Posted on 05/07/2008 6:30:16 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
I’ll pass on reviewing this one...
There is a typo in the title. These events, of course, were seventy years ago.
This paragraph caught my attention even though I did not know who John W. Gates was (John Warne Gates (May 18, 1855–August 9, 1911), also known as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, was a pioneer promoter of barbed wire who became a Gilded Age industrialist.) or what legerdemain means (legerdemain \lej-ur-duh-MAIN\, noun: 1. Sleight of hand. 2. A display of skill, trickery, or artful deception.).
They did it very well. Yet it was quite evident that neither to the participants nor to the onlookers was this a quite pleasing innovation. If the late John W. Gates, if by any legerdemain his spirit could have been brought back from wherever it may be at present to witness the goose stepping today, he would certainly have been willing to bet a million against a large red apple that the army hates it.
You don’t run across this kind of journalism these days.
The main article is followed by stories about what the Pope thought of Hitler’s visit and where Bren machine guns are to be manufactured.
Soldiers who make good parades - usually don’t win battles..
FWIW, I have an Inglis/Browning Hi-Power. Same company that made the Bren MG during the war. It’s chambered in 9mm.
86 seconds. I’m impressed.
Italian infantry rifle. Never fired, dropped once.
Battle-ready units never pass inspection & Inspection-ready units never ‘pass’ battle.
The French army looked good on parade, too. The Italians may have looked good for the show, but I suspect the military insiders in the UK knew to not fear the Italians.
Their equipment was substandard (the M-13 tank was an iron coffin), the artillery was horse-drawn and of WW1 vintage. There as a lack of motor transport, and the Italians had few modern technological advancements. For example, none of their warships had radar, which made them highly vulnerable to the Royal Navy in night engagements.
Italian industry was not capable of building better equipment or even making what they had in sufficient quantities to support prolonged military operations.
Worse yet, the Italian soldier knew his equipment was junk, and had no stomach to fight; what were they fighting for?
It was all a facade. When Hitler called on Mussolini for actual support in September 1939, Mussolini declared Italy was not prepared to fight and gave Hitler a list of raw material demands that Mussolini knew full well that Hitler could not provide.
But it takes a lot of practice to play Retreat on the bugle while running to the rear. That doesn't leave much time for target practice.
A regiment of picturesque Bersaglieri moving at their traditional dog trot with bugles blowing . . . came at the end of the parade.
Please don’t ever change the title. There’s nothing so deeply satisfying as driving Obsessive Compulsives nuts.
Youse maka a funny?
Actually, one can see Italian Army rifles from that era being advertised in Shotgun New, a shooting industry publication.
German and British rifles are there for various amounts, starting at $125 and up.
Soviet infantry rifles start about $75. (All in wholesale quantities) Our beloved Garand M-1 is never seen for less that $500 approximately.
But for the budget conscious, the Italian rifle is usually about $50 to $60.
“Virginio Gayda, Fascist editor”
Lefty journalists haven’t changed in seven decades, and neither have their risible names.
An Army only effective against Ethiopians armed with bows and arrows, and spears.
Nice phrase.
Oswald bought his "mail order" in the early sixties for around $17 and change. I don't think that included the optics. It seemed to work well enough in Dallas.
Regards,
GtG
The Ethiopian Army was a joke. The Italians were abysmal at fighting the Greeks, in the Balkans and later in Italy proper.
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