New contest.

[Niner Delta]

Things have been pretty slow around this forum for a while, so it is time for a new contest.

If you can tell me about this scooter/gun, you get a prize. Tell the country that used this, how it was used, brand of scooter and size of gun.

The first to do this will get a used practice (hollow dummy plastic) 40mm grenade, the type we used in the M-79 in Viet Nam and is still in use today.

I will use my very own hands to mail this to you in a genuine cardboard box.

Bet none of your friends have one of these and they will turn green with envy when you display it with pride in the one spot that will most likely piss off your wife.

So put on your thinking caps, put down that 8th beer, try to remember your name and "Enter Now", you'll be glad you did.

Vern.

[Aughnanure]

I'd enter and probably win, being very knowledgeble but Her Majesty's Customs woundn't let the prize into the country and if they did I'd have to apply for a 'Commissioner's Permit' from the Comm. de Police.

One of the conditions would probably be that the item could not be displayed but must be locked in the ammo box.

So I'll reluctantly have to give this a miss.

PS. I don't really know the answers

[Niner]

Hope this works better than one I tried out a couple of weeks ago. After a week of being ignored I removed it....and nobody noticed.

[Aughnanure]

I noticed

[Karl/Pa.]

Militarized Vespa scooters outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle

After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina.

[Niner Delta]

Eoin,

I assume you are kidding about the customs, it is just a piece of hollow plastic. If you are not kidding, then I am amazed and saddened.

Robert,

Only could identify 2 of the items and didn't want to look unmilsurpy (is that a word?), so I didn't answer, but did notice they were gone. So, what were the answers?

Karl,

Congratulations!! Absolutely correct. Excellent job of cut and paste from the same web site I found it on.

Send me a private message on the forum here with your address and I'll send it on the King's Post.

[Aughnanure]

I ain't kiddin'. That's the way the law 'works' around here.

There would be an assumption that it could cause alarm to little old ladies (of either sex) who wouldn't know that it was an inert dummy.

This was a good competition, who would ever have guessed, bit like the pre WW I British cycle troops.

[DuncaninFrance]

This is FACT not fiction.

In 1959 the Italian army invented Platoon sized ratpacks to save on packaging costs. This is the mobile pepper mill to go with a platoon 24 hour pack.

[Niner]

Two right answers would have won. Hell no right answers would have won.

1. British contract mark on M91 Moisin Nagant. Famous for being stamped on the stocks of American made by contract Nagants. 2. Balister Molina the 1911 nock off but with distinctly lacking features, like the grip safety for one. 3. .308 Indian Enfield. The 2A's and 2A1's had distinctive squared up muzzles that the .303 Enfield didn't have. 4. French Mas 5. Spiller and Burr pistol or Whitney revolver that it was a nock off of also accepted. 6. Carcano Receiver. 7. Arisaka bolt end closeup 8. Garand M1 Muzzle. 9. Springfield 1903a3 10. K98 WW1 rear rollercoast sight.

[DuncaninFrance]

I got No:5 right!

Not got the courage of my convictions ( which are mostly for wine drinking! )