readers here that the Germans had over 157,000 casualties in the Invasion of France, which lasted just over six weeks, as well as about 1200 aircraft and 800 tanks lost in action. It was hardly a walkover. In comparison, the Germans had only 50,000 casualties in the Invasion of Poland, of which about 16,000 were killed.

The father of one our employees here served in the French Army in WWII. He is Senagalese.

The MAS 36, while not the last bolt action military rifle to be manufactured, was probably the last to be designed. It did not replace all the other rifles by the start of the war, which among other things, meant an infantry squad might be using weapons using two different rifle cartridges. It was also not issuedoverseas by the start of the war. Even after the war, older weapons continued in use in places for another ten years or so.

Some of the Berthier carbines were marked with a very elaborate script that I noticed on one I examined at the old Potomac Arms in Alexandria, Virginia, several years ago on some nice Saturday morning. They had a number of artillery pieces on hand, too, that had been there as long as I'd been visiting the place, probably 30 years by then. The store was right on the Potomac River and was prone to flooding periodically. The building was elevated (for other reasons besides just avoiding the water) but the parkng lot and all those interesting little artillery pieces frequently got soaked.

While waiting around for