Quotulatiousness

June 5, 2019

WWII Field Kitchen Overview

Filed under: Food, History, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Tri-State Living History Association
Published on 15 Dec 2018

The GI Field Kitchen during WWII was part of the Company HQ, designed to serve 150-180 men. They intended to serve 2 hot meals per day: Breakfast & Supper, with Dinner (Lunch) as a combat ration. They were equipped with stoves, water heaters and mermite cans to deliver the hot food to the troops.

While sound in theory, often times in reality the kitchens had to make do with less equipment and were forced to adapt to the situations in which they were forced to operate. Despite this, mess staff did their best to keep the fighting man’s body and morale fed.

Filmed at Rockford WWII Days 2018

Special thanks to Nick Yi Photography: https://www.nickyi.com/

Website: https://www.tslha.org/

Print Sources:

TM 10-405 (Apr 24, 1942) – The Army Cook

TM 10-406 (Nov 22, 1943) – Cooking Dehydrated Foods

TM 10-400 (Nov, 1944) – Stoves, Ranges, Ovens, and Cooking Outfits

TM 10-701 (Dec, 1945) – Range, Field M-1937

T/O 7-17 (Sept 1, 1942): http://www.hardscrabblefarm.com/ww2/

Footage Sources:

The Battle of San Pietro – John Huston (1945)

TF 10-1237 – Rations in the Combat Zone Part 1 – Fighting Food

TF 10-1215 – Rations in the Combat Zone Part 2 – Unit Messing

TF 10-2454 – Unit Messing in the Field

TF 10-1202 – Baking in the Field Part 1 – The M1942 Field Baking Unit

MISC 1282 – Quartermaster Activities in the European Theater

Picture Sources: 185th Field Artillery, 34th ID from the H. Smith collection: http://34thinfantry.com/photos.html

June 2, 2019

Brexit at Dunkirk – WW2 – 040 – June 1 1940

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published on 1 Jun 2019

When the Germans Panzers move north from Calais, the British Expeditionary Force and France’s soldiers still fighting in Belgium and Northern France are trapped between a numerically superior German army. A big operation codenamed “Dynamo” is set up to evacuate as many as possible from Dunkirk.

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Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Map animations: Eastory

Colorisations by Joram Appel, Spartacus Olsson and Norman Stewart.

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Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

Sources:

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
3 days ago (edited)
As many of you already know, people who support us on Patreon get three days early access to our content – which explains why some comments have been made before the video is published. We are very grateful to those who financially support us, because (as Indy mentions a lot) we really wouldn’t be able to do any of this without your support. This project is fully funded by our community and viewers. Right now, we are still very much working at the max of our capacity. That is partly because we take on new tasks whenever some time frees itself – we just can’t help making more and better content, but also because we still need more financial stability to hire more editors and researchers. Only then will we be able to deliver a steady flow of specials, Out of the Foxholes episodes and War Against Humanity videos at the quality that we would like them to be. You can support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or on our website http://www.timeghost.tv.

Thanks a lot!!

Cheers,
Joram

And, experimental image as fodder for social media link thumbnail:

May 20, 2019

The Evolution Of Knightly Armour – 1066 – 1485

Filed under: Europe, History, Military, Technology — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Metatron
Published on 16 May 2017

A video full of details which took over 30 hours in the making. I hope you like it and you find the info in it useful 😀

Armour (spelled armor in the US) is a protective covering that is used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual, or vehicle by weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action. The word “armour” began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a “mail, defensive covering worn in combat”. The word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning “arms and/or equipment”, with the root armare meaning “arms or gear”.

Armour has been used throughout recorded history. It has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into today’s modern composites.
Significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper.

Well-known armour types in European history include the lorica hamata, lorica squamata, and lorica segmentata of the Roman legions, the mail hauberk of the early medieval age, and the full steel plate harness worn by later medieval and renaissance knights, and breast and back plates worn by heavy cavalry in several European countries until the first year of World War I (1914–15). The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century.

Plate armour became cheaper than mail by the 15th century as it required less labour, labour that had become more expensive after the Black Death, though it did require larger furnaces to produce larger blooms. Mail continued to be used to protect those joints which could not be adequately protected by plate.
The small skull cap evolved into a bigger helmet, the bascinet. Several new forms of fully enclosed helmets were introduced in the late 14th century.

By about 1400 the full plate armour had been developed in armouries of Lombardy. Heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield for centuries in part because of their armour.

Probably the most recognised style of armour in the World became the plate armour associated with the knights of the European Late Middle Ages.

May 16, 2019

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle: Mk I and Mk I* Improvements

Filed under: Britain, Cancon, History, Military, Technology, Weapons — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 11 Apr 2019

These rifles are lots #1087 and #1088 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction:
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/boys…

The Boys Anti-Tank Rifle was adopted by the British military in 1937, and remained in production until 1943 when it was replaced by the PIAT. During that time more than 114,000 were made, both in the UK and in Canada. Canadian engineers at the John Inglis company devised a number of improvements to the rifle in 1942, which were adopted as the Mk I* pattern that year. Today we are looking at these improvements with examples of each type side by side. They are a new style of muzzle brake, simplified rear sight, and improved bipod design.

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Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

May 12, 2019

QotD: The British Army between the wars

Filed under: Britain, History, India, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

In the nineteenth century the British common soldier was usually a farm labourer or slum proletarian who had been driven into the army by brute starvation. He enlisted for a period of at least seven years – sometimes as much as twenty-one years – and he was inured to a barrack life of endless drilling, rigid and stupid discipline, and degrading physical punishments. It was virtually impossible for him to marry, and even after the extension of the franchise he lacked the right to vote. In Indian garrison towns he could kick the “niggers” with impunity, but at home he was hated or looked down upon by the ordinary population, except in wartime, when for brief periods he was discovered to be a hero. Obviously such a man had severed his links with his own class. He was essentially a mercenary, and his self-respect depended on his conception of himself not as a worker or a citizen but simply as a fighting animal.

Since the war the conditions of army life have improved and the conception of discipline has grown more intelligent, but the British army has retained its special characteristics – small size, voluntary enlistment, long service and emphasis on regimental loyalty. Every regiment has its own name (not merely a number, as in most armies), its history and relics, its special customs, traditions, etc., etc., thanks to which the whole army is honey-combed with snobberies which are almost unbelievable unless one has seen them at close quarters. Between the officers of a “smart” regiment and those of an ordinary infantry regiment, or still more a regiment of the Indian Army, there is a degree of jealousy almost amounting to a class difference. And there is no question that the long-term private soldier often identifies with his own regiment almost as closely as the officer does. The effect is to make the narrow “non-political” outlook of the mercenary come more easily to him. In addition, the fact that the British Army is rather heavily officered probably diminishes class friction and thus makes the lower ranks less accessible to “subversive” ideas.

But the thing which above all else forces a reactionary view-point on the common soldier is his service in overseas garrisons. An infantry regiment is usually quartered abroad for eighteen years consecutively, moving from place to place every four or five years, so that many soldiers serve their entire time in India, Africa, China, etc. They are only there to hold down a hostile population and the fact is brought home to them in unmistakeable ways. Relations with the “natives” are almost invariably bad, and the soldiers – not so much the officers as the men – are the obvious targets for anti-British feeling. Naturally they retaliate, and as a rule they develop an attitude towards the “niggers” which is far more brutal than that of the officials or business men. In Burma I was constantly struck by the fact that the common soldiers were the best-hated section of the white community, and, judged simply by their behaviour, they certainly deserved to be. Even as near home as Gibraltar they walk the streets with a swaggering air which is directed at the Spanish “natives.” And in practice some such attitude is absolutely necessary; you could not hold down a subject empire with troops infected by notions of class-solidarity. Most of the dirty work of the French empire, for instance, is done not by French conscripts but by illiterate Negroes and by the Foreign Legion, a corps of pure mercenaries.

To sum up: in spite of the technical advances which do not allow the professional officer to be quite such an idiot as he used to be, and in spite of the fact that the common soldier is now treated a little more like a human being, the British army remains essentially the same machine as it was fifty years ago.

George Orwell, “Democracy in the British Army”, Left, 1939-09.

May 11, 2019

Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch. M151 Series

Filed under: History, Military, Technology, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The_Chieftain
Published on 6 Apr 2019

A fun, and rather dangerous, little softskin which will easily fit in your garage.

April 24, 2019

Vickers Heavy Machine Gun

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, Technology, Weapons, WW1, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 14 Dec 2016

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

I may be a bit biased here, but I believe that the Vickers gun is one of the best all-around firearms ever made. It was designed during an era of experimentation and craftsmanship, with a quality and care that would make it today prohibitively expensive. It was exemplary in action, and served in every environment on earth through six decades and in the hands of 50 different nations. It was an infantry gun, an aircraft gun, an armored vehicle gun, and a shipboard gun.

Captain Graham Hutchison recorded this account of the Vickers in action during an attack on High Wood in August 1916 (exerpted from “The Grand old Lady of No Man’s Land by Dolf Goldsmith):

“For this attack, [ten] guns were grouped in the Savoy Trench, from which a magnificent view was obtained of the German line at a range of about 2000 yards. These guns were disposed for barrage. On August 23rd and the night of the 23rd/24th the whole Company was, in addition to the two Companies of Infantry lent for the purpose, employed in carrying water and ammunition to this point. Many factors in barrage work which are now common knowledge had not then been learned or considered. It is amusing today to note that in the orders for the 100th Machine Gun Company’s barrage of 10 guns, Captain Hutchison ordered that rapid fire should be maintained continuously for twelve hours, to cover the attack and consolidation. It is to the credit of the gunners and the Vickers gun itself that this was done! During the attack on the 24th, 250 rounds short of one million were fired by ten guns; at least four petrol tins of water besides all the water bottles of the Company and urine tins form the neighborhood were emptied into the guns for cooling purposes; and a continuous party was employed carrying ammunition. Private Robertshaw and Artificer H. Bartlett between them maintained a belt-filling machine in action without stopping for a single moment, for twelve hours. At the end of this time many of the NCOs and gunners were found asleep from exhaustion at their posts. A prize of five francs to the members of each gun team was offered and was secured by the gun team of Sgt. P. Dean, DCM, with a record of just over 120,000 rounds.”

The attack on the 24th of August was a brilliant success, the operation being difficult and all objectives being taken within a short time. Prisoner examined at Divisional and Corps Headquarters reported that the effect of the Machine Gun barrage was annihilating, and the counterattacks which had attempted to retake the ground lost were broken up whilst being concentrated east of the Flers Ridge and of High Wood.

In 1963 in Yorkshire, a class of British Army armorers put one Vickers gun through probably the most strenuous test ever given to an individual gun. The base had a stockpile of approximately 5 million rounds of Mk VII ammunition which was no longer approved for military use. They took a newly rebuilt Vickers gun, and proceeded to fire the entire stock of ammo through it over the course of seven days. They worked in pairs, switching off at 30 minute intervals, with a third man shoveling away spent brass. The gun was fired in 250-round solid bursts, and the worn out barrels were changed every hour and a half. At the end of the five million rounds, the gun was taken back into the shop for inspection. It was found to be within service spec in every dimension.

During its service life, the Vickers was made in .303 British, .30-06, 0.50 Vickers, .50 High Velocity, 7×57 Mauser, 7.65×53, 8mm Mauser, 8mm Lebel, 7.7 Japanese, 6.5×54 Dutch, 7.9x57R Dutch, 7.62 NATO, 7.62x54R, 8x52R Siamese, 11mm Vickers, and three different 40mm cartridges.

The Vickers was retired from British military service in 1968, having finally become obsolete. Its GPMG role was taken over by the FN MAG, and its long range indirect fire role performed by 3″ mortars. The Vickers was a weapon which required training and dedication to master, but rewarded its users with phenomenal endurance and a wide range of capabilities. Among all contenders, only the Browning machine gun can attempt to compare to the outstanding qualities of the Vickers, and even the Browning fails to match the elegance of the stalwart Brit.

April 23, 2019

The logistics of empire

Filed under: History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Nigel Davies pops up on his blog after a lengthy period of inactivity to post his analysis of imperial logistical limits in World War Two:


There’s an old saying that David and Leigh Eddings paraphrased in one of their fantasy books: “any fool can raise an army, but you start running into trouble around suppertime.”

(Which is just a simplified way of saying that amateurs discuss tactics, but professionals think logistics.)

So let’s consider World War Two from the “who can afford what” perspective.

Any fool politician can promise Lebensraum, or a Mare Nostrum, or a Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere: the problem comes when your nation lacks the resources to buy the equipment you need to make your plan stick.

It would be correct to suggest that the most rag-tag of “governments” can raise and equip an infantry force, and possible give it some artillery support. Mao and Tito spring to mind, but the Hungarians, Bulgarians and Iranians wouldn’t be far off. (One particularly entertaining description of the vast Operation Barbarossa – the Axis invasion of Russia – describes hundreds of gaily painted peasant carts masquerading as the Rumanian logistics column.)

Perhaps your government is a bit more advanced in both your tax collection and your industrial base, and you can manage a few armoured cars or tanks, and maybe even a nominal number of fighters and bombers. Think Nationalist China, Finland, Belgium, Greece and Turkey. That still doesn’t mean that you can also manage more than a token number of destroyers or coastal defence ships to manage defensive support. Frankly Canada, Australia, India and possibly even South Africa were greater “powers” than any of those.

The actual capacity to project power to other parts of the world in your own right – rather than under the auspices of your allies – requires not only a developed army and air force, but a naval element of – at a minimum – a good balanced cruiser force with adequate resources to back it up. Think Spain and Brazil… and, again, Australia.

Actually protecting far flung imperial possessions requires even a bit more than that. (Spain had discovered this while losing a brief war with the United States – which had run out of land to imperially conquer from the French, native Americans or Mexicans, and – after a couple of abortive attempts to invade Canada – therefore turned a quick takeover of overseas bits. Mainly Spanish possessions like the Philippines, but also including otherwise independent states like Hawaii.)

In fact the best defence of a far flung empire if you couldn’t match other people’s battle fleets was a good submarine force. Think the Netherlands, and particularly its half dozen cruisers and two dozen submarines protecting the Netherlands East Indies.

But it is a big jump from a token overseas empire, to being able to play with the big boys. The financial and industrial resources necessary to developing military forces capable of fighting other major powers is simply beyond the resources of more than half a dozen nations at any time. Which is why the term “Great Powers” has always come down to those capable of standing their ground against other great powers.

April 17, 2019

Lee Carbine: Gunmaking is not for the Faint of Heart

Filed under: Government, History, Military, Technology, USA, Weapons — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 16 Apr 2019

This rifle is lot #13868 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction:
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/lee-…

James Paris Lee is known today as the inventor of the detachable box magazine, and the “Lee” in the “Lee Enfield” rifle system – a very significant contributor to firearms development. His first foray into the business of gun design and manufacture, however, was a rather ignominious failure.

Lee patented a single shot swinging barrel system in 1862, and hoped to win an Army contract for it. In February of 1864 he submitted a rifle version to the Army, and was promptly rejected – the Army was not interested in breechloading rifles. Lee came right back in April 1864 with a carbine pattern, and this was accepted for testing – the Army was indeed looking for breechloading cavalry carbines. It took a full year, but in April 1865 the Army came back and gave Lee a contract for 1,000 carbines at $18 each. Lee rounded up investors and capital, and created the Lee Fire Arms Company in Milwaukee to produce the guns. His first two samples were delivered in January 1866 – in .42 rimfire caliber.

At this point, there is some disagreement. Lee claims that his sample guns in .42 caliber were accepted, and thus his followup delivery of .42 caliber carbines should have been accepted. The government said that the contract specified .44 rimfire caliber, and his delivery of .42 caliber guns was unacceptable, and thus rejected. A court case would ensue, but with the rejection of the first 250 guns and the cancellation of their contract, the company had to look hard and fast for a backup plan. In March 1867 newspaper ads were placed in Milwaukee for sporting rifles and carbines from the Lee company. The parts planned for military production were used instead for civilian guns in a variety of configurations – carbines, light rifles, and heavy rifles in several barrel lengths and several calibers. By 1868 all production had ceased, and the Lee Fire Arms Company dissolved.

James Lee returned to his former profession of watchmaking, but this experience with gun manufacturing would not keep him deterred for long. By 1872 he was back working with Remington, and would go on the produce the designs that we know him for today. The lessons of this rifle? Firearms manufacturing is a risky business, not for the faint of heart. And also, sometimes you can learn from a difficult experience to do better the second time.

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

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Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

April 16, 2019

World War 2 British Armour Doctrine & Tactics with David Willey of the Tank Museum at Bovington

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, WW1, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Military History Visualized
Published on 8 Dec 2017

David Willey the Curator of the Tank Museum at Bovington explains British Interwar and World War 2 Armour Doctrine and Tactics. Especially, about the Infantry and Cruiser tank “concept”. Additionally, we talk a bit about the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, Montgomery and Rommel.

April 13, 2019

TAB Episode 43: QF 2pdr Anti-Tank Gun

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Armourer’s Bench
Published on Mar 10, 2019

Introduced just before the beginning of WW2 the 2pdr AT Gun was more than capable of dealing with Axis tanks at the beginning of the war but as tank armour got thicker it became outgunned. Despite this the 2pdr remained in service and equipped a plethora of tanks and armoured cars including the Valentine and Matilda.

The 2pdr performed well during the Battle of France, in North Africa and during the defence of Malaya against the Japanese but it was eventually replaced by bigger and better guns. In this video Matt looks at the history, development and use of Britain’s first anti-tank gun.

Check out our accompanying blog on the 2pdr AT Gun over at: https://armourersbench.com

If you enjoyed the video please consider supporting our work via Patreon, TAB is a viewer supported, non-monetised channel and any help is very much appreciated!

Check out our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/thearmourersbench

April 10, 2019

M37: The Ultimate Improved Browning 1919

Filed under: History, Military, Technology, USA, Weapons — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 8 Mar 2019

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

In November of 1950, the US Ordnance Department requested an improved version of the Browning 1919 air cooled machine gun for use in tanks. The new version was to be able to feed from either the left or right, a feature which was unimportant for an infantry gun but much more relevant when mounting guns into the tight spaces of an armored vehicle. An interim conversion of existing guns to the M1919A4E1 pattern came first, followed by manufacture of all-new guns by the Rock Island Arsenal and Saco-Lowell company from 1955 until 1957.

The design of the gun fell to Bob Hillberg at High Standard. He came up with a clever set of reversible plugs to change the bolt between left and right hand feed, as well as a captive recoil spring, manual safety, improved top cover and rear cover latches, and several other strengthened parts. He also incorporated a charging handle extension with integral manual hold open and a link ejection chute that could be mounted to either side of the gun. His T153 design was formally adopted as the M37, in caliber .30-06. A 7.62mm NATO version (the M37E1) followed as well. The M37 would serve into the late 1960s on the M48 and M60 tanks as well as several helicopters.

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

April 7, 2019

Epic Moments in History – The 9 Lives of Alexander the Great

Filed under: History, India, Middle East, Military — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Invicta
Published on 4 Sep 2017

Alexander the Great is one of the most famous historical figures of all time. Yet many are unaware of the 9 times he cheated death over the course of his epic campaigns into the east!

Support future documentaries: https://www.patreon.com/InvictaHistory
Twitter: https://twitter.com/InvictaHistory

Video Credits:
Research – Invicta
Script: Invicta
Narration – Invicta
Artwork – Robbie McSweeney (https://www.artstation.com/artist/rob…)

Bibliography:
Alexander the Great by Phillips Freeman
The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian

Music: “Rome: Total War OST” by Jeff van Dyck
“Total War: Rome II OST” by Richard Beddow

April 5, 2019

The Carolean’s Prayer – Soldiers of the Swedish Kings – Sabaton History 009

Filed under: Europe, History, Media, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Sabaton History
Published on 4 Apr 2019

The Swedish Kings had to rely on the quality of their armies, often facing foes that had superior numbers. A special soldier class was created. Admired in Sweden and feared on the battlefield, the Caroleans were the secret weapon of the Swedish army. The Sabaton song “The Carolean’s Prayer” is about these remarkable soldiers and their heroic status.

Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…

Support Sabaton History on Patreon (and possibly get a special edition of The Great War): https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory

Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShop

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Maps by: Eastory
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski

Eastory YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

March 28, 2019

Parker Hale M85: Traditional Sniper in a Modern World

Filed under: Britain, Military, Technology, Weapons — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 27 Feb 2019

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…

The 1985 competition to pick a new sniper rifle for the British military came down to a closely fought contest between the Accuracy International PM and the Parker Hale M85. The M85 was a fantastically accurate rifle, every bit the equal of the AI submission and to this day there are still people who were involved in the trials who insist that the M85 should have been selected. Ultimately, the decision came down to the logistical issues surrounding the rifle, where AI’s chassis system was superior to Parker-Hale’s traditional construction. Despite being defeated, Parker Hale sold some 800 M85 rifles – nearly as many as the military contract would have procured (and in fact, a few M85s were purchased by several military units).

If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend checking out Steve Houghton’s newly released book, The British Sniper: A Century of Evolution. It can be found at:

https://www.swiftandboldpublishing.co…

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

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