British Ordnance Collectors Network
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Necessary, I suppose, but sad in retrospect
- Thread starter Slick
- Start date
sksvlad
Well-Known Member
Maybe not. British employed whole uniformed Japanese units for police duties after surrender in Burma and other places. Japanese saw it as just another duty with a new boss, since the head of the empire approved it by unconditional surrender. I am sure they did not like the task.
Necessary I'm afraid..
Arms and Armour sloshing around at the end of a conflict period is always a PITA.. You never know who is going to "acquire" it for whatever reason and there is a distinct possibility you will get it back with interest! It takes a lot of effort to guard surrendered arms and in many ways it is better to get rid ASAP.
The weapons scales you need to arm local police etc are orders of magnitude less than those left by a defeated army. I had a load of stuff sitting in the corner of one of my bomb dumps at the end of one of the recent gulf unpleasantness and it was hard to find resources to get rid of it. Quite a lot of the "heavy metal" stuff was spirited away by coalition partners which still had WP kit. I was also asked for arms for the reforming Police force.. I was OK with the AKs (they were not interested in anything 5.56 - ammo too expensive) although I was less happy to pass over PKMs and drew the line at RPGs even though they asked for them!
Ammunition lying about is a huge liability. Even accounting for the risk in losing HE for bomb making, in certain parts of the world brass and copper is a VERY negotiable commodity and ammo crates are made of wood. Put simply if you do not watch an ammo dump like a hawk it will transform itself from a stack of known quality ammunition to a pile of shells with the fuzes and driving bands chiselled off, cart cases emptied out and boxes sold as firewood. We are talking football field sizes here, feet deep in loose gun propellant and open shells.... nice!
The Politicos love giving away stuff to the various local worthies... but they are not likely to suffer the long term effects...
We (the military) are!
Arms and Armour sloshing around at the end of a conflict period is always a PITA.. You never know who is going to "acquire" it for whatever reason and there is a distinct possibility you will get it back with interest! It takes a lot of effort to guard surrendered arms and in many ways it is better to get rid ASAP.
The weapons scales you need to arm local police etc are orders of magnitude less than those left by a defeated army. I had a load of stuff sitting in the corner of one of my bomb dumps at the end of one of the recent gulf unpleasantness and it was hard to find resources to get rid of it. Quite a lot of the "heavy metal" stuff was spirited away by coalition partners which still had WP kit. I was also asked for arms for the reforming Police force.. I was OK with the AKs (they were not interested in anything 5.56 - ammo too expensive) although I was less happy to pass over PKMs and drew the line at RPGs even though they asked for them!
Ammunition lying about is a huge liability. Even accounting for the risk in losing HE for bomb making, in certain parts of the world brass and copper is a VERY negotiable commodity and ammo crates are made of wood. Put simply if you do not watch an ammo dump like a hawk it will transform itself from a stack of known quality ammunition to a pile of shells with the fuzes and driving bands chiselled off, cart cases emptied out and boxes sold as firewood. We are talking football field sizes here, feet deep in loose gun propellant and open shells.... nice!
The Politicos love giving away stuff to the various local worthies... but they are not likely to suffer the long term effects...
We (the military) are!