rpbcps
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Posts posted by rpbcps
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5 hours ago, John Dillinger said:
What was their standard weapon at the time?
It depended on which location they where operating, sometimes British and sometimes American weapons. Pre war French rifles were in 7.5mm calibre, it would have been a logistics problem providing ammo for them. In the 1990's the French were still using 7.5mm for their sniper rifles and light machine e guns.
Post WW2 you can see pictures of French forces in Indochina using. Not only American and British weapons, but also German weapons.
On the 19th of April 1945, units of the “9e Regiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique”, (9e R.C.A.), crossed the River Rhine at the French town of Benheim, their mission was to divide the German forces that were withdrawing into the Black Forest region and ultimately, to occupy the town of Oberndorf, taken control of the “Mauser Werkes” facilities. On April 20th, squadrons of the 9e R.C.A. arrived at Oberndorf and the “Mauser Werkes” was secured by the troops.
Mauser Werkes” began to produce or rather assemble weapons from the parts in stock at the factory, including P08’s in June 1945. This production was controlled by the French occupation authority, with the aim of supplying weapons for the French military in Indochina, who were in desperate need of weapons for the first phase of the Indochina war.
Through to March 1946, 47,696 K98k rifles, 35,000 P38 pistols, 20,000 Mauser HSc pistols & 2560 Luger P08 pistols, were produced for the French Army.
There is a picture of the commanding officer of the 1st Foreign Legion Parachute Battalion, (1e BEP), Capt. Cabiro, at Dien Bien Phu in Dec 1953 armed with Luger P08.
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Tom,
Can you ask Amazon.co.uk, to put a sale on 'Great Britain - The Tommy Gun Story', and also your 'The Armored Force School, Gunnery Department' manual. I say, tongue in cheek....
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Devin,
As an owner of many very old manuals, catalogs and handbooks, that information is very interesting.
Unfortunatley, the example of the 3rd Edition handbook in my collection, does not have its cover. So there is no way to 'repair' that one 🤫
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This weekend, I have just been looking online for a couple of cheap Denix drums, as slot fillers for an upcoming display in March.
During this search, I found on the Salesroom Auction the following listing, although the auction had already finished in Sept of last year:
"Thompson 50 Round Drum Magazine vendor states recovered from Norway, plus a Denix copy drum magazine". The initial view of the photo showed a worse for wear recovered drum, so I was curious.
So I zoomed in, only to note the marking "wind to 4 or 6 clicks..."
So it appears some one 'recovered' a very worse for wear, hi-capacity ban era, 'X' drum.
I was curious how much the auction went for. I hope someone was not scammed with this 'recovered" drum, thinking it was an original WW2 era drum with the Denix. The auction house wanted me to subscribe for the price guide to learn the price of the lot though, at a cost of £14.95.
So how much was paid for these drums, will remain a mystery; I only hope some innocent individual, with little knowledge on drums, did not get their fingers burned.
There are two well known dealers in the UK at the minute, with misleading adverts for the Ill-informed.
One selling a Kahr Arms 'C'Drum for a wopping £1,995 and the other selling a Kahr arms 'L' drum for another wopping £595. That is usually the price of a WW2 'L' drum in the UK these days.
I notified both the dealers their drums are modern produced drums, the 'L' drum even appears to have some surface rust on it in the photos. Both never replied, and have not changed their listing's to reflect the knowledge I passed onto them.
A little knowledge can save you making some big mistakes in this hobby.
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Photos of Ukrainian insurgents, a couple armed with Thompsons, fighting the Soviets during WW2.
and one with a Thompson, complete with L drum, armed Ukrainian insurgents in 1950
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Why "fix something if it is not broken"?
For me, and I guess the same for most Thompson enthusiasts, you can not beat, or replace, the classic silouhette of the Thompson.
Each to their own, I guess.
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Yesterday, I tried to get more info. and photos of S-52127, but it has already been sold.
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8 minutes ago, John Dillinger said:
Hi Richard. Your display is something to behold. It’s the epitome of your passion for anything Thompson. I’d really like to join you at Blyth in March if you’ll have me. If so I thought we could expand the American theme a little if you’re up for it and bring along my M3A1 ,30 Cal and a couple of ‘pineapples’. Let me know if you’re up for that.
Cheers
JD
JD,
That would be great 🫡 It will be over 2 days, Saturday and Sunday. You'll love it, the museum itself is worth a visit. Send me a PM and we can make a plan... Thanks.
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4 hours ago, TSMG28 said:
According to Frank in American Thunder III, nearly all of the M1’s and M1A1’s he has cataloged had the 1928 mag catches. I suspect there is no documented date when the production line changed over.
I am wondering if most of the mag catches without the drum bump were produced during the extended Thompson production ahead of the M3 switchover, as well as for spare parts that AO continued to manufacture for awhile.Roger, Thanks for that information.
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The curator of the Blyth Battery Museum has asked me, if I can present another 'Great Britain - The Tommy Gun Story' display, when they open again in March. So I am looking forward to that.
The volunteers at the Battery were awarded 'The King’s Award for Voluntary Service' in 2025 https://blythbattery.org.uk/
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9 hours ago, Skip Greenwade said:
Pics by request:
Very nice 👌
Question for the M1 /M1A1 experts.I note Skips M1A1 has a magazine release catch, designed for a drum magazine as well as box mags, so left over from 1928A1 production.
In my collection I have an M1A1 and had an M1, both of which had a '1928A1' mag release catch.
When did Savage and AO, or their subcontractors, start producing specific M1/M1A1 mag release catches, without the raised area that secured drum mags?
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3 hours ago, Frankford said:
It looks like it's been thru a war.
The majority of those early Model of 1928s were pushed straight into service as soon as they arrived in the UK, shipped to all theatres of the war that British and Commonwealth forces fought in. So we don't come across many pristine Model of 1928's this side of the Atlantic, but this one has suffered from bad storage, as well as war use during its life time.
Reminds me of many recovered Irish Republican Thompsons, and other weapons, which spent more time under the ground than above it.
A good read on the Thompsons supplied and used by the British, and an example of an Irish Republican 3-digit serial number Model of 1921 is shown, in Tom Davis's Great Britain - The Tommy Gun Story. A book I'd recommend and I often refer to, as a good reference on the subject.
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Lots of questions, thankyou both for your comments and Roger, for your eagle eyes in spotting that list of items.
Early old specification deactivactions in the UK are often found with bits on them changed for various reasons by previous owners or dealers. The new specification deactivations have the receiver welded to the trigger frame; so they can not be stripped, have less items that can be changed. Usual the wood furniture. A lot of owners like their Thompsons to have vertical foregrips, to give it the traditional 'Tommy gun' look. So it is not uncommon to find them added and changed, over the years.
On this example, looking at the corrosion, it appears it has spent some time with the right hand side in water. That being the case the wood furniture may have rotted. Hence mismatched furniture being added by a dealer / collector after they acquired it? Just a thought.
The screw in front grip mount resting bar, I wonder if it is part of the early deactivation process to block the chamber. Back then a lot of the deactivation process was simple things, which a determined person, with limited skills, could fix and 'reactivate' the weapon. Hence the laws and standards became more stricter from 1995.
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Looking at S- 52127, leaves me curious. This example, has a matching receiver and trigger frame, so why would it have a magazine catch with a tooling hole?
Information I have on file was that:
“S-71263 has the flat ejector, down diamond safety and selector, and a magazine catch without the tooling hole . S-93258 has the same, except it has the magazine catch with a tooling hole. So somewhere in between, that feature changed”.
So, S-52127 must have had its magazine catch changed, during its lifetime.
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3 hours ago, Got Uzi said:
I thought it was clear in the listing that if someone was interested that they should reach out for details.
Loud and clear...
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This old model of 1928 has just come up for sale in the UK, obviously deactivated.
Wonder where this one has been hiding, and someone will their work cut out, cleaning it up.
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9 hours ago, ron_brock said:
If it’s verdigris (oxidation on brass) usually in contact with leather, you can use a mild acid like lemon juice or vinegar and carefully clean it away. Cotton swabs and being careful not to get the juice all over, basically spot cleaning.
Ron
Cheers Ron,
I'll give the Lemon juice tip a try, when I have some free time.
Stay safe
Richard
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18 hours ago, ppgcowboy said:
I think whatever it is, it gives off a greenish tarnish. Most of the metal parts on most canvas webbing seem to do this. I
Any tips for cleaning off the green tarnish?
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Very poignant picture, which I had saw before. So I guessed it must have been on this forum.
So a quick search give me this topic posted by azboater in 2018 🫡
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15 minutes ago, historyguy1944 said:
Denix is bit on the pricey side if its only for a party. However, I've owned a 2nd hand denix since 2018 and used it at many living history events. It holds up quite well. Occasionally you'll find one used on Ebay
Brad,
This one is in the UK, but it'll give you an idea what the Denix replica looks like.
https://www.dandbmilitaria.com/replica-denix-thompson-m1928a1-smg-sn-1092-o1-c-
D&B are also selling MGC replicas, expensive replicas....
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16 hours ago, rpbcps said:
Attaching the cover to the frame, see my pictures above.
Here are a few of clearer photos of the leather tabs attached to the frame
Rear
And two showing the front tabs, left and right.
And very faded markings on mine, which has been used and abused during its lifetime.
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8 minutes ago, Outsider said:
I mentioned that as when you mentioned it was for a halftrack you used the G-102 which is the white / autocar / diamond t halftrack G number, while the one in the picture has the G-147 International halftrack number. That is what surprised me is they would possibly use 2 different G numbers for the same part. All other cross over parts I have seen have used a standard G number no matter what vehicle it was used on. On the G-102 halftracks you will see G-167 parts as that was the scoutcar which preceded the G-102 halftrack design and they used some of the same parts. While the G-147 International was designed after the G-102 halftracks were in production for several years.
Interesting, thank you for that information.
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4 hours ago, Outsider said:
G147 on the tag is the halftrack made by International Harvestor.
As was mentioned in my post above, and ppgcowboys' post confirms that information.
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12 minutes ago, videoguy said:
What were the leather tabs for ??
Attaching the cover to the frame, see my pictures above.
B A R receiver stamp ‘word’ change.
in Browning Message Board (Full Auto Only)
Posted
I may know a few things about Thompsons but I am a novice with the BAR. Well spotted i have looked through loads of photos of BARs and never noticed that before.
Couldn't see the forest for the trees.