This is just a tease...

While I work on the rest of the post...

Suffice it to say it's about grenades and WWI. Modified Gun Porn™ is back!

Update: I'm still working on it! Hadda get that military geek stuff done, first!

Last Update: It's done! Of course, unless you came here directly from a bookmark, you know that already, since it's the first post of Veteran's Day!

Another reason I'll never live in NYC, legally, anyway.

HIH, Emperor Misha I, has a good rant about how things work in NYC thanks to the Sullivan Act (a gun-control measure enacted to keep racial undesirables from owning guns... a fact that doesn't bother liberal Gun Fearing Wussies).

Speaking of Gun Fearing Wussies - howcum the libs don't denigrate boycotting things when they want to do it? Oh, right, d-uh. They aren't about freedom. They are about control.

I have moments of cognitive dissonance when I run across their fear of the NRA. They portray the NRA essentially as this huge, megalithic bloc. True, so far. But they imply that it is composed of these deep-pocket gun makers and their corporate allies... except that most of the people in the shooting sports/firearms industry aren't Fortune 500 corporate exploiters with deep pockets. The NRA (regardless of whether you like how they are doing things these days, I have some gripes) is a well-run grassroots organization composed of lots and lots of normal (well, we think we are, "THEY" don't - "THEY" think we're monsters) people. This is what I think of "THEY".

Which of course is what annoys and scares them. Once again, a bunch of un-washed helots daring to argue with them about something.

Guns just laying around the countryside for the picking!

Cute ones, like this ugly little spud of a 9CWT howitzer...

Or famous ones (if you're into the history of artillery, anyway) the Brit 5.5in howitzer of WWII...

Squat ones like this 64-pounder fortress gun...

Skeletal ones like this 12-pounder fortress gun...

Small ones, like this light mountain/airborne gun...

Big ones, like these two monsters...

Famous broken ones, like the Nery' Gun (Render a salute to the Victoria Crosses earned here)

1914: "The Affair at Nery" saw a fierce cavalry action fought between the British 1st Cavalry Brigade and the entire German 4th Cavalry Division. The British cavalry covering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force, were surprised at first light by the German cavalry at the village of Nery. Two machine-guns from the 2nd Dragoon Guards, under Lieutenant Lamb, and three guns from L Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery provided covering fire despite being heavily outgunned by their opponents. Two of L Battery's guns were quickly knocked out, but the sole remaining gun continued to fight a duel with eight German guns until its ammunition had been exhausted, manned by Captain Bradbury, Sergeant Major Dorrell and the wounded Sergeant Nelson - all three were awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumously in the case of Captain Bradbury. Lieutenant Lamb won the Distinguished Service Order. Despite their superiority in numbers, the German cavalry was forced to withdraw, abandoning their eight artillery guns. L Battery is now part of 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards are the modern successors to 2nd Dragoon Guards. The gun in the pictures is the gun discussed here. Obviously, given the muzzle damage, the infantry arrived just in time.

There are also a few impractical guns like this mortar...

And... from tiny little man-handled jobs like this Krupp 75mm mountain gun...

...to self-propelled guns like the HMS Belfast,

there are lots of cannons to warm the heart of the artilleryman and make him feel at home. It's better'n Aberdeen!

I've got more gun pics to go - and I haven't started the tanks yet, either! Sadly, I didn't get to Bovington, where the best tank museum in the world is!

« Secure this line!

Canadian Soldiers, Canadian Politicos.

I like canuck soldiers. They are always great to work with (as, frankly, are all Commonwealth Nation soldiers I have worked with). They live with their government, and gamely support it, as any soldier of a democracy should. One of the things I do for a living currently is work on an upcoming ABCA alliance exercise. ABCA is America, Britain, Canada, Australia. The ABCA alliance has existed since WWII, and currently all of it's member nations are fighting and dying in the GWOT. The Canadians may have declined Iraq, but they are in Afghanistan.

Canadian politicians, however, are a different breed.

Link from Little Green Footballs via Canadians Are Smug.

Entropy Sucks.

Fare thee well, thou good and faithful friend...