He must have been an economics teacher before the war.
Vintage Saturday: Guns and Butter
Semiauto pistol
Armatix iP1: The Infamous German “Smart Gun”
The Armatix iP1 is a pistol created by former H&K designer Ernst Mauch that was released – or almost released – in the US in late 2013 and early 2014. It is a .22LR caliber […]
Semiauto pistol
German Occupation FN High Power Pistols
When Germany occupied Belgium in the summer of 1940, the took over the FN factory complex and ordered production of the High Power pistol to continue. It was put into German service as the Pistole […]
Light MGs
Pre-Production FG-42 (Type C)
Thanks to the generosity of a collector in the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters, we have a chance today to take a look at a pre-production FG-42, serial number 015. This is one […]
A young friend of mine was in a history class in college and the old “Guns and Butter” discussion came up. He avered that it was better to have guns, because “If I have guns, and you have butter, then I have butter too”…(grin)
hai boys. the coking handle of the
MG42 has the very first design of
the 1942
Go ahead and smile today Nazi, but tomorrow, you’ll be toast.
Wow, that’s a bad pun even for me.
Ian, you owe me a new monitor/keyboard. “He must have been an economics teacher before the war.” I laughed quite hard at this but unfortunately I happened to be drinking my coffee at the time.
“If I have guns, and you have butter, then I have butter too”…
I have never seen a historical example of a nation with less economic strength (Butter)losing to a nation that is less economically advantaged.
GDP wins every time.
Dean from Idaho
If that is real butter he’s having with his sauerbroten, I can understand why he is smiling. The privations suffered by the ordinary soldier in a war that created acute shortages of supplies, and which typically reduced personal value systems to stark, bare basics, made the smallest, simplest everyday things a peacetime civilian would take wholly for granted something to be truly grateful for, if even for a fleeting moment. Although it’s from a different era than what you see in the photo, Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet On The Western Front” still brings this theme to mind, among others.
Nice call on the early-model MG-42, Dimitris :).
Butter….that’s one way to lube your gun.
Turk – a truth that seems to be forgotten in our modern schools. “If I’m a pacifist, then I have nothing to worry about with the bullies, I will negotiate with them and they’ll leave me alone” Reminds me of the Blgubatter Beast in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The way you defeat the this most logical of creatures is to put your hands over your eyes. It then deduces that since you can’t see it, it can’t see you and doesn’t eat you.