ArtistsRifles

What - the AA ??? ???

I like it!!!!!!!! :tup: :tup:

VERY impressive!!!!!!!!

Only until Hollywood re-writes the history books............

As I read the story for some reason Pikeys sprang to mind. no idea why.... Mabe it was how they cut the statue down??

Either way - even if the Plod do catch them the nanny state we live in will let them go with maybe a smacked wrist because we could'nt POSSIBLY insult their human rights

A few years ago this would have been an unthinkable action by any one - even low-life crooks. Just shows how low society has sunk :cry: :cry:

Neil,

 

Back in the Seventies, we used to do falling plate knockout shoots at Hythe, when I worked for the army workshops, it was an event where the army ran the range and the civvies shot. We very soon found that you did not aim for the centre of the plate. And looking in front of me now, there is a shield for the winning team in 1975 :-)

 

Richard

 

Ours were Army-only Richard - and at the end of the day we could not believe no one else had cottoned on to the fact of aiming low; we had 5 other teams there with us, 4 of which were from infantry units, think the other was either REME or RE.

Over all IIRC we wound up in third place - but took the falling plate cup. :-) :-)

Happy days!! :-) :-)

Jack,

 

My father used to compete in target shooting with .303" and 7.62mm rifle. As children, my brother and I used to go along from early 1950's onward. We used to go to many army ranges around Sussex and Kent, also to Bisley Camp. A local one was Hythe Ranges, back in the 1900's it was the School of Musketry, the range was all shingle, being next to the sea and you would often spot a live cartridge in amongst the pebbles, so nothing unusual, they having been dropped. One day we found one, a .303" and it was pre-First World War, a bit dented but not corroded.

 

Richard

 

Did a shooting competition with the Army, whilst still with the RCT, back in the mid-Seventies at a range in Kent that was shingle. Might have been Hythe. We were the only team to get a perfect score in the falling plate contest - probably because we were the only ones to realize that firing low on the target meant either a hit on the plate or a hit on the shingle - which would then fly off and hit the plate....... :evil: :evil: :evil:

The Atlantic thing was on a History Channel program - IIRC talking about the secret weapons of WW2. This is from the Royal Naval Museums library:

In 1942, the Allied forces were losing a considerable amount of merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean, due to German submarine forces and the lack of adequate air cover in the mid-Atlantic. The range of operating aircraft was not sufficient to cover this area and aircraft carriers were in short supply to allow for shorter range flying. Plans for an Allied invasion of Europe were also underway and it was felt that large floating platforms were needed to assist the assault forces. The Second World War was also a time when many scientists were encouraged to develop weapon technology and other military equipment to assist the war effort. Many projects that were developed were successful, such as the bouncing bomb by Barnes Wallis, midget submarines, mulberry harbours and the Pipe Line Under The Ocean (PLUTO) project. Others were not so successful and some were even incredible.

 

Lord Louis Mountbatten was Chief of Combined Operations and part of the work of this department was to develop technology and equipment for offensive operations. He encouraged scientists to produce their ideas, however fantastical they might seem. Many ideas did not get past the drawing stage, but others were taken up and experimented with before being abandoned. One such idea was that of an iceberg aircraft carrier, and this project was enthusiastically endorsed by both Mountbatten and Churchill.

 

It was the idea of a scientist called Geoffrey Pyke. His idea was that because ice was unsinkable, the berg ships would be insulated and impervious to bomb and torpedo attacks. They would be easy to repair as water only had to be poured into holes and frozen, thus making the ship whole. The ships would be cheap to make so that a vast number could be made. The ships could be up to 4000 feet long, 600 feet wide and 130 feet in depth. They could be used to carry aircraft to protect shipping in the mid-Atlantic, since the aircraft would be able to operate at shorter ranges and could be used for an invasion force base. He christened the idea after the words from Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet: “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told to you.” Hab. 1:5

 

The idea was taken up by Mountbatten and in December 1942, Churchill was convinced that the idea was worth pursuing. One problem had to be overcome. Ice split too easily and Pyke suggested the addition of some kind of building material could solve the problem. In 1943, two American scientists made a compound out of paper pulp and sea water which was almost as strong as concrete. This substance was named “Pykecrete”, after Pyke. Plans were drawn up for a vessel with the dimensions of 2000 feet long with a displacement of 1,800,000 dead weight tons. For the best possible results, the ship would need to be built in Canada or Russia, where the ship could be naturally frozen. The budget for continuing with the experimental ship was limited to £5000.

 

In the summer, a model was built on Patricia Lake, Jaspar in Canada. It became essential that the Americans were brought into the project as they would be needed to supply large quantities of steel for the vessel. Costs were already spiralling due to technical and supply problems. Mountbatten took a block of Pykecrete to Quebec to demonstrate the idea to the Americans. He intended to show them the strength of Pykecrete as opposed to ice. He fired a revolver into a block of ice which, predictably, shattered. He then fired into a block of Pykecrete. The bullet did not penetrate the block, rather it ricocheted off the ice, and unfortunately struck the American Chief of Naval Operations in the process, but without injury.

 

The Americans were not convinced about the project. They felt that due to technical problems, the ice ships would not be ready until 1945, and by this time, the conventional carrier fleet would be large enough to make the need for ice aircraft carriers obsolete. Churchill also gave up on the project when he realised that the carriers would cost over £6m.

 

The model in Patricia Lake was “scuttled” in 1943 by removing all the machinery that had been used and leaving it to sink in place. In the 1970’s remains of the model were found and studied and in 1989, a plaque to commemorate the unusual ship was placed on the lake’s shore.

 

© Royal Naval Museum Library, 2001

As regards Pycrete itself - this might be interesting: http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=321163&channel=6516

Ah - all becomes clear now!! Thanks Clive :-) :-)

In Churchill's The Second World War Volume V there is nearly a whole page devoted to it. Seems to be early 1942 & follows on from Mulberry discussions. The floating airfield would provide refuelling for aircraft during Overlord. It was expected to have a displacement of a million tons, self-propelled at slow speed, own air defence, workshops & a refrigeration plant to preserve its own existence. Although as the ice melted it formed a furry outer covering from the pulp that acted as an insulator that slowed down its melting. Much work was done on this idea particularly in Canada, but for "various reasons" it never had any success.

 

So surprisingly I do have wartime books :wink:

 

Wasn't it also proposed as a means of protecting the atlantic convoys from the U-Boats by Lord Mountbatten???

I've got a more basic question - what the hell is it!!!!!!!!!!!

You little devil, Clive :-D. Much like me winding up those call centre operators from India, etc. who always call when you are getting a meal. I keep them going long enough by getting them to repeat everything, then spelling it, until they realise they are on a loser.

 

Richard

 

Ah the (in)famous Indian call centres.... I just start gabbling (literally) in Russian which confuses the hell out of them.... :evil: :evil:

Sounds like a good event - but 140 miles and 6 hours driving makes it a bit too far to take little Maud!!

Narrow gauge loco??

Been noticing the same Clive - must be the amount of traffic to the hosting server!!

I will be sitting next to you Tug as I will be there but without my MANS truck - looking forward to it.

 

Thought you had a GMC Jack, not an MAN??? :evil: :evil: :evil:

Ghasp...........that actually is a good idea.

 

Anyone else agree?

 

Yep - he says praying fervently he never wins it!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Yes we used to play with them in the field and obtain full auto, but the armourers used to get the hump after having to replace the barrels on a more than normal frequency. Allways tried to find the man with the Mk3 Bren as the mags were a direct swap thereby increasing ones ammunition carrying capability (2 bren mags to 3 SLR).

Draw-backs there John were that the Bren mags were gravity feed whereas the SLR ones were force fed. This led to an unfortunate number of jams in use - particularly when "double tapping" and 20 rounds had been fired - unless you could find a civvy armourer to work their voodoo on the feed springs inside the mag..

Other one was the annoying habit of getting the back-sight whacked into your face after taking a dive into the prone position because the longer mag hit the ground...

Especially if you had two mags taped together......

For the price of a pint though our armourer would "adapt" your personal weapon to make full auto available whilst removing the sling swivels and carry-handle so I guess we were luckier than most units!!

come on, this throttle assembly is slightly over engineered isn't it? Perhaps this is why American gear is so popular?

 

 

You mean on American gear you get either a spring washer OR a lock-nut OR a split-pin as fasteners whereas on British engineering you get a spring washer AND a lock-nut AND a split-pin ???

(Don't believe me ?? - look at a Stalwarts clutch mechanism.....)

Quote from: ArtistsRifles on Today at 09:18:54 PM

either fire engine or fuel dispensing???

Nope

 

Does this mean it IS a pump unit?????

Reminds me of one of the "Crusader" exercises in Germany during the late Seventies. A chieftain lost it on a cobbled street at night going through a village and wound up wedged between two 14th Century houses. The MP's got the Burgomeister out of bed at about 2 o'clock in the morning and asked him which house he wanted demolished..... :-o :-o :-o

You mean Pycrete - a mix of sawdust (14%) and ice (86%) by weight?

There was a plan to make a kind of floating aircraft carrier in ww2 from the stuff - think it was known as Project Habbakuk??

Wild stab in the dark - a pump unit of some sort - either fire engine or fuel dispensing???

The link takes me to the site, but when I click on the player screen it's just blank. I can usually plays various clips, so what sort of player do I need to play this one?.

 

What browser are you using Clive?? I found - unfortunately - the best one is I.E. - Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and FireFox can give unpredicatable results.... :-(

I read the book years ago called "SSGB" very interesting read on what life could have been like if the Germans had invaded and us won. Churchill and his government was in Scotland organising the resistance etc. I was just wondering if anyone else had read this book and any comments they had.

 

p.s. if you do have the book could I borrow it please. :-)

 

I think I have this one indoors - somewhere! Do you still want to borrow a copy Mark????