Thunderflashes, American or British or Canadian in origin?

fat tony

fat tony

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I recall these fun little puppies from (guess where), the brown glossy painted vaguely - dynamite stick appearing 'blast simulators' for want of a better term, with the black printing / warnings on them, I once took one apart :redface:, I found that mainly the thing was made of cardboard, the container with the pyrotechnic composition in there was translucent plastic, about as big around as my little finger and filled with a greyish powder(flash powder/EC blank powder? :confused:) - were they American, British or Canadian in origin? :confused:

EDIT: looks like I might have answered my own question:

http://www.hfmgroup.com/professionalsupplies/thunderflashes.html
 
^Yes, they were pretty cool, but I heard there was an 'old' version of the arty sim that was much more fun and potentially devastating. - "OLD STORY", - an old sergeant with ti once told me this tale of going on ex in - maybe it was Pet or might have been Gagetown, I tend to believe it was Pet, or somewhere else in ON, this was back in the 1970's, 1RCR went on a field ex with some SAS guys as the opfor :p, they quickly learned to go on op duty with a stout stick or pipe, (can't imagine why :D), the opfor managed to snag a case of arty sims, and some evil SAS guy figured out how to rig them to sympathetically detonate, they set these poor 1RCR guys up, they came down a road in a Ferret, saw the case of arty sims come through the open top of the Ferret, and both jumped out like spring-heeled-jack, barely cleared the interior of the Ferret before showtime, the interior of the Ferret was toast, the crew had burned tail feathers. - I can't really verify it, but this was the story; more or less; as related to me. . . :D
 
Throwing arty sims in the old sh-tters that had the honey pots in them, great fun!

The worst(best) were trip flares, we would find the driest trees to set them up on and then watch the roast.
 
They could be jammed on the FH of the C1 and launched via blank (most of the time!)

T-flashes could also be used to propel various objects from the expended tubes of M-72s. 3 man operation, 1 to load/aim device, 2 to ignite and insert T-flash, 3 to close and pin rear cover. Likewise various impromptu mortars could be devised using them as propellant charges.

The T-flash could also have the hollow cardboard handle packed with sand for a better throw.

All the above practices were highly frowned upon.
 
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Any similar suppliers in Canada or who will ship to Canada? These t-flashes and smoke products would be great components to have in a backwoods survival kit for potential rescue signaling... I mean, a signal mirror is great and all, but sometimes you like putting up a parachute flare when that rescue chopper is circling... :D

-M
 
I always liked paraflares, especially when they not only fail to fire, but after a few seconds, when they do fire, they fire 3 feet out and 3 feet up and land in the grass not far from your feet.

But nothing beat end-ex when we had to dispose of cases of paraflares. We started firing down the platoon line by individual, and when that took to long we did section and when that took too long, all members of the platoon fired them at once.
 
Schermuly, thanks, I could never find that :). Apparently a manufacturer of flares and assorted pyrotechnics. I vaguely remembered something we call a Schermuly which was used as a training firecracker thing.
 
Reminded me of the old style pineapple grenade. The trainiing one with a live fuze, a small bag of black powder and a cork in the bottom. enough to make a bang and could be re-used. we had one guy on a field excercise who wanted to make a bigger bang. to he unloaded the powder bags from several and put them in one. Threw it far into the bushes, and it was lucky he did, cause the excess powder charge made it functioin like the REAL thing.
 
fat tony said:
^Yes, they were pretty cool, but I heard there was an 'old' version of the arty sim that was much more fun and potentially devastating. - "OLD STORY", - an old sergeant with ti once told me this tale of going on ex in - maybe it was Pet or might have been Gagetown, I tend to believe it was Pet, or somewhere else in ON, this was back in the 1970's, 1RCR went on a field ex with some SAS guys as the opfor :p, they quickly learned to go on op duty with a stout stick or pipe, (can't imagine why :D), the opfor managed to snag a case of arty sims, and some evil SAS guy figured out how to rig them to sympathetically detonate, they set these poor 1RCR guys up, they came down a road in a Ferret, saw the case of arty sims come through the open top of the Ferret, and both jumped out like spring-heeled-jack, barely cleared the interior of the Ferret before showtime, the interior of the Ferret was toast, the crew had burned tail feathers. - I can't really verify it, but this was the story; more or less; as related to me. . . :D
Click to expand...

fat tony,
Just to clarify some of your points.

The arty sims then were the same as now. If you tried using a stout stick or pipe on a SAS trooper, you'd soon have your ass handed to you. 1 RCR had no Ferrets. The Ferrets were crewed by the 8CH. The SAS were on the side of the 8CH during that ex. The ex took place in Meaford. No ferrets were 'toast' & no crews were burned. Sorry, the whole story is BS.
 
I can't resist this thread...oh, mmmm, Yes, we used to make atomic grenades with a plastic container of naptha and a T-flash. It didn't take long to for our Quarter Master to see what was happening. We used ALL of our naptha cans in one napalm simulation...the funny thing is no one in charge stopped the wonderfull pyro show....I even rigged a trip flare into a can of napha and an officer checking our defensive postion tripped it ...oh, i got to go. CYA.
 
tbloggins said:
fat tony,
Just to clarify some of your points.

The arty sims then were the same as now. If you tried using a stout stick or pipe on a SAS trooper, you'd soon have your ass handed to you. 1 RCR had no Ferrets. The Ferrets were crewed by the 8CH. The SAS were on the side of the 8CH during that ex. The ex took place in Meaford. No ferrets were 'toast' & no crews were burned. Sorry, the whole story is BS.
Click to expand...

:redface:
 
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eos said:
They could be jammed on the FH of the C1 and launched via blank (most of the time!)

T-flashes could also be used to propel various objects from the expended tubes of M-72s. 3 man operation, 1 to load/aim device, 2 to ignite and insert T-flash, 3 to close and pin rear cover. Likewise various impromptu mortars could be devised using them as propellant charges.
Click to expand...

They'll still work with the C7... just take off the BFA, mount the t-flash, and away you go.

You can also use a thumper as an improvised mortar to launch smoke, arty sims, and other t-flashes. Arty sims will also work under water...

Don't ask how I know. :D
 
Tyler said:
They'll still work with the C7... just take off the BFA, mount the t-flash, and away you go.

You can also use a thumper as an improvised mortar to launch smoke, arty sims, and other t-flashes. Arty sims will also work under water...

Don't ask how I know. :D
Click to expand...

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" ;)
 
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