Visiting the battlefields of the Great War *PIC HEAVY*

Museums generally have a dispensation not to deactivate, particularly if behind glass but more and more Belgian and French pieces are being deactivated for display purposes. Having said that only semi auto or fully auto weapons are being targetted so historically not a major problem.....just yet.
Mark
 
The French have a really good display of WW1 and WW2 firearms at the Hackenburg bunker near the Maginot line, plenty of beauties from both wars to make you drool. Most were not behind glass so I wonder if they were de-activated.

On that note, how much more work must be put into a de-activiation of a firearm in Europe versus North America ?
 
WOW just WOW!!!

Beautifull illastraiton, should of been in a book. The pictures were well done.
Just a thought.... How France took a beating in the past 1000yrs eh, with the Romens, to mid-evil times to WW1 and WW2...

Thank you for your visit and sharing.

Cheers
 
Deactivation

UK deac specification is almost identical to Canadian requirements namely barrel slotted or cut through whole length and plugged. Barrel ''remnants'' then welded into the receiver and plugged through the whole main body. This means the knackered barrel can never come out and the recoil system cannot move. UK deac used to allow moving working parts so for example you could cycle a maxim but now this not permitted.
The French deac used to be the least 'destructive' but I think you will find the museums now ensure their display pieces are 'safe' in order to appease the current regulations.
Mark
 
Other end of the Newfoundland Memorial.

DSC06484.jpg
 
Thank you for posting these, I got goosebumps just looking through, I can't even imagine knowing what terror they must have seen, and so many at such young ages. My everlasting thanks to all who have served and fought for us.
 
Thank you for sharing.

My uncle (who was a corporal in the 1st Cdn. Mounted Rifles & had just turned 16 at the time... he lied about his age) was killed at Courcelette on the night of September 15-16, 1916 in the opening moments of the Battle of The Somme. My wife & I plan to visit Mouquet Farm & Sugar Trench on the 100th anniversary of his death in 4 years. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial as he has no known grave.

We Will Remember Them.
 
My maternal grandfather was killed in action on June 21st 1917. When I got promoted I went out to his grave on the Somme and donated him one of my crowns and stars. All my grandfather earned was a military cross, and they buried him under it.
The rest of my large Canadian and British family also sent their men to fight in WW1, but he was the only one who died.

WW2 was the same - two of my uncles waded ashore on Gold Beach, and got nary a scratch in the entire rest of the war and came home to Ontario. My dad, a convicted Irish terrorist, was not allowed to serve in the military, but did his bit as a skilled machinist and general engineer in an armoured vehicle repair workshop.

Here in UK I care for a number of Canadian graves WW1 and 2, in the local area, and every Remembrance day we hold a small service, me and some of the 'real' Canadians [I'm only a halfie] from the local military base.

We can never repay what we owe, we can just remember that we owe them all we are today.

tac
 
Nabs said:
Hey tac,

Which graves do you oversee ?
Click to expand...

I care for mostly RCAF graves here in Cambridgeshire, of which there are many, and three from WW1, and leave a poppy by a memorial window in a local church. The family son emigrated to Canada in 1912 and died in 1916. Please don't get the idea that I do the job of the CWGC, I don't, I just keep them all tidy and put our little crosses there at the right time. Two years ago the neice of one of the crew of a plane whose graves I look after came over from Guelph to see. Her mom was too old to come over. And back in 2001, the sister of a F/S came over from Tronna and we held a kaddish for him with her grandson.

Somebody maybe does the same for our son's grave - he is buried over in Germany, and we don't get out there too often these days.

I always cry at the ceremony, me.

tac

Remembered -

D/9947 Pte Wm V Collins - 6th Dragoon Guards
Lt Thos A Foley 8 AAF - lost over the Atlantic
Cpl John H Foley II - Row O, plot 58, Madingley American Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
 
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