January 13, 2007
A whatziss of a different color.
One of these things is not like the other. Of course, that's the easy part.
So, what *is* the thing that's not like the other? What's the oddness of it being here in the first place?
Extra credit? Who, what, and where on the photo.
Just to be kind - hi-res here.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »January 09, 2007
The T-95, yesterday's Whatziss.
Fred identified the vehicle - and found the second of the two that survive. I didn't know where that one was, so I learned something yesterday - and that one, at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, is within striking distance of the Castle.
Here's the picture that I modified for the snipe hunt.
That picture came from the American Fighting Vehicle Database website - specifically this page, which has several more pictures and explanatory text.
Most of you went where I expected the visual would take you - though the orangish-tan background color I chose my have given a subconscious cue - that was accidental, not deliberate.
I honestly thought some of you tankers out there would get this one more quickly than happened, in the event. Hey, you must have jobs or something...
Hey, if you've got pics of odd-looking stuff you want to submit for a whatziss - send 'em along! Those of you who have - thanks!
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »January 08, 2007
Whatziss?
Change of pace. One for the Tankers. I expect this will go fast.
Yeah, yeah. I know it's a tank. Let's do better than that. Extra points if you figure out where it is. And the *only* photoshopping was to remove the background.
January 05, 2007
The Whatziss from yesterday.
Not too many takers on this one. Which is interesting, given that there is boatloads of data out there on this particular beast.
That said - only two takers, but #2, Pat - got it mostly correct when he identified them as rounds for the M8C Spotting Rifle. His only error (obliquely) was continuing on and tying it to the 106mm recoilless rifle.
These were used for the M8C rifles used on the British Wombat recoilless rifle - a quibble, certainly, except the red paint in the flutes indicates their Brit origin.
This website (the Armorer wants one of these guns) has a nice set of pictures of a before and after restoration of a 106RR.
The spotting rifle is used by the gunner to acquire his target, without wasting main gun ammo, and with a lessened signature to give away his position. The M8C is a gas-operated semi-auto, which means the gunner just pings away with it until he sees a hit on his target at which point he fires his main gun. The use of a special cartridge with the M8C, vice a regular .50 cal round, is because you want the ballistic performance of the round to be roughly equal to the trajectory of the main gun - speed of flight isn't as important as trajectory matching is.
Tanks can use their coaxial machine guns for the same purpose. The Israelis even mounted M2 .50s on their M109A1 155mm howitzers for the same purpose - to make it easier to use the guns in direct fire mode.
Now for the fun part - doing some research for this post, I found this very nice picture of an M50 Ontos - the USMC reckless rifle carrier of the Vietnam era.
And I found this website with a lot of great pictures of the Ontos, certainly one of the odder weapon systems we've developed over the years. A lot of firepower on that little tracked chassis - but all served from outside the vehicle, on a vehicle, by the very nature of the weapon, that is going to attract a *lot* of attention.
Enjoy.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »January 04, 2007
Whatziss?
The red paint in the flutes is a clue as to origin. That will help you narrow the field.
I'll take away the easy answer - they're dummy rounds used for function-checking by Armorers and training by users. The real question is - what weapon were they intended for?
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »December 26, 2006
A new whatziss.
This one is rather more conventional - some of you may get it right off the bat.
Someone's bound to overthink it, however.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »December 22, 2006
The Whatziss, continued.
Here's your second clue - at this point, it's a Google Skillz contest. Which is why you don't often *get* headstamp clues!
But this one is kinda neat, and while very different from what you guys would expect from me, is very much in keeping with the things that keep me endlessly fascinated.
If this post makes *no* sense to you, you're probably a new visitor, or a little behind. Start here.
Update: Whee! Chicken Soup for the Armorer's Soul - an email on this post:
DAMN YOU DONOVAN AND YOUR CURSED WTFIZZ!;-)
Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp!
December 21, 2006
A new whatziss - reader supplied!
Reader Rick, a relative newcomer who likes the Whatziss genré poses us a challenge. Ladies and Gents: Whatziss?
Update: BTW, I didn't have a clue, never having seen one before. I'm going to let you guys run with this today, and then I'll put up a pic of the headstamp. That info will, with careful googling, get you to the answer.
The answer is, to me at least, fascinating.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »December 13, 2006
A new whatziss.
Prior to 1960.
Go for it. It's out there, in the usual places.
Oh, and the bullet is the correct bullet - the neck of the cartridge was damaged by the numbskull who used pliers to remove the bullet... and the color on the tip of the bullet *is* a clue.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »December 08, 2006
On the issue of whether to let officers be in charge of procurement or not...
...better known as the "Answer to the Whatziss" posed earlier this week.
Also known as the dangers of a college education.
This one.
The Great and Powerful Og got it right, as did Rick and Rod - it's a gauge. Pogue sorta fell into my visual trap (I figured people would try to find it to be a fuze) and stumbled into the answer backwards.
It's a gauge used to check fuze setters. It's post-WWII Brit, though the US has equivalents.
In use, looking sorta like this.
Expensive piece of kit, when procured, I don't doubt. It's made of tough stuff so that it can handle the use and still maintain it's dimensional integrity and accuracy.
So what's this got to do with the title of the post, you ask? Simple.
But you'll need to go to the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry to find out.
Flash Traffic (extended entry) Follows » Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »
December 06, 2006
Feh! Since I'm all bummed...
...about the Weblog Awards, I'm going to take it out on you guys.
Whatzis?
Post WWII. NATO, not Warsaw Pact.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »December 02, 2006
A reader-submitted Whatzis!
SezaGeoff, from Down Under, sends us this, and asks us, "Whatzis?"
It's out there. Geoff provided a URL, too.
Good luck!
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! »November 25, 2006
Okay, let's have a two-fer.
It's Saturday, hardly anyone visits anyway... except for you hard core types!
Okay - Whatziss? There are a few of you who have a real chance at this one.
Now, on this one, I'm just being flat mean.
Anyone who gets this one is a real geek brainiac when it comes to their militaria.
It *is* an ordnance item.
November 21, 2006
The Sunday Whatzis, revealed.
Confused? Click here.
That's a bullet for the Nordenfeldt 1-inch anti-torpedo boat gun. The Nordenfeldt guns were an early type of machine-gun. Like the Gatling gun, they used multiple barrels and mechanical power to operate. Unlike the Gatling, the didn't last very long in the grand scheme of things, much less enjoy a renaissance when someone realized what electricity might accomplish when applied to the concept.
Here's a group of Brit tars training with one (though no feed hopper has been loaded).
The Nordenfeldt guns were developed between 1873 and 1878 and were very popular in Europe, especially amongst the sailors. They generally had four barrels in line horizontally and were fed by gravity-feed hoppers. You can see them with 5 barrels or as few as two. One advantage the Nordenfeldts had over the Gatling was that the mechanism was much easier to get to for the purpose of clearing jams. Plus, if the jam was too complex and the situation dire, you could simply disconnect the barrel and keep firing with the remaining barrels. Unlike the Gatling, which used a rotating crank to cycle the gun, the Nordenfeldts used a lever that was moved back and forth. I've seen both a lever in the vertical plane, on the left side of the gun, or a handle that moved in the horizontal plane, on the right side of the gun. The sailor on the left right (sigh, I suppose, in the future, I'll just submit all posts to CAPT H for editing before publishing) in the picture has his hand on the lever for this particular gun. The cyclic rate of fire was about 350 rounds per minute.
Here we can see some more sailors getting it on for the camera. This gun has its feed-hopper mounted.
All that flailing about did affect accuracy a bit, but heck, they weren't used as sniper weapons.
The Brit National Maritime Museum has a wonderful copyright protected (way too expensive to buy permission to use) photo of a 1-inch Nordenfeldt anti-torpedo boat gun right here.
The Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds has a nice little four-barrel Nordenfeldt - which shows the lever nicely, too.
November 20, 2006
So, why *does* the Arsenal of Argghhh! exist?
Lex has an excellent post that Fuzzy linked to yesterday, regarding Trolls.
In it, Lex notes what he's learned about some of the people who hang out at his place.
In my mind’s eye, I know the regulars here by what they love. CPT J is a warrior poet, his heart beats to the ancient rhythms. B2 and Sid saw the world as it once was, and think it still the best. Michelle likes a good sea story, Kris likes plane pr0n, Byron loves ships from the inside, Tim loves the whirl of the blades - prop or helo doesn’t matter - and the thrill of the hunt. Chap loves to think deep thoughts, while Skippy-san loves beer and (asian) women. Sim and Chris both like to fly, and they both love Oz, and who can blame them? unkawill loves heroes and the old ways, Brian and Nose like it when the pilots synch the props and remember fondly the stories of their youth. Subsunk loves the good fight and is a man after my own heart, FbL loves doing good, while AFSister likes to flirt but loves her boys. John Donovan loves him some guns, Buck still loves the Air Force even after all these years as Mark and Bill still love the Corps. Babs loves her young man Tim and would fight for him if it came to it and for my own part I’d never want to stand against her if it came to that, and there are many, many more and I don’t want to leave anyone out, but you get the point: I know you by what you love, and in a way I love you for it.
John Donovan loves him some guns.
Heh.
Excellent post, Lex. And you almost got me nailed.
I do love me some guns, ‘tis true. But I loves me the used guns… because of the warriors that *used* them.
Bring me no Arsenal-snazzy gleaming hunk of iron and wood, unless that’s all I can get.
Give me something that has hunkered in a hole with a fighting man. That hopped the hedge not knowing what was on the other side… that drew the steady bead or just blazed away in hopeless earnest.
Because it then becomes my connection to the warrior.
Like these Marines at Tarawa, 63 years ago today.
It’s why I spent a long, hot, dark week in the bowels of the ex-USS John Rodgers, tripped excitedly through the Foxtrot moored in 'Dago, after having already clambered through the Midway.
Or I rejoice when an old warrior with a checkered past resurfaces. Or a weapon that figured in a clash of cultures, not just a clash of arms.
Why a jetsicle in the middle of nowhere, where once an air force base was will catch my eye, or that old german trench mortar standing forlorn in the once-bustling square of a now-dying town.
I wanna know how they computed the data.
It's why I'm as interested in the training devices as I am the real thing. Or how they ate. Or drank and passed the time. The people who cared for them.
Through them all I connect to the warriors who used them, and the people they touched. For good or ill, successful or no. They are my link to the past, and provide context to the future.
Like the Martini-Henrys on this wall, which provide a tangible link to this soldier and his mount, training for dismounted combat.
Just sayin’.
Oh, and because SWWBO sez it can.
November 19, 2006
Okay, a lazy Sunday whatziss.
A couple of you have been at this long enough, you'll probably get it quickly.
Mebbe not.
Have fun snipe-hunting!
BTW - you can *always* submit things for future snipe hunts, if ya want...
Update. Hmmmm. Pre-1900. Mebbe that'll help.