Comments by "Geordiedog" (@geordiedog1749) on "Forgotten Weapons" channel.

  1. My grandad who fought with the RHA said that the Berretas were top prizes in North Africa and much sought after. Anyone who got one either held onto it or traded it for a lot of kit.
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  2. I wonder what the eight guns sounded like when firing together? 1150 cyclic rate. .153 rounds/explosions a sec. Also, the Gloucester Gladiator had the synchroniser mech. I know this reduced the rpm.
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  3.  @zoiders  probably something to do with thinking they were ‘the best’. The sort of person who thinks they ‘would have made a really good SAS trooper’ because they’ve watched the Omaha beach scene on Saving Private Ryan five times now and basically that makes them a hardened war veteran!
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  4.  @zoiders  well, obviously!! he was in the SAS as well!:) Good point though. Why do people make crap up?!
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  5.  @zoiders  I shall look out for that book. I like the stories of the ‘Other guys’. Ones you never hear about. And I agree with your point, too. I just read a book on the Royal Navy patrol service. They were amazing! Grubby fishermen in trawlers painted grey with WW1 guns bolted onto them. Keeping the coastal convoys of coal going. Corelli Barnett doesn’t even mention them in ‘Engage the Enemy More Closely”.
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  6. Was just about to mention that but thought I’d better check other posts first. The Lewis a s Savage guns they replaced were given to the Coal Scuttle brigade.
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  7. Ray Shoesmith has one.
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  8. My mates dad operated one of these on his collier on the coal scuttle run from the Tyne to Thames in 1939. It was stuck on the bridge and welded on. He was expected to shoot down JU87 and 88s and the like with it. Also fend off E-Boats. They also had a ‘Savage’ gun mounted which sounds like a Lewis derivative.
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  9.  @justforever96  Mate, obviously they didn’t weld the gun itself to the ship!
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  10. Wait a sec..... they had 20 guys and they bought 280 guns?
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  11. Fascinating.
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  12.  @AndrewGivens  I read somewhere that the ‘Projector’ did, in fact, shoot down an e/a! Just one though. Mainly it had its users running for cover. It seemed that the Crabs got first dibs on the best kit - especially the Bomber force. They replaced their Lewis guns with Vickers Ks then replaced them with .303 Brownings so they could bomb fields in the Ruhr Valley miles from anywhere and then get shot down on the way back without firing a single round. Meanwhile coastal forces and Harry Tates Navy were making do with Savage guns and five inch LA pieces marked 1892. They also got Madsden Guns? Potato Diggers they called them as they had a swinging cam along the barrel. WWI kit basically. Never a “Phoney War” for these guys. Mines and bombs and S Boats from day one. A school friend of mine had an uncle (one of the Tyne river pilots) who was on a collier in 1939 aged 17. He told us (impressionable young kids) that he was saved several times by a lad from Morpeth (who was a known poacher) on a Savage gun (first time I heard that name variant of the Lewis gun). He drove off a few Do17s with his very accurate shooting, apparently.
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  13.  @robshirewood5060  Didn’t they also get the turrets off Blackburn Rocs? Or was it from BP Defiants?
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  14. Interesting winter war fact was that Fins had an abundance of SMGs and this effectively influenced tactics and made them dry effectively give in CQ engagements. The Soviets learned from this and developed SMG teams for their own units. The reason for this was that the British had no SMG prior to WWII and tested various foreign models to adopt. It came down to the Suomi and Berreta (pretty decent choices) and they went with the Suomi. The UK ordered 20,000 of them which were about to be delivered when Uncle Joe came a’calling. Shame in many ways including it did us Brits out of having a very decent bit of kit to use. Still, we got the Sten instead......What?!
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  15.  @ScottKenny1978  very true but too late, alas!
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  16.  @yulusleonard985  Never thought of that but it makes sense.
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  17.  @BluntofHwicce  I know. I actually totally agree. The fact the nazis copied it in 1945 bears that out.
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  18. Imagine that in full auto!!
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  19. Ha! Finally - he admits to form over function!!:)
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  20.  @slightlyagricultural  Ah yes. See, that’s exactly what made me think as seeing that and knowing that the RoF was slower on a Gimpy compared to the Browning by a significant amount. I imagine it’s probably more of a tearing sound than the boom-boom-boom.
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  21. Yeah ! Screw you MG42!!
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  22. Pretty gun.........give me pretty gun.........
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  23. Over rated weapon.
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  24. A lot of these ended up on British colliers along with Marlins and various Hotchkiss patterns in 1939 (.303). They would set them up anywhere where there was a bit of space and an arch of fire, usually the bridge. They were supposed to deal with German air attacks and E-Boats. Eventually, ie 1943/4, they were replaced with oerlikons and/or Browning 30s and 50s. Some old pre great war LA cannon was stuck n the poop deck in the early war and f’csle later (this was because fitting at the front was ‘offensive’ and made the ship a war ship and changed the RoEs).
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  25. Some guns just sound like guns!!!
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  26. Why would twenty guys want all those guns. Twenty guys...... 280 guns.....? Why?
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  27. Looks like something you strip paint with.
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  28. What a wonderful educator you are, Ian.
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  29. Well, I like it. Hail Elbo!
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