Ye Olde Gun Porn

A blog dedicated to old firearms and their history.

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My wife sprained her ankle and in doing so I had to get the crutches from the attic. While I was at work she couldn’t wait for me so she commandeered this piece of mine. Despite its length, I think it would be a poor knife, too long, and the handle is much more suited for a cane. Also, you have to unscrew it to deploy. An “ok” cane though.

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Opium Wars

paintings:

A Fort on the Canton River, 1st China War, Oil on board, Chinese School, 1839 - 1842(c)

A Fort on the Canton River, 1st China War, Oil on board, Chinese School, 1840(c).

'The taking of the Island of Chusan by the British, 5th July 1840' Lithograph by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Harry Darell (1814-1853)

'The East India Company's iron steamship Nemesis, Lieutenant W H Hall RN, Commander, with boats of Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling destroying Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, January 7th 1841', Coloured aquatint by and after E Duncan, 1843.

'Joss House, Chapoo [sic], Death of Colonel Tomlinson', 1842, Coloured engraving by T A Prior after T Allom from a sketch by Captain Stoddart,

'Storming of the forts and entrenchments of Chuepee [sic] on 7th January 1841′, Coloured lithograph by Dickenson, after F J White, published by Dickenson and Son, 1841 (c).

The 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot at the Storming of the Fortress of Amoy, 26 August 1841, Coloured lithograph, by J H Lynch after M A Hayes. Published by William Spooner, London, 1841 (c).

British forces fought a war on behalf of drug traffickers. Their victory opened up the lucrative China trade to British merchants. This was all done with the full blessing of the British government.

The roots of the Opium War (or First China War) lay in a trade dispute between the British and the Chinese Qing Dynasty. By the start of the 19th century, the trade in Chinese goods such as tea, silks and porcelain was extremely lucrative for British merchants. The problem was that the Chinese would not buy British products in return. They would only sell their goods in exchange for silver, and as a result large amounts of silver were leaving Britain.

In order to stop this, the East India Company and other British merchants began to smuggle Indian opium into China illegally, for which they demanded payment in silver. This was then used to buy tea and other goods. By 1839, opium sales to China paid for the entire tea trade.

The war resulted in the Treaty of Tientsin (26 June 1858), which imposed on the Chinese the obligation to pay reparations for the expenses of the recent war, a second group of ten more ports being opened to European commerce, the legalization of the opium trade, and foreign traders and missionaries gained rights to travel within China.

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Farewell, Pran Nath Mago 1945

Who Will Wear This Uniform?’, war recruitment poster.

From poster: “Who will take this money [Rupaiye], rifle [Bandooq], and uniform [Wardi]?” Below the inscription is a cupped pair of hands with a pile of coins, with the answer “He, who immediately enlists in the army.”

Lord Frederick Roberts—the Commander-in-Chief in India from 1885 to 1893—was an enthusiastic proponent of the theory of the “martial races” and reshaped the class components of the Indian army, in particular replacing men from the “unmartial” south with the “martial” races of the north. The army was further reorganized by Lord Herbert Kitchener, who became the Commander-in-Chief in India in 1902.

The province soon evolved into the recruiting ground for soldiers and policemen for the empire. In August 1914, Punjab (including the British districts and princely states) had 100,000 men in its armies, including 87,000 combatants and 13,000 non-combatants; by the end of the war, Punjab had contributed one-third of all the Indian recruits and over 40% of the total number of Indian combatants mobilized.

In 1914, India had one of the largest voluntary armies in the world. Of the 27,522 new recruits enlisted in India between August and Dec. 31, 1914, 13,400 were from Punjab alone.  The total number of men to have served from Punjab, including the British districts and the Indian states, by the end of the war was 480,000, including 410,000 combatants and 70,000 non-combatants. Of the 282,170 combatants recruited from Punjab from 1915 until 1918, some 156,300 were Muslims, some 63,900 were Hindus, and 61,970 were Sikhs, though the last religious group—the Sikhs—comprised only 12% of the population.

These men were mostly “peasant-warriors” belonging to tribes designated as the “martial races”.

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British Kukiri produced for WWII

Australian machete bayonet

Pattern 1907 Mk1 bayonet

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Some British WWII revolvers. 

Albion and Enfield No2Mk1 and a Webley revolver as well as a Smith and Wesson “Victory” revolver or Model 10. 

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Paintings:

The Battle of Abu Klea by William Barnes Wollen

The Death of General Gordon, by George W. Joy. Major General Charles George Gordon, 1833 – 1885, aka Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum. published c. 1900

Portrait of Charles George Gordon

The Battle of Abu Klea, or the Battle of Abu Tulayh took place between the dates of 16 and 18 January 1885, at Abu Klea, Sudan, between the British Desert Column and Mahdist forces encamped near Abu Klea. The Desert Column, a force of approximately 1,400 soldiers, started from Korti, Sudan on 30 December 1884; the Desert Column's mission, in a joint effort titled "The Gordon Relief Expedition", was to march across the Bayuda Desert to the aid of General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, Sudan, who was besieged there by Mahdist forces.

The Sudan was a dependency of Egypt, which in 1882 was invaded and occupied by the British to safeguard their strategic interests. Though the British oversaw the majority of Egypt’s affairs, they allowed its khedive and his ministers to continue governing the Sudan. Years of Egyptian misrule there fueled a popular revolt led by al-Mahdī. Madhist forces defeated the Egyptians at El Obeid (Al-Ubayyiḍ) in 1882 and overran Kordofan and Darfur in 1883, which prompted discussion of the matter in Britain’s Parliament. However, hoping to avoid the cost of British intervention, Gladstone did not intercede. Sir Evelyn Baring, the British consul general in Cairo, ordered Gordon to oversee the evacuation of Egyptians from the Sudan. He succeeded in evacuating some 2,000 women, children, and sick or wounded soldiers before al-Mahdī’s forces closed in on Khartoum.

Gordon, despite British orders to abandon the Sudan, intended to defeat the Mahdists before they would be able to take Egypt as well. He held a defensive line at Khartoum and requested reinforcements but was denied.

The Siege of Khartoum commenced on March 13, 1884. Mahdist forces quickly surrounded the city, and Gordon was in need of supplies and troops.

On January 26, 1885, some 50,000 Mahdists, taking advantage of a gap in the ramparts along the White Nile and bursting through the Masallamiyyah Gate, stormed the city, overwhelming the defenders. The city’s garrison, having been reduced from some 7,000 men, was butchered, Gordon with it; he was decapitated, and his head was put on a pike.

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Michael Alford is a British figurative artist.

Paintings:

Irish Guards-Helmand

OP Herrick 18, 1 Mech Bde

Patrol Pan Kalay 1

2 LANCS /Op Shader- Menila TC

Household Cavalry, Brigade Recce Force Herrick 18

Shazhad

Ops Room

Transport 2010

Resting Soldiers/Irish Guards-Helmand

Irish Guards/Aden Campaign-Al-Habilain

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US Doughboys at Consenvoye, October 9, 1918

illustration by Adam Hook

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive (also known as Battles of the Meuse-Argonne and the Meuse-Argonne Campaign) was a major part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire Western Front. It was fought from September 26, 1918 until the Armistice of November 11, 1918, a total of 47 days. 

Meuse-Argonne was the principal engagement of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I. It was one of a series of Allied attacks known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which brought the war to an end. It was the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I for the AEF even if, given the scale of other battles on the Western Front, its size was limited and the operation itself secondary as it was far from the main offensive axis.

The first attack spanned from September 26- October 3rd. "During the three hours preceding H hour, the Allies expended more ammunition than both sides managed to fire throughout the four years of the [American] Civil War. The cost was later calculated to have been $180 million, or $1 million per minute." The American attack began at 05:30 on September 26 with mixed results.

The second began on October 4, when the first assault divisions (the 91st, 79th, 37th and 35th) were replaced by the 32nd, 3rd and 1st Divisions. It was during this phase that the Lost Battalion affair occurred. The battalion was rescued by an attack by the 28th and 82nd Divisions (the 82nd attacking soon after taking up its positions in the gap between the 28th and 1st Divisions) on October 7. The Americans launched a series of costly frontal assaults that finally broke through the main German defenses (the Kriemhilde Stellung of the Hindenburg Line) between October 14–17 (the Battle of Montfaucon (French: Bataille de Montfaucon)). By the end of October, U.S. troops had advanced ten miles and had finally cleared the Argonne Forest. On their left the French had advanced twenty miles, reaching the Aisne River. It was during the opening of this operation, on October 8, that Corporal (later Sergeant) Alvin York made his famous capture of 132 German prisoners near Cornay.

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Saginaw M1 Carbine circa May 1943 - Feb. 1944

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Stevens 520A produced between 1942 and 1945 for the US military

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Massacre in Korea

Pablo Picasso, 1951, 110×210 cm

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U.S. Army poster depicting the breakthrough at the Battle of Chipyong-ni

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The immediate UN objective was Triangle Hill, a forested ridge of high ground 2 kilometers north of Gimhwa-eup. The hill was occupied by the veterans of the PVA's 15th Corps. Over the course of nearly a month, substantial US and Republic of Korea Army (ROK) forces made repeated attempts to capture Triangle Hill and the adjacent Sniper Ridge. Despite clear superiority in artillery and aircraft, escalating UN casualties resulted in the attack being halted after 42 days of fighting, with PVA forces regaining their original positions.

In October 1952, the U.S. 7th Infantry Division occupied a sector of the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) in central Korea near Kumhwa. Opposing the division, the Chinese 45th Division held elevations to the north, including Hill 598, also called Triangle Hill. Both sides were well dug-in. Battle lines had not changed significantly in almost a year.

After peace talks began in November 1951, the Eighth Army assumed an "active defense" posture and combatants on both sides marked time awaiting the outcome of the talks.

The "War of the Hills" had begun. For six months, this war played out as artillery/mortar exchanges and minor skirmishes that did little to change the situation. Then, in spring 1952, as frustration over the failure of peace talks increased, "active" defense gave way to active engagement. Operation Showdown began to take shape.

The Battle of Triangle Hill was the biggest and bloodiest contest of 1952. After 42 days of heavy fighting, the Eighth Army had failed to gain the two hill masses that were its original goal. Although the PVA had suffered 11,500 casualties with many units decimated during the battle, its ability to sustain such losses had slowly exhausted the US Eighth Army over two months of attrition.

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Battle of Chipyong-ni February 13 - 14, 1951

"We are going to stay here and fight it out." With these words, LTC Paul Freeman, Commander of the 23rd Regimental Combat Team, set the stage for the bloody battle of Chipyong-ni. LTC Freeman quickly outlined the mission, "to hold the small American garrison at Chipyong-ni against an advancing enemy force of six Chinese Communist Force (CCF) Divisions." The importance of the village of Chipyong-ni was its location at the junction of several crucial road networks. A failure to hold the village would endanger the entire Eighth Army.

Shortly after nightfall, flares soaring in the air, accompanied with the sound of sirens and brassy bugles, whistles and yells echoing through the cold, night air signaled the beginning of an endless night of Chinese attacks against to perimeter. The fighting continued to rage fiercely as daylight broke on the morning of 15 February. As the garrison tenaciously held the Chinese hordes at bay, deadly air strikes effectively dropped napalm, which destroyed hundreds of enemy troops. Countless planeloads of ammunition were dropped to the beleaguered men as a relief convoy of twenty tanks from the 5th Cavalry Regiment moved to the aid of the 23rd RTC. The arrival of the relief column, coupled with the deadly strafing and napalm attacks and the equally fierce American defensive stand, had finally broken the enemy attack.

Fifty-two members of the 23rd RTC died, 259 were wounded and 42 men were reported missing in action during the two-day long Battle Chipyong-ni. The battle of Chipyong-ni resulted in the defeat of a massive Chinese offensive and caused the CCF to suffer its first tactical defeat at American hands. 

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Springfield M1 Garand Receiver dates to 1945 but the barrel is dated 1952.

Camillus US Marine Corp fighting knife produced for WWII.

Remington Rand M1911A1 1945

Hatchet dated 1944

M1905 bayonet

M3 monocular

1942 dated US Navy binoculars.

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Got something cool in the mail today. VZ2008 finally complete!