John

Sounds interesting BJOWasps. Keep us posted. I've never had much luck with the research on these gongs, although I do have an interesting group of five with a SC's LSGC on the end to an Inspector. He is unique as he has the only Territorial War Medal to the 15th Hussars.All I know about his SC medal is that he was from Monmouth. wub.gif

Oh, I don't know....Maybe its for the Lounge, but I'm with you on that one. Mind you, you might feel differently it had been YOU who had been kidnapped by the US army whilst out 'sightseeing' or on a solo 'Humanitarian' mission, after accidentally tripping over and accidentally picking up an AK47 and Taleban uniform....

Thankyou.

How collectable is this? What type of price can these items command?

World War 1? I thought it WWII only... :blink:

Yes , it sounds like the one I saw, or similar. It was indeed yellow, maybe it was to blend in , in a yellow environment!
Full of tourists, but I did not see it go in the Thames. The thing looked old, so I'm not sure that I would want to.... wub.gif

What dos a Memel Medal look like and what its for?

I saw an amphibious vehicle in London for tourists, which drives around the city and then swims in the Thames. It looks really old, maybe War time.
Its painted yellow now, but I don't think this was its true colour.
Anyone know anything about it?

Can you remind me what 'FANY' stands for?

Does anyone know the proper conditions for the award of the Purple Heart? There seems to be alot of rumours about this , and very little facts.

The bottom left chap looks like he's got a Coldstream Guards cap badge. Not too sure about the others, though.

Sounds horrific. I have met a number of men who claim to have been 'mercs', but they always seem to have spent about 8 weeks in British military training camps before leaving.
This chap is obviously genuine , though. Interesting.

I think someone did , because they held an inquiry for at least one of them , I think.
I noticed today that there is a 'City of London' policeman's medal, only a 1911 coronation medal, generating alot of interest, on Ebay, as he was a wartime casualty. He was on the 'Hogue' if I remember correctly.

I wonder who's got all those helmet plates now

What ships are still left underwater at Pearl Harbour?

What a terrible waste of lives. Sounds very 'Kitchener'. Nearly 1500 lives, and in those days this was acceptable! Thank god for 2004.

Not entirely true, as I have only mentioned Bolt Action rifles. There were other 'semi automatic ' rifles . but that it another topic. Certainly on the Eastern Front , numbers had alot to do with it. I have a translated copy of the Soviet sniper's manual, and it is incredibly basic.
However , snipers in Normandy , had a dramatic impact on both sides , and in this campaign, due to the reletively short distances involved, the skill,of the individual came very much to the fore.

I believe it was hated by the cavalry themselves , who considered it unwieldy and ill- balanced and took a great deal of strength to use it properly.
I read that they weren't actually pointed as such , but had crudely diagonol finish to the tip.
Sharpie had his tailored by having a pointed tip and the top six inches sharpened too, whereas the original blades were only sharpened on the underside. wub.gif

You re right about the rifle does not make the man. There is a big difference between a 'sharpshooter' and a 'sniper'. The sniper rifles themselves were pretty much all the same standard and the calibres weren't that far apart.It was more to do with the user, although the Japanese had a 7.5mm rifle which had a barrel so long that the propellant was completely burned out by the time the round left the barrel, which in turn meant that was no 'muzzle flash' whatsover. This meant that a well concealed sniper would very unlikely be discovered. A massive advantage, which is unrivalled even today.
I have actually fired the three main wwii rifles,the mosin-nagant , mauser kar98 and the lee-enfield ,and i must admit, the differences in accuracy and comfort were minor, howver, being a Brit, if push comes to shove, I'd run with the lee-enfield.

Sounds like the famous incident of 'Three Ships Before Breakfast', where a German U-boat sunk three ships, I believe the Hogue, the Cressy and the Aboukir.He torpedoed them one after the other after they went in turn to assist each other after their Captains believed the ships had hit mines. I'll have to dig up the history out of the books at a later date. I think Firefly will know more about this , though. wub.gif

How did the USSR achieve Air superiority over the Luftwaffe? I cannot think of any aces, so did they achieve this by the German withdrawal to protect the homeland?

How collectable are these?

Very droll..... <_<

I don't understand why the German High Command rated Patton so highly. He was not used much, and he wasted men like no tomorrow.
Maybe it was because he was daring ....... and an aggressive commander.

I have a term for any uninteresting unit... its 'Fish and Chip shop mob' wub.gif

On its own ground, definitely the Merkava. It could be a tricky one, as their concepts are different. The Merkava was certainly not built for speed or manoeverability. It was built for maximum protection. It also stores a large array of weapons ans has an enormous amount of ammunition. It is designed to stay on the battle field for long periods of time, pretty much self contained.
The Challenger 2 certainly is well up there, but seems to have manoevreability, as one of its characteristics as well as massive slabbed armour. It seems to more of an offensive MBT , with all the armament emphasis around the main gun. The Merkava has all sorts on it from grenade launcher, 60mm mortar, .50 cal, 7.62mm, as well as some reports stating that it can now launch missiles down its barrel.It is also more of a defensive tank, designed to protect Israel from some of its neighbours.... wub.gif