Police in Edmonton, Alberta, in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, found a pair of full-auto DIY MAC-11’s (out of an estimated six made) complete with matching suppressors as well as other sundry illegal arms last month.
Police say that a half-dozen MACs were made, but only two were recovered. (Photos: Edmonton Police)
Made in a machinist’s shop without his knowledge, “The MAC-11s were fully automatic, with one trigger pull resulting in the entire magazine of 30 rounds being fired in just seconds,” according to a release.
As someone who has written a number of zombie books (shameless plug), I found the above attempt to run black powder hand loads through an AR-15 very interesting.
Using normal primers and powder-coated lead bullets, he runs them through a Ruger Blackout in .300BLK with the gas system opened up all the way and gets some decent accuracy, though the smoky loads only hit about 900fps. Of course, they jam on every shot, but even taking time to clear the action it is a faster follow-up shot than a Civil War-era muzzleloader any day.
Ian with Forgotten Weapons looks at the classic Pattern 14 sniper rifle made for the British Army in WWI in the above.
The rifle, a P14 MK I*W(T) with a semi-adjustable 3x BSA Model 1918 telescopic sight, was an American-made sniper model chambered in .303. Used late in the war and, as McCollum notes, it was one of the most mature designs of the conflict.
These guns proved accurate and reliable enough that they went on to a long life, being used by British and Commonwealth forces in WWII and others.
Among the “others” was a stockpile of 75 guns sent to the Irish Free State by Britain in the 1930s and, after service in that country, were sold as surplus in the U.S. in the 1950s. One of these Irish P14s, a Winchester-produced variant seen in the above video with McCollum, is up for auction this month with Rock Island.
Ever since the first repeating handguns hit the market, the debate has ensued on carrying said hog leg on a loaded chamber
Most will say that carrying with an empty chamber is like saying you will have enough time to put on a seat belt in the second before you get in a car crash.
Meet KraitArray, a miniaturized towed array for use on drones and opvs from the UK.
It is aimed at smaller platforms such as patrol craft and OPVs that are unable to accommodate a full-sized towed array sonar.
That tail is a towed sonar array small enough to fit in a backpack
Steve Hill, Managing Director clarified:
“It is often physically and operationally impractical for smaller ships to carry a larger diameter towed line array system. KraitArray’s smaller diameter provides effective ASW capability and can be operated from a conventional ship or unmanned assets. By integrating the sonar capability with SEA’s decoy and torpedo launchers, using common configurable software, ships can be fitted with a complete ASW solution”
Here we see the Imperial Japanese Navy Myoko-class heavy cruiser Ashigara on 24 May 1937 in Kiel Harbor with the charming German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee peeking over her stern. At their wartime displacements, the Ashigara was actually about as heavy as the German panzerschiffe and could outrun her by about seven knots.
But she wasn’t designed to fight the Germans in the Baltic.
While the Washington Naval Treaty, limiting the fleets of the France, Italy, Japan, the U.K and the U.S, was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 16 April 1924, the four Myōkō-class cruisers were ordered the same year with only a paper-thin veneer of compliance towards the document.
You got 10 8-inch guns, a top speed of 36-knots, 12 Long Lance torpedo tubes and up to 4-inches of armor in a ship less than 10K tons, OK!
While the treaty capped tonnage for cruisers at 10,000, the Myōkōs met this on paper but really went 11,600-tons standard and a jaw-dropping 15,933-tons at a full load. Equipped with 10 20 cm/50 (7.9″) 3rd Year Type guns in five double turrets, they were the most heavily armed cruisers of the day barring full-fledged battlecruisers and the German’s later pocket battleships, capable of raining 242.5-pound AP shells out to 30,000 yards.
A dozen Kampon boilers ran four geared turbines to a maximum of 130,000shp, generating over 36 knots at trials (for a more sedate 33.5 at full load). Equipped with a trio of reconnaissance planes, these long-legged vessels could be the eyes of the main fleet or operate as their own surface action group if needed. They carried a light belt of armor (102mm) over magazines and machinery, which tapered to as thin as 25mm over the guns.
The hero of our tale, Ashigara, was named for 3,978-foot volcanic Mount Ashigara on the border of Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures as well as recycling the name of a previous Imperial warship. Laid down at the Kobe Kawasaki yard in April 1925, she was commissioned 20 August 1929 and assigned to Cruiser Division 4 which consisted of Ashigara and her three sisters.
She was a showboat and participated in Emperor Hirohito’s Naval Review in 1930 and, following a one-year reconstruction after a turret explosion that killed 41, was designated flagship of her division under RADM. Kobayashi Sonosuke, then dispatched to Europe in March 1937.
Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser Ashigara prior to the Spithead Coronation Fleet Review, May 19th, 1937
While on the way, she stopped and made merry at Singapore, Aden, the Suez Canal and Malta, arriving in Portsmouth in May where she participated in the Coronation Review in honor of “The Sailor King” George VI remember that Britain was a longtime Japanese ally.
IJN Heavy Cruiser Ashigara – 1937. Spithead. Note the two E8N Type 95 “Dave” seaplanes
From there, Ashigara went to Kiel.
Japanese and German naval officials celebrated first the anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May, then the Battle of Jutland/Skagerraktag on 31 May.
The ship’s band was granted a special parade down Unter den Linden through the Brandenburg Gate– a feat likely not done by a Japanese martial band since. It was a major step in closer relations between the two countries.
Following up on the trip, in September, Prince Chichibu, Hirohito’s younger brother, visited Germany and was taken to the big Nazi rally at Nuremberg, further strengthening ties between the two nations. While this was occurring, Ashigara was back in the Pacific as the flagship of CruDiv 5 and was escorting a Japanese Imperial Army force to the Ma’andao islands and on to China.
Notably at the same time the Germans were training the Chinese Nationalist Army, who had been embroiled in full-scale conflict with the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War since the Emperor’s troops crossed the Marco Polo bridge that July. With the growing pro-Japan vibe, Germany withdrew its support for China in 1938, recalling its advisors in May of that year.
Ashigara became a familiar sight in Chinese waters after that, photographed by U.S. Asiatic Naval officers and dutifully sent to the intelligence file.
HIJMS ASHIGARA Off Tsingtao, China, circa 1938.Description: Courtesy of Vice Admiral Morton L. Deyo, USN (retired)Catalog #: NH 77686
ASHIGARA off Tsingtao, China, circa 1938. The flagship of Vice Admiral Toyoda. Description: Courtesy of Rear Admiral J.P. Walker, USN (Ret), 1973.Catalog #: NH 78057
The view is taken at Tsingtao, China, in 1938. ASHIGARA at the center of the picture, to right of cruiser USS AUGUSTA. Description: Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Yarnell, 1974.Catalog #: NH 81240
Ashigara and the Asiatic fleet even bumped heads.
While trying to escape from the Sino-Japanese war zone in December 1937, the 22,000-ton Dollar Steamship Lines ocean liner SS President Hoover(which had been damaged by a Chinese air force bomber while on the Yangtze who mistook her for Japanese troop ship) ran aground off Taiwan and Ashigara raced to her distress call. Arriving on scene, she helped transfer survivors from the stricken liner to the waiting SS President McKinley and President Pierce. Aboard Hoover was a young crewmember by the name of Robert S. McNamara who later did some things in the 1960s for JFK.
It would be the last solid that the cruiser would pay to the U.S., as during the operation news of the Panay attack reached the rescue party, which by that time included two American destroyers, USS Barker and USS Alden, who quietly kept ready ammo on hand if things turned sour.
Ashigara later became a flagship for VADM Ibo’s Third Fleet and participated in the occupation of Vichy France’s Indochina in July-August 1941 on the lead up to her involvement in WWII proper.
When the balloon went up in December 1941, she participated in the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, covering landings at Vigan and the Lingayen Gulf while dodging bombs from Navy PBYs and Army B-17s.
She next appeared at Balikpapan and Makassar in the Dutch East Indies in February 1942, covering the landings there and escorting Japanese shipping against the ABDA forces, which ironically included the former SS Hoover rescue partners USS Barker and USS Alden.
Ashigara at Balikpapan 1942
This ended up in the Battle of the Java Sea, where Ashigara fired salvos that helped in the sinking of British cruiser HMS Exeter (who ran Graf Spee to ground in 1939) and destroyer HMS Encounter. The same battle saw Spithead review alumni HNLMS Java sunk, though not by Ashigara’s guns.
After April 1942, her war wound down as she was left in the comparative backwater of Makassar as a flagship of the Second Southern Expeditionary Fleet, shuttling from there to Singapore regularly over a two-year period.
Ashigara at Singapore July 1943-Jan 1944
Serving later as the guard ship at the former Dutch key port of Surabaya, she received 8 25mm AAA guns and a Type 22 radar. She would ultimately carry 48 of these guns, landing one of her four-pack of 610mm torpedo tubes to save weight. She also updated her seaplanes.
Myoko-class cruiser Ashigara preparing to catapult an Aichi E13A seaplane
While escorting troops and supplies between Burma and the Indies, as noted by Combined Fleets, she came across the submarine USS Jack (SS-259) but did not become perforated.
By October 1944, she was assigned to VADM Kiyobide’s CruDiv 21 and was headed for fleet action in the Philippines where over an eight-day period she shrugged off brushes with the submarines USS Besugo (SS-321), USS Sterlet (SS-392), USS Trigger (SS-237), LCDR O’Kane’s famous USS Tang (SS-306), USS Seadragon (SS-194), USS Shark (SS-314), USS Blackfish (SS-221), USS Icefish (SS-367).
Used as part of Operation Sho-I-Go, which became the Battle of Leyte Gulf Ashigara somehow managed to escape intact from that action to Palawan and later Brunei. Returning to the Philippines in December, she picked up a 500-pound bomb from an Army B-25 the day after Christmas but repaid the favor by bombarding the U.S. beachhead at San Jose in Mindoro on 27 December with 200 7.9-inch shells.
Falling back to her old Dutch East Indies stomping grounds, she played cat and mouse with the Free Dutch submarine O-19 over a week-long battle in April 1945 during which the fabulously lucky cruiser somehow missed eight different torpedoes. It would be the last time she made it from a cruiser-v-sub engagement intact.
It would be the last time she made it from a cruiser-v-sub engagement intact.
With the end game coming, Ashigara left Singapore with 1,600 Imperial troops and 489 tons of supplies for Batavia, Java, and came across the submarines USS Blueback (SS-326), HMS Trenchant (P331) and HMS Stygian (P249) in the narrow Bangka Straits on 8 June. Trapped between a coastal minefield and three hungry sharks, her goose was cooked.
HMS ‘Submarine Trenchant’ Sinks the Cruiser ‘Ashigara’, 8 June 1945 by David Cobb; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
The British T-class boat managed to get within 4,000 yards of the cruiser and hit her with five out of eight Mark VIIIs fired. The skipper of the British sub, “Baldy” Hezlet, administered a coup de grace with two more fish from her stern tubes, with at least one hitting. In all, she took 75 percent of the embarked Japanese troops with her as well as an estimated 100 crew.
Ashigara was tied for the largest Japanese warship sun by the Royal Navy during the war. Hazelt, who also helped drag the X-boats to attack the Tirpitz among other WWII tasks, was awarded his second DSO and was eventually promoted to vice-admiral and appointed KBE before his retirement in 1964. He passed in 2007.
As for Ashigara, she had outlived her sisters Nachi (sunk, 4 November 1944 off Corregidor by aircraft from USS Lexington) and Haguro (sunk, 16 May 1945 during a fight with five Royal Navy destroyers in the Strait of Malacca). The last of the class, the crippled Myōkō, formally surrendered to Royal Navy units on 21 September 1945 and was subsequently towed to the Strait of Malacca to be scuttled in deep water.
Today, Ashigara is remembered in several scale model kits and her name has been recycled for a destroyer of the Atago-class (DDG-178) which also has its own model.
Specs:
10,000-tons official, 11,633 tons (standard load) 15,000+ (full load)
Length: 669 ft. overall
Beam: 56 ft.
Draught: 19 ft.
Propulsion:
4-shaft geared turbines
12 Kampon boilers
130,000 shp
Speed: 35.5 knots
Range: 7,000 nmi 7at 14 kn with 2214 tons fuel oil
Complement: 773 (950 by 1944)
Armor:
2032.5 tons
4″ (102mm) NVNC belt inclined 12 degrees
Torpedo bulges with 2.3″ (58mm) HT holding bulkhead
1.4″ (35mm) NVNC middle deck
1.4″ (35mm) NVNC lower deck
3.5″ (89mm) NVNC uptakes
3.5″ (89mm) bulkheads
1″ (25mm) NVNC turrets
Armament:
(As built)
10x 120/45 guns (5×2)
6x 4.7 in (120 mm)/45 guns (6×1)
12 x 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes (4×3)
(1944)
10x 120/45 guns (5×2)
6x 4.7 in (120 mm)/45 guns (6×1)
8 x 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes (4×3)
48x 25mm guns along with 13-go, 22-go radars
Aircraft carried: 3 E8N Type 95 “Dave” seaplanes as built, later Aichi E13A ‘Jake’ Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplane after 1941
Aviation facilities: 2 Kure Type 2 Model 51 catapults
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The British Army’s RTR is using a series of urban camo-painted Challenger 2 MBT’s in a series of tests to judge their ability to lay low in ruined cities. Of their three Sabre Squadrons (Ajax, Badger, and Cyclops), one has had their 18 tanks given a throwback paint scheme.
AJAX have just taken delivery of their latest tanks. These have been specially painted in the Berlin Brigade urban camouflage scheme and will be used for UK training as part of an ongoing study into proving and improving the utility of Main Battle Tanks in the urban environment.
AJAX are the urban specialists within the Regiment and will be looking to test current doctrine, tactics and procedures whilst experimenting with other techniques from across NATO and the rest of the world.
The brick red, slate gray marine blue and arctic green of the camo hails from the old pattern used on 18 Chieftain Main Battle Tanks assigned to the armored squadron of the British Army’s Berlin Brigade in the 1980s.
British Army Chieftain tanks of the Berlin armored squadron, taking part in the Allied Forces Day parade in June 1989 via Wiki
According to the Tank Museum, the “Berlin” pattern originates back to 1982 when the CO commanding the 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards tank squadron in Berlin felt that the normal Green paint scheme of the British Army was incompatible with its current urban environment.
[A] senior MOD official was invited to Germany to inspect the new camo, and when he looked out of the window he is said to have remarked: “I can’t see your f*****g tank, must be a good idea” – what he wasn’t told was the Chieftain had typically broken down en route and no tank was there at all.
By the way, if you are curious about the eye painted on the turrets: These were painted on many of the tank corps vehicles and dates back to 1918, when one Eu Tong Sen, a prominent Malayan businessman of Chinese decent, paid £6,000 for a rather expensive Mark V tank via subscription. He insisted that, like Chinese river junks that have eyes to guide them in their travels, it should have eyes painted on it. British regulars familiar with Hamsa evil eye charms from prior Indian service also likely chimed in that they would repel evil.
The eyes seemed like a good idea either way to Tommies in France and was copied on other tanks in the field, a tradition that has endured in 1 RTR today.
On 21 January 1991, the M198 155mm howitzer “Damn Yankees” was part of Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines during the Battle of Khafji on the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and fired the first U.S. shell of the conflict, going on to support coalition efforts until the cease-fire at the end of February.
And it has been found, restored to its Desert Storm/Shield configuration, and has arrived at the National Marine Corps Museum for display.
So Ruger just introduced their new American Rifle Ranch model, a bolt-action 7.62x39mm– because what is more American than that, right?! The lightweight (~6lb) rifle has a free-floating 16.10″ medium-contour, cold hammer-forged barrel with a 5/8″-24 threaded muzzle for cans and devices.
It takes Ruger Mini-30 mags, which is nice but would have been nicer if it took AK mags. Still, expect it to run in local stores by this fall at around the $550ish mark, comparing nicely to the CZ 527 carbine, which is roughly the same concept but with a walnut stock and slightly longer barrel but costs more like $700.
Here we see the good Major Stewart Fotheringham and CSM Low of ‘X’ Company, Scots Guards (then under command of 1st Welsh Guards) as they watch mopping up operations during the advance on Brussels, 4 September 1944.
