The "Garry Glitter Suite".... Maan brings back some memories![]()
May 10th: Bundestag tovote today on the extension ofEU anti-piracy mission Atalanta off the Horn
of Africa.
http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschla...omalia-ab.html
Bundestag decides on extension of the Atalanta mission
http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2012-05/atalanta-ausweitung
against the SPD
http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2012-05/atalanta-piraterie-bundeswehr-spd
Good Zeit-commentary on the SPD, imho. To be generally in favour of the mission, but then voting against an extension doesn't make much sense. I wonder what they're trying to achieve with their decision in the long run.
Managed to find a couple of pictures from my Battalion on the Bundeswehr website;
The Panzerlehrbataillon 93 celebrating its birthday. It is the oldest Armoured battalion in the Bundeswehr.
Several NCOs and a 1st Lieutenant are given medals.
I wonder, do you tankers still use the MP2?
Use....no. We still have them though as not all tanks have internal mountings for MP7s.
I know guys who've been at it for a couple of years and they've never fired the MP2.
Speaking of the MP2, why did the Bundeswehr choose it over the MP5 ?
The MP2 was 10 years or so before the MP5 was introduced.
In the 60s, the Uzi was the best on the market, and the M1 Carbines they used before were not very good.
I wonder why they never reintroduced the MP40.
I can't be "Nazi" connotions because they had no such problems with the MG42 and the P38.
The MP5 was made on demand of the BGS, that needed replacement for their Beretta SMGs.
Maybe because the Uzi is as compact with it's stock extended than the MP40 with a folded stock.
See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...nternals-3.png
I mean immidiately after the war.
They introduced the Beretta MP as MP1 and had Tommy Guns for the US made tanks (I think M47s and M24s came with Tommy Guns). And M1 Carbines.
Both the Thompson and the Carbine were universally hated (according to my late grand uncle).
They reintroduced the P38 as P1 and the MG42 as MG1 and later MG3 (what was the MG2?)
So why not the MP40? The Beretta was the same vintage as the MP40
There wasn't all that much left of the Erma Werke.
What was left was in the Russian sector.In February 1945, 79 Mosquitoes of the R.A.F dropped almost 100 tons of bombs on the South and East of the old city center of Erfurt, causing 223 deaths. In this attack all the ERMA factory buildings were destroyed and only the cellar survived.
Available stocks were redistributed by the Allies, and;With the end of WWII in May 1945 Allied Forces ordered the closure of all German weapon manufacturing facilities. The facilities still intact were taken over by the military of the Allied Occupation Zone the company found itself in. The entire Thuringen region was within the Russian Occupation Zone. Marshal Shukow of the Russian occupational force ordered what was left of Erma Werke was to be liquidated on the 31st of August 1948.
With the independence of West Germany in May 1955, the West German government granted ERMA permission to research, develop, and produce a new sub-machine gun. West Germany's police and military was seeking weapons more consistent with their own wants and culture, and wanted to replace the weapons given to them by the Allied Forces. The sub-machine gun submissions by West German manufacturers, ERMA included, were passed by in favor of the Isreali Uzi. The decision was purely political and created financial hardships for the West German companies who had invested the financial backing and personnel necessary to compete for the contract. The financial impact on ERMA was fatal.