Belgian Gunnery Training: Worm Boards and Prickers

Before putting rounds downrange, it is far more cost-efficient to do training with various aids which develop skills in tracking and laying. These days, of course, we have computers and other simulators to help us do the job, but before then, or if you just want to save a bit of money, old-school techniques performed quite serviceably.
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Пікірлер: 111

  • @HappyDuude
    @HappyDuudeАй бұрын

    Also, 'gunner, heat, tractor' -- the dream of all stuck on a local road during harvest time 😂

  • @mahbriggs

    @mahbriggs

    Ай бұрын

    Just remember who feeds you!

  • @herosstratos

    @herosstratos

    Ай бұрын

    A tractor would be a HESH target ...

  • @ROBERTNABORNEY

    @ROBERTNABORNEY

    Ай бұрын

    In Ukraine, tractors are deadly enemies of tanks. BTW, the Uke version of the IRS has declared that if you capture a Russian tank and tow it home, you do not have to declare it as a capital gain.

  • @herosstratos
    @herosstratosАй бұрын

    2:34 The pricker (Nadelgerät) has been used in Germany too. The pricker is a reused hydraulic ventile.

  • @dukenukem8381

    @dukenukem8381

    Ай бұрын

    I wonder who won biggest prick of the month awards

  • @ottovonbismarck2443

    @ottovonbismarck2443

    Ай бұрын

    Did "we" get it from the Belgians ? I know some places in Aachen and Düren, where Belgian tank units shared barracks with BW units.

  • @herosstratos

    @herosstratos

    Ай бұрын

    @@ottovonbismarck2443 Or Belgian units adopted it together with the Leopard.

  • @JeffBilkins

    @JeffBilkins

    Ай бұрын

    'Nadelgerät' sounds kinda spooky.

  • @truckerallikatuk
    @truckerallikatukАй бұрын

    You know the solution Chieftain, if in doubt, call it an M1.

  • @HappyDuude
    @HappyDuudeАй бұрын

    Love that 'the pricker' was done with one take - the urge to break into laughter seemed very high!

  • @chimichangapoops6244

    @chimichangapoops6244

    Ай бұрын

    One take that we know of lmao. I certainly couldn't have done this in one take that's for sure.

  • @wembleyford
    @wembleyfordАй бұрын

    The 120mm etch-a-sketch is a genius idea!

  • @gergokerekes4550

    @gergokerekes4550

    17 күн бұрын

    draw me an o! yes sir! draw me an upside-down U! yes sir! Draw me an o! yes sir! what did we make? A portrait sir! -that is how you knock out all leaves for a month.

  • @osmacar5331
    @osmacar5331Ай бұрын

    cheap never means bad, in this case, cheap just means financially efficient. spend where you NEED to spend, cheap out on what you can get away with without losing quality.

  • @peterking8586
    @peterking8586Ай бұрын

    On Chieftain we had a turret mock-up with a .22 mounted. Then we had a set of rubber targets that would be dragged around the indoor range, on a sand base. Everything was to scale. The gunner would then aim at the rubber targets and fire. You knew you’d hit when the rubber target flew up.

  • @Squad23jta
    @Squad23jtaАй бұрын

    Great Idea. Trust the Belgians to find a way to save money. I wonder if the best tank crew got a bar of chocolate and a beer.

  • @keithskelhorne3993

    @keithskelhorne3993

    Ай бұрын

    more likely frittes et mayo and 2 beers? LOL

  • @Squad23jta

    @Squad23jta

    Ай бұрын

    @@keithskelhorne3993 even better 😀

  • @denisvermeirre1024

    @denisvermeirre1024

    Ай бұрын

    Doing things on the cheap - the magic of the Belgian military!

  • @flitsertheo

    @flitsertheo

    Ай бұрын

    From experience, Belgian soldiers are way more interested in beer than chocolate. And beer is or was cheap in army canteens.

  • @mikkoveijalainen7430
    @mikkoveijalainen7430Ай бұрын

    My granpa was a gunner on a captured Soviet T-34-85. I remember him telling me about similar consepts in the Finnish Army during WW2.

  • @tacticalmanatee
    @tacticalmanateeАй бұрын

    This reminds me of the British Swift Model B training rifle that worked on a similar principle during WW2, which was known for the shenanigans that soldiers got up to with a rifle-shaped needle-projecting device, usually combined with another unaware soldier's backside.

  • @shorttimer874
    @shorttimer874Ай бұрын

    When I went through the 11D school they would put up a row of targets on a brick wall, give us all 1911 pistols and a pencil. With the pencil dropped into the barrel the hammer would hit it hard enough to make a mark on the target and that, along with disassembly and reassembly, was our familiarization class.

  • @echoredfour

    @echoredfour

    Ай бұрын

    Real old school hihihihi been there

  • @moosemaimer

    @moosemaimer

    Ай бұрын

    I seem to remember a video about a British training rifle with a very long needle attached to the firing pin, where you would aim at a piece of paper at the muzzle, and when you pulled the trigger it would shoot out and leave a pinhole. I also remember it saying those rifles were used to stab people in the butt.

  • @Wolfshead009

    @Wolfshead009

    Ай бұрын

    @@moosemaimer Pretty sure Forgotten Weapons did a video on those.

  • @SuiLagadema
    @SuiLagademaАй бұрын

    It's so elegant in its simplicity!! I'm actually amazed!

  • @kemarisite
    @kemarisiteАй бұрын

    3:04 "Church steeple" Yes. 1944-45 told us that Church steeples were very important targets to be able to hit.

  • @alangordon3283

    @alangordon3283

    Ай бұрын

    Have a think on why .

  • @kemarisite

    @kemarisite

    Ай бұрын

    @@alangordon3283 I'm aware of "why". It would be interesting to know how many times some forward observer looked over his shoulder at the Church steeple exploding because the FO didn't choose the obvious and inescapable location.

  • @BufusTurbo92
    @BufusTurbo92Ай бұрын

    that contraption is the cutest piece of military equipment ever invented

  • @anthonykaiser974
    @anthonykaiser974Күн бұрын

    RE: Prickers - Looks like a welder came up with a novel use for welding jigs. Damn smart. BTW, the guy who taught me TIG was an M1A1 MG.

  • @SonsOfLorgar
    @SonsOfLorgarАй бұрын

    As a mid ranking officer in charge of training the costal artillery AA crew conscripts, my father went on a tour of the local hobby, toy and hardware stores and bought up one or two plastic scale models of each pact and Nato military aircraft. He then gave them to the conscripts along with glue and paints as well as ID photos taken by our own airforce border patrols as barracks homework for each bunk pair to assemble, paint and study the aircraft they got and then hold a short presentation of it in front of the others in the AA training hall a week later. Once the presentations was done, he had them attatch drinking straws along the spines of the models and the following week, those models were pulled on fishing lines stretched crisscrossing across the celiling of the AA training hall as the 40mm/L60 AA crews progressed through both manual and central automated aiming drills while calling out each plane type as they identified the models in their sights!😁

  • @Mishn0
    @Mishn0Ай бұрын

    The British developed something like this for Naval gun training training, I think in the late 1800s. It became necessary when guns started getting actual long effective ranges but before automatic gun stabilization was a thing. The gun trainers had to manually track the target by compensating for the pitch and roll of the ship to give the range finder operator a chance at getting a good reading and to keep the target in the sights. The gun trainer trainee looked through a sight while the instructor bobbed the paper ship target up and down and left and right and the trainee had to "fire" when he was on target and a needle would pierce the paper and show how he did.

  • @EliteAmmunition
    @EliteAmmunitionАй бұрын

    You said fire the pricker and kept a straight face😅

  • @DIVeltro
    @DIVeltroАй бұрын

    The snake board/worm board has been around for decades. For a good challege we used to run the board with all manual controls.

  • @Christopher-ix8ql
    @Christopher-ix8qlАй бұрын

    Americans = Billion Dollar Simulator to train accuracy. Belgians = Pencil on a stick.

  • @stanislavczebinski994

    @stanislavczebinski994

    Ай бұрын

    I think the first price for overly-complicated, overly-sophisticated and overly-expensive solutions goes still to us Germans😆 But I agree: The US military is also very, very good at that. I think the Belgians (like the Dutch, in particular) are a lot more pragmatic. Like - it doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn't need to be pretty: If it does the job - good enough. I truly admire that.

  • @ianbell5611

    @ianbell5611

    Ай бұрын

    Very true but in the US military it's not about cost efficiency, it's about profit margins. Suppliers have to make things complicated to justify the cost...😂

  • @Vtarngpb
    @VtarngpbАй бұрын

    The later training aid reminds me of Ian Mccollum's video on the Swift Model B... I'm sure nobody EVER misused it 😉🤣

  • @joearnold6881
    @joearnold6881Ай бұрын

    There’s something bizarre yet adorable about drawing on pieces of paper with your tank gun

  • Ай бұрын

    Very interesting stuff. I also very much like all the Leo 1 components they have lying around in the Background :)

  • @flitsertheo

    @flitsertheo

    Ай бұрын

    They sold the tanks but probably the buyers didn't want all this junk gathered in the about 40-50 years the Leopard was used. So, it ended up in the museum.

  • @unclezebulon
    @unclezebulonАй бұрын

    Very interesting! Those simple devices are ingenious.

  • @khourks43khourks33
    @khourks43khourks33Ай бұрын

    I hear that finish gunners in the stug's training were asked to draw their names with a brush or pencil attached to the gun barrel.

  • @justforever96

    @justforever96

    Ай бұрын

    How does that even work? You can't write in one constant motion without removing the pen, even in cursive. How do you lift the pen full the paper between words, to dot your i's, etc?

  • @mahbriggs

    @mahbriggs

    Ай бұрын

    ​@@justforever96 Lots and lots of practice

  • @jamesharding3459

    @jamesharding3459

    Ай бұрын

    @@justforever96 The help of a very careful driver.

  • @khourks43khourks33

    @khourks43khourks33

    Ай бұрын

    @@justforever96 You can always write the letters and make a line between them, and it's not neccesary to put dots. Just write mikka in one motion, don't need to won a caligraphy award, only to be readable.

  • @waltervanvooren994
    @waltervanvooren994Ай бұрын

    The Belgian Leopard crew's where one of the best of its time those day's they made great result's on the Tank challanges!!!

  • @davidburroughs2244
    @davidburroughs2244Ай бұрын

    Oh, so that's whatb the ZMB board is for ... good to know... I thought it was all about bringing tracked and armored vehicles against zombies

  • @TheKing1cobra
    @TheKing1cobraАй бұрын

    it would seem bodges aren't restricted to the UK, still quite clever though

  • @cuoresportivo155

    @cuoresportivo155

    Ай бұрын

    oh no the tanks are filled with snacks, to sell to infantry while on manoeuvres....

  • @genericpersonx333

    @genericpersonx333

    Ай бұрын

    In fairness, tankers tend to like mechanical arts to start with, and since tank units have lots of tools lying around, they tend to start playing with them. Same on Navy ships: they tend to have amazing tool rooms and yet probably less than half of their output is for official navy purposes. 🙂

  • @joebudde3302
    @joebudde3302Ай бұрын

    Ingenious!🫡

  • @ptonpc
    @ptonpcАй бұрын

    That is ingenious.

  • @minuteman4199
    @minuteman4199Ай бұрын

    In Canada we had a system called the IMR - Indoor Miniature range. We'd lay out a cloth terrain model on the floor about 25 to 50 m in front of the vehicle and there was a laser on the turret that would shine a light onto the model and you could see if you hit or not. It was mostly about learning turret drills I imagine.

  • @rapter229
    @rapter229Ай бұрын

    With the addition of modern computerized FCS, have they introduced a similar function within the tanks own systems to track and train accuracy?

  • @Davey-Boyd
    @Davey-BoydАй бұрын

    Ingenious!

  • @IowanLawman
    @IowanLawmanАй бұрын

    When your budget is low, you think of ingenious ways to make whatever you need to make.

  • @rotwang2000
    @rotwang2000Ай бұрын

    They also had an analog driving simulator, it was a tiny roughly 1/300 scale diorama with a tiny camera slaved to the controls inside a tank driving simulator. The system would allow you to drive around towns and villages. Sadly the whole thing was dismantled but the building and some parts were salvaged by a friend who uses them for his 6mm Cold War wargames.

  • @AthAthanasius

    @AthAthanasius

    Ай бұрын

    Something like this ? kzread.info/dash/bejne/c5eFy8iJeMazfKg.html

  • @Tomyironmane
    @TomyironmaneАй бұрын

    This is just an analog simulator.... a pretty cool job of one, too.

  • @frankgulla2335
    @frankgulla233529 күн бұрын

    How clever these Belgians.

  • @SvenTheSveed
    @SvenTheSveedАй бұрын

    Excellent presentation style.

  • @davidlefranc6240
    @davidlefranc6240Ай бұрын

    Nice keep up those video's!

  • @tangero3462
    @tangero3462Ай бұрын

    The Pricker is quite interesting, I'm aware of the British using something similar for riflemen with dedicated facsimile rifles to punch paper targets for off-range practice. Naturally hijinks ensued when not in use

  • @saberwing7930

    @saberwing7930

    Ай бұрын

    I was just about to say this. Ian of Forgotten Weapons even did a review of those training rifles. Whether it's inspired by, or merely great minds thinking alike, it's an interesting system.

  • @lhkraut
    @lhkrautАй бұрын

    Good ideas don't always have to be expensive.

  • @njwithers
    @njwithersАй бұрын

    oh c'mon - you missed the critical section on how to properly tension the pencil.

  • @Yandarval
    @YandarvalАй бұрын

    Effective, cheap and accurate. No wonder the US used them sparingly. Where is the lobby and Pork barrel dollars in a wooden board and a metal arm.

  • @rockbutcher
    @rockbutcherАй бұрын

    Very cool.

  • @ianbell5611
    @ianbell5611Ай бұрын

    Very cool

  • @recce8619
    @recce8619Ай бұрын

    I remember reading that the Finns crew training for their Stug-3 included having the gunners writing their names on paper using a pencil attached to the gun barrel. Unfortunately I can't provide an actual source for that.

  • @MakeMeThinkAgain
    @MakeMeThinkAgainАй бұрын

    This was really interesting. Unrelated, I recently saw a photograph of an M5 Stuart on anti-sniper duty in a German urban area during 1945. I was a little surprised since I had only seen Shermans involved in urban fighting at that time and it doesn't seem like an obvious job for the cavalry -- I could be wrong. But the more I thought about it the more sense it made. The M5 was more maneuverable in tight urban spaces and was a less valuable target and not much more vulnerable to panzerfausts. The coax was just as useful as the Sherman's while the 37mm -- whether firing HE or canister -- would be up to the task of taking out snipers or MGs without also bringing down entire buildings. Now I'm wondering why M5s weren't used instead of Shermans for this kind of work.

  • @stumpythedwarf8712
    @stumpythedwarf8712Ай бұрын

    You're having a secret competition with Ian from Forgotten Weapons on who can find the coolest stuff to make videos on, aren't you? Very cool Nicky me lad.

  • @singeager
    @singeager18 күн бұрын

    Sounds like a tank gunnery version on the ww2 swift training rifle

  • @UkrainerWinklernovsky
    @UkrainerWinklernovskyАй бұрын

    this dude looks like Dr. Louis Flellis from Faces of Death IV

  • @yoloman3607
    @yoloman3607Ай бұрын

    I wonder if they ever adapted the training sims for WW2 bomber gunners for ground targets on the move.

  • @bigboi6452
    @bigboi6452Ай бұрын

    First thing i saw was "gunner aids" i like WHAT???

  • @echoredfour
    @echoredfourАй бұрын

    Make sense Sir since you’re talking about the. Leo 1. As i remember it the worm boards were more common back in my dinosaur days up to m60a3. When I became a jedi tanker cdat those training aids fell off focusing more on ucoft running 24/7 if crews are available.

  • @martinrose2833
    @martinrose2833Ай бұрын

    You are going to do a video on the Swingfire Striker next to the ' pricker ' hu Nicholas ?

  • @sandgroper1970
    @sandgroper1970Ай бұрын

    I am sure the instructors at the Training Center, were all like, how do we provide effective training, to the crews but without breaking the budget, cause Brussels (Government) won't be adding any extra to our annual military budget for the Army to purchase some fancy Training aids.

  • @gowdsake7103
    @gowdsake7103Ай бұрын

    Genius

  • @dookiepost
    @dookiepostАй бұрын

    He reminds me of Norman Finkelstein

  • @CTXSLPR
    @CTXSLPRАй бұрын

    The "pricker" seems like a descendant of the naval "dotter" which used an offset pencil to mark shots fired on targets. I can't remember if it's a USN or RN invention.

  • @mahbriggs

    @mahbriggs

    Ай бұрын

    I believe it was British, but the US came up with something similar or simply copied it!

  • @ROBERTNABORNEY

    @ROBERTNABORNEY

    Ай бұрын

    @@mahbriggs Percy Scott (RN) and William Sims (USN) - look 'em up - were good friends. Scott invented the Dotter

  • @mahbriggs

    @mahbriggs

    Ай бұрын

    @@ROBERTNABORNEY I know that! They corresponded regularly.

  • @rafaeloda
    @rafaelodaАй бұрын

    Prickin hilarious

  • @verstappen9937
    @verstappen9937Ай бұрын

    Why does the chieftain not talk about his favourite tank the chieftain? Can we get an inside the hatch? Or a long detailed review? It’s arguably the biggest leap in technology from a tank since the tiger 1

  • @TheChieftainsHatch

    @TheChieftainsHatch

    Ай бұрын

    I'll get there one day..

  • @Real_Claudy_Focan
    @Real_Claudy_FocanАй бұрын

    We aint rich but we got ideas ! :D

  • @b2tall239
    @b2tall239Ай бұрын

    Good job keeping a reasonably straight face when saying "the pricker", Chieftain. Looks like you almost lost it....

  • @manuelledu1267
    @manuelledu1267Ай бұрын

    And then, on the end, there is a scare jump

  • @EliteAmmunition
    @EliteAmmunitionАй бұрын

    So you never had a coaxial mounted 22 LR clamped to the 105 barrel and shooting at mini toy targets

  • @mikemcginley6309

    @mikemcginley6309

    Ай бұрын

    That's how we did it at Knox in 79.

  • @EliteAmmunition

    @EliteAmmunition

    Ай бұрын

    @@mikemcginley6309 Still doing it that way in 1983

  • @Train115
    @Train115Ай бұрын

    I wonder if there's any Dutch stuff you could talk about.

  • @qunt2742
    @qunt2742Ай бұрын

    I wonder how much trouble you would get in if you were to ever so accidentally trace a phallic shape on the worm board.

  • @ulissedazante5748

    @ulissedazante5748

    Ай бұрын

    Soldiers being soldiers, I guess you have a point.

  • @Grayfox988
    @Grayfox988Ай бұрын

    Basically a pantograph.

  • @merlinwizard1000
    @merlinwizard1000Ай бұрын

    30th, 6 April 2024

  • @Joelsfilmer
    @JoelsfilmerАй бұрын

    The Brits actually came up with their own version of the pricker, but for infantry rifles. Although in practice it was more of a hepatitis distribution device than a training aid. It was called the Swift Model B, and Ian has of course done a video on it. kzread.info/dash/bejne/jKp3rNGAqczXkto.html

  • @terryjohnson1064
    @terryjohnson1064Ай бұрын

    It's a pantograph.

  • @iainburgess8577
    @iainburgess8577Ай бұрын

    *Effective gunnery training for cheap.

  • @simongee8928
    @simongee8928Ай бұрын

    So simple and inexpensive; too straightforward and obvious for the Americans to adopt - ! 😅

  • @DrLoverLover
    @DrLoverLoverАй бұрын

    So, how many rude words were made on the worm board?

  • @Wastelandman7000
    @Wastelandman7000Ай бұрын

    So....in other words gunnery training was a bunch of pricks? LOL

  • @truracer20
    @truracer2017 күн бұрын

    The Belgians theoretically HAVE to be much more accurate and faster on target than Americans, in a head to head comparison. 1 tank loss for the Belgians must be the equivalent of 1 or 2 companies lost for the Americans.