I was reading a book about the 2nd SS Das Reich where there was an account from France shortly after the British got off at Dunkirk. They were testing a boys. AT rifle and when they got it they were no where near the target. They claimed that the barrel was bent it and it was common practice for the British to do this. The question is, did the British bend the barrels of weapons they were leaving in France?
I don't know for sure, but its a good practice when retreating and leaving serviceable equipment to make the said equipment as unserviceable as possible. So I would imagine they bent barrels, seized breaches, and destroyed engines. But that's just a guess.
Destroying abandoned equipment I always found it amusing to read of how both armies in the US civil war made steel track for railway lines unuseable. They heated 'em red hot in fires made of the railway sleepers and then wrapped the rails around a nearby tree !
azizabuv The procedure used to ruin engines was to remove oil sump plug and run engine till it siezed.
but how would you bend a gun barrel ,,its not like their made outta pot metal or something ... i guess you could drive over them with a truck or tank ...and even a little bend would do the trick prolly...
How about curving the sights? I think that would be much easier especcialy on a weapon like the Bren with the sights already moved to the side.
bending a mauser or garand in a tree fork ? i have my doubts ...mabey tomy would know ..call mythbusters
You can get quite a lot of force levering things around. I have moved (slowly) a machine wighing about 1.5 tonne just using a piece of 2x4 about 5-6 ft long. If you used steel pry bars you could do a lot5 of damage. Remember it wouldnt take much of a bent to render a weapon useless. If I remember the Boys correctly, It would be possible to lift it single handed, so It would be possible to 'break' it over a hard sharp edge.
Sorry to jump on so late but I just found this website/forum. At Dunkirk it was common practice for the Brits to pack the barrels of their artillery pieces and then fire them off to destroy the barrels thus rendering the piece useless to the Wehrmacht. In addition many of the lorries were used to build ramps out into the Channel to facilitate the evacuation where most of the vehicles were then damaged beyond repair. Those vehicles left in and around Dunkirk typically had the oil and water drained from the engines and they were left running in order to damage the engines and preventing their use by the Germans as well. Kevin California
