Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Bolt-Action Rifle from a Dead German Soldier
Am Shooting Journal ^ | 9/14/20 | F Jardim

Posted on 09/14/2020 8:29:37 AM PDT by w1n1

Stolen During The Great Depression - George Irish was an independent-minded man. In 1917, he was 25 years old. He made a living as a jack-of-all-trades in Summers, Conn., just across the border from Massachusetts. He wasn't married and America had just become involved in what became know as World War I.

He volunteered for the army. He was assigned to an artillery unit and trained in the Midwest before crossing the Atlantic in an improvised troop ship. In France, he didn’t work the guns, instead he kept the dough boys who labored over them fed. He was a muleskinner, and his job was to drag loads of artillery ammunition and supplies across the open barrage, along swept roads and paths, from the supply dumps to the front-line artillery positions.

It was hard work hitching up the mule team and driving the animals through the shell-torn terrain and digging out the wagons when they got stuck in the mud. Mules cannot take cover, and if they were killed or wounded by shell splinters or machine gun barrages or poison gas, he had to calm the other animals and unhitch the casualties so the supplies could move on.

Gas attacks were especially miserable. First he had to put on his own mask, and then try as fast as he could with limited vision through cloudy eyepieces to get them on mules. It was not glorious work, only hard and dangerous.
On one trip over recently taken ground, he saw a dead German officer in a shell hole. By that time, he was no stranger to the dead. What caught his attention was the officer’s beautiful sniper rifle. It was a custom-made bolt action with dual-set triggers and a telescopic sight, in a European caliber unfamiliar to him.

He recovered the rifle and all the ammunition the officer had on him, and stowed it on his wagon. If he got home, it would be a fine and very practical souvenir. Though the Germans never got him, the Spanish flu that killed millions worldwide in 1918 almost did. He spent three days sick in bed but recovered. Read the rest of German bolt-action rifle.


TOPICS: Hobbies; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: banglist; blogpimp; clickbait; getaneditor; gewehr98; momsbasement; readtheresthere; ww2

1 posted on 09/14/2020 8:29:37 AM PDT by w1n1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: w1n1

An officer with a sniper weapon?


2 posted on 09/14/2020 8:32:44 AM PDT by 2banana (Common ground with islamic terrorists-they want to die for allah and we want to arrange the meeting)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: w1n1

Lame story.

Do we never get to know any of the details on the rifle?

He had it for a long time before it got stolen.


3 posted on 09/14/2020 8:34:47 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pikachu_Dad

What do you expect?


4 posted on 09/14/2020 8:36:29 AM PDT by OKSooner ("We're going to put everyone over ten out of business.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: OKSooner

a story about a gun to contain story about a gun?

perhaps a happier ending with the lost gun being found again?

anything on the information on the gun.


5 posted on 09/14/2020 8:37:32 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: w1n1; All

WEBSITE BLOCKED DUE TO TROJAN.
C:\Program Files (x86)\NirSoft\WebBrowserPassView\WebBrowserPassView.exe

MalwareBytes Premium


6 posted on 09/14/2020 8:38:00 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pikachu_Dad
Lame story.

In other words, about average for 'Am Shooting Journal.'

7 posted on 09/14/2020 8:39:02 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Masks are not about controlling a virus. Masks are about controlling people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: All

Malwarebytes
www.malwarebytes.com

-Log Details-
Protection Event Date: 9/14/20
Protection Event Time: 11:39 AM
Log File: 832e5930-f6a0-11ea-bba7-00ff4078e0d1.json

-Software Information-
Version: 4.2.0.82
Components Version: 1.0.1036
Update Package Version: 1.0.29821
License: Premium

-System Information-
OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
CPU: x64
File System: NTFS
User: System

-Blocked Website Details-
Malicious Website: 1
, C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\70.0.3728.178\opera.exe, Blocked, -1, -1, 0.0.0, ,

-Website Data-
Category: Trojan
Domain: americanshootingjournal.com
IP Address: 45.60.96.227
Port: 443
Type: Outbound
File: C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\70.0.3728.178\opera.exe

(end)


8 posted on 09/14/2020 8:40:59 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Pikachu_Dad

Probably a Mannlicher–Schönauer. I have one my Grandad brought back from WWII and has been a Deer Rifle in the family for generations. Magnificent Weapon.


9 posted on 09/14/2020 8:48:03 AM PDT by Vikon99 (-Yeah, I design video games and VR and AR Training for DoD.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: w1n1
He was a muleskinner, and his job was to drag loads of artillery ammunition and supplies across the open barrage, along swept roads and paths, from the supply dumps to the front-line artillery positions.

My dad was supposed to be named after an uncle who was a "wagoner" in a US machine gun company that was hauled by mules. Though he got to France quite late in 1918, this gent was still exposed to gas badly enough to seriously screw up his lungs until the day he died.

Not a great deal of "glory" in all of that... and to add insult to injury, getting gassed was not conducive to hauling back war trophies.

10 posted on 09/14/2020 8:52:27 AM PDT by niteowl77
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: w1n1

That’s one hell of a bayonet in that picture.


11 posted on 09/14/2020 8:52:46 AM PDT by White Lives Matter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: niteowl77
My grandfather was a conscript in Kiser Wilhelm's army on the other side.

(in order to emigrate he had to serve before leaving.)

Ukrainian by birth, but part of the Astro-Hungarian empire.

A Cossack, by my fathers recollection, (born in mid 20's) His words were "as bad as he treated me, I believe he was a Cossack".

12 posted on 09/14/2020 9:53:53 AM PDT by SERE_DOC ( The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it. TJ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: w1n1
They spelled ‘Somers’ wrong.
13 posted on 09/14/2020 12:53:14 PM PDT by Radix (Natural Born Citizens have Citizen parents)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson