Picture of the day

1) "Matilda, Queen of the Desert": Slow and lightly armed, but heavily armoured Brit. Virtually impregnable from anything the Germans had in
North Africa until the Afrika Korps discovered that they could use their 88mm anti-aircraft guns as extremely efficient tank killers.
The 'Desert Rats' thought this was extremely unsportsmanlike of the Jerrys!

2) Ah! The PzKw MkIII ! One of my favourite tanks. This was the German "Main Battle Tank" in the early years of the war.
Rolled over Poland in '39, and punched thru France in 1940, then back east to invade Russia in '41. Made obsolete in '42 by the Soviet T-34/76,
it went on to be up-gunned and up-armoured to become a viable light tank. Also mfgrd in large numbers was it's sister, the excellent self-propelled gun, "STuG III" with its 75mm anti-tank gun, the nemesis of many a T-34.
 
Okay, I am now all up on die Schrecktauben der Reich (or is that die Reichskriegskampfsschrecktauben?), but who made the thing they are riding on?

That flywheel-magneto cover looks awfully Villiers-ish to me.
 
I can't see enough of the engine to I.D. it.
Why not wire it over to one of the vintage MC forums? They might know it.
It's WWI tech, but those helmets look more WWII. Maybe the pic was from the
inter-war period when they were re-arming. This was the Signals section of a
Panzergrenadier regiment? Can't help w/ the marque, tho...
 
Helmets are the 1935 type for sure; enlarge the photo and you can see the inside-turned lip. The 1942 helmet had the lip turned outward. The 1916 type was MUCH deeper and more rounded.

Villiers, in England, made engines with a very similar magneto housing and flywheel cover into the 1950s. I know I sure spent enough time trying to get a GF's 1948 "Famous James" running!

And so the Mystery of the Leichter Blitztaubenmotorradmitleichtergepanziertseitenhinternseitenwagen continues..........

A lot of makers used to build somewhat-similar machines. Indian had their Package delivery, Harley-Davidson had their Servi-Car, Henderson had one, so did Cleveland. NOT surprising to see a European one...... even if it looks so DAMNED funny!
 
Sporting Lad said:
Princess Elizabeth. Well, bully for her, I say. Bully for her! Sure she put her lorry in a ditch! Probably getting strafed by a Messerschmidt. Look, she only had her Learner's License, what would you expect? At least she was trying. I don't imagine many of you wankers have volunteered to serve your country have you?
You lot with your high and mighty whining about "down with the Queen..."
Driving is not quite as easy as it looks, and just remember--for every mile of road there's two mile of ditches.

And just for the record, I was in love with Foyle's driver--Sam!
Click to expand...

Danged women drivers, eh?????:p
 
More AFV commentary:

@#4188:

1) The mighty/infamous TIGER I! The best tank of the war (if you don't allow the late-comers e.g. M-26 Pershing & Soviet JS-3).
Many thought the Tiger was overweight, but she wasn't. She was lighter than many present day tanks. She was just underpowered.
The chassis design was five years ahead of her engine. Great firepower and thick protective armour.
BTW-- The one in the pic is in running order and gets put thru her paces every year during Tiger Week and on other occasions.

2) This Renault design was some Frenchman's idea of what a tank should look like. Barely bulletproof. Check out the stack of Limbsaver
donuts on the barrel of their MG! I wonder if they prevented the muzzle from rising during long bursts?
Geo S. Patton commanded a company of these things when he was a cavalry captain. Later on he insisted on having nothing but Shermans!
 
@ WOODCHOPPER:

I think what happens is that anything over 25 or so characters gets a space popppped into it.

Same thing happens if you do a line of periods, as if for the "tear off along dotted line" coupon.

Like this:

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................

You don't see it on the screen UNTIL it is posted.

Software.....
 
Yup!

And Canadian troops were training on the lower one so they could fight the top one.

Oh yeah, we DID build 1400 Valentines, but they all went to Mother Russia.
 
canada-on-dday.jpg




juno-1-0.1-North%20Shore%20landing%205.jpg
 
Happy D-Day! This was the 1944 version of, "Over the top, lads!" or, "Oh, for a lovely day out, go to a beach and take the air!"
And the Yanks' photo guy snapped several rolls during the first few moments at their beach, but they all got ruined or lost when
he sent them back for processing. Only one blurry neg survived.
 
This house on Juno Beach was the first structure liberated in France, and it was done by Canadians.

3.jpg


Here it is today:

bernieres1.jpg


Saw a story about this place on Global News tonight. The owner was very young when the war came to his house, but holds all Canadians, his first visitors especially, in very high regard. One "old original" signed his guest book last year - "Sorry I threw grenades in your cellar..."
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Pigeon patrol:

104oim8.jpg


Name the bike?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's a military version of the Phanomobil. The marque was Phanomen, made by the Gustav Hiller Phanomen Fahrradwerke in Zittan, Germany.

The company started making bicycles and then motorcycles beginning in 1903, but branched out with the development of the Phanomobil light three-wheeled micro-car-type vehicle in 1907. Until 1912, the vehicle was powered by an 880cc v-twin, which was then replaced with a 1536cc 4-cylinder engine. The engine was mounted directly over top the front wheel, with the short drive chain running down to a sprocket in the front wheel.

The Phanomobil was a popular vehicle, but the company quit making it in 1927 in favour of concentrating on its 4-wheel cars/trucks instead. Despite this, they were apparently still quite common in some places in Europe until the early 1950s. Supposedly the Swedish post office, for example, used them as parcel delivery vans. I suppose to use one for the military carrier pigeon unit, all you would have to do would be to replace the original delivery body area with a pigeon coop.
 
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