A Few Thoughts on the British and German Rifles and Riflemen, WWII

[Art]

In this day and age, it may be hard to believe but when I was in high school in Toronto, we had a cadet corps that was affiliated with one of the local Militia (i.e. army reserve) units. Our school had a rifle range for .22s and about 30 functional Lee Enfields in .303. Even more interesting is that we had two Bren guns. At the age of 13, I could field strip and reassemble a Bren in the dark. A few years ago I was back for a school reunion and was telling the current principal about that time. The cadets, the rifles, the Brens and the rifle range were long gone and the principal had never heard about any of them.

Riflery used to be a competitive activity in NYC schools, in fact into the 1960s you would see kids with their cased rifles on the subways. I have a friend who was on his high school rifle team in NYC back then who has confirmed this.

Several years ago he visited his Alma Mater in Brooklyn and mentioned this fact to the principal. The principal, a leftie, of course who wasn't around then denied it ever happened. My friend then took him down to what had been the range in the basement which is now a storage area, again the principal denied that there had ever been a shooting range there or that the school had ever had a rifle team. The old boy would have probably said the same thing if you showed him the rifle team pic in a year book.

[lyman]

Riflery used to be a competitive activity in NYC schools, in fact into the 1960s you would see kids with their cased rifles on the subways. I have a friend who was on his high school rifle team in NYC back then who has confirmed this.

Several years ago he visited his Alma Mater in Brooklyn and mentioned this fact to the principal. The principal, a leftie, of course who wasn't around then denied it ever happened. My friend then took him down to what had been the range in the basement which is now a storage area, again the principal denied that there had ever been a shooting range there or that the school had ever had a rifle team. The old boy would have probably said the same thing if you showed him the rifle team pic in a year book.

one of the guys I shot with, and bunked with at Perry, is from CT,

his is Distinguished, did that on a M14, and shot Small Bore in grade and high school, and often at the school

he would take his rifle home on the bus

[barretcreek]

Friend lived on 16th Street near Carter Baron. We'd take a D.C. Transit bus to 1600 Rhode Island but the NRA was sorta cool to us, even though we had JR membership.
HS had a half dozen M1922 and 52B.

[Vern Humphrey]

We (Robert Ray Petroleum where my Dad was general manager) had a helicopter company under contract when we were in Egypt (mid-'50s). One of the helicopter pilots spotted a BMW motorcycle abandoned along the German retreat route from El Alamein and picked it up. He brought it into camp lashed to the skids, and our camp mechanic got it running. It had a side car with an MG 34 mounted on it.

It was great fun, but we made the mistake of shooting the MG where the Egyptian Army mine disposal crew attached to our camp could hear it, and they confiscated it and cut it up with a torch.