World War I
World War I known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history, it is one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23 July Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe.
By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28th, partial mobilisation was approved. General Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; when Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6th. German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within four weeks shift forces to the East before Russia could mobilise. On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France; when this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on France the same day. On 12 August and France declared war on Austria-Hungary.
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe; the Entente and its allies would become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of Austria-Hungary and their allies would become known as the Central Powers. The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917. In 1915, Italy opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans; the United States remained neutral, although by doing nothing to prevent the Allies from procuring American supplies whilst the Allied blockade prevented the Germans from doing the same the U. S. became an important supplier of war material to the Allies.
After the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the revelation that the Germans were trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States, the U. S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops. Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, Romania joined the Allied Powers in 1916 only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war until 1918; the 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent at the cost of the war led to the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war. This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive.
This offensive was successful, but the Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive. Bulgaria was the first Central Power to sign an armistice—the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated. On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti after being decisively defeated by Italy in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, the military no longer willing to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11 November 1918. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural and social climate of the world; the war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, the United States, It
Carcano
Carcano is the used name for a series of Italian bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating military rifles and carbines. Introduced in 1891, this rifle was chambered for the rimless 6.5×52mm Carcano cartridge. It was developed by the chief technician Salvatore Carcano at the Turin Army Arsenal in 1890 and called the Modello 91 or M91. Successively replacing the previous Vetterli-Vitali rifles and carbines in 10.35×47mmR, it was produced from 1892 to 1945. The M91 was used in both rifle and shorter-barreled carbine form by most Italian troops during the First World War and by Italian and some German forces during the Second World War; the rifle was used during the Winter War by Finland, again by regular and irregular forces in Syria, Libya and Algeria during various postwar conflicts in those countries. The Type I Carcano rifle was produced by Italy for the Japanese Empire prior to World War II. After the invasion of China, all Arisaka production was required for use of the Imperial Army, so the Imperial Navy contracted with Italy for this weapon in 1937.
The Type I is based on the Type 38 rifle and uses a Carcano action, but retains the Arisaka/Mauser type 5-round box magazine. The Type I was used by Japanese Imperial Naval Forces and was chambered for the Japanese 6.5×50mm Arisaka cartridge. 60,000 Type I rifles were produced by Italian arsenals for Japan. A Carcano Model 91/38 was used to assassinate US President John F. Kennedy. Although this rifle is called "Mannlicher–Carcano" in American parlance, neither that designation nor the name "Mauser–Parravicino" is correct, its official designation in Italian is Modello 1891, or M91. The magazine system uses en bloc charger clips which were developed and patented by Ferdinand Mannlicher, but the actual shape and design of the Carcano clip is derived from the German Model 1888 Commission Rifle; until 1938, all M91 rifles and carbines were chambered for the rimless 6.5×52mm Modello 1895 cartridge, using a round-nose metal case bullet of 160 grains weight at 2,000-2,400 ft/s muzzle velocity, depending upon barrel length.
At least one small arms authority noted inconsistencies in powder types in arsenal-loaded 6.5×52mm military ammunition with different powder types and ammunition lots intermixed within a single clip of ammunition. The practice of intermixing powder types and ammunition lots in clipped rifle ammunition was avoided by arsenals of other nations, as it resulted in varying bullet velocities and excessive bullet dispersion on the target. After reports of inadequate performance at both short and long ranges during the campaigns in Italian North Africa, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Italian army introduced a new short rifle in 1938, the Modello 1938, together with a new cartridge in 7.35×51mm caliber. In addition to the larger caliber, Italian ordnance designers introduced a spitzer-type bullet for the new cartridge, with the tip filled with aluminum to produce an unstable projectile upon impact in soft tissue. However, the Italian government was unable to mass-produce the new arms in adequate quantities before the onset of war, in 1940, all rifle and ammunition production reverted to 6.5 mm, but no 7.35 mm Mod. 38 rifles nor carbines were re-barreled to the old 6.5×52mm caliber.
Some Italian troops serving on the Russian front were armed with 7.35 mm Mod. 1938 rifles, but exchanged them in 1942 for 6.5×52 mm arms. 94,500 7.35mm Modello 1938 rifles were shipped to Finland, where they were known as Terni carbines. They were used by security and line-of-communications troops during the Winter War of 1939–1940, though some frontline troops were issued the weapon. According to reports, the Finns disliked the rifle. With its non-standard 7.35 mm caliber, it was problematic to keep frontline troops supplied with good quality, or any ammunition at all, its non-adjustable rear sight made it ill-suited for use in precision shooting at the varied ranges encountered by Finnish soldiers during the conflict. Despite this, it's worth noticing that the Finns themselves modified the fixed optics on the rifle to operate from a range of 200 m to only 150 m. Whenever possible, Finnish soldiers discarded the weapon in favor of rifles acquired on the battlefield, including standard models of captured Soviet-made Mosin–Nagant rifles.
The latter had the advantage of using available 7.62×54mmR ammunition. By the outbreak of the Continuation War, the remaining Mod. 1938 7.35 mm rifles were issued to the Finnish Navy, as well as anti-aircraft, coastal defense, other second-line troops. In 1941, the Italian military returned to a long-barrelled infantry rifle once again, the Carcano M91/41. True sniper versions never existed, but in World War I a few rifles were fitted with telescopic lenses and issued for service use. Several lots of Moschetti M91/38 TS were chambered for the German 8×57mm Mauser sS heavy ball round; this modification entered service in 1943, just before the Italian capitulation. Two small batches of Moschetti M91/38 TS carbines shows barrels marked 1938 and 1941, but they were not used at these times with any Italian forces, their peculiar serial numbering suggests that these might just be rebored unused surplus barrels that were converted with other ones after 1945. Many 7.92
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy was a state which existed from 1861—when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy—until 1946—when civil discontent led a constitutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and form the modern Italian Republic. The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and received the region of Veneto following their victory. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, thereby ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, following strong disagreements with France about the respective colonial expansions; however if relations with Berlin became friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal as the Italians were keen to acquire Trentino and Trieste, corners of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians.
So in 1915, Italy accepted the British invitation to join the Allied Powers, as the western powers promised territorial compensation for participation, more generous than Vienna's offer in exchange for Italian neutrality. Victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. "Fascist Italy" is the era of National Fascist Party government from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government. The fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed the political and intellectual opposition, while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church. According to Payne, " Fascist government passed through several distinct phases"; the first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, albeit with a "legally-organized executive dictatorship". Came the second phase, "the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper, from 1925 to 1929"; the third phase, with less activism, was 1929 to 1934.
The fourth phase, 1935–1940, was characterized by an aggressive foreign policy: war against Ethiopia, launched from Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, which resulted in its annexation. The war itself was the fifth phase with its disasters and defeats, while the rump Salò Government under German control was the final stage. Italy was an important member of the Axis powers in World War II, battling on several fronts with initial success. However, after the German-Italian defeat in Africa and Soviet Union and the subsequent Allied landings in Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III placed Mussolini under arrest, the Fascist Party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders was shut down; the new government signed an armistice on September 1943. German forces occupied northern Italy with Fascists' help, setting up the Italian Social Republic, a collaborationist puppet state still led by Mussolini and his Fascist loyalists; as conseguence, the country descended into civil war, with the Italian Co-belligerent Army and the resistance movement contended the Social Republic's forces and its German allies.
Shortly after the war and the liberation of the country, civil discontent led to the constitutional referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the present-day Italian state; the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which covers present-day Italy and more. The development of the Kingdom's territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870; the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which were annexed in 1919 and remain Italian territories today. The Triple Entente promised to grant to Italy – if the state joined the Allies in World War I – several territories including former Austrian Littoral, western parts of former Duchy of Carniola, Northern Dalmazia and notably Zara and most of the Dalmatian islands, according to the secret London Pact of 1915. After the compromise was nullified under pressure of President Woodrow Wilson with the Treaty of Versailles, Italian claims on Northern Dalmazia were voided.
During World War II, the Kingdom gained additional territory: it gained Corsica and Savoia from France after its surrender in 1940, territory in Slovenia and Dalmazia from Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1941 and Monaco in 1942. After World War II, the borders of present-day Italy were founded and the Kingdom abandoned its land claims; the Italian Empire gained territory until the end of World War II through colonies, military occupations and puppet states. These included Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia, British Somaliland, Tunisia, Kosovo, Montenegro and a 46-hectare concession from China in Tianjin; the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch; the legislative branch was a bicameral Parliament comprising an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdom's constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the former governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, by this time it was impossible for a king to appoint a government of his ow
6.5×55mm Swedish
The 6.5×55mm Swedish is a first-generation smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. Other common names for this cartridge include 6.5×55mm and 6.5×55mm Swedish Mauser and less 6.5×55mm Mauser and 6.5×55mm Krag. It was developed in 1891 for use in the new service rifles under consideration by the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway; the two nations had independent armies and the normal procedure at the time was for their respective governments to use the same ammunition and purchase small arms of their choice. Norway adopted the Krag -- Jørgensen rifle; the 6.5×55mm Swedish cartridge has a smaller bullet diameter and lower free recoil than other full-power service rifle cartridges like the.30-06 Springfield and 7.92×57mm Mauser, but thanks in part to its roomy case with an uncommon 12.2 mm diameter bolt face, designed for loading long, heavy 6.5 mm bullets, has proven more successful than other first-generation smokeless-powder military cartridges of similar caliber such as the 6×60mm US Navy, 6.5×54mm Mannlicher–Schönauer, 6.5×53mmR Dutch Mannlicher, 6.5×52mm Carcano and 6.5×50mm Arisaka.
The Swedish-Norwegian Rifle Commission started its work in 1891. After extensive ballistic tests where different calibers were tested, the optimal caliber was determined to be 6.5 mm. Following this decision, a joint Norwegian-Swedish commission was established in December 1893; this commission worked through a series of meetings to decide on the different measurements for the cartridge case. A rimless cartridge case of 55 mm length was approved, each possible measurement was decided upon; the corresponding dimensions of the cartridge chamber to be used in a future service rifle was determined. The 6.5×55mm has 3.75 ml cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machine guns alike, under extreme conditions. 6.5×55mm maximum C. I. P. Cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters. Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 25.6 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 220 mm, 4 grooves, Ø lands = 6.50 mm, Ø grooves = 6.73 mm, land width = 2.5 mm, the primer type is large rifle.
According to the official C. I. P. Rulings the 6.5×55mm can handle up to 380.00 MPa Pmax piezo pressure. In C. I. P. Regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C. I. P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that 6.5×55mm chambered arms in C. I. P. Regulated countries are proof tested at 475.00 MPa PE piezo pressure. The German 6.5×57mm Mauser and the American.260 Remington cartridges are the closest European and American ballistic twins of the 6.5×55mm. The.260 Remington being a post World War II.308 Winchester-derived cartridge developed by Remington to provide 6.5×55mm performance in a short bolt action format. In the 21st century cartridges like the 6.5×47mm Lapua and the 6.5mm Creedmoor have entered the market that provide similar performance. The SAAMI maximum average pressure for this cartridge is 51,000 psi piezo pressure. All Swedish Mauser bolt actions were proof tested with a single 6.5×55mm proof round developing 455 MPa piezo pressure.
Some historians have assumed that there was a difference in cartridge blueprint measurements between Swedish and Norwegian 6.5×55mm ammunition, but this may be unintentional. Due to different interpretations of the blueprint standard, i.e. the standards of manufacturing using maximum chamber in the Krag vs. minimum chamber in the Swedish Mauser, a small percentage of the ammunition produced in Norway proved to be oversize when chambered in the Swedish Mauser action, i.e. requiring a push on the bolt handle to chamber in the Swedish arm. A rumour arose not long after the 6.5×55mm cartridge was adopted that one could use Swedish ammunition in Norwegian rifles, but not Norwegian ammunition in Swedish rifles. Some alleged that this incompatibility was deliberate, to give Norway the tactical advantage of using captured ammunition in a war, while denying the same advantage to Sweden. However, after the rumour first surfaced in 1900, the issue was examined by the Swedish military, they declared the difference to be insignificant, that both the Swedish and Norwegian ammunition were within the specified parameters laid down.
Despite this finding, the Swedish weapon-historian Josef Alm repeated the rumour in a book in the 1930s, leading many to believe that there was a significant difference between the ammunition manufactured in Norway and Sweden. The militaries of Sweden and Norway loaded their 6.5×55mm skarp patron m/94 projektil m/94 service ammunition with a 10.1 grams long round-nosed m/94 bullet fired at a muzzle velocity of 725 m/s with 2,654 J muzzle energy from a 739 mm long barrel up to the early phase of World War II and Norwegian occupation by Germany in 1940. From 1941 onwards, which remained neutral during World War II, adopted skarp patron m/94 prickskytte m/41 ammunition loaded with a 9.1 grams spitzer bullet fired at a muzzle velocity of 800 m/s with 2,912 J muzzle energy from a 739
Clip (firearms)
A clip is a device, used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit, ready for insertion into the magazine or cylinder of a firearm. This speeds up the process of loading and reloading the firearm as several rounds can be loaded at once, rather than one round being loaded at a time. Several different types of clips exist, most of which are made of inexpensive stamped sheet metal and are intended to be disposable, though they are re-used. Charging clips has no moving parts and is made of stamped sheet metal. Detachable magazines are incorrectly referred to as clips. A stripper clip or charger is a speedloader that holds several cartridges together in a single unit for easier loading of a firearm's magazine. A stripper clip is used only for loading the magazine and is not necessary for the firearm to function, it is called a'stripper' clip because, after the bolt is opened and the stripper clip is placed in position, the cartridges are pressed down, thereby'stripping' them off the stripper clip and into the magazine.
The clip is either removed and tossed away, or the bolt is thrown forward, expending the clip without the need of prior removal. A few examples of designs that allow for stripper clip use include the Mauser C96, Lee-Enfield, Mosin-Nagant, SKS and the Vz. 58. Detachable magazines may be loaded with stripper clips, provided they have a special guide attached, such as an M14 or an M16. Several rifle designs utilize an en bloc clip. With this design, both the cartridges and the clip are inserted as a unit into a fixed magazine within the rifle, the clip is ejected or falls from the rifle upon firing or chambering of the last round; the en bloc clip was invented by Ferdinand Mannlicher for use in his Model 1885 and Model 1888 rifle. Other rifles utilizing en-bloc clips include the German Gewehr 88, the Mexican Mondragón, the French Berthier Mle 1890 and RSC Mle 1917, the Italian M1870/87 Vetterli-Vitali and M1891 Carcano, the various turnbolt Mannlichers, the Austro-Hungarian straight-pull Steyr-Mannlicher M1895, the Hungarian FÉG 35M, the US M1895 Lee Navy, M1 Garand and Pedersen T1E3.
Original Austrian Mannlicher clips were uni-directional, but the Gewehr 88 and subsequently the M1891 Carcano used symmetrical clips. John Pedersen at first developed an irreversible clip for his rifle he redesigned the clip to be reversible; this design was utilized for the competing designs by John Garand. A moon clip is a ring-shaped or stellate piece of metal designed to hold a full cylinder of ammunition for a revolver together as a unit. Therefore, instead of loading or extracting one round at a time, a full cylinder of ammunition or spent cases can be loaded or extracted at once, speeding the loading process. A similar device known as the half-moon clip is semi-circular and designed to hold a half cylinder of ammunition —in which case two clips are necessary to load the cylinder; such devices have most been used to chamber rimless semi-automatic pistol cartridges in a revolver, although they can be used for rimmed cartridges to allow for faster reloading. Speedloader
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, 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, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or 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 and the two wars merged in 1941; 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 fo
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through Executive Order 11130 on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963; the U. S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 authorizing the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence, its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964 and made public three days later. It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald acted alone, it concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later. The Commission's findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by studies; the Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren.
According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only reluctantly. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would create more controversy than consensus. Nicholas Katzenbach has been named as providing advice after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 28 he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination. To combat speculation of a conspiracy, Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public, he wrote, in part: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin. Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed some of the nation's most prominent figures, including the Chief Justice of the United States, to the Commission; the Warren Commission met formally for the first time on December 5, 1963 on the second floor of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.
C. The Commission conducted its business in closed sessions, but these were not secret sessions. Two misconceptions about the Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing... Second, although the hearings were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, the hearing testimony is not published for public consumption; the witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, all of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission. Members of the Warren Commission CommitteeEarl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Richard Russell, Jr. U. S. Senator, John Sherman Cooper, U. S. Senator Hale Boggs, U. S. Representative, House Majority Whip Gerald Ford, U.
S. Representative, House Minority Leader Allen Welsh Dulles, former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency John J. McCloy, former President of the World Bank General counselJ. Lee Rankin In response to Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Warren Commission declared that the news media must share responsibility with the Dallas police department for "the breakdown of law enforcement" that led to Oswald's death. In addition to the police department's "inadequacy of coordination," the Warren Commission noted that "these additional deficiencies were related directly to the decision to admit newsmen to the basement." The commission concluded that the pressure of press and television for information about Oswald's prison transfer resulted in lax security standards for admission to the basement, allowing Ruby to enter and subsequently shoot Oswald, noting that "the acceptance of inadequate press credentials posed a clear avenue for a one-man assault."
Oswald's death was said to have been a direct result of "the failure of the police to remove Oswald secretly or control the crowd in the basement." The consequence of Oswald's death, according to the Commission, was that "it was no longer possible to arrive at the complete story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy through normal judicial procedures during the trial of the alleged assassin." While the Commission noted that the prime responsibility was that of the police department, it recommended the adoption of a new "code of conduct" for news professionals regarding the collecting and presenting of information to the public that would ensure "there be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings, or the right of individuals to a fair trial." The findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to its security procedures. In November 1964, two months after the publication of its 888-page report, the Commission published twenty-six volumes of supporting documents, including the testimony or depositions of 552 witnesses and more than 3,100 exhibits.
All of the commission's records were transferred on November 23 to the National Archives. The unpublished portion of those records was sealed for 75 years under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the e
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