#Ww2

Back in January at SHOT show 2018 Adam had the chance to put some of Winchester’s new commemorative .30-06 ammunition down range through a World War Two vintage M1 Garand. On the 3rd July, Winchester announced that their new Victory Series ammunition had begun shipping.

Viewers of TFB TV will be especially aware of a number of episodes that I completed with a local reenactor that represents elements of the 82nd Airborne Division all over the Midwest. To date we’ve filmed episodes about the BAR in the First World War, the M1A1 “Paratrooper” Carbine, 1903 Springfield rifle grenades, and even an introduction on blank rounds for various uses. Indeed, if I hadn’t left the Midwest I would most likely be still interested in producing content for TFB TV with his excellent insight.

Osprey Publications has recently come out with a new title in the Weapon Series of books, “The Anti-Tank Rifle”.  It is a light history of the anti-tank rifle from the First World War to the beginning of the Cold War.

Norway’s Svalbard Arctic Seed Vault, located deep inside the Arctic Circle, on the island of Spitsbergen maintains a high level of security. It is defended by armed guards equipped with 80 year old rifles.

Japan was perhaps the least prepared of all the powers during the Second World War to have an issued submachine gun in use by combat troops. Indeed the Japanese Type 100 only saw a production run of at maximum 30,000 weapons. A small fraction of the total amount of the Japanese Imperial Forces throughout the entire war.

Russian archaeological team called “Yuri Gagarin” publishes on its  YouTube channel videos of excavations of WW2 relics from the battlefields of the war. In several recent videos, they show how they retrieve many really well-preserved firearms and other items from a swamp. Even after being in the swamp for about 75 years, these relics are in amazingly good condition. Below is a set of screenshots of the most interesting weapons and other items shown in their latest videos.

Rock Island Auction Company have uploaded a great little video taking a look at the surprisingly impressive range of cutaway training models they have available in their next regional auction.

2018 is set to see the return of Fabryka Broni Łucznik-Radom (FB Radom)’s iconic pistol, the wz.35 VIS, widely known simply as the Radom.

Indy Neidell, the host of “ The Great War” YouTube channel, has announced about his plans to start a new project similar to The Great War but telling about the WW2 in the same week by week fashion. This time they are planning to make it a much larger project covering a wide variety of topics. This new project is called TimeGhost and it will be a collaboration of up to 10 famous YouTube channels.

Back in September TFB reported that Poland had officially renamed its new MSBS 5.56x45mm infantry rifle the ‘Grot’. The move to rename the MSBS came as Poland increased its orders for the new rifle.

The latest edition of Larry Vickers’ series of coffee table reference books, the Vickers Guides, has been released. The fourth book in the series which has already featured editions looking at the AR-15 and 1911 – while the new book will focus on Germany’s small arms of World War Two.

The roller-locked* Heckler & Koch G3 rifles and MP5 submachine guns have become iconic weapons of the Cold War era, being used in conflicts everywhere from civil wars in Africa, to hostage rescues and counter terror operations in Europe, to anti-cartel operations in South America. The operating system of these rifles is as unique as they are, and dates back to the death throes of the Nazi regime at the end of World War II. Desperate to save their failing state, the Nazis tasked engineers with developing new weapons, and the engineers were all to happy to oblige, lest they too be handed an old rifle and sent to the front!

Every day we literally lose hundreds of veterans around the world from the Second World War. This makes sitting down and discussing an in-depth subject such as what B17 Flying Fortress’s were armed with against the German fighters that tried to shoot them down so much more valuable when we actually get to talk to one of the crew members on those heavy bombers in the European Theater of Operations. James Lee Hutchinson was a gunner turned radio operator on a B17G in 490th Bomb Group based in England during the war. He went on 20 combat missions by the time he was twenty years old and when the war ended in May 1945. In this episode he discusses the finer points of taking care of the seven M2 .50 BMG heavy machine guns mounted throughout the bomber, and how the crews would use the guns.

While exploring the Springfield Armory Museum’s online archive I stumbled across an interesting experimental modification made to an M1918A2 BAR. The archival entries don’t offer much information but the photographs show an experimental kit developed to enable the BAR to be mounted on a tripod.

It’s a blunder so bad it makes you look twice: On the new sculpture dedicated to Russia’s most famous small arms designer, there is an unintentional homage to a weapon of Russia’s hated adversaries during the Great Patriotic War. Behind the tasteful statue unveiled last Tuesday of Mikhail “Mikhtim” Kalashnikov cradling his invention like a fine instrument, there lies a sculpture panel dedicated to his inventions themselves – and, by accident, the Nazi Sturmgewehr of World War II. While the majority of the panel is filled with models of Kalashnikov’s inventions and derivatives, nestled in the backdrop of the representation of the AKS-74U compact assault rifle is a slab depicting an exploded view of the MKb42(H),, a World War II German assault rifle which helped serve as the inspiration for the program Kalashnikov’s rifle was designed to satisfy.