Things Noticeable this week

[Greenman]

Local stabbing nearby here-luckily the police caught the person but it left a friend of ours pretty shaken because it happened close to where she worked. Too bloody close!

[CARLTON BROWN]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

The US had the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and the Germans had the Bergman MP 18,The Italians invented the eccentric VillarPerosa M1915 which was effectively two sub machine guns with a bipod but was sometimes carried in a chest harness.

The Lee Enfield was still killing Russians in Afghanistan from beyond Kalashnikov range.

The BAR saw relatively limited action at the end of WW1 and was still largely on trial. The British already had the Lewis gun, which had various shortcomings and underwent design improvements. The biggest problem most early automatic weapons like this had was overheating. The Lewis gun remained in service during WW2 but was replaced by the superior Bren gun. The Bergman MP18 was a 9mm sub machinegun, not a rifle. It was okay for close trench warfare, but lacked the longer range capabilities of a good bolt action rifle and guaranteed stopping power. The Germans would eventually replace this weapon with the well-known Schmeisser. All modern assault rifles can be traced back to the WW2 German MP44 Strumgewehr which was almost revolutionary in concept. The Kalashnikov and M16 both come from this design. However, as for assault rifles making a big difference in general WW1 trench warfare, that's hard to see.

The WW1 British Enfield rifle was eventually improved as the No 4 and used throughout WW2 and later years. It remains popular in parts of the Middle East and is often said to be the best bolt action military rifle ever made.

[Wendigo]

Both sad and sickening

Burned to death because of a rumour on WhatsApp
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-46145986


The current WhatsApp & Twitter generation is largely populated by mindless drones.
I occasionally use WhatsApp to send photos of stuff on sale on Amazon or Ebay to my friends, that's what it should be used for not to incite vicious flashmobs.

Twatter is summed up for me in two words, Kardashians & Trump
I'd sooner have rabies, leprosy and a Bullseye speedboat than a Twatter account

Will we learn from this, will we bollocks

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...liticians.html

Is this a joke? The Daily Mail doesn't print jokes, does it?

The Daily Mail IS a joke!

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

Bowling you miss the point.

In 1914 tanks had not even been dreamt of. They were a technolgical development brought about by the dominance of arty and mg's. Likewise the lack of fire support in sections was addressed by bringing in the Lewis gun as a portable fire support weapon. Several automatic/semi auto rifles were designed but none proved viable. There were production difficulties, the level of technology especially in metallurgy was not there to produce something that was light but robust and simple to use. Likewise with aircraft the reason they didn't have good ground support was because they didn't have engines that were powerful enough and light enough to have bigger aircraft with greater payloads. The technology just wasn't there.

You have missed out one very important factor - Comms. None of the belligerants in 1914 had useable radio equipment. Messages were passed by landline, runners or gallopers and a variety of gismos such as heliographs or just putting identification panels on the ground for aircraft to spot. Remember C3 (Command, Control and Communications) well if you ain''t got good comms you're buggered on control and command.

The armies of WW1 had to cope with all the problems you outlined, that they did so is quite remarkable. It took time to do but the concepts they brought in are with us still.

Oh and the Brits were still using Lee Enfields in Korea. They were a bloody good rifle.

Yes, the Enfield was a bloody good rifle, I won't deny that.

Comms doesn't help you much if you don't have the firepower to break through in a particular sector. And I haven't missed the point on the other stuff - I said internal combustion and flight were in their infancies. In the matter of assault rifles, I guess the people in charge never had the vision to see how what weapons they DID have were going to affect the nature of war. if they had, somebody might have started working on an assault rifle around 1900, and whoever had a working one would have had a serious advantage.

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

The US had the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and the Germans had the Bergman MP 18,The Italians invented the eccentric VillarPerosa M1915 which was effectively two sub machine guns with a bipod but was sometimes carried in a chest harness.

And we Americans had the Pedersen device - or would have, if the idea had not got scrapped.

None of those guns you mentioned was in the hands of EVERY soldier. If every man HAD an AK-47 or similar, and every 5th or 6th man had a squad automatic weapon, and they all had good hand grenades (another shortcoming) and enough smoke was laid down on the German lines so attacking troops could get in close before being butchered, I think that would have made quite a difference, even without tanks.

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by Wendigo

Both sad and sickening

Burned to death because of a rumour on WhatsApp
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-46145986


The current WhatsApp & Twitter generation is largely populated by mindless drones and partly explains why we ended up with a gormless shit for brains Twatter addicted preening turd in the White House

I occasionally use WhatsApp to send photos of stuff on sale on Amazon or Ebay to my friends, that's what it should be used for not to incite vicious flashmobs.

Twatter is summed up for me in two words, Kardashians & Trump
I'd sooner have rabies, leprosy and a Bullseye speedboat than a Twatter account

Will we learn from this, will we bollocks

You can't blame Twitter for the fact that when someone suggests burning the two men,Everybody is eager to do it.There's something deeply wrong in that town.

[otokonomidori]

Saw this cake tin on the BBC news today - belonged to some daft neo nazis in court for calling their baby Adolf.

[Wendigo]

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

Saw this cake tin on the BBC news today - belonged to some daft neo nazis in court for calling their baby Adolf.

They were planning on making Reichs puddings

[seany65]

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

Saw this cake tin on the BBC news today - belonged to some daft neo nazis in court for calling their baby Adolf.

But if you turn it to face left and straighten it up, it becomes a Hindu good luck symbol. I think.

[Greenman]

It's funny you should mention that, because when I did a milk round once I came across a sticker of a swastika(not easy to say) on a door. I didn't want to deliver there again(being Jewish) but then I found out that an Indian family lived there and that as you said a different way of seeing it was a good luck symbol-a bit like that Spanish thing where they wear hoods like the Klu Klux Klan but obviously aren't them. If I remember correctly this is used in a lecture given by Robert Langdon(Tom Hanks) in the film of the Da Vinci Code?