Vespa 150 TAP (Troupes Aéroportées)

In the late 1950’s the French Airborne Forces devised a system to transport a USA-sourced 75mm recoilless rifle via scooter.  A two-man team, each with his own scooter (one carrying the rifle, the other ammunition), would be dropped via parachute (into Algeria, mainly).  This is an excellent example of choosing the minimum vehicle and system required to accomplish the goal.  (I suspect that ‘roadside bombs’ and the like were somewhat less common in the theatre of operations, however.)

 

Coffman Engine Starter

These devices were (are) a study in cleverness.  The goal: start a large (generally aircraft) engine without incurring a large weight penalty vis-a-vis an electric motor and battery set.  The cardboard cylinders are, roughly speaking, blank-type shotgun shells.  They contain a fairly slow-burning propellant.  When the operator desires a start, a shell is discharged, the gas spinning up a small turbine.  A gear reduction unit and engageable pinion couples this energy into the engine’s flywheel or similar.  The pictured unit is a multiple-discharge-type, allowing convenient retries in the event of a failure to start, or subsequent stall.

Saber Scar ‘Must’ Again in Germany

 Berlin (UPI) Feb 13, 1963

The saber scar is back as a status symbol in West Germany.

Revival of the university dueling societies, once a symbol of Teutonic nationalism, has become so widespread that students are split on the issue and some educators are calling for an examination of post war higher education.

The societies have become so popular that more than 46,000 students, or about a third of the males in West German universities, are said to be members.

New generations of Germans are entering adulthood with proudly-worn fresh scars inflicted by sabers in student duels.  In some upper classes the prized scars are passports to better jobs and professional advancement.

The controversy will reach a peak this week in voting by 14,000 students of West Berlin’s Free University on whether a member of one of the societies will be allowed to take office as president of the student council.

Eberhardt Diepgen, a law student and a dueling society member , was elected student president by the 73-member student parliament on jan 30.  But the selection raised such a storm that a plebiscite was ordered on whether to accept or reject Diepgen.

The Free University long has been considered a stronghold of democratic thought and a symbol of the post-war democratization of German education.

(and for more information of the inverted-pyramid school of journalism, we commend you to Mr ‘Chip’ Scanlan’s history at https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2003/birth-of-the-inverted-pyramid-a-child-of-technology-commerce-and-history/)

 

We do hope that the pilot made a safe and prompt egress.

Diplomatic Immunity

 'Wikipedia' tells us:

“The Burmese Ambassador in Sri Lanka in 1979 shot his wife as she got out of the car after seeing a player in a night-club band of whom she was enamoured. As recalled by Gerald Hensley, then Vice-Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Sri Lanka; Hensley was based in Singapore and accredited from New Zealand as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka as well.

The next morning the neighbours in Cinammon Gardens (Colombo) were surprised to see the ambassador stacking wood on the back lawn and, conoisseurs of cremation, quickly grasped that he was building a pyre. When the police were called the ambassador opened the metal front gates just enough to say that there was no trouble and to remind them that his house was Burmese territory. Then he went back to work. The houses around his long back garden were now alive with fascinated spectators as he emerged with the body of his wife, placed it on the pyre and set it alight. He was … well connected at home but after an awkward interval he was recalled.”

 

                                    Whatever happens, we have got

                                    The Maxim gun, and they have not.

                                    - Hilaire Belloc

 

We shall likely never again see current news with the term ‘Lion-Drome’ included.

And thus, bit by bit, the color of life bleeds out of the world.  What it would be, to travel a morning to the fair and see such daring!  Showmanship of a high degree indeed.