somewhat silly question

A

archerynut

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this is just something i've always wondered. during combat, WW1, WW2, whatever, the soldier's ears were at the mercy of their and other rifles, not to mention artillery. correct? i wouldn't imagine soldiers wearing ear plugs into combat.

also my No.4 Mk.2 was manufactured at the Faz plant in 1942. FTR'ed in 54 i think. the barrel is pretty dark but the rifling stands out brightly. what are the chances of this rifle having seen significant action in europe? the stock has the initials "JW" scrawled into the buttstock. i've always wondered what kind of history this old girl has to her name, which is Rachel btw. thanks for humouring me...
 
I'm ex-infantry, and we never had any ear protection other than on the range sometimes (very rarely). Unless you are shooting indoors it is not an absolute must, and in that time period we where free! Some soldier must of had ear protection but hearing commands while your world is exploding around you is difficult with ear protection on every soldier.
By the way there are no silly quetions just stupid answers!
 
Artillery men were often trained to cover their ears at the moment of firing.

As for a 1942 Faz, it most definitely would hae been issued in WW2, but as to whether it was used in the European theatre as opposed to, say, the Pacific or North Africa is anyone's guess.
 
My grandfather was in the Royal Engineers during WW2 and he said that they used to put cotton balls in thier ears when doing demolitions. But as previously stated they wasn't much.

Today in the CF, anytime we fire any weapon on a range, we have to wear hearing protection. It is written in the Range Standing Orders and in our training and safety manuals. This way if anyone claims hearing loss, veterans affairs can blame the person and not the Explosion. We also have new ones where you ca hear people talking but it takes out the large decibal explosions.

Cam
 
Cam_S said:
My grandfather was in the Royal Engineers during WW2 and he said that they used to put cotton balls in thier ears when doing demolitions. But as previously stated they wasn't much.
Click to expand...

I served before the advent of ear protection (as policy) in the CF (1960's). We were issued huge wads of cotten to tear apart, share with each other and stuff in our ears when we went to the ranges... :D

Regards,
Badger
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Will I Am said:
Some soldier must of had ear protection but hearing commands while your world is exploding around you is difficult with ear protection on every soldier.
Click to expand...

another reason why officers were issued whistles in WW1

"ok when you hear the whisle over the top"
 
I've often wondered about this too. Forget about WW1 and WW2, what about the American Civil War? Lots of time those poor sods had muskets going off around their ears with cannon sometimes firing at point blank range right behind them. The hearing loss must have been tremendous.

Did any veterans, who have seen a lot of action, ever emerge from these wars without a significant hearing loss? Just firing my Enfield Mk 3* (1916) once without my "ears" on made my ears ring like crazy. Imagine this plus your chums right beside you firing away and enemy artillery shells exploding around you. Its a wonder anyone had any hearing left.

A great Uncle of mine was taken prisoner at Second Ypres in April 1915. When he got back to Canada in 1919, he couldn't stand any loud noises. I should think not.
 
Yeah, there were all those regulations about opening your mouth and putting your hands over your ears and all that. It all worked pretty good.

Until some yo-yo stepped on the Magic Button while you were busy handing 76 rounds into the hatch of a Sherman. Did you know that the side-blast from that muzzle-brake can remove your beret (along with a lot of hair) even 20 feet from it? Yup. Can. Which left five of us permanently hearing-impaired...... but then, it never happened. Just another little Cold War screw-up that nobody took any notice of, for there were so many Really Big Nasties seemingly just around the corner. But lotsa fun, anyway.

After that, I would rather think a battlefield must be rather a noisy place; surprising that anybody who was ever there could hear anything. Says a lot for the innate toughness of the human critter.
 
Don't even need a lot of gunfire; my Dad had serious hearing loss from calibrating the tach drives on the Hurricane Mark IIs, which had to be done with the engine at full throttle, exhaust stacks pouring it out just above the head of the poor bloody instrument techie who was working on the thing.

with two thousand ponies doing their thing 6 inches from your shell-pink ear, who cares about a dozen lousy Brownings, anyway?
 
All we ever used were 4x2s(white cotton flanell cut 4 in by 2in for bore cleaning with the pullthrough).Wad em up and stick em in your ears. I spent 10 years in the army,done a lot of service competion with the # 4 rifle.Also a bit of time around the 25 pounders and some demolitions. I now get a 45% hearing pension.The 4x2s seemed to help at the time, but I dont think they were any good at all.duker
 
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