Knuckles as a measure of distance

About four knuckles left of the checkpoint

 

Golf

 

Ha ha Lesley

It was in a fact/fiction book re WW2 and caught my eye

 

I think the version I've seen in WW2 manuals has outstretched spread fingers, but I have heard it given as knuckles too

 

Used both knuckles and spread fingers as an OP Ack to calculate the left/right corrections for fall of shot, although we measured it Mils not degrees. Converted the angle to metres by subtension. " 1 mil at 1,000 = 1 metre", that is for every mil measured it equalled 1 metre for every 1,000 metres between you and the target. E.G. round lands 10 mils to the right of the target which is 3,000 metres away - 10 (mils) x 3(000)(metres) = 30 metres. Order to guns Left two five (we worked in multples of 25 metres).
Derek

 

That's just less than half a 'span'.

 

From memory, the diagrams in the ACF manual c1980 were exactly the same as those in Infantry Section Leading between the wars. Still, if it ain't broke...

 

Knuckles are a measure of angle.
Small Arms Training Volume 1 Pam 2 Application of fire 1942

 

Thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten the details of all this. Just dragged out my old file. I passed my Cert A in 1961.
Went back in 1981 and did my Gallery Range Course in 1984. So its a long time ago. I doubt that I could walk the length of a range now.
Had some good times with my old mates most of whom had joined up as Regulars. Why I did it for so long I will never know.
I left the cadets in 1969 joining a rock band and left as an adult in 1998 to do do exactly the same thing, with pretty well the same people.
Guess I'm just a crazy mixed up kid with nothing better to do.