Momčilo Đujić, Chetnik commander during WWII – armed with a Yugoslav-contract ZB-30J light machine gun. (photo from Last Stand on Zombie Island)
Vintage Saturday: Deadly Beard
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Let’s see here… officer’s mustache, beard of power, fancy hat, ZB-30, fragmentation grenade, and lots of clips of 8 mm IS for the Yugoslav M24 rifle. Note that the M24 series rifles will not have parts interchangeable with those from K98’s, despite using the same ammunition!
Anything else to add?
He was nicknamed Father Fire apparently, and he sounds a bit of a war criminal.
ZB-30 is 7,92×57 (same as k98) and it has a tool to speedload magazines from mauserclips
Odd question. I’ve seen handgrenades like that before and I’m not sure how they work. Do you twist the top to create a spark to ignite the fuse, or it is something else.
It might work like,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._69_grenade#mediaviewer/File:No_69_grenade_diagram.jpg
or alternatively like ze German egg grenade which worked like the stick grenade only upside down and without the stick essentially i.e. you unscrew the top cap and there’s a cord to pull inside.
Something to be said for the cord design, given if you get shot while holding the fly off lever after removing the pin on current issue grenades for example, it will go off if you let go of it.
That picture didn’t mean much to me either when I looked at it, so here is the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._69_grenade
That explains how it works…
It’s a model 35 defensive grenade apparently,
http://www.inert-ord.net/yugos/yugww2/yugo2a.html
http://www.lexpev.nl/grenades/sovietbalkan/sfryugoslavia/m35defensive.html
and it appears you unscrew the cap and smack the top of the firing pin effectively, onto a hard surface, this strikes the primer of a blank which lights a fuze which detonates the detonator seemingly.
A fine beard, it looks kind of biblical Persian style.
Is he wearing a hat cause it looks like his beard has grown all over his head as well as his face.
While many can knock this guy for “collaboration” with the occupiers, I can understand why he and the Chetniks did it. There were some screwed up politics during the war.
I’ve been reading about the first and second Balkan wars prior to WW1, and then the effect on the wider region post the Great war it’s been quite interesting. I can see what your saying, I think “banditry” might have been quite prevalent though. He collaborated with the Croats who shot the King in the first place, and they were pretty rude about Serbs to say the least so you can see why other Serbs didn’t like them. I say banditry in regards, alternative interests as a motivation if you will. Mind you the Germans found the Croats annoying apparently eventually, so perhaps folk around there can just be somewhat peculiar as a consequence of their turbulent history.
One of the reasons the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 was that the Croat units of teh Yugoslav Army turned over to the Germans.
Andrzej
That was a very messy situation in Serbia. A 3 way civil war. I know several people in my younger day that came from there. Either they or the parents had fought on one side or the other.
I never have decided who was right, if anyone was. I came to the conclusion that an outsider can never really understand what is going on. And never a good idea for the outsides to create a country by means of a shotgun wedding.
Also, the trouble there around 1990’s was of no surprise to me.
Very astute observations, Martin. As usual, much depends on one’s point of view, and I think it was good of you to keep an open mind as to the whys and wherefores. If one examines the history in really close and unflinching detail, both sides were frankly wrong, and both sides were also equally right in other ways. The sum total in practice is a situation that does not work — that is the bottom line. What a bloody mess — and it continues to this day because so many people simply cannot let go, as much as one can understand why they cannot do so. However, they must learn that something has to give sooner or later, otherwise this ridiculous “eye for an eye” situation that will eventually leave both sides incapacitated and crippled to no good end will continue indefinitely.
Don’t give me to much credit as to being open minded and/or impartial.
When I don’t have a dog in the fight I find it easy to be open minded and/or impartial. But even if it involves kith or kin, things are different.
The same would apply to the vast majority of people — part of the human condition.Still, I thought your previous comment was fair-minded enough, even if you do protest otherwise.
He might have looked a little different during bird nesting season.
The mexican revolutionaries were really leading the way in terms of crossed ammo belts, hats ( I prefer the sombrero to that fur hat) and in being armed to the teeth. The number of people across the world who copied them is impressive !
Speaking of being blown up by your own “fly off lever” style grenade,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10216533/LCpl-James-Ashworth-VC-killed-by-blast-from-own-grenade.html
that’s what happened to that chap fairly recently.
That wouldn’t have happened with Momcilos Yugoslavian grenade…
That’s the current issue grenade,
http://members.shaw.ca/dwlynn/british/british%20data%20sheets/l109a1.htm
I think a circular “ring” pressed to fit around the body, made out of thin steel, with a cut out on one side of the ring “think a C type shape” which when mounted to the grenade would rotate around the body, covering the fly off lever until rotated might be an idea.
Used in conjunction with a piece of rope, this would have a loop at one end and a knot at the other. Thread the loop through the gap between the fly off lever and grenade body, until the grenade rests on the knot. Gather the rope together towards the loop, thread this loop, through the actual loop, a strip of sackcloth – sandbag material knotted at one end would be passed through the created loop and this would then be pulled taught against the actual loop i.e. so when you remove the sackcloth by tugging at the knot, it unloops. Your wrist would be between the two loops you see, creating a quick release lanyard for the grenade, the grenade wants to be in the palm of your hand in regards the length of rope.
Idea being you could have the grenade handy, pin out, held by the rotating clip instead of your hand, held such until you rotate it, at which point it would detach from the rope via the fly off lever flying off. If you fall over the grenade is attached to your wrist without detonating…
I seem to remember having to remove the safety clip, it was more of a transit safety like… If you could depress the fly off lever to disengage it, that would also facilitate the objective of a further safety for the purposes outlined.
It wouldn’t have happened with the Yugoslavian grenade as you throw it straight away clearly, but ours need improvement. A thumb stud on a rotating body sleeve would not denigrate the notion of a fly off levers purpose i.e. more controlled throwing.
Eh? Czechoslovak? What?
Actually, I don’t think he had anything to do with Czechs, or Slovaks.
Can we expect an M95M video soon? I’m the only one on youtube with videos right now of it being fired.
Before too long – I have to fix mine first. It sometimes fires when you close the bolt (eek!), and needs (I believe) a new sear to fix that. Then I can make a video on it.
There is still, to this day, a great deal of controversy concerning the Chetnik rebellion vis-a-vis the status quo at the time. Depending on whose point of view you look at, the Chetniks were either heroes or villains, just as one person’s revolutionary folk hero is someone else’s murderous opposite. It would seem that it has always been so in the annals of human history.
Nice looking dude. To understand south-east Europe one must study history of the region (like 500 years minimum), not just last 20 years. Lots of blood, I mean rivers of blood. Per capita, Serbs were the most killed people in Europe.
That has to be repaid, somehow.
At least 500 years, but consider 1000 years a minimum. Plus touch a bit back thru 4,000+ years back. If for no other reason than to find out that there has been mining of minerals going on there for at least that long.
IMO, because of the minerals wealth there, it might a troubled area for a long time. Be the trouble stemming from internal or external people.
You make good point, although it’s not as rich as Middle East or Siberia, but there are some good finds, and many great empires formed around Mediterranean, so that came handy, and attractive among other things. As far as local residents, it’s not natural resources that they were fighting for (to some extent yes). It has to do more with religulous differences, language, tradition, nationality, power greed, … it’s just pure hatred and evil that formed over the centuries. What is sad though, that will never change. No matter hao hard they try to portray the tranquility, deep down is nothing but darkness. God help them.