IMA has a great grouping from a frogman of Underwater Demolition Team 7 during WWII.
They include a set of Owen Churchill of LA swim fins, a Waterproof Bag BG 160 by U.S. Rubber Company, a wetsuit with feet and hood, as well as decorations from one D.A. Leavy of UDT 7 for action in the summer of 1944 off Saipan and Tinian.
It is a really great set, head on over and check it out in detail.
More on UDT 7 here.
A Soldier serving overseas while his home state of record updated their regulations on owning certain firearms says he was left inadvertently in violation of the law.
“I recently returned to Connecticut and contacted the state police because I thought there must be some legal provision that allowed a returning veteran to register their weapon and legally exercise their constitutional right,” he told me, when he went to register the AR-15 he bought in the state in 2011, but had been banned in 2014 while he was in Korea.
“I found out that there was no such provision.”
Common among snipers the world over today, the ghillie suit or bush suit, traces its origin to Scottish gamekeepers with a Scotland-raised yeoman regiment, the Lovat Scouts, using them for the first time in modern combat in the Boer War.
These Highlanders, drawn largely from outdoorsmen, were described as “half wolf and half jackrabbit” in their tactics when down in the veldt and the suit draws its name from the Gaelic faerie Gille Dubh, a forest character clad in moss and leaves that hides among the trees. The use of “scrim” often from repurposed potato sacks, helped break up their outline.
What is scrim?
Scrim is nothing but a basic fabric that has a light, almost gauzy weave to it. It’s used in bookbinding (that woven fabric in the back of hardcover books), theatre and photography (to reflect light), and in simple industrial applications like making burlap sacks.
(H 10707) A camouflage suit for a sniper. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205215212
The suits became widespread in sniper use in the Great War. Take this superb example in the IWM under review:
“First World War period British Army sniper’s camouflage robe. Many British Army snipers were trained by former Highland gamekeepers and deer stalkers of the Lovat Scouts, who gave extensive guidance regarding their skills of personal camouflage and concealment. As a result, many items of clothing were adopted on the Western Front, either improvised or officially produced, including mittens, gaiters, and robes” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30097861
Here is another.
“Robe loose-shaped single-breasted robe, made of linen, complete with a fitted hood that incorporates a face mask with apertures for the mouth and eyes. The smock is dabbed and smeared with various shades of paint to achieve a random (disruptive) camouflage finish.” Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30100483
And a third:
“Smock: loose-shaped single-breasted robe, made of canvas, complete with a fitted hood that incorporates a face mask with openings for the mouth and eyes. The smock is painted in colors of various shades to achieve a random camouflage finish and, additionally, has tufts of dried organic vegetation sewn to break up the outline.” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30092440
When the Second World War came in 1939, the Brits fell back on what worked.
“Experiments in camouflage, 1940. One figure is trying on the upper portion of a prototype sniper suit. He is being watched by a man wearing Khaki and smoking a pipe, who is holding the suit trousers. On the floor behind them are some pots of paint and another suit hung on a mannequin. There are more sketches of the suit in the upper right corner of the page.” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/38898
A Camouflaged Sniper watching his Target, Llanberis, North Wales (Art.IWM ART LD 3422)”A head and shoulders depiction of a British infantry sniper in training in Wales. The sniper is shown wearing camouflaged kit and black face paint, aiming his rifle at a distant target.” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/21861
British Snipers on the Island of Ubbea near Khakio : 10th Infantry Brigade (Art.IWM ART LD 5040) image: In the foreground three carefully camouflaged British snipers wearing camouflaged smocks have positioned themselves
amongst the rocks and vegetation of a hill side. They appear to be overlooking a road that winds through a hilly coastal country. The sea and a neighboring island are visible in the top right of the composition. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/5318
Normandy Campaign (B 8177) A sniper demonstrates his camouflage at a sniper school in a French village, 27 July 1944. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205202430
The practice continues across MoD today, using low-IR fabric to keep down detection by modern optics, because if it ain’t broke…
Pictured are Snipers from 34 Squadron, The Royal Air Force Regiment based at RAF Leeming, undertaking Live Firing Tactical Training at the Otterburn Training Area. (MoD Crown Copyright)
The amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) patrols waters off the coast of Australia under a star-lit night during Talisman Saber 17.
U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Clay
Part of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, the “phibron” is being up-gunned by USS Sterett (DDG 104) and the old Adelaide-class guided-missile frigate HMAS Darwin (FFG 04) in charge of the air defense of the ESG while MH60Rs cross-decked from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group were embarked on Big Rich.
They basically need everything you see above in gray…
I recently talked to Clark Perks, development director at the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial and he has an 888-foot battlewagon full of armament that includes nine massive 16-inch and 12 5-inch guns, but what they are missing is a complete 20mm Oerlikon cannon.
They have the gun itself, they just need the mount and shield and can work to fab one from an original if they could work out the loan…
More in my column at Guns.com
P.S. They just got their 40mm quad mount restored– and it even fires.
Actress Barbara Lang hanging out with one of the 327th Fighter Interceptor Squadron’s Convair F-102 Delta Dagger interceptors, 1957. The location is George Air Force Base, California, about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, meaning Lang only had to drive a little over an hour to get there.
The F-102 became the standard Air Defense Command (ADC) fighter starting in mid-1956, and the 327th FIS was the first operational squadron equipped with the delta-winged interceptor.
And, yes, the shorts were standard issue, being part of the brief 1956 USAF Summer Uniform which paired the 505 short sleeve shirt with khaki short pants.
Everything you see above soon faded.
The USAF ditched the shorts soon after the photo was taken. The 327th moved to Thule Air Base, Greenland in July 1958 and was inactivated just two years later. Lang retired from acting in 1960 with about a dozen credits to her name and passed in 1982 at the still young age of 54. The F-102 by the 1960s were increasingly transferred to Air National Guard units and retired altogether by 1976, with the type just in Air Force service for 20 years. George AFB itself outlasted them all, closing in 1992.
More photos from the same series above here.
Mmm, look at that sweet, sweet bore alignment from the breechface to the suppressor end cap.
Regardless of whether you call them silencers, suppressors or mufflers, these Class III sound moderators have never been more popular but come with their own host of special considerations to keep them plugging along.
In addition to regular care and maintenance, you want to make sure you have a good bore alignment with your can– because a baffle strike can ruin your whole day.
More in my column at Tac.44.com
A report compiled twice per decade by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows increases nationally in wildlife watching and fishing, but declines in the number of hunters.
The survey, the 13th conducted by the USFWS since 1955, showed marked increases in the numbers of Americans engaged in observing and photographing wildlife and in fishing when compared to the 2011 data, but over the past decade, the number of hunters has dropped by more than 1 million– even as the general population is on the rise.
More in my column at Guns.com.
The Tank Museum has three training manuals for the Raketenpanzerbüchse also known as Panzerschreck or Ofenrohr, as well as other tank-killers, up for free downloads.
You are welcome.
Speaking of bazookas, the Army just approved 1,111 M3E1 84mm recoilless rifles for immediate use as a lightweight (titanium) reusable replacement to the standard M3 Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System (MMAAWS)– better known as the Carl Gustaf.
Can you say, Maschinengewehr?
“Two German Machine Guns at Main Advance Salvage Dump of the 77th Division. These guns, which have been put in order by the French, will be used to fire back captured ammunition against the Boche. The large gun is a heavy Maxim marked, ‘Deutsche Waffen Und Munitons fabriked, Berlin 1917.’ The small gun is a light Maxim marked, ‘9238 MG 08/15 Gwf Spandau, 1917.’ 77th Division near Chery-Chartrevue, September 12, 1918”
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.