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 you'll prolly like this and have access to a list of others that might... thxWell, 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!
That is really cool. Thanks for posting.
I’ve never seen this before. Amazing competition and tradition.
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.
Great post. What a great tradition for our British Brothers.
Simply awesome!
for your viewing pleasure... look at the top one firstAbout 10 years ago, I had the chance to witness a demonstration put on by the Canadian Navy on the Capitol lawn in Ottowa. It’s fun to watch.
The guys had a sense of humor too. After reassembling the gun they kept tracking their target. In this case the crusty old Leftenant who was also narrating the event.
Looks like a Monty Python skit........