• gibmiser@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    That poor horse. Can only imagine the terror. And better hope it doesn’t lift it head all the way up…

    • catboss@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      The horror of carrying a Maxim gun? It was a heavy gun but not too heavy to be carried by a horse.

      • gibmiser@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Imagine being an animal not knowing what is going on and a ear damaging loud noise occurs repeatedly from the heavy metal machine on your back.

        I’d freak the fuck out.

        • catboss@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          Oh, I get it. You think the gun was mounted on the horse for whatever reason.

          Rest assured, Maxim guns usually needed a small team to be operated properly. I highly doubt anyone was stupid enough to try and fire a Maxim gun from a horse.

          But the thing is nearly 30kg heavy, so loading it on a horse to move it around is what you’d would do if you had the option.

          • gibmiser@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Ah. Yup that was it. In hindsight makes sense they were just showing off what the captured - not how they planned to use it.

            And now that it’s not really what happened I am enjoying the idea of a fictional version of a drive by on one of those.

  • Knusper@feddit.de
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    11 months ago

    Interesting, I didn’t know they had cloth wrappers for their Pickelhauben. Is/was that a common thing, to have cloth wrappers for helmets?

    Edit: I did the tiniest bit more research and stumbled over what might be the reason, translated from this source:

    During WW1, the Pickelhaube became useless. The metal reflected sunlight, meaning the soldiers couldn’t camouflage. The spike would often stick out of trenches, making them easier to spot.

    As a result, a new helmet model was then introduced in 1916, but I guess, they had to get creative until those were ready…