Meeting WW2 veterans in Normandy, and US military vehicle exhibition.

[hoosierdoc]

Noticeably shorter wood in front

best way to tell it's not me

 

[Alamo]

Riffing off of this photo:

The book A Rifleman Went to War is by an American who resigned his US national guard captain's commission in 1914 and joined the Canadian forces to fight in WWI. Although officially trained as a machine gunner, he spent a fair amount of time sniping and developing sniping techniques, which he talks about in his book.

He was from Indiana.

Well worth reading.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

 

[Sylvain]

Another ceremony today, with WW2 veterans and active members of the Canadian armed forces.

The air was very dusty.

The ceremony was held at a memorial in front of a church.A few hundred yards from the beach.

A few very moving speeches followed by a prayer in both English and French and a minute of silence.
The grandchildren of some veterans who passed away were there to tell their stories.

Canadian forces fought on that beach against the German troops for over 5 hours until they ran out of ammunition.

 

[PedalToTheFloor]

Very cool! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Sylvain]

The troops then marched thru the town, from the church to the beach.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Sylvain]

At one point the soldiers were ordered to place their rifles on the ground and they all walked away to go take pictures on the beach.
Not sure if it's standard operating procedure to walk away from your rifle during ceremonies.

I was just 6 feet away and I really thought I was going to score some free guns.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[GregD]

Did you ever find out why they did that?

 

[Sylvain]

Did you ever find out why they did that?

They went farther away to take a group picture so I assume they had to leave all the guns there.

There was some security there (French police and soldiers), apparently that wasn't planned and they freaked out a bit when the Canadian soldiers all left their rifles a few feet away from the crowd.
People had to walk around the gun.

One lady even grabed one, a few feet away from me, to move it out of the way.

There was two plain clothes cops nearby (printing badly) and I thought she was going to ge shot.

 

[Alamo]

Did you ever find out why they did that?

No slings?


I find it peculiar that they didn't leave at least a couple of their own guys guards. I know there were cops there, and I'm sure they had no ammo whatsoever (b but still seems weird.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Sylvain]

No slings?


I find it peculiar that they didn't leave at least a couple of their own guys guards. I know there were cops there, and I'm sure they had no ammo whatsoever (b but still seems weird.

Yeah they were obviously unloaded.

But some had bayonets so you could still hurt someone with it.
French soldiers later came to guard the rifles and ask people to move back.

It was just odd with people walking around them.

 

[Sylvain]

There was a lady with an umbrella guarding them at one point to make sure I wouldn't steal a few.

 

[Sylvain]

[video=youtube;P8neP08Irmo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8neP08Irmo[/video]

 

[indyjohn]

Riffing off of this photo:

The book A Rifleman Went to War is by an American who resigned his US national guard captain's commission in 1914 and joined the Canadian forces to fight in WWI. Although officially trained as a machine gunner, he spent a fair amount of time sniping and developing sniping techniques, which he talks about in his book.

He was from Indiana.

Well worth reading.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Capt. Herbert W. McBride, I read about this man today. He was a three-time Indiana State Rifle champion (1905 - 1907) and a Distinguished Marksman graduate of Britain's Hythe School of Musketry. He was an American volunteer sniper with Canada's 38th and 21st Battalions in France. Wounded 3 times and decorated for bravery 3 times as well. After discharge from the Canadian Army due to his injuries, McBride was commissioned by the U.S. Army to be an instructor at the Camp Perry Small Arms Firing School for new recruits headed to France.

(info courtesy the NRA)

 

[Sylvain]

Some more pictures of the same ceremony taken by the Canadian Embassy.

I couldn't get as close to those guys to take a good picture.They stayed like that the whole time during speeches and prayers.

 

[Thor]

Capt. Herbert W. McBride, I read about this man today. He was a three-time Indiana State Rifle champion (1905 - 1907) and a Distinguished Marksman graduate of Britain's Hythe School of Musketry. He was an American volunteer sniper with Canada's 38th and 21st Battalions in France. Wounded 3 times and decorated for bravery 3 times as well. After discharge from the Canadian Army due to his injuries, McBride was commissioned by the U.S. Army to be an instructor at the Camp Perry Small Arms Firing School for new recruits headed to France.

(info courtesy the NRA)

He wrote an excellent book, I highly recommend it. He had some great comments about the Hollywood presentation of war including All Quiet on the Western Front...he said the arty looked good but all the men cowering in the trenches not so much so.

 

[Alamo]

Thanks for posting the Embassy photos, they are good. Sylvain-quality even!

I had to study the one of the flags for a moment. I knew all but one instantly....but that one....ah! The Poles!