1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
3.
Artillery
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Artillery is a class of large military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantrys small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach fortifications, and led to heavy, as technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery developed for battlefield use. This development continues today, modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an armys total firepower, in its earliest sense, the word artillery referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. In common speech, the artillery is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings. However, there is no generally recognised generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth, the United States uses artillery piece, the projectiles fired are typically either shot or shell. Shell is a widely used term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines, in the 20th Century technology based target acquisition devices, such as radar, and systems, such as sound ranging and flash spotting, emerged to acquire targets, primarily for artillery. These are usually operated by one or more of the artillery arms, Artillery originated for use against ground targets—against infantry, cavalry and other artillery. An early specialist development was coastal artillery for use against enemy ships, the early 20th Century saw the development of a new class of artillery for use against aircraft, anti-aircraft guns. Artillery is arguably the most lethal form of land-based armament currently employed, the majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was the God of War, although not called as such, machines performing the role recognizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first references in the historical tradition begin at Syracuse in 399 BC. From the Middle Ages through most of the era, artillery pieces on land were moved by horse-drawn gun carriages. In the contemporary era, the artillery and crew rely on wheeled or tracked vehicles as transportation, Artillery used by naval forces has changed significantly also, with missiles replacing guns in surface warfare. The engineering designs of the means of delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, in some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the equipment that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery, the actions involved in operating the piece are collectively called serving the gun by the detachment or gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The term gunner is used in armed forces for the soldiers and sailors with the primary function of using artillery. The gunners and their guns are usually grouped in teams called either crews or detachments, several such crews and teams with other functions are combined into a unit of artillery, usually called a battery, although sometimes called a company
4.
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
5.
Field artillery
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Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, long range, short range and this was in contrast to horse artillery, whose emphasis on speed while supporting cavalry units necessitated lighter guns and crews riding on horseback. Modern artillery has also advanced to rapidly deployable wheeled and tracked vehicles, thus, their role was limited to such functions as breaking sieges. Following the beginning of the era, the first field artillery came into being as metallurgy allowed thinner cannon barrels to withstand the explosive forces without bursting. However, there was still a risk of the constant changes of the battlefield conspiring to leave behind slow-moving artillery units - either on the advance, or more dangerously. Artillery units were particularly vulnerable to assault by light cavalry, which were used in this role. Only with a number of inventions, did the concept of field artillery really take off. One of the earliest documented uses of field artillery is found in the 14th-century Ming Dynasty treatise Huolongjing, the text describes a Chinese cannon called a thousand ball thunder cannon, manufactured of bronze and fastened with wheels. The book also describes another mobile form of artillery called a barbarian attacking cannon consisting of an attached to a two-wheel carriage. Before World War I, field artillery batteries fired directly at visible targets measured in distances of meters. Today, modern field batteries measure targets in kilometers and miles, most field artillery situations require indirect fire due to weather, terrain, night-time conditions, distance or other obstacles. Modern field artillery has three sections, All batteries have a Fire Support Man, Fire Direction Control. The FOs are forward with the infantry where they can see the targets and they call the FDC on the radio and transmit a request for fire in the format of CFF. The FDC calculates the CFF and send a deflection and elevation to the gun line, the gun line cranks the specified elevation and deflection on the howitzers, punch the artillery shell followed by the bag. Depending on the CFF, the gunline will fire the round when they are ready or when the FO calls and tells them to fire, the FO spots the round and sends a correction back to the FDC and the process starts all over again until its done. The batteries are many kilometres behind the FLOT and they plan a location where they can be Fire Capability for some certain amount of time and do multiple fire missions before needing to displace. In normal operations the FOs locate targets and transmits the CFF to the FDCs and they can also calculate defensive fire tasks. Because the calculations have already been done, the fire can be called down very quickly when it is needed, the advance party consists of the battery commander, his driver, first sergeant, gunnery sergeant, FDC guide, gun guides, and communications representatives
6.
North Yorkshire
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North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan county and larger ceremonial county in England. It is located primarily in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, created by the Local Government Act 1972, it covers an area of 8,654 square kilometres, making it the largest county in England. The majority of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors lie within North Yorkshires boundaries, the largest settlements are York, Middlesbrough, Harrogate and Scarborough, the county town, Northallerton, has a population of 16,832. The area under the control of the county council, or shire county, is divided into a number of local government districts, Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, the changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. This was rejected on 25 July 2007 so the County Council, the largest settlement in the administrative county is Harrogate, the second largest is Scarborough, while in the ceremonial county, the largest is York. The largest urban area within the county is the Middlesbrough built-up area sub-division of Teesside. Uniquely for a district in England, Stockton-on-Tees is split between North Yorkshire and County Durham for this purpose, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Redcar and Cleveland boroughs form part of the North East England region. The ceremonial county area, including the authorities, borders East Riding of Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria. The geology of North Yorkshire is closely reflected in its landscape, within the county are the North York Moors and most of the Yorkshire Dales, two of eleven areas of countryside within England and Wales to be officially designated as national parks. Between the North York Moors in the east and the Pennine Hills in the west lie the Vales of Mowbray, the Tees Lowlands lie to the north of the North York Moors and the Vale of Pickering lies to the south. Its eastern border is the North sea coast, the highest point is Whernside, on the Cumbrian border, at 736 metres. The two major rivers in the county are the River Swale and the River Ure, the Swale and the Ure form the River Ouse which flows through York and into the Humber estuary. The River Tees forms part of the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham and flows from upper Teesdale to Middlesbrough and Stockton and to the coast, North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan county that operates a cabinet-style council, North Yorkshire County Council. The full council of 72 elects a council leader, who in turn appoints up to 9 more councillors to form the executive cabinet, the cabinet is responsible for making decisions in the County. The county council have their offices in the County Hall in Northallerton, the county is affluent and has above average house prices. Unemployment is below average for the UK and claimants of Job Seekers Allowance is also very low compared to the rest of the UK at 2. 7%, agriculture is an important industry, as are mineral extraction and power generation. The county also has high technology, service and tourism sectors. This is a chart of trend of gross value added for North Yorkshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling
7.
L118 light gun
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The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed howitzer. It was originally produced for the British Army in the 1970s and has been exported since, including to the United States. The proper name for it is gun, 105mm, field, L118 and it fires the US M1 type ammunition. This widely used howitzer was designed in Italy for the Alpini. However, it lacked range, was not notably robust, had poor sights and was not entirely popular, in 1965, a general staff requirement was approved for a new 105 mm weapon system because the pack howitzer lacked range and lethality. The ammunition to be used was the 105 mm Fd Mk 2 ammunition used in the L13 ordnance of the gun equipment 105 mm L109. This ammunition uses electrical instead of percussion primers and is a different design from the US M1 type ammunition as used in the L5 pack howitzer. The two types are not interchangeable, an early requirement was for the new weapon to use 105mm Fd Mk 1 ammunition, which uses the M1 shell, in training. However, in 1968, this was changed to allow a different version of the weapon, the new gun, soon designated light gun, was designed by the government Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment, Fort Halstead, Kent. However, it emerged that some increase in weight was needed for a gun with the requisite robustness. Original production, which was authorised in late 1975, was by Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Nottingham, the light gun entered service with the British Army in 1976. The new weapon was heavier than its predecessor, but new, more capable helicopters such as the Puma and Westland Sea King, a new vehicle, the Land Rover 101 Forward Control are also equipped with the light gun. Those University Officer Training Corps with gun troops train with the L118, on 30 November 2001, an L118 light gun replaced a 25-pounder as the One OClock Gun in Edinburgh Castle. By tradition, this fires every day at one oclock, except on Sundays, Good Friday, the light gun is also fired by 14 Regiment Royal Artillery on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day each year. The L118 uses the L19 ordnance on the L17 carriage, the L19 ordnance is slightly shorter than the L13 used by the Abbot and hence has a slightly shorter maximum range. Also, unlike the Abbot, the barrel is autofrettaged and hence lighter, the light gun appears to owe a number of its features to the QF25 pounder, unsurprisingly since RARDE was the successor to the design department, Woolwich Arsenal. Among these features are its vertically sliding breech, and a box trail instead of a split trail. Its comparatively light weight is attributed to the nature of the steel used in the carriage and ordnance
8.
Royal Artillery
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The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery, is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name Royal Regiment of Artillery it actually consists of 13 Regular Regiments and 5 Reserve Regiments, the introduction of artillery into the English army came as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Henry VIII made the armys artillery semi-permanent in the sixteenth century, before the 18th century, artillery traynes were raised by royal warrant for specific campaigns and disbanded again when they were over. On 26 May 1716, however, by warrant of George I two regular companies of field artillery, each 100 men strong, were raised at Woolwich. The title Royal Artillery was first used in 1720, in 1741 the Royal Military Academy was formed in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to provide training for RA and Royal Engineers officers. The regiment expanded rapidly and, by 1757, had 24 companies divided into two battalions, as well as a company formed in 1741. During 1748, the presidential artilleries of Bengal, Madras and Bombay were formed,1756 saw the creation of the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery. In 1762 the Royal Artillery Band was formed at Minden, by 1771 there were 32 companies in four battalions, as well as two invalid companies comprising older and unfit men employed in garrison duties. During 1782, the regiment moved to the Royal Artillery Barracks on Woolwich Common, in January 1793, two troops of Royal Horse Artillery were raised to provide fire support for the cavalry, augmented by two more in November 1793. The Royal Irish Artillery was absorbed into the RA in 1801, during 1805, the Royal Military Academy moved to Woolwich Common. In 1819, the Rotunda was given to the regiment by the Prince Regent to celebrate end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1832, the regimental motto, Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt, was granted. The motto signified that the regiment had seen action in all the conflicts of the British Army. The regiment was under the control of the Board of Ordnance until the board was abolished in 1855, thereafter the regiment came under the War Office along with the rest of the army. The School of Gunnery established at Shoeburyness, Essex in 1859, the third group continued to be titled simply Royal Artillery, and was responsible for ammunition storage and supply. Which branch a gunner belonged to was indicated by metal shoulder titles, the RFA and RHA also dressed as mounted men, whereas the RGA dressed like foot soldiers. In 1920 the rank of Bombardier was instituted in the Royal Artillery, the three sections effectively functioned as separate corps. This arrangement lasted until 1924, when the three amalgamated once more to one regiment. In 1938, RA Brigades were renamed Regiments, during the World War II there were over 1 million men serving in 960 gunner regiments
United Kingdom
British Army
