Bloodletting Friday Part 1: Gunning down the political class
With regard to comments I made yesterday over helicoptergate, I have spent some considerable time this evening pondering the best weapon for gunning down socialist MPs. Now I know that many of will have your own personal preferences & that’s fair enough – each to his or her own. However after a few gentleman’s measures of something dark & peaty, I have come to the conclusion we could do a lot worse than lining every last one of the sponging lying cheating duplicitous b*astards against the wall & if this was the last thing they ever saw while being given the full nine yards, the job would be well done
More Vickers MMG frivolity here here & here
Comments
Even a knuckle-dragging Yank knows it's not much good without the belt.
Posted by: Hughjimbissel | July 16, 2009 11:59 PM
That etymology of "nine yards"...did you get that personally? It seems so right, yet I see it denied over & over by the slanguage sorts. Apparently it never appeared in print before the early 60's, and it should be WWII. Did you hear it used whilst engaged in the GPMG trade?
Posted by: comatus | July 17, 2009 6:08 AM
Comatus - I have to confess that I have no idea on that one. As you say,"nine yards" sounds about right but I have no real idea about exactly no idea how long the belts really were.
If I have time today I'll give the Imperial War Museum a call & ask
Hughjimbissel - Correct & while on this topic its also missing its crew but I have already had many offers to come & help
Posted by: Mr Free Market | July 17, 2009 6:52 AM
Wikipedia says they were last used by the Brits in 1968 - in the spirit of "make do", I was "offered" a position on a Vickers course in 1983 (in South Africa), to which my reply was "Hell, no". I could see myself padding all over northern Namibia carrying one of those things ....
Posted by: msr7x57 | July 17, 2009 9:07 AM
...and after you've run through a belt or two, the water can be used for a post-execution brew-up of Royal Blend.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | July 17, 2009 2:43 PM
"The whole 9 yards" is a common phrase in the US also. A lot of people think it has something to do with US Football but there has been no trace even to that source. Some think it comes from the fact that a lot of WW II US Army Air Force guns had 27 foot links of ammo, but even that is not a confirmed source that I can find anyway.
For social re-adjustment in England, the Vickers gun. In the US the M1917 water cooled Browning. With its slow rate of fire of 450RPM and somewhat elaborate water cooling system it could and did pull a number of all nighters on Guadalcanal.
I remember a fictionalized account of a Vickers gun set up in ambush. It disabled a truck the Germans tried to use for cover. The Vickers just kept shooting away at it until even the engine block didn't offer any cover.
Posted by: toad | July 17, 2009 6:31 PM
Kim, because of the grease and oil used on the packings to keep the water from leaking around the barrel, the water is icky for making tea. Trust me I know.
Posted by: walt | July 17, 2009 9:43 PM
"For social re-adjustment in England, the Vickers gun. In the US the M1917 water cooled Browning"
One could compromise with a Colt manufactured American Vickers M1915 in 30-06
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:3J0U0dcBWzEJ:www.smallarmsreview.com/pdf/3006USweapons.pdf+using+30-06&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
As everyone knows - or should know - a Vickers is basically a Maxim turned upside down and seeing as my home town is where good ole Hiram spent the period before he accepted Edison's bribe to make himself scarce, I rather like the idea.
For some reason, my proposal to christen a proposed new library as The Hiram Maxim Memorial Library has not been taken well by The Powers That Be in this neighborhood. My subsequent suggestion that it be named for the seond most famous individual to come out of these parts - Playboy Magazine's 1975 Playmate of the Year, Marilyn Lange (I'm a week her senior and our childhood homes were about five minutes apart)- has also been disregarded.
Sigh. "A prophet is honored, etc" still applies, I guess.
Posted by: Beausaber | July 21, 2009 2:40 AM