I don’t think that’s a standard-issue tripod – more like something built for an 8-foot-tall surveyor. Also, note the feed strip box on the ground below the gunner.
Vintage Saturday: French AA Gunners with a 1907 St Etienne
Bolt Action Rifles
Shooting the Mle 1866 Chassepot
A while back, I visited @CanadianGunLover, and we did a bit of shooting with an 1866 Chassepot. I lost track of the footage and only just now found where I had put it – so […]
Heavy MGs
The St Etienne Mle 1907: France’s Domestic Heavy Machine Gun
When the French first began testing machine guns in the late 1890s, they were one of the few countries that did not purchase quantities of Maxim guns. One of the reasons was that in France’s […]
Vintage photo
Vintage Saturday Correction: Spare a Light?
Long-time reader and commenter Eon took a closer look at yesterday’s photo and recognized what I had not – it isn’t a line-throwing rifle, it’s a light mounted under the barrel. His comment in full: […]
It is not too surprising to see such a set-up for high-angle AA fire against low-flying aircraft — after all, necessity is the mother of invention, and there were many such improvised mounts devised for light AA applications in the field during WWI and WWII.
A case in point is the method developed by German Army units on the Eastern Front to address low-level attacks by IL-2 Sturmoviks and the like. The assistant gunner of an MG-34 or MG-42 GPMG team would support the weapon across the back of his shoulders at the point where the bipod was attached while the gunner traversed and fired the weapon. Very noisy and not a little disconcerting for the AG, to say the least, but nevertheless fairly effective against enemy aircraft when used en masse.
It may come as a surprise for many otherwise in the know, but this method of improvised AA defence was taught to the soldiers of more than one modern army during the period from after the Second World War through the 1990’s and later. I distinctly remember practising this procedure on more than one occasion with an FN MAG58 7.62mm GPMG during the late 1970’s.
Many of the losses among USAF, USN, AFRVN and ARVN aircraft and helicopters during low-level COIN operations during the Vietnam War could probably be attributed to this technique of last-ditch AA defence.
Your final paragaph: “The golden BB”.