1.
Mortar (weapon)
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A mortar is a device that fires projectiles at low velocities and short ranges. The mortar has traditionally used as a weapon to propel explosive mortar bombs in high-arcing ballistic trajectories. The weapon is typically muzzle-loading with a short, often smooth-bore barrel, Modern mortars are light and easily portable. They can be used for fire support with a variety of ammunition. Mortars have been used for hundreds of years, originally in siege warfare, many historians consider the first mortars to have been used at the 1453 siege of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror. A European account of the 1456 siege of Belgrade by Giovanni da Tagliacozzo said that the Ottoman Turks used seven mortars that fired stone shots one Italian mile high. The time of flight of these was long enough that casualties could be avoided by posting observers to give warning of their trajectories. However, earlier mortars were used in Korea in a 1413 naval battle when Korean gunsmiths developed the Wangu, the earliest version of the Wangu dates back to 1407. Choe Hae-san, the son of Choe Mu-seon, is credited with inventing the first Wangu. Early mortars, such as the Pumhart von Steyr, were large and heavy. Simply made, these weapons were no more than iron bowls reminiscent of the kitchen, an early transportable mortar was invented by Baron Menno van Coehoorn. This mortar fired a shell, which had a fuse lit by the hot gases when fired. This innovation was taken up, necessitating a new form of naval ship. Mortars played a significant role in the Venetian conquest of Morea, an early use of these more mobile mortars as field weapons was by British forces in the suppression of the 1719 Jacobite rising at the Battle of Glen Shiel. High angle trajectory mortars held an advantage over standard field guns in the rough terrain of the West Highlands of Scotland. Coehorn-type mortars of approximately 180 pounds weight were used by both sides during the American Civil War and these answered as coehorns, and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy. The mortar had fallen out of use by the Napoleonic era. The German Army studied the Siege of Port Arthur, where heavy artillery had been unable to destroy defensive structures like barbed wire, the solution they developed was a short-barrelled rifled muzzle-loading mortar called the Minenwerfer, and was built in three sizes
2.
Fort McHenry
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It was first built in 1798 and was used continuously by U. S. armed forces through World War I and by the Coast Guard in World War II. It was replaced early on the morning of September 14,1814 with a garrison flag. The larger flag signaled American victory over the British in the Battle of Baltimore, Fort McHenry was built on the site of the former Fort Whetstone, which had defended Baltimore from 1776 to 1797. The Frenchman Jean Foncin designed the fort in 1798, and it was built between 1798 and 1800, the new forts purpose was to improve the defenses of the increasingly important Port of Baltimore from future enemy attacks. The new fort was constructed in the form of a star surrounded by a dry moat — a deep. The moat would serve as a shelter from which infantry might defend the fort from a land attack, in case of such an attack on this first line of defense, each point, or bastion could provide a crossfire of cannon and small arms fire. Fort McHenry was named after early American statesman James McHenry, a Scots-Irish immigrant and he was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Maryland and a signer of the United States Constitution. Afterwards, he was appointed United States Secretary of War, serving under presidents Presidents George Washington, beginning at 6,00 a. m. on 13 September 1814, British warships under the command of Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane continuously bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours. The American defenders had 18-, 24- and 32-pounder cannons, the British guns had a range of 2 miles, and the British rockets had a 1. 75-mile range, but neither guns nor rockets were accurate. The British ships were unable to pass Fort McHenry and penetrate Baltimore Harbor because of its defenses, including a chain of 22 sunken ships, the British vessels were only able to fire their rockets and mortars at the fort at the weapons maximum range. The poor accuracy on both sides resulted in little damage to either side before the British, having depleted their ammunition. Thus the naval part of the British invasion of Baltimore had been repulsed, only one British warship, a bomb vessel, received a direct hit from the forts return fire, which wounded one crewman. At one point during the bombardment, a bomb crashed through the powder magazine. Fortunately for the defenders, either the rain extinguished the fuse or the bomb was a dud. Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer who had come to Baltimore to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an oversized American flag had been sewn by Mary Pickersgill for $405.90 in anticipation of the British attack on the fort. Francis Scott Keys grandson, Francis Key Howard, was one of political detainees. Taney occurred at the gates between Court and Federal Marshals and the commander of Union troops occupying the Fort under orders from President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Fort McHenry also served to train artillery at this time, this service is the origin of the Rodman guns presently located and displayed at the fort
3.
Battle of Baltimore
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The Battle of Baltimore was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the port city of Baltimore, Maryland. The British and Americans first met at North Point, until April 1814, Great Britain was at war with Napoleonic France, which limited British war aims in America. During this time the British primarily used a strategy and repelled American invasions of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the Americans gained naval control over Lake Erie in 1813, in the Southwest, General Andrew Jackson destroyed the military strength of the Creek nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Following the defeat of Napoleon in the spring of 1814, the British adopted an aggressive strategy. Thousands of seasoned British soldiers were deployed to British North America, the combined forces were to be used for diversionary raids along the Atlantic coast, intended to force the Americans to withdraw forces from Canada. They were under orders not to carry out any extended operations, the letter was considered by Ross and Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane in planning how to use their forces. Cochranes junior, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, had been commanding ships of the squadron in the operations on the Chesapeake Bay since the previous year. On 25 June he wrote to Cochrane stressing that the defenses there were weak, Cochrane suggested attacking Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia. On 17 July, Cockburn recommended Washington as the target, because of the ease of attacking the national capital. On 18 July, Cochrane ordered Cockburn that to deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages and you are hereby required and directed to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts as you may find assailable. Cochrane instructed, You will spare merely the lives of the inhabitants of the United States. In August, the vessels in Bermuda sailed from the Royal Naval Dockyard, after defeating a US Navy gunboat flotilla, a military force totaling 4,370 under Ross was landed in Virginia. After beating off an American force of 1,200 on the 23rd, despite the considerable disadvantage in numbers and sustaining heavy casualties, the British force routed the American defenders and cleared the path into the capital. The Burning of Washington took place that night before the returned to the ships. The British also sent a fleet up the Potomac to cut off Washingtons water access and threaten the prosperous ports of Alexandria, just downstream of Washington, the mere appearance of the fleet cowed American defenders into fleeing from Fort Warburton without firing a shot, and undefended Alexandria surrendered. Baltimore was a port and was thought by the British to harbor many of the privateers who were raiding British shipping
4.
Naval ship
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A naval ship is a military ship used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose, generally, naval ships are damage resilient and armed with weapon systems, though armament on troop transports is light or non-existent. Naval ships designed primarily for naval warfare are termed warships, as opposed to support or shipyard operations, submarine – self-propelled submersible types regardless of whether they are employed as combatant, auxiliary, or research and development vehicles which have at least a residual combat capability. Amphibious warfare – ships having organic capability for amphibious assault and which have characteristics enabling long duration operations on the high seas, combat logistics – ships that have the capability to provide underway replenishment to fleet units. Mine warfare – ships whose primary function is mine warfare on the high seas, coastal defense – ships whose primary function is coastal patrol and interdiction. Sealift – ships that have the capability to provide material support to other deployed units operating far from home base. Support – ships, such as oilers, designed to operate in the ocean in a variety of sea states to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore based establishments. Service type craft – navy-subordinated craft designed to provide support to either combatant forces or shore-based establishments. In rough order of tonnage, modern naval ships are commonly divided into the following different classes. There is also much blurring / gray areas between the classes, depending on their use, history, and interpretation of the class by different navies. Official Website of the United States Navy, heres the Entire U. S. Navy Fleet in One Chart. Official Website of the United States Navy, *United States Naval Recognition Training Slides-Grand Valley State University Archives and Special Collections
5.
Weapon
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A weapon, arm, or armament is any device used with intent to inflict damage or harm to living beings, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, self-defense. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, something that has been re-purposed, converted, or enhanced to become a weapon of war is termed weaponized, such as a weaponized virus or weaponized lasers. The use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees, however, this can not be confirmed using physical evidence because wooden clubs, spears, and unshaped stones would not have left an unambiguous record. The earliest unambiguous weapons to be found are the Schöninger Speere, the first defensive structures and fortifications appeared in the Bronze Age, indicating an increased need for security. Weapons designed to breach fortifications followed soon after, for example the battering ram was in use by 2500 BC, although early Iron Age swords were not superior to their bronze predecessors, once iron-working developed, around 1300 BC in Greece Alex Webb, Metalworking in Ancient Greece. Domestication of the horse and widespread use of spoked wheels by ca.2000 BC, led to the light, the mobility provided by chariots were important during this era. Spoke-wheeled chariot usage peaked around 1300 BC and then declined, ceasing to be militarily relevant by the 4th century BC. Cavalry developed once horses were bred to support the weight of a man, the horse extended the range and increased the speed of attacks. Ships built as weapons or warships such as the trireme were in use by the 7th century BC and these ships were eventually replaced by larger ships by the 4th century BC. European warfare during the Post-classical history was dominated by groups of knights supported by massed infantry. They were involved in combat and sieges which involved various siege weapons. Knights on horseback developed tactics for charging with lances providing an impact on the enemy formations, whereas infantry, in the age before structured formations, relied on cheap, sturdy weapons such as spears and billhooks in close combat and bows from a distance. As armies became more professional, their equipment was standardized and infantry transitioned to pikes, pikes are normally seven to eight feet in length, in conjunction with smaller side-arms. In Eastern and Middle Eastern warfare, similar tactics were developed independent of European influences, the introduction of gunpowder from the Far East at the end of this period revolutionized warfare. Formations of musketeers, protected by pikemen came to dominate open battles, the European Renaissance marked the beginning of the implementation of firearms in western warfare. Guns and rockets were introduced to the battlefield, firearms are qualitatively different from earlier weapons because they release energy from combustible propellants such as gunpowder, rather than from a counter-weight or spring. This energy is released very rapidly and can be replicated without much effort by the user, therefore even early firearms such as the arquebus were much more powerful than human-powered weapons. During the U. S. Civil War various technologies including the gun and ironclad warship emerged that would be recognizable and useful military weapons today
6.
Cannon
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A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile, which may or may not be explosive. The word cannon is derived from languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as tube, cane. The Greeks invented the first type—a steam cannon—designed by Archimedes during the Siege of Syracuse, ctesibius built a steam cannon in Alexandria and in the fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci designed another, the Architonnerre, based on Archimedes work. The earliest form of artillery was developed in Song China, over time replacing siege engines. In the Middle East, the first use of the cannon is argued to be during the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut between the Mamluk Sultanate and Mongol Empire. The first cannon in Europe were in use in the Iberian Peninsula by the mid-13th century and it was during this period, the Middle Ages, that cannon became standardised, and more effective in both the anti-infantry and siege roles. After the Middle Ages most large cannon were abandoned in favour of greater numbers of lighter, Cannon also transformed naval warfare in the early modern period, as European navies took advantage of their firepower. In World War I, the majority of fatalities were caused by artillery. Most modern cannon are similar to those used in the Second World War, Cannon was widely known as the earliest form of a gun and artillery, before early firearms were invented. The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy, both Cannons and Cannon are correct and in common usage, with one or the other having preference in different parts of the English-speaking world. Cannons is more common in North America and Australia, while cannon as plural is more common in the United Kingdom, Cannon in general have the form of a truncated cone with an internal cylindrical bore for holding an explosive charge and a projectile. The thickest, strongest, and closed part of the cone is located near the explosive charge, as any explosive charge will dissipate in all directions equally, the thickest portion of the cannon is useful for containing and directing this force. Field artillery cannon in Europe and the Americas were initially made most often of bronze, though later forms were constructed of cast iron and eventually steel. However, cast iron cannon have a tendency to burst without having any previous weakness or wear. The following terms refer to the components or aspects of a classical western cannon as illustrated here. In what follows, the words near, close, and behind will refer to those parts towards the thick, closed end of the piece, and far, front, in front of, and before to the thinner, open end. Bore, The hollow cylinder bored down the centre of the cannon, including the base of the bore or bottom of the bore, the diameter of the bore represents the cannons calibre. Chamber, The cylindrical, conical, or spherical recess at the nearest end of the bottom of the bore into which the gunpowder is packed
7.
Naval long gun
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In historical naval usage, a long gun was the standard type of cannon mounted by a sailing vessel, so called to distinguish it from the much shorter carronades. The long gun was known for its range and improved mobility in comparison to its larger precursors. This allowed the gun to establish itself as the best form of artillery to pursue an enemy. In informal usage, the length was combined with the weight of shot, yielding terms like long nines, referring to full-length, cannons are fired through a laborious process that involves the help of many people. It begins by cleaning out the barrel of the cannon with a wet swab and this helps to insure that any left over embers from the last firing are extinguished before the gunpowder is put in. Once the barrel is clean, the gunpowder is put into the base of the cannon, a piece of cloth or rope is put in after the gunpowder to assure that it stays tightly packed. The cannonball follows and is topped off with a piece of wool or cotton and this secondary piece of cotton helps to keep the cannonball in place and secure with the explosives. Long guns, being extremely heavy when fully loaded and ready to fire, had to be moved into position after being loaded and this typically took the full effort from the group of men attempting to transport it. The cannon is then pushed forward until it is in contact with the side of the ship. Once in position, a hole in the back of the cannon is lined with a small amount of gunpowder. From there, the operator stood back from the cannon. Once aimed in the direction, the operator will pull the lanyard in order to fire the gun. The gun could only be fired two to three times in five minutes, so it was important that it hit its target. Naval long guns, or long nines were originally made in two sizes, eight feet or nine feet. This was set by the Board of Ordnance in 1703, in the early 1700s, long guns started to dwindle in usage, but came back to prominence in 1761 when the Board of Ordnance changed its primary restriction of the size of long nines. The new protocol for manufacturing long guns included five lengths that ranged from seven feet to nine feet in length, the size of the gun often depended on the size of the ship that carried it, and how many of the guns the ship was to carry. In 1782, another change was made to the design of the nine, it could be manufactured at a length of nine feet. The ammunition used in the long guns did not offer as much variety as the size of the gun did
8.
Carronade
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A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy and first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s and its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The carronade was designed as a naval weapon with a low muzzle velocity for merchant ships. It was produced by the Carron ironworks and was at first sold as a system with the gun, mounting, the standard package of shot per gun was 25 roundshot,15 barshot,15 double-headed shot,10 single grapeshot, and 10 single canister shot. Single meant that the shot weighed the same as the roundshot, while some other canister and grapeshot were also included which weighed one and a half times the roundshot. Its invention is variously ascribed to Lieutenant General Robert Melville in 1759, or to Charles Gascoigne, in its early years, the weapon was sometimes called a mellvinade or a gasconade. The carronade can be seen as the culmination of a development of naval guns reducing the barrel length, the advantages for merchant ships are described in an advertising pamphlet of 1779. Production of both shot and gun by the firm immediately allowed a reduction in the windage, the gap between the bore of the gun and the diameter of the ball. The mounting, attached to the side of the ship on a pivot, the reduced recoil did not alter the alignment of the gun. The smaller gunpowder charge reduced the heating in action. The pamphlet advocated the use of cartridges, which eliminated the need for wadding and worming. Simplifying gunnery for comparatively untrained merchant seamen in both aiming and reloading was part of the rationale for the gun, the replacement of trunnions by a bolt underneath, to connect the gun to the mounting, reduced the width of the carriage enhancing the wide angle of fire. A merchant ship would almost always be running away from its enemy, a carronade weighed a quarter as much and used a quarter to a third of the gunpowder charge as a long gun firing the same cannonball. The reduced charge allowed carronades to have a length and much lighter weight than long guns. Increasing the size of the bore and ball reduces the length of barrel. Long guns were also heavy in comparison to carronades because they were over-specified, being capable of being double-shotted. Carronades also required a smaller gun crew, which was important for merchant ships. Carronades initially became popular on British merchant ships during the American Revolutionary War, a lightweight gun that needed only a small gun crew and was devastating at short range was a weapon well suited to defending merchant ships against French and American privateers
9.
External ballistics
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External ballistics or exterior ballistics is the part of ballistics that deals with the behavior of a projectile in flight. Gun-launched projectiles may be unpowered, deriving all their velocity from the propellants ignition until the exits the gun barrel. External ballistics is also concerned with the free-flight of other projectiles, such as balls, arrows etc. When in flight, the main or major forces acting on the projectile are gravity, drag, and if present, wind, if in powered fight, thrust, and if guided, the forces imparted by the control surfaces. In small arms external ballistics applications, gravity imparts a downward acceleration on the projectile, drag, or the air resistance, decelerates the projectile with a force proportional to the square of the velocity. Wind makes the projectile deviate from its trajectory, during flight, gravity, drag, and wind have a major impact on the path of the projectile, and must be accounted for when predicting how the projectile will travel. Meso variables can become significant for firearms users that have to deal with angled shot scenarios or extended ranges, at extremely long ranges, artillery must fire projectiles along trajectories that are not even approximately straight, they are closer to parabolic, although air resistance affects this. In super gun artillery cases, like the Paris gun, very subtle effects that are not covered in this article can further refine aiming solutions. The CP behind the CG condition yields stable projectile flight, meaning the projectile will not overturn during flight through the due to aerodynamic forces. Projectiles like small arms bullets and artillery shells must deal with their CP being in front of their CG, to stabilize such projectiles the projectile is spun around its longitudinal axis. The spinning mass creates gyroscopic forces that keep the bullets length axis resistant to the destabilizing overturning torque of the CP being in front of the CG, the effect of gravity on a projectile in flight is often referred to as projectile drop or bullet drop. It is important to understand the effect of gravity when zeroing the sighting components of a gun, to plan for projectile drop and compensate properly, one must understand parabolic shaped trajectories. In order for a projectile to impact any distant target, the barrel must be inclined to an elevation angle relative to the target. This is due to the fact that the projectile will begin to respond to the effects of gravity the instant it is free from the constraints of the bore. The imaginary line down the axis of the bore and out to infinity is called the line of departure and is the line on which the projectile leaves the barrel. Due to the effects of gravity a projectile can never impact a target higher than the line of departure, when a positively inclined projectile travels downrange, it arcs below the line of departure as it is being deflected off its initial path by gravity. Projectile/Bullet drop is defined as the distance of the projectile below the line of departure from the bore. Even when the line of departure is tilted upward or downward, projectile drop does not describe the actual trajectory of the projectile
10.
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
