Strange WWII Facts

I have read "THE ARMS OF KRUPP " and I believe it states that the US bought rights to the BOFORS guns and paid royalties to BOFORS. Krupp was part owner of BOFORS so part of money went to Germany.

Not WWII trivia, but some of the 40mm BOFORS Pom-Pom guns used on Navy ships were later used on AC-130a Spectre gunships. When I was an aerial gunner we were still using Navy (anchor) marked ammo in them.
 
Not WWII trivia, but some of the 40mm BOFORS Pom-Pom guns used on Navy ships were later used on AC-130a Spectre gunships. When I was an aerial gunner we were still using Navy (anchor) marked ammo in them.
A big chunk of the .50 Browning machineguns mounted on M1 tanks originally came from surplus Navy stocks, disused since they were rendered obsolete as anti-aircraft armament on most Navy ships.
 
A big chunk of the .50 Browning machineguns mounted on M1 tanks originally came from surplus Navy stocks, disused since they were rendered obsolete as anti-aircraft armament on most Navy ships.

When is the last time we actually built any 50 caliber Browning machine guns?
 
Not WWII trivia, but some of the 40mm BOFORS Pom-Pom guns used on Navy ships were later used on AC-130a Spectre gunships. When I was an aerial gunner we were still using Navy (anchor) marked ammo in them.

Back in 68/69 up in the central highlands just east of Ban-me-thout we had an M42 Duster sporting twin 40's for perimeter defense.
 
When is the last time we actually built any 50 caliber Browning machine guns?
I believe FN is still making them, including a version with a quick change barrel, but I haven't checked for a while. Unless I'm mistaken, their 15mm replacement didn't go anywhere.

I believe they were being made here as well, by RAMO maybe. It's been years since I actually saw anything regarding current production.
 
Back in 68/69 up in the central highlands just east of Ban-me-thout we had an M42 Duster sporting twin 40's for perimeter defense.
Back in the '90s when I was shooting the Nationals at Camp Perry there were a bunch of them parked in the AMSA on the other side of the fence from the shooter housing.
 
Back in 68/69 up in the central highlands just east of Ban-me-thout we had an M42 Duster sporting twin 40's for perimeter defense.
The New Mexico and some Arizona Army guard units have a longtime tradition of being AAA units. That includes some of the World War II Bataan POWS.
A number of them were Duster equipped. So you'll see track mounted double 40s displayed all over this part of the country.
 
Heavily populated by Germans before the war, the French Foreign Legion divided itself like an amoeba and fought in essence a civil war in North Africa between the halves. There were Germans on both sides.

I knew one of those Germans too. He passed away in 1999, and was the owner of a Golf Course/Country Club in Florida. DTrina and others from here probably played a few rounds on his golf course. :D
 
I visited the bridge, actually over a river known by a slightly different name (brain fart). I can't remember the spelling but pronouciation was Kwah. There is a small museum of artwork by a priest who witnessed the atrocities. Going through that with a bunch of giggling Japanese tourists made my stomach turn.

If it weren't for my wife and a Park Service security guard I'd have put a serious hurt on a Japanese tourist at the line to buy tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial. Running his mouth about a *great victory* and others like him in line right at cheering :mad:
I'm still ********* when I think of them....
 
If it weren't for my wife and a Park Service security guard I'd have put a serious hurt on a Japanese tourist at the line to buy tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial. Running his mouth about a *great victory* and others like him in line right at cheering :mad:
I'm still ********* when I think of them....
You should have asked them about their "great victories" at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I'd have done my impression of a Japanese flak gunner at Hiroshima:
"Hey, is that a B-29?"
"How come there's only one?"
"What's that falling out of it?"
"Why are my eyes melting?"

Given a little prep time, I might even be able to say it in Japanese while doing my impression of Sonny Chiba.

Back during the Gulf War, some leftwing German ninny was in usenet babbling about Vietnam. I just replied, "Vietnam, is that like... AUSCHWITZ???? That's not like AUSCHWITZ, is it????"

He just plain came unglued, gibbering about how "It was not my fault! I was not having been born yet!(love German grammar translated into English verbatim!)."

I replied, "They didn't let me out of grammar school to fight in Vietnam, either."

If somebody wants to be a "richard" about history, I'll go there EVERY time, and I'm VERY eager to "Rosie O'Donnell"-slap them six ways to Sunday.
 
The New Mexico and some Arizona Army guard units have a longtime tradition of being AAA units. That includes some of the World War II Bataan POWS.
A number of them were Duster equipped. So you'll see track mounted double 40s displayed all over this part of the country.

Also 90mm M1 AA guns. These were the gift of the US Army when the M2 replaced the M1. They're in most towns in New Mexico now; I've seen them in Albuquerque, Socorro, Alamogordo (2 of them) and Deming. I wonder if there's an official inventory of them? Ironic that the memorial to the 200 CA Rgmt (AAA) is 90mms, as they fought with 3" M 1928 (I think I have the date right). The Army wouldn't issue them the 90mm M1 in WW II.
 
I read something about an American Bat bomb, where the bats would be asleep and strapped to some nalpalm. They would be dropped in a bombshell that opened into a parachute, they would wake up as they warmed up and then leave their little nests in the bomb. Leaving triggered the nalpalm? And then they would go nest in the city and blow up. It never took off obviously! But when I have tried using the google Machine to find info on it, I have come up empty handed.
 
I read something about an American Bat bomb, where the bats would be asleep and strapped to some nalpalm. They would be dropped in a bombshell that opened into a parachute, they would wake up as they warmed up and then leave their little nests in the bomb. Leaving triggered the nalpalm? And then they would go nest in the city and blow up. It never took off obviously! But when I have tried using the google Machine to find info on it, I have come up empty handed.

That concept was tested down at - are you ready for this- Carlsbad, New Mexico.
A place pretty well-known for having a lot of bats.
Some of these combat ready bats escaped and almost burned the base down.
Here in New Mexico, we are much prouder of the Manhattan Project and the Navajo code talkers.
Bat bombs, not so much.
 
How bout did you know that the Russians had two operating bases on American soil? One at Nome, another one at Fairbanks, Alaska.
At the locations they took delivery of Land lease aircraft aircraft and trained pilots to ferry them to Russia.
Some of those Russians are still here. There are 13 Russian airman buried in the Fort Richardson, Alaska national cemetery.
 
attn cmort et al

About 10 years ago, there was a documentary on the "River Kwai" RR (sorry, do not know it's official designation) project. Some Japanese engineers who had led the project were interviewed. They honestly did not feel they had done anything wrong or inflicted any suffering on the POW laborers...

The Pilgrim: Absolutely fascinating post on the Russians interred in the Alaskan cemetery.
 
That concept was tested down at - are you ready for this- Carlsbad, New Mexico.
A place pretty well-known for having a lot of bats.
Some of these combat ready bats escaped and almost burned the base down.
Here in New Mexico, we are much prouder of the Manhattan Project and the Navajo code talkers.
Bat bombs, not so much.

Jack Couffer wrote a book about the bat bomb project that he was involved in. Good read. The actor Tim Holt was involved with the project as a bombardier.
 
How bout did you know that the Russians had two operating bases on American soil? One at Nome, another one at Fairbanks, Alaska.
At the locations they took delivery of Land lease aircraft aircraft and trained pilots to ferry them to Russia.
Some of those Russians are still here. There are 13 Russian airman buried in the Fort Richardson, Alaska national cemetery.

The airbase at Fairbanks is Eileson (Sp?)AFB, and was still operational in the '60s when I was stationed in Alaska. We turned over a lot of P-39s and possibly some P-63s there to the Russians. I think the pilots were carried to Eileson on C-47s we'd given them. I didn't know that Russians were buried at Ft Rich: I'd have looked up their graves if I had known.
 
Speaking of burials- there are four Germans buried at Fort Stanton New Mexico. They were held there during World War II. Early on they were classified as internees and guarded by the border patrol. They were not military they were civilians. They were the crew of a German liner called the Columbus. I guess I think that's a strange name for a German Ship.
But what I think is the weirdest World War II thing in New Mexico are the big black German crosses in the stones laid in drainage ditches by German POWs. That would be in Roswell, New Mexico.
That's why the UFOs went there, they wanted to see it.
 
I think the pilots were carried to Eileson on C-47s we'd given them.
I can't remember if they got real C-47s, but they had their own version of the DC-3/C47 called the Lisunov Li-2. It looks just like a C-47, although some of them had a dorsal gun position.

The Japanese also had one as well. As I recall, their highest scoring ace, Nishizawa Hiroyoshi, was shot down while a passenger in one.
 
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