What equipment is still in operationa/training l use from WWII

[ASSAIL]

I reckon that she must be kin to the "Bushman's Axe" by now, with every part having been replaced several times over the years.

Far be it for me to recommend Wikipedia as a source, but if they have even half the facts correct she's a remarkable story.

Russian rescue ship Kommuna - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

(Please don't ban me!)

oldsig

If you compare these pics Russian Federation Submarine Rescue Ship Kommuna
With the one you posted the row of scuttles near the waterline has disappeared.
It looks like the inwater hull been reconstructed and fully welded from just above the waterline. This makes sense to me because every one of those thousands of original rivets would have been totally knackered.

 

[oldsig127]

If you compare these pics Russian Federation Submarine Rescue Ship Kommuna
With the one you posted the row of scuttles near the waterline has disappeared.
It looks like the inwater hull been reconstructed and fully welded from just above the waterline. This makes sense to me because every one of those thousands of original rivets would have been totally knackered.

That makes sense. And in answer to @t68 's question about spare parts, I'd imagine that when being rebuilt after being thoroughly "looted", she probably received a high percentage of new machinery for which it would be easier to source parts than anything from the late 19th century. Definitely interesting, as also the reference in this thread about BAP Puno, the Peruvian hospital ship, made from bolted steel sections in the UK, pulled apart and shipped to Peru, then donkey packed up the mountains to Lake Titicaca to be riveted together.

Ikea are clearly johnny come latelies to the flat pack business

oldsig

 

[ASSAIL]

She’s a bit like TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu/Queenstown (NZ South Island)
She was built in Dunedin, dismantled and transported by rail to the lake.
Built in 1912. She’s a fabulous tour, I spent most of my time watching the stokers shovel coal and being in awe of her condition (big difference to the Russian, she’s in fresh water).

Queenstown New Zealand | Top Activities & Things to Do

Find the best activities in NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown! From cruising on the historic TSS Earnslaw to white water rafting, Queenstown has it all!

www.tssearnslaw.co.nz

 

[kato]

pulled apart and shipped to Peru, then donkey packed up the mountains to Lake Titicaca to be riveted together.

With an intermission. The two ships were sitting in Tacna at the end of the railway from the seaport about 40 miles inland for six years because the mule caravan that the British shipbuilders had hired never appeared, and the whole contract was dismissed for failure of delivery.

After a few years a caravan was finally found to move the parts over from Tacna to Puno on the lake 200 miles further inland. Only a few weeks later the entire area where the ships had arrived in port, where they had travelled by rail and where they had been stored was destroyed in the 1868 Arica Earthquake.

 

[ngatimozart]

With an intermission. The two ships were sitting in Tacna at the end of the railway from the seaport about 40 miles inland for six years because the mule caravan that the British shipbuilders had hired never appeared, and the whole contract was dismissed for failure of delivery.

After a few years a caravan was finally found to move the parts over from Tacna to Puno on the lake 200 miles further inland. Only a few weeks later the entire area where the ships had arrived in port, where they had travelled by rail and where they had been stored was destroyed in the 1868 Arica Earthquake.

OFF TOPIC
The tsunami that struck Arica after the 1868 earthquake carried the USS Wateree, a USN gunboat, 410 metres inland. When the ships captain wanted to go ashore, his captain's gig was a donkey. That tsunami is responsible for the only recorded tsunami fatalities in NZ and it definitely would have caused fatalities in Hawaii and elsewhere, besides Arica and other parts of Peru and Chile.

 

[Feanor]

I know this doesn't quite fit the question, but if you want old...
USS Constitution, the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. She was launched in 1797.

And a beautiful ship too. There is something about the aesthetic of large wooden sail ships.

Is the rescue ship timber?
If it’s riveted steel it’s a miracle

I honestly don't know enough to answer the various questions. I knew of the Kommuna in general but the details are beyond me.

 

[Ananda]

Vietnam solution on using old Arty assets like M101 and D44. Put it in truck and make it cheap self propelled Artillery.

 

[kato]

Older artillery isn't that hard to come by. The M114 aka M1 155mm Howitzer standardized in 1941 is in active use by about two dozen countries, the most prolifient ones holding about a thousand altogether being Turkey, Taiwan, Greece, Pakistan and Brazil.

 

[ngatimozart]

Older artillery isn't that hard to come by. The M114 aka M1 155mm Howitzer standardized in 1941 is in active use by about two dozen countries, the most prolifient ones holding about a thousand altogether being Turkey, Taiwan, Greece, Pakistan and Brazil.

I remember reading somewhere that a German WW2 Panzerkampfwagen 4 was used in Syria but not sure by whom. Can't remember where I read it though.

 

[swerve]

I think the Syrian army used some in the 1948 war (acquired second hand after WW2, dunno who from), but I'm pretty sure they were all retired by 1967. One could have been pulled out of a museum after 60 years of inactivity . . . .

 

[swerve]

Older artillery isn't that hard to come by. The M114 aka M1 155mm Howitzer standardized in 1941 is in active use by about two dozen countries, the most prolifient ones holding about a thousand altogether being Turkey, Taiwan, Greece, Pakistan and Brazil.

There may also be old Soviet artillery pieces around, e.g. the 1937 ML-20 152mm gun. I'd not risk a bet that there are none in the North Korean army.

 

[swerve]

Brazil has at least one very old river patrol vessel. Commissioned 1938 -

Brazilian monitor Parnaíba (U17) - Wikipedia
Monitor

 

[swerve]

She’s a bit like TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu/Queenstown (NZ South Island)
She was built in Dunedin, dismantled and transported by rail to the lake.
Built in 1912. She’s a fabulous tour, I spent most of my time watching the stokers shovel coal and being in awe of her condition (big difference to the Russian, she’s in fresh water).

Queenstown New Zealand | Top Activities & Things to Do

Find the best activities in NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown! From cruising on the historic TSS Earnslaw to white water rafting, Queenstown has it all!

www.tssearnslaw.co.nz

There's a ferry on Lake Tanganyika which was used by the Germans as a gunboat in WW1. Transported in pieces overland, assembled at the lake, scuttled when the British were about to take her base, raised & put back into service after the war.
MV Liemba - Wikipedia

 

[StobieWan]

I remember reading somewhere that a German WW2 Panzerkampfwagen 4 was used in Syria but not sure by whom. Can't remember where I read it though.

Pz IV's were most famously used in the "war of the tractors" - some Syrian owned Panzers would roll up at near dawn, fire a few rounds at agricultural machinery being driven by Israeli farmers then move off. The IDF decided to set up an ambush with Centurions, which sounds like a turkey shoot - but they didn't have any operational understanding of the muzzle blast kicked up by the 105's which were new in service. Come the hour, the first few rounds fired all missed (not uncommon for tank gunnery of the day) and the subsequent rounds all missed as the Syrians made a run for it. I'll go out on a limb and say the Syrian crews needed to jetwash the inside of their tanks and get a new air freshener after that fright.

Oldest tanks in service? I think I mentioned earlier that Peru had just recommissioned some M4's - probably fine for oppressing the local population and lobbing the odd round at insurgents. Not sure I'd want to be inside one in a proper shooting war in 2020 however.

 

[kato]

There may also be old Soviet artillery pieces around, e.g. the 1937 ML-20 152mm gun. I'd not risk a bet that there are none in the North Korean army.

There have been suggestions that the Syrian Army has actively used the M1931/37 A19 122mm in recent years.

 

[Terran]

Just remembered Canada and Australia still issues the Browning HP.

 

[ngatimozart]

Saw a video of a T-34 being used in Syria.

 

[John Fedup]

Just remembered Canada and Australia still issues the Browning HP.

Yes, Canada still does and given our highly efficient procurement system here, the army will continue to use(at great risk). This link describes the history of the Browning HP in Canada.

Canada's WWII-era pistols dangerously unreliable — but the quest to find a replacement drags on

The British Army had this exact same problem in 2011. They fixed it for a fraction of the cost in only two years

www.google.ca

 

[ngatimozart]

Yes, Canada still does and given our highly efficient procurement system here, the army will continue to use(at great risk). This link describes the history of the Browning HP in Canada.

Canada's WWII-era pistols dangerously unreliable — but the quest to find a replacement drags on

The British Army had this exact same problem in 2011. They fixed it for a fraction of the cost in only two years

www.google.ca

We went from the Browning to the Sig Sauer and recently to the Glock or is it the other way around, but what ever way it is we are on our second pistol post Browning 9 mm. Still had the Browning when I was in the navy in the 1990s.

 

[John Fedup]

We went from the Browning to the Sig Sauer and recently to the Glock or is it the other way around, but what ever way it is we are on our second pistol post Browning 9 mm. Still had the Browning when I was in the navy in the 1990s.

Despite the Canadian government taking all the Browning HPs from John Inglis’s terminated export order after WW2 ended, the company’s washing machine business didn’t survive as long as the supply of HPs. Imagine being issued a gun still packed in 1945 grease in the early 2000s. Even older than the forest green camouflage uniforms that CAF troops first deployed to Afghanistan!