Silent Picket / Screw picket.

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by wowtank, Mar 28, 2012.

  1. wowtank

    wowtank Very Senior Member

    Can anybody shed any light on this as to the correct name and how old it is? Had it years never occurred to me to try and find out about until today.
    Tim:)

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  2. RemeDesertRat

    RemeDesertRat Very Senior Member

    Can only think its something that held barbed wire up/in place?
     
  3. Jakke

    Jakke Junior Member

    Hi,

    To me it looks like a barbed wire pole/picket/anchor post as used in wwI (also known as "pig tails"). The bottom of the pole acts like a cork screw to be able to silently and swiftly put the poles in the ground near enemy positions. I think all armies used them, I don't know who introduced them.

    Take a look at the bottom of this page:
    Battle Remains on the WW1 Western Front
    or here:
    photograph of Picket posts

    Cheers,

    Jakke
     
    wowtank likes this.
  4. wowtank

    wowtank Very Senior Member

    Can only think its something that held barbed wire up/in place?

    Should have said I know it is a Silent picket for barb wire I just wounder how old is was really ie if it was ww2 vintage.
     
  5. wowtank

    wowtank Very Senior Member

    /bump plz
    I would like to know if it was or is the same type used in ww2?
     
  6. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  7. ceolredmonger

    ceolredmonger Member

    I have not seen specific reference to screw (or silent) pickets before 1916. However that could just reflect my lack of seeing many pre-1916 field engineering manuals.

    As posted, they are certainly referred to in manuals from both world wars and were probably in use well after the second. Manufacture seems to have been done by civilian contractors, photos and film of small engineering works mass producing them are fairly common. I have seen a number and all vary in small details (how closed the loops are, how the point is made) whilst being broadly of the same pattern. There was no great difference between those with a First World War provenance to those from the Second.

    Do you know where yours is from?

    Keith
     
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  8. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    The answer it would appear as to entry into service is given in - The history of the Great War by Brigadier General Sir James Edmonds RE Retd. It is suggested 1915 -have not found an accessible copy on line to confirm that - yet!
     
  9. wowtank

    wowtank Very Senior Member

    Thanks every body for the posts:). I have a few of them, they came from a little bit of land I used to own in Suffolk which in near Army and RAF bases used before after and During the war.
     
  10. brit plumber

    brit plumber Member

    I've seen these on the inner fence line at Leeming, perhaps they worked so well that the design went unchanged from 1915.
     
  11. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Does anyone know where to buy screw pickets ?
    Was wondering where to get them from , thought a couple of them might look nice in the garden.
    Suppose I could pop over to France or Belgium & steal some from a farmer's field.
     
    ozzy16 likes this.
  12. Mr Jinks

    Mr Jinks Bit of a Cad

    Owen likes this.
  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  14. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Question from my son.
    Were screw pickets used on the Eastern Front in WW2 ?
    Haven't seen any photos of them.
     
  15. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    Because of the rather primitive conditions and the poor supply infrastructure, barbed wire entanglements were usually built with material that could be found on site.
    The picture is from the Stalin Line - and these installations were among the best built.
    Stacheldraht-Absperrung-an-der-Stalinlinie-Feodosia-Krim.jpg
     
    Owen likes this.
  16. seventhrig

    seventhrig New Member

    These screw posts were made by our family business Crown Iron Works in Minneapolis, MN. We made them for WW1, WW2 and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over 10 million of these screw posts were made. I have started scanning in old photographs and digitizing old films of these posts being made. I has been fun to see so many posts about these barbed wire screw posts online. I just saw one featured on the new show Pirate Gold. Such a simple device but was very effective. I have letters from the U.S. Secretary of War office in WW2 sent to my grandfather expressing how effective they were at getting the "Japs". - David
     
    Osborne2 likes this.
  17. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Cant keep a good idea that works down. 21st Century version for tethering your dog to stop him wandering off , when out camping.
    Used in my garden to anchor the hedgehog hibernation box down to prevent the foxes taking it away. Put a bar through the loops & tighten them down.
     

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    Chris C likes this.

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