The Schnellfeuer, or Model 712, was Mauser’s answer to the Spanish production of selective fire C96 lookalikes. Just over 100,000 of these pistols were made by Mauser in the 1930s, mostly going to China (although some did see use in other countries, and also with the SS). They use 10- and 20-round detachable magazines, and…
Author: The Tactical Hermit
Armed Texan and Part-Time Bard.
Texas News: Up Yours Fed!! Texas Plans to Build Gold Depository
Last year, we covered a story coming out of Texas in which the state government was planning to institute a state-controlled “gold depository” that would allow individuals to store their gold in a presumably safe place outside the United States banking system. This proposition was met with emotionally-charged denunciations from Americans in far away northeastern American…
Military Defense News: Chinese Jets Intercept U.S. Military Plane over South China Sea
As if it was not enough that Russian Jets are buzzing American Planes and Ships, the Chinese have decided to join in on the fun too. Notice certain ‘news’ agencies will use the word “spy plane” versus “Reconnaissance Plane” to insinuate malicious intent. The Propaganda never stops. -SF Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an…
Surveillance State: The I.C.E. Agent’s Troubling Suicide Note
There are two ways of looking at this. Either this man was extremely troubled mentally or he was legitimately trying to tell us all something and thought suicide was the only way to get our attention. You will have to be the judge of which it is. Personally, I think it is a combination of…
Israel Watch: IDF Confiscates Antique Weapon During Raid in West Bank
Times are hard for everybody right now…even terrorist in the West Bank who are so hard up for weapons they have resorted to using a 17th Century Black Powder Blunderbuss.-SF Israeli troops arrested 16 Palestinian suspects, including two senior Hamas members, in raids around the West Bank Tuesday night and seized what appears to be…
Modern War: The Decade of the Mercenary
Contrary to popular belief, Mercenaries are the “Silent Majority” in Obama’s Military, and the president’s “light footprint” approach to war has relied on thousands of Americans paid to fight — and die — in the shadows. Last weekend, the New York Times published one of what will be many takes on President Barack Obama’s legacy…
Guerilla Warfare History: Pictorial History of the IRA and “The Troubles”
From 1968 to 1998, Northern Ireland was the battleground of a guerrilla war known as The Troubles. On one side was the Protestant majority called the Unionists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. On the other side were the Nationalists, a Catholic minority who sought to become part of the…
Ancient History: 10 Recent Discoveries
Not very long ago, the common consensus was that “civilization” developed slowly in Europe. Outside of the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Italy, ancient Europe was a backwater full of barbaric tribesmen who mostly lived in hut-like dwellings. Most laymen and many historians would say that compared to Sumer, Babylon, China, Egypt, and the Indus…
Modern Texas History: The Worst Industrial Disaster in U.S. History
The deadliest industrial disaster in U.S. history occurred on April 16, 1947, in Texas City, Texas. When the French ship SS Grandcamp exploded, a thousand buildings were destroyed and hundreds of people were killed. Among the dead were half the firefighters in the Texas City Fire Department. All of their firefighting equipment was destroyed, too,…
Military Defense News: Latest Insights Into Chinese Military Tech
It’s that time of year again, and the end of an era. On Friday, the Obama Administration released the last annual Pentagon China report under its watch. Working the China military observers’ graveyard shift this weekend, I published analyses of the report’s overall content, and its key omissions — namely, any mention whatsoever of China’s maritime…