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The Kansas Raygun
This interesting handgun, which looks like something right out of 1930s Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, is likely a one of a kind pistol from a Renaissance man in Kansas. Rock Island had it up for auction...
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Yours for Democracy…
A very proud Doughboy, and recent college graduate, armed with a brand new Enfield M1917 30.06 rifle and ready to go “Over There.” The back of this photo was signed “Forrest G. Johnson, Yours for...
View ArticleTalking mud and weird guns with Ian and Karl
While at SHOT, I ran into Ian and Karl and managed to shanghai them into a meeting room to talk about what the mud tests over at InRangeTV and, of course, some Forgotten Weapons…
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76 years ago today: The end of the wagon
Now that’s a flattop! An image taken from a departing biplane, Aug 03, 1923 of the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the converted collier USS Langley. NARA Photo 520639 On this day in February 1942,...
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The Marines’ First Amphibious Landing
Looks like a scene from Black Sails… 3 March 1776–On this day, Captain Samuel Nicholas and a battalion of Marines and sailors land at New Providence, Bahamas, seize the fort, and capture stores for...
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April Fools, South-pacific edition, 75 years ago
Signed by the artist: Jack Fellows. Via NNAM.2004.100.001 On 1 April 1943, during a big fight over the Russells Group in the Central Solomons, a Japanese Navy pilot plays the fool as he loops his...
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Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the most important, and least remembered...
The Battle of Moreuil Wood on March 30, 1918, is captured in the painting “Charge of Flowerdew’s Squadron” by Sir Alfred Munnings via the Canadian War Museum: UNDATED — Undated handout photo of Alfred...
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73 years ago today: Frustration and high explosives
30 April 1945… Royal Australian Engineers of the 2/13 Field Company, exhausted after an initial failed attempt to get ashore at the settlement of Lingkas to blow up wire defenses under heavy Japanese...
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Franklin’s Guardians
A watercolor of the HMS Terror exploring the Canadian Arctic, which she would never leave (Canadian Museum of Civilization) Ownership of the two ships, Adm. Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated HMS Erebus and...
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Fan of pulps?
As a kid who grew up with surrounded by stacks of vintage 1960 and 1970s “Mens” magazines compiled by my slightly older uncles and handed down along with other, older sci-fi titles from the 1950s that...
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Slab’s Takur Ghar blaster
Found in the NHHC Curator Branch Collection: This rifle was carried by then-Senior Chief Britt “Slab” Slabinski while serving as Team Leader of Maco 30 during the Battle of Takur Ghar in support of...
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Happy Flag Day
Even in Preble’s day, the flag had to be guarded day and night to prevent souvenir hunters from making away with bits of it-Note the relative size of the Marine complete with heavy white buff leather...
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120 years ago today, the rest of the picture
Source Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, via 1898-07-03 Harper’s Weekly. Here we see a group of U.S Army victors on Kettle Hill on about July 3, 1898,...
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About those 3D guns…
In May 2013, Cody Wilson, through his Austin-based company Defense Distributed, created the Liberator, a nearly entirely 3-D printed, single-shot .380 ACP pistol for which he freely shared the plans...
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Happy 137th, Smedley
On this day in 1881 in West Chester, PA, Smedley Darlington Butler was authorized one body, human, which he used to join the Marines some 38 days before his 17th birthday during the great national...
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Vale, Capt. Kaiss
Capt. Albert L. Kaiss, in effect the last dreadnought skipper in any Navy, had five afloat commands including the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964), the cruiser USS William H. Standley (CG-32), and...
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The story of the Millionth Garand
Canadian-born firearms engineer Jean Cantius Garand went to work at the U.S. Army’s Springfield Armory in 1919 and age 29 and remained on the job until he retired in 1953. While he had a hand in a...
View ArticleHappy birthday, Chuck
In 1920 Heinrich Karl Bukowski, better known as Charles Bukowski, was born in Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. After a move to Los Angeles and a stint at the U.S. Postal Service that smothered...
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Yankees medics show ‘Primum non nocere’ 100 years ago today
A group of wounded German Army prisoners receiving medical attention at first aid station of U.S. 103rd and 104th Ambulance Companies (Field Hospital), attached to the 26th “Yankee” Division’s 101st...
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Old Salts
“The Old Navy” (“Spinning a Yarn” aboard USS Mohican, 1888) Description: The Old Navy (Spinning a Yarn aboard USS Mohican, 1888) Oil on canvas, 37 x 49, by Rufus F. Zogbaum (1849-1925). Painting signed...
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