1.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
2.
Shell (projectile)
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A shell is a payload-carrying projectile that, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used, originally, it was called a bombshell, but shell has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Words cognate with grenade are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages, shells are usually large-calibre projectiles fired by artillery, combat vehicles, and warships. Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by a nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base. Solid cannonballs did not need a fuse, but hollow munitions filled with something such as gunpowder to fragment the ball, needed a fuse, percussion fuses with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism hit the target. Therefore, shells needed a fuse that was ignited before or during firing. The earliest record of shells being used in combat was by the Republic of Venice at Jadra in 1376, shells with fuses were used at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. These were two hollowed hemispheres of stone or bronze held together by an iron hoop, as described in their book, these hollow, gunpowder-packed shells were made of cast iron. At least since the 16th Century grenades made of ceramics or glass were in use in Central Europe, a hoard of several hundred ceramic greandes were discovered during building works in front of a bastion of the Bavarian City of Ingolstadt, Germany dated to the 17th Century. Lots of the grenades obtained their orignal blackpowder loads and igniters, most probably the grenades were intentionally dumped the moat of the bastion before the year 1723. Early powder burning fuses had to be loaded fuse down to be ignited by firing or a portfire put down the barrel to light the fuse, other shells were wrapped in bitumen cloth, which would ignite during the firing and in turn ignite a powder fuse. Nevertheless, shells came into use in the 16th Century. By the 18th Century, it was known that the fuse towards the muzzle could be lit by the flash through the windage between the shell and the barrel, the use of exploding shells from field artillery became relatively commonplace from early in the 19th century. Until the mid 19th century, shells remained as simple exploding spheres that used gunpowder and they were usually made of cast iron, but bronze, lead, brass and even glass shell casings were experimented with. The word bomb encompassed them at the time, as heard in the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner, typically, the thickness of the metal body was about a sixth of their diameter and they were about two thirds the weight of solid shot of the same calibre. To ensure that shells were loaded with their fuses towards the muzzle, in 1819, a committee of British artillery officers recognised that they were essential stores and in 1830 Britain standardised sabot thickness as a half inch. The sabot was also intended to reduce jamming during loading, despite the use of exploding shell, the use of smoothbore cannons, firing spherical projectiles of shot, remained the dominant artillery method until the 1850s. By the late 18th century, artillery could use canister shot to defend itself from infantry or cavalry attack and this involved loading a tin or canvas container filled with small iron or lead balls instead of the usual cannonball
3.
Caliber
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In guns, particularly firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel, or the diameter of the projectile it fires, in hundredths or sometimes thousandths of an inch. For example, a 45 caliber firearm has a diameter of.45 of an inch. Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions, as in 9mm pistol, when the barrel diameter is given in inches, the abbreviation cal can be used. Good performance requires a bullet to closely match the diameter of a barrel to ensure a good seal. While modern cartridges and cartridge firearms are referred to by the cartridge name. Firearm calibers outside the range of 17 to 50 exist, but are rarely encountered. Larger calibers, such as.577.585.600.700, the.950 JDJ is the only known cartridge beyond 79 caliber used in a rifle. Referring to artillery, caliber is used to describe the length as multiples of the bore diameter. A 5-inch 50 calibre gun has a diameter of 5 in. The main guns of the USS Missouri are 1650 caliber, makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming the cartridges, since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets, these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No.56 became the. 56-56, and the smaller versions. 56-52. 56-50, the. 56-52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet. Optionally, the weight in grains was designated, e. g. 45-70-405. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the.204 Ruger, metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an × between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case, for example,7. 62×51 NATO. This indicates that the diameter is 7. 62mm, loaded in a case 51mm long. Similarly, the 6. 5×55 Swedish cartridge has a diameter of 6.5 mm. An exception to rule is the proprietary cartridge used by U. S. maker Lazzeroni. The following table lists commonly used calibers where both metric and imperial are used as equivalents
4.
Breech-loading weapon
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A breech-loading gun is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel. Modern mass production firearms are breech-loading, early firearms, on the other hand, were almost entirely muzzle-loading. In field artillery, breech loading allows the crew to reload the gun without exposing themselves to fire or repositioning the piece. The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms was sealing the breech and this was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw, breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. The breech-loading swivel gun had a rate of fire, and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century, Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century, one such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge, patrick Ferguson, a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Later on into the century there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition, the cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly, Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812. In 1846 another Paris Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell, Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the.22 BB, the first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming. The Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr or Dreyse needle gun, was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech and it was so called because of its. 5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under von Dreyse and eventually a version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and the gun had numerous deficiencies, specifically, however, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866
5.
Interrupted screw
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An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the breech of artillery guns. It is believed to have invented in 1845. It is a screw that has a section of thread along its axis removed, the screw is mated with a partially threaded hole at the rear of the weapons chamber, where the screw has threads the hole has none, and vice versa. The screw can thus be smoothly inserted all the way into the gun, an earlier method was the use of a wedge to block the rear of the gun. Sealing was further improved with the de Bange obturator in 1872, the major weakness of the original designs was that only half of the circumference of the breechblock could be threaded, hence a fairly long breechblock was still required to achieve a secure lock. Axel Welin solved this problem with his stepped interrupted screw design and this design has threads of the block and breech cut in steps of successively larger radius. This is the design still in use with bagged charge artillery. Rifled breech loader Welin breech block Interrupted screw breech mechanisms Navweaps. com Interrupted threads used on naval guns
6.
Recoil
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Recoil is the backward movement of a gun when it is discharged. To apply this counter-recoiling force, modern mounted guns may employ recoil buffering comprising springs and hydraulic recoil mechanisms, early cannons used systems of ropes along with rolling or sliding friction to provide forces to slow the recoiling cannon to a stop. Recoil buffering allows the maximum counter-recoil force to be lowered so that strength limitations of the gun mount are not exceeded, however, the same pressures acting on the base of the projectile are acting on the rear face of the gun chamber, accelerating the gun rearward during firing. This results in the required counter-recoiling force being proportionally lower, modern cannons also employ muzzle brakes very effectively to redirect some of the propellant gasses rearward after projectile exit. This provides a force to the barrel, allowing the buffering system. The same physics affecting recoil in mounted guns and cannons applies to hand-held guns, hands, arms and shoulders have considerable strength and elasticity for this purpose, up to certain practical limits. For this reason, establishing recoil safety standards for small arms remains challenging, a change in momentum of a mass requires a force, according to Newtons first law, known as the law of inertia, inertia simply being another term for mass. That force, applied to a mass, creates an acceleration, according to Newtons second law, the law of momentum -- changing the velocity of the mass changes its momentum. It is important to understand at this point that velocity is not simply speed, velocity is the speed of a mass in a particular direction. In a very technical sense, speed is a scalar, a magnitude, in summation, the total momentum of the system equals zero, surprisingly just as it did before the trigger was pulled. There are two conservation laws at work when a gun is fired, conservation of momentum and conservation of energy, recoil is explained by the law of conservation of momentum, and so it is easier to discuss it separately from energy. The nature of the process is determined by the force of the expanding gases in the barrel upon the gun. It is also determined by the force applied to the gun. The recoil force only acts during the time that the ejecta are still in the barrel of the gun, except for the case of zero-recoil, the counter-recoil force is smaller than the recoil force but lasts for a longer time. Since the recoil force and the force are not matched. In the zero-recoil case, the two forces are matched and the gun will not move when fired. In most cases, a gun is very close to a free-recoil condition, an example of near zero-recoil would be a gun securely clamped to a massive or well-anchored table, or supported from behind by a massive wall. For example, placing the butt of a large caliber gun directly against a wall, the recoil of a firearm, whether large or small, is a result of the law of conservation of momentum
7.
Gun carriage
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A gun carriage is a frame and mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be manoeuvred and fired. The earliest guns were laid directly onto the ground, with earth being piled up under the end of the barrel to increase the elevation. As the size of guns increased, they began to be attached to wooden frames or beds that were held down by stakes. These began to be replaced by wheeled carriages in the early 16th century, from the 16th to the mid-19th century, the main form of artillery remained the smoothbore cannon. By this time, the trunnion had been developed, with the result that the barrel could be held in two recesses in the carriage and secured with an iron band. This simplified elevation, which was achieved by raising or lowering the breech of the gun by means of a wedge called a quoin or later by a steel screw. During this time, the design of gun carriages evolved only slowly, the trunnions of the gun barrel sat on the top of the cheeks, the rearward part of each cheek was stepped so that the breech could be lifted by iron levers called handspikes. Traversing the gun was achieved by levering the rear of the carriage sideways with handspikes and these were designed to allow guns to be deployed on the battlefield and were provided with a pair of large wheels similar to those used on carts or wagons. The cheeks of field carriages were much narrower than those on the naval carriage, when the gun needed to be moved any distance, the trail could be lifted onto a second separate axle called a limber, which could then be towed by a team of horses or oxen. Limbers had been invented in France in about 1550, in recent times, most heavy guns in military service, that were not themselves mounted into a vehicles, have been mounted either with a field carriage or a split trail carriage. The field carriage is simpler - having two legs extend backwards, joining at a tail, being a hardpoint to hook on to a prime mover or set of horses, the split trail carriage, however, is more complicated, but offers distinct advantages. It consists of two legs, able to be spread independently to the sides, or brought together to allow towing or movement, in both cases, the tail of the carriage often serves to balance the gun, and protect it from rolling to any large extent. The split trail, however, allows the gun not only to be fired near the horizontal, as the field carriage does and this is less important for heavier artillery, as the guns already involve a long time to prepare a firing position. While this still limits the ability to track, it allows the guns to fire in any direction with minimal preparation. Furthermore, it part of each of the benefits of the field carriage, being weight, space. The practice has its origins in war and appears in the century in the Queens regulations of the British Army. In the United Kingdom, the visual distinction usually referred to is that in a state funeral and this distinguishing feature is not invariable, however, as shown by the use of naval ratings rather than horses at the ceremonial funeral for Lord Mountbatten in 1979
8.
Gun laying
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Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece, such as a gun, howitzer or mortar on land, or at sea, against surface or air targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, the term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Gun laying means moving the axis of the bore of the barrel in two planes, horizontal and vertical. A gun is traversed – rotated in a horizontal plane – to align it with the target, Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes, Gun laying may be for direct fire, where the layer sees the target, or indirect fire, where the target may not be visible from the gun. Gun laying has sometimes called training the gun. Laying in the vertical plane uses data derived from trials or empirical experience, for any given gun and projectile types, it reflects the distance to the target and the size of the propellant charge. It also incorporates any differences in height between gun and target, with indirect fire, it may allow for other variables as well. With indirect fire the horizontal angle is relative to something, typically the guns aiming point, depending on the gun mount, there is usually a choice of two trajectories. The dividing angle between the trajectories is about 45 degrees, it varies due to gun dependent factors. Below 45 degrees the trajectory is called low angle, above is high angle, the differences are that low angle fire has a shorter time of flight, a lower vertex and flatter angle of descent. All guns have carriages or mountings that support the barrel assembly, early guns could only be traversed by moving their entire carriage or mounting, and this lasted with heavy artillery into World War II. Mountings could be fitted into traversing turrets on ships, coast defences or tanks, from circa 1900 field artillery carriages provided traverse without moving the wheels and trail. The carriage, or mounting, also enabled the barrel to be set at the elevation angle. With some gun mounts it is possible to depress the gun, some guns require a near-horizontal elevation for loading. An essential capability for any elevation mechanism is to prevent the weight of the barrel forcing its heavier end downward and this is greatly helped by having trunnions at the centre of gravity, although a counterbalance mechanism can be used. It also means the elevation gear has to be enough to resist considerable downward pressure. However, mortars, where the forces were transferred directly into the ground
9.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
10.
Howitzer
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In the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by European armies in the 17th to 20th centuries, the howitzer stood between the gun and the mortar. Howitzers, like other artillery equipment, are organized in groups called batteries. The English word howitzer comes from the Czech word houfnice, from houf, crowd, haufen, sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation in German. This is particularly true in the forces of the United States. Because of this practice, the howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire. Thus, artillery pieces that bear resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers. Most other armies in the reserve the word howitzer for guns with barrel lengths 15 to 25 times their caliber. The British had a method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted projectile weight for guns replacing the old naming system of culverin, saker, mortars had been categorized by calibre in inches in the 17th century and this was inherited by howitzers. The modern howitzers were invented in Sweden towards the end of the 17th century, originally intended for use in siege warfare, they were particularly useful for delivering cast-iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications. In the middle of the 18th century, a number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers. Rather, as the guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, the Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire. In 1758 the Russian Empire introduced a type of howitzer, with a conical chamber, called a licorne. The most famous of these gun-howitzers was the Napoleon 12-pounder, a weapon of French design that saw service in the American Civil War. The longest-serving artillery piece of the 19th century was the mountain howitzer, in 1859, the armies of Europe began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These new field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, moreover, their greater range let them create many of the same effects that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers
11.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
12.
Motovilikhinsky City District
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Motovilikhinsky City District is one of the seven city districts of the city of Perm in Perm Krai, Russia. It is the second most populous city district of Perm, the city district is situated on both banks of the Kama River. Two other rivers flowing through it are the Iva and the Yegoshikha, the city district is the location of the Joint Stock Venture Motovilikha Plants, a prominent metallurgical and military equipment manufacturer
13.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
14.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
15.
Finnish Army
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The Finnish Army is the land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. Todays Army is divided into six branches, the infantry, field artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals, Finnish Army commander since 1 August 2014 is Lieutenant General Seppo Toivonen. The duties of the Finnish Army are three-fold, because Finland is not under direct military threat, the current Army is, as it has been since the end of Second World War, in peace-time training formation. This means that its brigades are not meant to be operational combat units, according to the troop production doctrine, peace-time units will train each batch of conscripts they receive for a specific war-time unit. After the end of training, the conscripts are demobilised into reserve, during regular refresher exercises and in case of a crisis, the reserve unit will be activated and deployed in the formation it trained in during conscription. Thus, the structure of the Army does not give any meaningful information about the mobilised structure or about the areas where the units would be used. Between 1809 and 1917 Finland was a part of the Russian Empire as the Grand Duchy of Finland. Between 1881 and 1901 the Grand Duchy had its own army, before that several other military units had also been formed while Finland belonged to Sweden. The Grand Duchy inherited its allotment system from the Swedish military organization, however, for several decades, Russian rulers did not require military service from Finland—operations and defence were mostly taken care by Russian troops based in the Grand Duchy. As a result, officer benefits of the allotment system became practically pensions, as payment was based on passive availability, during the Napoleonic Wars three 1200 men regiments were formed in Finland and Topographic corps in Hamina. In 1821 the Topographic corps was transformed into cadet officers school, in 1829 one of the training battalions was transformed into Young Guard Battalion, the Finnish Guard. During the Crimean War,1854, Finland set up nine sharpshooter battalions based on rote system, conscription was introduced in Finland in 1878. The Finnish army was broken up during the oppression years just after the turn of the century. As Finnish conscripts refused to serve in Russian Army, conscription ended in Finland, at the turn of the 20th century, the Russian empire was weakening, and this was reflected in a reduced capacity of the Russian troops to keep public order. Voluntary defence organizations disguised as fire brigades were formed by the Finnish people, especially during the strikes during, there were socialist Red Guards and conservative, anti-socialist Protection Guards. Also, during the First World War activists secretly travelled to Germany to receive military training, after the war in 1919, the Protection Guards became a separate organization. Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no continuity between the White Guards, which became an organization, and the Finnish army, which was a cadre army based on conscription. However, Jägers gained important positions in the army, and German tactics, the Finnish Army consisted of 9 field divisions,4 brigades and a number of small independent battalions and companies at the beginning of the Winter War in 1939
16.
Kliment Voroshilov tank
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The Kliment Voroshilov tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov and used by the Red Army during World War II. The KV series were known for their armour protection during the early part of the war. In certain situations, even a single KV-1 or KV-2 supported by infantry was capable of halting the enemys onslaught, German tanks at that time were rarely used in KV encounters as their armament was too poor to deal with the Russischer Koloss - Russian Colossus. Until more effective guns were developed by the Germans, the KV-1 was invulnerable to almost any German weapon except the 8.8 cm Flak gun. Even then, in a speech to the Panzerkommission on 18 November 1941, prior to Operation Barbarossa, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks then in Soviet service were of the KV-1 type. When the KV-1 appeared, it outclassed the French Char B1, yet, in the end, it turned out that there was little sense in producing the expensive KV tanks, as the T-34 medium tank performed better in all practical respects. In fact the only advantage it had over the T-34-76 was its larger and roomier three-man turret, later in the war, the KV series became a base for the development of the IS series of tanks. After disappointing results with the multi-turreted T-35 heavy tank, Soviet tank designers started drawing up replacements, the T-35 conformed to the 1920s notion of a breakthrough tank with very heavy firepower and armour protection, but suffered from poor mobility. The Spanish Civil War demonstrated the need for heavier armour on tanks. The doctrine of Soviet deep battle called for the existence of relatively slow, thus, the requirements for KV-1 were heavily skewed toward a less agile but heavy tank. Several competing designs were offered, and even more were drawn up prior to reaching prototype stage, all had heavy armour, torsion-bar suspension, wide tracks, and were of welded and cast construction. One of the competing designs was the SMK, which in its final form had two turrets, mounting the same combination of 76.2 mm and 45 mm weapons as the T-35. The designers of the SMK independently drew up a single-turreted variant, Two of these, named after the Peoples Defence Commissioner, were ordered alongside a single SMK. The smaller hull and single turret enabled the designer to install heavy frontal, when the Soviets entered the Winter War, the SMK, KV and a third design, the T-100, were sent to be tested in combat conditions. The KV outperformed the SMK and T-100 designs, the KVs heavy armour proved highly resistant to Finnish anti-tank weapons, making it more difficult to stop. In 1939, the production of 50 KVs was ordered, during the war, the Soviets found it difficult to deal with the concrete bunkers used by the Finns and a request was made for a tank with a large howitzer. One of the projects to meet the request put the howitzer in a new turret on one of the KV tanks. Initially known as Little Turret and Big turret, the 76-mm-armed tank was designated as the KV-1 Heavy Tank, furthermore, at 45 tons, it was simply too heavy
17.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
18.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
19.
152 mm howitzer M1909/30
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152 mm howitzer M1909/30 was a Soviet 152.4 mm howitzer, a modernization of the 152 mm howitzer M1909, initially designed by Schneider. It was the most numerous 152 mm howitzer employed by Red Army in World War II, from the late 1920s the RKKA sought to upgrade its World War I-era artillery pieces. One of the weapons was the 152 mm howitzer M1909. After a number of experiments it was determined that the velocity of the piece could be increased to about 395 m/s. In 1930 at the Bolshevik Plant, the gun was fitted with a muzzle brake. In 1930-1931, the Perm plant developed a modernization project, initially, the only element of the project was lengthening the chamber to 340 mm. In late production pieces minor changes in breechblock, cradle and elevation mechanism were introduced, some pieces also had their wooden wheels replaced by steel ones with rubber tires. The modernized weapon was adopted as 152-mm howitzer model 1909/30. The M1909/30 was a typical short-barrel howitzer, intended mostly for shooting with elevations from +20° to +41°, the gun had interrupted screw breechblock, hydraulic recoil buffer and hydropneumatic recuperator were both mounted under the barrel. The carriage was of single type with limited traverse and, typically. With the gun was issued limber, which had wooden or metal wheels. From 1931 to 1941 the Perm plant delivered 2,188 pieces, under the organization of 1939, each rifle division had a howitzer regiment with a 152-mm howitzers battalion. In July 1941 these regiment were cancelled, same fate befell 152-mm howitzers battalions of motorized and armored divisions. By 1 June 1944, there were 192 such pieces in corps artillery, reserve of the Main Command included howitzer regiments and heavy howitzer brigades, sometimes organized into artillery divisions. The howitzer was used by the RKKA in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, at the outbreak of the German-Soviet War the M1909/30 was still the most numerous 152-mm howitzer in Soviet service. On 1 June 1941, the RKKA possessed about 2,500 pieces, about twice as much as the newer M-10s, although from 1943 the M1909/30 was again being gradually replaced, this time by D-1, it was still in service by the end of the war. A number of guns of this fell into the hands of Wehrmacht in 1941-42. Germans also produced ammunition for these guns, most of the pieces were assigned to coastal artillery
20.
152 mm howitzer M1910/37
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152 mm howitzer M1910/37 was a limited production Soviet 152.4 mm howitzer, a modernization of the 152 mm howitzer M1910, initially designed by Schneider. The gun was employed by Red Army in World War II, the gun resulted from a modernization of the 152 mm howitzer M1910. The M1910 was initially designed by Schneider, putilov Plant and Perm Plant delivered 348 pieces in 1911-27. By 1936, the RKKA possessed 101 M1910s, including 5 practice pieces, work on modernizing the gun started in 1936. Because of small number of M1910s in service, extensive upgrade was not considered worthwhile, the gun was rechambered for larger cartridge, same as used by the 152 mm howitzer M1909/30, upgraded barrels received a mark lengthened chamber. Some pieces also had their wooden wheels replaced by ones with rubber tires. The modernized weapon was adopted as 152 mm howitzer model 1910/37. By 1941, all M1910 howitzers were upgraded, there was no production of new pieces. The design of M1910/37 was typical for World War I era howitzer, the gun had short barrel with eccentric interrupted screw breechblock, hydraulic recoil buffer and pneumatic recuperator were both mounted under the barrel. The carriage was of single type with limited traverse and, typically. The gun was typically towed by a team by means of a limber. For each gun three horse-drawn ammunition boxes were issued, each box held 22 projectiles and 24 propellant charges, under the organization of 1939, each rifle division had a howitzer regiment with a 152 mm howitzers battalion. In July 1941 these regiment were cancelled, same fate befell 152 mm howitzers battalions of motorized and armored divisions. By 1 June 1944, there were 192 such pieces in corps artillery, reserve of the Main Command included howitzer regiments and heavy howitzer brigades, sometimes organized into artillery divisions. By the outbreak of German-Soviet War older 152 mm howitzers were being replaced by the newer M-10, however the M-10 production rate was slow, so by June 1941 the M1910/37 was still in service and was employed by the RKKA in the German-Soviet War. However, no details of its service are available, low muzzle velocity and small traverse also made the gun helpless against enemy armor. On the other side, the M1910/37 was rugged, reliable, when set to fragmentation action, the OF-530 produced fragments which covered an area 70 m wide and 30 m deep. When set to HE action, the exploding shell produced a crater about 3.5 m in diameter, - The Weapons of the Red Army, Mn
21.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
22.
Autocannon
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An autocannon or automatic cannon is a large, fully automatic, rapid-fire projectile weapon that fires armour-piercing or explosive shells, as opposed to the bullet fired by a machine gun. Autocannons often have a larger calibre than a gun, but are usually smaller than a field gun or other artillery. When used on its own, the word autocannon indicates a single-barrel weapon, when multiple rotating barrels are involved, the word rotary is added, and such a weapon is referred to as a rotary autocannon. As such, ammunition is fed from a belt to reduce reloading or for a faster rate of fire. They can use a variety of ammunition, common shells include high-explosive dual-purpose types, any variety of armour-piercing types, both the US25 mm Bushmaster and the British 30 mm Rarden have relatively slow rates of fire so as not to use ammunition too quickly. The rate of fire of a modern autocannon ranges from 90 rounds per minute, systems with multiple barrels can have rates of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute. The first modern autocannon was the British QF1 pounder, also known as the pom-pom, during the First World War, autocannons were mostly used in the trenches as an anti-aircraft gun. Attempts to use them in aircraft failed as the severely limited both speed and altitude, thus making successful interception impossible. The more effective QF2 pounder naval gun would be developed during the war to serve as an anti-aircraft, autocannons would serve in a much greater capacity during the Second World War. During the inter-war years, aircraft underwent an evolution and the monoplane, pioneered as far back as the end of 1915, almost replaced wood. The subsequent increase in speed and durability greatly reduced the window of opportunity for defence and this was only reversed with the introduction of computer-controlled systems. The German Panzer II light tank, which was one of the most numerous in German service during the invasion of Poland and the campaign in France, used a 20 mm autocannon as its main armament. Although ineffective against tank armour even during the years of the war. Larger examples, such as the 40 mm Vickers S, were mounted in ground attack aircraft to serve as an anti-tank weapon, Polish 20 mm 38 Fk auto cannon was expensive to produce, but an exception. Unlike the Oerlikon, it was effective against all the tanks fielded in 1939, largely because it was built as an upgrade to the Oerlikon, Hispano—Suiza and it, with great difficulty, proved capable of knocking out even early Panzer IIIs and IVs. Only 55 were produced by the time of the Polish Defensive War, in aircraft, several factors brought about the replacement of rifle-calibre machine guns by autocannons. Early autocannons were heavy and had a rate of fire. Along with the speed, the size of aircraft grew substantially, particularly in the 1930s, so that the weight was less of an issue while the rate of fire, and reliability were greatly improved
23.
Rifling
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In firearms, rifling consists of helical grooves in the internal surface of a guns barrel, which impart a spin to a projectile around its long axis. This spin serves to stabilize the projectile, improving its aerodynamic stability. Rifling is often described by its twist rate, which indicates the distance the rifling takes to complete one revolution, such as 1 turn in 10 inches. A shorter distance indicates a faster twist, meaning that for a given velocity the projectile will be rotating at a spin rate. Barrels intended for long, small-diameter bullets, such as the ultra-low-drag, 80-grain 0.223 inch bullets, extremely long projectiles such as flechettes may require high twist rates, these projectiles must be inherently stable, and are often fired from a smoothbore barrel. Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired, barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany in 1498. In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work, though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century. The most successful weapons using rifling with black powder were breech loaders such as the Queen Anne pistol, the grooves most commonly used in modern rifling have fairly sharp edges. More recently, polygonal rifling, a throwback to the earliest types of rifling, has become popular, polygonal barrels tend to have longer service lives because the reduction of the sharp edges of the land reduces erosion of the barrel. Supporters of polygonal rifling also claim higher velocities and greater accuracy, polygonal rifling is currently seen on pistols from CZ, Heckler & Koch, Glock, Tanfoglio, and Kahr Arms, as well as the Desert Eagle. Such guns have achieved significant increases in velocity and range. Examples include the South African G5 and the German PzH2000, gain-twist rifling begins with very little change in the projectiles angular momentum during the first few inches of bullet travel after ignition during the transition from chamber to throat. This enables the bullet to remain undisturbed and trued to the case mouth. After engaging the rifling the bullet is progressively subjected to accelerated angular momentum as burning powder propels it down the barrel. By only gradually increasing the rate, torque is spread along a much longer section of barrel. Gain-twist rifling was used as early as the American Civil War, colt Army and Navy revolvers both employed gain-twist rifling
24.
152 mm howitzer M1943 (D-1)
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The D-1 howitzer M1943 is a Soviet World War II-era 152.4 mm howitzer. The gun was developed by the design bureau headed by F. F. Petrov in 1942 and 1943, based on the carriage of the 122 mm howitzer M1938 and using the barrel of the 152 mm howitzer M1938. The powerful and mobile D-1, with its range of ammunition, significantly increased the firepower and breakthrough abilities of Red Army tank. Several hundred D-1s were manufactured before the end of World War II, post World War II, the D-1 saw combat in numerous conflicts during the mid- to late 20th century. The D-1 is widely considered an element of Soviet artillery. In 1941 the Soviet Union decided to cease production of the 152 mm howitzer M1938, one of the reasons was the disbanding of the Rifle Corps between August and September 1941 and the consequent removal of the corps artillery. Moreover, all 152 mm howitzers were excluded from divisional artillery, as a result, there was no series production of 152 mm howitzers during 1942. However, the corps were re-established in late 1942 and the previous organization of artillery at the corps level was reintroduced. The approach allowed production to begin on the new howitzer almost immediately from the stockpile of parts for both earlier guns, given the war situation and shortages of artillery, this solution was both elegant and expedient. Early in 1943 Petrov notified the Peoples Commissar of Armaments Dmitriy Ustinov about the new project, on 13 April Ustinov informed Petrov that the State Committee of Defence had requested for five of the new guns to be sent to the testing grounds on 1 May. On 5 May, two pieces were received for trials, two later, on 7 May the gun was recommended for adoption, and on 8 August 1943 it was officially adopted as the 152 mm howitzer M1943. One and a months later, the first series production D-1 howitzers were delivered to the Red Army representatives. The D-1 was manufactured solely at No.9 Plant in Sverdlovsk from late 1943 to 1949, during World War II, the howitzer was only produced in small numbers because Plant No.9 was also responsible for the mass production of the 122 mm howitzer M-30. This resulted in shortages of the 152 mm howitzers in the Red Army corps artillery until the end of the war. The D-1 howitzer was essentially a combination of the barrel of the 152-mm howitzer model 1938 on the carriage of the 122-mm howitzer M1938. Since the new carriage was lighter than that of the M-10, the breech block was of interrupted screw type, the recoil system consisted of a hydraulic buffer and a hydro-pneumatic recuperator. The separately loaded ammunition included a variety of shells and eight different propellant charges in cartridges, the carriage was nearly identical to the carriage of the M-30. It had suspension and steel wheels with rubber tires
25.
ZiS-5
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The 76 mm tank gun M1940 F-34 was a 76.2 mm Soviet tank gun used on the T-34/76 tank. A modified version of the gun, the 76 mm tank gun M1941 ZiS-5, was used on KV-1 tanks during World War II, nowadays, the two versions are often referred to just by their factory designations, as F-34 and ZiS-5, respectively. The F-34 was designed before the start of World War II by P. Muraviev of Vasiliy Grabins design bureau at Factory No.92 in Gorky. The gun was superior to both contemporary 76.2 mm guns, Gorkys F-32 and the Leningrad Kirov Factorys L-11, the initial T-34 Model 1940 with L-11 was in production when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The F-34 was ready for production, but Marshal Grigory Kuliks high-handed interference with tank appropriation had made the relevant bureaucrats too frightened to approve the better gun. Grabin and the director of the Kharkov Locomotive Factory, the centre of T-34 production, conspired to produce the F-34 anyway, the new T-34 Model 1941 tanks, which were issued mostly to company and platoon commanders, were immensely popular with their crews. Letters from tank units reached Stalins State Defence Committee, which officially authorized production, also, due to Kuliks meddling, the KV-1 heavy tank model 1940 had ended up mounting Grabins older F-32 gun, making it more poorly armed than the T-34 medium tank. Chief Designer of Tanks Joseph Kotin convinced the GKO to allow the use of the F-34 gun on the KV-1 heavy tank Model 1941, the ZiS-5 was a version of the gun designed to better fit the KV-1s turret. In 1943, the armor of the new German Tiger and Panther tanks had rendered the F-34 gun obsolete. The better-penetrating 57 mm ZiS-2 high velocity gun was installed on some T-34/57 tanks. A more heavily armoured T-34 prototype was built, the T-43, but it was vulnerable to the Tigers 88. Some F-34 guns were installed in Lend-Lease M4A2 Sherman tanks. The L-11 gun was mounted on the initial T-34 Model 1940 medium tank, the F-32 was on the KV-1 Model 1940. Subsequent models of both mounted the F-34 until it was replaced by 85mm guns in the T-34-85 medium tank. Ordnance QF75 mm, contemporary British tank gun 7.5 cm KwK40, contemporary German tank gun 75 mm Gun M2/M3/M6, contemporary US tank gun Zaloga, Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. Soviet Repair Manual for the F-34 Gun Penetration table for various Soviet guns, scroll down for F-34
26.
Breechblock
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A breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a weapon at the moment of firing. A way of closing the breech or chamber is an part of any breech-loading weapon or firearm. A breechblock is a component and is not a feature of the break-action. A breechblock must close against the breech for firing but be able to be retracted for loading or unloading or to remove a spent cartridge. This article primarily addresses the matter of design, as opposed to the action. Usually referred to as a rather than a breechblock, a rotating bolt is perhaps the most common variant. It is so called, because its operation is similar to a pad bolt or barrel bolt, the bolt slides in the receiver along the axis of the barrel and is rotated in the same axis to lock or unlock it against a closed breech. It is the basis for the action, in which the bolt is rotated and retracted by an handle attached to the bolt. In some designs, handle rotates to lock against a shoulder in the receiver or body of the firearm and this type of locking is usually reserved for low-pressure applications such as the.22 cal rimfire series. More often, the bolt locks closed with two or more lugs that operate like a bayonet mount, multiple lugs permit a smaller degree of rotation to lock and unlock the breech. Most types are front-locking and have the lugs mounted near the breech face, a notable exception is the rear-locking system used in the Lee–Enfield. Rotating bolts can be adapted to automatic or semi-automatic designs and lever or pump actions, in these cases, the bolt is held by a bolt carrier. With the breech locked, an initial movement of the bolt carrier causes the bolt to rotate. Similarly, when closing the breech, the forward movement of the carrier causes the bolt to rotate. This action is achieved by a slot cut in the carrier that engages a pin through the bolt perpendicular to the axis of the barrel. It is a type of linear cam, straight-pull bolt-action firearms do not require the operator to rotate the cocking handle to cycle the action. Some may use a bolt but other locking mechanisms can be employed. The breechblock in a sliding block slides across the face if the breech to close it, the sliding action is perpendicular to the axis of the barrel
27.
Hydraulics
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Hydraulics is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids or fluids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the version of pneumatics. Fluid mechanics provides the foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the applied engineering using the properties of fluids. In fluid power, hydraulics are used for the generation, control, hydraulic topics range through some parts of science and most of engineering modules, and cover concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, fluidics and fluid control circuitry, pumps. The principles of hydraulics are in use naturally in the body within the heart. Free surface hydraulics is the branch of hydraulics dealing with surface flow, such as occurring in rivers, canals, lakes, estuaries. Its sub-field open channel flow studies the flow in open channels, the word hydraulics originates from the Greek word ὑδραυλικός which in turn originates from ὕδωρ and αὐλός. Early uses of water power date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, other early examples of water power include the Qanat system in ancient Persia and the Turpan water system in ancient Central Asia. The Greeks constructed sophisticated water and hydraulic power systems, an example is the construction by Eupalinos, under a public contract, of a watering channel for Samos, the Tunnel of Eupalinos. An early example of the usage of hydraulic wheel, probably the earliest in Europe, is the Perachora wheel, notable is the construction of the first hydraulic automata by Ctesibius and Hero of Alexandria. Hero describes a number of working machines using hydraulic power, such as the force pump, in ancient China there was Sunshu Ao, Ximen Bao, Du Shi, Zhang Heng, and Ma Jun, while medieval China had Su Song and Shen Kuo. Du Shi employed a waterwheel to power the bellows of a blast furnace producing cast iron, Zhang Heng was the first to employ hydraulics to provide motive power in rotating an armillary sphere for astronomical observation. In ancient Sri Lanka, hydraulics were used in the ancient kingdoms of Anuradhapura. The discovery of the principle of the tower, or valve pit. By the first century AD, several irrigation works had been completed. The coral on the rock at the site includes cisterns for collecting water. They were among the first to use of the siphon to carry water across valleys. They used lead widely in plumbing systems for domestic and public supply, hydraulic mining was used in the gold-fields of northern Spain, which was conquered by Augustus in 25 BC
28.
Gun shield
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A gun shield is a flat piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun or artillery piece, or, more rarely, to be used with an assault rifle. Some mounted machine guns and artillery pieces are equipped with armor plates to protect the gunners from sniper fire. Salvaged metal plates can sometimes service as improvised gun shields, in the Vietnam War crews of armored fighting vehicles, Gun shields fell out of widespread use after the Vietnam war, but they have seen a resurgence in popularity during the 1990s. Israeli military analysts began urging the use of gun shields, pointing to the risk to soldiers exposed to fire from automatic weapons. In particular, it was noted that many casualties were hit in areas not protected by body armor or a helmet, the U. S. began using gun shields during the 2000s-era wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ballistic shield Gun mantlet Hillbilly armor
29.
Limbers and caissons
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A limber is a two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or traveling forge, allowing it to be towed. A caisson is a cart designed to carry artillery ammunition. The British term was ammunition wagon, Caissons are used to bear the casket of the deceased in some state and military funerals in certain Western cultures, including the United States. As artillery pieces developed trunnions and were placed on carriages featuring two wheels and a trail, a limber was devised and this was a simple cart with a pintle. When the piece was to be towed, it was raised over the limber and then lowered, horses or other draft animals were harnessed in single file to haul the limber. There was no provision for carrying ammunition on the limber, the British developed a new system of carriages, which was adopted by the French, then copied from the French by the United States. During the American Civil War, U. S. Army equipment was identical to Confederate Army equipment, essentially identical to French equipment, and similar to that of other nations. The field artillery limber assumed its archetypal form – two wheels, an ammunition chest, a hook at the rear, and a central pole with horses harnessed on either side. The artillery piece had a ring at the end of the trail. To move the piece, the lunette was dropped over the pintle hook, the connection was secured by inserting a pintle hook key into the pintle. The quantity of ammunition in the chest, which could be detached from the limber, an ammunition chest for the M1857 light 12-pounder gun carried 28 rounds. The cover of the ammunition chest was made of copper to prevent stray embers from setting the chest on fire. Six horses were the team for a field piece, with four being considered the minimum team. Horses were harnessed in pairs on either side of the limber pole, a driver rode on each left-hand horse and held reins for both the horse he rode and the horse to his right. In addition to hauling the artillery piece, the limber also hauled the caisson, there was one caisson for each artillery piece in a battery. The exception to this rule would be in horse-artillery batteries, where the cannoneers rode saddle horses, while firing the piece, if possible, the crew kept the two ammunition chests on the caisson full, preferably supplying the gun from the third ammunition chest on the caissons limber. When the ammunition from the ammunition chest on the limber was exhausted, the pieces limber. The empty ammunition chest was removed, and then the middle chest on the caisson was moved forward onto the limber, a fully loaded ammunition chest for a Napoleon 12-pounder weighed 650 pounds, so the chest was dragged and pushed, rather than lifted, into place
30.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
31.
Regiment
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A regiment is a military unit. Their role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, in Medieval Europe, the term regiment denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted in one geographical area, by a leader who was often also the feudal lord of the soldiers. By the 17th century, a regiment was usually about a thousand personnel. In many armies, the first role has been assumed by independent battalions, battlegroups, task forces, brigades and other, similarly-sized operational units. By the beginning of the 18th century, regiments in most European continental armies had evolved into permanent units with distinctive titles and uniforms, when at full strength, an infantry regiment normally comprised two field battalions of about 800 men each or 8–10 companies. In some armies, an independent regiment with fewer companies was labelled a demi-regiment, a cavalry regiment numbered 600 to 900 troopers, making up a single entity. With the widespread adoption of conscription in European armies during the nineteenth century, the regimental system underwent modification. Prior to World War I, a regiment in the French, German, Russian. As far as possible, the battalions would be garrisoned in the same military district, so that the regiment could be mobilized. A cavalry regiment by contrast made up an entity of up to 1,000 troopers. Usually, the regiment is responsible for recruiting and administering all of a military career. Depending upon the country, regiments can be either combat units or administrative units or both and this is often contrasted to the continental system adopted by many armies. Generally, divisions are garrisoned together and share the same installations, thus, in divisional administration, soldiers and officers are transferred in and out of divisions as required. Some regiments recruited from specific areas, and usually incorporated the place name into the regimental name. In other cases, regiments would recruit from an age group within a nation. In other cases, new regiments were raised for new functions within an army, e. g. the Fusiliers, the Parachute Regiment, a key aspect of the regimental system is that the regiment or battalion is the fundamental tactical building block. This flows historically from the period, when battalions were widely dispersed and virtually autonomous. For example, a regiment might include different types of battalions of different origins, within the regimental system, soldiers, and usually officers, are always posted to a tactical unit of their own regiment whenever posted to field duty
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Battalion
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A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies, a battalion is typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries the word battalion is associated with the infantry, the term was first used in Italian as battaglione no later than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, battaglia, the first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean part of a regiment is from 1708. The battalion must, of course, have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days, the battalion is usually part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the organizational model used by that service. The bulk of a battalions companies are often homogeneous with respect to type, a battalion includes a headquarters company and some sort of combat service support, typically organized within a combat support company. The term battalion is used in the British Army Infantry and some including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. It was formerly used in the Royal Engineers, and was used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Other corps usually use the term regiment instead, an infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment. It normally has a company, support company, and three rifle companies. Each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding, the HQ company contains signals, quartermaster, catering, intelligence, administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements. The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar, pioneer, mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men in it, and, as of 2012, with successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion. A battalion group or battlegroup consists of a battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander. In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100–200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of approximately a half-company apiece, the nine regular force infantry battalions each contain three or four rifle companies and one or two support companies. Canadian battalions are generally commanded by lieutenant-colonels, though smaller reserve battalions may be commanded by majors, with the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling. Combat companies consist of infantry, combat engineers, or tanks, in the latter case, the unit is called an eskadron, which translates roughly to squadron
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Brigade
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A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment, two or more brigades may constitute a division. Brigades formed into divisions are usually infantry or armored, in addition to combat units, they may include combat support units or sub-units, such as artillery and engineers, and logistic units or sub-units. Historically, such brigades have sometimes been called brigade-groups, on operations, a brigade may comprise both organic elements and attached elements, including some temporarily attached for a specific task. Brigades may also be specialized and comprise battalions of a branch, for example cavalry, mechanized, armored, artillery, air defence, aviation, engineers. Some brigades are classified as independent or separate and operate independently from the division structure. The typical NATO standard brigade consists of approximately 3,200 to 5,500 troops, however, in Switzerland and Austria, the numbers could go as high as 11,000 troops. The Soviet Union, its forerunners and successors, mostly use regiment instead of brigade, a brigades commander is commonly a major general, brigadier general, brigadier or colonel. In some armies, the commander is rated as a General Officer, the brigade commander has a self-contained headquarters and staff. Some brigades may also have a deputy commander, the headquarters has a nucleus of staff officers and support that can vary in size depending on the type of brigade. On operations, additional specialist elements may be attached, the headquarters will usually have its own communications unit. In some gendarmerie forces, brigades are the organizational unit. The brigade as a military unit came about starting in the 15th century when the British army, as such a field army became larger, the number of subordinate commanders became unmanageable for the officer in general command of said army, usually a major general, to effectively command. In order to streamline command relationships, as well as effect some modicum of control, especially in regard to combined arms operations. The terms origin is found in two French roots, which together, meant roughly those who fight, the so-called brigada was a well-mixed unit, comprising infantry, cavalry and normally also artillery, designated for a special task. The size of such brigada ranged from a company of up to two regiments. The brigada was the forerunner of the battalion task force, battle group. The brigade was improved as a unit by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus
34.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
35.
Brest Fortress
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Brest Fortress, formerly known as Brest-Litovsk Fortress, is a 19th-century Russian fortress in Brest, Belarus, the former Byelorussian SSR. The title Hero-Fortress corresponds to the title Hero City, that was awarded to a total of twelve Soviet cities. Brest Fortress is situated at a height of 135 meters, the Brest fortress has sustained its original outline of a star shaped fortification since its construction in the early 19th century. The Citadel, the core of the fortress, was on the island formed by the Bug River. The island was skirted by a ring of a two-storied barrack with 4 semi-towers, the 1.8 km long barrack comprised 500 rooms to accommodate 12,000 soldiers within thick walls built from super strong red bricks. Originally there were 4 gates to enter the Citadel, today only Kholm Gate and Terespol Gate can be seen, most part of the barrack lies in ruins. The Citadel was surrounded by 3 fortifications as bridgeheads, that were made up by branches of the Mukhavets River and moats, the 3 fortifications were named after two towns, Kobrin in Belarus, Terespol in Poland and Volyn, a region in the Ukraine. The Terespol Fortification was the western bridgehead, featuring 4 detached lunettes, the Volyn Fortification was the southeastern bridgehead, featuring 2 fortification curtains with 2 detached ravelins. A ring of outlying forts was built later around the old fortress, as the post-1945 border along the Bug river runs through the fortress area, some of the fortification works are now in Poland, around the town of Terespol. In the early morning hours of June,22,1941 the German Wehrmacht attacked the Brest fortress, the fighting went on for eight days, most of the defenders ended up in captivity. After the war Soviet propaganda claimed the fortress held out for 32 days with no-one surrendering to the Germans, in the late 1960s, the construction of the war memorial complex Brest Hero-Fortress was started. The complex was opened on September 25,1971, the memorial complex is still a national place of grief and pride, a popular tourist attraction. This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on January 30,2004, preservation and development is being carried out by the Brest Fortress Development Foundation
36.
Helsinki
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Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki has a population of 629,512, a population of 1,231,595. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia,400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities. The Helsinki metropolitan area includes the core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen. It is the worlds northernmost metro area of one million people. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic countries, Helsinki is Finlands major political, educational, financial, cultural, and research center as well as one of northern Europes major cities. Approximately 75% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region, the nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the city was the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest 2007. In 2011, the Monocle magazine ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011, in the Economist Intelligence Units August 2015 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in globally, Helsinki placed among the worlds top ten cities. Helsinki is used to refer to the city in most languages, the Swedish name Helsingfors is the original official name of the city. The Finnish name probably comes from Helsinga and similar names used for the river that is known as the Vantaa River. Helsingfors comes from the name of the parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, one suggestion for the origin of the name Helsinge is that it originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Others have proposed that the name derives from the Swedish word helsing, other Scandinavian cities located at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, for example Helsingør and Helsingborg. The name Helsinki has been used in Finnish official documents and in Finnish language newspapers since 1819, the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish, in Helsinki slang the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives to the city, helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki
37.
Bucharest
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Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N 26°06′14″E, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km north of the Danube River, Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. It became the capital of Romania in 1862 and is the centre of Romanian media, culture and its architecture is a mix of historical, interbellum, communist-era and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the citys elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of Little Paris. Although buildings and districts in the city centre were heavily damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes. In recent years, the city has been experiencing an economic, in 2016, the historical city centre was listed as endangered by the World Monuments Watch. According to the 2011 census,1,883,425 inhabitants live within the city limits, the urban area extends beyond the limits of Bucharest proper and has a population of about 1.9 million people. Adding the satellite towns around the area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.27 million people. According to Eurostat, Bucharest has an urban zone of 2,183,091 residents. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million, Bucharest is the sixth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, and Paris. Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and is one of the industrial centres. The city has big convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional shopping arcades, the Romanian name București has an uncertain origin. Tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur, who was a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman, in Romanian, the word stem bucurie means joy, and it is believed to be of Dacian origin. Other etymologies are given by scholars, including the one of an Ottoman traveler, Evliya Çelebi. A native or resident of Bucharest is called a Bucharester, Bucharests history alternated periods of development and decline from the early settlements in antiquity until its consolidation as the national capital of Romania late in the 19th century. First mentioned as the Citadel of București in 1459, it became the residence of the famous Wallachian prince Vlad III the Impaler, the Ottomans appointed Greek administrators to run the town from the 18th century. A short-lived revolt initiated by Tudor Vladimirescu in 1821 led to the end of the rule of Constantinople Greeks in Bucharest, the Old Princely Court was erected by Mircea Ciobanul in the mid-16th century. Under subsequent rulers, Bucharest was established as the residence of the royal court
38.
Dej
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Dej is a city in northwestern Romania,60 km north of Cluj-Napoca, in Cluj County. It lies where the Someşul Mic River meets the river Someşul Mare River, the city administers four villages, Ocna Dejului, Peștera, Pintic and Șomcutu Mic. The city lies at the crossroads of important railroads and highways linking it to Cluj-Napoca, Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Deda, Bistrița, according to the 2011 Romanian census, there were 31,702 people living within the city. Of this population,86. 6% are ethnic Romanians, while 12% are ethnic Hungarians,1. 1% Roma and 0. 3% others
39.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
40.
15 cm sFH 18
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It was based on the earlier, First World War-era design of the 15 cm sFH13, and while improved over that weapon, it was generally outdated compared to the weapons it faced. It was, however, the first artillery weapon equipped with rocket-assisted ammunition to increase range, the sFH18 was also used in the self-propelled artillery piece schwere Panzerhaubitze 18/1. The sFH18 was one of Germanys three main 15 cm calibre weapons, the others being the 15 cm Kanone 18, a heavy gun, and the 15 cm sIG33. Development work on the sFH18 began in 1926 and was ready by 1933, the model year was an attempt at camouflage. The gun originated with a contest between Rheinmetall and Krupp, both of whom entered several designs that were all considered unsatisfactory for one reason or another. In the end the army decided the solution was to combine the best features of both designs, using the Rheinmetall gun on a Krupp carriage, the carriage was a relatively standard split-trail design with box legs. Spades were carried on the sides of the legs that could be mounted onto the ends for added stability, the carriage also saw use on the 10 cm schwere Kanone 18 gun. As the howitzer was designed for towing, it used an unsprung axle. A two-wheel bogie was introduced to allow it to be towed, the gun was officially introduced into service on 23 May 1935, and by the outbreak of war the Wehrmacht had about 1,353 of these guns in service. Production continued throughout the war, reaching a peak of 2,295 guns in 1944, in 1944, the howitzer cost 40,400 RM,9 months and 5,500 man-hours to make. Several other versions of the basic 15 cm were produced, however this version was even heavier than the sFH18 and was found to be too difficult to use in the field. Some of these barrels were fitted to existing sFH18 carriages. A further modification was the FH 18/43, which changed to a breech that allowed for the use of bagged charges instead of requiring the gunners to first put the charges into shells. Two further attempts to introduce a newer 15 cm piece followed, the first field combat for the 15 cm sFH18 was with the Chinese National Revolutionary Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It is interesting that some pieces of sFH18 in China were designed specially with a 32/L barrel. The maximum range was increased to 15 km, but most of the sFH18 in China were lost to attrition. Only two pieces can be seen in the museums today and this led to numerous efforts to introduce new guns with even better performance than the ML-20, while various experiments were also carried out on the sFH18 to improve its range. These led to the 15 cm sFH 18M version with a removable barrel liner, the 18M increased range to 15,100 metres, but it was found that the liners suffered increased wear and the recoil system could not handle the increased loads in spite of the brake
41.
M114 howitzer
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The M114155 mm howitzer was a towed howitzer developed and used by the United States Army. It was first produced in 1942 as an artillery piece under the designation of 155 mm Howitzer M1. It saw service with the US Army during World War II, the Korean War, in some countries, the M114 still remains in service. So development began anew with a designed to be used for either the 155 mm howitzer or the 4. 7-inch gun. This was completed by 15 May 1941 when the Howitzer M1 on the Carriage M1 was standardized, the howitzer itself differed from the older model by a lengthened barrel of 20 calibers and a new breech mechanism. Uniquely it was the sole slow-cone interrupted screw mechanism to enter service after 1920 and this meant that two separate movements were necessary to open the breech, versus the single movement of the steep cone mechanism that simultaneously rotated and withdrew the breech. The M1A1 was redesignated as the M114A1 in 1962, the carriage was also used by the 4.5 inch Gun M-1. It went through a number of changes over time. The original Warner electric brakes were replaced by Westinghouse air brakes on the M1A1, both the M1 and M1A1 carriages used a mid-axle firing pedestal that was extended by a ratchet mechanism. The M1A2 replaced the ratchet with a system and also modified the traveling lock. The T-9 and T-10 carriages were projects using low-grade steel alloys that were canceled when no longer needed. The T-16 was a carriage using high-grade steel that was estimated to save some 1,200 lb, work began in July 1945 and continued after the war. A mid-1960s variant was the 155mm XM123 & M123A1 auxiliary-propelled howitzers, the extra weight on the left trail displaced the howitzer after each round was fired requiring it to be realigned and the project was abandoned. The concept was copied from the Soviet 85mm SD-44 auxiliary-propelled antitank gun developed in 1954, the non howitzer was experimentally mounted on a lengthened chassis of the M5 light tank. The resulting vehicle received the designation 155 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T64, a single prototype was built before the T64 project was abandoned in favor of T64E1, based on the M24 Chaffee light tank chassis. This was eventually adopted as the M41 Howitzer Motor Carriage and saw action in the Korean War, towards the end of the Korean War the US Army replaced the M41 self-propelled howitzer with the M44 self-propelled howitzer. The gun fired separate loading, bagged charge ammunition, with up to seven different propelling charges, muzzle velocity, range and penetration in the tables below are for maximum charge in form of complete M4A1 propelling charge. Afghanistan Argentina Tunisia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Cameroon Chile Ecuador Iran South Korea Lebanon Morocco Pakistan,144 in service with the Pakistan Army. S
42.
Gio. Ansaldo & C.
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Ansaldo was one of Italys oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993. The company was founded in 1853 as Gio, S. A. S. by renowned players in the Genoese business world, such as Giovanni Ansaldo, Raffaele Rubattino, Giacomo Filippo Penco and Carlo Bombrini. In 1904, Ansaldo was bought by Ferdinando Maria Perrone who, along with his sons Mario and Pio, over the next twenty years, he aimed at making Ansaldo fully independent both in the ironworks and weapon-making areas, thanks to strong vertical integration. The onset of World War I was of potential benefit to the company. Ansaldo advocated for Italian entry into the war, both directly and by funding political groups supported the war, such as Benito Mussolinis proto-Fascist movement. The efforts paid off when Italy entered the war, in 1914 the company was worth 30 million lire, but its market value grew to 500 million in 1918. When the company issued shares in the summer of 1918 worth 400 million lire Ansaldo employed 80,000 workers, had dozens of factories and controlled companies such as A. Cerpelli & C. Banca industriale Italiana, Cantieri Officine Savoia, Dynamit Nobel, Gio. Fossati & C. Lloyd Italico, Nazionale di Navigazione, Pomilio, Società Idroelettrica Negri, and Transatlantica Italiana. War contracts indeed led to a significant growth, Ansaldo had 22,000 employees in 1939, after the end of World War II, conversion to peacetime production again caused problems for the company. From that year, Finmeccanica further engaged Ansaldo within its activities, in 1993, Ansaldo ceased to exist as an independent entity, having been completely absorbed by Finmeccanica. Some companies controlled by Finmeccanica still bear the Ansaldo family name, Ansaldo Energia, involved in building power plants. Ansaldo Caldaie, involved in building fired Steam Generators, Ansaldo Fuel Cells, founded in 1993 as a spin-off of the former, devoted to fuel cells. A train-building company born from the merger of Ansaldo Trasporti and Breda Ferroviaria, former Finmeccanica Company, sold to the Japanese Nidec Group, in 2012 Nidec acquired Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali SpA. and becomes Nidec ASI S. p. A. Nidec ASI is a manufacturer of motors, their products are found in electrical engineering, electric motors and generators, control systems. Nidec ASI is headquartered in Milan and has different subsidiaries in Italy in Genoa, Montebello Vicentino, Monfalcone and abroad in China, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Japan, three-seat versions were also built for reconnaissance use
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