July 2010 Mailbag
Tom Johnson holds a copy of Armchair General magazine in front of the Kohima Museum. Tom writes:
Kohima Museum is located at Imphal Barracks, Fulford, Yorkshire, England. The Imphal Barracks are or used to be the headquarters of the British Second Division which fought the Japanese 31 Division at Kohima. The Kohima Museum concentrates on the engagement and not one particular unit, so there are items from many of the battalions who fought there in April, May and June, 1944. There are also a large number of captured Japanese documents in the collection.
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I am looking at the top picture of Leyet Gulf and i believe it is captioned incorrectly. It should read RIGHT TO LEFT as the 3 battleships are on the right in the photograph.
JULY 2010 ARMCHAIR GENERAL, IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS, PAGE 15, NUCLEAR HAND GRENADE:
The following are the CORRECT specifications for the Davy Crocket: M-29 155 mm recoiless: Length: 8 ft 2 in, Weight: 371 lbs.
M-28 120 mm recoiless: Length: 5 ft 1 in, Weight: 116 lbs.
Performance: M-29, Range, Min 1000 ft, Max 2.5 miles, M-28, Range, Min 1000 ft, Max 1.24 miles
Warhead: Either conventional explosives or a W-54 variable yield fission device. Yield of W-54 VARIABLE from 20 to 250 TONS.
Number deployed: 6,247 guns known funded. Only 400 nuclear XM388 projectiles produced.
TESTING; The device was tested on 7 July 1962, code name Little Feller II. Then, on 17 July 1962, the second test occurred, named Little Feller I. Because the device used an extremely degraded nuclear explosive to obtain the relatively small TNT equivalent yield of only 20 to 250 TONS, the amount of long half-lived plutonium contamination left on the “battle field” was so bad, it was realized that such a weapon would have little practical tactical utility. The contaminated test vehicles and testing surface were all buried at the Nevada Test Site. It was impossible to decontaminate the test vehicles, since they were “plated” with plutonium contamination.
Production of the Davy Crocket ended in 1965. The weapon was withdrawn starting in July 1967 and ending in early 1971.
Another reason for the weapon’s demise was the fact that when fielded, the weapon was controlled by a U. S. Army Sergeant.
The Davy Crocket recoiless gun was actually a spigot piston device; no part of the projectile actually entered the “gun.”
The main thrust of the above comments is that Armchair General indicated the yield was 10 or 20 kilotons (TNT equivalent), when this weapon only had a yield of 20 to 250 tons (TNT equivalent), a thousand times LESS.
In july magazine 2010 you gave on page 15 the name of a serviceman from canada who was confirmed as holding the longest “kill shot” by a sniper.
In the war on terror would providing his name lead to potential violent act of terror to him or his family by terrorist in reprisal.
I think this placed Corporal Furlong at risk.
In the July 2010 issue’s “Impress Your Friends” column, Corporal Rob Furlong of the Canadian Army was named as holding the record for the longest confirmed “kill shot” by a sniper at 2,430 meters (7,972 feet or 1.5 miles). He has since been surpassed.
In November 2009 Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, a sniper belonging to the British Army’s Household Cavalry struck and killed two Taliban at a distance of 8,120 feet (1.54 miles). The news reports stated that his targets were 3,000 to 3,200 feet beyond the most effective range of his weapon!
The news articles can be found at the following links:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7113916.ece
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/sniper_kills_qaeda_from_mi_away_sTm0xFUmJNal3HgWlmEgRL
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270414/British-sniper-sets-new-sharpshooting-record-1-54-mile-double-Taliban-kill.html
Dear Sir,
I was very pleased to see Richard N. Armstrong’s profile of Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky in the July issue. I thought it was very well done. The more I read about Rokossovsky, the more intriqued I become. I have not been able to find an English-language biography (though I have been able to get my hands on his memiors “A Soldier’s Duty”). Perhaps I shall have to write one myself.
Peter Mueller
Colorado Springs, CO
I don’t know if the magazine has already covered this or if you even allow requests to be made on what you write about but hey what the hell. I read a book a couple of years ago and it was one of the best I have ever read I couldn’t put it down. It was The Bridge at Andau by James Michner. The book was about various peoples stories they had from when they went through the brave but doomed 1956 Hungarian revolution. I was hoping maybe you guys could write an article on the revolution how it started, who was involved, and how it ended. I think more people need to know this sad but beautiful story. If not maybe you could just review the book so it renews peoples interest in it. Thanks, from a recent subscriber.