Posted on 10/29/2017 10:35:44 AM PDT by Simon Green
(Odds are, a little elbow grease and some lube will get those STENs up and running again.)
A couple remodeling an old home in north-central France found a cache of ammo, grenades and submachine guns hidden under a granite floor, The Lyonne Republicaine reported.
The find was made in July by the couple in the Quarré-les-Tombes area, about 150 miles away from Paris. Cached under the floor were three STEN guns, over a dozen Britsh Mills bomb type fragmentation grenades, three handguns, more than 1,000 rounds of ammo, and several Bren light machine gun magazines.
Two of the sub guns were engraved, one with the name Pepette and another in the name Alice.
The couple donated the find to the Museum of the Resistance in Morvan, who are demilitarising the weapons and plan to exhibit them starting next Spring.
According to the museum, the cache probably belonged to the Maquis Vauban, a Resistance group that operated in the area in 1943 and 1944.
During World War II the Allies dropped literally tons of arms and munitions to local resistance forces across occupied Europe to give the Germans a little heartburn. Though squirreled away over 70 years ago, caches left behind by various underground groups have popped up in Denmark, France, and Latvia in recent months, as have individual arms buried during the war for one reason or another.
Du Quois: This is Chevalier, Montage, Detente, Avant Garde, and Deja Vu.
Deja Vu: Haven’t we met before monsieur ?
Nick Rivers: I don’t think so.
Du Quois: Over there, Croissant, Souffle, Escargot, and Chocolate Mousse.
Would not have turned that in- would have kept it especially the bren guns
They resisted the Germans, but not the muslims?
Latvia? Against the Soviets?
Only after they took over.
In fairness, taking France costs the Germans 27,000 killed, 111,000 wounded, 1,200 aircraft, and 800 tanks.
After all the fishing related gun losses, just imagine what could be found if the lakes and rivers around Freepers were drained. :-)
and how much of that can be attributed to the British?
Pretty interesting! More interesting than a rusted-to-hell WW1 artillery round dug up from a field somewhere.
Who can identify the semi-auto handgun? The revolver could be almost anything, a Webley, maybe. There appears to be an FP-45 “Liberator” pistol. The semi-auto does not appear to be the right proportions for a 1911. Maybe a Hi-Power? A small caliber Beretta? The angle of the shot makes the barrel length look odd. The brick pattern also makes it look like there’s a big slide-guard on the semiauto.
I never find cool stuff like that. I would have wanted to try out the Stens.
Weren’t Stens pretty much crude, inaccurate bullet sprayers?
Well, the BEF was only 13 divisions, whereas the French Army had 104. I would presume the lion's share of German casualties were inflicted by the French.
Sure...but they were cheap, and we needed a lot of them.
Stens...crude? yes. Inaccurate? Not necessarily.
Well, it does fire from an open bolt.
“There is sauerkraut in my lederhosen.”
Leonard Cohen - The Partisan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S34cVkL6zCE
When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender,
this I could not do;
I took my gun and vanished.
I have changed my name so often,
I’ve lost my wife and children
but I have many friends,
and some of them are with me.
An old woman gave us shelter,
kept us hidden in the garret,
then the soldiers came;
she died without a whisper.
There were three of us this morning
I’m the only one this evening
but I must go on;
the frontiers are my prison.
Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we’ll come from the shadows.
Les Allemands étaient chez moi (The Germans were at my home)
ils m’ont dit “Résigne-toi” (They said, “Surrender,”)
mais je n’ai pas pu (this I could not do)
j’ai repris mon arme (I took my weapon again)
J’ai changé cent fois de nom (I have changed names a hundred times)
j’ai perdu femme et enfants (I have lost wife and children)
mais j’ai tant d’amis (But I have so many friends)
j’ai la France entière (I have all of France)
Un vieil homme dans un grenier (An old man, in an attic)
pour la nuit nous a cachés (Hid us for the night)
les Allemands l’ont pris (The Germans captured him)
il est mort sans surprise (He died without surprise)
Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,
through the graves the wind is blowing,
freedom soon will come;
then we’ll come from the shadows.
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