1.
Casemate Publishers
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Casemate Publishers, also known as Casemate, is a Philadelphia area based publishing company that specializes in producing printed military history books. They have published over 200 books on military history, many of their books are memoirs and historical overviews of specific military events. Casemate Publishers was established in 2001, when Combined Publishing‘s US operations were sold to Perseus Books Group, Casemate began distributing books in North America for publishers, specializing in military history. The company also began to publish its own military history books, as a result, Casemate UK became responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of a number of military history and art book publishers. Oxbow was founded and is based in Oxford, UK in 1983. On January 1,2015 Casemate acquired IPM, International Publishers Marketing, from Books International and merged its Athena brand into a new division, with the acquisition of Oxbow Books, Casemate also acquired Oxbows North American distribution arm, The David Brown Company which was founded in 1991. In 2013 The David Brown Book Company was rebranded as Casemate Academic, Casemate Academic provides specialist sales, marketing and distribution to leading institutions and publishers from around the world in the US market. Casemate also has a specialist brand for selling and marketing art books, Casemate website Casemate UK website Casemate IPM website Casemate Art website Oxbow Books website Casemate Academic website
2.
Walls of Dubrovnik
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In 1979, the old city of Dubrovnik, which includes a substantial portion of the old walls of Dubrovnik, joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The oldest systems of fortifications around the town were likely wooden palisades, todays intact city walls, constructed mainly during the 12th–17th centuries, mostly a double line, have long been a source of pride for Dubrovnik. The walls run a course of approximately 1,940 metres in length, encircling most of the old city. The bulk of the walls and fortifications were constructed during the 14th and 15th centuries. The walls were reinforced by three circular and 14 quadrangular towers, five bastions, two angular fortifications and the large St. Johns Fortress. Land walls were reinforced by one larger bastion and nine smaller semicircular ones, like the casemate Fort Bokar. The moat that ran around the section of the city walls. The construction of the first limestone forts around the city began in the Early Middle Ages, but, the old chronicles say that some sort of castle reliably existed on the Lave peninsula quite a long time prior to that. It is certain that the town on Laus Island was also surrounded by defensive walls. The fact that Dubrovnik managed to survive a fifteen-month-long invasion by the Saracens in the 9th century proves how well the city was fortified. The city first spread towards the eastern part of the islet. The name Pustijerna comes from the Latin statement post terra, which means outside the town, in the 9th and 10th centuries, the defensive wall enclosed the eastern portion of the city. During this same period, Dubrovnik and the surrounding area were described as a part of the Croatian entity. In his book Nuzhat al-Mushataq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq from 1154, he mentioned Dubrovnik as the southernmost city of the country of Croatia and Dalmatia, the basic city plan dates from 1292, when the port was rebuilt following a fire. The whole city was enclosed in the 13th century, except for the Dominican monastery. Being constructed very solidly, the walls were generally unaffected by an earthquake occurring in 1667. The city was also under latent danger of attack by the Venetians, for centuries the people of Dubrovnik were able to preserve their city-republic by skillful maneuvering between East and West. A strategic treaty with Turkey protracted Ragusa’s liberty and maintained the opportunity for a major trading role between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, the irregular parallelogram surrounding Dubrovnik consists of four strong fortresses at its most significant points
3.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
4.
Kornwerderzand
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Kornwerderzand is a settlement on the Afsluitdijk, a major dam in the Netherlands that links Friesland with North Holland. Kornwerderzand is located approximately 4 kilometers from the coast of Friesland, the settlement has a population of 22. It is part of the municipality of Wonseradeel, a second complex of sluices and locks is located at the other side of the Afsluitdijk, near Den Oever. The Afsluitdijk provides a link between the provinces of Friesland and North Holland. From 1931 onwards, fortifications consisting of seventeen casemates and three bunkers were constructed, the position was manned with approximately 220 troops in 1939. During the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II, on May 13 and May 14,1940, the fortifications were attacked by the German first Cavalry Division, while the Luftwaffe attacked supporting Dutch naval units. The German troops, initially lacking support by artillery, were unable to take the position. The fortifications also withstood attacks by dive bombers, the next day the Dutch military in the Netherlands surrendered, and the battle ended with the surrender of the position. In 1943, the occupying German military improved the defenses by building three additional bunkers, nowadays, some of the fortifications can be visited as part of the Kazemattenmuseum. Breezanddijk Kazemattenmuseum - The museum located in the fortifications Pictures of the fortifications
5.
Afsluitdijk
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It is a fundamental part of the larger Zuiderzee Works, damming off the Zuiderzee, a salt water inlet of the North Sea, and turning it into the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer. The Afsluitdijk was the demonstration site for a 130 kilometres per hour speed limit in the Netherlands. Work started at four points, on sides of the mainland and on two specially made construction-islands along the line of the future dike. From these points, the dike slowly grew by ships depositing till into the sea until it breached the surface. The nascent dike was then strengthened from land by basalt rocks, the dike could then be finished off by raising it further with sand and finally clay for the surface of the dike, on which grass was planted. Construction progressed better than expected, at three points along the line of the dike there were deeper underwater trenches where the current was much stronger than elsewhere. These had been considered to be obstacles to completing the dike. On 28 May 1932, two earlier than initially thought, the Zuiderzee ceased to be, as the last tidal trench. The IJsselmeer was born, even though it was still salty at the time, the dike itself however was not finished yet as it still needed to be brought up to its required height and a road linking Friesland and North Holland also remained to be built. On 25 September 1933, the Afsluitdijk was officially opened, with a monument designed by architect Dudok marking the spot where the dike had been closed, the amount of material used is estimated at 23 million m3 of sand and 13. Beside the dike itself, there was also the construction of two complexes of shipping locks and discharge sluices at both ends of the dike. It is necessary to discharge water from the lake since it is continually fed by rivers and streams. In 2012, the State Secretary for Infrastructure and the Environment, Joop Atsma, a naviduct would have a high construction cost compared with standard locks and bridges, but would benefit the economy by reducing delays. After the cost–benefit analysis of all potential solutions was considered, a decision was made to strengthen the existing locks, however, it is quite possible that a naviduct will be built to replace the locks when they reach the end of their useful life in 2050. Provision for a line linking North Holland and Friesland had been included on the Afsluitdijk, in the form of a linear reservation. However, construction of the line was never undertaken by Dutch Railways, for reasons of cost, the reservation and abutments for the rail line were utilized instead for a second carriageway for the dikes two-lane highway in the 1970s, transforming the latter into todays four-lane A7 motorway. During the period 12–13 May 1940 it was the site of the Battle of the Afsluitdijk, icoon Afsluitdijk was a 2016 visual design project by Daan Roosegaarde and staff to enhance the Afsluitdijk with a variety of permanent and temporary features. The temporary features included energy-harvesting kites and a display of bioluminescent algae, the permanent features include Spiegelstenen—mirror stones—that memorialize workers on the original dyke and Gates of light—a highly reflective guard rail
6.
Battle of the Afsluitdijk
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The Battle of the Afsluitdijk was an unsuccessful attempt by the German Army to seize the Afsluitdijk in May 1940, during World War II. If the Germans had taken the dam, they could have taken North Holland from its north, the Dutch troops were led by Captain Christiaan Boers and the Germans by General Kurt Feldt. Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of plan Fall Gelb and they rapidly crossed two thin defence lines, the O-line and the Q-line, which the Dutch had built to defend their three northern provinces. The German 1st Cavalry Division—later reformed to the 24, panzerdivision—had taken the last Dutch defences in front of the Afsluitdijk on 12 May and was prepared for an assault to take the two lines of pillboxes or casemates of Fort Kornwerderzand. The eastern line was for defence eastward, while the line was just behind the first for threats from the rear. Altogether,17 casemates had been built and they were designed to withstand 210 mm rounds, and 280 mm rounds. The three main casemates were made of 3 m of reinforced concrete, the casemates sheltered 230 men, twenty-one 7.9 mm Schwarzlose machine guns, three 50 mm guns and a 50 mm shore-based naval gun. There were similar defences at the end of the dyke. Earlier in May 1940, two infantry men in all—were sent to the end of the dyke to prevent German landings beyond the vision of both fortresses. The Germans soon found out about these units, and seven Luftwaffe fighters strafed Dutch positions, one soldier and two civilians were killed, and 10 civilians wounded. After this, they were recalled to Kornwerderzand, until 12 May, the Germans had not tried to take Fort Kornwerderzand. However, that evening, three soldiers were sent to see if the fort had been abandoned and they were pinned down by machine gun fire. Two were killed, while the third escaped, the Germans decided to take the fortress. They planned to launch Luftwaffe strikes, then begin an artillery bombardment by howitzers. However, unknown to the Germans, three 20 mm anti-aircraft cannons and four heavy machine guns had arrived overnight at Kornwerderzand. The next day, pilots who had previously flown unchallenged were under fire, the Germans sent 62 planes to bomb the fort. The planes dropped five waves of bombs, four planes were shot down and crashed into the sea. The bombardment was followed by an hour of bombardment from the howitzers
7.
Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt
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Ibrahim Pasha was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognised Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, in the final year of his life, he succeeded his still living father as ruler of Egypt and Sudan, due to the latters ill health. His rule also extended over the dominions that his father had brought under Egyptian rule, namely Syria, Hejaz, Morea, Thasos. Ibrahim pre-deceased his father, dying 10 November 1848, only four months after acceding to the throne, upon his fathers death the following year, the Egyptian throne passed to Ibrahims nephew, Abbas. Ibrahim remains one of the most celebrated members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, particularly for his military victories. Today, a statue of Ibrahim occupies a prominent position in Egypts capital and his Mother Emine of Nusretli was the Cousin to Muhammad Ali Pasha, born at Nusretli in 1770 and died in Cairo 1824. She was the widow of Ottoman Turk Ali Bey Serezli, and it is further known that he was born in the village of Nusratli, near the town of Drama, the Ottoman province of Rumelia, in what is now the western parts of Macedonian region in Greece. In 1805, during his fathers struggle to establish himself as ruler of Egypt, when Muhammad Ali went to Arabia to prosecute the war against the Ibn Saud in 1813, Ibrahim was left in command of Upper Egypt. He continued the war with the power of the Mameluks. In 1816, he succeeded his brother Tusun Pasha in command of the Egyptian forces in Arabia, the campaign lasted two years, and ended in the destruction of the House of Saud as a political power. Muhammad Ali landed at Yanbu, the port of Medina, on 1813, the holy cities had been recovered from the Saudis, and Ibrahims task was to follow them into the desert of Nejd and destroy their fortresses. Such training as the Egyptian troops had received, and their artillery, but the difficulty of crossing the desert to the Saudis stronghold of Diriyah, some 400 miles east of Medina made the conquest a very arduous one. Ibrahim displayed great energy and tenacity, sharing all the hardships of his army, by the end of September 1818, he had forced the Saudi leader to surrender, and had taken Diriyah, which he sacked. On December 11,1819 he made an entry into Cairo. After his return Ibrahim gave effective support to the Frenchman, Colonel Sève, Ibrahim set an example by submitting to be drilled as a recruit. In 1824, Muhammad Ali was appointed governor of the Morea by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, Ibrahim was sent to the Peloponnese with a squadron and an army of 17,000 men. The expedition sailed on July 4,1824, but was for some months unable to do more than come, the fear of the Greek fire ships stopped his way to the Morea. When the Greek sailors mutinied from want of pay, Ibrahim was able to land at Modon on February 26,1825 and he remained in the Morea until the capitulation of October 1,1828 was forced on him by the intervention of the Western powers
8.
Ottoman dynasty
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The Ottoman dynasty was made up of the members of the imperial House of Osman. According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, the Ottoman dynasty, named after Osman I, ruled the Ottoman Empire from c.1299 to 1922. During much of the Empires history, the sultan was the regent, head of state. The imperial family was deposed from power and the sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922 after the Turkish War of Independence, the Republic of Turkey was declared the following year. The living members of the dynasty were sent into exile as persona non gratae, though some have been allowed to return. In its current form, the family is known as the Osmanoğlu family, before Orhans proclamation of the dynasty, the tribe was known as the Bilecik Söğüt Beylik or Beys but was renamed Osmanlı in honor of Osman. The Ottoman dynasty is known in modern Turkish as Osmanlı Hanedanı, meaning House of Osman, in Ottoman Turkish it was known as Hanedan-ı Âl-i Osman, thus they still formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the Seljuk Empire and its successor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The first Ottoman ruler to claim the title of Sultan was Murad I. The holder of the title Sultan was in Arabic-Islamic dynasties originally the power behind the throne of the Caliph in Bagdad, the Ottoman sultans also claimed the title of Caliph starting with Murad I, who transformed the Ottoman state into a transcontinental empire. With the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih claimed the title Kaysar-i-Rûm Emperor of Rome and he appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius, whom he protected and whose status he elevated into leader of all the Eastern Orthodox Christians. As Emperor of Rome he laid claim to all Roman territories, Sultan Mehmed II also took the title of Padishah, a Persian title meaning Master of Kings and ranking as Emperor, claiming superiority among the other kings. He was the first Ottoman ruler to adopt the title of Padishah. The Ottoman claim to caliphate was strengthened when they defeated the Mamluks in 1517, as the empire grew, sultans adopted secondary titles expressing the empires claim to be the legitimate successor of the absorbed states. Furthermore, they tended to enumerate even regular provinces, not unlike the long lists of -mainly inherited- feudal titles in the style of many Christian European monarchs. Some early Ottoman Sultans even had to accept the status in the eyes of a foreign overlord. However, the Ottoman Caliphate too was abolished soon afterwards, and Abdulmecid II was utterly deposed and expelled from Turkey with the rest of the Ottoman dynasty on 3 March 1924
9.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
10.
Armoured fighting vehicle
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An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and generally armed with weapons, which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked and it is not uncommon for AFVs to be simply referred to as armour. Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their role on the battlefield. This classification is not absolute, at different times different countries will classify the vehicle in different roles. For example, armoured carriers were generally replaced by infantry fighting vehicles in a similar role. Modern armoured fighting vehicles are the realization of an ancient concept, War machines with rudimentary armour have been used in battle for millennia. These designs historically struggled between the paradox of exposed-mobility, effective-firepower and cumbersome-protection, Siege engines, such as battering rams and trebuchets, would often be armoured in order to protect the crews from the defenders. Very large movable siege towers, helepolis were developed by Polyidus of Thessaly, the idea of a vehicle with a tortoise like cover has been known since antiquity. Frequently cited is Leonardo da Vincis 15th century sketch of a mobile, protected gun platform, the machine was to be mounted on four wheels which would be turned by the crew through a system of hand cranks and cage gears. Leonardo quoted I will build armored wagons which will be safe, there will be no obstacle which it cannot overcome. Modern replicas have demonstrated that the crew would have been able to move it over only short distances. The war wagon were medieval weapon-platforms developmed during the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia. These heavy wagon were given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using pikes, heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a ball of about 3.5 ounces, the first modern AFVs were armed cars, dating back virtually to the invention of the motor car. The Motor Scout was designed and built by British inventor F. R. Simms in 1898 and it was the first armed petrol engine powered vehicle ever built. The vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a mounted Maxim machine gun on the front bar, an iron shield offered some protection for the driver from the front, but it lacked all-around protective armour. The armoured car was the first modern fully armoured fighting vehicle, the first of these was the Simms Motor War Car, designed by Simms and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in 1899. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3. 3-litre 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a speed of around 9 miles per hour
11.
Hut
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A hut is a primitive dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. A hut is a shape of a lower quality than a house, huts exist in practically all nomadic cultures. Some huts are transportable and can stand most conditions of weather, the designs in tropical and sub-tropical areas favour high airflow configurations built from non-conducting materials, which allow heat dissipation. The term house or home is considered by some to be more appropriate, in the Western world the word hut is often used for a wooden shed. The term has also adopted by climbers and backpackers to refer to a more solid. These vary from simple bothies – which are more than very basic shelters – to mountain huts that are far more luxurious. Apparently first in English as a military word, old Saxon hutta, Danish hytte, Swedish hytta, Frisian and Middle Dutch hutte, Dutch hut are from High German. Huts are used by shepherds when moving livestock between seasonal grazing areas such as mountainous and lowland pastures and they are also commonly used by backpackers and other travelers in rural areas. Some displaced populations of people use throughout the world during a diaspora. For example, temporary collectors in the agricultural workers at plantations in the Amazon jungle. Huts have been built for other than as a dwelling such as storage, workshops. Balok – A Siberian wilderness hut made of logs, usually communal, used by hunters, fishermen, some baloks are mobile and mounted on sleds. Bothy – Originally a one-room hut for men farm workers in the United Kingdom, burdei or bordei – a dugout or pit-house with a sod roof in Ukraine, Canada Cabana – an open shelter Chozo also spelled chozo – Spanish for hut, term also used in Mexico. Designed 1940 for barrack accommodation Lodge is a term for a hut or cabin such as a log cabin or cottage. Lodge is used to refer to a tipi, sweat lodge, and hunting, fishing, skiing, and safari lodge. Mitato – A small, dry stone hut in Greece Orri – A French dry stone, rondavel – Central and South Africa Sheiling – Originally a temporary shelter or hut for shepherds, now may be a stone building. Sod house – A pioneer house type on the American Plains where wood was scarce, construction often does not require specialized tools or knowledge. Hut is used to name commercial stores, companies, and concepts, the name implies a small, casual venue, often with a fun and friendly atmosphere
12.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
13.
Defensive wall
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A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements, beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry structures, although brick, depending on the topography of the area surrounding the city or the settlement the wall is intended to protect, elements of the terrain may be incorporated in order to make the wall more effective. Walls may only be crossed by entering the city gate and are often supplemented with towers. Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts, ringworks, early castles, from very early history to modern times, walls have been a near necessity for every city. Uruk in ancient Sumer is one of the worlds oldest known walled cities, before that, the city of Jericho in what is now the West Bank had a wall surrounding it as early as the 8th millennium BC. The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified. By about 3500 B. C. hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain, many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. Mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks, babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate. Exceptions were few — notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar. In Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements which the Romans called oppida, the fortifications were continuously expanded and improved. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, in classical era Greece, the city of Athens built a long set of parallel stone walls called the Long Walls that reached their guarded seaport at Piraeus. Large tempered earth walls were built in ancient China since the Shang Dynasty, although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States, mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang Dynasty. The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example, likewise, the famous walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor. The Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls, the most famous of these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln, apart from these, the early Middle Ages also saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe and these cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces
14.
Embrasure
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In military architecture, an embrasure is the opening in a crenellation or battlement between the two raised solid portions or merlons, sometimes called a crenel or crenelle. In domestic architecture this refers to the outward splay of a window or arrow slit on the inside, a loophole, arrow loop or arrowslit passes through a solid wall and was originally for use by archers. The purpose of embrasures is to allow weapons to be fired out from the fortification while the remains under cover. The splay of the wall on the inside provides room for the soldier and his equipment, excellent examples of deep embrasures with arrow slits are to be seen at Aigues-Mortes and Château de Coucy, both in France. The etymology of embrasure expresses widening, the invention of the arrowslit is attributed to Archimedes during the siege of Syracuse in 214–212 BC. From Polybiuss The Histories, Archimedes had had the walls pierced with large numbers of loopholes at the height of a man, however, the invention was later forgotten until reintroduced in the 12th century. By the 19th century, a distinction was made between embrasures being used for cannon, and loopholes being used for musketry, in both cases, the opening was normally made wider on the inside of the wall than the outside. A distinction was made between horizontal and vertical embrasures or loopholes, depending on the orientation of the formed in the outside wall. Vertical loopholes—which are much more common—allow the weapon to be raised and lowered in elevation so as to cover a variety of ranges easily. However to sweep from side to side the weapon must bodily move from side to side to pivot around the muzzle, horizontal loopholes, on the other hand, facilitate quick sweeping across the arc in front, but make large adjustments in elevation very difficult. They were usually used in circumstances where the range was very restricted anyway, another variation had both horizontal and vertical slits arranged in the form of a cross, and was called a crosslet loop or an arbalestina since it was principally intended for arbalestiers. A series of perpendicular steps tapering to the gun port ensured that any incoming fire would be stopped by a vertical impact, arrowslit This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
15.
Scarp (fortification)
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A scarp and a counterscarp are the inner and outer sides of a ditch or moat used in fortifications. Attackers must descend the counterscarp and ascend the scarp, in permanent fortifications the scarp and counterscarp may be encased in stone. In less permanent fortifications, the counterscarp may be lined with paling fence set at an angle so as to no cover to the attackers. These are tunnels or galleries that have been built behind the wall inside the moat or ditch. Each gallery is pierced with loopholes for musketry, so that forces that enter the moat can be directly fired upon. Counterscarp galleries were built into the angles of the ditch to give the widest field of fire. Occasionally, casemated artillery batteries were built into the counterscarp, the galleries were usually connected to the main body of the fort by a tunnel which passed under the ditch, or by a caponier, a gallery built across the floor of the ditch. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,1898, Counterscarp Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Counterscarp. Jean Lafitte Historic Resource Study, Jacksons line at Rodriguez Canal
16.
Coastal artillery
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Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. The advent of 20th-century technologies, especially aviation, naval aviation, jet aircraft, and guided missiles, reduced the primacy of cannon, battleships. In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded, these forces have acquired amphibious capabilities, in littoral warfare, mobile coastal artillery armed with surface-to-surface missiles still can be used to deny the use of sea lanes. Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the protection of walls or earth mounds. The Martello tower is an excellent example of a widely used coastal fort which mounted defensive artillery, during the 19th century China also built hundreds of coastal fortresses in an attempt to counter Western naval threats. Coastal artillery could be part of the Navy, or part of the Army, in English-speaking countries, certain coastal artillery positions were sometimes referred to as Land Batteries, distinguishing this form of artillery battery from for example floating batteries. In the United Kingdom, in the later 19th and earlier 20th Centuries, then, following the Spanish–American War and the report of the Endicott Board, U. S. harbor defenses were greatly strengthened and provided with new, rifled artillery and minefield defenses. Shortly thereafter, in 1907, Congress split the field artillery, the first decade of the 20th Century, the United States Marine Corps established the Advanced Base Force. The force was used for setting up and defending advanced bases, during the Siege of Port Arthur, Japanese forces had captured the vantage point on 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur harbor. The battleship Sevastopol, although hit 5 times by 11-inch shells, after 3 weeks, the Sevastopol was still afloat, having survived 124 torpedoes fired at her while sinking two Japanese destroyers and damaging six other vessels. The Japanese had meanwhile lost the cruiser Takasago to a mine outside the harbor, the Blücher had entered the narrow waters of the Oslofjord, carrying 1,000 soldiers and leading a German invasion fleet. The first salvo from the Norwegian defenders, fired from Oscarsborg Fortress about 1 mile distant, disabled Blüchers main battery, fire from the smaller guns swept her decks and disabled her steering, and she received several torpedo hits before the fires reached her magazines and doomed her. Singapore was defended by its famous large-caliber coastal guns, which included one battery of three 15-inch guns and one with two 15-inch guns, AP shells were designed to penetrate the hulls of heavily armoured warships and were ineffective against personnel. The Japanese defended the island of Betio in the Tarawa atoll with numerous 203 mm coastal guns, in 1943, these were knocked out early in the battle with a combined USN naval and aerial bombardment. Nazi Germany fortified its conquered territories with the Atlantic Wall, the intent was to destroy the Allied landing craft before they could unload. During the Normandy Landings in 1944, shore bombardment was given a high importance, using ships from battleships to destroyers, for example, the Canadians at Juno beach had fire support many times greater than they had had for the Dieppe Raid in 1942. In addition, there were modified landing-craft, eight Landing Craft Gun, twenty-four Landing Craft Tank carried Priest self-propelled howitzers which also fired while they were on the run-in to the beach. Similar arrangements existed at other beaches, on June 25,1944 the American battleship Texas engaged German shore batteries on the Cotentin Peninsula
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American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
18.
Ironclad warship
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An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates used in the early part of the second half of the 19th century. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859 and this type of ship would come to be very successful in the American Civil War. Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defense ships and this change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible. The quick pace of change meant that ships were obsolete as soon as they were finished. Many ironclads were built to use of the ram or the torpedo. There is no end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or armored cruisers. The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in the first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian J. Richard Hill, The had three characteristics, a metal-skinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells. It is only when all three characteristics are present that a ship can properly be called an ironclad. Each of these developments was introduced separately in the decade before the first ironclads, in the 18th and early 19th centuries fleets had relied on two types of major warship, the ship of the line and the frigate. The first major change to these types was the introduction of power for propulsion. While paddle steamer warships had been used from the 1830s onwards, steam-powered screw frigates were built in the mid-1840s, and at the end of the decade the French Navy introduced steam power to its line of battle. The desire for change came from the ambition of Napoleon III to gain influence in Europe. The first purpose-built steam battleship was the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850, the introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over a period of ten years, altogether, France built ten new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older ships of the line, while the United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41. The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, in the 1820s and 1830s, warships began to mount increasingly heavy guns, replacing 18- and 24-pounder guns with 32-pounders on sailing ships-of-the-line and introducing 68-pounders on steamers
19.
Freeboard (nautical)
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In sailing and boating, a vessels freeboard is the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship. In commercial vessels, the latter criterion measured relative to the load line. In yachts, a low freeboard is often found on racing boats, for drag/weight reduction, a higher freeboard will give more room in the cabin, but will increase weight and drag, compromising speed. A higher freeboard also helps weather waves and reduce the likelihood of being washed over by water waves on the weather deck. A low-freeboard boat is susceptible to taking in water in rough seas, freighter ships and warships use high freeboard designs to increase internal volume which also allows them to satisfy IMO damage stability regulations due to increased reserved buoyancy. Keever, John M. American Merchant Seamans Manual, turpin, Edward A. McEwen, William A
20.
Confederate States of America
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The Confederate States, officially the Confederate States of America, commonly referred to as the Confederacy, was a breakaway country of 11 secessionist slave states existing from 1861 to 1865. It was never recognized as an Independent country, although it achieved belligerent status by Britain. A new Confederate government was established in February 1861 before Lincoln took office in March, after the Civil War began in April, four slave states of the Upper South – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina – also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The government of the United States rejected the claims of secession, the Civil War began with the April 12,1861, Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In spring 1865, after four years of fighting which led to an estimated 620,000 military deaths, all the Confederate forces surrendered. Jefferson Davis later lamented that the Confederacy had disappeared in 1865, Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions from those states, while the legitimate governments of those two states retained formal adherence to the Union. Also fighting for the Confederacy were two of the Five Civilized Tribes located in Indian Territory and a new, but uncontrolled, Confederate Territory of Arizona. Efforts by certain factions in Maryland to secede were halted by federal imposition of law, while Delaware, though of divided loyalty. A Unionist government in parts of Virginia organized the new state of West Virginia. With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal, as Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers, teamsters and laborers, the most notable advance was Shermans March to the Sea in late 1864. Much of the Confederacys infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs, railroads, plantations in the path of Shermans forces were severely damaged. Internal movement became increasingly difficult for Southerners, weakening the economy and these losses created an insurmountable disadvantage in men, materiel, and finance. Public support for Confederate President Jefferson Daviss administration eroded over time due to repeated military reverses, economic hardships, after four years of campaigning, Richmond was captured by Union forces in April 1865. Shortly afterward, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, President Davis was captured on May 10,1865, and jailed in preparation for a treason trial that was ultimately never held. The U. S. government began a process known as Reconstruction which attempted to resolve the political and constitutional issues of the Civil War. By 1877, the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the former Confederate states, Confederate veterans had been temporarily disenfranchised by Reconstruction policy. The prewar South had many areas, the war left the entire region economically devastated by military action, ruined infrastructure
21.
Monitor (warship)
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A monitor was a relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s, during the First World War, during the Vietnam War they were used by the United States Navy. The Brazilian Navys Parnaíba is the last monitor in service, the original monitor was designed by John Ericsson in 1861 who named it USS Monitor. They were designed for waters and served as coastal ships. The term monitor also encompassed more flexible breastwork monitors, and was used as a generic term for any turreted ship. The term monitor also encompasses the strongest of riverine warcraft, known as river monitors, the Lord Clive vessels were scrapped in the 1920s. In Latin, a monitor is someone who admonishes—that is, reminds others of their duties—which is how USS Monitor was given its name. She was designed by John Ericsson for emergency service in the Federal navy during the American Civil War to blockade the Confederate States from supply at sea. Ericsson designed her to operate in water and to present as small a target as possible. Nathaniel Hawthorne described Monitor thus, At no great distance from the Minnesota lay the strangest-looking craft I ever saw, going on board, we were surprised at the extent and convenience of her interior accommodations. Forward, or aft, the crew are relatively quite as well provided for as the officers and it was like finding a palace, with all its conveniences, under the sea. A storm of cannon-shot damages them no more than a handful of dried peas, nothing, however, can exceed the confidence of the officers in this new craft. Yet even this will not long be the last and most terrible improvement in the science of war, the Battle of Hampton Roads, between Monitor and CSS Virginia, was the first engagement between ironclad vessels. Several such battles took place during the course of the American Civil War, however, fortification bombardment was another critical role that the early monitors played, though one that these early designs were much less capable in performing. She was followed by 14 more monitors, one of them, Kanonbåten Sölve, served until 1922 and is today preserved at the Maritiman marine museum in Gothenburg. Ericsson and others experimented greatly during the years of the American Civil War, vessels constructed included a triple-turreted monitor, a class of paddlewheel-propelled monitors, a class of semi-submersible monitors, and a class of monitors armed with spar torpedoes. In the 1860s and 1870s several nations built monitors that were used for coastal defense and those that were directly modelled on Monitor were low-freeboard, mastless, steam-powered vessels with one or two rotating, armoured turrets. The low freeboard meant that ships were unsuitable for ocean-going duties and were always at risk of swamping, flooding
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Battle of Hampton Roads
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The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginias largest cities, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade. The major significance of the battle is that it was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, i. e. the USS Monitor, the Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia and several supporting vessels. On the first day of battle, they were opposed by several conventional, on that day, Virginia was able to destroy two ships of the Federal flotilla, USS Congress and USS Cumberland, and was about to attack a third, USS Minnesota, which had run aground. Determined to complete the destruction of Minnesota, Catesby ap Roger Jones, acting as captain in Buchanans absence, returned the ship to the fray the next morning, during the night, however, the ironclad Monitor had arrived and had taken a position to defend Minnesota. When Virginia approached, Monitor intercepted her, the two ironclads fought for about three hours, with neither being able to inflict significant damage on the other. The duel ended indecisively, Virginia returning to her home at the Gosport Navy Yard for repairs and strengthening, the ships did not fight again, and the blockade remained in place. The battle received worldwide attention, and it had immediate effects on navies around the world, the preeminent naval powers, Great Britain and France, halted further construction of wooden-hulled ships, and others followed suit. A new type of warship, monitor, was produced based on the principle of the original. The use of a number of very heavy guns, mounted so that they could fire in all directions was first demonstrated by Monitor. Shipbuilders also incorporated rams into the designs of warship hulls for the rest of the century, on April 19,1861, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities at Charleston Harbor, US President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of ports in the seceded states. On April 27, after Virginia and North Carolina had also passed ordinances of secession, even before the extension, local troops seized the Norfolk area and threatened the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth. Merrimack burned only to the waterline, however, and her engines were more or less intact, the destruction of the navy yard was mostly ineffective, in particular, the large drydock there was relatively undamaged and soon could be restored. Without firing a shot, the advocates of secession had gained for the South its largest navy yard, as well as the hull and they had also seized more than a thousand heavy guns, plus gun carriages and large quantities of gunpowder. With Norfolk and its yard in Portsmouth, the Confederacy controlled the southern side of Hampton Roads. To prevent Union warships from attacking the yard, the Confederates set up batteries at Sewells Point and Craney Island, the Union retained possession of Fort Monroe, at Old Point Comfort on the Virginia Peninsula. They also held a small island known as the Rip Raps, on the far side of the channel opposite Fort Monroe. With Fort Monroe went control of the lower Peninsula as far as Newport News, forts Monroe and Wool gave the Union forces control of the entrance to Hampton Roads. The blockade, initiated on April 30,1861, cut off Norfolk, to further the blockade, the Union Navy stationed some of its most powerful warships in the roadstead
23.
Union (American Civil War)
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The Union was opposed by 11 southern slave states that formed the Confederate States, or the Confederacy. All of the Unions states provided soldiers for the U. S. Army, the Border states played a major role as a supply base for the Union invasion of the Confederacy. The Northeast provided the resources for a mechanized war producing large quantities of munitions and supplies. The Midwest provided soldiers, food, horses, financial support, Army hospitals were set up across the Union. Most states had Republican governors who energetically supported the war effort, the Democratic Party strongly supported the war in 1861 but in 1862 was split between the War Democrats and the anti-war element led by the Copperheads. The Democrats made major gains in 1862 in state elections. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio, in 1864 the Republicans campaigned under the National Union Party banner, which attracted many War Democrats and soldiers and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket. The war years were quite prosperous except where serious fighting and guerrilla warfare took place along the southern border, prosperity was stimulated by heavy government spending and the creation of an entirely new national banking system. The Union states invested a great deal of money and effort in organizing psychological and social support for soldiers wives, widows, orphans, and for the soldiers themselves. Most soldiers were volunteers, although after 1862 many volunteered to escape the draft, Draft resistance was notable in some larger cities, especially New York City with its massive anti-draft riots of 1863 and in some remote districts such as the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania. In the context of the American Civil War, the Union is sometimes referred to as the North, both then and now, as opposed to the Confederacy, which was the South. The Union never recognized the legitimacy of the Confederacys secession and maintained at all times that it remained entirely a part of the United States of America, in foreign affairs the Union was the only side recognized by all other nations, none of which officially recognized the Confederate government. The term Union occurs in the first governing document of the United States, the subsequent Constitution of 1787 was issued and ratified in the name not of the states, but of We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union. Union, for the United States of America, is repeated in such clauses as the Admission to the Union clause in Article IV. Even before the war started, the preserve the Union was commonplace. Using the term Union to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the political entity. In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union had a large industrialized and urbanized area, additionally, the Union states had a manpower advantage of 5 to 2 at the start of the war. Year by year, the Confederacy shrank and lost control of increasing quantities of resources, meanwhile, the Union turned its growing potential advantage into a much stronger military force
24.
USS Monitor
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USS Monitor was an iron-hulled steamship. Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy, the unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the monitor type of warship. The remainder of the ship was designed by the Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson, before Monitor could reach Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad had destroyed the sail frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress and had run the steam frigate USS Minnesota aground. A four-hour battle ensued, both ships pounding the other with cannon fire, although neither ship could destroy or seriously damage the other. This was the battle fought between two armored warships and marked a turning point in naval warfare. After the Confederates were forced to destroy Virginia as they withdrew in early May, on her way there she foundered while under tow, during a storm off Cape Hatteras on the last day of the year. Monitors wreck was discovered in 1973 and has been partially salvaged and her guns, gun turret, engine and other relics are on display at the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. The use of iron plating on the sides of warships was not practical until steam propulsion matured enough to carry its great weight. Developments in gun technology had progressed by the 1840s so that no practical thickness of wood could withstand the power of a shell, since there was no pressing need for such a ship at the time, there was little demand to continue work on the unfinished vessel. It was France that introduced the first operational armored ships as well as the first shell guns, the French followed those ships with the first ocean-going ironclad, the armored frigate Gloire in 1859, and the British responded with HMS Warrior. Northern newspapers published accounts of the Confederates progress in converting the Merrimack to an ironclad. Concealed in her dress was a message from a Union sympathizer who worked in the Navy Yard warning that the former Merrimack, convinced by the papers Mary was carrying he had production of Monitor sped up. Welles later recorded in his memoirs that Mrs. Louveste encountered no small risk in bringing this information, after the United States received word of the construction of Virginia, Congress appropriated $1.5 million on 3 August 1861 to build one or more armored steamships. It also ordered the creation of a board to inquire into the various designs proposed for armored ships, the Union Navy advertised for proposals for iron-clad steam vessels of war on 7 August and Welles appointed three senior officers as the Ironclad Board the following day. Their task was to examine plans for the completion of iron-clad vessels, the two first met on 9 September and again on the following day, after Ericsson had time to evaluate Galenas design. During this second meeting Ericsson showed Bushnell a model of his own design, Bushnell got Ericssons permission to show the model to Welles, who told Bushnell to show it to the board. Upon review of Ericssons unusual design, the board was skeptical, concerned that such a vessel would not float, especially in rough seas, President Lincoln, who had also examined the design, overruled them. Ericsson assured the board his ship would float exclaiming, The sea shall ride over her, on 15 September, after further deliberations, the board accepted Ericssons proposal
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Casemate ironclad
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The casemate ironclad is a type of iron or iron-armored gunboat briefly used in the American Civil War. In its general appearance, a casemate ironclad consisted of a hull with little freeboard. This casemate housed anywhere from 2 to 15 cannons, most of them in positions as in classical warships. The casemate was heavily armored over heavy wood backing and was sloped to deflect direct hits, armor was also applied to the part of the hull above the waterline. The casemate was often box-shaped, with octagon shapes appearing in the stages of the war. From the top of the casemate protruded an armored lookout structure that served as a pilothouse, inside the casemate, the guns were housed in one continuous deck. Unlike with turret ironclads, the guns had to fire through fixed gunports and therefore aiming was done by moving the gun relative to the gunport. This was labor-intensive and often up to 20 men were needed to load, aim, fire, and clean a gun, and even with this manpower the firing rate was no better than one shot per five minutes. Although the Union successfully used a fleet of casemate ironclad riverboats in their Mississippi and Red River Campaigns. In their specific outer appearances, i. e, british examples were among others HMS Bellerophon and HMS Hercules. French examples included Brasil and Redoutable, as a result, by 1910 no navy had any casemate warship left in service. Union Navy Confederate States Navy Baxter, James Phinney, 3rd, the Introduction of the Ironclad Warship. War at Sea in the Ironclad Age, hampton Roads 1862, First Clash of the Ironclads. South Brunswick, New Jersey, Thomas Yoseloff Ltd. p.319, Sea Power, A Modern Illustrated Military History. New York City, New York, Exeter Books, History of the Confederate States navy from its organization to the surrender of its last vessel. Joseph McDonough, Albany, N. Y. p.824
26.
CSS Virginia
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Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Unions USS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads. When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important federal military bases threatened was Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, accordingly, orders were sent to destroy the base rather than allow it to fall into Confederate hands. On the afternoon of 17 April, the day Virginia seceded, however, the previous night secessionists had sunk lightboats between Craney Island and Sewells Point, blocking the channel. On 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U. S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture. When the Confederate government took possession of the fully provisioned yard and this was completed by May 30, and she was towed into the shipyards only graving dock, where the burned structures were removed. The wreck was surveyed and her hull and machinery were discovered to be undamaged. Stephen Mallory, Secretary of the Navy decided to convert the Merrimack into an ironclad, preliminary sketch designs were submitted by Lieutenants John Mercer Brooke and John L. Porter, each of whom envisaged the ship as a casemate ironclad. Brookes general design showed the bow and stern portions submerged, the detailed design work would be completed by Porter, who was a trained naval constructor. The hulls burned timbers were cut down past the original waterline, leaving just enough clearance to accommodate her large. A new fantail and armored casemate were built atop a new deck, and a v-shaped breakwater was added to her bow. This forward and aft deck and fantail were designed to stay submerged and were covered in 4-inch-thick iron plate. It was decided to equip their ironclad with a ram, an anachronism on a 19th century warship, merrimacks steam engines, now part of Virginia, were in poor working order, they had been slated for replacement when the decision was made to abandon the Norfolk naval yard. There were four gun ports on each broadside, their protective iron shutters remained uninstalled during both days of the Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginias battery consisted of four muzzle-loading single-banded Brooke rifles and six smoothbore 9-inch Dahlgren guns salvaged from the old Merrimack. Two of the rifles, the bow and stern guns, were 7-inch caliber. The other two were 6. 4-inch cannon of about 9,100 pounds, one on each broadside. The 9-inch Dahlgrens were mounted three to a side, each weighed approximately 9,200 pounds and could fire a 72. 5-pound shell up to a range of 3,357 yards at an elevation of 15°. Both amidship Dahlgrens nearest the boiler furnaces were fitted-out to fire heated shot, on her upper casemate deck were positioned two anti-boarding/personnel 12-pounder Howitzers
27.
USS Merrimack (1855)
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USS Merrimack, also improperly Merrimac, was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The CSS Virginia then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads in the first engagement between ironclad warships, Merrimack was the first of six screw frigates begun in 1854. Like others of her class, she was named after the eponymous river, in Massachusetts, the Merrimack River flows through the town of Merrimac, often considered an older spelling which has sometimes caused confusion of the name. Merrimack was launched by the Boston Navy Yard 15 June 1855, sponsored by Miss Mary E. Simmons and she was the second ship of the Navy to be named for the Merrimack River. Shakedown took the new frigate to the Caribbean and to Western Europe. Merrimack visited Southampton, Brest, Lisbon, and Toulon before returning to Boston, recommissioning 1 September 1857, Merrimack got underway from Boston Harbor 17 October as flagship for the Pacific Squadron. She rounded Cape Horn and cruised the Pacific coast of South, upon returning to Norfolk, she decommissioned 16 February 1860. Merrimack was still in ordinary during the crisis preceding Lincolns inauguration, soon after becoming Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles took action to prepare the frigate for sea, planning to move her to Philadelphia. The day before the firing on Fort Sumter, Welles directed that great vigilance be exercised in guarding and protecting Norfolk Navy Yard and her ships. On the 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U. S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture. The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, raised Merrimack and rebuilt her as a ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. John Mercer Brooke. The entry can be found here, the Old Steam Navy, Frigates, Slops and Gunboats, 1815–1882. Chesneau, Roger, Kolesnik, Eugene M. eds, conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, olmstead, Edwin, Stark, Wayne E. Tucker, Spencer C. The Big Guns, Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon, alexandria Bay, New York, Museum Restoration Service. Silverstone, Paul H. Civil War Navies 1855–1883, the Reign of Iron, The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack
28.
Central battery ship
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One of the participants was the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia, essentially a central battery ship herself, albeit a low-freeboard one. The central battery ships had their main guns concentrated in the middle of the ship in an armoured citadel, the concentration of armament amidships meant the ship could be shorter and handier than a broadside type like previous warships. In this manner the design could maximize the thickness of armour in an area while still carrying a significant broadside. These ships meant the end of the frigates with their full-length gun decks. In the UK, the man behind the design was the newly appointed Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, Edward James Reed. The previous Royal Navy ironclad designs, represented by HMS Warrior, had proven to be seaworthy, fast under power and sail, the first central battery ship was HMS Bellerophon of 1865. Great Britain built a total of 18 central battery ships before turrets became common on ships in the 1880s. The second British central battery ship, HMS Hercules, served as model for the Austrian navy, starting with their first design SMS Lissa designed by Josef von Romako and launched in 1871. The Austrian SMS Kaiser—not to be confused with German Kaiser—was built along a similar design, although the hull had been converted from a wooden ship, three older broadside ironclads of the Kaiser Max class were also officially converted to casemate design, although they were mostly built from scratch. The largest design yet was Tegetthoff, later renamed to Mars when the new dreadnought battleship Tegetthoff was commissioned, the Austrian records distinguish between the category of older broadside ironclads and the newer designs using the words Panzerfregatten and respectively Casemattschiffe. The German navy had two large ships of the Kaiser class built in UK shipyards. The first ironclad of the Greek navy, Vasilefs Georgios, was built in the UK, at 1700 tons. The Italians had three ships built, Venezia, converted from broadside during construction, and the two Principe Amedeo-class ironclads. The disadvantage of the centre-battery was that, while more flexible than the broadside, each gun still had a restricted field of fire. The centre-battery ships were succeeded by turreted warships. Box battery Brown, David K. RCNC, Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Design 1860–1905, London, Chatham,1997 ISBN 1-84067-529-2 Sondhaus, Lawrence. The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918, Navalism, Industrial Development, gardiner, Robert, ed. Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1860–1905
29.
Belt armor
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Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to the heart of a warship, typically, the main armor belt covers the warship from its main deck down to some distance below the waterline. If, instead of forming the hull, the armor belt is built inside the hull, it is installed at a sloped angle for improved protection. Furthermore, the spaces around the main belt in some designs were filled with storage tanks that could contain fuel oil, seawater. The liquids in these tanks absorb or scatter much of the force of warheads. To deal with the leakage from the tanks and incoming seawater and this multilayer design is featured in the cross-sectional drawings of Tirpitz and King George V. In combat, a warship can be seriously damaged underwater not only by torpedoes, to improve protection against both shells and torpedoes, an air space can be added between the armor belt and the hull to increase the buoyancy of the warship. Some kinds of naval warships have belt armor thinner than actually necessary for protection against projectiles and this is common especially with battlecruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers to reduce their weight, thus increasing their acceleration and speed. Another possible reason is to meet treaty restrictions on ship displacement, one such method is all-or-nothing armoring, where belt armor is stripped from areas deemed non-vital to the functioning of the ship in battle. Agility gained from such processes are an asset to offensive warships that seek to quickly bring their heavy striking power to the enemy. In carriers, the maneuverability is exploited when deploying and recovering aircraft, since planes take off and land most easily when flying into the wind, the aircraft carrier steams rapidly into the wind in both maneuvers, making take-off and landing safer and easier. S. Comparison of WW2 battleship armor schemes Torpedo belt Protected cruiser Armored cruiser
30.
HMS Alexandra (1875)
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HMS Alexandra was a central battery ironclad of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose seagoing career was from 1877 to 1900. She spent much of her career as a flagship, and took part in operations to deter Russian aggression against Turkey in 1878 and this minority succeeded in convincing the Board to design Alexandra as a rigged broadside vessel. Built at Chatham Dockyard and engined by Messers Humphreys and Tennant and her armament was disposed in a central box battery, with heavy guns deployed both on the main and on the upper deck. Alexandra was the last British battleship to carry her main armament wholly below decks, twelve boilers were set back to back on either side of a longitudinal bulkhead, each engine drove an outward rotating screw of some 21 feet in diameter. A pair of engines, each of 600 indicated horsepower, were fitted to turn the screws while the ship was proceeding under sail. These engines could, if required, propel the ship at a speed of 14.5 knots, at the time of her completion Alexandra was the fastest battleship afloat. It had been intended to call the ship HMS Superb, but the name was changed at her launching, which was undertaken by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, who was later Queen Alexandra. She was the first British ironclad to be launched by a member of the Royal Family, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Teck and the Duke of Cambridge were also present. She was commissioned at Chatham on 2 January 1877 as flagship, Mediterranean Fleet and she was the flagship of Admiral Hornby in his passage through the Dardanelles during the Russian war scare of 1878. She ran aground in bad weather at the narrowest part of the strait and she was present at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, in this action the Admirals flag was shifted to HMS Invincible, as she was of shallower draught and could sail closer to shore. During this action on 11 July 1882, Gunner Israel Harding flung a live 10-inch shell overboard, in 1886, the Duke of Edinburgh hoisted his flag on board, and Prince George of Wales, later King George V, joined as a lieutenant. She paid off in 1889 for modernisation, in 1891, she was flagship of the Admiral Superintendent of Naval Reserves at Portsmouth, and remained so until 1901. Alexandra was featured in the first volume of the Navy and Army Illustrated in early c, at this time, she had a complement of 408 officers and men and was commanded by Captain W. H. Pigott. Her last sea-time was as flagship of the B fleet in the manoeuvres of 1900, in 1903 she became a mechanical training ship, and she was sold in 1908. Oscar Parkes British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3 Conway All the Worlds Fighting Ships ISBN 0-85177-133-5
31.
USS North Dakota (BB-29)
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USS North Dakota was a dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, the second member of the Delaware class, her only sister ship being Delaware. North Dakota was laid down at the Fore River Shipyard in December 1907, was launched in November 1908 and she was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch guns and was capable of a top speed of 21 kn. North Dakota was the first vessel of the US Navy to be named after the 39th state, North Dakota had a peaceful career, she was present during the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914, but did not see action. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, North Dakota remained in the US, training crewmen for the expanding wartime Navy. She served in capacity until 1930, when she was replaced in that role by Utah. In 1931, she was sold for scrapping and thereafter dismantled, North Dakota was 518 ft 9 in long overall and had a beam of 85 ft 3 in and a draft of 27 ft 3 in. She displaced 20,380 long tons as designed and up to 22,400 long tons at combat load. The ship was powered by two-shaft Curtis steam turbines and fourteen coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, the ship had a cruising range of 6,500 nautical miles at a speed of 12 kn. She had a crew of 933 officers and men and her bow had an early example of bulbous forefoot. The ship was armed with a battery of ten 12-inch /45 Mark 5 guns in five twin Mark 7 gun turrets on the centerline. The other three turrets were placed aft of the superstructure, the secondary battery consisted of twenty-one 5-inch /50 Mark 6 guns mounted on Mark 9 and Mark 12 pedestal mounts in casemates along the side of the hull. As was standard for ships of the period, she carried a pair of 21-inch torpedo tubes. The main armored belt was 11 in thick, while the deck was 2 in thick. The gun turrets had 12 in thick faces and the tower had 11.5 in thick sides. North Dakota was laid down at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy and she was launched on 10 November 1908, and completed on 11 April 1910. On 8 September 1910, the ship suffered an oil-tank explosion, six men—Chief Watertenders August Holtz and Patrick Reid, Chief Machinists Mates Thomas Stanton and Karl Westa, Machinists Mate First Class Charles C. Roberts, and Watertender Harry Lipscomb—each received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession during the fire, on 2 November 1910, she crossed the Atlantic for the first time, on a good-will visit to Britain and France. Fleet maneuvers followed in the Caribbean the next spring, midshipmen training cruises for cadets from the Naval Academy occupied North Dakotas time in the summers of 1912 and 1913
32.
Japanese battleship Haruna
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Haruna, named after Mount Haruna, was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the fourth and last battlecruiser of the Kongō class, laid down in 1912 at the Kawasaki Shipyards in Kobe, Haruna was formally commissioned in 1915 on the same day as her sister ship, Kirishima. Haruna patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I, during gunnery drills in 1920, an explosion destroyed one of her guns, damaged the gun turret, and killed seven men. During her career, Haruna underwent two major reconstructions, beginning in 1926, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1933, her superstructure was rebuilt, her speed was increased. Now fast enough to accompany Japans growing carrier fleet, Haruna was reclassified as a fast battleship, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Haruna transported Imperial Japanese Army troops to mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. On the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore, Haruna fought in almost every major naval action of the Pacific Theater during World War II. She covered the Japanese landings in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies in 1942 before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway, Haruna participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, engaging American vessels in the latter. In 1945, Haruna was transferred to Kure Naval Base, where she was sunk by aircraft of Task Force 38 on 28 July 1945. Haruna was the fourth and last of the Imperial Japanese Navys Kongō-class battlecruisers, the class was ordered in 1910 in the Japanese Emergency Naval Expansion Bill after the commissioning of HMS Invincible in 1908. Their heavy armament and armor protection were greatly superior to those of any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time, the keel of Haruna was laid down at Kobe by Kawasaki on 16 March 1912, with most of the parts used in her construction manufactured in Japan. Due to a shortage of available slipways, Haruna and her sister ship Kirishima were the first two ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy to be built in private shipyards. Launched on 14 December 1913, Harunas fitting-out began in early 1914 and she was completed on 19 April 1915. Harunas main battery consisted of eight 14 in heavy-caliber main guns in four twin turrets, the turrets were noted by the U. S. Office of Naval Intelligence to be similar to the British 15-inch turrets, with improvements made in flash-tightness. Each of her guns could fire high-explosive or armor-piercing shells a maximum of 38,770 yd at a firing rate of two shells per minute. In keeping with the Japanese doctrine of deploying more powerful vessels before their opponents, Haruna, the main guns carried ammunition for 90 salvoes, and had an approximate barrel life of 250 to 280 rounds. In 1941, separate dyes were introduced for the shells of the four Kongo-class battleships. Her secondary battery was originally sixteen 6 in 50-caliber medium guns in casemates, eight 3 in guns
33.
Royal Sovereign-class battleship
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The Royal Sovereign class was a group of eight pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. By about 1905–07, they were considered obsolete and were reduced to reserve, the ships began to be sold off for scrap beginning in 1911, although Empress of India was sunk as a target ship during gunnery trials in 1913. Only Revenge survived to see service in the war, during which she bombarded the Belgian coastline. Renamed Redoubtable in 1915, she was hulked later that year as a ship until she was sold for scrap after the war. By the late 1880s pressure on the government to modernise and expand the Royal Navy was building. The Government responded with the Naval Defence Act 1889, which provided £21.5 million for a vast expansion programme of which the eight ships of the Royal Sovereign class were the centrepiece. The Act also formalised the two-power standard, whereby the Royal Navy sought to be as large as the two major naval powers combined. These ships were equipped with gun turrets, the weight of which dictated that they be low-freeboard ships to reduce their topweight, White, however, argued strenuously for a high-freeboard design to improve the new ships ability to fight and steam in heavy weather. This meant that the armament could only be mounted in lighter, the Royal Sovereigns are often considered the first of the type of battleship which would become known after the commissioning of the revolutionary Dreadnought in 1906 as pre-dreadnoughts. The ships displaced 14,150 long tons at load and 15,580 long tons at deep load. They had a length between perpendiculars of 380 feet and a length of 410 feet 6 inches, a beam of 75 feet. Those ships fitted with barbettes had a freeboard of 19 feet 6 inches, provided by the addition of an extra deck. To reduce their topweight, White gave them a significant amount of tumblehome, Hoods freeboard, however, was only 11 feet 3 inches, which meant that she was very wet and lost speed rapidly as wave height increased. This had the effect of making her roll period shorter by around 7% compared to her sisters, White had purposely selected a high GM to minimise rolling and he did not think that bilge keels were needed. The rest of the ships were fitted with bilge keels in 1894–95.5 knots, the Royal Sovereign-class ships comfortably exceeded these speeds, Royal Sovereign herself reached 16.43 knots from 9,661 ihp with natural draught. Trials at forced draught, however, damaged her boilers, although the ship attained 18 knots from 13,360 ihp, as a result, the Navy decided not to push the boilers of the Royal Sovereign class past 11,000 ihp to prevent similar damage. The ships carried a maximum of 1,420 long tons of coal, a new and more powerful 12-inch gun was preferred by the Board, but it was still under development, so the BL13. 5-inch 67-ton gun used in the preceding classes was chosen. The four guns were mounted in two twin-gun, pear-shaped barbettes or circular turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure, the barbettes were open, without hoods or gun shields, and the guns were fully exposed
34.
HMS Resistance (1861)
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HMS Resistance was the second of two Defence-class ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. She was the first capital ship in the Royal Navy to be fitted with a ram and was given the nickname of Old Rammo. Resistance was initially assigned to the Channel Fleet upon commissioning, but was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1864 and she was rearmed in 1867 and became a guardship when recommissioned in 1869. The ship was reassigned to the Channel Fleet in 1873 before reverting to her duties in 1877. Resistance was decommissioned in 1880 and was used for gunnery and torpedo trials beginning in 1885, the ship was sold for scrap in 1898 and foundered in 1899 en route to the breakers yard. She was salvaged and later scrapped, the Defence-class ironclads were designed as smaller and cheaper versions of the Warrior-class armoured frigates. This meant that they could not fit the same powerful engines of the Warrior-class ships and were therefore 2 knots slower and had far fewer guns. The naval architect Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, a future Constructor of the Navy, considered that, in terms of combat, HMS Resistance was 280 feet long between perpendiculars and 291 feet 4 inches long overall. She had a beam of 54 feet 2 inches and a draft of 26 feet 2 inches, the ship displaced 6,070 long tons and had a ram in the shape of a plough, the first capital ship in the Royal Navy to be fitted with one. The hull was subdivided by transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine. Resistance was 128 feet 8 inches shorter overall and displaced over 3,000 long tons less than the Warrior-class ironclads, the Defence-class ships had a single two-cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single 21-foot propeller. Four rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a pressure of 20 psi. The engine produced a total of 2,329 indicated horsepower, during sea trials on 25 August 1873, Resistance had a maximum speed of 11.4 knots. The ship carried 450 long tons of coal, enough to steam 1,670 nautical miles at 10 knots, the ironclad was ship rigged and had a sail area of 24,500 square feet. The lower masts and bowsprit were made of iron to withstand the shock of ramming, Resistance could make about 10.5 knots under sail and the funnel was semi-retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone. The ships propeller could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail and she was re-rigged as a barque from September 1864 to April 1866 before returning to her original ship rig. This was modified during construction to six rifled 110-pounder breech-loading guns, ten 68-pounders, both breech-loading guns were new designs from Armstrong and much was hoped of them. Four of the 110-pounder guns were installed on the deck amidships
35.
Edgar-class cruiser
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The Edgar class was a nine-ship class of protected cruiser built around 1891 for the Royal Navy. Nine ships were completed, all of which participated in the First World War, one, HMS Hawke, was lost during the war, with the other eight being scrapped in the 1920s. Crescent and Royal Arthur were built to a modified design with a raised forecastle and a pair of 6 inch guns replacing the forward 9.2 inch gun. The Edgar class are noted for being the first ships fitted with torpedo bulges. The following table gives the details and purchase cost of the members of the Edgar class. Standard British practice at time was for these costs to exclude armament. Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, the Naval Annual 1906 Gardiner, Robert, ed. Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1860–1905
36.
Blake-class cruiser
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The Blake class was a two-ship class of first-class protected cruiser built around 1890 for the Royal Navy. The Blake class were designed under the supervision of William White and they were planned to combine the roles of trade protection with the ability to operate with the fleet when required. As such, the design requirement combined high speed and long range and they were the first class of first-class cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Main gun armament was similar to that of the Orlandos, consisting of two 9, secondary armament consisted on sixteen 3 pounder guns. Four 14 inch torpedo tubes completed the armament, with two submerged tubes and two above the waterline. The arched armoured deck was at approximately the level of the waterline, with a thickness of 3 in at the centre and 6 in at the sides, while the ships conning tower was protected by 12 in of armour. The 9.2 inch guns were behind 4.5 in gunshields while the casemates protecting the main deck 6 inch guns were 6 inch thick, machinery consisted of 4 three-cylinder triple expansion engines fed by six double-ended cylindrical boilers and driving two shafts. The forward two engines could be disconnected for longer endurance at low speeds. 1,800 long tons of coal could be carried, double the fuel of the Orlandos, giving a range of 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots, the two ships were obsolete by the outbreak of the First World War, and served as depot ships. They were Prince Henry of Battenberg and former Canadian Prime Ministers Sir John Thompson, the following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Blake class. Standard British practice at time was for these costs to exclude armament. The Naval Annual 1895 Brown, D. K, warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860–1905. Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860–1905
37.
Pre-dreadnought battleship
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Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late 1880s and 1905, before the launch of HMS Dreadnought. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s and they were powered by coal-fuelled triple-expansion steam engines. The similarity in appearance of battleships in the 1890s was underlined by the number of ships being built. The decisive clash of pre-dreadnought fleets was between the Imperial Russian Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 and these battleships were abruptly made obsolete by the arrival of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. Dreadnought followed the trend in design to heavier, longer-ranged guns by adopting an all-big-gun armament scheme of ten 12-inch guns. Her innovative steam turbine engines also made her faster, the pre-dreadnought developed from the ironclad battleship. The first ironclads — the French Gloire and HMS Warrior — looked much like sailing frigates, only eight years later HMVS Cerberus, the first breastwork monitor, was launched. Only three years later followed HMS Devastation, a turreted ironclad which more resembled a pre-dreadnought than previous, each ship lacked masts and carried four heavy guns in two turrets fore and aft. Navies worldwide continued to build masted, turretless battleships which had sufficient freeboard and were enough to fight on the high seas. The distinction between battleship and cruising battleship became blurred with the Admiral class, ordered in 1880. These ships reflected developments in design, being protected by iron-and-steel compound armour rather than wrought iron. Equipped with breech-loading guns of between 12-inch and 16 ¼-inch calibre, the Admirals continued the trend of ironclad warships towards gigantic weapons, the guns were mounted in open barbettes to save weight. Some historians see these ships as a step towards pre-dreadnoughts, others view them as a confused. The subsequent Royal Sovereign class of 1889 retained barbettes but were armed with 13. 5-inch guns. Just as importantly, the Royal Sovereigns had a higher freeboard, the pre-dreadnought design reached maturity in 1895 with the Majestic class. These ships were built and armoured entirely of steel, and their guns were mounted in fully enclosed barbettes and they also adopted a 12-inch main gun, which, due to advances in casting and propellant, was lighter and more powerful than the previous guns of larger calibre. The Majestics provided the model for building in the Royal Navy. Pre-dreadnoughts carried guns of different calibres, for different roles in ship-to-ship combat
38.
Iron Duke-class battleship
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The Iron Duke class was a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the British Royal Navy before the First World War. The class comprised four ships, Iron Duke, Marlborough, Benbow, launched from October 1912 to November 1913, this was the third class of Royal Navy super-dreadnoughts. The ships were repeats of the King George V-class battleships. However, the Iron Dukes had improved armour and a powerful secondary armament of 6-inch weapons instead of the 4-inch mounted on the earlier ships. The four ships were the most advanced battleships in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War and they all saw extensive service during the war with the Grand Fleet, where Iron Duke acted as the flagship for the fleet commander, Admiral John Jellicoe. Three of the ships, Iron Duke, Benbow, and Marlborough, were present at the Battle of Jutland, the Emperor of India missed the battle by being in dock for periodic refit. The four Iron Duke-class battleships saw limited active duty following the end of the war, Iron Duke was reduced to a training and depot ship and lasted in that role until 1946 when she was scrapped. Benbow was scrapped in 1931 and Marlborough followed in 1932, Emperor of India was sunk as a gunnery target in 1931 though was later re-floated to be scrapped in 1932. The Iron Duke-class ships were 622 feet 9 inches long overall, and had a beam of 90 ft and this was an increase of 25 ft in length and 1 ft in width over the preceding King George V-class ships. The Iron Dukes displaced 25,000 long tons and this was some 2,000 tons heavier than the preceding King George Vs, and was primarily due to the increase in calibre of the secondary battery. The ships were powered by four-shaft Parsons turbines, steam was provided to the turbines by 18 Babcock & Wilcox or Yarrow boilers. The engines were rated at 29,000 shaft horsepower and delivered a top speed of 21.5 knots, Iron Duke and her sisters had a fuel storage capacity of 3,200 long tons of coal and 1,030 long tons of oil. This enabled a range of 7,780 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 10 kn. The Iron Duke-class ships mounted a battery of ten 13.5 inch Mk V guns in five twin gun turrets. Two turrets were placed in a superfiring pair forward, one turret amidships—the Q turret—directly after the two funnels, and two in a superfiring pair aft of the rear superstructure. The gun houses used were Mk II turrets that weighed 600 tons and allowed for depression to −5°, the forward and aft gun turrets could train 150° in either direction from the centreline, while the Q had a much more limited range. It could engage targets on an arc from between 30° to 150° from the centerline on either beam of the ship, the guns had a rate of fire of between 1. 5–2 rounds per minute. The Mk V Heavy gun fired a variety of shells, including high explosive and armour-piercing rounds, the guns were loaded with MD45 propellant charges that weighed 297 lb, these were stored in silk bags
39.
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
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HMS Dreadnought was a battleship built for the Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. The generation of ships she made obsolete became known as pre-dreadnoughts, admiral Sir John Jacky Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Board of Admiralty, is credited as the father of Dreadnought. Shortly after he assumed office, he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12-inch guns and he convened a Committee on Designs to evaluate the alternative designs and to assist in the detailed design work. Dreadnought was the first battleship of her era to have a main battery. She was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines and her launch helped spark a naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the German Imperial Navy, rushed to match her in the build-up to World War I. In March 1915 Dreadnought became the only confirmed to have sunk a submarine. Dreadnought did not participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 as she was being refitted and this was the only time during the war that British dreadnought battleships fired on their German counterparts. Nor did Dreadnought participate in any of the other World War I naval battles, after the Battle of Jutland she was relegated to coastal defence duties in the English Channel, not rejoining the Grand Fleet until 1918. She was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for two years later. A related problem was that the shell splashes from the numerous smaller weapons tended to obscure the splashes from the bigger guns. Keeping the range open generally negated the threat from torpedoes and further reinforced the need for guns of a uniform calibre. In 1903, the Italian naval architect Vittorio Cuniberti first articulated in print the concept of an all-big-gun battleship, when the Italian Navy did not pursue his ideas, Cuniberti wrote an article in Janes Fighting Ships advocating his concept. He proposed an ideal future British battleship of 17,000 long tons, with a battery of a dozen 12-inch guns in eight turrets,12 inches of belt armour. The Royal Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States Navy all recognised these issues before 1905. The unheard of long-range fire during the Battle of the Yellow Sea, in particular, although never experienced by any prior to the battle. In January 1905, he convened a Committee on Designs, including members of his informal group, to evaluate the various design proposals. While nominally independent it served to deflect criticism of Fisher and the Board of Admiralty as it had no ability to consider options other than those already decided upon by the Admiralty, Fisher appointed all of the members of the committee and he was President of the Committee. This was deemed necessary after the Russian battleship Tsesarevich was thought to have survived a Japanese torpedo hit during the Russo–Japanese War by virtue of her heavy internal bulkhead, to avoid increasing the displacement of the ship, the thickness of her waterline belt was reduced by 1 inch
40.
Omaha-class cruiser
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The Omaha-class cruisers were a class of light cruisers built for the United States Navy. The oldest class of cruiser still in service with the Navy at the outbreak of World War II, the Omaha class was an immediate post-World War I design. Built to scout for a fleet of battleships, the Omaha class featured high speed for cooperation with destroyers, displacing 7,050 long tons, they were just over 555 feet long. The Omaha class was designed specifically in response to the British Centaur subclass of the C-class cruiser, the Omaha class mounted four smokestacks, a look remarkably similar to the Clemson-class destroyers. Their armament showed the change from casemate-mounted weapons to turret-mounted guns. They held a full twelve 6-inch/53 caliber guns, of four were mounted in two twin turrets, one fore and one aft, and the remaining eight in casemates. Launched in 1920, Omaha had a displacement of 7,050 long tons, the cruisers emerged with a distinctly old-fashioned appearance owing to their World War I-type stacked twin casemate-mount cannons and were among the last broadside cruisers designed anywhere. As a result of the changes placed on the ship mid-construction. The ships were insufficiently insulated, too hot in the tropics, sacrifices in weight savings in the name of increased speed led to severe compromise in the habitability of the ship. While described as a ship in a seaway, the low freeboard led to frequent water ingestion over the bow and in the torpedo compartments. The lightly built hulls leaked, so that sustained high-speed steaming contaminated the oil tanks with sea water and these drawbacks notwithstanding, the US Navy took some pride in the Omaha class. Magazines were the first to be placed on centerline, below the waterline, a serious flaw in these ships subdivision was the complete lack of watertight bulkheads anywhere above the main deck or aft on the main deck. Originally designed to serve as a scout, they served throughout the period as leaders of fleet flotillas. Tactical scouting became the province of cruiser aircraft, and the distant scouting role was taken over by the new heavy cruisers spawned by the Washington Naval Treaty, thus, the Omaha class never performed their designed function. They were relegated to the role, where their high speed. These were the oldest class of cruisers still in service with the Navy in 1941, all were modified during the war with additional 20mm and 40mm anti aircraft guns and radar. Both Detroit and Raleigh were at Pearl Harbor during the attack, Detroit, along with St. Louis and Phoenix were the only large ships to get out of the harbor during the attack. The ships of the Omaha class spent most of the war deployed to secondary theaters, the Omaha class were sent in places where their significant armament might be useful if called upon, but where their age and limited abilities were less likely to be tested
41.
Gotland
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Gotland, Gutland in the local dialect Gutnish, is a province, county, municipality, and diocese of Sweden. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north. The population is 57,221, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Swedens total land area. From a military viewpoint, it occupies a location in the Baltic sea. The island is the home of the Gutes, and sites such as the Ajvide Settlement show that it has occupied since prehistory. This is consistent with the spread of peoples from the Middle East at about that time. Early on, Gotland became a center, with the town of Visby the most important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea. In late medieval times, the island had twenty district courts, each represented by its elected judge at the island-ting, new laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. Gutasaga contains legends of how the island was settled by Þieluar, according to some historians, it is therefore an effort not only to write down the history of Gotland, but also to assert Gotlands independence from Sweden. In 1361, Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark invaded the island, the Victual Brothers occupied the island in 1394 to set up a stronghold as a headquarters of their own in Visby. At last, Gotland became a fief of the Teutonic Knights, an invading army of Teutonic Knights conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers from Gotland. The number of Arab dirhams discovered on the island of Gotland alone is astoundingly high, in the various hoards located around the island, there are more of these silver coins than at any other site in Western Eurasia. The total sum is almost as great as the number that has been unearthed in the entire Muslim world, the Berezan Runestone, discovered in 1905 in Ukraine, was made by a Varangian trader named Grani in memory of his business partner Karl. It is assumed that they were from Gotland, the Mästermyr chest, an important artefact from the Viking Age, was found in Gotland. The authority of the landsting was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order, then sold to Eric of Pomerania, in late medieval times, the ting consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants. Since the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the island has remained under Swedish rule, the Order never regained its territory, and eventually it reestablished itself in Rome as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. On 22 April 1808, during the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, a Russian army landed on the shores of Gotland near Grötlingbo. Under command of Nikolaus Andrejevich Bodisco 1,800 Russians took the city of Visby without any combat or engagement, and occupied the island
42.
Jagdtiger
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Jagdtiger is the common name of a German heavy tank destroyer of World War II. The official German designation was Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf, B as it was based on a lengthened Tiger II chassis. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd, the 71-tonne Jagdtiger was the heaviest armored fighting vehicle used operationally during World War II and is the heaviest armored vehicle of any type to achieve series production. The vehicle carried a 128 mm PaK44 L/55 main gun and it saw service in small numbers from late 1944 to the end of the war on both the Western and Eastern Front. Although 150 were ordered, only between 70 and 88 were produced, due to an excessive weight, the Jagdtiger was continuously plagued with mechanical problems. Today, three Jagdtigers survive in museums, German tank destroyers of World War II used fixed casemates instead of moveable turrets to significantly reduce the cost, weight, and materials used for mounting large caliber guns. In early 1942, a request was made by the Army General Staff to mount a 128 mm gun on an armored chassis. On 18 May 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered that the 128 mm gun be utilized in the destroyer role. Firing tests of the 128 mm gun showed it to have a percentage of hits, smaller caliber guns. By early 1943, a decision was made to install a 128 mm gun on a Panther or Tiger I chassis as an assault gun. The Panther chassis was considered unsuitable after a wooden mockup of the design was constructed, on 20 October 1943, another wooden mockup was constructed on a Tiger II chassis, and presented to Hitler in East Prussia. They were completed in February 1944 and it was originally designated as Jagdpanzer VI, but was later named the Jagdtiger. It received the inventory ordnance number Sd. Kfz, the Jagdtiger was a logical extension of the creation of Jagdpanzer designs from tank designs, such as the Jagdpanther from the Panther tank. The Jagdtiger used a boxy superstructure, with its sides integral with the hull sides, the resulting vehicle featured very heavy armor. It had 250 mm armor on the front of the casemate and 150 mm on the glacis plate, the main gun mount had a limited traverse of only 10 degrees, the entire vehicle had to be turned to aim outside that narrow field of fire. The Jagdtiger suffered from a variety of mechanical and technical problems due to its immense weight, the vehicle had frequent breakdowns, ultimately more Jagdtigers were lost to mechanical problems or lack of fuel than to enemy action. One hundred and fifty Jagdtigers were initially ordered but only between 70 and 88 were produced at the Nibelungenwerk at St. Valentin, from July 1944 to May 1945. Eleven of them, serial numbers 305001 and 305003 to 305012, were produced with the Porsche suspension, after serial number 305011, no Zimmerit anti-magnetic paste was factory applied
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Stridsvagn 103
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The Stridsvagn 103, also known as the S-Tank, was a Swedish post-war main battle tank. It was known for its design, it was turretless with a fixed gun traversed by engaging the tracks. It is the tank of any kind since World War II to dispense with a turret. The Strv 103 was designed and manufactured in Sweden and it was developed in the 1950s and was the first main battle tank to use a turbine engine. The result was a very low-profile design with an emphasis on survivability, Strv 103s formed a major portion of the Swedish armoured forces from the 1960s to part of the 1990s, when, along with the Centurions, it was replaced with the Stridsvagn 121 and the Stridsvagn 122. In the mid-1950s, the Kungliga Arméförvaltningens Tygavdelning put out a tender for next generation tank design to replace their Centurions. However, this was deemed too expensive in comparison to the alternatives, A, alternative T was a 30-ton tank with low protection and good mobility. Then, in 1956, Sven Berge of the Swedish Arms Administration proposed Alternativ S, Berge therefore concluded that any new design should be as low as possible. The radical solution was to eliminate the turret, which would also dispose of a target area. In terms of height, the final design did not give the Strv 103 any significant advantage. Its most likely opponent, the T-64, was only 2.20 m in height with its turret versus the 2.14 m of the Strv 103, however, the T-64 paid for its low profile with an extremely cramped interior and lack of gun depression. Tanks often deploy themselves into hull-down firing positions, either behind dug entrenchments or using the crest of a hill, in order to reduce the exposure of the vehicle to enemy fire. Since the Strv 103 orients the entire tank to depress and elevate the barrel, in a hull down position it has little apparent height. It could also lower the hull a further 13 cm by adjusting the suspension, berges design solved the aiming problem through the use of a fully automated transmission and suspension system, which precisely turned and tilted the tank under the gunners control. The gun itself would be fixed to the hull and this made it impossible to use a stabilized gun. Other features of the tank were also quite radical, while the last issue could have been solved by adding staff to the ammunition crews, it was decided that a third crew-member was needed. To enhance combat effectiveness, the man was to be assigned as rear driver/radio operator, facing the rear of the tank. This allowed the tank to be driven backwards at the speed as forwards, keeping its frontal armour pointed at the enemy
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Gun turret
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A gun turret is a location from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility, and some cone of fire. Rotating gun turrets have the protection, the weapon, and its crew rotate, when this meaning of the word turret started being used at the beginning of the 1860s, turrets were normally cylindrical. Barbettes were an alternative to turrets, with a barbette the protection was fixed, in the 1890s, armoured hoods were added to barbettes, these rotated with the platform. By the early 20th Century, these hoods were known as turrets, modern warships have gun-mountings described as turrets, though the protection on them is limited to protection from the weather. They may be manned or remotely controlled and are most often protected to some degree, the protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage, the weather conditions, general environment in which the weapon or its crew will be operating. A small turret, or sub-turret set on top of a one, is called a cupola. The term cupola is used for a rotating turret that carries a sighting device rather than weaponry. Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, firepower was provided by a large number of guns, each of which could traverse only in a limited arc. Additionally casemate mounts had to be recessed into the side of a vessel to afford a wide arc of fire, designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. The Lady Nancy proved a success and Coles patenting his rotating turret design after the war. Coless aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, the Admiralty accepted the principle of the turret gun as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns, the design was rejected as impractical, although the Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs. Coles enlisted the support of Prince Albert, who wrote to the first Lord of the Admiralty, in January 1862, the Admiralty agreed to construct a ship, the HMS Prince Albert which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. While Coles designed the turrets the ship was the responsibility of the chief Constructor Isaac Watts, another ship using Coles turret designs, HMS Royal Sovereign, was completed in August 1864. Its existing broadside guns were replaced with four turrets on a flat deck, early ships like the Royal Sovereign had little sea-keeping qualities being limited to coastal waters. Sir Edward James Reed, went on to design and build HMS Monarch, laid down in 1866 and completed in June 1869, it carried two turrets, although the inclusion of a forecastle and poop prevented the turret guns firing fore and aft. The gun turret was independently invented by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson in America, Ericsson designed the USS Monitor in 1861, its most prominent feature being a large cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships above the low-freeboard upper hull, also called the raft. This extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped hull, a small armoured pilot house was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow, however, its position prevented Monitor from firing her guns straight forward
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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
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Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
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Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
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