Moved: Obsolete weapons and ammo thread

[TR675]

Got that one already. I will look around. Thanks for posting it.

[Chuck Haggard]

Tom Givens has one of the Shanghai Police issued guns, wrote a bit about it for a SWAT magazine article. That was a pretty cool find for him.

[Clyde from Carolina]

Haven't read it, but a Google of Amazon found this.

http://www.amazon.com/Policing-Shang.../dp/0520207610


May not be a true 'Triggernometry' tome, but this book on 'Policing Shanghai 1927-1937', based on the handful of mostly positive reviews, looks promising.

[LSP972]

I am guessing for the beat cops it was a case of foot patrol in extremely tight quarters.

Yeah, that makes sense.

I have seen several references to "flying squads" in Shanghai, but no concrete information. Got a few minutes here before the daily dump of Tauri, Stigmas, and what not; let's see how strong my Google-fu is today.

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[Chuck Haggard]

Shangai was as tight of an urban city, especially outside of those areas that made up the International Settlement, as one can get and still have room to breath.

Cool old pics;
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/201...930s-shanghai/


http://streetsofshanghai.pbworks.com...8680/FrontPage

http://streetsofshanghai.pbworks.com...0to%20Shanghai

he International Settlement

Not a free city, nor a colony, the International Settlement exists in a weird legal limbo wherein every resident (or at least all of those from a country with Most Favoured Nation status) is subject only to the laws of his own land. This does not stop the foreign settlers (chiefly the British and Americans) from calling for military aid from home in times of crisis. The International Settlement is the hub of the city and is what most people think of when they think of Shanghai. The Settlement maintains its own police force (the Shanghai Municipal Police) and volunteer armed forces. The police are direly needed, as Shanghai as a whole - and the Settlement in particular - is one of the most violent, crime-ridden cities in the world. "Paradise of adventurers" indeed...

The Settlement is governed by the Shanghai Municipal Council, which is elected by qualified residents (defined mostly by land ownership) and consults with international consuls.

The French Concession

The French Concession, in contrast to the International Settlement, is a part of the French empire and is governed by the French consul with an advisory cabinet he is free to ignore. Largely residential and full of leafy avenues, the French Concession is also a hotbed of smugglers and other criminals, though it has far less street crime than the International Settlement.

[LSP972]

Looks like the "flying squad" moniker originated in London on 1919. One assumes Fairbairn (who joined the Shanghai Po-lice in 1907) got the idea from Brit contacts when he developed his version of it.

Keep in mind, this is all from Wiki, so a pound of salt is indicated. A quick look at Google showed a ton of writing on the Shanghai crime/gang problems back then, but I haven't hit anything yet that focuses on the weapons/tactics on either side of the law.

The book that Clyde referenced is available on Kindle, so I'll order that puppy up when I get home this evening. Should be interesting reading; hopefully it won't be too dry. Those academic types can make a great battle sleep-inducing...

Yeah, Chuck, I didn't realize that Shanghai had three separate, highly different parts back then. On the one hand, that must have made jurisdictional considerations interesting... on the other hand, there weren't any feds, Al Sharptons or Jessie Jacksons "overseeing" how the cops conducted their business. IOW, those that needed thumping... got thumped. Those Green Gang boys were some bad dudes, apparently...

.

[Chuck Haggard]

Looking around at pics I see several where there were armored cars with machine guns obviously mounted. I would expect their response to something like a riot would be rather different than what we see today.

[Tamara]

Looking around at pics I see several where there were armored cars with machine guns obviously mounted. I would expect their response to something like a riot would be rather different than what we see today.

As I like to point out to the "zomg militarization of the po-leece!" crowd, Andy & Barney would have broken out the Potato Digger in 1920s Ferguson, MO.

[Jeep]

Did Browning design the "potato digger?"

[TR675]

Did Browning design the "potato digger?"

He sure did!