This is a new series that premiered today on the History Channel here in Canada.

http://history.ca/tv/shows/titledetails/title_92700.asp

Anyone else get in in their respective countries?

oh man, I gotta watch that!

The first episode shown, 'Swords', discusses a battle of the English Civil War, otherwise known as the 'Wars of the Roses.'

Here's a quick backgrounder on how it came about (and some of what happened) for those who don't know (and might be interested):

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Tudors/wars_of_roses.htm

war of the roses was not the engglish civil war!!!!

lol..war of the roses was fought between my county lancashire and the neighbouring yorkshire i believe

as for weapons that made britian great well think colt saw a early prototype machinegun in london ran home and made his own.... ..think thats true actually,as for our guns say no more then the sten gun - a cheap pressed metal gun prone to jamming and also the enfield- a very good rifle,the rest we borrowed off america inc many tanks

Anyone catch the second episode?
It was "Longbow." Which they described as 'the honest weapon of the common man.'

The host, Mike Loades, chose the Battle of Crecy for this episode to illustrate his points.

One of the things he did was get on a horse, and gallop up the field at Crecy to time how long it would've taken a French knight to reach the British lines: 40 seconds, give or take a few.

Then he had a bunch of archers volley fire at 3 lifesize targets of mounted knights to see how effective arrowshot would be a 3 different distances.

At the closest range, the closet target was a pin cushion after they ranged on it. It was just a handful of bowmen and a single volley.

At Crecy, the British had 2,700 archers...
The arrow storm must've been horrific for the French.

The Black Prince of Wales wrote after the battle that there were 1400 dead French nobles just in front of where he'd been on the battlefield.

Fascinating stuff, eh?

yeh we would have been massacred if not for the bow.........think the french had crossbows but they took an eternity to load,3 arrows from the longbow had been launched while the french were still arming their bow,also bowmen were treated very well by their army,ie pay etc........evidence of how important they were

quote:

Originally posted by NJCL43:
yeh we would have been massacred if not for the bow.........think the french had crossbows but they took an eternity to load,3 arrows from the longbow had been launched while the french were still arming their bow,also bowmen were treated very well by their army,ie pay etc........evidence of how important they were

come to think of it guys. i don't think england has lost a single battle in its entire history. man we wupp butt. we r way better than usa thats for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by NJCL43:
lol..war of the roses was fought between my county lancashire and the neighbouring yorkshire i believe

as for weapons that made britian great well think colt saw a early prototype machinegun in london ran home and made his own.... ..think thats true actually,as for our guns say no more then the sten gun - a cheap pressed metal gun prone to jamming and also the enfield- a very good rifle,the rest we borrowed off america inc many tanks

we also had the bren gun, man thats a cool mg.

I still wonder why on earth did the brithish, kept using that weird helmet.
It doesnt seem to be practicall whatsoever.
Can any1 enlighten me about anything good, for this hat-helmet.

The Bren gun was good, why was the magazine loaded from the top? Better handling while prone? Magazine doesnt jam, because gravity takes care of bullets?

quote:

From paddockrulzok: come to think of it guys. i don't think england has lost a single battle in its entire history. man we wupp butt. we r way better than usa thats for sure.

Do not get me wrong i am over half british and my grandmother was born and raised in britian with stroies over her living the battle of britian in kindergarten when some her classmates wouldnt return the next day and i love the brits cocky attitude but ARE YOU KIDDING ME! how do you think the US got there independence?

quote:

Originally posted by gustave.jany:
I still wonder why on earth did the brithish, kept using that weird helmet.
It doesnt seem to be practicall whatsoever.
Can any1 enlighten me about anything good, for this hat-helmet.

The Bren gun was good, why was the magazine loaded from the top? Better handling while prone? Magazine doesnt jam, because gravity takes care of bullets?

think the bren is actually czech,we just imported it

as for us kicking butt,we have been whooped a few times,vikings,romans,americans all beat us,the 1800s were our glory days when the cruel empire was stealing everybodies country....

quote:

Originally posted by Dori1234:

quote:

From paddockrulzok: come to think of it guys. i don't think england has lost a single battle in its entire history. man we wupp butt. we r way better than usa thats for sure.

Do not get me wrong i am over half british and my grandmother was born and raised in britian with stroies over her living the battle of britian in kindergarten when some her classmates wouldnt return the next day and i love the brits cocky attitude but ARE YOU KIDDING ME! how do you think the US got there independence?

No offence buddy but do the words vietnam come to mind? No offence to any veterans. And by the way if we hadn't colonised america you wouldn't have posted that in english. NO RESPECT WHATSOEVER.
you are american right? That ones for dori by the way.

what did vietnam have to do with the revolutinary war? you said britians never lost a battle and I said i love brits but that's not true. then you say something about vietnam.

I was convinced you were american as i said at the end of my post 'we r way better than usa' then you came up with 'How do you think us got their independence' so in conjunction i thought that you were making backchat about us losing that 1 war out of 1000's. Sorry i just dont like people like that.

quote:

Originally posted by NJCL43:think the bren is actually czech,we just imported it

I thought it was modelled off a czech weapon..

quote:

Originally posted by paddockrulzok:come to think of it guys. i don't think england has lost a single battle in its entire history. man we wupp butt. we r way better than usa thats for sure.

HA! you just said that to p**s people off didn't you! of course we've had our fair share of defeats like every other country, but we are one of the only countries who celebrate these defeats (eg - arnhem, dunkirk, the many battles that shaped our country into what it is.. well what it was in the past )

quote:

Originally posted by Dori1234:how do you think the US got there independence?

the french? and that it was an unpopular war back home. Heck from what i've read about the american revolution. It seems to me that the vast majority of the battles were stalemates due to the vast land- reinforcements + supplies were hard to get. It only seems to be the very last battles (eg- Yorktown) that turned the tide for the U.S.

I personally think that If it wasnt for the U.K/europe in general America would've became what it is now anyway.

Buuut, like many superpowers (Britain in its time) / great countries.. if it wasn't for outsiders they would've never became so great and powerful.


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Oh and hello from me to long time members DarkAutumn, WE_STAND_ALONE, TennesseeTitans,Racoon2, Firefight700, M1 Maniac and anyone who i missed . Just thought i'd drop by

quote:

Originally posted by paddockrulzok:

quote:

Originally posted by NJCL43:
yeh we would have been massacred if not for the bow.........think the french had crossbows but they took an eternity to load,3 arrows from the longbow had been launched while the french were still arming their bow,also bowmen were treated very well by their army,ie pay etc........evidence of how important they were

come to think of it guys. i don't think england has lost a single battle in its entire history. man we wupp butt. we r way better than usa thats for sure.

Are you retarded? How did America get it's independence then? Did we ask for it, and you gave it to us? No, we beat you. And you had the advantage of more troops, not to mention better trained ones.

Well since this has boiled down to nationality bashing, I thought I would post and try to steer it back on track.
Couple of weeks ago I bought a No.1 Mk.III S.M.L.E. At first I thought it to be from Great Britian, however once I got home and cleaned her up and started looking up the markings, of which there is oodles and boodles, I find that it a Australian refurb built on a reciever from Great Britain. It was patched together at the Lithgow Arsenal in October of 1947. It shoots nice so far, still churning the crud up when I shoot it, so it should get even cleaner. The action is like glass! I now know why everyone says that the Enfield is one of the slickest and fastest actions.

Here is some pics. In the overall pic, you'll notice that the nose cap is missing, I have since replaced that.

The BREN gun is a joint Czech / British weapon taking its name i beleive if i remember correctly BRno (czech)/ ENfeild (brit).
Also again if memory supplies me wit hwhat shuld be right but a little footnote to the battle of Crecy is that it was also the first time a gunpowder fired form of personal weapon was used to kill someone on a Battlefield. ( i will od my best to return to the Sandhurst Library to confirm this story)

Back in 1776 YOU were British as well, no wonder you won

You were as bloody minded and stubborn as the rest of us Brits, and just like us you hated paying taxes

btw, I live in the real Washington, in England ....................................................................................................