Military History/Weapons Questions

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:19 pm

Richard S. wrote:I read 2 books about about WW2 that I can recollect. I read '"The Rise and fall of Third Reich"...all 1250 pages...twice. The other was a fictional account called "Tales of the South Pacific" from James Michener which was alright but he does have few others based on WW2. It is based on his personal experiences while based there during WW2.. If you're unfamiliar with his work most of it drama/adventure type material. Much of it is researched extensively and will contain many scenes based on historical figures and actual events if not the event itself. Some of his later books like Alaska and Texas will take you through a journey starting from the cavemen until the present day, usually based on the decedents of the cavemen. It's quite an interesting approach.

While on the subject I'll mention the best book I've read by him was Chesapeake, if I remember correctly (its been a while) it starts out with an Indian being held captive by another tribe, again if remember correctly in lower New York where the Susquehanna begins. He escapes and makes his way to the Chesapeake... One great things about that particular book for me is a lot of scenes were placed in areas I know very well since I live a block from the river and have spent so much time on it. It was very easy to picture what the surroundings were like. The book will take you through the arrival of the white man, slavery, pirates, civil war etc. Another book I would recommend by him is called Journey, its not very long but great book nonetheless.
I think I've read every book ever writtn about WWII (well, almost) Anything by Walter Lord or Cornelious Ryan (Longest Day, A Bridge To Far, etc) is must reading for any WWII buff) When I was in high school. I made a point of reading books on each pacific Island we invaded: Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, etc.


 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:21 pm

Devil5052 wrote:
1. Name of the German cypher machine?

2. Where was the British code breaking center, in England?

3. How did the US get it's hands on one of the German cypher machines?

4. What was our code word for any infomation coming from one of these (copied) code machines?
1 Enigma
2. Not sure but it was small farm I think.
3. Captured sub.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:22 pm

Devil5052 wrote: I think I've read every book ever writtn about WWII (well, almost) Anything by Walter Lord or Cornelious Ryan (Longest Day, A Bridge To Far, etc) is must reading for any WWII buff) When I was in high school. I made a point of reading books on each pacific Island we invaded: Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, etc.
Did you read those two? The first one has incredible amount of information. Factual but a page turner from start to finish even though you know the ending.

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:27 pm

Gotta go to the gym but here are a few more questions:

1. Name of the Lockheed aironautical engineer that designed: The P38 Lightning, P80 Shooting Star, U2 & the SR-71?

2. Name of the subdivision (within Lockheed) where he worked?

3. Speaking of the SR-71, because it is made mainly from Titanium, what odd thing happens to the fuel tanks b4 the jet takes off?

4. What unkind nickname did GI's dub the Sherman Tank because of it's tendancy to burst into flames with any hit?

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:30 pm

Richard S. wrote:
Devil5052 wrote:
1. Name of the German cypher machine?

2. Where was the British code breaking center, in England?

3. How did the US get it's hands on one of the German cypher machines?

4. What was our code word for any infomation coming from one of these (copied) code machines?
1 Enigma Right
2. Not sure but it was small farm I think. Bletchley Park
3. Captured sub Correct..Captured by the US Escort Carrier USS Guadcanall
4. Ultra

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 1:38 pm

Devil5052 wrote:Gotta go to the gym but here are a few more questions:

1. Name of the Lockheed aironautical engineer that designed: The P38 Lightning, P80 Shooting Star, U2 & the SR-71?

2. Name of the subdivision (within Lockheed) where he worked?

3. Speaking of the SR-71, because it is made mainly from Titanium, what odd thing happens to the fuel tanks b4 the jet takes off?

4. What unkind nickname did GI's dub the Sherman Tank because of it's tendancy to burst into flames with any hit?
Kelly Johnson
Skunkworks
They leaked like a sieve, once it took off the plane heated up and the tanks sealed.
I forget the nickname, but they were gas powered so they went up easy. One thing nice about them was any farm boy could fix one. Unlike a Panzer which needed engineers from Stuggart with special tools. The Maus was so big and heavy that it averaged about 20 yards between breakdowns. It never saw service.

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 3:09 pm

coaledsweat wrote:
Devil5052 wrote:Gotta go to the gym but here are a few more questions:

1. Name of the Lockheed aironautical engineer that designed: The P38 Lightning, P80 Shooting Star, U2 & the SR-71?

2. Name of the subdivision (within Lockheed) where he worked?

3. Speaking of the SR-71, because it is made mainly from Titanium, what odd thing happens to the fuel tanks b4 the jet takes off?

4. What unkind nickname did GI's dub the Sherman Tank because of it's tendancy to burst into flames with any hit?
Kelly Johnson
Skunkworks
They leaked like a sieve, once it took off the plane heated up and the tanks sealed.
I forget the nickname, but they were gas powered so they went up easy. One thing nice about them was any farm boy could fix one. Unlike a Panzer which needed engineers from Stuggart with special tools. The Maus was so big and heavy that it averaged about 20 yards between breakdowns. It never saw service.
3 out of 4...Not bad!!
First three are correct. (the SR71 does leak fuel to the point that it takes off & then almost immdeiately requires the first of many mid-air refuelings, per mission.
The Sherman's nickname (by the troops) was "The Ronson" (cigarette lighter who's slogan at the time was something like..... "Lights the first time-Every Time!")


 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 3:29 pm

Richard S. wrote:
Devil5052 wrote: I think I've read every book ever writtn about WWII (well, almost) Anything by Walter Lord or Cornelious Ryan (Longest Day, A Bridge To Far, etc) is must reading for any WWII buff) When I was in high school. I made a point of reading books on each pacific Island we invaded: Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, etc.
Did you read those two? The first one has incredible amount of information. Factual but a page turner from start to finish even though you know the ending.
Loved them both! Both books were turned into pretty good movies to....stuck pretty accurately to the books.(usually the book is far superior to what Hollywood turn it into.....Almost everything turns out to be a "Soap Opera"!) If you haven't read anything by Walter lord (IDay Of Infamy, Incredible Victory (about Midway)....I highly recommend him)

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 3:38 pm

How about a couple of "Hardware" questions:

1. The old M-1 (Garrand) rifle had a quirk that took some getting used to. (When I was in ROTC we were all issued WWII M-1's) Can anyone explain what "M-1 Thumb" is?

2. What was the designation of the Vietnam era, shoulder fired, 40mm grenade launcher?

3. What was the M-60, belt fed machine gun directly modeled after?

4. On the old Vic Morrow "Combat" tv series, who was the squad's BAR man & what is a BAR?

 
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Post by LsFarm » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:08 pm

Number 1,, you had to keep your thumb beside the action, not behind the action,, the rearward travel of the action would remove skin from your thumb, or break it.

Number 4. BAR is for Browning Automatic Rifle.. fired the 30-'06 cartridge.. had good long range, and accurate,, was not a 'spray and pray' automatic weapon.. it fired slow,, about [guessing here] one or two rounds a second..
the BAR was a team effort,, there was the rifleman, and the ammo carrier...

Greg L

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:29 pm

[quote="LsFarm"]Number 1,, you had to keep your thumb beside the action, not behind the action,, the rearward travel of the action would remove skin from your thumb, or break it....That may be true Greg, but it wasn't the answer I was going for: When Garrand designed the M-1 (a war winning device according to Ike or Patton...I forget which) the only way to close the bolt on an empty chamber, was to stick your thumb way down into the chamber in front of the open bolt, & hit the bolt release...at which time the bolt would slam forward (propelled by a heavy spring) & you had to jerk your thumb out of the way....really quickly or it would get slammed by the bolt! It never happened to me, but I saw plenty of guys get their thumbs mangled by it!

Number 4. BAR is for Browning Automatic Rifle.. fired the 30-'06 cartridge.. had good long range, and accurate,, was not a 'spray and pray' automatic weapon.. it fire slow,, about [guessing here] one or two rounds a second..
the BAR was a team effort,, there was the rifleman, and the ammo carrier... Very Good! Kirby was the BAR man in "Combat" & the BAR was only one of the many firearms designed by John Browning!

I'll hold off answering questions 2 & 3 in case anyone wants to try those.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:33 pm

LsFarm wrote: Number 4. BAR is for Browning Automatic Rifle.. fired the 30-'06 cartridge.. had good long range, and accurate,, was not a 'spray and pray' automatic weapon.. it fire slow,, about [guessing here] one or two rounds a second..
the BAR was a team effort,, there was the rifleman, and the ammo carrier...

Greg L
Little John was the squad automatic guy. The WWI Bar had a 550-600 rpm and semi auto selection. The WWII piece (A-2?) had a selector that gave you about 350 and 550-600 choice. They found a good rifleman had no trouble squeezing off 1 round at a time on the lower setting.

The M-60 was basically an updated version of the German MG-42.

My brother used to owned both of those weapons, the BAR was heavy (20# loaded) but deadly accurate and was not tiring to fire due to the huge recoil spring in the stock. My son was about 10 when he would fire off a bunch one handed on a bench rest.

The MG-42 was a blast, however it would put you in the poorhouse inside a minute. Depending on the bolts weight, they could easily achieve around 1800 rpm. That is serious coin in 8 MM Mauser. :) This one had a three digit serial number and was made in Berlin in '43. It is worth about $125,000 today.

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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:35 pm

Devil5052 wrote:When Garrand designed the M-1 (a war winning device according to Ike or Patton...I forget which) the only way to close the bolt on an empty chamber, was to stick your thumb way down into the chamber in front of the open bolt, & hit the bolt release...at which time the bolt would slam forward (propelled by a heavy spring) & you had to *censored* your thumb out of the way....really quickly or it would get slammed by the bolt! It never happened to me, but I saw plenty of guys get their thumbs mangled by it![/color]
Patton said it. It was called "M-1 thumb" after it clipped you, happens when you load it too.

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:46 pm

coaledsweat wrote:
Devil5052 wrote:When Garrand designed the M-1 (a war winning device according to Ike or Patton...I forget which) the only way to close the bolt on an empty chamber, was to stick your thumb way down into the chamber in front of the open bolt, & hit the bolt release...at which time the bolt would slam forward (propelled by a heavy spring) & you had to *censored* your thumb out of the way....really quickly or it would get slammed by the bolt! It never happened to me, but I saw plenty of guys get their thumbs mangled by it![/color]
Patton said it. It was called "M-1 thumb" after it clipped you, happens when you load it too.
Are you sure it was Little John & not Kirby? (it's only been about 40 years so I can't figure out why I don't know this?? :lol: )

Edit: BTW, you were right- on about the M-60
The grenade launcher I was going for was the M-79
Last edited by Devil505 on Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 5:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:47 pm

I think Kirby was his real name and they called him Little John because he was as big as a house?





Kirby was someone else.

* Rick Jason: Lt. Gil Hanley
* Vic Morrow: Sgt. Chip Saunders
* Pierre Jalbert: PFC Paul `Caje' Lemay
* Jack Hogan: Pvt. William G. Kirby
* Dick Peabody: Littlejohn
* Steven Rogers: Doc Walton

Most of the stars were WWII combat vets, some of them were from the Navy.
Last edited by coaledsweat on Wed. Apr. 09, 2008 4:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.


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