1.
Siege gun
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A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some have been operated close to the fortifications, while others have used to attack from a distance. From antiquity, siege engines were constructed largely of wood and tended to use mechanical advantage to fling stones, with the development of gunpowder and improved metallurgical techniques, siege engines became artillery. Collectively, siege engines or artillery together with the necessary troops, the earliest engine was the battering ram, developed by the Assyrians, followed by the catapult in ancient Greece. The first Mediterranean people to use advanced siege machinery were the Carthaginians and these engines influenced the ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius I, who developed a catapult in 399 BC. The first two rulers to use of siege engines to a large extent were Philip II of Macedonia. The most utilized engines were simple battering rams, or tortoises, for sea sieges or battles, seesaw-like machines were used. These were giant ladders, hinged and mounted on a base mechanism and they were normally mounted on two or more ships tied together and some sambykē included shields at the top to protect the climbers from arrows. Other hinged engines were used to catch enemy equipment or even opposing soldiers with opposable appendices which are probably ancestors to the Roman corvus, other weapons dropped heavy weights on opposing soldiers. The Romans preferred to assault enemy walls by building earthen ramps or simply scaling the walls, soldiers working at the ramps were protected by shelters called vineae, that were arranged to form a long corridor. Wicker shields were used to protect the front of the corridor during its construction, another Roman siege engine sometimes used resembled the Greek ditch-filling tortoise, called a musculus. The Roman Legions first used siege towers around 200 BC, the first documented occurrence of ancient siege artillery pieces in Europe was the gastraphetes, a kind of large crossbow. These were mounted on wooden frames, greater machines forced the introduction of pulley system for loading the projectiles, which had extended to include stones also. Later torsion systems appeared, based on sinew springs, the onager was the main Roman invention in the field. Much of what we now know of the technology of the time came to us from Books 14 and 15 on Siege Warfare from the Mo Jing. Recorded and preserved on bamboo strips, much of the text is now unfortunately extremely corrupted, medieval designs include a large number of catapults such as the Mangonel, Onager, the ballista, the traction trebuchet, and the counterweight trebuchet. These machines used mechanical energy to fling large projectiles to batter down stone walls, also used were the battering ram and the siege tower, a wooden tower on wheels that allowed attackers to climb up and over castle walls, while protected somewhat from enemy arrows. Another weapon was the petard, a device designed specifically for breaching gates
2.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
3.
Austria-Hungary
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The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and came into existence on 30 March 1867. Austria-Hungary consisted of two monarchies, and one region, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the Hungarian crown. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg, and constituted the last phase in the evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and the Hungarian states were co-equal, Foreign affairs and the military came under joint oversight, but all other governmental faculties were divided between respective states. Austria-Hungary was a state and one of the worlds great powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at 621,538 km2, the Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry of the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was annexed in 1908. The annexation of Bosnia also led to Islam being recognized as a state religion due to Bosnias Muslim population. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I and it was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The realms full, official name was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, each enjoyed considerable sovereignty with only a few joint affairs. Certain regions, such as Polish Galicia within Cisleithania and Croatia within Transleithania, enjoyed autonomous status, the division between Austria and Hungary was so marked that there was no common citizenship, one was either an Austrian citizen or a Hungarian citizen, never both. This also meant that there were always separate Austrian and Hungarian passports, however, neither Austrian nor Hungarian passports were used in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia. Instead, the Kingdom issued its own passports which were written in Croatian and French and it is not known what kind of passports were used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of both Austria and Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary had always maintained a separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, the administration and government of the Kingdom of Hungary remained largely untouched by the government structure of the overarching Austrian Empire. Hungarys central government structures remained well separated from the Austrian imperial government, the country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary – located in Pressburg and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna. The Hungarian government and Hungarian parliament were suspended after the Hungarian revolution of 1848, despite Austria and Hungary sharing a common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities. Since the beginnings of the union, the government of the Kingdom of Hungary could preserve its separated. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, from 1527 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs controls, which separated her from the other parts of the Habsburg-ruled territories
4.
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
5.
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
6.
Krupp
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The Krupp family, a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their production of steel, artillery, ammunition, and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and it was important to weapons development and production in both world wars. One of the most powerful dynasties in European history, for 400 years Krupp flourished as the premier weapons manufacturer for Germany. From the Thirty Years War until the end of the Second World War, they produced everything from battleships, U-boats, tanks, howitzers, guns, utilities, the dynasty began in 1587 when a trader named Arndt Krupp moved to Essen and joined the merchants guild. He then began buying vacated real estate from families who fled the city due to the Black Death, over the next three centuries his descendants began producing small guns during the Thirty Years War and over time gradually acquired fulling mills, coal mines, and an iron forge. During the Napoleonic Wars, Friedrich Krupp founded the Gusstahlfabrik and began producing smelted steel in 1816, the foundations were laid for the steel Empire that would come to dominate the world for nearly a century under his son Alfred. Krupp became the manufacturer for the Kingdom of Prussia in 1859. Krupp was also a company that paved the way for workers rights. Widows and orphans were guaranteed pay if their husbands and/or fathers were killed, the company also produced the steel that built the railroads of America, capped the Chrysler Building in 1929, and was the first to travel to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. During the Third Reich, Krupp supported Adolf Hitler and the use of forced labour, after the war Krupp was rebuilt from scratch and again became one of the wealthiest companies in Europe. However a recession in 1967 caused the company severe profit loss, in 1999 the Krupp firm merged with Thyssen AG to form ThyssenKrupp AG, a large industrial conglomerate. Friedrich Krupp launched the familys metal-based activities, building a steel foundry in Essen in 1810. His son Alfred, known as the Cannon King or as Alfred the Great, invested heavily in new technology to become a significant manufacturer of steel rollers and he also invested in fluidized hotbed technologies and acquired many mines in Germany and France. Unusual for the era, he provided social services for his workers, including subsidized housing and health, the company began to make steel cannons in the 1840s—especially for the Russian, Turkish, and Prussian armies. When Alfred started with the firm, it had five employees, at his death twenty thousand people worked for Krupp—making it the worlds largest industrial company and the largest private company in the German empire. Krupps had a Great Krupp Building with an exhibition of guns at the Columbian Exposition in 1893, in the 20th century the company was headed by Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, who assumed the surname of Krupp when he married the Krupp heiress, Bertha Krupp. After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Krupp works became the center for German rearmament. In 1943, by an order from Hitler, the company reverted to a sole-proprietorship, with Gustav
7.
Pound (mass)
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The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement. The international standard symbol for the pound is lb. The unit is descended from the Roman libra, the English word pound is cognate with, among others, German Pfund, Dutch pond, and Swedish pund. All ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression lībra pondō, usage of the unqualified term pound reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight. This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms pound-mass and pound-force, the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. Since 1 July 1959, the avoirdupois pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg. In the United Kingdom, the use of the pound was implemented in the Weights and Measures Act 1963.9144 metre exactly. An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains, the conversion factor between the kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7, and an grain is thus equal to exactly 64.79891 milligrams. The US has not adopted the system despite many efforts to do so. Historically, in different parts of the world, at different points in time, and for different applications, the libra is an ancient Roman unit of mass that was equivalent to approximately 328.9 grams. It was divided into 12 unciae, or ounces, the libra is the origin of the abbreviation for pound, lb. A number of different definitions of the pound have historically used in Britain. Amongst these were the avoirdupois pound and the tower, merchants. Historically, the sterling was a tower pound of silver. In 1528, the standard was changed to the Troy pound, the avoirdupois pound, also known as the wool pound, first came into general use c. It was initially equal to 6992 troy grains, the pound avoirdupois was divided into 16 ounces. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the pound was redefined as 7,000 troy grains. Since then, the grain has often been a part of the avoirdupois system
8.
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
9.
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
10.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
11.
Imperial Germany
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
12.
Naval artillery
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Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare, later also for naval gunfire support against targets on land, and for anti-aircraft use. The idea of artillery dates back to the classical era. Julius Caesar indicates the use of ship-borne catapults against Britons ashore in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, the dromons of the Byzantine Empire carried catapults and fire-throwers. From the late Middle Ages onwards, warships began to carry cannon of various calibres, the Battle of Arnemuiden, fought between England and France in 1338 at the start of the Hundred Years War, was the first recorded European naval battle using artillery. The English ship Christopher was armed with three cannons and one hand gun, by the 15th century most Mediterranean powers were utilising heavy cannon mounted on the bow or stern of a vessel and designed to bombard fortresses on shore. By mid-century some vessels also carried smaller broadside cannons for bombarding other vessels immediately prior to an attempted boarding and these small guns were anti-personnel weapons and were fired at point blank range to accompany engagement with muskets or bows. From the 1470s both the Portuguese and Venetian navies were experimenting with cannons as anti-ship weapons, in 1489 John of Portugal further contributed to the development of naval artillery by establishing the first standardized teams of trained naval gunners. The 16th century was an era of transition in naval warfare, since ancient times, war at sea had been fought much like that on land, with melee weapons and bows and arrows, but on floating wooden platforms rather than battlefields. Though the introduction of guns was a significant change, it slowly changed the dynamics of ship-to-ship combat. As guns became heavier and able to more powerful gunpowder charges, they needed to be placed lower in the ship. Although some 16th-century galleys mounted broadside cannon, they did so at the expense of rowing positions which sacrificed speed, most early cannon were still placed in the forecastle and aftercastle of a ship where they might be conveniently pointed in any direction. Early naval artillery was a weapon to deter boarders, because cannon powerful enough to damage ships were heavy enough to destabilize any ship mounting them in an elevated castle. Being a crown industry, cost considerations did not curb the pursuit of the best quality, best innovations, the crown paid wage premiums and bonuses to lure the best European artisans and gunners to advance the industry in Portugal. This made broadsides, coordinated volleys from all the guns on one side of a ship, possible for the first time in history, at least in theory. Ships, such as Mary Rose, carried a mixture of cannon of different types and sizes, many designed for land use, and using incompatible ammunition at different ranges and rates of fire. The Mary Rose, like other ships of the time, was built during a period of development of heavy artillery. The heavy armament was a mix of older-type wrought iron and cast bronze guns, the bronze guns were cast in one piece and rested on four-wheel carriages which were essentially the same as those used until the 19th century. The breech-loaders were cheaper to produce and both easier and faster to reload, but could take less powerful charges than cast bronze guns, the majority of the guns were small iron guns with short range that could be aimed and fired by a single person
13.
Caliber (artillery)
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In artillery, caliber or calibre is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length. Rifled barrels introduce ambiguity to measurement of caliber, a rifled bore consists of alternating grooves and lands. The distance across the bore from groove to groove is greater than the distance from land to land, the depth of rifling grooves increases in larger calibers. United States Navy guns typically used rifling depth between one-half and one percent of caliber, projectile bourrelet diameter specification was 0.015 inches less than land to land diameter with a minus manufacturing tolerance so average clearance was about 0.012 inches. Driving band diameter was groove to groove diameter plus 0.02 inches, the length of the barrel is often quoted in calibers. For example, US Naval Rifles 3 in or larger, the effective length of the barrel is divided by the barrel diameter to give a dimensionless quantity.81 As an example, the main guns of the Iowa-class battleships can be referred to as 16/50 caliber. They are 16 inches in diameter and the barrel is 800 inches long, the bore to barrel length ratio is called caliber in naval gunnery,81 but is called length in army artillery. Before World War II, the US Navy used 5/51 caliber as surface-to-surface guns, by the end of World War II, the dual purpose 5/38 caliber was standard naval armament against surface and air targets. All three had a diameter of 5 inches. At sea, a weapon had to perform, without fail, there was no ready replacement, nor one that could be readily supplied. Over time, the terms of pound and bore became confused and blurred, eventually, when the technology existed, the bore came to be the standard measure. For naval rifles, the change was to actual bore. They then began to measure the length of the weapon in calibers. These were a measure of the bore of the barrel versus the rifled bore of the barrel. In other words, a 12/45 is 12×45= the length of the bore of that gun in inches. This explains the differences in both penetration and long range performance of naval rifles over the years. In addition to the improvements in overall performance, the increase in barrel length also allowed, in some circumstances. For example, the American 14/45, as introduced in the New York-class battleships, later improvements to the design, lengthening the rifle itself and also altering the breech, allowed a 1400 lb. projectile and, overall, a greater barrel life
14.
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
15.
Bertha Krupp
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Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was a member of the Krupp family, Germanys leading industrial dynasty of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1943 ownership of the company was transferred to her son Alfried, Bertha Krupp was born in Essen, home of the Krupp family and their company since the 16th century. Her mother was Baroness Margrethe von Enden, at the time of Berthas birth the company was owned and managed by her grandfather Alfred. Upon his death the year, her father Friedrich inherited ownership. Her sister Barbara was born in 1887, but the absence of a male heir put the future of the company in doubt, Friedrich Krupp died in 1902, leaving Bertha as the heiress to the Krupp interests. However, it was considered unthinkable for a woman to control over the vast Krupp coal, steel. In 1907, therefore, Kaiser Wilhelm II personally led a search for a husband for Bertha. The Kaiser found him in Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, a diplomat of good family. They were married on May 7, on that date, Gustav added the name Krupp to his surname and assumed executive control of the company. Barbara received a cash settlement and Bertha became sole owner of the company. Gustav and Bertha had eight children, Alfried, Arnold, Claus, Irmgard, Berthold, Harald, Waldtraut, of these only Alfried as the eldest son took the surname Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The others used the surname von Bohlen und Halbach, Claus and Eckbert were killed on active service in World War II, and Harald spent ten years in captivity in the Soviet Union. During World War I, the Krupp company manufactured large mortars that the German army used to bombard forts in Belgium, German troops nicknamed these Dicke Bertha after Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Allied troops used the name, Big Bertha, to refer to all German long-range artillery. However, Big Bertha entered the lexicon due to a piece of German artillery which was constructed of three artillery barrels welded together, after Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach suffered a stroke in 1941, his health declined sharply. Bertha took Gustav to an estate in Tyrol, where they remained until the end of the war. In 1945 Gustav was indicted as a war criminal, but was declared unfit to stand trial. He was sentenced to years in prison and the confiscation of all his property
16.
Allies of World War I
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The Allies of World War I were the countries that opposed the Central Powers in the First World War. The members of the original Triple Entente of 1907 were the French Republic, the British Empire, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania were affiliated members of the Entente. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres defines the Principal Allied Powers as the British Empire, French Republic, Italy, the Allied Powers comprised, together with the Principal Allied Powers, Armenia, Belgium, Greece, Hejaz, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Slovene state and Czechoslovakia. The U. S. declaration of war on Germany, on 6th April 1917 was on the grounds that Germany had violated its neutrality by attacking international shipping and it declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. The U. S. entered the war as a power, rather than as a formal ally of France. Although the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria severed relations with the United States, the Dominion governments did control recruiting, and removed personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit. From early 1917, the War Cabinet was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, in April 1918, operational control of all Entente forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Ferdinand Foch of France. The Austrian Empire followed with an attack on the Serbian ally Montenegro on 8 August, on the Western Front, the two neutral States of Belgium and Luxembourg were immediately occupied by German troops as part of the German Schlieffen Plan. On 23 August Japan joined the Entente, which then counted seven members, the entrance of the British Empire brought Nepal into the war. In 1916, Montenegro capitulated and left the Entente, and two nations joined, Portugal and Romania, on 6 April 1917, the United States entered the war. Liberia, Siam and Greece also became allies and this was followed by Romanian cessation of hostilities, however the Balkan State declared war on Central Powers again on 10 November 1918. In response to the Germans invasion of neutral Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, gibraltar, Cyprus and Malta were British dependencies in Europe. The UK held several colonies, protectorates, and semi-autonomous dependencies at the time of World War I, in Eastern Africa the East Africa Protectorate, Nyasaland, both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Uganda Protectorate, were involved in conflict with German forces in German East Africa. In Western Africa, the colonies of Gold Coast and Nigeria were involved in actions against German forces from Togoland. In Southwestern Africa, the dominion of South Africa was involved in military actions against German forces in German South-West Africa. Canada and Newfoundland were two autonomous dominions during the war that made major contributions to the British war effort. Other British dependent territories in the Americas included, British Honduras, the Falkland Islands, British Guiana, and Jamaica. The UK held large possessions in Asia, including the Indian Empire which was an assortment of British imperial authorities in the territory now defined as India, Bangladesh, Burma, australia and New Zealand were two autonomous dominions of the UK in Oceania during the war
17.
38 cm SK L/45 "Max"
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The 38 cm SK L/45 Max, also called Langer Max was a German long-range, heavy siege and coast-defense gun used during World War I. Originally a naval gun, it was adapted for service when it became clear that the ships for which it was intended would be delayed. The latter variants participated in the 1918 Spring Offensives and the Second Battle of the Marne, One gun was captured in Koekelare by the Belgians at the end of the war and the seven surviving cannons were destroyed in 1921 and 1922. They were originally designed as the armament of the Bayern-class battleships. One obvious change made for service was the placement of a large folding counterweight just forward of the trunnions to counteract the preponderance of weight towards the breech. This, although heavy, was simpler than adding equilibrators to perform the same function and it folded to lower the guns height while travelling. This mount allowed the gun to fire both from any section of track and from a fixed emplacement. The E. u. B. mount used a combination of cradle and it could traverse a total of 2° for fine aiming adjustments, coarser adjustments had to be made by moving the entire carriage. The gun had to be loaded at zero elevation and so had to be re-aimed for every shot, nicknamed Max, the guns barrel and railway-transportable carriage was used in the famed Paris Gun. Some guns were emplaced in the Pommern and Deutschland coastal defense batteries on the Flanders coast protecting occupied Ostend. The first fixed emplacements used concrete and required a month or more to build, the Germans began construction of some during the winter of 1917—18 in preparation for their planned Spring Offensive. From May 1918 they used a steel box in lieu of the concrete that shortened the construction time. Miller quotes three weeks as the necessary to build the steel version from captured German manuals. The central platform had railroad track on one axis and the actual firing mount on the other. All that was necessary to emplace the E. u. B. mount was to center it on the platform, jack it up, remove the trucks, an estimated twelve men were required to ram the shell. It used the German naval system of ammunition where the charge was held in a metallic cartridge case. They were used as siege guns on the Western Front. Only one gun was transferred to the Army where it equipped Saxon Battery 1015 and this unit fired 141 shots from Bézu-Saint-Germain beginning on 15 July 1918
18.
Paris Gun
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The Paris Gun was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I. They were in service from March to August 1918, when the guns were first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a high-altitude Zeppelin, as the sound of neither an aeroplane nor a gun could be heard. They were the largest pieces of artillery used during the war by barrel length, the Paris Guns hold an important place in the history of astronautics, as their shells were the first human-made objects to reach the stratosphere. Also called the Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz, they were confused with Big Bertha, the German howitzer used against the Liège forts in 1914, indeed. They were also confused with the smaller Langer Max cannon, from which they were derived, although the famous Krupp-family artillery makers produced all these guns, the resemblance ended there. As military weapons, the Paris Guns were not a success, the payload was small, the barrel required frequent replacement. The German objective was to build a weapon to attack the morale of the Parisians. The Paris Gun was a weapon like no other, but its capabilities are not known with full certainty and this is due to the weapons apparent total destruction by the Germans in the face of the Allied offensive. Figures stated for the size, range, and performance varied widely depending on the source—not even the number of shells fired is certain. At the start of its 182-second trajectory, each shell from the Paris Gun reached a speed of 1,640 meters per second. They used worn-out 38 cm SK L/45 Max gun barrels that were fitted with a tube that reduced the caliber from 380 millimeters to 210 millimeters. The tube was 21 meters long and projected 3.9 meters out of the end of the gun, so an extension was bolted to the old gun-muzzle to cover and reinforce the lining tube. A further, 12-meter–long smooth-bore extension was attached to the end of this, the original breech of the old 38 cm gun did not require modification or reinforcement. Since it was based on a weapon, the gun was manned by a crew of 80 Imperial Navy sailors under the command of Vice-Admiral Rogge. It was surrounded by batteries of standard army artillery to create a noise-screen chorus around the big gun so that it could not be located by French. The projectile was the first human-made object to reach the stratosphere and this was by far the highest point ever reached by a man-made object, so high that gunners, in calculating where the shells would land, had to take into account the rotation of the Earth. For the first time in warfare, deadly projectiles rained down on civilians from the stratosphere and this reduced drag from air resistance, allowing the shell to achieve a range of over 130 kilometres. The unfinished V-3 cannon would have been able to somewhat larger projectiles to a longer range
19.
Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
20.
Battle of Port Arthur
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The Battle of Port Arthur of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. The battle itself ended inconclusively, though the war ended in a decisive Japanese victory. The opening stage of the Russo-Japanese War began with strikes by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the Russian Pacific Fleet based at Port Arthur. These capital ships and cruisers were accompanied by some 15 destroyers, in reserve were the cruisers Kasagi, Chitose, Takasago, and Yoshino. At about 22,30 on Monday 8 February 1904, the Port Arthur attack squadron of 10 destroyers encountered patrolling Russian destroyers, the Russians were under orders not to initiate combat, and turned to report the contact to headquarters. However, as a result of the encounter, two Japanese destroyers collided and fell behind and the remainder became scattered. At circa 00,28 on 9 February, the first four Japanese destroyers approached the port of Port Arthur without being observed, and launched an attack against the Pallada. Other destroyers had arrived too late to benefit from surprise, however, they were able to disable the most powerful ship of the Russian fleet, the battleship Tsesarevich. Despite ideal conditions for an attack, the results were relatively poor. Of the sixteen torpedoes fired, all but three either missed or failed to explode, by 09,00 Admiral Dewa was close enough to make out the Russian fleet through the morning mist. He observed 12 battleships and cruisers, three or four of which seemed to be badly listing or to be aground, the smaller vessels outside the harbor entrance were in apparent disarray. Unaware that the Russian fleet was getting ready for battle, Dewa urged Admiral Tōgō that the moment was extremely advantageous for the fleet to quickly attack. Although Tōgō would have preferred luring the Russian fleet away from the protection of the shore batteries, Admiral Tōgō ordered the First Division to attack the harbor, with the Third Division in reserve in the rear. Upon approaching Port Arthur the Japanese came upon the Russian cruiser Boyarin, Boyarin fired on the Mikasa at extreme range, then turned and fled. At around 12,00, at a range of about 5 miles, the Japanese concentrated the fire of their 12 guns on the shore batteries while using their 8 and 6 against the Russian ships. Shooting was poor on both sides, but the Japanese severely damaged the Novik, Petropavlovsk, Poltava, Diana and Askold. However, it became evident that Admiral Dewa had made a critical error, the Russians had recovered from the initial destroyer attack. At 12,20, Admiral Tōgō decided to reverse course and it was a highly risky maneuver that exposed the fleet to the full brunt of the Russian shore batteries
21.
Rifled breech loader
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The spin imparted by the guns rifling gives projectiles directional stability and increased range. Loading from the rear of the gun leaves the crew exposed to enemy fire, allows smaller gun emplacements or turrets. This was both a safety issue and one of gun performance - all the propellant gas was needed to accelerate the projectile along the barrel. The second problem was speed of operation - how to close the breech before firing, two solutions were developed more or less in parallel, the screw breech block and sliding wedge or sliding block. Hence, unlike with a rifle cartridge, the breech mechanism itself somehow needed to provide obturation. Hence if the block circumference was divided into two sets of threads and gaps, the only needed to be rotated ¼ turn to lock it instead of several turns. The tradeoff was that only ½ the blocks circumference was threaded, until the 19th century, only muzzle-loaders were used. In 1837 Martin von Wahrendorff patented a design for a breech-loader with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge, independently, Giovanni Cavalli first proposed a breech-loader gun in 1832 to the Sardinian Army, and first tested such a gun in 1845. Advances in metallurgy in the industrial era allowed for the construction of rifled breech-loading guns that could fire at a greater muzzle velocity. Production started in 1855 at the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, a degree of obturation was achieved via a cup on the face of the block being forced into a recessed ring on the chamber face. Whatever obturation that was achieved relied on manual labour rather than the power of the guns firing, however, the British Army and Navy preferred to revert to muzzle-loaders until larger high-powered breech-loaders with secure obturation systems that were relatively simple to operate were developed. In the meantime the French persevered with trying to develop breechloaders which combined faster loading than muzzle-loaders, high power, safety, the Lahitolle 95 mm cannon of 1875 with an interrupted screw breech met the first three requirements to a great extent and partially solved the obturation problem. Finally the de Bange system introduced in 1877 solved the problem with an asbestos pad impregnated with grease which expanded and sealed the breech on firing. The de Bange system formed the system for all subsequent screw breeches to the present day. Britain adopted the de Bange breech when it returned to breechloaders in the early 1880s after some experiments with the inferior Armstrong cup obturation system. Loading required the 3 operations in reverse and this was hence termed a three motion block and was slow to operate. While working as a designer for Thorsten Nordenfelt in London. This allowed the block to be unscrewed and swung out in two motions - the two motion interrupted screw breech, bofors continued to use this in medium artillery into the 20th century
22.
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
23.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
24.
Belgrade Fortress
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Belgrade Fortress, consists of the old citadel and Kalemegdan Park on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube, in an urban area of modern Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrades municipality of Stari Grad, Belgrade Fortress was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and is protected by the Republic of Serbia. Belgrade Fortress is located on top of the 125. 5-meter high ending ridge of the Šumadija geological bar, the cliff-like ridge overlooks the Great War Island and the confluence of the Sava river into the Danube, and makes one of the most beautiful natural lookouts in Belgrade. It borders the neighborhoods of Dorćol, Stari Grad and Kosančićev Venac and it is encircled by three streets, Boulevard of Vojvoda Bojović, Tadeuša Košćuška, Pariska, and the railway along the riverside. Belgrade Fortress is the core and the oldest section of the area of Belgrade. For centuries the city population was concentrated only within the walls of the fortress, the city-fortress was later conquered by the Romans, was known as Singidunum and became a part of the military frontier, where the Roman Empire bordered barbarian Central Europe. Singidunum was defended by the Roman legion IV Flaviae, which built a camp on a hill at the confluence of the Danube. In the period between AD378 and 441 the Roman camp was destroyed in the invasions by the Goths. Legend says that Attilas grave lies at the confluence of the Sava, in 476 Belgrade again became the borderline between the empires, the Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire, and the Slav-Avar State in the north. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I rebuilt the fortress around 535, in the following centuries the fortress suffered continuous destruction under the Avar sieges. The name Belgrade, which, not just in Serbian but in most Slavic languages, the fortress kept changing its masters, Bulgaria during three centuries, and then the Byzantines and then again Bulgarians. The fortress remained a Byzantine stronghold until the 12th century when it fell in the hands of the newly emerging Serbian state and it became a border city of the Serbian Kingdom, later Empire with Hungary. The Hungarian king Béla I gave the fortress to Serbia in the 11th century as a wedding gift, after the Serbian state collapsed after the Battle of Kosovo in 1404, Belgrade was chosen as the capital of the principality of Despot Stefan Lazarević. Major work was done to the ramparts which were encircling a big thriving town, the lower town at the banks of the Danube was the main urban center with a new build Orthodox cathedral. The upper town with its castle was defending the city from inland, Belgrade remained in Serbian hands for almost a century. After the Despots death in 1427 it had to be returned to Hungary, an attempt by Sultan Mehmed II to conquer the fortress was prevented by Janos Hunyadi in 1456, saving Hungary from Ottoman dominion for 70 years. During the short period of Austrian rule, the fortress was largely rebuilt and it witnessed the Great Serbian Migration in the 17th century and two Serbian Uprisings in the 19th century, during the Turkish Period. The fortress suffered further damage during the First and the Second World Wars, after almost two millennia of continuous sieges, battles and conquests, the fortress is today known as the Belgrade Fortress
25.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
26.
August von Mackensen
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Anton Ludwig August von Mackensen, born August Mackensen, was a German field marshal. He commanded with success during the First World War and became one of the German Empires most prominent military leaders, after the Armistice, Mackensen was interned for a year. He retired from the army in 1920 and was made a Prussian state councillor in 1933 by Hermann Göring, during the Nazi era, Mackensen remained a committed monarchist and sometimes appeared at official functions in his First World War uniform. He was suspected of disloyalty to the Third Reich, although nothing was proven against him, Mackensen was born in Haus Leipnitz, near the village of Dahlenberg in the Prussian Province of Saxony, to Louis and Marie Louise Mackensen. His father, an administrator of agricultural enterprises, sent him to a Realgymnasium in Halle in 1865, Mackensen began his military service in 1869 as a volunteer with the Prussian 2nd Life Hussars Regiment. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 he was promoted to second lieutenant, after the war he left the service and studied at Halle University, but returned to the army in 1873 with his old regiment. He married Doris von Horn, the sister of a slain comrade and her father Karl von Horn was the influential Oberpräsident of East Prussia, they had two daughters and three sons. In 1891 Mackensen was appointed to the General Staff in Berlin, Mackensen was surprised by his next posting, as an adjutant to William II, because he was the first commoner to hold that position. For the next three and a half years he shadowed the Kaiser, meeting the high and mighty of Germany, the rest of Europe, and his sons shared gymnastics classes with the Kaisers. He was ennobled on the Kaisers 40th birthday,27 January 1899, next he received the command of the newly created Life Hussar Brigade from 1901 to 1903, and from 1903 to 1908 commanded the 36th Division in Danzig. He became a widower in 1905, and two later married Leonie von der Osten, who was 22 years old. When Schlieffen retired in 1906, Mackensen was considered as a possible successor, in 1908 Mackensen was given command of the XVII Army Corps, headquartered in Danzig. The Crown Prince was placed under his command, and the Kaiser asked Mackensen to keep an eye on the young man and to teach him to ride properly. He led XVII Corps in the battles of Gumbinnen, Tannenberg and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, on 2 November 1914 Mackensen took over command of the Ninth Army from Hindenburg, who became Supreme Commander East. On 27 November 1914 Mackensen was awarded the Pour le Mérite, Prussias highest military order, for successful battles around Łódź, by April 1915 the Russians had conquered all of western Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian slice of partitioned Poland, and were pushing toward Hungary. In response to desperate pleas the German supreme commander Erich von Falkenhayn agreed to an offensive against the Russian flank by an Austro-German Army under a German commander, the reluctant Austro-Hungarian supreme command agreed that the tactful Mackensen was the best choice for commanding the coalition army. Army Group Mackensen was established containing a new German Eleventh army, also under his command, as chief of staff he was assigned Hans von Seeckt, who described Mackensen as an amiable, hands-on commander with the instincts of a hunter. Mackensen was awarded oak leaves to his Pour le Mérite on 3 June 1915, in October 1915, a new Army Group Mackensen, launched a renewed campaign against Serbia
27.
Serbian Campaign of World War I
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The Serbian Campaign of World War I was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded the Kingdom of Serbia at the outset of World War I, until the wars conclusion in November 1918. The front ranged from the Danube River to southern Macedonia and back north again, the Serbian Army declined severely towards the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war, according to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers, or 25% of all mobilized people. By comparison, France lost 16. 8%, Germany 15. 4%, Russia 11. 5%, Austria-Hungary precipitated the Bosnian crisis of 1908–09 by annexing the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. This angered the Kingdom of Serbia and its patron, the Pan-Slavic, Russian political manoeuvring in the region destabilised peace accords that were already unravelling in what was known as the powder keg of Europe. In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank the Ottoman Empire by creating an independent Principality of Albania and enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and this began a period of diplomatic manoeuvring among Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain called the July Crisis. When Serbia agreed to eight of the ten demands, Austria-Hungary declared war on 28 July 1914. The dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia escalated into what is now known as World War I, and drew in Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Within a week, Austria-Hungary had to face a war with Russia, Serbias patron, the result was that Serbia became a subsidiary front in the massive fight that started to unfold along Austria-Hungarys border with Russia. Serbias strategy was to hold on as long as it could and hope the Russians could defeat the main Austro-Hungarian Army, with or without the help of other allies. Serbia constantly had to worry about its hostile neighbor to the east, Bulgaria, with which it had fought several wars, the standing peacetime Austro-Hungarian army had some 36,000 officers and non-commissioned officers and 414,000 soldiers. During the mobilization, this number was increased to a total of 3,350,000 men of all ranks and this vast manpower allowed the Austro-Hungarian army to replace its losses regularly and keep units at their formation strength. According to some sources, during 1914 there were on average 150,000 men per month sent to replace the loses in the field army, during 1915 these numbers rose to 200,000 per month. However, with the beginning of the Russian general mobilization, Armeeoberkommando decided to move the 2nd Army to Galicia to counter Russian forces, furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian defeats suffered during the first invasion of Serbia forced AOK to transfer two divisions from the 2nd Army permanently to Potioreks force. By 12 August, Austria-Hungary had amassed over 500,000 soldiers on Serbian frontiers, with the departure of the major part of the 2nd Army to the Russian front, this number fell to some 285,000 of operational troops, including garrisons. Apart from land forces, Austria-Hungary also deployed its Danube River flotilla of six monitors, many Austro-Hungarian soldiers were not of good quality. About one-quarter of them were illiterate, and most of the conscripts from the subject nationalities did not speak or understand German or Hungarian
28.
Military Museum, Belgrade
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The Military Museum in Belgrade was founded in 1878. The museum has over 3000 ancient and modern items and these include Roman swords and helmets, Greek helmets and daggers, Serbian heavy knights armor, axes, shields, helmets, crossbows, armoured gloves, as well as Western medieval weapons. There are also more modern guns, firearms, and elements of soldiers uniforms, dioramas, plaques, and displays illustrate the use and historical context of the museums collection. It was founded by the Decree of Prince Milan Obrenović IV on August 22,1878 on preposition of Minister of the Army, the first permanent display was opened in 1904, coinciding with the 100th Anniversary of the Serbian Revolution and as a part of King Petars Coronation Ceremonies. Soon after its foundation, the Museum entered Europe by participating in the Balkan Expo in London in 1907, there, with around 100 carefully chosen objects, the Museum attracted the attention of the London public and it was described in local newspapers. The Museum’s building was destroyed by Austro-Hungarian forces during the First World War, again, more than two decades had past before the new Display opened. King Alexandar I Karadjordjević issued a Decree of Founding the Military Museum in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, brigadier Vojislav Vuković, majordom of Royal Court, became the director of the Museum. The Systematical collecting of objects started and numerous donors, former soldiers and their names were signed in a special Golden Book, the work of famous Russian artist Vsevolod Guljevič. The book is kept in the Military Museum. A new, permanent Display was opened in 1937 in two buildings of one is today a residence of City Bureau for the Preservation of Monuments. During the Second World War, the collections suffered new devastation, however, according to the program of occupation troops, some cultural institutions with Military Museums among them continued their work during the occupation. The collecting of objects and their preservation was the responsibility of the museum staff. The Allied bombing of Belgrade in 1944 brought new destruction of the museum buildings, inside the museums main building, the exhibits are found in a single long hall progressing from ancient through medieval and then towards modern. All exhibits are labeled in the Serbian Language in both Cyrillic and Latin, as well as English, outside the museums main building, there are numerous tanks, howitzers, and armoured cars of many types. Some were acquired during World War II, when they were captured by the Red Army and Yugoslav Partisans from retreating Nazi and these decommissioned tanks and artillery pieces line the walls and paths leading into the Military Museum from two directions. A well-known exhibit features parts of a US F-117 stealth aircraft which was downed by a Serbian S-125 Neva/Pechora, the Military Museum is located inside the walls of the historic Belgrade Fortress, situated at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. The Belgrade Fortress is located within a park known as the Kalemegdan Park. For more information, visit the site of Belgrade Military Museum Serbian medieval weapons
29.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
30.
Namur
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Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Walloon Parliament, Namur stands at the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers and straddles three different regions – Hesbaye to the north, Condroz to the south-east, and Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse to the south-west. The city of Charleroi is located to the west, the town began as an important trading settlement in Celtic times, straddling east-west and north-south trade routes across the Ardennes. The Romans established a presence after Julius Caesar defeated the local Aduatuci tribe, Namur came to prominence during the early Middle Ages when the Merovingians built a castle or citadel on the rocky spur overlooking the town at the confluence of the two rivers. In the 10th century, it became a county in its own right, in 1262, Namur fell into the hands of the Count of Flanders, and was purchased by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1421. After Namur became part of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1640s, louis XIV of France invaded in 1692, capturing the town and annexing it to France. His renowned military engineer Vauban rebuilt the citadel, french control was short-lived, as William III of Orange-Nassau captured Namur only three years later in 1695 during the War of the Grand Alliance. Thus, although the Austrians ruled the town, the citadel was controlled by the Dutch and it was rebuilt again under their tenure. France invaded the region again in 1794, annexing Namur and imposing a repressive regime, after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna incorporated what is now Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgium broke away from the Netherlands in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, the citadel was rebuilt yet again in 1887. Namur was a target of the German invasion of Belgium in 1914. On August 21,1914, the Germans bombarded the town of Namur without warning, despite being billed as virtually impregnable, the citadel fell after only three days fighting and the town was occupied by the Germans for the rest of the war. Namur fared little better in World War II, it was in the front lines of both the Battle of the Ardennes in 1940 and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, the town suffered heavy damage in both wars. Namur continued to host the Belgian Armys paratroopers until their departure in 1977, after the creation of the Walloon Region, Namur was chosen as the seat of its executive and parliament. In 1986, Namur was officially declared capital of Wallonia and its position as regional capital was confirmed by the Parliament of Wallonia in 2010. Namur is an important commercial and industrial centre, located on the Walloon industrial backbone and it produces machinery, leather goods, metals and porcelain. Its railway station is also an important junction situated on the line between Brussels and Luxembourg City, and the east-west line between Lille and Liège. River barge traffic passes through the middle of the city along the Meuse, Namur has taken on a new role as the capital of the federal region of Wallonia
31.
Antwerp
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Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
32.
Siege of Maubeuge
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The Siege of Maubeuge took place from 24 August –7 September 1914, at the start of World War I on the Western Front. The garrison of the fortress surrendered to the Germans after bombardment by heavy and super-heavy artillery, attacks by aircraft, on 7 August General Fournier, commander of the fortified region of Maubeuge, warned that a German offensive over the Meuse River by six corps was likely. Kitchener ordered General John French not to himself under the command of the French Army. The BEF landed in France from 14–17 August and took post on the flank of the French Fifth Army from Maubeuge to Le Cateau by 20 August. Next day dawn broke misty and no air reconnaissance was possible until the afternoon, the BEF began to advance northwards from Maubeuge towards Mons, despite aircraft reconnaissance reports that a column of German troops stretched through Louvain as far as the eye could see. The possibility of the BEF assembling at Maubeuge was known to the Germans, on 21 August, General Karl von Bülow ordered the 1st Army to veer southwards towards Maubeuge. On 24 August, the VII Corps, on the flank of the 2nd Army. News arrived of the fall of most of the Namur forts and air reconnaissance revealed the beginning of a French general retreat, to a line from Verdun to Mézières and Maubeuge. The 14th Division of the VII Reserve Corps, was ordered south to Binche to join the IX, the Germans were under the impression that the BEF was about to be surrounded but late in the afternoon, it was discovered that the BEF had escaped. Bulow made General von Einem responsible for the isolation of Maubeuge, with the VII Corps, VII Reserve Corps, IX Corps, on 27 August, the 13th Reserve Division was sent to Maubeuge and the VII Corps was ordered to leave one brigade behind and march southwards. Zwehl planned to attack the fortress from the north-east, with an attack from south of the Sambre. A regiment of cavalry was to cover the gap to the west, the 21 heavy and super-heavy batteries from Namur were to be deployed between Givry and Solre. Later that day the German 2nd Army opened its attack on Maubeuge and next day the 2nd Army bypassed Maubeuge, the French Grand Quartier Général ordered the fortress commander to hold on as German forces beyond, completed the investment of the fortified area. From 29 August –5 September, the Maubeuge fortresses were bombarded by German heavy and super-heavy artillery, German infantry attacked the fortress on 5 September and on the next day stormed four of the bypassed forts. On the evening of 6 September, the area of Maubeuge was surrendered to the Germans. In Principal Events, 1914–1918, the British Official Historians recorded that 40,000 French soldiers were taken prisoner, in 2009, Herwig recorded that the Germans took 32,692 prisoners and 450 guns, when Maubeuge was surrendered on 6 September. On 9 November 1918, Maubeuge was re-taken by the British Guards Division and 62nd Division
33.
Henri Alexis Brialmont
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Brialmont qualified as an officer in the Belgian army engineers in 1843 and quickly rose up the ranks. He served as an officer, and later was given command of the district of the key port of Antwerp. He finished his careers as Inspector-General of the Army, today, Brialmont is best known for the fortifications which he designed in Belgium and Romania and would influence another in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Henri-Alexis Brialmont was born in Venlo in Dutch Limburg in 1821 and his father, Mathieu Brialmont, had served in the French Grand Armée during the Napoleonic Wars and had reached the rank of Captain. During Dutch rule in Belgium, Mathieu served in the Dutch army and, after Belgian independence in 1830, in 1849 he was made General, and was appointed Minister of War in 1850. Although Venlo is not situated in Belgium today, the whole of Limburg was a territory over which the Belgian government claimed control after the Belgian Revolution. Belgium was forced to relinquish its claims at the Treaty of London in 1839, henri-Alexis performed poorly at school but succeeded in getting into a military academy. In 1859, during his career, he married the daughter of the journalist and leading figure of the Belgian Revolution. Brialmont graduated from school in 1843 as a Sous-lieutenant of the Engineers. He quickly rose up the ranks, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1847, from 1847 to 1850 he was private secretary to the war minister, General Baron Félix Chazal. In 1855 he entered the corps, was promoted to the rank of major in 1861, lieutenant-colonel in 1864. In 1874 he was promoted to major-general and was appointed to oversee the fortifications of Belgiums major port, Antwerp, in 1877 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and later to Inspector-General of the Army, a post which he held until his retirement in 1892. During the Belgian response to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Brialmont, then a colonel, served as chief-of-staff of the Army of Antwerp, from his early career, Brialmont advocated expanding the importance of the Belgian army. In 1850, he convinced his father to resign his ministerial post rather than consent to a lowering of defence spending and his stance put him into conflict with Walthère Frère-Orban and the Liberals. From 1855, he began campaigning for restructuring of the defenses of the port city of Antwerp in north-east Belgium. Despite being officially warned off the politically unpopular project, he continued, although Leopold I was deeply opposed to Brialmonts plans, his son was impressed by his ideas and the two corresponded frequently. Brialmont felt that colonial expansion was essential to make Belgium a world power, and was a supporter of Leopold IIs Congo Free State. Nevertheless, Brialmont refused the offer of becoming Leopold IIs aide-de-camp, in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, Brialmont became an advocate for the abolition of the Remplacement system of conscription and the adoption of a form of universal military service
34.
Fort de Pontisse
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The Fort de Pontisse is one of twelve forts built as part of the fortifications of Liège in the late 19th century in Belgium. It was built between 1881 and 1884 according to the plans of General Henri Alexis Brialmont, contrasting with the French forts built in the same era by Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, the fort was built exclusively of unreinforced concrete, a new material, rather than masonry. The fort was bombarded by German artillery in the Battle of Liège. Attacked in both World War I and World War II, the fort has been preserved as a refuge for bats, the Fort de Pontisse is located about 7 kilometres northeast of the center of Liège. Flémalle overlooks the Meuse valley and the Albert Canal downstream from Liège, the fort was built as an irregular trapezoid. A 6-metre deep by 8-metre ditch encircles the fort, the principal armament was concentrated in the central massif. The ditches were defended in enfilade by 57mm guns in casemates resembling counterscarp batteries, the fort is one of the larger Liège forts. This would have effects on the forts ability to endure a long assault. The service areas were placed directly opposite the barracks, which opened into the ditch in the rear of the fort, in combat heavy shellfire made the rear ditch untenable, and German forces were able to get between the forts and attack them from the rear. The Brialmont forts were designed to be protected from shellfire equaling their heaviest guns, the top of the central massif used 4 metres of unreinforced concrete, while the caserne walls, judged to be less exposed, used 1.5 metres. Under fire, the forts were damaged by 21cm weapons and could not withstand heavier artillery, pontisses armament included two turrets with a single 21 cm Krupp gun, a 15 cm turret with twin guns and two 12 cm turrets with two Krupp guns, all for distant targets. Four 57mm gun turrets were provided for local defense, the fort also mounted an observation turret with a searchlight. Eight rapid-fire 57mm guns were provided in casemates for the defense of the ditches, the forts heavy guns were German, typically Krupp, while the turret mechanisms were from a variety of sources. The fort was provided with signal lights to permit communication with the neighboring Fort de Liers, the guns were fired using black powder rather than smokeless powder, producing choking gas in the confined firing spaces that spread throughout the fort. Liège first came under attack on 6 August 1914, when the Lièges fortifications proved unexpectedly stubborn, the Germans brought heavy siege artillery to bombard the forts with shells far larger than they were designed to resist. Pontisse was the first fort to come under bombardment from 42 cm artillery and it held out until 13 August 1914, when it surrendered, unable to resist any longer. The Germans improved Pontisse with better sanitary arrangements, ventilation and reinforced concrete in 1916, the Liège forts were reoccupied by the Belgian army in 1918 after the armistice. Pontisses armament was upgraded in the 1930s to become part of the Fortified Position of Liège II, the armament was upgraded with new guns in the turrets and an anti-aircraft battery
35.
Fort de Loncin
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The Fort de Loncin is one of twelve forts built as part of the Fortifications of Liège in the late 19th century in Belgium. It was constructed between 1881 and 1884 according to the plans of General Henri Alexis Brialmont, contrasting with the French forts built in the same era by Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, the fort was built exclusively of unreinforced concrete, a new material, rather than masonry. The experimental nature of the new material, and the features of the fort. Weak concrete made the fort vulnerable to artillery, while poor living conditions reduced the forts ability to operate under fire. The fort was destroyed during World War I in the Battle of Liège, the event marked the debut of the Big Bertha howitzer in combat. Relatively few of the dead were recovered, the site is now a military cemetery, the Fort de Loncin is located about 7 kilometres west of the centre of Liège, in the direction of Brussels and Tongeren, in the municipality of Ans. The garrison comprised about 500 men, the fort forms an isosceles triangle whose base is 300 metres long and whose sides measure 235 metres. A 6-metre deep by 8-metre ditch encircles the fort, which is semi-submerged in the landscape, the principal armament was concentrated in the central massif. The ditches were defended in enfilade by 57mm guns in casemates resembling counterscarp batteries, the casemate at the point of the triangle was disposed on two levels, allowing action in case the lower level became obstructed. The fort made provisions for infantry sorties onto the surrounding cleared area and this would have profound effects on the forts ability to endure a long assault. Even at Loncin, the areas were placed directly opposite the barracks. In combat heavy shellfire made the rear ditch untenable, and German forces were able to get between the forts and attack them from the rear. Loncin was the only Liège fort to be provided with ventilation, allowing gun and sewage gases to be evacuated. Loncin also provided better sanitary arrangements than its neighbors, the Brialmont forts were designed to be protected from shellfire equaling their heaviest guns,21 cm. The top of the central massif used 4 metres of unreinforced concrete, while the caserne walls, under fire, the forts were damaged by 21 cm fire and could not withstand heavier artillery. The fort was provided with signal lights to permit communication with the neighboring Fort de Lantin, the guns were fired using black powder rather than smokeless powder, producing choking gas in the confined firing spaces that spread throughout the fort. In 1914 the Fort de Loncin was one of the last Liège forts to suffer German bombardment, Liège first came under attack on 6 August 1914. Loncin was massively bombarded for three days from 12 to 15 August, before one of its two magazines, with tons of explosive, blew up
36.
Wunderwaffe
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Wunderwaffe is German for Wonder Weapon and was a term assigned during World War II by the Nazi Germany propaganda ministry to a few revolutionary superweapons. Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which never reached the combat theater, or if they did. The V-weapons, which were developed earlier and saw considerable deployment, especially against London and Antwerp, therefore, they are also included here. In the German language the term Wunderwaffe generally refers to a solution which solves all problems related to a particular issue. Graf Zeppelin – a 33,550 ton aircraft carrier laid down in 1936, flugzeugträger B – planned sister ship to the Graf Zeppelin, scrapped before launching. I – a planned 56,500 ton aircraft carrier, converted from a transport, sent to Japan and captured by the Soviets in 1945. Currently on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum, the Wages of Destruction, The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
37.
Battle of Verdun
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The Battle of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916, was the largest and longest battle of the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies. The battle took place on the north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. The German 5th Army attacked the defences of the Fortified Region of Verdun, poor weather delayed the beginning of the German attack until 21 February, but the Germans enjoyed initial success, capturing Fort Douaumont in the first three days of the offensive. Afterwards the German advance slowed, despite many French casualties, by 6 March, 20 1⁄2 French divisions were in the RFV and a more extensive defence in depth had been constructed. Pétain ordered that On ne passe pas were to be made, by 29 March, French artillery on the west bank had begun a constant bombardment of German positions on the east bank, which caused many German infantry casualties. In March, the German offensive was extended to the bank of the Meuse. The Germans were able to advance at first but French reinforcements contained the short of their objectives. In early May, the Germans changed tactics and made local attacks and counter-attacks, part of the fort was occupied, until a German counter-attack recaptured the fort and took numerous prisoners. The Germans changed tactics again, alternating their attacks on banks of the Meuse and in June captured Fort Vaux. The Germans continued the offensive beyond Vaux, towards the last geographical objectives of the plan, at Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The Germans drove a salient into the French defences, captured Fleury, a German attempt to capture Fort Souville in early July was repulsed by artillery and small-arms fire. In August and December, French counter-offensives recaptured much of the ground lost on the east bank and recovered Fort Douaumont, the Battle of Verdun lasted for 303 days and became the longest and one of the most costly battles in human history. After the German invasion of France had been halted at the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the war of movement ended at the Battle of the Yser and the First Battle of Ypres. The Germans built field fortifications to hold the ground captured in 1914, in late 1914 and in 1915, offensives on the Western Front had failed to gain much ground and been extremely costly in casualties. Falkenhayn offered five corps from the reserve for an offensive at Verdun at the beginning of February 1916. After the war, the Kaiser and Colonel Tappen, the Operations Officer at Oberste Heeresleitung, in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies attacked Russian defences frontally, after pulverising them with large amounts of heavy artillery. In the north, a British relief offensive would wear down British reserves, to no decisive effect, hints about Falkenhayns thinking were picked up by Dutch military intelligence and passed on to the British in December. The Fortified Region of Verdun lay in a salient formed during the German invasion of 1914, in a directive of the General Staff of 5 August 1915, the RFV was to be stripped of 54 artillery batteries and 128,000 rounds of ammunition
38.
Kartouwe
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A kartouwe is a siege gun used in European warfare during the 16th and 17th centuries. The name is a corruption of Latin quartana, a kartouwe has a caliber of 8 inches, weighs about 8,000 pounds, and is designed to fire cannonballs weighing up to 52 pounds. As a minimum, twenty horses or oxen were needed to move a kartouwe, in addition to whole kartouwen, there were also double, half and quarter kartouwen. The barrel length of a half-kartouwen is 32 to 34 times the caliber and its barrel weighs 110 kilograms to 150 kilograms, the whole gun 170 kilograms to 240 kilograms. Half-kartouwen fired cannonballs weighing between 8 pounds and 10 pounds, and for the transport of its barrel,10 to 16 horses were needed, kartouwen were used for example in the Livonian War by the Russian and Swedish forces. During the Battle of Narva, the besieging Swedish forces destroyed the walls of Narva,5.5 metres strong, kartouwen were also the characteristic of the Thirty Years War. As such, they were featured in poems, e. g. in Am liebsten bey der Liebsten by Sibylla Schwarz. In his 1844 poem Die Tendenz, Heinrich Heine used kartouwen to symbolize loudness
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Aberdeen Proving Ground
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Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Maryland. Part of the facility is a place, which had a population of 3,116 at the 2000 census. APG is the U. S. Armys oldest active proving ground, established on October 20,1917 and its location allowed design and testing of ordnance materiel to take place near contemporary industrial and shipping centers. The proving ground was created as a successor to the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, at the peak of World War II, APG had billeting space for 2,348 officers and 24,189 enlisted personnel. These poison gas manufacturing facilities came to be known as Edgewood Arsenal, Edgewood Arsenal included plants to manufacture mustard gas, chloropicrin and phosgene, and separate facilities to fill artillery shells with these chemicals. Production began in 1918, reached 2,756 tons per month, some of this gas was shipped overseas for use in French and British artillery shells. The Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground is approximately 13,000 acres, the Edgewood area was used for the development and testing of chemical agent munitions. From 1917 to the present, the Edgewood area conducted chemical research programs, manufactured chemical agents, and tested, stored, from 1955 to 1975, the U. S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified medical studies at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing. About 7,000 soldiers took part in experiments that involved exposures to more than 250 different chemicals. Some of the volunteers exhibited symptoms at the time of exposure to these agents, the Gunpowder Meetinghouse and Presbury Meetinghouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other parts of APG not attached to the installation include the Churchville Test Area in Harford County. The eastern half Carroll Island was used as a location for open air static testing of chemical weapons since the 1950s. Simulant agents, incendiaries, decontaminating compounds, signaling and screening smokes, mustard, the test sites consisted of spray grids, a wind tunnel, test grids, and small buildings. Edgewood Chemical Activity is a depot located at APG. Elimination of the chemicals held here was put on an accelerated schedule after the September 11,2001, attacks, Fort Hoyle was established on October 7,1922, and was created from a portion of the Edgewood Arsenal. Named for Brigadier General Eli D, Fort Hoyle was officially disestablished as a separate military post when it was reabsorbed by Edgewood Arsenal on September 10,1940. The U. S. Army Ordnance Corps Museum previously located at APG, was moved to Fort Lee, Virginia as a result of the 2005 Base Relocation, APG is located at 39°28′24″N 76°8′27″W and occupies a land area of 293 square kilometres
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Meppen
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Meppen is a town in and the seat of the Emsland district of Lower Saxony, Germany, at the confluence of the Ems, Hase, and Nordradde rivers and the Dortmund-Ems canal. The name stems from the word Mappe, meaning delta, the town lying on the mouth of the Hase into the Ems in the central part of the Emsland between the cities of Lingen and Papenburg. Lying about 12 miles from the Dutch border, the town has an area of 188.45 km² and is 15 m above sea level, the population was 34,196 as of 30 June 2005. Quarters of Meppen, Following villages are situated in Meppen, In 1974,13 independent municipalities in the vicinity of the town were integrated into Meppen. Meppen, formerly a town, boasts 12 centuries of history. The first documented mention of Meppen is in 834, in a deed of donation by Frankish emperor Louis the Pious,945 -- Emperor Otto the Great grants the town the rights to mint coins and collect tolls, followed in 946 by market rights. 1252—Countess Jutta von Vechta-Ravensberg sells her possessions to the Bishop of Münster, Meppen becomes part of the Niederstift Münster. 1360—Meppen is granted the right to build city fortifications by Bishop Adolf of Münster, over the next three centuries until 1660, Meppen is built up as a fortified town. 1762—at the end of the Seven Years War, the fortifications are demolished, some walls remain standing today, however. 1803—Resolutions of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss assign Meppen to Louis Engelbert, 6th Duke of Arenberg, Meppen becomes the capital of the dukedom of Arenberg. 1811—Meppen is incorporated into the First French Empire as a cantonal seat, 1814–1815—Resolutions of the Congress of Vienna assign Meppen and the Duchy of Arenburg to the Kingdom of Hanover. 1855—Meppen connected to the Hannoverschen Westbahn railway line upon its opening, 1866—Hanover becomes a province of Prussia. 1946—The state of Prussia is abolished after the Second World War, Meppen becomes part of the newly created Land of Lower Saxony. 1977—District reforms in Lower Saxony unite the districts of Lingen, Meppen and Aschendorf-Hümmling in the district of Emsland. Between September and April the Meppen Theatre Group offers a comprehensive programme, productions take place in the Meppen Theatre and Concert Hall, which was designed by Eberhard Kulenkampff and completed in 1959. It also acts as a hall for the Windthorst Gymnasium. The programme includes both touring theatre productions as well as events of various genres. From May to September, the Emsland Open Air Stage at Meppen offers visitors a family musical, more than 30,000 visitors come each year to the open air theatre in Esterfeld Forest to see large musical performances involving casts of up to 100
