Gratuitous Militaria Pic

Working on some gun stuff, don't despair!

One of the "honey-do's" (happy Mike?) from last week was moving the dry bar from the kitchen into the living room. You remember the bar - it's the one with the New Zealand-capture Boer Mauser on it - that caused one of my few moonbat explosions.

I lied! I did put up a gun pic!

Anyway, one of the things we've been doing is demilitarizing the living room (pulling out the cannon balls and such) but obviously, we haven't completely disarmed. We took the opportunity to put some of the more interesting bits of militaria out there - on the bar. It's very Anglosphere, with some German and French to add a touch of flavor. Brit rum jug with Aussie drinking cup (from Tobruk! - the cup, not the jug), the Boer Mauser, brit gun sight (the telescope thing) two lamps made from 2inch mortar rounds, Brit and US trench lanterns, things like that.

In addition, we have a candy dish/peanut dish that is a bit of French trench art - a WWI 75mm shell casing with an Artillery cap badge on the front, and "Verdun 1918" on the back.

The one bit of that stuff I like the best though is a WWII era bud vase (we're using it for swizzle sticks) that I call my "ABCA" vase. ABCA meaning the America-Britain-Canada-Australia alliance formed in WWII and still in force today.

Why do I refer to it like that? Simple. It's comprised of a Canadian-made 2pdr shell casing, with US-made .50cal rounds, Brit MkVII .303 rounds, and an Australian cap badge. It came from Australia, and it kind of encapsulates the effort required to prosecute WWII. It's also a nice conversation piece, should we start entertaining the ISO's (International Student Officers) around here.