🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3f71ce4d$0$28121$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, 
icentral@optusnet.com.au says...
> So Peter,
> 
> Just answer these as best you can ...
> 
> 1. If I said Enfilade, grazing fire from defilade position - what would that
> describing and where would I be  ?

Enfilade fire is fire that is aimed along a "file" of targets, such as 
firing at a column of tanks advancing along a road from directly in front, 
or from the side at a line of assaulting infantrymen. Defilade is a 
position where you cannot be taken under fire yourself, such as behind a 
bank or on a reverse slope. Grazing fire is fire that "grazes" the slope of 
the earth, rather than striking the ground at a large angle. The advantage 
of this is that your fire can cover a larger area of ground, presumably 
striking more targets in the space immediately above that ground, say up to 
about head high. For example, if the ground is rising ahead of you, your 
fire will tend to impact on a small area, but if it is falling gently, you 
will have a large beaten zone as the trajectory of your rounds follows the 
slope of the ground.

Considerations such as these are of crucial importance when siting your 
machineguns. Enfilade, grazing fire from defilade position is obviously 
good for you and bad for the opposing team.

> 2. What was the range of GPMG M60 on bipod without C2 Sights?

860 metres. You can't use the C2 sightunit without the tripod. One of the 
world's great bloody awful machineguns. Heavy, complex and poorly designed. 
prone to stoppages and bits kept breaking. The barrel couldn't be changed 
without an asbestos glove and the bipod was attached to the barrel, so the 
poor old number two had to carry the weight of a glove and an extra bipod 
on the second barrel. Considering that it was a remake of the superb German 
MG42, one wonders how the Yanks could have possibly gone so wrong.

> 3. What was the muzzle velocity of an SLR ?

823 m/s

Great weapon for drill. The Austeyr just isn't the same.

> 4. Did anyone ever show you how to make a SLR full auto with a match ?

Yeah. The idea is to stop the safety sear from fully engaging. But a 
ringpull from a beercan lasted longer. So I'm told.

> 5. Can you describe the inside of the SGTs Mess at QUR.

Through a boozy haze.

>     5.1         Where is it ?

It's on the right end of the depot building as you enter the front gate. 
It's approached through a short corridor with the CO/Adjutants office on 
the left and the Chief Clerk's office on the right. There's a staircase 
going up to the lecture room on the first floor and there's a mark on the 
wall showing the height of the flood in 1974. The colours went under and we 
spent an awful lot of time preparing for the colours parade where they were 
replaced in 1978 - one of the first examples of the new design based on the 
Australian flag rather than the British.

>     5.2         I walk in the door - the bar is on my ....

Right at the far end of the room. On the left side of the bar is the mess 
bell with a sign reading "He who rings this bell in jest Must buy a drink 
for all the rest" There were a few framed reproduction rifles, one of them 
a SMLE, on the wall at the right side.

>     5.3         Out the back is a ....

Beer garden under the cliff.

> 6.     A QUR SLR was lost once where was it found ?

Northern Ireland, unless you are referring to the SLR I supposedly dropped 
out of a helicopter.

> 7.     Do you remember a Peter Lindsay, Sgt Wayne Hinton or a Sgt Peterson ?

Peter Lindsay was a pioneer. One of David Grimshaw's mates. He had a 
penchant for weapons and explosives. Someone dobbed him in to the cops who 
raided his place. One of the more bizarre tales was that he was going to 
mount a Claymore in the door of his car. He was a lance-corporal when I 
knew him and I doubt he ever made it to sergeant. The other two names ring 
bells, but too gentle for me to associate much with them.

Other members of the mess when I was there were the aptly named Dick 
Boundy; Kerry McGreevy whose life revolved around the ARes and took up with 
Staff Aldridge who ran the pay section; Byron Murphy the Pioneer sergeant 
(no beard) and Matt Guley the RP who was also in the band.

BTW, the RQ had his own song, to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne":

You are RQ of QUR, QUR RQ are you.
You are RQ of QUR, QUR RQ are you!