So, who can identify the subguns in this picture of the Armory of the Swiss Guard?
I've made my choices. What are yours?
Here's a larger version to help you out.
I've made my choices. What are yours?
Here's a larger version to help you out.
Here's a picture of one with a Swiss Type 31 bayonet.
Okay, I missed that. My bad. But I still say that the upper tier are H-S Mp43/44's.
Will work on the lower tier now.
It seems a bit odd that an organization which still considers itself a real protective services unit would be equipped with weapons of that vintage, But then again, how many Browning M1919's are still in service at various places in the world?
Mind you - flambé is right in spirit if not in spelling!
Okay, trying to learn something here and looked at the pic several times for Interesting Stuff.
I think the other group of guns on the higher tier could be different, but since I am not an Expert, I will say the reason they could be the same is how they are stored. It looks like the weapons in the lower racks are facing one way (would that be the belly/trigger outward?) and the guns in the higher rack are not?
Next, the items on the shelf. What are those? I want to say helmets.
Good question about the items on the shelf. They're too small (and the wrong shape) to be the morions the Guards wear for official functions, but they could be the forms the morions rest on when they're in storage to keep the liners in place.
Then again, they could be giant, unwrapped Hershey's Kisses...
Saves space, too.
The Swiss Guard *has* a quasi-military structure, but the Guards are also one of the most highly-trained security details on earth. They know their stuff.
They also are trained to remain totally deadpan around cameras, but I've got a pic of two of them grinning as a toddler came up to say "Buon giorno" in baby-talk...
I should have clarified it as quasi, but even then, that word is 'partial.' I was thinking more along the lines of volunteering, but not for a nation.
Back to the weapons: You say they are highly trained, so is that training ongoing once they are a member of the SG? A subgun...what is that? Does it have a clip? Yes, I am ignorant here but bear with me. Is it automatic? Semi-automatic? What is its range? Is it accurate? Easy to use? Has anyone here at the Castle ever fired one?
(I am kidding... it is late, I have studying to do and I can't seem to get my head around linear equations)
Your inner Armorer is intuiting again...
Those subguns are *magazine* fed, not *clip* fed.
Clips hold bullets to ease their loading into magazines. Magazines hold bullets and position them to feed into the breech.
Damn M1 rifle, anyway. Mr. Garand's battle implement ruined the language of weaponry, forcing me to suffer greatly when people ask me for a clip.
To answer the unasked question - the M1 has an *integral* magazine. So the WWII GI loaded it using clips, which held 8 rounds each. The integral magazine held the clip and had the mechanism that kept lifting the bullets to that the bolt could strip them from the clip and feed them into the breech, and after the last round, the clip was autoejected, and went spanging away., and you inserted another clip into the magazine.
Therein lies another difference. Except for cost considerations, you didn't pick up expended clips. But you did keep ahold of empty magazines...
Here endeth the grumpiness.