Picture of the day. (6 Viewers)

[Wurger]

Where a man can't he sends a hen.

 

[Wayne Little]

Amazing...

 

[fastmongrel]

New Zealand 2-pdr anti-tank gun mounted on a truck in the portee role, 3 December 1941.

 

[fubar57]

Gotta love this thread, lots of equipment I've never heard of before.




Geo

 

[Wurger]

 

[GrauGeist]

Panther (Ausf. G) equipped with the FG1250 IR night vision

 

[fastmongrel]

Troops of 1 Kings Own Scottish Borderers, 9th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, with a captured Hotchkiss machine gun during street fighting in Caen, 10 July 1944.

 

[Airframes]

Great shot. Wondering if they're aiming for the door locks on the local Whisky warehouse ?!!!

 

[Wildcat]

What helmet's are the guys on the right wearing?

 

[Airframes]

From left to right, the the first three guys are wearing the then new '44 Pattern' helmet, still in use up to the early 1980s !
The chap in the background appears to have the earlier, 'Brodie' style helmet, in use in various forms from around 1915 until 1944 and slightly beyond.
EDIT:- Just had another look, and it appears that the gunner is wearing a late-style Brodie helmet, the design being sort of 'in-between' the '44 Pattern' and the standard Brodie, same as the guy in the background.

 

[Wildcat]

Thanks Terry! I just did some googling on the two different helmets. Obviously I'm familiar with the Brodie, but the MkIII I've never really noticed before! Thanks for the education.

 

[GrauGeist]

From left to right, the the first three guys are wearing the then new '44 Pattern' helmet, still in use up to the early 1980s !
The chap in the background appears to have the earlier, 'Brodie' style helmet, in use in various forms from around 1915 until 1944 and slightly beyond.
EDIT:- Just had another look, and it appears that the gunner is wearing a late-style Brodie helmet, the design being sort of 'in-between' the '44 Pattern' and the standard Brodie, same as the guy in the background.

The first, third and fourth all have the same chin-straps, the gunner's is certainly different.

Could that be an indication of the helmet type?

 

[Airframes]

The chin straps on the '44 Pattern' (MkIII) helmets were a different type of webbing, with different adjusting buckles, compared to the earlier Brodie styles, and were in Olive Green (the straps), as opposed to the earlier 'Khaki' brown. Those used in the 1970s - '80s were also slightly elasticated, but I don't know if they were during WW2.
The chap in the background seems to be wearing a late pattern Brodie, as the 'dip' in the rim, and 'longer' rear section are not visible, and this was a similar shape around the 'dome' to the '44 Pattern', but with the protruding rim common to the Brodie.
I do know that all types were bl**dy uncomfortable to wear, and 'rattled around' on the head - I only wore one a couple of times, and, being used to the British Para helmet, with a proper chin and neck harness (now common on all military helmets), I thought they were a waste of time !

 

[fastmongrel]

The early batches of MkIII helmets just came as the steel shell, you were supposed to remove the padding from your MkII and transfer it to the new shell.

Just a couple of nitpicks, No1 the MkIII is often called the 44 pattern which isnt correct the new helmet shell was designed but not adopted pre war to go with the new 37 pattern webbing and the new BD uniform. The MkII was issued instead which was a newly pressed shell or an old MkI shell with the new padding designed for the helmet that became the MkIII. The new shell was officially adopted in 1941 but spare production capacity wasnt available till 1943.

Nitpick number 2 the Brodie was the original Mild Steel design issued in 1915 which went out of use before the end of WWI being replacd by the similar but differently shaped Manganese Steel MkI in 1916.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks for the clarification, FM. Thankfully, we normally only wore our Para P*ss Pots for jumping, although they did make a good weapon, when swung at arms length, for taking out tiresome 'skinheads' in the early 1970's !!

 

[fastmongrel]

When mounted we were supposed to wear the bloody awful plastic Bone Dome

which no matter what I did never fitted me comfortably and as I was 6ft made me 6ft 2 inches tall inside a tank with 6ft 1 inch headroom. I did what all squaddies do and got hold of a Silvermans catalogue, bought my own headphones and Mic and wore them over a wooly hat knitted by my Mum.

 

[Airframes]

Yep, I tried using one of those when I was involved as a Partner in a company using Chieftain, Scorpion, Abbot and '432. Bl**dy awful, so I used a RAF Mk4 helmet or, as you did, headphones and boom mic, over a 'crap hat'.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Terry, I have to ask: do you, or your mustache, ever miss being in the Para's?

 

[fastmongrel]

Yep, I tried using one of those when I was involved as a Partner in a company using Chieftain, Scorpion, Abbot and '432. Bl**dy awful, so I used a RAF Mk4 helmet or, as you did, headphones and boom mic, over a 'crap hat'.

The Horse and Hound boys used RAF helmets in there little tanks.

 

[fastmongrel]

Flamethrower Portable No2 known as the Lifebouy, it was an updated copy of a German WWI design called the Wex. The ring shaped tank carried the fuel and the central ball shaped tank the Nitrogen propellant. The fuel was ignited by using 1 of 10 Cordite blank cartridges fired by a trigger in the rear pistol grip the front grip controlled the flow of fuel.