WW2 Myths

[Joe2]

If anyone has any interesting myths please put them here

 

[Twitch]

Well one for sure is that ridiculous urban myth that the enemy would listen for the en-bloc clip retainer "ping" when it ejected on the last round of the M-1 Garand and they'd somehow rush in and kill the rifleman. Sillyest assed thing I ever heard of. As if during a firefight with your stunted hearing due to fire you'd be able to hear that 150 yards away much less jump up and run towards the guy!

 

[Matt308]

Spoken like a man who has been on the firing lines. I will never forget the first time the line started up while I was putting my gear away, had my earplugs out and someone cranked off the itty-bitty .223. Goddamn did that hurt.

 

[k9kiwi]

Try it with a 7.62 SLR.

THAt will ring your bells for a week.

 

[Matt308]

No thanks. I actually take my hearing pretty seriously. I've always wondered about people who keep hand cannons in their room for protection. So you stop the bad guy, but you are permanently deaf. Thus, I think the smaller...and perhaps less effective...rounds are a better choice for the homeowner. Besides .38spl, 9mm vs .357mag is shades of grey in my eyes at room distances. I can't imagine a full power .357mag lit off in the house. Good God.

 

[k9kiwi]

WHAT? Speak Up.

 

[Matt308]

 

[Smokey]

Well one for sure is that ridiculous urban myth that the enemy would listen for the en-bloc clip retainer "ping" when it ejected on the last round of the M-1 Garand and they'd somehow rush in and kill the rifleman. Sillyest assed thing I ever heard of. As if during a firefight with your stunted hearing due to fire you'd be able to hear that 150 yards away much less jump up and run towards the guy!

I read that it wasn't the spring but the empty magazine hitting hard ground. Is that just pure hokum?

 

[Matt308]

Yes. It was not a magazine, but an 8rd en-bloc clip. You pushed the whole clip into the chamber. If you fired 1 or 7 rds, you could not top off. Once 8rds were expired, the clip is ejected with a rather loud sound. However, if you have ever been on a firing line, a "sproing" is nothing compared to ordanance going off around you. It would be non-existent with the ringing in everyone's ears.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

What about Hollywood?

 

[Matt308]

Oh right. Disregard my previous post.

 

[syscom3]

The IJN carriers at Midway had their aircraft on deck, spotted, ready to launch when the US dive bombers caught them flat footed and destroyed them causing irreplacable losses of the pilots and aircrews......

Not true!

 

[Matt308]

The US actually built an experimental aircraft carrier out of an iceberg.

Help me out here guys. Other than thinking about it and how infeasible that would be, please tell me that was a myth.

 

[Soren]

They didn't build it, but they had the idea alright. The concept never came past a floating shed however, which btw sank

 

[k9kiwi]

Cabinet Magazine Online - The Floating Island

 

[Nonskimmer]

Leave it to the British!

Excellent tale.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

haha, never knew about that, what a fantastic idea! one problem though, other than possibly using arrester gear how do you safely stop an aircraft landing onto ice?

 

[Soren]

Well AFAIK they planned on making a concrete runway. Btw the carrier itself wasn't made out of pure ice, it was a sort of wood/ice mix actually, called Pykrete.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Intersting stuff. I had never heard of this one.

 

[k9kiwi]

I tried to convince the missus we could build houses out of it.

She wasn't really interested.