Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Lumberjacking, Wehrmacht style:
Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
ahh, the mossie with the ultimate cone of death. 4 20mms and 4 .303s all within a 5ft circle. beats the single 20mm and 4 .50s of the lightning by a wide margin.
I found the Dolmar to be a darn good chainsaw, albeit rather heavy. That weight came in handy when bucking up logs for firewood. Especially the very dry/hard standing dry Larch and Fir. I used one for close to 20 years without an issue. It would start on the second pull every time as long as it was kept in tune. I made the mistake of loaning it to a Binlaw who felt he had to tinker with that carburetor settings. I was POed and after getting it back to factory settings, it was always reliable. Never loaned it out again. Often when out on a group clean up of a landing the Dolmar was the only saw still working at the end of the day. I bought that saw at an auction from a bankrupt logging outfit in 1972 and it was about a year old then. Dark red in color and was designed for bucking up logs on a landing. The big mistake many folks make is buying the wrong saw for the job it will be most used for. I used a light Stihl for falling, mainly for ease of use and safety. The Dolmar was just to big for that job. When I sold it in 1995 the buyer was a fiddler and played with its settings. He brought it back and the settings were again set to factory suggested states. It started second pull as normal and did exactly what it was designed to do. In the end, the buyer admitted he had screwed it up and that the saw was way to heavy for him. I gave him half of his money back. The fellow that has it now likes it a lot. It works reliably and makes the job of bucking larger logs much easier. He tells people it's the best saw he's ever had. Not bad for a 35+ year old saw.
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What a haunting and poignant photograph, I have not seen this one before. My family was torn apart by that simple white line and left shortly before The Wall went up, only corresponding through letters and never seeing some of them alive again.
Note the East German soldier with his foot right against the line. One heck of a photo, thank you for sharing.
Brookwood
Some family friends made the crossing (and later met and married in Canada).
After doing a 30 day stint of "re-education" for getting caught listening to Jazz music, Gunther and 3 buddies decided they'd had enough. Stole a car and made a high speed run at Checkpoint Charlie. Gunther was the only one to make it across, bleeding out from gunshots and crawling the last few yards to the line, where some American soldiers quickly grabbed him as soon as he had one hand across, and dragged him off to a waiting ambulance (at the time, these incidents were common enough that ambulances were on standby at all the major crossings).
Martha had the distinct misfortune to be a hereditary noble. Her and her brother were... Treated poorly. At 18 she swam the Elbe to freedom.
Their daughter was the first girl I ever went on a date with (pizza at the arcade - we had a pretty wicked Pac-Man duel that afternoon).
Both Martha and Gunther never saw their families again, they passed away before re-unification. Such a sad, mad, time in world history.
The 4 20s are awesome. I wonder why they used the 303s? Why not a pair of 50s? or another pair of 20s?
The peashooter 303s were British standard armament when the Mossie first came on strength in 1942. The nose area where they were housed just wouldn't accommodate the 20s and the forward bomb bay where the quartet of 20s were would have to have been severely modified to increase the number. 50s were just not in plentiful enough supply. It's interesting that later NF marks with the bull nose radar housing were found to have more than enough firepower with the 20s alone. What is interesting is the high flyer MkXV with the quartet of 303s in a pan mounted under the nose. I always wondered, why mount a panier with the associated drag increase when the blast troughs were already in the ventral nose where 2 or 4 50s internally could be mounted for the desired weight reduction for high altitude intercept of Luftwaffe high flyers.
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I asked that question of a now deceased friend, Maj Allan Moorcroft. He flew Hurricanes, Spitfires, Mustangs and Mosquitoes during his career. He told me he liked the 303 machine guns over the 50 cal and 20mm guns because he had more ammunition available when he needed it. He was shot down twice. The first time because of inexperience and the second time because he ran out of ammo.
The load for those 303 machine guns was pretty hot and the bullets were heavy for caliber. Given the speed of the plane coupled with the initial velocity of the bullet made a half dozen of them pretty formidable weapons in experienced hands.
It's hard to compare a brace of 50 cals to 303s between ground use and in the air on moving platforms. Still you would think the added energy of the larger rounds would make a bigger difference.
He never spoke about the aircraft and pilots he shot down.
Logistics. Commonality of ammo is easier to support.
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Standard early in the war for just about everything. Here's a Whitley getting her rear turret gunned up...
...and then a couple cartridges per gun, give or take several hundred.
On an unrelated note, what it it with the military and useless hats? The overseas cap doesn't keep you warm or sun off your head, the beret is just about as worthless, pillbox hats make everyone look like a complete plumsack, and don't get me started on the lads in the Handschar division...
...and then a couple cartridges per gun, give or take several hundred.
On an unrelated note, what it it with the military and useless hats? The overseas cap doesn't keep you warm or sun off your head, the beret is just about as worthless, pillbox hats make everyone look like a complete plumsack, and don't get me started on the lads in the Handschar division...
excepting the golden bb, .30 cal machine guns were pretty useless against aircraft, the hurricane went from 12 .303s to 4 20mms when it was up gunned.
as an example, a 303 bullet enters and probably exits with a .30 cal hole, a 20mm leaves a .79 caliber hole and then explodes and leave dozens of .30 cal holes in all directions.
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
I admire Greek soldiers on ceremonial duty. As a person who owns a kilt I can't begrudge them the skirt, but whoever thought those pompoms and Cher-hair hat tassles instilled fear in an enemy or looked Sharp and Regimental should have taken the time to reconsider.
(Maybe it's a "Boy Named Sue" deal - the enemy makes fun of the guy in the frilly skirt and pirate shirt which drives the Greek soldier into a homicidal rage...)
Here's Greeks in a more martial state:
Damn they were pretty ships.
