Military "Yearbook"

[Higgins617]

So I was talking to Jersey about the fact that I came across my Grandfather's "yearbook" from when he was in basic training during Korea. I found it extremely interesting, and wanted to share.

It'll take a few posts, sorry!

[Higgins617]

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[jerseydevil]

Those are some very neat pics!  The equipment is a bit of an odd mix of early WWII and modern for the Korean War era.  There's an M1917 Browning .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun in one pic, but the Bazookas are M20 3.5" "Super Bazooka"s, not the smaller 2.36" that was famous for WWII use.  The earlier ones couldn't penetrate the armor of the T-34's the North Koreans were using.  I love the group of guys learning how to field strip a Garand as well.  My grandfather taught my mother how to do that, she can still strip down and reassemble my M1 blindfolded.    Thanks for posting those! 

[Higgins617]

I noticed that as well, it seemed like a bazaar mix to me the big Browning instantly makes me think WWII. They were mounted on the Shermans right? Forgive me, but weren't the M14s standard issue by Korea? I still love the rifle fired grenades too.

The whole book is really cool, it really is set up like a yearbook. There's other sections on recreation and stuff too.

[jerseydevil]

The Brownings in those pictures are .30 caliber ones, little Brownings compared to the .50.    The one with the large cylinder around the barrel is an M1917, it used water in that jacket to cool the barrel.  The other one shown is an M1919, which is air-cooled.  As for the rifles, officially the M1 was standard until 1959, but in reality front line US troops were carrying M1's until around 1963.  National Guard units were still carrying the M1 into the mid 70's.  The M14 didn't have a long life as standard combat rifle, but in Afghanistan a lot of them have seen service because they're more accurate out to longer ranges than the M16.  The M14 was and is still a damn good rifle, but a heavy sucker.  The grenade launchers being used in those pics are M7's.  It clipped on to the muzzle of the Garand, and used a blank cartridge to fire the grenade.

[Higgins617]

You're the man hahahahaha. I love learning new stuff, especially stuff like this. I didn't know the M1s hung around that long either, that's pretty cool, the weapons only as good as the person handling it anyways.

[Chako]

Thanks for sharing. 

[ducttapetech]

Cool pics! I also notice all the different weapons they where using.
Thanks for sharing!

[ColoSwiss]

Interesting pics. Thanks for the view.

Noticed one GI about to fire a rifle grenade from the shoulder. Not something he's likely to repeat.

[jerseydevil]

Noticed one GI about to fire a rifle grenade from the shoulder. Not something he's likely to repeat.

I noticed that.  Also in one of the Bazooka pics, you'll see someone standing directly behind the weapon.  I sure as hell hope it wasn't fired when someone was in that location.......

Also, last night I posted that the M14 was adopted as standard in 1959.  The correct date was 1957.

[Top-Gear-24]

I once found one of those rifle grenades with my metal detector in the fields surrounding a small town called "Geel Ten Aard", about 20 km from my home.  During World War 2 that place had seen some serious fighting (more info here).

Needles to say that I was quite "impressed" when I hit it with my army shovel ("impessed" meaning "scared smurfless  ).  A local digger who had a lot more experience with these things took it with him to put it with the rest of the explosive things he found that day, he had like 4 or 5 handgrenades in the trunk of his jeep ...  .  He already contacted DOVO (the EOD department of the Belgian army) and they came to pick it up later that day.

Anyway, what a nice piece of history you have there, that book is just amazing.

Thanks for sharing it mate  .

[ColoSwiss]

I once found one of those rifle grenades with my metal detector in the fields surrounding a small town called "Geel Ten Aard", about 20 km from my home.  During World War 2 that place had seen some serious fighting (more info here).

Needles to say that I was quite "impressed" when I hit it with my army shovel ("impessed" meaning "scared smurfless  ).  A local digger who had a lot more experience with these things took it with him to put it with the rest of the explosive things he found that day, he had like 4 or 5 handgrenades in the trunk of his jeep ...  .  He already contacted DOVO (the EOD department of the Belgian army) and they came to pick it up later that day.

Anyway, what a nice piece of history you have there, that book is just amazing.

Thanks for sharing it mate  .

I've heard that farmers over in Belgium and France occasionally hit unexploded ordnance with their equipment, which tends to be rough on the equipment. Often it doesn't do the farmer any good either.

[Top-Gear-24]

I once found one of those rifle grenades with my metal detector in the fields surrounding a small town called "Geel Ten Aard", about 20 km from my home.  During World War 2 that place had seen some serious fighting (more info here).

Needles to say that I was quite "impressed" when I hit it with my army shovel ("impessed" meaning "scared smurfless  ).  A local digger who had a lot more experience with these things took it with him to put it with the rest of the explosive things he found that day, he had like 4 or 5 handgrenades in the trunk of his jeep ...  .  He already contacted DOVO (the EOD department of the Belgian army) and they came to pick it up later that day.

Anyway, what a nice piece of history you have there, that book is just amazing.

Thanks for sharing it mate  .

I've heard that farmers over in Belgium and France occasionally hit unexploded ordnance with their equipment, which tends to be rough on the equipment. Often it doesn't do the farmer any good either.

That's right, in the area we call "de Westhoek", which is roughly the area between the town of Ypres and the Belgian coast, farmers still find unexploded ordnance on a daily base.  Some of them even containing mustard gas.  They also keep finding the remaines of young guys who died way to early to secure our freedom, we Belgians don't forget these brave guys, that's why there's a ceremony every day at The Menin Gate in Ypres.

This is on a regular day:



This was last November 11:

[jerseydevil]

 

Eric are there more World War I or II sites near you?  I know the whole country was fought over in both, just curious.

EDIT:  I just followed your link on the Menin Gate.  90,000 Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave in that area alone!?!  Horrifying.  Ypres was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting the world has ever seen, but that number shocked me.

[ColoSwiss]

When I was in Belgium some years back we visited a recreated section of WWI trenches, as well as several cemeteries and memorials.

Also a preserved section of the Atlantic Wall fortifications near Ostend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Wall_Open_Air_Museum


Best part of the trip was Brussles' Grand-Place - spectacular!

[Top-Gear-24]

Eric are there more World War I or II sites near you?  I know the whole country was fought over in both, just curious.

EDIT:  I just followed your link on the Menin Gate.  90,000 Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave in that area alone!?!  Horrifying.  Ypres was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting the world has ever seen, but that number shocked me.

I live in the south of the provence Antwerp, so almost "in the middle" of Belgium.  So if I drive about 40 minutes to the east I'm in Haelen, 2 hours to the east I'm in Bastogne, 2 hours to the west I'm in Ypres and Passchendaele, 45 minutes to the south I'm in Waterloo and 30 minutes to the north I'm in Geel Ten Aard.  And in the towns of Haacht and Rotselaar, which are about 15 km from my home, there was also a fierce battle between German and Belgian forces around the 12th September 1914.

Here are a couple of pics of stuff I found in that area.

This first pic shows Belgian World War I bullets, I found these during 2 hours of searching with the metal detector, my friend who was with me that day with his metal detector found about an equal amount of these in the same field that day (my friend polished a couple of these Belgian bullets and when the rust is removed, they look amazing):




Same field, but a German World War I bullet (German bullets are harder to find, since the Germans used poor quality steel):




And these were found in the same area, and they are American World War II bullets (if I'm not mistaken):




But it's not just in those areas, every field I've been to with my metal detector, I found at least 5 things of one of the World Wars, bulletpoints, shrapnel balls, pieces of copper (there's a copper ring around an artillery shell, which falls of while it travels through the air), buttons and buckles from clothing, shell detonators ...

Here are some pics of what we find all over the place here:

Belgian Army clothing buttons (found on 4 different fields):




Shrapnell balls and buckles and other stuff:




These next ones are all musket balls (except the one in the middle on the right, that one's a WWI shrapnell ball):




A piece of shell detonator (harmless in this condition):




This next one is a pic of  another kind of (complete) detonator (I hate it when I find something like that):




One day of searching and this was what we found, on top is a piece of a fork or spoon, and the first row on the top are mostly pieces of copper (from the ring around the shells) or pieces of detonator



Here I zoomed in on the shrapnell balls, musket balls, and some late medieval coins, (and unknown stuff):



Just to be clear, We never go metaldetecting in places like Ypres, Passchendaele, Bastogne, Waterloo, ...  because those places are "sacred" to us, and digging there would be very dishonorable.  And it's actually forbidden by law (which some people don't care about, Bois jacques near Bastogne shows a lot of signs of metaldetecting, which I find a disgrace  ).  We search "regular" fields, but like I said, there's always some stuff from one of the World Wars in each field we go to, that's just how it is here in Belgium, one giant battlefield ...

Hope I haven't derailed your thread too much  .

[jerseydevil]

Wow!    That's an awful lot of 7.65 Mauser bullets!  I can imagine finding a relatively intact detonator would not be a fun thing either.  Around here is a fair bit of American Revolutionary War history.  The Continental Army spent three winters in New Jersey, two of them only 20 minutes from here in Morristown.  Three major battles were fought here, Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth, along with many smaller skirmishes.  Those sites are not somewhere you can just go digging either, nor would I want to.  I do have some Civil War artifacts, but they were all found on private land.

[Higgins617]

So I found another book, you guys can let me know if there's any interest before I snap a bunch of pictures. The book was published in 1946.

[ColoSwiss]

Probably a lot of Signal Corps photos, many of which have been used repeatedly since then.

However if something looks interesting, by all means post them. We'll enjoy looking at them, and some may be new to various members.