The Loose Association of Wargamers

Yes, my marksmanship was judged harshly by my Peruvian bodyguard.

One day at breakfast he said that he was going off bush to set up an impromptu shooting range to do some target practice required for his licences to kill, as he had a LOT of spare ammo, would I like to join him.

Would I what? Ignoring my own responsibilities, we got the chopper to drop us outside the main work area and fired enough rounds to convince the Ecuadorians that we were about to invade. On full Auto, I managed to miss Peru completely with the AK, so he was instructing me on the use of the pistol. "Get close enough to touch the person with the muzzle" he said. "And then I pull the trigger", I said excitedly; "No, then reverse the pistol, grip it by the barrel and beat the guy to death, it's the only way you will ever kill someone with a fire arm.".

You could take out a whole glider full of German paratroopers with that sort of firepower.

Or nuns in jackboots.

Them too. Never trust a nun in jack boots. Or thigh high boots either.

They've probably got dirty habits.

I don't feel guilty about my VBCW militia having so many Lewis guns now.

Buff Orpington wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:39 pm I don't feel guilty about my VBCW militia having so many Lewis guns now.

Indeed not. They were absolutely up to their tits in automatic weapons. There were also the weird and wonderful Heath-Robinson weapons at battalion level, such as Blacker Bombards, Northover Projectors and Smith Guns. My local museum has a wonderful film from 1944, showing the disbandment parade of the Pembrokeshire Home Guard in 1944, including a firepower demonstration; great stuff (and my Granddad and Great-Granddad were in there somewhere)!

RMD wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:04 pm They've probably got dirty habits.

Nah, you lot are just a bunch of wimples.

RMD wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:02 pm

Buff Orpington wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:39 pm I don't feel guilty about my VBCW militia having so many Lewis guns now.

Indeed not. They were absolutely up to their tits in automatic weapons. There were also the weird and wonderful Heath-Robinson weapons at battalion level, such as Blacker Bombards, Northover Projectors and Smith Guns. ...

It's funny, everyone laughs at weapons such as the Blacker Bombard & the PIAT; but no-one makes jokes about the technically very similar Hedgehog and Squid Anti-Submarine weapons used by the RN, perhaps because they were obviously so deadly.

I consider the PIAT to be the invention of the devil (or a very skilfully placed German spy) but over 50% of Canadian officers interviewed after battle described it as adequate to excellent when asked about its fitness for purpose.

Of course, that didn't include the ones machine gunned by German tanks trying to reload it, nor those pierced through the eye by its tail after detonating on the target.

I have always felt that the Home Guard should have adopted the Bob Semple Tank.