Thamar truly shows his pedigree being trained by Bura the royal kami himself. He makes the most beautiful and functional Khuk's in my humble opinion. His Yek/Dui Chirra's are truly a classic design with it's shorter handle which antique khuk's usually have and the lighter weights as well, usually in the 24-26 oz range but I've seen him pull off one at 16 oz, he is truly amazing. I will be a happy man when I finally get my hands on one of his pieces.
What Kukri would you take if you were going to war?
- Thread starter Urban redneck
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Perhaps try a Purna M-43 when/if he returns to HI. Mine is 18" OAL and just shy of 27oz. A thing of beauty IMHO. However, it was not just because of luck. It was my first HI purchase and I had contacted Auntie by phone for a perfect fit, it worked out perfectly. You can't have DOTD pricing along with personalized fit and finish except on rare occasions when the stars align.
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Yeah- I've seen some dudes on job sites carry some amazing stuff.
I spent a day carrying 5 gal buckets of wallpaper paste up eight flights of stairs once, four at a time...:/
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The pz/gren unit we shot the Shutzenshnurr with called us a "Jaeger" unit- I guess that's the current German equivalent.What's the point of light Inf? No APC, sounds like going back in time.
Is the advantage that they could be deployed with whatever transportation is at hand at any given moment?
JWB, 135lb sounds insane for a ruck. We carried that much only twice. Once after registering and once before checking out of service. 150lb was everything we got for a year that included multiple sets of clothes and personal equipment like gas masks, water bottles etc. Enough to fill one locker to the brim.
Still that didnt make us ultralight infantry. :-D
Having to carry a 120mm mortar added quite a bit of weight. 135lb for another guy and me who carried the base plate. 85lb for the guy with the barrel and then somebody needed to handle the 45lb toolbox and bipod and if it was a special day they added some ammo to that. Normally these weapons would be mounted within our tanks but what would be the fun in that? Every group wanted to be faster than the other 5. Most of us seemed to like the challenge and maybe also because it was a bit different than what the other companies in our battalion had to do.
I bet everybody has a few stories to share where they made it harder than it really had to be and nobody complained or actually even liked it because it was different and cool.
I think the point of LI is to move in unnoticed and do the thing- also terrain where vehicles are a liability.
Either of my Thamars would actually be OK weight wise...but they're kinda big. That gets to be a thing too.
Spray paint works quiet well. If you look at a blade as a service tool, there really is not a problem with it.
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You are right in a sense about smaller logistics. But honestly the Asian Guerillas you use as an example isn't a match for the Light Infantry concept. Those are more irregular forces. A better comparison for them would be LRRPs or more traditionally units like Merrill's Marauders or even before that the Chindits. In the US Army version, the light infantry unit is faster to theater than heavy units but less mobile once there. Because they have no armor to transport, it is possible to carry an entire light division to a trouble spot in about 500 single flights of C-141 transport aircraft. A heavy division would require 1,200 to 1,300 C-141 sorties.
Once on the ground, however, LI units become TRUE Legs (infantry), they walk! Although the divisions do have some trucks and utility vehicles in comparison a typical heavy infantry division, on the other hand, has 5 battalions of 54 tanks each and six mechanized infantry battalions with many APCs ect. Basically just remove all the track components from a conventional division and don't replace them with anything. Leaving the Division short about 1 Brigade. So because of that LI also has a 2-1 front line fighter-support ratio instead of the more standard 3-2 ratio. Plus trust me on this, when a LI Div goes to the field all companies including support companies are used as combat assets. you might be Finance or M&P when in garrison but in the field everyone plays Army. Sort of similar to the Marine concept that every Marine is a rifleman first and whatever MOS they are second.
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When I mentioned Asian guerrillas, I used infantry in its loosest sense of "those who fight on foot", and in that sense Asian guerrillas are a form of light infantry, as they fight on foot with light loads. However you are right to bring up that irregular forces behave quite differently from regular forces. LRRPs or units like Merrill's Marauders are a better comparison.
I have read an opinion however that most light infantry in US service are used and loaded more like line infantry. Haven't finished reading the book where I read it, but it makes interesting arguments, and has lots of ideas for infantry training.
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I have also read many opinions about light infantry. In most cases the people writing the opinions had some reason they wanted the LI described a certain way. Usually to advance their own beliefs of how units should be commanded. As a Logistics officer that spent the last 5 years of her career converting a typical Infantry Division into a Light Infantry division I will say that much of the behind the scenes differences are not apparent to Infantry officers and Most Generals are ex-Infantry officers. So I tend to take many of the opinions with very LARGE grains of salt. Particularly, the fact that LI Divs are usually deployed not as a single division but in a Corps arrangement with a Heavy Division or an Armored Div as the sister division.
Sorry, we are WAY off topic. This is what happens when an ex-Log officer from Divisional G4 gets talking about logistics I will cut it off here and return you to your previously scheduled topic....
I LOVE my 12" BAS and would take it everywhere if I had to go to war. Personally the need to blacken it is not an issue. Camo stick works on blades just fine. While it wears off, I have never heard of a combat mission that one individual managed to sneak up and kill multiple individuals in secret anyways so... meh, and as for keeping it waterproof etc. In my experience and everything I heard from people who spent their lives outside the wire, there is much more clean your weapons and wait moments than actual hectic action time so I have no issue with having to care for my gear on a regular basis. In fact I would be doing that all the time anyways.
Sorry, we are WAY off topic. This is what happens when an ex-Log officer from Divisional G4 gets talking about logistics
I will cut it off here and return you to your previously scheduled topic....I LOVE my 12" BAS and would take it everywhere if I had to go to war. Personally the need to blacken it is not an issue. Camo stick works on blades just fine. While it wears off, I have never heard of a combat mission that one individual managed to sneak up and kill multiple individuals in secret anyways so... meh, and as for keeping it waterproof etc. In my experience and everything I heard from people who spent their lives outside the wire, there is much more clean your weapons and wait moments than actual hectic action time so I have no issue with having to care for my gear on a regular basis. In fact I would be doing that all the time anyways.
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Four steps at a time, or four buckets at a time? Either way, sounds like it was a rough day. They usually don't pay people enough for those kinds of jobs.
Bawanna
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I've had those kinds of jobs most of my life. Your right, they don't pay enough.
My portfolio or lack thereof is evidence of that. Course my gun and kukri addiction doesn't help the portfolio much either but I'm happy. That's all that matters right?
My portfolio or lack thereof is evidence of that. Course my gun and kukri addiction doesn't help the portfolio much either but I'm happy. That's all that matters right?
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That's all that matters. I was near slave labor until I got wise. Then I moved up to indentured servitude. I struggled since but, seem to be doing OK. Fifty years ago was literally a different world. Now you can run to a safe zone. Yours and mine was under a desk in fear of a nuclear attack albeit a drill. How things change.
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Thanks JWB and Shavru.
Now I got a better idea of the light INF.
The traditional Jäger would indeed be what comes closest to it based on how you described it. I don't know if they still have them in Germany. All I know is that there were Panzerjäger who are specialised in destroying tanks. In the past they had their own bigger units but got cut down into platoons. Towards the end of my time they attached one of theses platoons to our company. I hope they are still around. Great guys.
Now I got a better idea of the light INF.
The traditional Jäger would indeed be what comes closest to it based on how you described it. I don't know if they still have them in Germany. All I know is that there were Panzerjäger who are specialised in destroying tanks. In the past they had their own bigger units but got cut down into platoons. Towards the end of my time they attached one of theses platoons to our company. I hope they are still around. Great guys.
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You can up your throwing accuracy if you use the cho for its primary purpose, as a sight. Get a good sight picture then let'er rip. The beer opening is a secondary functionality.
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Four buckets. Those little plastic handles hurt after a while .
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Jens, Jager would definately be what I would think the German equivalent type of unit would be from my understanding of how they are used. Though I think they also have more emphasis historically on the sharpshooting and stalking/pathfinder skill set. I think when I got my schutzenschnur back in the ancient days, the unit we partnered with were the Fallschirmjäger. I got the idea they were considered an elite airborne unit. I don't remember the specific unit, but they seemed like guys I wouldn't break my neck checking to see if they really had my back if we were in something together.
JW, even at 1 bucket I think those pesky plastic bucket handles hurt my hands. I hate those things and I could definitely see how carrying more than one in a hand with even minimal weight in it could be painful. I can't imagine carrying 2 per hand with any real weight in it for any length of time without pinching the heck out of your hand with those handles, it just seems impossible to hang onto them that way. You must have bigfoot sized hands!
JW, even at 1 bucket I think those pesky plastic bucket handles hurt my hands. I hate those things and I could definitely see how carrying more than one in a hand with even minimal weight in it could be painful. I can't imagine carrying 2 per hand with any real weight in it for any length of time without pinching the heck out of your hand with those handles, it just seems impossible to hang onto them that way. You must have bigfoot sized hands!
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Oh Fallschirmjaeger, how could I forget them. Even had a coworker who was one. As far as I know they are the only paratrooping troops in Germany. Thus they aren't an elite amongst airborne because they Are the airborne but still they are considered an elite amongst all the military units. Of course there are some more super special groups but not in that big of a number.
Jäger means simply hunter and historically until the end of World War 1 even the military Jaegers where actually real Hunters. Now in the US a hunter could be some guy with a gun who goes hunting for pleasure or to bring food home. In Germany all the land however belonged to nobility or states like Prussia. Hunters where mostly publicly employed to manage and take care of the forest or organise hunts for the rich guys and so on. Normal people weren't allowed to hunt. These hunters needed apprenticeship and classes and pass exams to qualify. A process which took quite a few years.
Needless to say these guys were very familiar with nature, self reliance and shooting which gave them an edge in combat without the need for much additional military training. They were grouped together in Jaegerunits to utilise that advantage. All of them having a similar background and a bit more elite made them tightly knit and often more relaxed and doing things their own way.
Also whoever wanted to become a Forrestry Service kind of Jaeger later on usually joined the military kind of Jäger first to improve his chances.
Since Jagd means hunting it can also be used in cases where it has nothing to do with forest service men. A Jäger or Jadgflugzeug is simply a fighter plane which is there to "hunt" bombers or other fighter planes, and not used to shoot deer
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Col. 'mad jack' churchill (no relation to the PM) in ww2 comes pretty close.not only did he he hold the record for having the last confirmed kill with an english yew longbow* (a german sgt.) in action but he landed on the beach with his sword and was followed by his regimental piper. (his famous quote**: 'Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.'). having survived that, he went berserk and captured 42 germans, one at a time to start, using just his sword. later he was captured playing the pipes in the balkans after being badly wounded, escaped from his prison camp & walked 150 miles to the US lines. another quote from him: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!". he passed over the bridge in 1996.
*- he was also an english national archery champion
**- a variant of gibbs rule no. 9
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A Jäger or Jadgflugzeug is simply a fighter plane which is there to "hunt" bombers or other fighter planes, and not used to shoot deer
The mental image of ze Germans hunting deer with fighter jets is now permanently ingrained in my head, meaning I'll be randomly giggling to myself all day and my coworkers will think I'm crazy. Thanks a lot!!!
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LOL, Personally having been on a hunt when I lived in Rheinberg I am more familiar with the Russian boars from the Black Forest than the deer population in Germany. And I could definitely see using a WWII Stuka, diving in with those 2 big MG-17s on those tough buggers. In fact you might be under gunned for them.
Kron, he is one of my favorite WWII figures of all time. I truly get a kick out of imagining the landing zone and him marching up out of the surf line with his piper behind him with all the soldiers trying to burrow deeper into the sand and him marching up the beach.
Meanwhile in Texas it's legal to hunt wild hogs from airplanes and helicopters. There are businesses with full-auto AR-15s and helicopters that let you take a safety course, pay, and hunt herds of hogs from the chopper.