the first of the few

charbens

real west

I am a sucker for TV westerns. The Wagon Train . The music from Rawhide gives me "move 'em out" courage.  Have Gun — Will Travel and I'm ready to roam, the theme from Bonanza and  millions of others, I have that burning map imprinted on my brain about where the west is and what it was. But the truth was well different.et an American magazine I used to get an AMerican magazine called True West, it benefited from the early television era: as shows such as Bonanza, The Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke were aired, many fans became interested in finding out about the lives of real cowboys and cowgirls. True West sold, by the 1960s, in approximately 200,000 newsstands.




After that, the early era of television faded out and so did its interest in westerns. The Vietnam War, Disco and other interests of the era took over. True West began to have financial trouble. Many of the magazine's original buyers had started to search for new interests, and Mr. Small fell ill. In 1974, Small sold the magazine.



By 1984, the magazine was being produced from Stillwater, Oklahoma. However, with the surge of competitor magazines such as Cowboys and Indians and American Cowboy, the magazine could not get out of its economic troubles.



In 1999, the magazine was bought by current owners, Rick Baish, Bob Boze Bell and Bob McCubbin.



Some of the magazine's most popular subjects, cowboys and cowgirls, include Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok and Annie Oakley, among others.



With the help of new investors, Bob and Trish Brink and Dave Daiss, the magazine has expanded its format to include travel, books, Western movies and most importantly, preservation.



The launching of The Top Ten True Western Towns (Sheridan, Wyoming was named number one, 2006) has brought national recognition to the magazine.

http://letgoddecidethejust.blogspot.com/



check out this blog as i'm using it a lot. its my girlfriends blog she doesnt use much if ever.ll be using this not m uch in the future. theres my new toy soldier blog there

virginia wolff

In 1919 Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard, leading lights of the literary Bloomsbury Group, bought this modest weatherboarded house in the main street of Rodmell as a retreat from London life.

The large garden and beautiful view across the river Ouse to the hills beyond made up for some of the disadvantages of the house. These included a well as the only source of water and oil lamps for lighting.



By this time Virginia Woolf, one of the most innovative novelists of the 20th century, had completed her first two novels. However, the experimental work and in particular 'To the Lighthouse', 'The Waves' and 'Mrs Dalloway' which was to establish her reputation, was still in the future. Two years earlier Virginia and Leonard had founded the Hogarth Press at their home in Richmond. The company, whose list included the first published works of T.S. Eliot, was to make an outstanding contribution to literary life.



During their years at Monk's House the Woolfs entertained some of the best-known literary and artistic figures of the day. Among the visitors were Vita Sackville-West, Lytton Strachey, E.M. Forster, Maynard Keynes, T.S. Eliot and Roger Fry. Many were members of the Bloomsbury Group which Virginia and Vanessa founded with their brother Thoby.

With the privilege of living in Virginia Woolf’s old Sussex home comes the responsibility of preserving its charm for a steady stream of visitors. By Gabi Tubbs

Six years ago Jonathan and Caroline Zoob were settled in south-west London with no thought of moving, when a newspaper article caught their eye: 'How would you like to share your home with 7,000 visitors a year?’ They read on to discover that the National Trust was looking for new tenants for Monks House, the former country home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. The tenants would live upstairs, look after the garden and open the house to the public twice a week. Jonathan, a keen gardener, and Caroline, an embroiderer and textile artist, were intrigued and within two days of sending off their CVs, were on their way to an interview at the house.



They headed for Rodmell, a village four miles south of Lewes, tucked away in a protected hollow at the foot of the South Downs. In the main street, next to the school house, they found the pretty weather-boarded cottage where the leading lights of the Bloomsbury group worked and entertained friends for two decades.



Until then, the Zoobs had been curious, but not entirely sure they wanted to give up their London life. But as they walked up the front path and saw the garden, they both fell instantly in love with the lush array of philadelphus, delphiniums and roses in full bloom. As they took in the orchard, vegetable plot and large lawn where the Woolfs and friends played bowls, they barely noticed the distinctly shabby living quarters.



The Zoobs’ experience echoed that of Virginia, who in 1919 found she was 'forced to yield to a profound pleasure at the size and shape and fertility and wildness of the garden’. When the Woolfs moved in, there was no running water and only oil lamps for lighting. The kitchen flooded on the first night, and still does if it rains heavily. Yet over the next 20 years the Woolfs entertained some of the best-known literary figures of the day, from Lytton Strachey to TS Eliot. All complained of the discomfort, but photographs indicate days spent companionably in the garden and house.



The Zoobs were told by the Trust that although structural changes were not permitted, they could decorate as they chose upstairs. Fortunately, Caroline’s taste is similar to Virginia’s spare, comfortable look. She repainted all the rooms in off-whites and pale grey-green to brighten things up. The large sitting-room, once Leonard’s bedroom, was then furnished with squishy sofas and chairs (three of which were rescued from the Woolfs’ garage) covered in antique French linen sheets. Along a grey, painted landing is the Zoobs’ small bedroom, dominated by a large bed with a headboard Caroline designed using an old shelf and some panelling. The bathroom next door is exactly as the Woolfs had it, with the rolltop bath that Eliot noted sloped to one side and in which Virginia used to go over her dialogue, overheard by the cook in the kitchen below.



From the landing a steep flight of wooden stairs leads to Caroline’s sewing room where tall shelves are stacked high with bundles of antique fabrics and boxes spilling over with ribbons and buttons. From these scraps of fabric Caroline creates her hand-stitched and embroidered patchwork samplers. The room has a view over the cottage garden; once the Woolfs’ informal sitting-room, it was their favourite place in the house.



The original formal sitting-room, dining-room and rustic kitchen are on the ground floor, and it is these rooms – which are more or less unchanged since the 1920s and 1930s – that are open to the public and not used by the Zoobs. At the far end of the garden, under the branches of a huge horse chestnut tree, is Virginia’s wooden writing lodge with views across to Mount Caburn.



The Zoobs had only a small plot in London so Jonathan was looking forward to the challenge at Monks House. After Leonard’s death in 1969, the garden (Virginia and Leonard’s ashes are buried there) was neglected for many years, but the Trust and previous tenants had made a start on replanting it in the informal, colourful style he preferred. Leonard made detailed notes of his plants and there are plenty of photographs and letters from which to draw inspiration. The layout is unchanged – different garden 'rooms’ are divided by flint walls and brick paths. The orchard was Leonard’s great love and some of his trees survive.



There are no themed borders or fashionable groupings but a painterly style with lots of contrasting, hot colours. There were many roses on Leonard’s list, yet only one remained in the borders, a glorious Fantin Latour. So Caroline added several large shrub roses and planted a deliciously scented old climber, Comtesse de Bouchard, around Virginia’s bedroom window. A vigorous clematis, Julia Correvon, adds more colour.



Although the Zoobs love the house, they never forget they are there to help preserve a piece of history. Undoubtedly it’s hard work, but it is also rewarding. 'It’s extraordinarily fulfilling to look after Monks House,’ Caroline says. 'And Virginia Woolf is so important to the visitors that you feel responsible for making sure it looks its best.

snipers

Soldiers in front-line trenches suffered from enemy snipers. These men were usually specially trained marksmen that had rifles with telescopic sights. German snipers did not normally work from their own trenches. The main strategy was to creep out at dawn into no-man's land and remain there all day. Wearing camouflaged clothing and using the cover of a fake tree, they waited for a British soldier to pop his head above the parapet. A common trick was to send up a kite with English writing on it. Anyone who raised his head to read it was shot

In the early stages of the First World War local newspapers published letters from soldiers serving on the Western Front. Some of these letters were highly critical of the way the war was being fought. Others suggested that the nature of trench-war meant that the conflict would go on for many years. This was hugely embarrassing as the government was suggesting that it would be over in a few weeks. This was one of the reasons that so many young men had joined upThe term sniper was first attested in 1824 in the sense of the word "sharpshooter". The verb "to snipe" originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India where a hunter skilled enough to kill the elusive snipe was dubbed a "sniper".During the American Civil War, the common term used in the United States was "skirmisher". Throughout history armies have used skirmishers to break up enemy formations and to thwart the enemy from flanking the main body of their attack force. They were deployed individually on the extremes of the moving army primarily to scout for the possibility of an enemy ambush. Consequently, a "skirmish" denotes a clash of small scope between these forces.In general, a skirmish was a limited combat, involving troops other than those of the main body.The term "sniper" was not in widespread use in the United States until after the American Civil War.An Army sniper from the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) looks for enemy activity along the hilltops near Dur Baba, Afghanistan, November 2006.Different countries have different military doctrines regarding snipers in military units, settings, and tactics. Generally, a sniper's primary function in warfare is to provide detailed reconnaissance from a concealed position and, if necessary, to reduce the enemy's fighting ability by striking at high value targets (especially officers, communication and other personnel) and in the process pinning down and demoralizing the enemy.

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Military snipers from the US, UK, and other countries that adopt their military doctrine are typically deployed in two-man sniper teams consisting of a shooter and spotter. A common practice is for a shooter and a spotter to take turns in order to avoid eye fatigue.In most recent combat operations occurring in large densely populated towns such as Fallujah, Iraq, two teams would be deployed together to increase their security and effectiveness in an urban environment. German doctrine of largely independent snipers and emphasis on concealment developed during the Second World War have been most influential on modern sniper tactics, currently used throughout Western militaries (examples are specialized camouflage clothing, concealment in terrain and emphasis on coup d'œil).


Typical sniper missions include reconnaissance and surveillance, target marking for air-strikes, counter-sniper, killing enemy commanders, selecting targets of opportunity, and even destruction of military equipment, which tend to require use of rifles in the larger calibers such as the .50 BMG, like the Barrett M82, McMillan Tac-50, and Denel NTW-20.Snipers have increasingly been demonstrated as being useful by US and UK forces in the recent Iraq campaign in a fire support role to cover the movement of infantry, especially in urban areas.






Polish snipers unit shoot germans during November Uprising

Frederick Russell Burnham in AfricaThe first British sniper unit began life as Lovat Scouts, a Scottish Highland regiment that earned high praise during the Second Boer War (1899–1902).The unit was formed by Lord Lovat and reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the British Army Chief of Scouts under Lord Roberts. Burnham fittingly described these scouts as "half wolf and half jackrabbit.". Just like their Boer scout opponents, these scouts were well practiced in the arts of marksmanship, field craft, and military tactics. They were also the first known military unit to wear a ghillie suit. They were skilled woodsmen but also practitioners of discretion: "He who shoots and runs away, lives to shoot another day." After the war, this regiment went on to formally become the British Army's first sniper unit, then better known as sharpshooters.


lovat sniper


An Australian sniper aims a periscope-equipped rifle at Gallipoli in 1915. The spotter beside him is helping to find targets with his own periscope. Photo by Ernest Brooks.During World War I, snipers appeared as deadly sharpshooters in the trenches. At the start of the war, only Imperial Germany had troops that were issued scoped sniper rifles. Although sharpshooters existed on all sides, the Germans specially equipped some of their soldiers with scoped rifles that could pick off enemy soldiers showing their heads out of their trench. At first the French and British believed such hits to be coincidental hits, until the German scoped rifles were discovered During World War I, the Germans received a reputation for the deadliness and efficiency of their snipers, partly because of the high-quality lenses the Germans could manufacture.


Soon the British army began to train their own snipers in specialized sniper schools.

The government reacted by establishing the British War Propaganda Bureau (WPB). Lloyd George, appointed the successful writer and fellow Liberal MP, Charles Masterman as head of the organization. On 2nd September, 1914, Masterman invited twenty-five leading British authors to Wellington House, the headquarters of the War Propaganda Bureau, to discuss ways of best promoting Britain's interests during the war. Those who attended the meeting included Arthur Conan Doyle, Arnold Bennett, John Masefield, Ford Madox Ford, William Archer, G. K. Chesterton, Sir Henry Newbolt, John Galsworthy, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Gilbert Parker, G. M. Trevelyan and H. G. Wells.

whats this

italianwars.blogspot.com

is this a hill?

help me out on this?

highlanders at ypres

 

The Second Battle Of Ypres - The Highland Spear-head

( Originally Published 1919 )

On Thursday, April 22nd, the 15th Battalion, as we have seen, were holding the line to the left of the 8th. On their own left the 13th continued the line to where it joined the Algerian division of the French. To the 13th was entrusted the responsibility for the main road which runs through Poelcapelle and St. Julien to Ypres. Of all the Canadian battalions in the Ypres salient these two, in the event of a breach any-where in the line, stood the least chance of escape. Probably no two battalions had less notion of escaping.
As a local reserve there lay in or close by St. Julien, Major Alexander's company of the 15th, two platoons of No. 3 Company of the 13th, and a company or half company of the 14th.
In the event of serious attack the two battalions had with these reserves to make good some twenty-five hundred yards of most awkward salient, with little hope of immediate relief. As trouble might be carried in through any of the entrances to Ypres from Langemarck to the Menin road, the remaining four battalions of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades had been echeloned to meet whatever case might arise: the 7th near Fortuin; the 14th, part near St. Jean and part near Wieltje between the Roulers and Broodseinde roads ; and the 10th and 16th close to Ypres. But it would not have been easy to make a workable distribution of these reserve battalions with a view to a quick reinforcement of the salient occupied by the 13th and 15th. They were so far up that if attacked they must rely on their supply of intrinsic Scotch stubbornness for some hours before help could arrive. As events proved they ran out of other things first — ammunition, food, and water.
The French on the left were not of the type that had turned the tide at the Marne and afterwards revised the world's idea of the typical Frenchman by their stolid holding of Verdun. Those in front of Langemarck were French Colonials, Turcos and Zouaves, men of all complexions except light ones, breezy, flamboyant, stagey fellows, flash-in-the-pan fire-eaters; good enough to storm a position; less reliable to keep one. The Germans selected wisely the theatre for the most atrocious of their criminal exploits. Nowhere in the Allied lines could they have found a group. more prone to a sudden depression or less fitted to resist an unheard of and mysterious form of military doom.

hill scots

hill west point

these look better than the britains version

cherilea lancer

french matelots

gunslinger

this is about right as to what a gunslinger actually looked like but I have no idea who made it

scots colonials

authenticast italian nap inf

authenticast doughboys

The term was in use in the 1840s. The origins are unclear. The most often cited explanation is that it arose during the Mexican–American War, after observers noticed U.S. infantry forces were constantly covered with chalky dust from marching through the dry terrain of northern Mexico, giving the men the appearance of unbaked dough.

 Another suggestion is that doughboys were so named because of their method of cooking field rations of the 1840s and 1850s, usually doughy flour and rice concoctions baked in the ashes of a camp fire, although this does not explain why only infantryman received the appellation.

 Still another explanation involves pipe clay, a substance with the appearance of dough used by pre-Civil War soldiers to clean their white garrison belts. The uniforms that were worn by American soldiers in the World War I era had very large buttons. In addition to that, the American soldiers wore white spats over their boots. The soldiers from allied nations suggested that the Americans were dressed like "Gingerbread Men" and then began to refer to the Americans as The Doughboys.

THE BREN GUN SAGA

THE BREN GUN SAGA by Thomas B Dugelby The Bren originated as the excellent series of prewar Czech ZB light machine guns, produced at Zbrojovka Brno (the Brno State Arsenal). The finalized ZGB version was adopted by the British in 1935 as the Bren (Brno + ENfield). Basically a one man infantry weapon, designed to be fired from the hip or bipod mounted on a tripod,, the Bren was also used as an AA and armoured vehicle gun.

 

 

 

school dunce

A Manhattan high-school freshman's wisecrack to a student reporter about assassinating President Bush earned him an official visit - from the Secret Service, .
Irving Miqui's mother and principal insist the 14-year-old was only kidding when, he told the reporter at Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in Chelsea that he wanted to shoot the president to become "a national hero."
But the "joke" was no laughing matter to the Secret Service, which paid the teenager a visit at his Washington Heights home two weeks ago to grill him about the remark, published in a student magazine last month.
"I was like, 'Oh, my God!' " said Irving's mom, Ingrid Miqui, of the arrival of a federal agent at her door. "I didn't think much of [her son's statement] because it was just gibberish. We're talking about a child who doesn't know what he's doing."
The comment appeared in the 29-page publication under a section titled, "How long does it take to really live?" in which five students answered questions of how they would spend their last 24 hours alive.
In addition to saying he would like to spend time with his mother and brother, the item quotes Irving as saying, "But before all of that, I would like to shoot George W. Bush, because in my opinion he is the worst president ever. After that was accomplished, I would be known as a national hero.". Does anyone not think that Bush is a political terrorist?
The U.S secret service had little on at the time one supposes. Anyway a total bunc h of tossers are they
Bayard Principal John Angelet said in an interview that the statement inadvertently slipped past three levels of faculty screening - including himself - and that he has since ordered a review of the vetting process for student publications.
He added that he was shocked last month when a teacher alerted him to the remark, as well as another statement in which a Spanish teacher was quoted as endorsing underage drinking as being "OK."
"I said, 'Oh, my God,' and wondered how it happened," he said, adding, "I know how it happened - I didn't read it carefully. I should not have done any skimming."
Angelet said it never occurred to him to notify the Secret Service because he was satisfied, after a staff member interviewed Irving, that the boy was not a danger to the president or anyone else. The principal confirmed that the Secret Service questioned the boy, but could not say how the agency learned of the remark. He said Irving would not be disciplined.
Michael Seremetis, spokesman for the New York City office of the Secret Service, would neither confirm nor deny that Irving was questioned, but said the agency would always respond to such a threat.What a bunch of wankers are our colonial cousins

 

french marines

marines of the world

crescent

crescent lifeguard

shrapnel charlie 2

SINT-JAN, Belgium — The doorbell chimes just as Ivan Sinnaeve sets down a can filled with balls of shrapnel gleaned from World War I battlefields.




“Shrapnel Charlie,” as Sinnaeve is known, grabs his wooden cane and mutters something as he ambles through his cluttered home, angling for the front door. Sinnaeve then pauses. Another memento has caught his eye and Sinnaeve can’t resist taking a parting shot at Kaiser Wilhelm’s army.



“That’s the bad side of a German,” he says, pointing to an undamaged section of a World War I helmet.



Sinnaeve grins as he rotates it, exposing an area peppered with holes.



“That’s the good side,” he crows.



Being Belgian, Sinnaeve’s allegiance comes as no surprise. The 53-year-old makes no bones about whose side he would’ve been on had he been around for “the Great War,” as it is sometimes called.



Yet the man who turns World War I shrapnel into toy soldiers doesn’t let his views conflict with his craft. Lighted glass display cases feature the kaiser’s guys as well as Allied forces, and German war buffs occasionally visit “Shrapnel Charlie” to purchase his hand-painted toy soldiers.



On this day, it’s a Belgian soldier in the doorway of Sinnaeve’s home, which more or less doubles as his workshop.



Belgian army Chief Warrant Officer Erwin Ureel is part of a group raising funds for the first monument in the Ypres region to the Scottish soldiers of World War I. The effort coincides with next year’s 90th anniversary of the Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele, a fight that cost 500,000 lives.



AdvertisementThe men have known each other for a few years, and the banter between the two is genuine and lighthearted. Ureel often drops by to chat or to show a visitor around. Today, Ureel is checking on an order his group placed for 251 statues of Scottish soldiers.



Sinnaeve “is an attraction on his own,” Ureel said as he sat at the dining room table. “He’s a very fine man and he’s got a good heart.”



He’s also got a bad back, which, as fate would have it, led him to convert battlefield metals into meaningful mementos of the “war to end wars.”



A carpenter by trade, Sinnaeve slipped and broke his back while at work in 1991. The fall damaged his fourth vertebrate, leaving him unable to return to work. It also led to years of rehab and the purchase of a wheelchair.



While on vacation a few years later, Sinnaeve came across a display of lead soldiers in a toy store. He bought a mold and materials that day, and ever since he’s been forging ahead with a hobby that allows him to not only stay busy but to keep a promise he made to his grandfather.



Sinnaeve recalls that as a kid, his grandfather and other men would regale folks with vivid stories of the Great War and the men who fought in it. Near the end of his life, Sinnaeve’s grandfather asked his grandson not to forget the stories and to keep the memory of those who fought alive.



“I don’t want those stories to blow away,” Sinnaeve says. “I promised my grandfather I wouldn’t forget. If I didn’t break my back, I wouldn’t have started making toy soldiers.”



His lead army covers the spectrum of WW I players, from New Zealand and Netherlands to India and Ireland. Each figurine is meticulously painted to reflect the uniforms of that era, including guns and regimental insignias. Some toy soldiers sit atop lead horses, while others are situated to reflect a particular scene, such as the 1914 Christmas truce between British and German troops that occurred near Ypres, not far from where Sinnaeve lives.



Ureel departs, but soon another visitor arrives. Sinnaeve excuses himself for a few minutes while he chats with another prospective customer. While similar toy soldiers sell on the Internet for more money, Sinnaeve charges just enough to cover his overhead costs.



“It’s a hobby,” Sinnaeve says. “I don’t want to make money on the misery of soldiers. I could ask for more money, but I don’t. You don’t do that

SACVUL FIGURES AFTER 50's ROB ROY FILM

ping and courtney