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Ammo Sgt: Interesting reading on your Dad, I served with some of the Black Cat sailors, but what was interesting to me was the next page (after your Dads) in the Log...RW Hart was my Patrol Plane Cdr in WV's and my CO in VP28. It's a small small world. thanks Chief:D

Chief 4.0

Chief:

This is also bit off topic too But why US Navy have it's chevrons downwards and Army has upwards ?

Cheers,

M.S.

Sardaukar: The only answer I can give you is....since all our uniforms are/were based on the Royal Navy you will probabaly have to ask them....but since we use an Eagle I have to assume the designers decided he would look better with the chevrons below than over his head.....the Chiefs arch that goes over the Eagle is only about 125 years old before that we only had 1st class as the top pay grade. Sorry I don't have a better answer, other than a wise one about STUFF flowing downhill.....

As the theme is unusual weapons, what about the variety of weapons used by the japanese as kamikaze... this used to fascinate me when I was much younger, don't know why.

Besides the zeros or other planes, they had kamikaze weapons for all tastes - air, land and sea. The ones I know are:

- human controled flying bombs dropped from bombers with limited range.

- the tank hunters - infantry soldiers with tank mines or explosives

- speed boats - very fast small boats loaded with explosives

and the most fantastic of all:

- submarines - piloted by a single man, kind like a crewed torpedo!

How about the nuke? At the time it was far out. . .

Originally posted by Possum
What about

The Japanese remote Bombing balloon ( a balloon loaded with incndiary bombs with a very long fuse, and released 1000's of miles upwind of continental USA. Was at least credited with starting some forest fires in washington state in 1944)

I saw a program about this. The Japanese figured that causing massive forest fires in the heavily wooded northwest would disrupt transportation and communication, and that the risk/cost to them was negligible. After finding several of the devices intact and realizing the psycological impact their existence could cause, the US government made the entire issue top secret. The files only recently became declassified (mid 90's).

Originally posted by chief
Sardaukar: The only answer I can give you is....since all our uniforms are/were based on the Royal Navy you will probabaly have to ask them.......

Actually all the British stripes point downward so a better question is why do US NCO stripes point upwards?

Originally posted by Larry Holt
Actually all the British stripes point downward so a better question is why do US NCO stripes point upwards?

To answer my own question look here: http://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/triv4-4a.htm

I saw a "Sworn to Secrecy" episode on the history channel about the bats.

The MP44 rifle had a shoot-around barrel with a periscope sight.

My candidate for strangest weapon: Sturmtiger with a very large mortar - appears to have a bore larger than 12". 15 of these "bad boys" were made.

Bats go into the higgest part of a dark place . . . Since they were to be released above a city, they will go into the ceilings, inside the roof, crawling space above the ceiling, inside a window, etc.

Got it? A thousand houses on fire!

Originally posted by Ardle


No, don't trouble yourself. But you have to admit it sounds utterly preposterous - I mean what was the rationale behind it? And how many bats would you need to carry enough napalm (or whatever) to make any kind of impact? And how do you train a bat?!!!

Originally posted by Redleg

My candidate for strangest weapon: Sturmtiger with a very large mortar - appears to have a bore larger than 12". 15 of these "bad boys" were made.

Err... isn't that the Sturmmörser Tiger you're talking about? 38cm rocket mortar Hey, we even use those in the game

It's a measure of the all emcompassing aspect of WWII that some of the weird ideas previously mentioned were tried... It amazes me how much war influences technology. I think WWII compressed about 40 years of tech advance into 5 years. Supersonic flight, radar, rockets, nuclear tech.... take your pick... for example Sydney Camm, who designed the Hurricane (first 300+mph British fighter) also started design on the Harrier, still in service today! All of the weird weapons of WWII required brave people to test them...all deserve honour, and some are weirder than others...(conspiracy, or foo fighter theories...).
The mystery persists to this day...! Odd is good!

Belisarius posted:

"Err... isn't that the Sturmmörser Tiger you're talking about? 38cm rocket mortar Hey, we even use those in the game"

Wasn't the 38cm rocket mortar developed originally by the Kriegsmarine as an ASW weapon? (Another tidbit I recall reading in the 'Tank Data' series.)

Eric Maietta

For info on the Sturmmorser see:

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/html/german ... tiger.html

Eric Maietta

Originally posted by AbsntMndedProf

Wasn't the 38cm rocket mortar developed originally by the Kriegsmarine as an ASW weapon? (Another tidbit I recall reading in the 'Tank Data' series.)

Eric Maietta

Why, yes it was indeed! :p

Originally posted by AbsntMndedProf
For info on the Sturmmorser see:

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/html/german ... tiger.html

Eric Maietta

Another great site added to "Favourites"

I finaly thought of an unusual weapon!!! I read somewhere that the Germans tried mounting a 81mm mortar on a BF-110 or JU-88 and firing mortar rounds at bombers. If I remember correctly i think it worked.

It worked somewhat. The planes had to be at a certain distance, pitch and speed to score. Very difficult when bombers had fighter escort. Another problem. The planes lost airspeed because the "under the wings" mortars where not exactly aerodynamic.

Hmm.. the Germans employed some other imaginative aircraft guns as well, didn't they? Like the vertical firing 40mm cannon mounted in the back of the fuselage? I think it was radar- or magnetic triggered, and when the fighter passed directly underneath a bomber, the guns would set off *blamblamblam* and shoot out the belly of the victim.