Quote:
Originally Posted by rcaf_777
Dont forgot about military weapons used for avalanche control
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I have seen mortars, howitzers (75mm pack) as well as RCLs used for avalanche control. I keep trying to picture your first day of ski patrol training when they unveil the artillery piece...
On a different note, I remember seeing on the web a couple of years ago (ah, thank you google):
tanks as far as the eye can see
This is more of interest to us today, as these would have been active in T2K. It would be interesting to see if this yard is somewhat more active today.
I found the yard at the time by going to Kharkov on google maps and following the rail lines in town until I found the depot.
Another thought is the number of town squares or parks (In the US) that have a cannon - a pre-breechloading cannon. Depending on how the barrel is blocked, and how well the barrel was preserved, this may be brought back to a condition usable for anti personnel fire. Grapeshot at 100m is still nasty against a group of men rushing the town gate...
Hmm. a small factory could possibly devise a simple contact fuse for basic HE shells (ACW level technology). That cold push its usefulness out to say 1000 meters. Not very helpful against an actual tank, but a 3-in cannonball or AP bolt against a bus with a half-inch steel plate would be effective (if you can hit).
It would be easier to get one of these back into firing condition than a WW2-era 75mm howitzer form in front of the VFW hall... Of course, some of these were display-only replicas of cheap metal not meant to ever actually fire; some have simply aged and rusted and weakened (find that out by firing it
), and some are probably too well blocked up to be usable.
More fun would be a table for firing, with entries between "fires normally" "carriage falls apart", and "catastrophic explosion."
We fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
Then we grabbed an alligator and fought another round,
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
-- The Battle of New Orleans