M1911 Week: Continues...

M1911 Week: Shooting Part 1

You may have noticed I fell a little behind this month... and again last week. So I'm getting this series out to you anyway.

M1911 Week: Point Shooting

Vintage World War II training film on Point Shooting technique with the M1911A1

Soviet Reanimation Experiments of the Post-WWII Era

Yesterday we saw the propaganda film from Nazi Germany calling for a zombie army to overrun the Allies. I recounted how the plan backfired and was also implemented too late in the war to gain momentum.

The Soviet Red Army captured the parts of Berlin in which these top secret experiments were being performed. Although they claimed all of the research was destroyed in the battle, evidence later emerged that they had absconded with the records and were working to re-create the experiments in their own facilities.

This video shows Soviet film-footage demonstrating their experiments. It is not for the weak-willed and tender-souled. These experiments are inhuman. But the truth must be told.

Nazi Zombies?

What's worse than zombies?

Two words: Nazi Zombies.

I mentioned the other day how Hitler's cadre of mad scientists had been working on ways to bring dinosaurs back from the near extinction they suffered, or capture specimens from Africa to breed as a super army. But they were also worked on an army of Undead soldiers. By some reports, they succeeded, but their creations soon formed slightly different notions of who the Master Race really was...

It saddens me to say that some of this work was based on early experiments by Dr. Herbert West, an infamous alumnus of my own alma mater, Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts. Dr. West, who's crimes were originally swept under the rug by authorities rose to notoriety after pulp writer Howard P. Lovecraft used them as the basis for a series of short stories. How the Nazi's got ahold of West's research was a subject of much investigation by the FBI and OSS in the waning days of the war. But there are rumors that one of West's own horrible creations was working with the Nazi establishment. He may also have been the source of the idea that the Nazi Zombies, being immortal, were in every way superior to the living Nazis.

Thankfully, the Soviet's overran Berlin about the same time that the Nazi Zombies revolted, and according to the Soviet reports, the threat was contained and eliminated. But as we'll see tomorrow, perhaps the Soviets weren't telling the whole truth.

Forgotten History: Nazi Dinosaurs

A sadly forgotten chapter of history -- much like the 1939 incident at Grover's Mill, New Jersey -- was the Nazi plan to unleash living dinosaurs on the Allies in the waning days of World War II. Abwehr operatives smuggled dinosaur blood out of insect amber samples from Scandinavia and SS scientists immediately started work on reconstructing the thunder lizards. Fortunately, their work was hindered by the fact DNA was not understood at the time. There were other efforts to procure a living dinosaur from the jungles of Africa, but the small units of soldiers sent into the Congo were never heard from again. Whether that was due to the harsh environment, Allied forces, or the dinosaurs themselves is unknown. Allied intelligence caught wind of these unusual activities, and efforts were made to stop the threat. A small sampling of morale-boosting posters was made in conjunction with military contractors. Fortunately, they were never needed and most were destroyed following the war. Above is the image of one of these rare artifacts.