwdriver! I have done it myself, just to prove to myself that it could be done. I should have known better: it's in the manual!
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Some photos of the 420mm Krupps Howitzer as used to reduce the Liege fortresses in August 1914, and later at the siege of Verdun.

Now THIS I would like to see Stencollector find in a scrapyard and restore in a CGN thread - lol.

site-grosse-bertha-420-mm-portée-14-km.jpg


bb2.jpg


obusier-de-420mm-gammagerat-krupp-01d.jpg
 
There were a whole bunch of Johnsons done up like that in the 1960s. They were available in .270 and .30-'06. You could even have a 7x57 if you wanted one!

Most of the Johnsons in circulation seem to have come out of Indonesia and the Philippines and have a great deal of "character" (spelled r-u-s-t) and corroded bores from that lousy US War 2 ammo. The small lot of 7x57s came out of Chile and were in really nice shape; I think these are many of the ones used to convert to sporters as in this photo.

NICE thing about it is that you need only 2 major parts (Stock and Barrel Assembly) and you hve a MilSpec Johnson once again. That barrel changes-out REAL fast!

Interesting point about a Johnson: the whole rifle can be stripped into 3 parts and stuffed into a duty bag, fully loaded, then you can do a drop like that. You hit the ground, it takes less than 15 seconds to have the rifle functioning from the time your boots touch ground and you get the chute harness unlocked.

Another neat point: the entire rifle (or the MG version) can be stripped right down to the last part, by using only a live round (for the Barrel Latch) and ONE tool (for everything else): a screwdriver. For good measure, the Bolt Handle was cut specifically to BE this screwdriver! I have done it myself, just to prove to myself that it could be done. I should have known better: it's in the manual!
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I am really surprised that the Johnson was not put into full service? Specially for the reasons above that smellie kindly posted.


Cheers
Joe
 
Some photos of the 420mm Krupps Howitzer as used to reduce the Liege fortresses in August 1914, and later at the siege of Verdun.

Now THIS I would like to see Stencollector find in a scrapyard and restore in a CGN thread - lol.

site-grosse-bertha-420-mm-portée-14-km.jpg


bb2.jpg


http://www.loutan.net/olivier/wp-content/images/2009/05/obusier-
de-420mm-gammagerat-krupp-01d.jpg




Now there are some BIG guns :D
 
I am really surprised that the Johnson was not put into full service? Specially for the reasons above that smellie kindly posted.


Cheers
Joe

Yeah the Johnson was very forward thinking. In the end features of his were incorporated into the AR-10/ AR-15 platforms which he did have a part in as well.
 
Yeah the Johnson was very forward thinking. In the end features of his were incorporated into the AR-10/ AR-15 platforms which he did have a part in as well.


The Johnson was tested by the US Army, but the Garand was already being produced, though slowly, the Johnson was a very advanced weapon, the ability to top up the magazine, with 03 springfield stripper clips was a big improvement over the Garand .
 
I couldn't resist my "what the hell is that" curiosity...

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu70.htm

very cool rifle, with the 10 rounds internal mag, where do you suppose that would fall in our restricted/prohibited/non-restricted list. Or is it a rare enough bird that it has been overlooked. [at $6k in the US I shudder to think what it might run up here!]
 
I couldn't resist my "what the hell is that" curiosity...

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu70.htm

very cool rifle, with the 10 rounds internal mag, where do you suppose that would fall in our restricted/prohibited/non-restricted list. Or is it a rare enough bird that it has been overlooked. [at $6k in the US I shudder to think what it might run up here!]

NR and pinned baby pinned. Gun haters care nothing for history or heritage.
 
Springfield did absolutely everything they could think of to come up with a test that the Johnson would flub out on.

The one that really 'grabbed' me was a test in which they mixed up 500 rounds of ammunition, all carefully selected, everything from 35000-pound squibs to 78000-pound Proof loads. The Johnson digested all 500 with ZERO stoppages.

The Johnson was designed for dispersed production, too. Most of the parts could be made in just about any machine-shop or metal-fabrication shop. The rifles (and MGs) were AMAZINGLY tolerant of headspace and ammunition variations.

After the 1937 Rifle and LMG there came the 1941 LMG and then the 1944. The 1944 is well-advertised as having never seen military service...... but there DOES exist a piece of well-authenticated film footage of a 1944 Johnson LMG firing cross the Rhine at Koln: the Hohenzollern Bridge is in the background.

The 1944 formed the basis of the Israeli DROR LMG, which saw first manufacture in Canada (specifically in Montreal: 6 units, 3 each in .303 and 8x57). By the time the police figured out what was going on, Golda Meyerstein (later Golda Meir) had had the whole factory crated and shipped to British Palestine as..... you guessed it..... "Agricultural Equipment". The money came out of funds under her control, which were given for refugee relief. Oh, well, it was just ONE little machine-gun factory..... nothing to get bothered about. Just don't let a CANADIAN try it!

ANY Johnson is collectible, including modified Model Rs as in the photo. The REAL rarity is the Model V with the vertical feed. I think there were about half a dozen made.

Hope this helps.
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For more information about the Israeli Dror, go to www.forgottenweapons.com. Look in the light machinegun section.
There may be CA Drors in Canada; they were advertised at one time.
The US Marine Raiders used Johnson arms in the Pacific early in WW2. An ex-USMC Johnson rifle is worth a small fortune in the US. The Marines got rid of theirs by burying them.
Johnson LMGs were used in Italy by the joint Cdn/US special unit.
It was Winfield Arms in the US who rebarrelled and restocked the first surplus Johnsons to get back to the US.
 
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