Quotulatiousness

December 14, 2021

Chatellerault M24/29: France’s New Wave of Post-WWI Small Arms

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published 26 Aug 2017

France fought the Great War with an array of weapons which were all sub-par in one way or another — the Lebel rifle was obsolescent by 1914, the Berthier was a cavalry carbine forced into rifle service, the Chauchat was an emergency wartime design optimized for production volume instead of quality, and the handguns were a mixture of old revolvers and desperate imports from Spain. Once the war finally ended, the French military would move to replace the whole lot with new and modern arms.

This would begin by finally replacing the 8mm Lebel cartridge with a non-tapered, rimless cartridge — something that would be well suited to use in magazines and repeating arms. Simultaneously, a new light machine gun would be found, as this was deemed to most important improvement to be made. The cartridge was adopted in 1924 as the 7.5x58mm, but it would soon be realized that there was a critical problem with that round. The French military had a large supply of German arms taken as war reparations, and the new 7.5mm cartridge looked very similar to the 8x57mm Mauser cartridge. Worse, the Mauser round would chamber and fire in the new French chambers, causing serious damage to guns when the 8mm bullet was squeezed down to 7.5mm. To fix this issue, the French cut their cartridge down by 4mm, resulting in the 1929 adoption of the 7.5x54mm round — the chamber of which would no longer fit a German 8mm round.

As for the machine gun, the first choice was to simply adopt the Browning BAR — but France insisted on obtaining the technical data package and producing the guns in France, and they could not come to an agreement with Colt over the price of such a license. So, the French held trials of other guns, looking at virtually everything then available. In the aftermath of the trials, it was decided that the Chatellerault arsenal could design its own weapon using the best features of the other existing guns. The arsenal rather quickly produced prototypes, and they were adopted in 1924 (and then updated to use the shorter version of the 7.5mm cartridge in 1929).

The Chatellerault M24/29 is a quite good weapon, especially considering how early it was designed. It uses a tilting bolt and a top-mounted 25 round magazine. It has two triggers, the front one firing in semiautomatic and the rear one in fully automatic. The wooden front handguard allows for fire from the hip or shoulder if desired, and a set of thorough dust covers keep the gun free from ingress of mud or dirt. About 188,000 would be manufactured, and it would stay in service for many decades.

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December 12, 2021

QotD: Britain’s alienated intelligentsia of the 1930s

Filed under: Britain, History, Politics, Quotations, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during “God save the King” than of stealing from a poor box. All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British. It is questionable how much effect this had, but it certainly had some. If the English people suffered for several years a real weakening of morale, so that the Fascist nations judged that they were “decadent” and that it was safe to plunge into war, the intellectual sabotage from the Left was partly responsible. Both the New Statesman and the News-Chronicle cried out against the Munich settlement, but even they had done something to make it possible. Ten years of systematic Blimp-baiting affected even the Blimps themselves and made it harder than it had been before to get intelligent young men to enter the armed forces. Given the stagnation of the Empire, the military middle class must have decayed in any case, but the spread of a shallow Leftism hastened the process.

It is clear that the special position of the English intellectuals during the past ten years, as purely negative creatures, mere anti-Blimps, was a by-product of ruling-class stupidity. Society could not use them, and they had not got it in them to see that devotion to one’s country implies “for better, for worse”. Both Blimps and highbrows took for granted, as though it were a law of nature, the divorce between patriotism and intelligence. If you were a patriot you read Blackwood’s Magazine and publicly thanked God that you were “not brainy”. If you were an intellectual you sniggered at the Union Jack and regarded physical courage as barbarous. It is obvious that this preposterous convention cannot continue. The Bloomsbury highbrow, with his mechanical snigger, is as out-of-date as the cavalry colonel. A modern nation cannot afford either of them. Patriotism and intelligence will have to come together again. It is the fact that we are fighting a war, and a very peculiar kind of war, that may make this possible.

George Orwell, “The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, 1941-02-19.

December 7, 2021

QotD: The decline of class distinctions in Britain

Filed under: Britain, Economics, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

After 1918 there began to appear something that had never existed in England before: people of indeterminate social class. In 1910 every human being in these islands could be “placed” in an instant by his clothes, manners and accent. That is no longer the case. Above all, it is not the case in the new townships that have developed as a result of cheap motor cars and the southward shift of industry. The place to look for the germs of the future England is in the light-industry areas and along the arterial roads. In Slough, Dagenham, Barnet, Letchworth, Hayes – everywhere, indeed, on the outskirts of great towns – the old pattern is gradually changing into something new. In those vast new wildernesses of glass and brick the sharp distinctions of the older kind of town, with its slums and mansions, or of the country, with its manor-houses and squalid cottages, no longer exist. There are wide gradations of income, but it is the same kind of life that is being lived at different levels, in labour-saving flats or council houses, along the concrete roads and in the naked democracy of the swimming-pools. It is a rather restless, cultureless life, centring round tinned food, Picture Post, the radio and the internal combustion engine. It is a civilization in which children grow up with an intimate knowledge of magnetoes and in complete ignorance of the Bible. To that civilization belong the people who are most at home in and most definitely of the modern world, the technicians and the higher-paid skilled workers, the airmen and their mechanics, the radio experts, film producers, popular journalists and industrial chemists. They are the indeterminate stratum at which the older class distinctions are beginning to break down.

This war, unless we are defeated, will wipe out most of the existing class privileges. There are every day fewer people who wish them to continue. Nor need we fear that as the pattern changes life in England will lose its peculiar flavour. The new red cities of Greater London are crude enough, but these things are only the rash that accompanies a change. In whatever shape England emerges from the war it will be deeply tinged with the characteristics that I have spoken of earlier. The intellectuals who hope to see it Russianized or Germanized will be disappointed. The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture. The Stock Exchange will be pulled down, the horse plough will give way to the tractor, the country houses will be turned into children’s holiday camps, the Eton and Harrow match will be forgotten, but England will still be England, an everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the same.

George Orwell, “The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, 1941-02-19.

November 24, 2021

Tank Chats #133 | Renault UE Chenillette | The Tank Museum

Filed under: France, Germany, History, Italy, Military, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Tank Museum
Published 6 Aug 2021

In this weeks Tank Chat, Curator David Willey talks about the Renault UE Chenillette. A light tracked armoured carrier produced by France between 1932 and 1940.

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November 21, 2021

QotD: Britain’s middle class after WW1

Filed under: Britain, Bureaucracy, Business, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

One of the most important developments in England during the past twenty years has been the upward and downward extension of the middle class. It has happened on such a scale as to make the old classification of society into capitalists, proletarians and petit bourgeois (small property-owners) almost obsolete.

England is a country in which property and financial power are concentrated in very few hands. Few people in modern England own anything at all, except clothes, furniture and possibly a house. The peasantry have long since disappeared, the independent shopkeeper is being destroyed, the small business-man is diminishing in numbers. But at the same time modern industry is so complicated that it cannot get along without great numbers of managers, salesmen, engineers, chemists and technicians of all kinds, drawing fairly large salaries. And these in turn call into being a professional class of doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, etc., etc. The tendency of advanced capitalism has therefore been to enlarge the middle class and not to wipe it out as it once seemed likely to do.

But much more important than this is the spread of middle-class ideas and habits among the working class. The British working class are now better off in almost all ways than they were thirty years ago. This is partly due to the efforts of the Trade Unions, but partly to the mere advance of physical science. It is not always realized that within rather narrow limits the standard of life of a country can rise without a corresponding rise in real-wages. Up to a point, civilization can lift itself up by its boot-tags. However unjustly society is organized, certain technical advances are bound to benefit the whole community, because certain kinds of goods are necessarily held in common. A millionaire cannot, for example, light the streets for himself while darkening them for other people. Nearly all citizens of civilized countries now enjoy the use of good roads, germ-free water, police protection, free libraries and probably free education of a kind. Public education in England has been meanly starved of money, but it has nevertheless improved, largely owing to the devoted efforts of the teachers, and the habit of reading has become enormously more widespread. To an increasing extent the rich and the poor read the same books, and they also see the same films and listen to the same radio programmes. And the differences in their way of life have been diminished by the mass-production of cheap clothes and improvements in housing. So far as outward appearance goes, the clothes of rich and poor, especially in the case of women, differ far less than they did thirty or even fifteen years ago. As to housing, England still has slums which are a blot on civilization, but much building has been done during the past ten years, largely by the local authorities. The modern council house, with its bathroom and electric light, is smaller than the stockbroker’s villa, but it is recognizably the same kind of house, which the farm labourer’s cottage is not. A person who has grown up in a council housing estate is likely to be – indeed, visibly is – more middle class in outlook than a person who has grown up in a slum.

George Orwell, “The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, 1941-02-19.

November 13, 2021

How Mussolini Founded The Italian Fascist Party I THE GREAT WAR 1921

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

The Great War
Published 12 Nov 2021

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Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist movement was a fringe phenomenon right after the First World War and couldn’t gain much traction in the 1919 elections. But soon after Mussolini was increasing his political standing and the National Fascist Party gained more members than ever before.

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» SOURCES
Alcalde, Ángel, War Veterans and Fascism in Interwar Europe, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Bosworth, R. J. B., Mussolini, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010)

De Grand, Alexander, Italian Fascism: Its Origins & Development, (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1989)

Duggan, Christopher, Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796, (London: Penguin Books, 2008)

Martins, Carlos Manuel, From Hitler to Codreanu: The Ideology of Fascist Leaders, (London: Routledge, 2020)

Neville, Peter, Mussolini, (London: Routledge, 2004)

Weyland, Curt, Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism During the Interwar Years, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021)

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»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Jose Gamez
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Yves Thimian

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2021

November 9, 2021

Bayonet Development for the Lee Enfield No4 Rifle

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, Weapons, WW1, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 22 Jul 2021

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Having wrapped up our series on the major development of the Lee Enfield rifle in British service, I figured it would be a nice addendum to talk about the bayonets developed for the No4 rifle. These went through a substantial evolution, and are an interesting field for collectors all by themselves.

During World War One, the British used the Pattern 1907 bayonet, a long blade type essentially copied from the Japanese Type 30. By the 1920s, this was being reconsidered – the long blades were expensive, fragile, and perhaps not really necessary. When the No1 Mk VI rifle was put into trials, it was given a new bayonet style. This was inspired by the Swiss cyclists’ bayonet, with a cruciform spike instead of a true blade. It was only 8 inches long; this was determined to be long enough for virtually all use cases and being short minimized weight and bulk.

As World War Two progressed, the spike bayonet was simplified several times. Before the initial production of the first standard model (No4 MkI) was completed, the cruciform pattens had already been abandoned for a much simpler (and faster and cheaper) round body spike with a screwdriver-like point at the end. This was in turn simplified by separating the socket and spike into two parts for easier production, and then further simplified by casting the socket instead of forging it. After the war, the spike was replaced by a short blade-type socket bayonet (the No9), although this was rather short-lived because of the adoption of the SLR (FN FAL).

Contact:
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6281 N. Oracle 36270
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October 29, 2021

QotD: Another proof of Parkinson’s “Law of the Custom-Built Headquarters Building”

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Europe, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

The organisation [the League of Nations] lingered on and, with a final irony, it was now that it assumed the outward shape that is generally associated with it. The Palace of Nations [Wiki], begun in 1929, was finished in 1936, just in time to become a mausoleum. Here at last were the necessary offices, 700 of them, and the fitting conference rooms for the words that no longer meant anything. There was a floor of Finnish granite, walls and pillars faced with Swedish marble, enigmatic and forbidding murals, depicting Technical Progress, Medical Progress, Social Progress, the Abolition of War, and so on, by the Catalan artist Jose Maria Sert. Under their sombre painted sermons, the Assemblies still met and passed their resolutions; everyone was still very busy. But underneath it all the mainspring was broken.

John Terraine, The Mighty Continent, 1974, quoted by Brian Micklethwait, 2021-07-20.

October 24, 2021

QotD: Origins of the upper-class twit

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, Quotations, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

By 1920 there were many people who were aware of all this. By 1930 millions were aware of it. But the British ruling class obviously could not admit to themselves that their usefulness was at an end. Had they done that they would have had to abdicate. For it was not possible for them to turn themselves into mere bandits, like the American millionaires, consciously clinging to unjust privileges and beating down opposition by bribery and tear-gas bombs. After all, they belonged to a class with a certain tradition, they had been to public schools where the duty of dying for your country, if necessary, is laid down as the first and greatest of the Commandments. They had to feel themselves true patriots, even while they plundered their countrymen. Clearly there was only one escape for them – into stupidity. They could keep society in its existing shape only by being unable to grasp that any improvement was possible. Difficult though this was, they achieved it, largely by fixing their eyes on the past and refusing to notice the changes that were going on round them.

George Orwell, “The Lion And The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius”, 1941-02-19.

October 22, 2021

L-34 Sampo: Aimo Lahti’s Rejected Masterpiece

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published 30 Jun 2021

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Finland’s standard light machine gun going into the Winter War was the LS-26, a gun which did not succeed in field use. It was complex and cumbersome, and Finnish troops quickly replaced it with captured Russian DP-27 LMGs. Part of the problem of the LS-26 was its recoil-operated design. Finnish military authorities specified a recoil-operated mechanism for their LMG in light of the success of the recoil-operated heavy Maxim guns in Finnish service. Gas operation was quickly recognized as a superior system for light machine guns, but too late to stop adoption of the LS-26.

In the early 1930s, Aimo Lahti did design a gas-operated LMG, heavily influenced by the Czech ZB-26 system. A handful of prototypes were made by VKT, looking for both Finnish military acceptance and international sales. The gun was made in several calibers, most notably 7.62x54R for Finland and 7.92x57mm Mauser for export. However, bureaucratic issues prevented its consideration by the Finnish Army, and the timing was too late for exports. The L-34 was significantly lighter and simpler than the LS-26, and it was performed quite well in Finnish trials — which did not happen until the 1950s. By that time, the Finnish military was looking for an intermediate-caliber belt-fed gun, and the L-34 was not suitable regardless of its performance.

Many thanks to Sako for providing me access to film this L-34 from their reference collection!

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle 36270
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October 20, 2021

Chocolate | British Pathé

Filed under: Britain, Food, History — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

British Pathé
Published 22 Sep 2016

BON APPETIT – FOOD MONTH ON BRITISH PATHÉ (SEPTEMBER 2016): Chocolate.

We all love a bit of chocolate, so have a watch of these vintage films which show different chocolates being made, as well as the celebrations when sweet rationing came to an end.

(Film Ids: 1601.11, 313.13, 1108.14, 1401.17)

Music:
The Show Must Be Go (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…

A NEW THEME EVERY MONTH!
Each month, a range of new uploads and playlists tell the story of a particular topic through archive footage. Let us know what themes you’d like to see by leaving us a comment or connecting with us on social media.

BRITISH PATHÉ’S STORY
Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. British Pathé was at the forefront of cinematic journalism, blending information with entertainment to popular effect. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it.

Now considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world, British Pathé is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance.

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A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITISH PATHÉ TV. IT’S FULL OF GREAT DOCUMENTARIES, FASCINATING INTERVIEWS, AND CLASSIC MOVIES. http://www.britishpathe.tv/

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British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website. https://www.britishpathe.com/

October 12, 2021

Worthless Paper Money – German Hyper-Inflation Starts After WW1 I THE GREAT WAR 1921

Filed under: Economics, Europe, Germany, History — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Great War
Published 8 Oct 2021

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The German post-WW1 economy was under pressure: the loss of territory, the war bonds issued during the war and the reparations under the Treaty of Versailles. All this lead to a downward spiral of rising inflation and living costs for German citizens.

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» SOURCES
Feldman, Gerald: Vom Weltkrieg zur Weltwirtschaftskrise. Studien zur deutschen Wirtschafts-und Sozialgeschichte 1914-1932. 1984.

Fergusson, Adam: Das Ende des Geldes. Hyperinflation und ihre Folgen für die Menschen am Beispiel der Weimarer Republik, 1975.

Grosch, Waldemar: Deutsche und polnische Propaganda während der Volksabstimmung in Oberschlesien 1919-1921. 2002.

Lewek, Peter: Arbeitslosigkeit und Arbeitslosenversicherung in der Weimarer republik 1918-1927. 1989.

Michalczyk, Andrezej: Celebrating the nation: the case of Upper Silesia after the plebiscite in 1921.

Neubach, Helmut: Die Abstimmung in Oberschlesien am 20. März 1921. 2002.

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»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Jose Gamez
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Yves Thimian

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2021

October 6, 2021

Let’s Visit Finland (1935) – Helsinki Liinakhamari Lapland Arctic Ocean Highway

Filed under: Architecture, Europe, History — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

PeriscopeFilm
Published 2 Aug 2020

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This travelogue film shows Finland in the 1930’s. It was presented by Joseph Harris and Martin Ross. Finland is in northern Europe bordering Sweden, Norway and Russia. The capital city of Helsinki as well as the Arctic Ocean Highway running to the port of Liinakhamari which once touched the Arctic Ocean will be shown. It refers to Helsinki as Helsingfors which is the former Swedish name of the capital. The Arctic Ocean Highway was rerouted after WW2. Finland had long been a battleground due to the imperial ambitions and growing pains of Sweden and Russia. Finland was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1807 (:32). A 1917 revolution overthrew the Czarist regime (:38). Due to wars and fires, few remnants existed of historical value in Helsinki (:47). Some of the old wooden houses have managed to remain (:53). Granite columns and entryways of the city point to early architects’ desire to use the country’s reserve of granite (1:14). Russian influence is exemplified in a Russian style church (1:35) and the cathedral of St. Nicholas (1:38). Architects sought to stray from the influences of foreign domination (1:45). The red granite railway station in the Market Square (1:59), the parliament building (2:05) and white factory buildings show no allegiance to former occupiers (2:08). A newly erected suburb consisting of flats constructed with reinforced steel (2:26) lay encircled by forests and lakes. Roads are lined with trees and intermittent flower beds (2:49). Helsinki harbor follows (2:59). Town parks and gardens were erected with artistic sculptures throughout showing Finland’s growing appreciation for the arts (3:22). The capital is also the terminus of the road leading northward for over a thousand miles to the port of Liinakhamari (3:34). A map is provided which still has USSR on it as this was before the fall of Soviet Russia (3:35). The port of Liinakhamari lay about 300 miles beyond the polar circle (3:43). The film follows this road which remains concrete for 20 miles after leaving the capitol (3:58). Land alongside had been cleared for agriculture (4:06). A farmer reaps hay with a scythe as modern farm machinery had not yet reached the area (4:34). A striking feature of the Finnish countryside are the impaled corn husks on wooden poles for drying (5:03). A double arched bridge of granite follows crossing one of the waterways along the route (5:09). A close up shot of the farm houses show they are crudely erected structures reminiscent of the middle ages (5:28). Corn fields dissipate and the countryside becomes hilly and wooded (6:03). Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, though it should be known as the land of 60,000 lakes (6:11). The route continues on for 300 miles until hitting another agricultural district (6:44) sprinkled with one-story windmills. It continues around the Gulf of Bothnia (6:54). The only important town along the way is Oluu where the Oulujoki River cuts the city into three (7:28). Uneven cobblestone roads (7:38) and wooden buildings with elaborate ornate facades. Rivers float timber out from the forests (8:18). Finland’s timber industry racks in 80 million pounds annually (8:28). The timber is sent to sawmills along the coast (9:35). Stacks along the road await trucks (9:40). A car heads to be taken across a river by ferry as bridges become less frequent (10:27). The pulley system is operated by the ferryman, his young daughter and by the passengers (10:45). The government auctioned the ferries to those who would operate them at the lowest cost (11:02). Further on, another farm area appears with small white wooden churches (11:33). Most of the water for homes are sourced by well (11:49). The road then re-enters the wilderness (12:03). A sign with “Arctic Circle” in four different languages (12:05) follows as the road crosses the imaginary line marking the Arctic circle. Cattle are wandering through the road (12:31), hay farms (13:08), and stacks of wood to heat the homes in the winter (13:24). A housewife washes her clothes using water from a brook (13:32). The road hits Lapland (13:54) and turns into a dirt road (14:01). Reindeer feed on the lichen in winter (15:05). A log hut has reindeer antlers placed on top (15:22). Laplanders with their colorful handcrafted headdresses and pointed toe tall boots (15:43). Vegetation becomes stunted while approaching the northern coastline (16:29). The film wraps up as the road reaches the deep-water port of Liinakhamari (16:40).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

September 30, 2021

Tank Chats #126 | Guy Armoured Car | The Tank Museum

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

The Tank Museum
Published 21 May 2021

David Fletcher MBE looks at the rare and most interesting Guy Armoured Car, thought to be the first welded vehicle used by the British Army.

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September 7, 2021

How William Fairbairn Created the Modern SWAT Team in Warlord Era Shanghai

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published 1 Jun 2021

William E. Fairbairn is best known for his work with Eric Sykes and their “Commando” knife design during World War Two. However, Fairbairn spent some 33 years in the Shanghai Municipal Police, working his way up from a beat constable to Assistant Commissioner. There he was responsible for the SMPD adopting truly forward-thinking fighting methods, and he essentially invented the modern SWAT team (the “Reserve Unit”, which Fairbairn led for 10 years). He combined expertise in formal marksmanship, instinctive practical shooting, and hand-to-hand combat schools (including jiu-jitsu and judo) into a comprehensive training program like no other on earth at the time.

Book references:
The World’s First SWAT Team, by Leroy Thompson:
https://amzn.to/2TrYiNv

Gentleman & Warrior, by Peter Robins:
https://amzn.to/3vuODn9

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

https://www.floatplane.com/channel/Fo…

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.forgottenweapons.com

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle 36270
Tucson, AZ 85740

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