8mm Bofors is a hell of a name.

 

That's interesting.

Possibly the most casualties on any one ship in history were created when a Soviet submarine torpedoed a German ship in 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff

I only say possibly because one of your bastards will pull something out of your ass to prove me wrong

Interesting. Thank you.

We had gun shows back then?





 

The first submarine attack was conducted during the American Revolutionrary War on September 7, 1776. It consisted of a large oak barrel, fitted with an external, hand-cranked propeller, and a spar with a mine attached to it.

Turtle.

The first SUCCESSFUL submarine attack in history was made by CSS Hunley.

CSS Hunley

The first battle in recorded history was between the Egyptians and the Canaanites at Mount Megiddo.  It is recorded in picture reliefs at Karnak.  In Hebrew, it would be the Battle of Har Megiddo, which in English is Armageddon.    
 

And there is a used condom, some Lucky Strike cigarette butts and some chewed Eclipse gum behind the third brick from the bottom on the corner of the west side of the building.

Based only on the case-capacity chart at the linked site, I'd say the 8mm Bofors, loaded properly, would make one hell of a MMG round or decently-long-range sniper round.

74gr H2O case capacity? (6gr more than 8mm-06 and 16 more than 8x57 Mauser) Load that sucker with ~215gr HPBTs and a decently warm charge, and go to town!


....but I'm just some know-nothing guy on the Internet

Patton, namesake of the Ft Knox armor musuem, and one of the most famous tank generals in history, was actually infantry.

Gen Ridgeway, commander of the 82nd Airborne, broke his back jumping into Operation Market Garden. He was such a badass, he didn't notice until after the war.

Rommel was actually infantry too.

 

Ahhh, but at what point did they become what they were famous for? When they were Generals?

Hey, when one is a General, being in charge of other things just comes with the ballpark. I've heard of Generals who were in charge of the 101st Airborne....who didn't have jump wings.

Rommel was rather senior when he got a Panzer command and while Patton was a Captain, according to wiki, he asked for a combat command and that's what was given to him, a tank training school....since tanks had just come into existence. In short, it appeared Pershing assigned someone he knew could get the job done, not someone he knew who was a tanker.
______________________________________________________________________________
("It had the benefit of having never been tried."––Kirk, (w,stte), "ST II:TWOK")

It was a MG round. The only reason they had rifles chambered for it was to ease logistics in the MG regiments.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the General who broke his back during Operation Market Garden was James Gavin.

Nailed it.

I had heard that it was Napolean. This was during his winter campaign the he was disgusted at seeing soldiers wiping their noses on their sleeves. He ordered buttons to be sewn on the sleeves to discourage the practice.

Some of these myths are easily questioned by just looking at older uniforms.  Like the "The US Army's pants are a lighter shade of Blue because in the days when the Cavalry patrolled the west, they took their coats off when riding and their pants faded faster."

Pre-Napoleon uniform:

Here's one that isn't necessarily military, but interesting nonetheless:

The word "Sabotage" is of French origin. Back around the time of the Industrial Revolution, French peasants wore wooden shoes of a type similar to those associated with the Dutch. The shoes were called "Sabots."

The peasants got angry at the machines that were taking their jobs away from them, so in protest they "Sabot-ized" or "Sabotaged" the machines by throwing their wooden shoes into the machines.

[ceciladams] One hopes that they removed the shoes first. They were, after all, peasants. [/ceciladams]

Back when the Browning .30 caliber machine guns were in use with the heavy boat tail bullets (prior to the M1 Garand) the US Army had machine gun companies and used the practice of indirect fire.  Imagine what 40 or 50 .30 caliber maching guns set up on tripods could do 1 to 2 miles away?   This stopped when the lighter 150 grain flat based bullets replaced the heavier boat tailed bullets.

Some elements of the US military still do IDF with machine guns.  However Machine gun companies were closely analogous to todays weapons company you find in the Marines and didn't have 40-50 machine guns.

He didn't title it, 'Trivia Contest.' just military trivia.  Just post some military trivia that you know.  Sheesh...

Germany and Italy didn't declare war on the US until December 11, 1941.

IIRC, America's most famous armor General, G. S. Patton,  also was the designer of the Army's final Cavalry sword.

Baghdad and London have in common that they have been bombarded by both cruise and ballistic missiles.
 

Maybe he's thinking of MG battalions.

I deploy with no less than a MG regiment.

 

The Russkies had MG Divisions

 

Ironwood blocks used inside the propeller shaft tube on ships to support the shaft.  Grease spaces between the blocks that are about the size of bricks.

The Russians have always been a "bigger is better" nation.  During WWII, they had "Tank Rider" battalions, armed exclusively with SMGs.  Casualty rates were horrendous, but with a surplus of peasants, casualty rates meant nothing to the senior leadership.  Life had no value, after all.

Coming from an Army that was known to "decimate" the ranks, that shouldn't be much of surprise.

What does "decimate" mean?  The practice started in Rome.  

Sometimes, in order to make a point about discipline, Soviet officers would count off every tenth man in a unit, and execute him with a shot to the head with his sidearm.  This was done to instill fear in the ranks that exceeded that of the horrors of the battlefield, and I suppose in an army where not everyone spoke the same language, it certainly did that!

Machine gun battalions, Regiments and divisions have risen in numerous militaries.  They are normally defensive formations that are low on men but high on fire power.  The US Marines had a similar organization during parts of WWII with its numerous Defense Battalion

Is IDF with MGs really effective? I'd imagine it is a cool gee whiz feature but not really all that practical. This is a serious question.

It can be effective in the offensive (imagine your defense pos is taken under fire and you cannot really counter-fire on it because it is non-LOS fires), the US used it to pretty good effect prior to and during Korea but analysis done during Korea, according to Marshall, led to it being abandoned in training by the US Army


Ironically occasionally done by the TB these days

I did it in Afghanistan in 2010 with .50 cals. It has its place. It's not ideal but it was a tool in the tool box and at the time it's all we had that could reach out that far. Bottom line, it worked.

How can you observe it's effects? Miniature UAV or something?

 

What ballistic ones for Baghdad?

I couldn't, but my spotter with binos could and he walked my rounds on target.

Do the bullets retain energy similar to a direct fire shoot? i.e are they effective against personnel behind light cover etc? I always thought that using MG's for indirect fire would be more like lobbing the bullets at them and not shooting them.

 

IIRC, Iranian Scuds or Frogs.



 

Other dudes who are near by + radio, just like any other indirect fire.

For some reason I thought if you were using MG's for indirect fire, you would be in a precarious situation and you wouldn't have spotters and such.

 

"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, 7 December, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. "

Current Army cheer of "HOOAH" originally came from the Air Force. AF Radio operators ended transmissions with the letters HUA which ment Heard, Understood and Acknowledged (the transmission). When working quickly, the letters H, U A came out as HOOAH.

Iraqui Scud clones during the Battle of the Cities phase of the Iran-Iraq War, perhaps ...

How is elevation determined? Gunner quadrant on feed cover? Is someone in the crew trained to act as a FDC for adjusting fire and converting adjustments accordingly? What is a TB?

TB=Taliban

The way I did it was to get a rough idea of the range, wedid this by identifying the terrain feature the TB were on via blue force tracker. Once we did that I cranked my M2's rear sight as far as it would go and picked an aiming point. I fired a spotting burst and then my spotter walked me in. Does that make sense?

You can either use a gunner quadrant or turn an M2 compass on it side and use the inclinometer.  Yes, someone would use a mortar plotting board and take adjustments similar to forward observer corrects and converted them to left, right, up and down corrects to the guns.

App A-6 of the Marine Warfighting Publication on Macine Guns and Gunnery

Never read how the TB do it can only assume they do it same (Russians use to so some of that may transfered over)

Many hours of scouring the internet has shown there are at least 6 men who have served in all four branches of the DoD.  Googling stuff like "all branches of military" brings up thousands of veterans' day and memorial day ceremonies.  A couple of the articles use terms not common in the military (hired by the Marines), but I think it was due to ignorance of the reporter.  I don't know how to hot-link the articles, sorry.

Courtland Johnson: Started in the Merchant Marine, Army Air Corps (USAF before it was a seperate branch), USMC reserves (hit the beach at Inchon and fought his way out from the Chosin), Army reserve, Navy (it looks like he retired as an active duty Master Chief).
http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId=1227201691&targetid=profile

Bob Button:Merchant Marine (under age), Navy (kick out when the learned he was still underage), Army Air Force (USAF before it was a seperate branch), got out, joined the Army (to go to Korea, 3 purple hearts) Marine Corps, Army reserve, and as of 2009 at the age of 80, was using his privately owned plane to fly SAR for the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/11/jersey_city_veteran_served_in.html

Edward Jones: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force.  Retired as a master Sergeant in 1991, died 2008
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-76012.html

Joe Losano: Marine Corps, Army Reserve, Army Guard, active Air Force, ––out entirely–– Army Guard (enlisted 9-11-02, and went to Afghanistan) Air Force Reserve (Iraq), and joined the Navy Reserve in 2011.  Article says he met two men sho served in all four branches, but doesn't say who they are.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/swampscott/newsnow/x1306273054/Swampscott-resident-Losano-enlists-in-fourth-branch-of-service#axzz1u8oKaj22

Yonel Dorelis (the only officer I've found): Marine Corps, switched to Navy (CH-53 pilot) as the USMC had to many pilot candidates, and he wanted to be a military pilot.  Army Guard, Air Guard (rescue), Active Air Force (CSAR in Afghanistan and Iraq, including a Distinguished Flying Cross earned during OP Anaconda).
http://www.nellis.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123234926

Thug_Hunter12: Marine Corps (0311),  USMCR (STA), Army Guard (11B),  was out entirely, and decided to go back in Sep 01.  USNR (Master-At-Arms, Iraq twice with a CAR, among others)  When my second Navy enlistment ended, immediately went to Air National Guard (3PO51 Security Forces).  I had to give up a rank, I'm a Technical Sergeant (E6).    


As you might imagine, I'd very very interested to learn of any other 4 branch vets.

I know a guy who went Marine Corps, Coast Guard, then Army - but 4?  Nope.

Told to me by  a WWII Filipino vet:

TOT (Time On Target) is a practice whereby you coordinate all your tube artillery on one spot at one time... the original "Shock and Awe" tactic. According to my source, unless the target is at or near the extreme range of the gun, it is possible to fire TOT from a single gun! By raising the barrel to its maximum elevation (for a given target) and firing a shot, then lowering the barrel for a direct-fire shot, you could put two rounds on a single target at the same time.

This is the same guy who told me of keeping a few empty M1 Garand clips in his pocket. He'd fire a couple of rounds and throw an empty clip against a rock. The enemy soldier, thinking he was reloading, would charge and he'd drop the BG in his tracks!

(This guy was definately not PC when it came to the subject of Japanese people. He'd seen executions and brutality at the hands of the IJA and had no forgiveness for them.)

True, and depending on the situation/data, is easy with practice.  Probably even easier if you have one of those push button 109A6 or 777A2...of course the ammo for those is a disadvantage...range is an advantage, but that won't stop my computerized gun hatred.

Even so, I've done it before with a 105 battery many times.  Done it a few times elsewhere.  

It also comes in handy if you are shooting a coordinated illum with a 2 gun platoon....fire illum with 1 gun, adjust HE with the other gun, and when you get to the fire for effect phase, fire illum with one gun-set it on low angle HE data and fire HE with both guns.