Brian Wolfe

A Christmas Carol Well, here we are almost Christmas and I still haven’t gotten out to purchase any gifts and to be honest it may not happen this year at all. Ok, you’re probably thinking that my wife is correct in calling me “her cold hearted bastard”. But wait, don’t light the torches, gather up the pitchforks and lead the pheasants on a march to the castle quite yet. Yes, I know I said pheasants; it was just my way of messing with the images of a Frankenstein movie dancing in your heads. I have been making use of the internet and ordering gifts this year. Even though I must admit that I like the Mr. Scrooge of the first half of the movie better than the reformed miser of later on. Don’t even get me started on the earlier Mr. Grinch. Both had a greater depth of character at the start of the movies. You might think that I could use a visitation by those three ghosts on Christmas Eve. However, given their unwelcomed and abrupt appearance in the middle of the night they would most likely have the “Dickens” beaten out of them before any good would come of their visit. Now dear reader, I am sure you are thinking that I have forgotten the collection and the Home Office in my attempts to remain rational during this maudlin, “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. But take heart my friends as I have mixed in a few purchases for both of these areas along with the gifts for friends and family. The musket collection is getting new custom made slings that will need to be whitened as they are unfinished. All of the Christmas orders are finished in the shop and now I am building a display cabinet/desk for the Home Office. Speaking of gifts and family; over the years my family has been very understanding of my manias, mostly regarding my collecting. To be clear that incident involving the catapult and the neighbour’s cat last year was a one off. In my own defence, if you are meant to launch rocks from one of these things wouldn’t you think they would be called a “rockapolt”? Really, it was an understandable misunderstanding. A couple of years ago one of my daughters gave me a 1914 EK II as a gift which was a real surprise. This year my dear wife has charged me with the task of purchasing a gift for myself at the next gun show, which is being held tomorrow. We all know how much I hate buying something for the collection at one of the gun shows I attend. I’ll be honest; I couldn’t even type this last sentence with a straight face! Being a dutiful husband I shall acquiesce to my wife’s wishes and force myself to find a suitable gift. Sometimes you just have to be strong and tough it out. The weather report for this evening has snow in the forecast so I anticipate that after a long, sleepless and “silent night” the snow will “lay all about, deep and crisp and even”. No fears there as my friend Brian, who attends these local gun shows with me, is driving and he has a monster 4X4 truck so even if “the weather outside is frightful” nothing short of a blizzard will keep us from our destination. Now that I shamelessly used other people’s lines and lyrics I will close with these two thoughts. This Holiday Season please don’t drink and drive, however, if you are going to drink and drive please leave my name and contact information with your loved ones. I will be happy to give them a generous twenty-five cents on the dollar for your collection. The spirit of Scrooge is smiling down on me at this moment, I can feel it in my heart. “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night”. Regards Brian PS: there is a prize for those who find all of the Christmas lines and lyrics in this blog. The prize; I won’t do this again next year. Ho ho ho.

Hello Ross, I really like these helmets, a very nice specimen and thanks for posting it. While not militaria I think it will be seen more often in this section than in the non-military section; I hope Mervyn agrees. Regards Brian

An excellent display and an even better collection. You are an inspiration to all collectors. Regards Brina

I missed this the first time around. Thanks for posting it Nick and thanks to Ulsterman for responding so that I ended up reading it. Very interesting. Regards Brian

Hello Satsuma, An interesting and ownderful specimen. Thanks for posting it. Regards Brian

Hello Ross, Very interesting helmets and after reading Mervyn's comments I have moved the post to this section. As Mervyn has mentioned there is a better chance of an answer if the post is here. I've left a link to this section in the other section just in case someone was looking up some research and now wants to respond. I'll remove the link in a few days and the post will "live" here. Regards Brian

Looks like two of us had the same thought at the same time (check out the "Posted" times. Brian

With the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War looming I can see the prices going up due to the additional publicity through documentaries and movies. Yet another reason to buy now, as if we needed a reason. Regards Brian

Please note, this post has been moved from the miniature section to better maintain continuity. Regards Brian

Visiting the Neighbours From time to time family can get on one’s nerves and you just need a change of pace. Somewhere to go that, with luck, proves to you that things at home are not all that bad; that or at least, your own family is not all that dysfunctional after all. I believe the same is true with forums. After a while one starts to read posts and think, “Oh, grow up for God’s sake”, “Stop wasting my time” or “You have to be kidding me!” We all have our “buttons”, people and posts that irritate the only healthy nerve one has left. You know the types, those you consider post too many subjects at the level of an adolescent school boy or those pompous types who insist on referring to themselves with the word “one” rather than “I”. Now you would think that last example would give one pause to reflect, but it didn’t. The catalyst for this blog was not anything here on the GMIC, as you might think would be obvious, but rather from visits to some of our neighbouring forums. It should be said right off that this is not a critique of other military based forums or any particular forum but rather a collection of observations over the years. I (you see I can use that to refer to myself after all) have several interests besides military history, some of which includes geology and paleontology, antiques, archeology and science in general, as well as woodworking and gardening. With all of these interests you would think I spend a lot of time on the internet but not so. For the most part my internet time is spent here on the GMIC, with occasional forays into other territories from time to time. My dear wife spends time on yarn and knitting, as well as quilting and genealogy forums. Talk about boring! Seriously, over the years we have read a lot of rude posts and odd reactions from the forum administrators. All forums have their rules, some more extensive than others; the one thing that they all have in common is the requirement to be civil and the, at times, subtle warning that you can be banned if you cross the line too many times. These are all very reasonable to be sure. Here’s some of the posts and administration reactions, somewhat paraphrased, but still in the spirit of the exchange. My first example: A member posted a reply pointing out, rather bluntly but still in a civil manner, that the author of the initial post was wrong. Administration replied that the originator of the post was a personal friend and a long –time member and that any further “attacks” would result in the respondent’s dismissal (banning). I guess that Administrator should have posted a list of her friends along with the rules so that no one ever questioned them and therefore could avoid being banned. >< Another case involving several members went as follows: Member number one posted that the author of the initial post was wrong and that he should check his facts before making a post. It happened to be a comment about research that member one had published but the posting member was not aware of this. Administration banned member one with no explanation. Member two asked for the reason for administration’s banning of member one. Administration banned member two. Member three posted a comment that it seemed a little harsh to ban member two just because he had asked for the reasons behind the banning of member one. Member three...yep, banned. I was thinking about applying for membership but I figured that would result in me being banned! >< On yet another forum: A member had asked why a suggestion for improving the forum had gone unanswered even though this member had asked it several times on the forum and once in a PM to the Administrator. The Administrator finally answered with a warning that if this member continued to harass the membership they could face disciplinary action. I found this strange as the suggestion was a simple enough one that was only directed to the Administrator yet the reply regarded the harassment of the whole membership. Talk about confusing. Looks like the best advice here is to ask only once to avoid harassing the membership and being threatened with banishment. Maybe the membership consisted of only the Administrator? >< In this last example I will need to be very vague because this exchange was so offensive that I can’t give detailed descriptions without the possibility on insulting the reader. One of the strict policies here and on many forums is the avoidance of the topics of politics and or religion. Of course on any military history forum the discussion of the politics of the past is not only unavoidable but perhaps desirable in order to understand the events that took place. Member one posted a vase with some inscription on it with a translation and a general comment about the culture of the area from which it came. Member two commented that this was not the exact translation as this was his native tongue and that the comment regarding their culture was far from accurate. Member one countered that he knew what he was talking about and that member two, let me put it this way, ate the meat of, wore the skins of and cavorted with swine. This was no doubt an attack on the fellows religious views and as you can imagine was met with an unbelievable personal attack, albeit provoked, by member two on member one. This went on for several posts until both parties seemed exhausted and stopped posting. As I read this I kept wondering where the administrator was and why he or she was not putting a stop to this. It generated a mix of emotions in me from disbelief to anger. In the end I started to think that perhaps the administrator shared the views of member one. I didn’t check but perhaps member one and the administrator were one and the same. That was enough for me to decide that I would avoid this forum in the future as not only was the administration out of line by doing nothing, but also I did not want to be associated with that forum in any way. >< I’m sure we could all add to this list and I would have posted the topic on the regular forum but it would have been too hard, as you can see, to stay away from breaking our own rules by just relating these horror stories. So now I am (oh how I wanted to say “So now one is”) back from visiting the neighbours and I have only one more thing to say. “It’s so good to be back home again.” Regards Brian

Actually I believe there is room to argue that both could be correct in this case. It depends upon whether you are looking at the "fix" as temporary (jury-rigged) or shoddy (Jerry-rigged). A "rigged" jury is something else all together. Eric, Canadian Law requires all firearms to be secured whether in your home or not. You would be better off running around with an unsheathed bayonet than an unloaded firearm, according to the regulations. I'm not sure about the laws where Chris lives, (somewhere East of Toronto). I'm lucky as my collection is older black powder firearms (muskets) and can be displayed in the open, that is to say not locked up. Regards Brian

I usually miss jokes when it comes to the origins of words such as "jeri-rig" but in case you were serious I have always believed the term to be "jury-rigged". That is to say, something that came about, that was not considered normal, through the collaboration of a group of people. Regards Brian

Very good stuff, and yes the spelling was noted and appreciated. Of course many Canucks use both spellings. The only word that always looks a bit odd to me is "Axe", or rather the American spelling "Ax"; always looks like something's terribly amiss. Regards Brian

I could not be more in agreement. An interesting point that has been so true from the beginning of history is that the last person to glorify war and the first to look to prevent the next one is the soldier who fought the last one. Regards Brian

The study of politics has, in my opinion, been greatly over looked in the rush to learn more about the conflicts following the failure of diplomacy. While not as “exciting” to the public in general, politics has always been and is today pivotal to the understanding of how we arrived at the state of war. I find articles and books such as mentioned in these posts most interesting indeed and absolutely indispensable in understanding the bigger picture. The way people today look at armed conflicts and at times seem to only concentrate on the narrowest slice of history a bit alarming in that repetition of the past is almost unavoidable. It’s like a divorce; everyone wants the dirty little details of the marriage gone wrong and information about the settlement. Few are really interested in the actual root causes of the break up in the first place. I suppose this and politics tend to be a lot less exciting and much harder to glorify than the accounts of the events of the battlefield. I’ve often thought when I’ve read a book or watched a documentary about the events leading up to the First World War if we are not in a similar period. It can be most unnerving to think so. Thanks to both Irish Gunner and Paul for a thought provoking post and I, for one, will look into purchasing the books mentioned. Regards Brian

A priceless artifact to say the least and as usual accompanied by interesting history and background information. Thanks for posting this Mervyn, it made my morning. Regards Brian

Beautiful specimens and a real pleasure to behold. Thanks for posting them. Regards Brian

Hi Paul, Indeed there is something in this grouping for everyone. An exceptional find, well done. Imagine that, I got to comment before Mervyn this time. Regards Brian

Hi Mervyn, A fantastic find. Well done. Regards Brian

Remembrance Day, a PPOV As November 11 and Remembrance Day approaches many people start to think, for the first time in a year, of the sacrifices so many have and are making for their nations. For those of us in the collecting field there is no need to be reminded of this as I believe we are more than a little aware of what has been given up so that we may enjoy our freedom. For the sake of this blog I am not talking about those who have or are serving and may be members here, as they are in the moment while most of us have never experienced service, either during a conflict or in times of peace. Before continuing I do want to thank the GMIC members both former and current servicemen and women for your service. I wont mention names as that might embarrass some but you know who you are. I often wonder just how many people would remember this day, November 11, and what it really means to our way of life if it were not for media coverage and the sale of the poppy. Would we remember such current events as the conflicts in the Middle East if it were not for the nightly news? How many can even begin to name the conflicts since the Korean War? I say this because I wonder how many would jump from the Korean conflict straight to Afghanistan or Iraq missing Viet Nam completely. I speak now of those outside of America, but even that being the case I have to wonder how many Americans go through their day to day routines unaware of the cost of their way of life, and ours for that matter. I suppose there is a good case to be made for those on the battle field every night and on weekends at their local paint ball field or video game Tour of Duty not being able to remember real conflicts. After all the trauma of seeing your fellow combatants splattered with paint or a video character shot down and having to wait until a new game is started must be hell. Of course I joke, albeit in a vein of sarcastic reality. Perhaps one of the benefits of there being collectors and students of military history, such as we are, is that we are helping to keep the memory of those who served alive. Even though we may be avoided at parties as that fellow who bores everyone with history it prompts people to at least realize there is a history to be remembered. Not that the hockey game or baseball scores are not important, (they really arent, I just said that to make the sports jocks feel good), it is history and in this case military history that has shaped our lives today and will for a long time to come. On November 11, remember. Regards Brian

Congratulations and very well done. The group needed to be saved and luckily you were there. I'm happy to hear that your wife realized that it needed to be done. Regards Brian

Hello Leo, Thanks for the additional information it was most helpful. Regards Brian

There has always been a high death rate among combat photographers but in this case one could add having the camera falling on the photographer to the list of hazards. Thanks for posting a very interesting photo. Regards Brian

Good idea Mervyn. Regards Brian

Hello Jonathan, This looks like a very worth while book and at £75.00 well worth the investment. Thanks for drawing our attention to it. Regards Brian