Posted on 12/04/2009 6:23:35 PM PST by Chode
Friday Night Gun Porn
I hadn't thought of this in years till tonight, so google comes to the rescue. The TOUGHEST DAMN SPORT IN THE WORLD!!! The real Top Guns: Never mind health and safety - the world's most dangerous sport is back... the Royal Navy's field gun competition
I had watched this several times on tv back in the 80's/90's and I remember watching this one iirc on ESPN... Royal Naval field Gun Competition 1999
this was their 108th and final Royal year...command' competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32s4qCCFnmk&feature=player_embedded
I hadn't thought of this in years till tonight, so google comes to the rescue. The TOUGHEST DAMN SPORT IN THE WORLD!!! The real Top Guns: Never mind health and safety - the world's most dangerous sport is back... the Royal Navy's field gun competition
Excellent article on it's history...
Travis, pls ping whoever you think might want to give it a look... thx
There is nothing quite like the Royal Navy’s Field Gun run, a wince-inducing display of teamwork and severed digits. To excel at this sport, you require the explosive speed of a sprinter, the strength of a weightlifter, the precision of a ballerina and the pain threshold of a mother of 12.
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sounds both fun and dangerous.
Kudos to the survivors.. uhh participants.
broken arms and missing fingers car common...
The last thing I would want is a bunch of zulus jabbing me in my backside whilst I’m haulin’ cannon..
great clip.. I can’t imagine what that must have looked like in battlefield conditions..
you'll prolly like this and have access to a list of others that might... thx
i heard that...
Well, who allowed them to be men?
Is that why they don’t do it anymore?
Now they have the conflict resolution race to the therapist?
Bright sweaters and estrogen for everyone!
I do hope they bring it back. Gives testosterone a good name. What a cool race!
That.
Is.
Frikking.
Wild.
I have never heard of this competition...what a frikking BEASTLY task that looks like! HAIL BRITTANIA! Thanks for posting this, Chode!
it still goes on here and there but it's no longer a command performance... i.e. the Royals do not attend.
pretty coool eh???
Pffftttt! Men being Men! There must have been a law broken! Just WOW!
(I also love the fact that it has historical roots!)
That is really cool. Thanks for posting.
welcome...
ping for high speed access...
I’ve never seen this before. Amazing competition and tradition.
yup, some things just have to be seen to be believed...
Bump
Dark's maybe you know of a cannon cocker ping list if you think it's worth it... thx
How about these guys? This is the German East Africa Defense Force during World War One hauling one of the ten guns salvaged off the scuttled light cruiser Konigsberg.
Trapped in a river and out of coal, the cruiser's crew scuttled the ship after suffering heavy damage at the hands of British monitors, taking with them eight 105mm and two 88mm cannon, mounting them on carriages made from metal also salvaged from the ship. Porters from the tribes siding with the Germans pulled the guns all over East Africa, abandoning them as they ran low on ammo. Three of the guns still exist as war memorials: in Pretoria, South Africa; Mombasa, Kenya; and Jinja, Uganda.
As an aside, of the 188 sailors from the Konigsberg who joined Colonel (later General) von Lettow-Vorbeck's East Africa Defense Force, only 15 survived to return to Germany after the war.
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