Britain's wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill inspects Hitler's bunker in the company of British and Soviet officers

Visit the Bunker

This is a follow-up post concerning that upended Sherman with that 'axle' sticking out.I contacted the owner of the site:www.strijdbewijs.nl (link posted by leccy yesterday) and explained about the 'upended sherman' photo and asked about that device.Today he send me this photo and the following explanation:It's a Sherman M4A1.The 'axle' so prominently sticking out is an elongated towing hook.This prevented the trailer from coming in contact with the tracks while turning.There were several different designs but not all Shermans were equipped with it.That's why it's rather difficult to find photo's of this elongated one.

greetz,brummbar

Sherman towing hook

Winter trigger installed on MP40 (right view) 
Rolv V. collection
 
In 1942 a winter trigger (Winterabzug) was developed for the K98 in order for the soldier to keep his gloves on during extreme cold weather. The winter trigger was standard issue for the German sniper. Immediately after developing the winter trigger for the K98 a version for the MP38 and 40 was developed. The design was almost the same but it could not be exchanged. The wintertrigger was an oval sheet-metal box of which one side could be removed. By pressing a small external trigger connected to a lever the "real" trigger was pushed. The winter trigger was made by Allweiler A.G.,Gotthard, Pumpenfabrik, Radolfzell a/Bodensee. The code was "ezd". As far as I know there are no winter triggers (for the mp40) with different production codes. Apart from the code there is also stamped "MP" which off course stands for Machinenpistole.

In 2007 a batch of winter triggers was found in Finland. They came out of a barn which was put on fire by the germans in order to destroy the military stock. These were offered at e-bay. The winter trigger is a very rare item these days.
http://www.mp40.nl/index.php?page=winter-trigger


 

