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Following the defeat of the Dutch Army in 1940, a number of men escaped to the United Kingdom to continue the fight. These
Engelandvaarders would form the core of new Army, trained and equipped as if belonging to the British Army.
As such, the 2-inch mortar was taken into use, and would serve for another 48 years until replaced by the L9A1 51mm.
The entire manual - a brief 14 pages at its core - is found here.
The archive of manuals can be found here.
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In the following post, we will take a look at an East German manual concerning
the US Army's rifle squad and rifle platoon.
This document, titled
Schützengruppe und Schützenzug der USA-Armee im Angriff
was published by the Verlag des Ministeriums für Nationale Verteidigung in 1956.
Click here to continue reading.
The manual is available for download here.
The archive of all manuals is available here.
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Today, we have an FN operator's manual regarding the Mitrailleuse Minimi Calibre 5,56 × 45 mm NATO,
more commonly known as the FN Minimi.
Dated March of 1981, this provisional manual shows off the early Minimi, in addition to the Para and Tank (Char) models.
Below, the technical characteristics are presented and translated to US-customary units:

Click here to continue reading.
The manual is available for download here.
The archive of all manuals is available here.
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For today, we have a British document to take a look at, a manual for the M20 3.5in Bazooka dated 1952.
Great-Britain entered World War II with the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle,
a .55 calibre weapon that was soon to find itself declared obsolete.
Even more so - as tank armour advanced - the anti-tank rifle was phased out in general in favour of shaped-charge weaponry.
In case of the British, this would come in the form of the PIAT, a rather awkward spigot mortar type weapon.
As early as 1950, the PIAT had been replaced by the American Bazooka.
Indeed, the Bazooka would prove itself to be a popular design,
seeing use with dozens of countries and serving as the basis for the Panzerschreck and Blindicide.
In British service, the Bazooka was replaced by the Carl Gustaf (designated the L14A1),
a weapon for which we also have some documentation available.
The manual is available for download here.
The archive of all manuals is available here.
Footnotes

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The front of the postcard reads: "Landing exercise of the Commandos, Royal (Dutch) Army". Meanwhile, the reverse has two stamps, both of which dating it to 1963.
As for the weapons shown, we see a collection of World War II-era British small arms.
Click here to continue reading.
Click here to see all postcards.
- 14th of June, 2018
The second article - the Dutch Marine Corps 1978 - has been published.
Images now open as a pop-up.
- 7th of June, 2018
The first resource - concerning the Vietnamese sappers - is added.
- 5th of June, 2018
Interactive footnotes are added to the Dutch 1963 Marines Corps article.
The first manual is added.
- 4th of June, 2018
The first scanned postcard is added.
- 3rd of June, 2018
The first article - concerning the Dutch Marine Corps 1963 - is created.
- 2nd of June, 2018
The website is created and launched.