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Post by sarge12 on Apr 28, 2010 18:20:21 GMT -5
That thing would wouldn't last a second in a swamp.
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Adler69
Master sergeant
Legio Patria Nostra
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Post by Adler69 on Apr 28, 2010 18:45:50 GMT -5
"British mobile concrete pillboxes from 1940 , this one is from the Bovington Museum" How many people could man a gun and fit in that? (Excluding the driver). The crew was made up by driver and co driver in the cab and 3 riflemen on the pillbox itself on the trucks bed. Since different trucks where used to make this mobile pillboxes , there where changes to the pillbox itself to fit the trucks bed , but for the most part the requirements where for the pillbox to be 6 inches of re-enforced concrete, 12 feet long, 8 feet wide and 5 feet high .
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Adler69
Master sergeant
Legio Patria Nostra
Posts: 2,859
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Post by Adler69 on Apr 28, 2010 18:51:04 GMT -5
That thing would wouldn't last a second in a swamp. Wasn't meant to go near swamps , the Home Guard where to use them to protect RAF Airfields and other important key facilities around Britain.
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petermartin14
Private 1st Class
RIP Arne Andersson- Sweden's Finest
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Post by petermartin14 on Apr 28, 2010 19:09:43 GMT -5
dosent seem like it would have been worth it. isnt that why we have tanks?
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Adler69
Master sergeant
Legio Patria Nostra
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Post by Adler69 on Apr 28, 2010 21:26:17 GMT -5
dosent seem like it would have been worth it. isnt that why we have tanks? The problem was that after Dunkirk the British had very little armor and the expected German Invasion had to be stopped somehow.
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Post by sarge12 on May 2, 2010 13:37:04 GMT -5
Yeah, and tanks would make an easier target to aircraft because of their shape.
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Post by volkssturm on May 2, 2010 15:10:31 GMT -5
If you think about it, given the circumstances it's not such a silly idea. They made use of available resources. They could move these things where they were needed. The initial threat in 1940 would have been from German paratroops and airlanding units, for which these pillboxes would have been adequate. It's actually a pretty clever idea, and a lotmore practical than some ofthe other desperation measures considered at the time.
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Post by tw4449 on May 3, 2010 0:42:00 GMT -5
...and a lotmore practical than some ofthe other desperation measures considered at the time. Like the British invasion pikes... you heard it right folks, they actually tried to arm the Home Guard in 1940 with STICKS. It was a misinterpritation of one of Churchill's speeches, but still...
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Adler69
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Post by Adler69 on May 3, 2010 6:58:39 GMT -5
...and a lotmore practical than some ofthe other desperation measures considered at the time. Like the British invasion pikes... you heard it right folks, they actually tried to arm the Home Guard in 1940 with STICKS. It was a misinterpritation of one of Churchill's speeches, but still... A Pike is not a stick.
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Post by tw4449 on May 3, 2010 11:18:15 GMT -5
Well, really big sticks... I guess pole would be a better description?
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Post by volkssturm on May 3, 2010 16:27:43 GMT -5
A long, very pointed stick?
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CptJericho
Private 1st Class
"We got to stop the Germans from getting the secret weapons!"
Posts: 495
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Post by CptJericho on May 3, 2010 19:07:54 GMT -5
Maybe the british tried to go medieval on their @$$?
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Post by ltkuribayashi on May 21, 2010 17:12:39 GMT -5
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Adler69
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Post by Adler69 on May 21, 2010 19:13:37 GMT -5
I saw somthing that was being planned by the Germans but was never built. I think it was called a Landkruzer. Do any of y'all know anything about it? It was called the Landkreuzer P1000 'Ratte' , a 1000 Ton super heavy Panzer that Hitler and Krupp came up with after a 1941 strategic study of Soviet heavy tanks conducted by Krupp . German Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer cancelled the project in 1943. The Landkreuzer was to be powered by eight Daimler marine engines , developed to produce a total 16,000 hp each and armed with a Kreigsmarine turret with two 28cm SchiffsKanone C/28 with a range of 26 miles.
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Post by ltkuribayashi on May 21, 2010 21:59:12 GMT -5
ya that ratte sure is somthing, seeing as its "secondary" armament is a howitzer.
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Post by sarge12 on Jun 1, 2010 13:12:29 GMT -5
Talk about a gas guzzler
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Post by Fusilier on Jun 1, 2010 16:00:21 GMT -5
Is that your model Adler?
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Post by thatoneguy on Jun 11, 2010 17:15:04 GMT -5
American flying Jeep, was mostly meant for paratroopers if I remember right
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Post by lurky on Jun 12, 2010 13:42:07 GMT -5
M1E5 Garand
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gadge
Corporal
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Post by gadge on Jun 12, 2010 14:09:16 GMT -5
...and a lotmore practical than some ofthe other desperation measures considered at the time. Like the British invasion pikes... you heard it right folks, they actually tried to arm the Home Guard in 1940 with STICKS. It was a misinterpritation of one of Churchill's speeches, but still... In all seriousness. After Dunkirk when we were fighting th eNazis *on our own* for a good few years there was a very real fear of invasion. Most of the heavy equipment had had to be left behind in France (it was a priority to evacuate trained soldiers - takes days to make a tank and years to train a highlander or guardsman). When the 'local defence volunteers' were first raised (forerunner to the homeguard) the central systems were not in place to arm and unifomr them, however withint *minutes* of the radio call for men to join the LDV local police staions had queus outside of men outside of war ages (too young or too old) who wanted to sign up. Initially as production of rifles had to go to the regular army in THE FIRST MONTH OR SO... folk took their own shotguns or sporting rifles... there are some example of meat cleavers tied to broom handles but it was rare. The sticks you see in videos were actually to teach men rifle drill. The LDV were renamed the home guard and *very* quickly were issued with denim uniforms, lend lease BARs, Thompsons and P14 and P17 rifles from you kind chaps. Remember at the time the nazis were less than 50 miles from the UK coast and Hitler had stormed the low countries with paratroops. The attitude in the UK was 'take a nazi out with you' we were not going to roll over like Europe had. To that end households that didnt have firearms did make improvised weapons. The idea being that if an unarmed or pistol only armed german para landed in your back yard (most their wepaons were dropped in seperate containers) than a pitchfork or an old spear were preferable to being unarmed! By 43 the home guard was armed and equipped as well as many regular armies but even as early as the autumn of 1940 many units were properly uniformed and equipped. Just thought I'd inject a bit of reality to the rampant fantasy going on there My grandad was a WWI vet who served in the home guard as a sniper so I'm a bit touchy about them being belittled.
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Post by CharleyNovember on Jun 12, 2010 19:48:53 GMT -5
No need to be sorry. You Brits kept the huns busy and off your island for years before we got involved. Something to be damn proud of. The Germans were right bastards and resisting them and fighting them off was a feat of wonder..glad we could come over and help you mop up though.
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CptJericho
Private 1st Class
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Post by CptJericho on Jun 13, 2010 2:22:32 GMT -5
I agree thats something you should be proud of.
Back to that giant Landkreuzer P1000 Ratte, I think that thing would of been effective, well at some parts, like a land battleship. it couldnt go through towns or swamps, only on dry land. just imagine how hard it would be to take that out... also imagine the fear it would put into any infantry or tank that got attacked by it. XP
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gadge
Corporal
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Post by gadge on Jun 13, 2010 4:59:48 GMT -5
Cheers guys, as i always say. An ALLIED effort, without US aid we probabaly wouldnt have made it throught the early 40s before you became involved militarily. And without you guys on the ground it woudl have been the 1950s before the war was over.
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gadge
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Post by gadge on Jun 13, 2010 17:08:56 GMT -5
On the subject of home guard... not so much 'weird' as 'poorly thought out'. The superglue sticky hand grenade... with the flaw that it occasionally glued itself to your hand or uniform. And downright unpleasant are russian 'dog mines' Hungry dogs with AT mines on their backs trained to look for food under tanks. Performed poorly as not only did the german begin to shoot *all* dogs on sight but allegedly some groups were trained using russian armour and associated russian POL smells as the ones to go for not german ones. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dogen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bomb
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Adler69
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Post by Adler69 on Jun 13, 2010 17:19:44 GMT -5
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gadge
Corporal
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Post by gadge on Jun 13, 2010 17:28:04 GMT -5
Neccesity being the mother of invention and all that. I particularly like the 'Blacker Bombard' but its reasonably sound, the forerunner to the PIAT and *worked* (if a little heavy) so not really earning a place in 'weird weapons'. I'm actually planning to shift my impression to HG in about five years as i'll be 40 and not able to get away with regular inf anymore en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacker_Bombard
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Adler69
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Post by Adler69 on Jun 13, 2010 17:33:25 GMT -5
Eddie Izzard has a great bit on how bad things where right after Dunkirk and England fighting Germany all by itself.
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gadge
Corporal
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Post by gadge on Jun 13, 2010 17:53:26 GMT -5
Link?
(and in fairness to my comrade wladek in our group we did have Canada with us and a *lot* of Polish exiles)
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gadge
Corporal
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Post by gadge on Jun 13, 2010 18:07:09 GMT -5
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Adler69
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Post by Adler69 on Jun 13, 2010 18:08:23 GMT -5
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