A WWII Armourer's shop photo.

[Surpmil]

Found this postcard dropped into my copy of Instructions for Armourers 1931, so here it is!

Information

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[42rocker]

See a lot of 1919a4 and some 50 cal stuff.

Interesting card.

Later 42rocker

[Alan de Enfield]

And for comparison a couple of WW1 Armourers shops :


Armourers in mobile 'Field Workshop'

Armourers at work in a 'Base Workshop' at Calais

Armourers of the 149th Bombing Squadron, St Omar July 1918

Candian Armourers Salisbury Plain - England

[42rocker]

Nice postcard group.

Later 42rocker

[Flying10uk]

On the first postcard, post 1, there are 2 open top, half round tanks that look as if they may have been made from an oil drum, cut in half, and turned on it's side. Do these likely contain oil or water for general quenching purposes or do they have a more specific purpose?

[browningautorifle]

half round tanks that look as if they may have been made from an oil drum, cut in half,

We commonly had those for solvent baths way before there was any thoughts of petroleum poisoning...just a solvent bath of gas and oil...dip into it with bare hands.

[CINDERS]

Good selection of pistols for aircrew many a pilot shot themselves rather than being burned to death or impacting the ground as in the early days it was considered unmanly to parachute from ones burning aircraft.
Such was the logic in the WWI airwar.

[mmppres]

Awesome to see how much work was done in the field.

[Daan Kemp]

many a pilot shot themselves rather than being burned to death or impacting the ground as in the early days it was considered unmanly to parachute from ones burning aircraft.

Could you provide more detail on this please? References, etc, I want to do some research about this.

[Flying10uk]

many a pilot shot themselves rather than being burned to death or impacting the ground as in the early days it was considered unmanly to parachute from ones burning aircraft.

I was under the impression that some pilots chose to jump without a parachute rather than be burned to death.

I believe that the "idea" among "the British" was that issuing parachutes might "encourage cowardices".

I think that some people in the UK during WW1 were paranoid about cowardice or "potential cowards". I remember my gran telling me about an incident that happened on a bus during WW1 that she witnessed first hand. A man and his wife were traveling on a bus but the man got "called out" by other passengers for not being in uniform, i.e. a "potential coward". The man reacted by climbing/crawling underneath the seat, which was possible in those days. The passengers who had been causing the trouble then got an "ear-full" from the man's wife as she explained that her husband had been on active service and was currently suffering badly from what was, in those days, called shell-shock.