Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Vintage WWII pics

Terrific pics
https://www.gunboards.com/threads/vintage-pics.1119815/



Art

Fantastic . I have recently watched every WW2 documentary on Netflix that they have .... Its become an obsession I achieved my dream of having a BSA SxS 12 gauge and now I want a BSA WW2 armament of some sort... Not sure what I want or even what I can afford.... What Ive seen on gun auctions is crazy expensive .... I don't necessarily need a tank buster for 15,000 but something interesting would do

Very nice.
The only pictures my dad brought back were from the Nuremberg trials. He ended his service as a guard and darkroom tech there.
For some reason they wouldn't let him bring his B.A.R. home, but I got his souvenir Luger.

Surprisingly I have a few good pictures and artifacts of my Dad during WW2. Here is one of him at the landing at Nassau Bay New Guinea in 1943 where he had a protection ring of Australian infantry and the second picture is an observation post in the Owen Stanley range of New Guinea. He liked his Thompson and wearing his hat on the side of his head.


Bill B...

I have a Lugar my father brought back in 45 too. I remember asking him when I was young how he got it. He told me he traded a pair of pilots sunglasses for it, but years later he told my brother "the guy I got it from didn't need it anymore" and that's all he would say.
The thing that always strikes me when looking at these type of pictures is how much older than their years these guys look. Most are probably in their early 20s at best but look as though they have lived a lifetime already.

This dude ....



is Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Georg Hess, who commanded U-955 from October 1944 to May 1945, at the age of 21, and won the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for sinking 6 ships.

It's been a long time since I met a 21-year-old who could even wipe his own arse, much less command a warship in combat. It's what happens when there's a war on ....

Lannis

those two photographs are spectacular.

images like this of ordinary people involved in extraordinary history are priceless. the fact that they are identifiable with human family links adds to their value immeasurably.

"I have a Lugar my father brought back in 45 too. I remember asking him when I was young how he got it. He told me he traded a pair of pilots sunglasses for it, but years later he told my brother "the guy I got it from didn't need it anymore" and that's all he would say."

My former neighbor when I lived in PA had a Luger he brought back. I heard about it, but never saw. He was in declining health and was definitely showing early signs of dementia, but liked to play poker on Friday nights. One Friday night, the neighbors had invited us over to play poker. It always involved a few beers. Woody (the neighbor) was having a tough night playing poker and coping in general. He was hitting the beer fairly hard.

All of a sudden, he lost his confused looks and become very clear in his speech and thoughts, said he needed show me something and tell me a story.

He left the room and came back with a Luger wrapped in a white towel. Along with the Luger was 2 magazines, a holster, mag pouch, and a single round wrapped in a white handkerchief. He unwrapped it, and the handkerchief had a name embroidered in German.

Woody was in the infantry, part of the 3rd Army. He was leading his squad into a French farm house to see if it was clear. He kicked the door open and was greeted by a German officer who was wounded who immediately raised his Luger to fire. Woody did what he had to do. The round in the white handkerchief was the round that was in the chamber. The handkerchief was in the officer's pocket.

Woody had never told his family that story until that night. He had always told them it didn't matter how he ended up with the Luger.

After Woody passed several years later, the Luger disappeared. None of his family claimed to have any knowledge of what happened to it.

Interesting that the first picture was unknown to me or my family until I went to the 2018 Australian BSA Inter Rally and we took a visit to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. After a tour inside we ended up talking to a tour guide at the gift shop and she pointed out a book that was about the invasion of New Guinea and guess what the picture was on the cover. Needless to say I bought 10 copies.





Bill B...

Absolutely Lannis,
I was watching a TV documentory the other day when the narrator casually dropped out the fact that the esteemed Mr R J Mitchell was 24 when he designed the legendary Spitfire... I choked on my cup of tea at that!

No wonder evereyone 'then' looks older than their years - they had all lived lives already!

I have pictures if I can find them of my father-in-law in North Africa and the Pacific with the Army Air Corps. He was a farm boy from Charlotte County, VA, probably never been out of the county when he went to war, and here he was on ships and airplanes traveling the whole world over.

Your Dad was a bold soldier - you had to be up close and personal for a .45 ACP Thompson to be effective. I believe I'd tote a Garand and be able to stand off a bit!

Lannis

i believe it to be a sad commentary on human culture that killing people in warfare is somehow applaudable, while killing them on the sidewalk is somehow a forbidden act.

given that, those people who did th ebest they could with what they were given deserve the best accolades that history can offer. none of us get to choose the times we live in, and neither do we get to choose the moral dilemmas we are expected to solve.

He did do some bold actions, or crazy acts, fine line by definition. I'm certainly glad he survived these actions or I wouldn't be here.








Bill B...

AFAIK My dad got his Luger when they "liberated" a German supply depot, they did a lot of that towards the end of the war. I checked the history based on the markings. It was first made to be sent to Spain for the Riff insurrection. That contract was cancelled and the pistol ended up issued to rural police in Prussia. I assume that the pistol and its owner got drafted. Still shoots well, though a bit picky about ammunition.
He came home with some other pistols, but the Luger is the only one left after a burglary when I was too young to remember.
Dad started out with a Garand, went into the middle of The Bulge. About a week in the B.A.R. gunner was killed. Dad had scored sharpshooter in boot camp so he got stuck with the B.A.R.. Lucky he survived, those guys were a prime target.
Late in the war I can see a 21 year old U-boat captain. By 1945 they were down to old men and adolescents. My mother related to me that once, when they were touring Germany, their waiter commented on the Hitler Youth, "Ya, they were like your Boy Scouts." My father scolded him, "They were no Boy Scouts, I had to fight those little SOBs!"
If he kept any pictures I never saw them. I think dad wanted to forget the whole experience.

my grandfather rode an indian in france as a dispatch rider with the signal corp.

i still have his crossed flag collar pins.

i wish that that he hadn't had to wear them. there's no civilized excuse for war.

its very existence is an acknowledgment that civilization has broken down.

Okay, last posting I promise. I need to get a shadow box made.





Bill B...

uour images of your father will stay with me now, permanently.,

i have shared them with my children.

war is serious. i don't like it, but i can't eliminate it either.

As they have with me, he died from his WW2 disabilities when I was 5 yrs old. But I am only one of thousands that are of like mind.


Bill B...

In that case, "civilization" has never been anything but broken, because there's never been a time when there have been no wars, not in recorded history.

It only takes one side to start one; people who don't believe in it and don't want to fight still have to fight sometimes. Like walking down the street; I might be peaceful and pacific and loving everyone, but when someone steps out with a knife, there go THOSE ideals ....

Lannis

The longest period of (relative) peace in Europe was during the Roman empire, for about 200 years.

very relative
Pax Romana is a Roman point of view .
during this time of peace
there was a 4 year war to subjugate the tribes in Dalmatia ... where an estimated 1million
Various Dalmatian factions fought against Roman occupation .

There were two Wars across the Danube River into Dacia , not missions of peace or trade
they Where to steal gold mines .

there were 3 rebellions in Palestine that were not peaceful for the jews , the ones that lived , became displaced persons .

The Romans invaded the island of Britain during the time of Pax Romana

Germanic tribes ambushed , killed or enslaved 16 to 20,000 Roman soldiers fully halted Roman expansion into tribal areas

and the Romans fought a six-year war in Armenia , where the Armenians , or whatever they were called at the time ,
beat the Roman Legions to a standstill .

My mom’s brother was at Saipan. Japanese soldiers told the civilians of all the terrible thinks Americans would do to them if caught. They threw there children off the cliffs to the rocks below, and jumped after them.

It says a lot about or for the cultures who do not believe in possessions and see themselves as the caretakers of the planet .

Possesions are the down fall of all western cultures

Very philosophical Trevor, but i don't know of a culture that sees itself that way when they have experienced
living in a civilised culture. They all want more and once they see a way to get it, they chase it.

The 19th century French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is quoted as saying that all property is theft