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Hawkman
08-19-2010, 09:08 AM
9mm Browning Highpower
Feels nice in the hand.
Thirteen round magazine,
prone to jam though,
so you only load with ten.
Slide the mag inside the grip
and push it home until it clicks.
Pull back the slide
and c0ck the weapon,
then let it go.
It jumps forward
with a satisfying sound
and chambers the first round.

Safety on.
Point the gun
down range.

“Ten rounds
In your own time
Go on.”

Safety off.
Aim at Herman,
hold the gun
with both hands
and align the foresight,
in the middle
of the backsight,
centre mass on Herman.
Squeeze off two,
shift point of aim,
two in the head will do.
Empty the mag into his heart,
ten rounds gone
the slide locks back.
The breach smokes
cordite fumes.
You taste it and it’s good

“Cease fire!
Clear your weapons
Prove!”

Eject the mag and work the slide
lock it open
the empty magazine
above the breach.

“Clear!”

Wander down the range to check the target.
Very satisfying groups, Herman’s dead once more
Better patch him up. You paste on bits of paper,
brown and black to cover up the holes.
As you walk away, Herman impassively bleeds glue.
You’re having a lovely day. Now you will use an SMG.
Rat-a-tat-tat…

So can you do it when it matters?
Oh yeah.

Somehow, the torn and floppy piece of meat
inertly lying at your feet
doesn’t give you so much pleasure,
not like popping rounds off at your leisure.
So you turn away,
don’t want to stay
to admire your handiwork.
Behind you
the target bleeds real blood
which leaks a creeping crimson flood.
Too late for a plaster chum:
he died while calling for his mum
but at least you’re still alive.
Oh yeah.

dafydd manton
08-19-2010, 09:16 AM
Hells' Bells, Hawk! That is astounding! You have a brilliance in showing what a damn silly waste of time and life it all is. Tokk me straight back to the ranges, and wondering even then, as a callow 18-year old if this was really wise. You have utterly excelled yourself. That line about the torn and bloody piece of meat is masterly. I'm so grateful that up there we were remote from this kind of horror!

PrinceMyshkin
08-19-2010, 10:04 AM
"oh yeah" finishes it off nicely, so to speak, but "As you walk away, Herman impassively bleeds glue" gave me a sufficiently gruesome foretaste of the end.

Was "Hermann," I wonder, a generic name for Germans? Certainly it evoked in me, being old enough, the fat, oleaginous Göring.

Hawkman
08-19-2010, 10:46 AM
Thanks Dafydd,

Glad it resonated with you. Rifles keep the horror further away, more impersonal. Wouldn’t want to be engaged in close quarter combat – far too messy…

Personally I loved being on the range, I always enjoyed shooting, but hawking is more fun, especially as my eyes aren’t as sharp as they were. Bit of clay pigeon is all I do these days.

Hi Prince,

My father called one of his cats Hermann :D

During WW1 and WW2 it was noticed that a high percentage of conscripts, even some volunteers, were unwilling to actually shoot to kill, at least until they’d seen a few of their mates die. This is an undesirable trait in a soldier. It seemed that the injunction against taking life, instilled in the majority of the population by religious and social conditioning, was deeply ingrained in the human psyche. While they were all happy to shoot at bull’s-eye targets on the range, a human figure was a different matter altogether.

Consequently, after WW2 the range target was changed to an aggressively charging soldier with a helmet and a gun. This acclimatised the recruits to shooting at human figures. The target was given the nick-name of “Herman the German” by the British soldier and has stuck to the present day. (After two world wars against Germany, it is perhaps understandable, if in bad taste - along with most service humour).

Wartime vernacular for Germans was usually Fritz, Hun or Jerry, as far as my knowledge extends.

best, H

dafydd manton
08-19-2010, 10:51 AM
With practice,, used to be able to empty a Bren magazine across Herman's middle, like a line of perforations between stamps, leaving one round for his his head, which would cause him to fall in half. No matter that it was a running figure with a gun, it never seemed that real, so it was only sport, really. I'm only glad I never had to use one in anger. Chap I know was in the hand-to-hand at Imjin Ridge, and he still bears the mental scars.
We humans have a long way to go.........

Hawkman
08-19-2010, 10:59 AM
Yes there are certainly ways to have fun with a gun :D I'm always amused to see the "Vickers grin" appear on the faces of TV presenters like Jeremy Clarkson when they get to fire one and chew through water filled oil barrels and breeze block walls. Even David Dimbleby succumbed to it!

To be at Imjin must have been horrific. Was he a Gloucester?

dafydd manton
08-19-2010, 11:24 AM
Yes - you know your military history!

Delta40
08-19-2010, 05:27 PM
good poem. I wanted to turn away but I kept reading anyway

dafydd manton
08-19-2010, 05:40 PM
Good point - it makes you feel very, very uncomfortable, but it's still compelling.

Hawkman
08-19-2010, 05:49 PM
Thanks D40, I wanted the reader to continue until the end so I'm glad you stuck with it. It's not an easy read for a civilian I should think.

Glad you still like it Dafydd. I read what you wrote about middle of the night poems. This was one. I just gave it a tidy this morning before I posted it. Wasn't sure how it would be recieved to be honest. Not a lot of humour in it, not even black humour. Reflects my mood a bit.

Best, H

Delta40
08-19-2010, 06:09 PM
when i read small arms training, i thought perhaps its about oompa loompas or something...

Hawkman
08-19-2010, 06:13 PM
I guess that would be because you're an Aussie. All that blood rushing to your head from being down under - Can't be good for you :D

Delta40
08-19-2010, 06:14 PM
lol. I think i've been reading too many silly comments by dafydd and jerry

dafydd manton
08-19-2010, 06:45 PM
Good grief - I get the blame for everything! *Exits, sucking thumb!*

Bar22do
08-21-2010, 12:53 PM
This is brilliant, Hawk, I wonder if not the very best of your all! Thanks for its message! yours ever returning :seeya: - Bar

Hawkman
08-23-2010, 07:44 AM
Thanks Bar, Not very cheerful I'm afraid but I was quite pleased with it.

Live and be well, H