truly badass

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Alvin Cullum York

Alvin Cullum York (1887-1964) ended the First World War as one of America's most famous soldiers, with fame and popular recognition assured following a remarkable act of courage and coolness in October 1918. Having grown up in poverty the young York honed his skills as a crack marksman, a useful talent for use in hunting food for himself and his family - and one put to high effect during the war.


Despite his remarkable reputation for bravery and the win-at-all-costs attitude displayed during his wartime service York was and remained a pacifist. Following a religious conversion in 1911 - he became lay deacon of a local pacifist sect - he declared himself a convinced pacifist.
Consequently with the U.S. entry into World War One York initially returned his draft papers before they were summarily resent to him by the draft board, at which stage he was drafted into 328th Regiment, 82nd Infantry. During training however he was convinced by his battalion commander, Gonzalo Edward Buxton - a fellow Bible student - that the Bible sanctioned active service.
Once in France the semi-literate York earned lifetime fame for his part in an attack in the Argonne Forest against German machine gun positions on 8 October 1918. York, an acting Corporal, led 17 men in action against a German stronghold, the aim being to secure the position and return with German prisoners.
Initially successful without coming under fire, the small expedition took a number of prisoners before the Germans launched a heavy counterattack. With 11 of York's men guarding the captured prisoners (and with the other six killed) York resolved to proceed alone and tackle the German gunners ranged against them.


Having shot some 17 gunners via sniping, York was charged by seven German soldiers who realised that he was operating on his own. He killed them all with his pistol. With the aid of a German Major captured earlier York brought in a total of 132 German prisoners, a remarkable feat.


He was well rewarded however, receiving lavish press coverage at home and the Congressional Medal of Honor, in addition to the French Croix de Guerre (and a fulsome citation from Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch).
Returning home to a New York City parade, York was awarded a gift of a farm by his home state, Tennessee. A film of his life was made in 1940, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper; York used the fee he was paid for the film to fund a Bible college.


He died in 1964.

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Francis Pegahmagabow



(March 9, 1891 – August 5, 1952)
378 Confirmed kills
300+ Captures

The most highly decorated Canadian Native in the First World War was Francis Pegahmagabow.An Ojibwa from the Parry Island Band in Ontario, he was awarded the Military Medal (MM) plus two bars for bravery in Belgium and France. Soldiers who had been awarded the MM and later performed similarly heroic acts could receive bars to it, denoting further awards. Pegahmagabow was one of 39 members of the CEF who received two bars to the MM.
Pegahmagabow enlisted with the 23rd Regiment (Northern Pioneers) in August 1914, almost immediately after war was declared. Previously, he had worked along the Great Lakes as a marine fireman for the Department of Marine and Fisheries. Within weeks of volunteering, he became one of the original members of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, which, along with the rest of the 20,000-strong 1st Canadian Division, landed in France in February 1915.

Sniping was the specialty of the man his fellow soldiers called "Peggy." It has been written of him, "His iron nerves, patience and superb marksmanship helped make him an outstanding sniper." In addition, Pegahmagabow developed a reputation as a superior scout.



The 1st Battalion experienced heavy action almost as soon as it arrived on the battlefield. It fought at Ypres, where the enemy introduced a new deadly weapon, poison gas, and on the Somme, where Pegahmagabow was shot in the leg. He recovered and made it back in time to return with his unit to Belgium.

It was during his first year on the Western Front that he became one of the first Canadians to be awarded the MM. The commendation reads:
“For continuous service as a messenger from February 14th 1915 to February 1916. He carried messages with great bravery and success during the whole of the actions at Ypres, Festubert and Givenchy. In all his work he has consistently shown a disregard for danger and his faithfulness to duty is highly commendable.”

In November 1917, the 1st Battalion joined the assault near the village of Passchendaele. Here, roughly 20,000 Allied soldiers crawled from shell crater to shell crater, through water and mud. With two British divisions, the Canadian Corps attacked and took the village, holding it for five days, until reinforcements arrived. The Allies suffered 16,000 casualties at Passchendaele, and Corporal Pegahmagabow earned his first bar to the MM.
His citation reads:
At Passchendaele Nov. 6th/7th, 1917, this NCO [non-commissioned officer] did excellent work. Before and after the attack he kept in touch with the flanks, advising the units he had seen, this information proving the success of the attack and saving valuable time in consolidating. He also guided the relief to its proper place after it had become mixed up.
Pegahmagabow would earn his second bar to the MM during the final months of the First World War in the Battle of the Scarpe (part of the 2nd Battle of Arras). The commendation reads:
"During the operations of August 30th, 1918, at Orix Trench, near Upton Wood, when his company were almost out of ammunition and in danger of being surrounded, this NCO went over the top under heavy MG [machine gun] and rifle fire and brought back sufficient ammunition to enable the post to carry on and assist in repulsing heavy enemy counter-attacks."


In April 1919, Pegahmagabow was invalided to Canada, having served for nearly the entire war. Afterward, he joined the Algonquin Regiment in the non-permanent active militia and, following in the steps of his father and grandfather, became chief of the Parry Island Band and later a councillor. A member of Canada's Indian Hall of Fame,Pegahmagabow died on the reserve in 1952.



Francis Pegahmagabow rarely spoke of his military accomplishments. However, his son Duncan recalls being told that his father was responsible for capturing 300 enemy soldiers. "My mother [Eva] told me he used to go behind enemy lines, rub shoulders with the enemy forces and never get caught."Duncan also remembers that Pegahmagabow "felt very strongly about his country." Mostly, he sees his father as a peaceful man: "He was always saying how we have to live in harmony with all living things in this world."


Cpl. Francis Pegahmagabow of the Parry Island Band in Ontario was decorated three times for the marksmanship and scouting skills he displayed in Belgium and France. Known as 'Peggy' to other members of his battalion, he survived the war and later became chief of his band. This portrait of him by artist Irma Coucill was commissioned for the Indian Hall of Fame collection, housed in the museum of the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario.


He had served in the military for almost the whole war, and had built up a reputation as a skilled marksman. Using the much maligned Ross rifle

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AH-1 cobra



The AH-1 Super Cobra is a two-place, twin-engine attack helicopter capable of land- or sea-based operations. It provides rotary-wing close air support (CAS), anti-armor/anti-helicopter, armed escort, armed and visual reconnaissance, and supporting arms coordination (SAC) during day/night and adverse weather conditions.



The Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter has struck fear in the hearts of the enemy for more than 30 years. Armed helicopters came into widespread use in Vietnam in the early Sixties. Limitations of the modified armed utility helicopters used led to the specially configured attack helicopter. Instead, the AH-1F Cobra, with its proven firepower and maneuverability, went on to fight in every major US military operation since Vietnam. The Cobra continues its service with the US Marines, as well as eight other foreign nations



The Cobra traces its lineage from the UH-1 Huey and was originally developed for the US Army in the mid-sixties. The original Cobra retained the Huey's engine, transmission, and other major parts, but replaced the Huey's bulky fuselage with a thin profile fuselage with tandem seating. The Marine Corps later adopted a twin engine variant of the airframe to perform troop helicopter escort and provide autonomous tank killing capability. Through the years, the Cobra has gone through extensive modernization. Today's Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra boasts an advanced Night Targeting System (NTS) and a full suite of survivability equipment.



The primary missions of the Cobra are helicopter Close Air Support (CAS), escort of transport helicopters and ground convoys, armed reconnaissance, helicopter air-to-air attack, anti-shipping operations, and coordination and terminal control of fixed wing CAS, artillery, mortars, and naval gunfire.It is the only western attack helicopter with a proven air-to-air and anti-radar missile capability.


Power Plant: Two General Electric T700-GE-401 Turboshaft engines
Each engine delivers 1,690 horsepower.

Accommodations: Two seats, in tandem (pilot in rear, copilot/gunner in front)

Performance: Climb rate: 1,925 feet per minute
Maximum altitude: 14,750 feet
Maximum attainable speed: 170 knots (195 mph)
Maximum cruising speed: 152 knots (173 mph)

Countermeasures: AN/ALE-39 Chaff system and SUU-4/1 Flare dispensers

Armament: One M197 three barrel 20 mm gun (mounted under the nose with 750 round ammo container)
Underwing attachments for four TOW missiles, eight Hellfire missiles, or one AIM-9L Sidewinder missile
Can also be equipped with Zuni rocket launchers

Most older Cobra variants still in operation have been upgraded to the AH-1F standard. Also produced in Romania and Japan under license from Bell Textron in the U.S.
AH-1G: Initial production model in 1966
AH-1S: Upgraded 1960s produced aircraft in late 1980s to the standard TOW carry-ing version.
AH-1P: A set of AH-1S aircraft fitted with composite rotors, flat plate glass cockpits, and NVG capabilities.
AH-1E: A set of AH-1S aircraft upgraded with the Enhanced Cobra Armament System incorporating the universal turret, 20-mm gun, automatic compensation for off-axis gun firing, and weapon management system.
AH-1F: Current standard Cobra. Also referred to as the “Modernized Cobra”. Incorporated all past upgrades.

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75mm pack howitzer



The 75mm pack howitzer was a versatile artillery piece. It came in three versions, the most common one seen here, the M8 (Airborne).

The pre-war vintage M1 had a "box trail" and wooden wheels and was design to be pulled by a cavalry horse or the artillery crew over friendly ground. Or, it could be broken down to be packed onto six mules for moving in rough terrain, as in the Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters and mountainous Italy.The M8 (Airborne) was the M1 box trail design with rubber wheels for jeep transport.




It could be apportioned into seven "paracrates" and dropped from the skies with paratroopers, or come in on glider and transport planes. It weighed 1,339 pounds, had a range of 9,600 yards, and the crew of four could manage a prolonged rate of fire of three rounds per minute. They were phased out at the end of WWII, replaced by the 57mm and 75mm recoilless rifle

The 75mm pack howitzer was one of the most versatile artillery weapons of the Second World War. It served in almost every campaign that Marines fought in and was nicknamed "Little Dynamite," because of its size and ability to deliver a high volume of fire. Marine artillerymen employed this weapon under conditions that made use of heavier artillery pieces either impractical, or simply impossible.


Throughout the war, the pack howitzer battery was equipped with four guns. Crew drill in training helped crews to perfect their skills. The diagram at left, extracted from FM 6-78, shows the pack howitzer crew formed for action. The crew was called a section and was commanded by a sergeant, titled the section chief. He was responsible for all actions by his Marines, all commands executed, and safety.

The gunner, a corporal, depicted by the "G", set the sight, deflection and elevation. All other section members were non-rated Marines. The assistant gunner, depicted by the 1 in this diagram, opened and closed the breech and fired the piece. Number 2 acted as the loader. Number 3 operated the fuze setter and set fuzes. Number 4 held rounds for number 3 to set fuzes, passed rounds to the assistant gunner for loading, and assisted number 5 in preparing charges. Number 5 prepared ammunition and shifted the trails.

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a great example of the Christmas spirit

Christmas truce 1914 Dec. 24-25

Though there was no official truce, roughly 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front.

The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man's Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently killed soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. The fraternisation carried risks; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year's Day in others.
Bruce Bairnsfather, who served throughout the war, wrote: "I wouldn't have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything."


Al's surplus and souvenirs would like to wish everyone a safe and merry Christmas