217 replies to this topic

[Rob Connolly]

centurion, on 17 December 2011 - 06:11 PM, said:

Force 136 (SOE trained guerilla operations in S E Asia 1944/5) used caltrops (often concealed in fallen jungle foliage) as a means of halting Japanese convoys (puncturing the tyres) making them more vulnerable to gun fire (usually from sten guns) so they lasted longer than the horse in warfare.

Slightly whimsical, but I recall seeing a 20th century version of caltrops on "The Avengers" (For Today's Uninformed Youth: A TV programme in black & white featuring Patrick McNee & Diana Rigg)which were thrown en masse from a car to puncture tyres of following cars.  Entirely possible the scriptwriters had heard of the Far Eastern application ...

[Ianander]

Rob
        I hope you had a good Christmas, The Avengers, Its a long time since I watched that program!!!. many thanks for your information Cheer's


Happy New Year when it Comes

regards
Ian

[centurion]

Caltrops were used in Vietnam being air dropped.  Here is a CIA caltrop http://www.hayesotou...es/DSCF0254.jpg

Some WW1 examples http://www.adrax.com...ns/caltrop3.jpg have been found in trenches and were anti personnel rather than anti equine

[Ianander]

centurion, on 27 December 2011 - 12:18 PM, said:

Caltrops were used in Vietnam being air dropped.  Here is a CIA caltrop http://www.hayesotou...es/DSCF0254.jpg

Some WW1 examples http://www.adrax.com...ns/caltrop3.jpg have been found in trenches and were anti personnel rather than anti equine

Hi Centurion , I hope you had a good Christmas and many thanks for the information  on caltrops found in trenches  

Many thanks
Ian

[Ianander]

Hi all

I just found this website  ( great war Gizmos ) .   http://www.greatward...mo/Gizmo_01.htm

any Information on these weird gizmo's would be appreciated.

Best regards

Ian

[centurion]

Most of these have been covered on other threads, sometimes long ago. If I wake up tomorrow I'll deal with the few that haven't

[Ianander]

centurion, on 10 March 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

Most of these have been covered on other threads, sometimes long ago. If I wake up tomorrow I'll deal with the few that haven't

Thank you Centurion for your help , and Have a good night Sleep

reguards
Ian

[centurion]

I'll take these one at a time.First the folding bicycle. A pre war invention. The Italian army had two models of military bicycle. A non folding one for cycle troops (often used as breakthrough pluggers) and a folding one to be carried on military vehicles. Some Italian armoured cars carried one as standard as did motorised artillery batteries. The Royal Marine cycle companies had folding bicycles made as being easier to store on ship (whether they took them ashore at Gallipoli I don'r know). The RAF adopted them towards the end of the war   for carrying on aircraft and in the post war years it was quite usual to see a Dh9a with one strapped to the side of the fuselage, especially East of Suez

[centurion]

The infantry shield. Almost everybody looked at these in the early part of the war. They were seen as a possible way to get men across no mans land. The problem was the weight, armoured plate was heavy. One of the things the Land Ships Committee initially looked at was using armoured traction engines to carry or tow them. One of the German tank proposals for 1919 was a small tank carrying an infantry sheild.

An alternative use proposed was for street pluggers for fighting in built up areas.

 New%20Gizmos%20-%20019.jpeg   47.54K   3 downloads

 New%20Gizmos%20-%20017.jpeg   43.72K   3 downloads

AFAIK no one ever used the things in action.

[centurion]

Catapults - see http://1914-1918.inv...dpost&p=1558618

[centurion]

The armoured look out.  - Ned Kelly Lives!

Most countries experimented with body armour and the Germans adopted some. The Stahlhelm also had lugs for fitting an armoured vizor

The problem was that it was very heavy and not really bulletproof as examination of these captured breastplates shows

 body_armor_1918.jpeg   39.1K   0 downloads

[centurion]

.  Body arm.jpg   98.18K   0 downloads

[centurion]

The Armoured Tricycle

This has popped up several times in this thread http://1914-1918.inv...dpost&p=1682513, the last time a few days ago. I thnk it is probably one of Scotts experimental tricycles. Whilst most if not all of the various Allied and Associated powers used tricycles in the form of motorcycle combinations as machine gun carriers (although mainly by what might be called the mainly Anglo Saxon countries) only one country (Russia) seems to have used 3 wheeled armoured cars on active service Filatovs

 filatov.jpeg   15.16K   0 downloads

[Steelback]

The Austro-Daimler "C-Zug", or "generator car", designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porshe, was one of those inventions ahead of its time. Introduced as an all purpose locomotive for military fort railways, it soon evolved into a road vehicle for carrying extra heavy loads.It used a revolutionary method of propulsion - a gasoline engine in the main body of the machine is connected to a generator, which in turn provides electrical power to motors attached to each of the rear wheels. By a system of interconnecting cables, electricity can then be transferred to the specially built trailers which consist of two identical four-wheel units placed end to end, also each with its own motor.

In the end this resulted into a powerful, flexible system, able to transport considerable loads over long distances.

Another feature was the ability to travel on a variety of surfaces, by replacing wheel rims. The "standard" wheels are designed for rail travel (either under its own power or towed by a conventional locomotive) and special rims for road -with solid rubber tyres- or rough unprepared surfaces -metallic wide track wheels reminiscent of those used in the M17 tractor- can be fitted.

The trailer units are also entirely interchangeable with one another, for added flexibility.

[Steelback]

Synchronized Guns

At the beginning of the war two-seater planes were used. It was the job of the observer to use a revolver, rifle, or hand grenade against the enemy plane. Soon after single-seater planes were invented with machine guns on the front, Roland Garros created deflector plates to allow planes to fire through the propeller. Later, as an addition to these plates, Anthony Fokker and his team began work on a system allowing planes to have forward firing machine guns that were synchronized with the propellers. A cam was placed on the crankshaft of the engine and was in line with each propeller blade. Whenever a blade was at a position where it might be hit by the gun, the cam activated a pushrod that stopped the gun from firing. This device was placed on many German planes. This gave them a big advantage until Allied planes began using them in 1916.

[Steelback]

Anti-aircraft

Many methods were used to try and destroy planes from the ground. Some people used rifles, but they didn't work very well. Antiaircraft artillery was the main weapon against planes. These heavy guns set atop a Pierce-Arrow five-ton armored lorry chassis. They could fire four rounds a minute at a range of 3,000 yards. Most of the time they were placed in groups to increase their effectiveness. By June 1916 Britain had 271 guns, and by 1918 they had 349.

[Steelback]

The ambulance before  

And motorized  

[Ianander]

centurion, on 11 March 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

I'll take these one at a time.First the folding bicycle. A pre war invention. The Italian army had two models of military bicycle. A non folding one for cycle troops (often used as breakthrough pluggers) and a folding one to be carried on military vehicles. Some Italian armoured cars carried one as standard as did motorised artillery batteries. The Royal Marine cycle companies had folding bicycles made as being easier to store on ship (whether they took them ashore at Gallipoli I don'r know). The RAF adopted them towards the end of the war   for carrying on aircraft and in the post war years it was quite usual to see a Dh9a with one strapped to the side of the fuselage, especially East of Suez



Hi Centurion
                      Thank you for all the information and the time you put in your posts, can you please tell me what is the idea behing the RAF carrying a folding cycles on their planes.    
         Thanks again, and now I am going to be busy taking in all your information
regards
Ian

[Ianander]

Hello Steelback
                             cheer's mate !!!!   Wow I have got quite a lot of info to get through.I think the pictures are great, any more help would really appreciated . I am going to be busy for a few day's

Best regards

Ian

[Ianander]

centurion, on 11 March 2012 - 12:35 PM, said:

The armoured look out.  - Ned Kelly Lives!

Most countries experimented with body armour and the Germans adopted some. The Stahlhelm also had lugs for fitting an armoured vizor

The problem was that it was very heavy and not really bulletproof as examination of these captured breastplates shows

body_armor_1918.jpeg

The man on the right, there are quite a few holes on that breastplate. I have seen these breastplates before, but I think it was on WW2 and used by snipers, but not quite sure on that?

regards
Ian

[centurion]

Ianander, on 11 March 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

The man on the right, there are quite a few holes on that breastplate. I have seen these breastplates before, but I think it was on WW2 and used by snipers, but not quite sure on that?

regards
Ian

Unless you've found some startling new info there is no evidence that these were used in WW2

[Ianander]

Hi centurion
                       It was just a quess, but I have seen these breastplates before but I cannot remember where I have seen them ?

Thanks again

Ian

[centurion]

Some more pictures

Showing that one size does not fit all

 Zeitbilder%20-%20Armor%20001.jpeg   48.84K   2 downloads

And how wearing a captured set can make you look like a flowerpot man

 War%20Illustrated%20-%20Armor%20001.jpeg   36.8K   2 downloads

[centurion]

Those horns are not part of the General's hi fi set but detectors for incoming aircraft - there were many patterns including

 trup2.jpg   55.26K   1 downloads

These would give about 10 minutes advanced warning, enough time to get the General and his cocktail cabinet into the cellar or ring the AA batteries and possibly the nearest air field.

[centurion]

By the 30s these had got much larger - see this Japanese set

 japanese-war-tuba.jpg   44.96K   0 downloads




But because aircraft speeds had increased  you only got 2 to 3 min warning