Firefly

Not an area i know much about. What is the 'best' modern Assault Rifle? By this i mean the best all-round, soldier-friendly piece of kit? We all know the problems with the British SA80 but i've heard this is one of the most accurate rifles. The Eastern Bloc stuff is obviously rugged and easy to maintain, but is it any good? Opinions please......

Truly frightening. What the hell happens to a person to make them like that? And perhaps of greater concern is why his Government went to such great lengths to have him freed.
I never understand why Governments do this to 'protect their own'. It's like the British Government with the Camp X-Ray suspects. As far as i'm concerned they can rot there. Perhaps a subject for a different Forum...........

I've seen it (them?) too. Don't know how many there are but i'm pretty sure they're the old American 'DUKW'. About 20,000 of these things were built from 1942 onwards. Although they obviously now look stupid painted yellow with 'Frog' written up the side, isn't it great to see a piece of history still being used? (I saw one going round Parliament Square and the rear 'ladder' ripped the front off a Honda Civic trying to undertake on the corner!!).

I was up in Liverpool recently and they have them there too. The bloody thing was actually in the water! Brave tourists indeed, rather them than me!!!!

Aboukir was struck by a torpedo from U9 on 22 Sept 1914 whilst on North Sea patrol. Hogue went to her rescue, thinking she was on the 'safe' side of her having seen a preiscope. However, U9 had repositioned and hit her too. Cressy was the third ship to be hit. 1459 men lost their lives.

The ships were all Cressy-class cruisers. Very old and slow ships. They had meant to be patrolling a zig-zag course as protection against u-boats, but had not been doing so because of the lack of any percieved threat by their Captains.

Captain Otto Wessigen of U9 was killed aboard U29 in 1915, when she was rammed by Dreadnought

What does Mr Vice Chairman think of a Challenger 2 vs Merkava 4 scenario? Is the Challenger a better 'all round' MBT, the Merkava being more specific in it's role? I would have said Challenger myself, but the Mk4 Merkava really does narrow the margin between them.

Firefly Spot on ! What gave it away ? You sir are a true anorak.

What can i say? Two things gave it away. Upon closer inspection it was the anti-aircraft guns on top of the turret, and the shape of the bit of funnel visible in the photo that gave it away. These meant she couldn't be an Iowa-class ship. I really must get out more..........

Just been studying some photgraphs and i think the ship may actually be North Carolina? Tell us soon Mr Chairman......... :ph34r:

All four ships i mentioned were re-commissioned during the Reagan era in the 80's. The cost was astronomical. Can't remember which one fired into Beirut though.

None remain in service, they were de-commissioned a few years ago. The Yanks have 8 Battleships preserved as memorials to their history, and the brave men who served on them.

The British have preserved, suprise suprise, NONE. Obviously far more important things to spend money on. Then again who cares, all these ships did was preserve our freedom and save us from invasion................. flame

The only Acorn i've found was the name ship in the Acorn-Class of Destroyers, built between 1910-11. There were 20 ships in this Class, and Acorn was scrapped in 1921.

I think she's American, one of the four Iowa class Battleships i think. This means she will be either Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, or Wisconsin. Probably not Missouri because she's at Pearl Harbour and it doesn't look hot enough!

The largest ship ever built for the Royal Navy was Vanguard. She was basicallly a lengthened version of the King George V class ships. She was ordered in 1941 with the Emergency War Plan of 1940. However, she didn't enter service till 1946.

To put it bluntly, she was a complete waste of time. The age of the big-gun Battleship had passed, and she was just used as a 'status symbol', in very much the same way Hood was in the inter-war years. Vanguard used the twin 15-inch gun turrets which had originally been removed from Couragrous and Glorious when they were converted to aircraft carriers.

Foo is right though, the longest ship ever built for the Royal Navy was Hood, at 860ft long......

You can't see anything now, i think the salvage work finished in the mid-fifties. There are still a few wrecks down there but they were so deep as to make it uneconomical to try work on. I had a fantastic short photo book called 'Wrecks of Scapa Flow' but somehow lost it when i moved into my new gaff, gutted. It had pictures and maps of all the wrecks. I think people don't realize just what a massive expanse of water it is till they see it. A very eerie and baron place.

According to one Private Baldrick i believe 'Rat-O-Van' was a popular dish!!!!

I must admit i have never heard of this ship. Annoyed at my lack of knowledge now, thought i knew quite alot about Bismarck. Will do some digging........

Tug has a very good point regarding Hood. That was a fair battle which the Royal Navy lost, badly. Prince of Wales was actually firing on Prinz Eugen (the heavy cruiser which escorted Bismarck) for the first five minutes of the battle because her profile was so similar to Bismarck. The Germans were in a better ship and were well trained and disciplined.

Prince of Wales was just seven months old when lost, a complete waste of what actually turned out to be a very well designed ship of King George V class. Repulse was another has-been that shouldn't have been anywhere near that theatre of war. Japanese pilots spoke of men at the anti-aircraft guns still firing as they went under the water. Amazing bravery.

Churchill got the phone call telling him of the sinkings in the middle of the night, and said it was the worst moment of the war for him. They wouldn't even let the papers report it because of the dent it would put in morale. The ships should never have been there, the age of the big-gun Capital ship had already passed and Churchill should have learnt the lessons of Norway and Crete regarding putting ships in areas under enemy air control.

Ah yes Foo, the 'S-Tank', or to give it it's proper name the 'Stridsvagn Strv-103'! The design originated in the early 50's, put into production in the late 60's. I think the Swedish Army had about 300 of these things. They've all been replaced by Leopards. Three-man crew (the radio operator sits facing the rear in case he is needed to drive the tank backwards!)

I think they used the British L7 105mm gun with an autoloader. The British army actually leased some of these for field trials in Germany, but the tank is almost impossible to fire accurately on the move. Very good defensively though because of the low profile, therefore suiting Swedish requirements (they weren't going to be needed to storm across Europe were they!).

The gun is raised and lowered by using hydropneumatic suspension. I've seen one in action over at Bovington. Very different.

Just of interest to the Chairman, i have actually visited the site of Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. It involved a short but quite scary ferry journey over the Pentland Firth at Orkney, one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world (which i can certainly vouch for).

The ship was attacked on the night of 14th October 1939, by the U47 commanded by one Gunther Prien. She still lies there today, apparently visible from the air at low tide. All i saw was the marker buoy close to the shore and possibly a dark shadow in the water. An official War Grave to 833 men. It was a very moving experience for a naval buff like myself.

Nelson was actually the British Navies first 16-inch gun Battleship, completed in 1922 with her sistership Rodney. Very distinctive ships with three triple turrets forward of the Superstructure. They were built within the confines of the Washington Treaty of 1922, and were originally intended to be much larger 'Super Battleships'. The design, which had been laid some time before, literally had an entire centre-section cut out to drop the tonnage to that allowed by the Treaty. This apparently left the ships with very poor handling on the seas.

Luckily Haw Haw was wrong. She happily made it through the War in one piece, despite being torpedoed off Normandy. She was scrapped in 1948.

I get ever so hot in my anorak in this weather........ wub.gif

Could this be a some sort of factory perhaps? Germany?

You can't really argue with a APC that has a 100 rifled gun can you?!! It actually has three 7.62's, one by the 30mm cannon and one either side of the hull facing forward. What an awesome piece of kit.

Can anyone tell me how the Russion 30mm cannon compares to the British RARDEN cannon? I remember reading after the first Gulf War that British Warriors were able to take-out Iraqi T55's easily with the RARDEN because of the sheer velocity of the rounds! I can't see the Russians matching this.

The Mk4 is a real improvement over the Mk3 BAZ. It has a better engine which produces 25% more power (built in the States then modified in Israel for their auto transmissions).

The Mk4 has an improved 120mm smooth-bore gun with thermal sleeve. I think it carries about 46 rounds, with some sort of revolving loading mechanism for semi-automatic operation. It has much improved under-hull armour as protection against mines, which is the only real threat against it in the environment it operates in.

I'm with the Vice-Chairman though, the best tank in the world today is Challenger II, no contest.

Let's not forget most of these men were not 'fresh' and unblooded, many of them had fought long and hard. I cannot even imagine what they must have experienced. And their reward? Put to death for being 'cowards' by people who cared more about their own careers than the lives of those brave, brave men.

For 'Mythology' it simply has to be the Tiger. Having just seen the worlds only working Tiger at 'Tankfest' the other week, i can vouch that it has people fascinated. They clapped it as it went past! Sounded sick as a dog though. Still, not bad for a sixty year old.......

Most influential tank? Hard to say. For sheer greatness of design it has to be Centurian. Probably the most upgradable and versatile tank ever. Taking my anorak off now........