Treasure this weekend in Yoakum Texas

[east texas terry]

 

[east texas terry]

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When we do a large show i set up 8 cases of bottles

 

[east texas terry]

When we do a large show i set up 8 cases of bottles

 

[Len]

--Now that's what I call a wall unit! Congrats! ( I just hope none of the grenades on the table are still live .)

 

[east texas terry]

--Now that's what I call a wall unit! Congrats! ( I just hope none of the grenades on the table are still live .)

These grenades are training grenades

 

[Len]

Hi E.T.T.,

We have a state beach here in CT that is probably our most crowded. In WWI and II it was used by ships heading to Europe to test their guns/practice. Despite constant sweeps, storm after storm usually pops up ordnance. Some are still live. Remember Hill Street Blues tv show? "Let's Be Careful Out There."

 

[willong]

Hi E.T.T.,

We have a state beach here in CT that is probably our most crowded. In WWI and II it was used by ships heading to Europe to test their guns/practice. Despite constant sweeps, storm after storm usually pops up ordnance. Some are still live. Remember Hill Street Blues tv show? "Let's Be Careful Out There."

Up the road half a dozen miles from my late parents house here in Port Angeles, WA, is a stretch of land posted with "DANGER! - KEEP OUT!" signs. I can't recall the exact language on the signs fifty years ago when we first moved to the area; but, they were simple black paint on white boards--my memory is that they appeared hand-painted--that said something about the site having been a tank artillery shooting range. As the land is but a narrow strip of flat paralleling the adjacent road and then plunges into a steep stream canyon, I thought the signs were BS, merely some land owner's clever device to prevent trespass. I lived on the Olympic Peninsula for several years before learning that two young woodcutters had been killed in the area a couple decades before my residence when their saw struck a shell embedded in a downed log. It had indeed been the impact area for WW2 tank artillery training.

"Two young boys were killed in August 1948 when a 37 millimeter (mm) shell exploded while they were cutting some downed timber within the former range. The 37mm shell was embedded in a log they were sawing." Excerpt is from USACE report "Port Angeles Combat Range..."

I drove up the road last Fall for the first time in years. The area is still posted today, but to much higher standards with official government signage.

 

[Len]

Hi Willong!

Our CT beach used to have sheet posters on a couple bbs near the entry. Once a round or shell (often from mortars it seems) surfaces in Summer, (after the all clear), it sometimes kicks off a digging frenzy by the kids. {no CT IQ test required to reproduce, although I've long advocated for one.]...The 37mm I believe, was used in the M-4 Shermans, most popularly. Last year I was in woods near my house and stumbled into an old mapleing site. The enamel catch pans had rusted off the hangers and were on the ground right in front of their last posting. The metal taps were still in the trees (mostly rust)! Sorry about the two boys in '48. ...In case you're wondering, at the central collection area where I suspect a lot of boiling took place, the guys drank whiskey, and some soda. Got a few bots. Seems like one gent worked there for about 20 years and drank nothing but Johnny Walker! You know what they say here in New England,--When you're in the woods, watch your step and KEEP WALKING.

 

[willong]

{no CT IQ test required to reproduce, although I've long advocated for one.]

 

[willong]

The 37mm I believe, was used in the M-4 Shermans, most popularly.

It was actually the lightweight Stuart tank that mounted the 37mm. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/v...reedom-pavilion/vehicles-war/m3a1-stuart-tank

The M3 37mm gun was also used in a number of other configurations, both towed and mounted.

The M4 Sherman mounted 75mm, 76mm (an improved, higher-velocity gun) and eventually a 105mm cannon.

My late father witnessed an interesting tank duel during the battle of Bitche. I don't know the exact tank and gun models involved, though I do recall my father saying the German tank mounted an 88mm, but was slower pointing than the American tank, presumably a Sherman, with its 75mm. The American maneuvered and would pop out from various points for quick shots before the static German tank, relying on its superior armor, could traverse turret and train its gun on the American. Dad said that he was at first mystified why the American kept over-shooting his target; but it then dawned on him what the clever yank was up to. The 75mm could not penetrate the German's armor, so the American kept firing across the face of the building adjacent the German tank. Sure enough! A final round from the 75mm collapsed the building, burying the German tank under a heap of rubble! According to my father, American Nisei troops then saturated the pile with Molotov cocktails, roasting the crew in place!

My father was proud of American troops and their ability to use initiative and ingenuity in the field. He never appreciated top-down command structures that seemed to him to stifle initiative of other troops. The tank duel anecdote was one of several examples of "field expediency" that Dad related.



Photo is of my father later in the war than the incident described. Four weeks after the snapshot, Dad turned twenty. Two weeks after that birthday, he would be among the troops liberating Dachau Concentration Camp.