previous post next post  

"...while rough men stand ready..."

By The Armorer on September 26, 2004 | | Comments (9)


Official US Army photo.

In this case, a soldier with the National Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade, with the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq.

For those with the bandwidth or inclination, a hi-res version is here.

Then, a nice surprise in my inbox... more pictures from people with Cool Toys™!

For another view from a different angle, click here.

Thanks, Chris!

Share This Article:

Share |

Categories:

9 Comments

By Alan on September 26, 2004 11:08 AM
That tracked vehicle is a bren carrier isn't it? I read somewhere that a bunch of soldiers from the Prairies rigged quite a number of them up with heavy machine guns on D-Day plus 2 or 3 and dove into the SS and Hitler Youth they faced making havoc behind the lines for a few days like something out of the Odyssey. It turns out now that they were so effective that if the operation was not called off battle for Caen might have ended a lot sooner.
 
By Justthisguy on September 26, 2004 7:08 PM
Naw, it's a Weasel. (1st choice) 2nd choice, it's one of the many and various APCs that were tried in the 50s before we settled on the M113. Which reminds me: I spoke to an old soldier, some time ago, who said that the aluminum armor on the 113 would not even stop a .30 cal rifle bullet. Is that true? Whatever, glad to see Gun Pr0n again! (All that political talk is bad for one's liver, if one has uh, tendencies)
 
By Justthisguy on September 26, 2004 7:19 PM
On second thought (and third look) the suspension looks right 1930s Vickersish, and yup, I was fooled, I now say Bren Carrier. Sneaky painting it to look American, taking advantage of our... better stop digging now.
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 26, 2004 7:49 PM
They didn't cheat, T. Vehicles involved in the Normandy invasion and beyond had stars on them - everybody knows the flyboys are weak on target id of ground targets while zooming about. This'll check if the Instapilot is checking comments or not...
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on September 26, 2004 9:11 PM
It was called the Bren Carrier because it was generally armed with a Bren; its proper name was the Universal Carrier. Cheers JMH
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on September 26, 2004 9:24 PM
Further to my last (having decided to check), this version is the US-made T16 Carrier, which had 4 road wheels per side, vice 3 on the original pattern Universal carrier. For the Universal Carrier: http://www.mapleleafup.org/vehicles/carriers/uc.html And the T16: http://www.mapleleafup.org/vehicles/carriers/t16.html Cheers JMH
   
By John of Argghhh! on September 27, 2004 5:59 AM
And John, as ever, wins the prize!
 
By Mike McGeorge on November 11, 2004 1:13 PM
I used to drive a Windsor Carrier with the British Army in Palestine, 1947,48. The Carrier you show here is similar, guess it looks like a T16. Had a Ford V8 Mercury engine, and could go better than 45 mph,