Brian Wolfe

Hi Claudius, Thanks for your comment. Even though I really like this time of the year when it is over the great feeling of relief reminds me just how stressful it is. Yet we'll do it all again next year. Regards Brian

‘Tis the Season Ho, ho, ho, here we go again with the annual season seemingly created to make a cynic’s life nearly effortless. It’s a little over a week before Christmas and the orders placed with my cabinet shop with expectations of them being completed before that day of gift giving nearly realized. Which brings me to my first observation; I call them “observations” in a desperate attempt to avoid the term “cynicisms”. Approximately a month ago the rock music station I have tuned into in the shop announced that they would be playing Christmas tunes 24/7 until Christmas Day. Strange that the disc jockey was able to reveal that information with an apparent air of pride. True I will be deprived of the songs by that delightful Meghan Trainor constantly telling the world that “It’s All About the Bass (no treble)” and Elle King bragging about her “Ex’s & Oh’s”. They prove that slightly plus sized blonde white girls can make gimmicky music as well as any skinny inner city inked gang banger/biker babe type. I first heard about these two particular tunes when our daughter related a story that our six and eight year old grand-daughters took their i-pods to Sunday school and suggested that these would be great song to perform at the annual Christmas concert. Apparently the most disturbing aspect, at least for their pastor, was when our six year old grand-daughter taught the words and dance moves to “All about the Base” to the other little girls of the class. Check out the video on the internet. Another thing I discovered was that this story was NOT FUNNY and my apparent amusement upon hearing the story was a bad influence on our grand-daughters. To think, last year the songs and dance numbers were all from the cartoon “Frozen” now even their five year old is “All about the Base”. Back to the radio music. Over a month of Christmas music? Really? Ok, I like Christmas music at least as much as the next Ebenezer but surely even the most accepting Who in Whoville has his or her limits. One more version of “Baby Its Cold Outside” or “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and I’m going to lose my egg nog. Then there’s Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Cumin’ To Town”, where he comes out with his condescending monologue asking if the band and audience has been good this year. I’ve been a musician and the chances of that or any band being “good” all year is about as high as Frosty the Snowman tending a blast furnace located in the Amazon Basin. Perhaps the worst of the lot is John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas” (War is Over). Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful song written by one of the greatest musicians of our time. But listen to the lyrics, if you dare. The words can make the most charitable person in the world feel like he or she has burned down the orphanage and sent the children to a Siberian gulag in order to construct a bordello on the former shelter’s site. Last week I took my musically inclined if not slightly inappropriate grand-daughters to the mall to visit the patron saint of retail sales, the one and only Santa Clause. He happens to be appearing there in person for the next couple of weeks, so don’t forget to tip your waitress. Photos with the old gent from the North Pole cost $10.00 each but he certainly earned it when the youngest (five year old) grand-daughter, after asking for a sleigh for her American Doll, said that “mommy says she would like anything this year as long as it comes from La Senza. So apparently Santa’s face can get as red as Rudolph’s nose. Actually our daughter’s face was a glowing shade of red as well when her little angle pointed her out to be sure Saint Nick knew who to deliver the “delicates” to, along with a proud thumbs up with her other hand. To be honest that’s not the worse gesture she can make with one of her digits, but that’s another story. It’s our daughter’s own fault in teaching the girls to think of others. There was a fellow set up in the aisle selling crafts at the mall. One of the items was “repurposed” light bulbs painted green, with a Santa’s cap and the face of the cartoon character the Grinch pained on them. He said that children really liked these and they would make great gifts for our grand-daughters. Who, besides Sweeny Todd, would give any little child a glass light bulb as a gift, let alone the three Chaos Sisters? I call them “the Chaos Sisters” for several reasons but at the moment I recall the time when, a few years ago, the then youngest middle grand-daughter accidently pressed 9-1-1 on her mother’s phone. The police arrived and because our son-in-law, their father, is a fire fighter for the city the police would not leave until the house was “cleared” of any potentially dangerous suspects. I could write a book... So with that small glimpse into my world I wish you a very Merry Christmas (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other celebration) and the Happiest of New Years. At least most of can agree on the New Year... unless you follow the Lunar New Year. This political correctness thing is tougher than one might think. Well, be happy whoever or whatever you might be, just remember what the Chaos Sisters told their Sunday school class and Pastor, “It’s All About the Base”. Regards Brian

Mervyn and I were close friends and I last spoke to him just a few days before his passing. At that time he was concerned about not being able to write or answer any posts or respond to other members questions; no thoughts of his own plight. One might think that was because he was unaware of his condition but I assure you that he was well aware that he only had a matter of days left yet he put others before himself right to the end. I miss him greatly as will those he came in contact with. Rest In Peace my old friend, we will not see your kind again. Respectfully Brian Wolfe

Hi Irish Gunner, Thanks for your comments. I too spent little time concerning myself with the economics of collecting in times past and must admit that money is not an object presently. Before readers think I am saying that I am wealthy or anything approaching riches I will clairify the statment by saying I never worried about what an item cost only whether I wanted/needed it. Certainly this is not in keeping with my blog's message except that the amount I purchase these days is a fraction of the past. What I do see happening is the amount of time required to collect and write about collecting has become rarer as time passes. I made the decision to reopen my wood working shop on a full time bases startig in 2016 with an increase in orders accepted starting a few months ago. I am now so occupied with keeping up with the work that I find it difficult to find the time for my military interests. I know things will level out ijn time but what has become evident is that time, not money, is the hardest commodity to come by. Regards Brian

I agree with you completely, thank you for your comment. One of the pit falls of seriously studying history is that one starts to realize that any event is linked with actions and events from the past. We have chosen to forget history that might taint current views. In this I am speaking not in the context of what has happened "yesterday" but events in history in general. It is the ripple effect, one action is the cause of another and so on and so on. My caution to anyone serious about any avenue of in depth study is this, if you seek the truth then be prepared to live with it, otherwise stop now and remain blisfully ignorant. Regards Brian

Lucky grand daughter! Regards Brian

Hi Johnny, Welcome to the forum. You indeed have a Zulu fighting club known as a Knobkerie or (as you know) also called an Iwsia. Our late club member Mervyn Mitton wrote extensively on Zulu weaponry and his work can be found on another section of the forum. I would think it would go very well with your Martini Henry and would have no hesitation in displaying them together. Regards Brian

Fallen but Not Forgotten Sitting in the auditorium with some fifty or so other students I opened my history exam paper upon the announcement to commence by the teacher in charge of security and started ticking off the boxes of the multiple choice section. I always found this section rather annoying with ridiculous choices such as, “When was the date of the Battle of Hastings?” Choices ranged from 1066 to 1466, never anything more difficult than remembering the correct century in which the battle took place; though some of my friends were frustrated that there was never the choice “Some of the above”, or even “All of the above” to check off. Many, no doubt, would have been stumped by such multiple choice questions as, “When did the War of 1812 occur” or “Who fought the Franco-Prussian War”. My favorite part of the History Examination was always the essay section. You had to choose two of five topics and write an essay of between 500 and 1,000 words with penalty points for exceeding the draconian restriction of such a meager limitation. If you are wondering why keeping an essay under 1,000 words gave that young scholar an anxiety attack you must not have been reading my blogs and articles here on the GMIC. Yes, I have always been an obsessive pain in the lower extremities. A secondary, though just as stressful, aspect of the essay section was being limited to only two out of five topics. It seemed and still seems rather a cruel trick to play on a student and I really should broach this topic with our respected fellow GMIC member and educator Megan sometime. To be fair educators only have so much time to check the exams and besides most students would rather have to choose one out of five, or better yet do a “Word Search” of historical names and places or “Connect the Dots” to reveal the letter “I”. Over the years we have reduced history to dates and places, at times the casi belli (causes for war) is thrown in for good measure. Unless you have had an ancestor who fell in a certain war or battle the names and stories of those who served and fell seldom surface. Most of the time we are not aware of any of our ancestors unless such research has been done into our past family. In my case I know an ancestor of mine fell in the Battle of Isandlawana only because my dear wife is an avid researcher into ancestry. I applaud some of the resent documentaries dealing with the past two World Wars in bringing the stories of some of those who fell back to life. While it could be argued that history can indeed be reduced to dates and places with an overview of the root causes and the outcome, however, the personal sacrifices must not be allowed to fade away into the mists of the past. There are several excellent books which detail individual sacrifices and one of them is Paul C”s book “Small Town, Large Sacrifice”. Paul has written one book and is now in the process of writing a second dealing with fallen heroes from the American towns of Hawthorne and North Haledon, New Jersey, which I have the honor of being asked to edit. One aspect of Paul’s book is that it tells the stories of those killed in action and in addition those who died in training while still in their home country. We seldom think of those unfortunate people who never got the chance to go overseas to serve their country, which had been their intention. This may seem like a shameless promotion of Paul’s past book as well as his upcoming one and if it does so be it. Paul is a fellow member here at GMIC and I think he needs to be applauded for taking on this task. My point is not so much, “buy Paul’s books” as it is that such works need to be made required reading in schools so that future generations can get a good idea of the true sacrifices the service people and indeed their families and loved ones made during our shared conflicts. I would suggest that anyone interested in the full history and the impact the wars have had check out Paul’s book or at the least one with the same theme. We all need to stop simply “checking off” one choice from a list or taking the easiest essay question on a test style of thinking and get the full picture, if we want to call ourselves history buffs or dare I use the term Historians. Regards Brian

As with very close friends we didn't always agree but we always remained friends both on and off the forum. He is greatly missed. Regards Brian

I remain in amazement, very nice work, thanks for sharing them. Regards Brian

Welcome to the forum. You have the correct section to get an answer to your question, however, I can't help with the translation. It may take some time to get the answer as we don't have a lot of members collecting edged weapons, but please be patient as I am sure someone will assist you. Regards Brian

Hello Mel, Welcome to the GMIC. Mervyn may be a while in responding since he lives in South Africa now and with the time difference...well you know the drill. Regards Brian

Hello Mel, Welcome to the GMIC. Mervyn may be a while in responding since he lives in South Africa now and with the time difference...well you know the drill. Regards Brian

Hello John, As you can see and have demonstrated the subject of named medals can generate a lot of passion. I purchased a grouping of WWI medals from a co-worker a number of years ago as she didn't want them in her house and the family had long stopped speaking, for what reason I do not know. The next day se arrived at work with four boxes full of documents and photos of her family that went back to the late 1800s. I really didn't want them but she plunked them on my desk and said that if I didn't want them then I was to throw the lot in the dumpster! I feel like the archivest for this family's history. I did track down her brother and was rudly told where I could shove the family photos and documents. There are many reasons why family members sell their ancestor's medals and to say that it is unethical to purchase them may indeed result in the medals being trashed, as would have been the case in my story above. Many of us spend years researching the recipients of the medals we have in our collections. Not for profit as many of us will no doubt pass away and our families will have to dispose of the collections. Most of us are historians and keeping the stories about the recipients of the medals alive somehow keeps then alive as well. I wish you luck in your attempts to recover the medal and hope you are sucessful. Just keep in mind that the medal is probably in the hands of a collector who has broken no laws in securing it. I think you will find the vast majority of us more than willing to help you regain the ownership of the medal, at least until a family member a few decades from now decided to once again sell it...it happens. Respectfully, Brian Wolfe

Myth Busting Part 2 Without going to the dictionary, what is a myth? A myth is a commonly held misconception often based on a fact or event. The causes of a myth can be quite varied, ranging from a misinterpretation brought on by sloppy research and or erroneous reporting of the sound research by another party or even propaganda. An example of propaganda would be during the Second World War when soldiers were told that the new German MG 42’s “bark” was greater than its “bite”. The nick name for the MG 42 was “Hitler’s buzz saw” which described the sound that the machine gun’s 1,200 rounds per minute rate of fire produced. This lie was perpetrated in the hope of alleviating the reputation that this new deadly weapon had among the allied troops. Of course it didn’t take long for a new recruit to realize the bite was indeed as wicked as its reputation indicated: that is if the new replacement survived his first encounter. I would like to take a moment or two to talk about some of the current “offenders” engaged in questionable experiments and coming to conclusions based on their so-called trials of weapons ranging from the ancient up and including the Second World War. Unfortunately many of the pseudo-experts are ex-military personnel who, while perhaps being experts in weapons and their use in the modern world, lack the knowledge and needed expertise to tackle older, now defunct, weapons. I will bow to the concept that military colleges and institutions cover the battle tactics of the famous generals of ancient times, however, I was not aware that modern military training spends a great deal of time training Marines, as an example, to use a broadsword or battle axe. I do stand to be corrected on this view. One of the common errors made by both civilian and past military men presenting experiments with weaponry on documentaries, which seem to be in overwhelming number on television, is the watermelon/human head example. When presented in the light of, “we’ll use this watermelon as a stand in for a human head” I have no problems at all with the concept. However, most of the time the presenter will state, “This watermelon is a good substitute for the human head and has as close as possible the same resistance as a human skull”. This is when I get my “back up” and the old blood pressure starts to rise. Surely they can’t be serious! I know I can put my fist through the side of a watermelon and know for a fact that I cannot do the same with a human head, nor could anyone in my past who has carried out that experiment on my cranium. Drop a watermelon off a one storey building and see what happens. Most people can survive a fall of that distance, depending on the type of surface that eventually breaks their fall; try the same with a watermelon and you will have the beginnings of a great fruit salad. “Please do not try this at home, we are trained professionals”, say the “experts”. I’ve watched these so-called experts and what they should say is, “Don’t try this at home, we are paid to take stupid risks; and we are basically morons enough to attempt this”. I will give them this, and I will bet you are of the same mind, who doesn’t like seeing a watermelon explode in slow-motion photography? Will that ever get old, I doubt it. This is where I say, “Long story short” and you think, “Too late”. There is a fellow on some of the weapons documentaries, a past Special Forces or Army Ranger who likes to attempt to bring the tactic or weapon into the realm of today’s thinking by saying, “Just like today’s Special Forces…” One example was dealing with the medieval battle axe and he boldly said, “Just like today’s Special Forces who are trained to use whatever weapon is at hand to suit the situation...” Funny, I was under the impression that today’s military was not in the habit of carrying a medieval battle axe. The battle axe, in this example, was the weapon supposedly carried by the medieval warrior; much as a modern firearm is carried by today’s warriors. I would hazard a guess that a medieval battle axe is never at hand to be used as a “weapon of opportunity”, as we used to refer to such objects that stand in for real weapons, in a modern situation. A tree branch, rock or bar stool, depending on the location and situation are weapons of opportunity; never a battle axe. In another example, and this is one of my “buttons” (now you know for sure), was when he was hosting a show on the ancient Japanese Ninjas. After going over some of the mythical (note that word) skills of the Ninja he said, “Much like the ancient Japanese Ninja today’s Special Forces use stealth tactics to infiltrate an enemy position”. I truly hope they don’t as the so-called Japanese Ninja is the stuff of movies, comic books and video games. Oh, oh, do I detect yet another topic for this myth busting series? The presenter might as well have said that today’s Special Forces use tactics just like those of the soldiers of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings books and movies. Oh yes, he would have had to leave out the reference to books and movies as he left out the word “mythical” when comparing true modern heroes with those killers taken from the pages of fiction. I personally think it diminishes today’s service man or woman to be compared to figments of an author’s imagination, no matter how long ago the character or characters were invented. Before I go on I must share with you a suspicion I have about television net-works such as the AHC (American Heroes Channel). To be sure I watch a lot of programs, documentaries etc. on AHC and the History Channel but I am getting the feeling that AHC has a lot of financing from the military establishment. The quality of their documentaries is questionable yet they never cease to attempt to bring their point around to today’s military. I can’t help but wonder in the far future if there won’t be someone writing a blog suggesting that such programs were, in actuality, propaganda, or at the very least aimed at recruitment. This is just a thought and not meant to be a condemnation or praise, I leave that to history. So if I have hit a nerve in you, my good reader, I apologize as that was not the purpose of my musing. A civilian presenter, a respected man from the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) was presenting a documentary as part of the series “Museum Secrets” where he demonstrated the crossbow and the musket in comparison. Never failing to amuse the audience he used the ever infamous watermelon and shot it through with a crossbow quarrel (arrow) after a couple of tries and then with the musket on the first try, which produced my ever favorite slow motion explosion of red watermelon brains. Next they decided to attempt to pierce plate armour. The crossbow quarrel dented the plate armour while when the musket ball was fired it went through the armour leaving a sizable hole. At this point he uttered the revelation that it was obvious why the musket became favored over the crossbow and to this end he declared that this proved two things. First was that the musket had a greater killing potential and that the musket was easier to use, sighting that he hit the watermelon on his first try with the musket yet needed several tries with the crossbow. The penetration against plate armour was another victory for the musket. I see this as silly exhibitionism thrown together for the program at the cost of any real scientific experimentation. First of all whether you shoot a quarrel through the head of a watermelon soldier or explode his head with a musket ball (which I still like watching in slow motion) a dead watermelon soldier is a dead watermelon soldier. That wound, or a death blow of any kind, cannot be determined to be any worse than any other death dealing strike. You can’t get deader than dead! I know that is nit-picking so let’s look at the more scientific aspect of this so-called experiment. First of all the crossbow they were using was indeed much like to originals with, I believe, a 150 pound pull; this I have little problem with. Indeed the range at which they fired both weapons was identical tough not at a realistic likely battle range of the day, of say around 60 yards. We need to be able to hit the target after all and indeed the closer range should favor the crossbow, so I’ll accept this as well. This is where the whole experiment starts to unravel. Yes the crossbow and the musket went through watermelon soldier’s chainmail protected head, however for the most part the head of a soldier in the medieval era also would have been wearing a thick quilted cloth head protection and possibly a steel helmet of sorts. I believe the results of the experiment would still have been the same, however, it is not up to me to make assumptions about what another researcher has failed to prove or even test correctly. The issue I have is that the musket fired by the ROM representative was not the matchlock that another participant had originally shot. The amount of powder in a musket may well be greater than that of the matchlock. The musket that was fired in the experiment against the plate armour was a copy of the “Brown Bess” flintlock which would put that weapon between around 1750 to 1850 (the example was one of the later models) and not the 1300s which would have been represented by the crossbow. That’s a 400 year spread between the matchlock and the flintlock therefore this alone brings the experiment’s results into question. Next let’s look into the claim that the musket pierced the plate armour while the crossbow failed. True the crossbow failed however the bow used was what would have been considered a light to medium crossbow with much larger and therefore extremely more powerful bows available during the time period in question. As already pointed out the firearm used for the experiment was not available for another 400 years, give or take a fortnight. Another problem with the experiment was the fact that no one went into battle with only their knickers on under the plate armour. The heavily armoured knight of the time period first dawned a thick quilted garment called a gambeson, which it has been sufficiently documented and shown in trials to be proof against the arrows from a light to medium crossbow. Next he would wear a coat of chain mail, followed by the plate armour. In essence he was the battle tank of his era. All of these layers would have provided a cushioning effect on the impact of the musket ball, not to mention the “give” of the human body under the impact. This would have had the effect similar to the present day ballistic resistant vests (wrongly termed “bullet proof vests”) worn by law enforcement and military personnel. Another clue, and the fellow from ROM should have known this as he was head of the ancient arms and armour section of the museum, is that there are several examples or thirteenth and fourteenth century armour breast plates in the ROM collections showing deep dents in the lower right side of the armour. These are the results of a musket ball being fired to prove, or proof, the suit of armour as being musket ball resistant, which left the telltale dent as proof to the purchaser. As to the ease of hitting the target with the musket as opposed to the crossbow I can easily suggest that this first time using a musket and with his first shot there was a good deal of “beginner’s luck” involved. He may even have had the luxury of fixed sights on the musket he was using, though an original Brown Bess would have lacked sights and certainly the early matchlock firearms may have lacked these aiming devices. I would have to say that the whole experiment failed to actually prove a thing as the results were predetermined based on currently held beliefs or in actuality myths. The experiment completely failed to prove anything conclusively except that exploding watermelons look cool when shown in slow motion. I will explore crossbows and the English Long Bow in a future article, perhaps in Myth Busting Part Three. I closing off this installment I would like to point out that the little things matter. It matters how experiments are carried out and there is a need for strict controls. Even a miss-placed word runs the risk of polluting the way events and dates are perceived. An example of such sloppy wording can be found in the documentary series “The Evolution of Evil” shown on the History Channel. The particular episode dealt with Hideki Tojo, Japan’s infamous World War Two Prime Minister and Minister of War. The documentary was attempting to set the stage for the political atmosphere of the 1930s and stated that Japan and the Soviet Union had been at war for a period of 200 years. This statement would imply that the Soviet Union had been in existence since the 1730s. They should have just said “Russia” or more accurately, “Russia and later on the Soviet Union”. Small point? Yes. Sloppy writing, definitely. Please stay tuned for Part 3, if you are still awake. Regards Brian

Chris, what were you doing in the Home Office, I thought I told you no photographs. Regards Brian

Well done Tony! This is the correct section, in my opinion. Regards Brian

Hi Rick, I never got around to mounting the medal, a shame but I just haven't had the time. Believe it or not some areas of the collection haven't been visited for a couple of years. Hi Andy, Great photo and even greater moustache. Regards Brian

This is the same rank in both the Pakistani and Indian military and stands for Lance Daffadar (Lance Corporal) in the cavalry and armour divisions. Regards Brian

It looks like there are two shiny "wear spots" on the clip which would indicate the proper position of the clip when inserted into the weapon. I'd agree with Pylon1357 in that it is probably Photoshop. Not only would the clip fall out right away the shells would never feed at that angle. Regards Brian

Yes, Peter there is a regulation and you have already quoted it, "the number you currently own + 1". Regards Brian

Yes, Peter there is a regulation and you have already quoted it, "the number you currently own + 1". Regards Brian

My favourite was on the television show Rat Patrol, which ran several decades ago. The "Rats" were in the back of a truck behind the side slats that were spaced about as far apart as the width of the boards themselves. This was probbaly done so the viewer could see the actors better. A German soldier ran from a building, opened up with his MP40 and every bullet hit board; not one managed to go between the boards or hit one of the show's stars. Then one of the Rat Patrol members popped up and fired one shot with his rifle felling the enemy soldier. Another "seriously?" moment is any cop show where the bad guy fires at the officer and hits the drywall wall behind which the officer is taking shelter. A .22 cal. shell will pass right through a standard wall. Thanks for your comment Chris. Regards Brian

Tailback, scrimmage, first down? Not sure what those are as we speak hockey here. Thanks for your comments Rick. I agree that hearing yardage given in metric would sound odd, to say the least. In my shop, the happiest place on earth, we speak Imperial not metric so I believe we are in agreement. Regards Brian

Hi New World, Thank you for your comments, they certainly give one pause for thought. There may well be financial gain in collecting some items and one of the problems with many collectors, especially ones like me, is that they (we) tend to want to collect the full spectrum, the easily found and the rare. In the end the cheaper more easily collected items will bring the profit margin on the investment down, as an over all consideration. Thanks again for your well written and thought-out comments, they are aprerciated. Regards Brian