1.
Naval artillery
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Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare, later also for naval gunfire support against targets on land, and for anti-aircraft use. The idea of artillery dates back to the classical era. Julius Caesar indicates the use of ship-borne catapults against Britons ashore in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, the dromons of the Byzantine Empire carried catapults and fire-throwers. From the late Middle Ages onwards, warships began to carry cannon of various calibres, the Battle of Arnemuiden, fought between England and France in 1338 at the start of the Hundred Years War, was the first recorded European naval battle using artillery. The English ship Christopher was armed with three cannons and one hand gun, by the 15th century most Mediterranean powers were utilising heavy cannon mounted on the bow or stern of a vessel and designed to bombard fortresses on shore. By mid-century some vessels also carried smaller broadside cannons for bombarding other vessels immediately prior to an attempted boarding and these small guns were anti-personnel weapons and were fired at point blank range to accompany engagement with muskets or bows. From the 1470s both the Portuguese and Venetian navies were experimenting with cannons as anti-ship weapons, in 1489 John of Portugal further contributed to the development of naval artillery by establishing the first standardized teams of trained naval gunners. The 16th century was an era of transition in naval warfare, since ancient times, war at sea had been fought much like that on land, with melee weapons and bows and arrows, but on floating wooden platforms rather than battlefields. Though the introduction of guns was a significant change, it slowly changed the dynamics of ship-to-ship combat. As guns became heavier and able to more powerful gunpowder charges, they needed to be placed lower in the ship. Although some 16th-century galleys mounted broadside cannon, they did so at the expense of rowing positions which sacrificed speed, most early cannon were still placed in the forecastle and aftercastle of a ship where they might be conveniently pointed in any direction. Early naval artillery was a weapon to deter boarders, because cannon powerful enough to damage ships were heavy enough to destabilize any ship mounting them in an elevated castle. Being a crown industry, cost considerations did not curb the pursuit of the best quality, best innovations, the crown paid wage premiums and bonuses to lure the best European artisans and gunners to advance the industry in Portugal. This made broadsides, coordinated volleys from all the guns on one side of a ship, possible for the first time in history, at least in theory. Ships, such as Mary Rose, carried a mixture of cannon of different types and sizes, many designed for land use, and using incompatible ammunition at different ranges and rates of fire. The Mary Rose, like other ships of the time, was built during a period of development of heavy artillery. The heavy armament was a mix of older-type wrought iron and cast bronze guns, the bronze guns were cast in one piece and rested on four-wheel carriages which were essentially the same as those used until the 19th century. The breech-loaders were cheaper to produce and both easier and faster to reload, but could take less powerful charges than cast bronze guns, the majority of the guns were small iron guns with short range that could be aimed and fired by a single person
2.
Weapon mount
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A weapon mount is a weapon component used to affix an armament for stabilization. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories, static mounts and non-static mounts, a static mount is a non-portable weapon support component used on a self-propelled vehicle. A gun turret protects the crew or mechanism of a weapon, a turret is a rotating weapon platform. This can be mounted on a building or structure such as a coast artillery battery, or on an armoured fighting vehicle. Turrets may be armed with one or more guns, automatic cannons, large-calibre guns, missile launchers. It may be manned or remotely controlled, and is often armoured, a small turret, or sub-turret on a larger one, is called a cupola. The term cupola also describes rotating turrets that carry no weapons but instead are sighting devices, a finial is an extremely small sub-turret or sub-sub-turret mounted on a cupola turret. The protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage or against the weather, conditions and environment in which the weapon or its crew operate. A coaxial mount is mounted beside the primary weapon and thus points in the general direction as the main armament. The term coaxial is a misnomer as the arrangement is often actually paraxial, nearly all main battle tanks and most infantry fighting vehicles have a coaxial machine gun mounted to fire along a parallel axis to the main gun. Coaxial weapons are usually aimed by use of the gun control. It is usually used to infantry or other soft targets when the main gun collateral damage would be excessive. A fixed mount is not moveable with respect to the vehicle, the vehicle must move in order to change direction of fire. Fixed mounts are most commonly found on aircraft, and most commonly direct the forward, along the aircrafts vector of movement, so that a pilot could aim. Some minor aircraft designs used different concept of fixed mounts, as found in Schräge Musik or AC-47 Spooky, a pintle mount is a fixed mount that allows the gun to be freely traversed and/or elevated while keeping the gun in one fixed position. It is most commonly found on armoured vehicles, gunner stations on bomber aircraft, unlike a turret, a pintle has little or no armour protection. A swing mount is a mount that allows a far greater. Utilising a system of one or two articulated arms the gunner can swing the weapon through a wide arc even though the position is fixed relative to the mount
3.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
4.
Autocannon
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An autocannon or automatic cannon is a large, fully automatic, rapid-fire projectile weapon that fires armour-piercing or explosive shells, as opposed to the bullet fired by a machine gun. Autocannons often have a larger calibre than a gun, but are usually smaller than a field gun or other artillery. When used on its own, the word autocannon indicates a single-barrel weapon, when multiple rotating barrels are involved, the word rotary is added, and such a weapon is referred to as a rotary autocannon. As such, ammunition is fed from a belt to reduce reloading or for a faster rate of fire. They can use a variety of ammunition, common shells include high-explosive dual-purpose types, any variety of armour-piercing types, both the US25 mm Bushmaster and the British 30 mm Rarden have relatively slow rates of fire so as not to use ammunition too quickly. The rate of fire of a modern autocannon ranges from 90 rounds per minute, systems with multiple barrels can have rates of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute. The first modern autocannon was the British QF1 pounder, also known as the pom-pom, during the First World War, autocannons were mostly used in the trenches as an anti-aircraft gun. Attempts to use them in aircraft failed as the severely limited both speed and altitude, thus making successful interception impossible. The more effective QF2 pounder naval gun would be developed during the war to serve as an anti-aircraft, autocannons would serve in a much greater capacity during the Second World War. During the inter-war years, aircraft underwent an evolution and the monoplane, pioneered as far back as the end of 1915, almost replaced wood. The subsequent increase in speed and durability greatly reduced the window of opportunity for defence and this was only reversed with the introduction of computer-controlled systems. The German Panzer II light tank, which was one of the most numerous in German service during the invasion of Poland and the campaign in France, used a 20 mm autocannon as its main armament. Although ineffective against tank armour even during the years of the war. Larger examples, such as the 40 mm Vickers S, were mounted in ground attack aircraft to serve as an anti-tank weapon, Polish 20 mm 38 Fk auto cannon was expensive to produce, but an exception. Unlike the Oerlikon, it was effective against all the tanks fielded in 1939, largely because it was built as an upgrade to the Oerlikon, Hispano—Suiza and it, with great difficulty, proved capable of knocking out even early Panzer IIIs and IVs. Only 55 were produced by the time of the Polish Defensive War, in aircraft, several factors brought about the replacement of rifle-calibre machine guns by autocannons. Early autocannons were heavy and had a rate of fire. Along with the speed, the size of aircraft grew substantially, particularly in the 1930s, so that the weight was less of an issue while the rate of fire, and reliability were greatly improved
5.
Machine gun
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A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Note that not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, unlike semi-automatic firearms, which require one trigger pull per round fired, a machine gun is designed to fire for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays the term is restricted to heavy weapons, able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition lasts. Machine guns are used against personnel, aircraft and light vehicles, or to provide suppressive fire. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours, because they become very hot, practically all machine guns fire from an open bolt, to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, although subdivided into light, medium, heavy or general-purpose, even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy guns are either mounted on a tripod or on a vehicle, when carried on foot. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on a tripod. 50in, the M249 automatic rifle is operated by an automatic rifleman, but its ammunition may be carried by other Soldiers within the squad or unit. The M249 machine gun is a crew-served weapon, Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. Many heavy machine guns, such as the Browning M2.50 caliber machine gun, are enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War, Carlos Hathcock set the record for a shot at 7382 ft with a.50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight. This led to the introduction of.50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles, selective fire rifles firing a full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles, while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles. Unlocking and removing the spent case from the chamber and ejecting it out of the weapon as bolt is moving rearward Loading the next round into the firing chamber. Usually the recoil spring tension pushes bolt back into battery and a cam strips the new round from a feeding device, cycle is repeated as long as the trigger is activated by operator. Releasing the trigger resets the trigger mechanism by engaging a sear so the weapon stops firing with bolt carrier fully at the rear, the operation is basically the same for all autoloading firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. Most modern machine guns use gas-operated reloading, a recoil actuated machine gun uses the recoil to first unlock and then operate the action. Machine guns such as the M2 Browning and MG42, are of this type, a cam, lever or actuator demultiplicates the energy of the recoil to operate the bolt
6.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
7.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
8.
French Navy
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The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces. As of June 2014, the French Navy employed a total of 36,776 personnel, the reserve element of the French Navy consisted of 4,827 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The French naval fleet includes more than a hundred vessels and nuclear type submarines, the history of the French Navy dates back to the History of the French Navy of Antiquity to the Renaissance, part of the History of the French Navy. The French Royal Navy was quasi inexistent prior 1624, the Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, which was both a religious and military order, had its own respective international war fleet which assured the policing of the seas in the Mediterranean. The members which had satisfied obligations for periods in service at sea fulfilling their service, were granted the rank of Knights Hospitaller, however, many considered the naval service formation to integrate later, while being well formed, their respective navy. The Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem was one of the ancestors of the French naval schools and in principal, the Order accordingly formed most of the ships Captains, Officers of the French Royal Navy and Admirals of the Marine française de guerre de la Méditerranée. During the Revolution, the French Navy succeeded to the French Royal Navy, under the First French Empire and the Second French Empire, the navy was designated as the Imperial French Navy. The French Navy is still designated today familiarly as La Royale and this expression was used by commercial sailors due to their military service at the corps of the navy by the institution of maritime inscription. The implementation then of the Ministère de la Marine later the de la Marine de guerre française at rue Royale. The symbol of the French Navy, which was since origin a golden anchor » and this symbol featured on all naval vessels, the arms, uniforms, the couriers, equipment, and general arms of the navy. This symbol was replaced in 1990 by a logo featuring a bow section of a warship with two ascending red and blue spray foams, and the inscription Marine nationale. The Chief of Staff of the French Navy was Admiral Bernard Louzeau, the navy became a consistent instrument of national power around the seventeenth century with Richelieus efforts under Louis XIII, and Colberts under Louis XIV. Under the tutelage of the Sun King, the French Navy was well-financed and -equipped, managing to score several victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English, before the Nine Years War, in the Franco-Dutch War, it managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo. The French Navy scored various successes, as in the campaigns led in the Atlantic by Picquet de la Motte, in 1766, Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. During the American Revolutionary War the French Navy played a role in supporting the Americans. French warships participated in the battle by bombarding British ground forces, in India, Suffren waged campaigns against the British, successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. In the Mediterranean, the French Navy waged a campaign during a 1798 French invasion of Egypt
9.
Imperial Japanese Navy
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The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japans defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was formed after the dissolution of the IJN, the Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy. It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and it was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War. This eventually led to the Meiji Restoration, accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kubilai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time Japan may have developed one of the first ironclad warships when Oda Nobunaga, in 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy, the pirates then became vassals of Hideyoshi, and comprised the naval force used in the Japanese invasion of Korea. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, from 1604 the Bakufu also commissioned about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating some Western technologies, mainly for Southeast Asian trade. For more than 200 years, beginning in the 1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion forbade contacts with the outside world and prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships on pain of death. Contacts were maintained, however, with the Dutch through the port of Nagasaki, the Chinese also through Nagasaki and the Ryukyus and Korea through intermediaries with Tsushima. Apart from Dutch trade ships no other Western vessels were allowed to enter Japanese ports, an exception was during the Napoleonic wars. However frictions with foreign ships started from the beginning of the 19th century, the Nagasaki Harbour Incident involving the HMS Phaeton in 1808 and other subsequent incidents in the following decades led to the Shogunate to enact an edict to repel foreign vessels. Western ships which were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling, the shogunate also began to strengthen the nations coastal defenses. Numerous attempts to open Japan ended in failure in part to Japanese resistance, during 1853 and 1854, American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay and made demonstrations of force requesting trade negotiations. After two hundred years of seclusion the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa led to the opening of Japan to international trade and this was soon followed by the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and treaties with other powers. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki were sent by the Shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the Naval Training Center relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo, in 1857 the Shogunate acquired its first screw-driven steam warship Kanrin Maru and used it as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States. In 1865 the French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build Japans first modern naval arsenals, at Yokosuka, in 1867–1868 a British Naval mission headed by Commander Richard Tracey went to Japan to assist the development of the Japanese Navy and to organize the naval school of Tsukiji. The Shogunate also allowed and then ordered various domains to purchase warships and to develop naval fleets, Satsuma, a naval center had been set up by the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima, students were sent abroad for training and a number of ships were acquired
10.
Kriegsmarine
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The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire and the inter-war Reichsmarine, the Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches—along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe —of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s, Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War, under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supporting the Franco side of the war. In January 1939 Plan Z was ordered, calling for naval parity with the Royal Navy by 1944, however, when World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of building submarines and prioritizing land and air forces. The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine was Adolf Hitler, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine, the Kriegsmarines most famous ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, after the Second World War, the Kriegsmarines remaining ships were divided up amongst the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Adolf Hitler was the Commander-in-Chief of all German armed forces, including the Kriegsmarine and his authority was exercised through the Oberkommando der Marine, or OKM, with a Commander-in-Chief, a Chief of Naval General Staff and a Chief of Naval Operations. The first Commander-in-Chief of the OKM was Erich Raeder who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Reichsmarine when it was renamed and reorganized in 1935, Raeder held the post until falling out with Hitler after the German failure in the Battle of the Barents Sea. He was replaced by Karl Dönitz on 30 January 1943 who held the command until he was appointed President of Germany upon Hitlers suicide in April 1945, hans-Georg von Friedeburg was then Commander-in-Chief of the OKM for the short period of time until Germany surrendered in May 1945. Subordinate to these were regional, squadron and temporary flotilla commands, regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a Generaladmiral or an Admiral, there was a Marineoberkommando for the Baltic Fleet, Nord, Nordsee, Norwegen, Ost/Ostsee, Süd and West. The Kriegsmarine used a form of encoding called Gradnetzmeldeverfahren to denote regions on a map, each squadron also had a command structure with its own Flag Officer. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines, Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, major naval operations were commanded by a Flottenchef. The Flottenchef controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation, the commands were, by their nature, temporary. As a result the German surface fleet was plagued by design flaws throughout the war, military aircraft were also banned, so Germany could have no naval aviation. Under the treaty Germany could only build new ships to replace old ones, All the ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the Kaiserliche Marine, renamed Reichsmarine. From the outset, Germany worked to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. The launching of the first pocket battleship, Deutschland in 1931 was a step in the formation of a modern German fleet, modern destroyers and light cruisers were also built
11.
King George V-class battleship (1939)
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The King George V-class battleships were the most modern British battleships in commission during World War II. Five ships of class were built, HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Howe. All five ships saw combat during World War II, with King George V, following this on 25 October 1941, Prince of Wales was sent to Singapore arriving on 2 December and becoming the flagship of Force Z. On 10 December, Prince of Wales was attacked by Japanese bombers, in the aftermath of the sinking, King George V, Duke of York, Howe and Anson provided escort duty to convoys bound for Russia. On 1 May 1942, King George V collided with the destroyer HMS Punjabi, resulting in King George V being sent to Gladstone docks for repairs on 9 May, before returning to escort duty on 1 July 1942. On October 1942 Duke of York was sent to Gibraltar as the new flagship of Force H, Anson and Howe would also provide cover for multiple convoys bound for Russia from late 1942 until 1 March 1943, when Howe provided convoy cover for the last time. In May 1943 King George V and Howe were moved to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Husky, the two ships bombarded Trapani naval base and Favignana on 11–12 July and also provided cover for Operation Avalanche on 7 September to 14 September. During this time Duke of York and Anson participated in Operation Gearbox, Duke of York was also heavily involved in the action that sank the German battleship Scharnhorst on 25 December 1943. This battle was also the last time that British and German capital ships fought each other, in late March 1945, King George V and Howe were sent to the Pacific as part of Task Force 57. On 4 May 1945, King George V and Howe led a forty-five-minute bombardment of Japanese air facilities in the Ryukyu Islands, King George V fired her guns in anger for the last time in a night bombardment of Hamamatsu on 29 July and 30 July 1945. Duke of York and Anson were also dispatched to the Pacific, on 15 August Duke of York and Anson accepted the surrender of Japanese forces occupying Hong Kong and along with King George V were present for the official Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. Following the end of World War II, the ships were phased out of service and by 1957 all of the ships had been sold off for scrap, the King George V class was the result of a design process that began in 1928. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, a holiday from building capital ships was in force through to 1931. The battleships of the British Navy consisted of only those old battleships that had kept after the end of World War I. In 1928, the Royal Navy started considering the requirements for the warships that it expected to start building in 1931, the First London Naval Treaty of 1930 extended the shipbuilding holiday through to 1937. Planning began again in 1935, drawing on previous design work, the new class would be built up to the Treaty maximum displacement of 35,000 tons. Alternatives with 16-inch, 15-inch and 14-inch main guns were considered, most designs were intended to steam at 27 knots with full power, and it was decided that the likely decisive range in a battle would be from 12,000 to 16,000 yards. Armour and torpedo protection formed a greater portion of the design than that of the previous Royal Navy battleships
12.
QF 5.25 inch gun
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The QF5.25 inch Mark I gun was the heaviest dual-purpose gun used by the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Although considered less than successful, it saw extensive service. Unlike its French and Italian contemporaries of similar size the QF5.25 was designed as dual-purpose gun capable of engaging both aircraft and surface targets. The gun fired an 80 lb shell, which was considered the largest that a gun crew could easily handle while still having the rate of fire needed for anti-aircraft use, in 1944, VT-fuzed shells became available, making the gun significantly more effective against aircraft. The 5.5 in Mk. III guns due to shortages of the 5.25 inch gun, the number of turrets on the Bellona-class were reduced from five to four, and the number of light AA guns were increased. The RP10 Mk II mountings were later used to replace the Mk I mountings on the HMS Anson. A slightly more powerful Mk II variant was deployed by the British Army as an anti-aircraft. The RN Gunnery Pocket Book published in 1945 states, These guns are combined High Angle, the Mark II Mounting is found in all Dido class cruisers. The Mark I Mounting is found in King George V class battleships, long Range Armament and Secondary Armament against surface craft. The main differences between the two lie in the arrangements of the shellrooms and magazines, and the supply of ammunition to the guns. In this chapter, only the Mark II Mounting, as found in Dido class cruisers, is discussed, the maximum rate of fire should be 10-12 rounds per minute. Fire was opened with the 105.25 guns in the form of a low angle barrage accompanied by fire from smaller guns. The ballistic performance of the QF5.25 was very good, in comparison the French 138 mm Mle 1934 guns as used on the Mogador-class destroyers had a maximum range of 21,872 yards at 30 degrees with a 88lb SAP shell. While the Italian 135/45 mm gun as used on the Capitani Romani-class cruisers had a range of 21,435 yards at 45 degrees with a 72.1 lb AP shell. The QF5. No Dido-class cruisers were lost from air attack, however HMS Spartan, a Bellona-class cruiser, was sunk at anchor in 1944 by a Luftwaffe guided missile. However, these factors do not appear to have reduced HMS Euryaluss rate of fire, over a one-minute period, the dual-mount turrets 10 deg/s traversal speed was considered too slow to engage higher-speed aircraft at close range. However these elevation and traverse rates were higher than some contemporary weapons, such as the 10.5 cm SK C/33 twin mounts carried on the Bismarck. However, later that year Anti-Aircraft Command in UK acquired three twin-gun turrets from the Admiralty, which were installed around London in permanent positions, the gun was designated Mk 2
13.
Ship gun fire-control system
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Ship gun fire-control systems enable remote and automatic targeting of guns against surface ships, aircraft, and shore targets, with or without the aid of radar or optical sighting. Most US ships that are destroyers or larger employed GFCS for 5 -inch and larger guns, up to battleships, beginning with ships built in the 1960s, GFCSs were integrated with missile fire-control systems and other ship sensors. Naval fire control resembles that of ground-based guns, but with no distinction between direct and indirect fire. It is possible to control several same-type guns on a single platform simultaneously, though a ship rolls and pitches at a slower rate than a tank does, gyroscopic stabilization is extremely desirable. Naval gun fire control potentially involves three levels of complexity, Local control originated with primitive gun installations aimed by the gun crews. The director system of control was pioneered by British Royal Navy in 1912. All guns on a ship were laid from a central position placed as high as possible above the bridge. The director became a feature of battleships, with Japanese Pagoda-style masts designed to maximize the view of the director over long ranges. A fire control officer who ranged the salvos transmitted elevations and angles to individual guns, coordinated gunfire from a formation of ships at a single target was a focus of battleship fleet operations. An officer on the flagship would signal target information to ships in the formation. More sophisticated fire control systems consider more of these rather than relying on simple correction of observed fall of shot. Differently colored dye markers were sometimes included with large shells so individual guns, or individual ships in formation, early computers were people using numerical tables. Centralized naval fire control systems were first developed around the time of World War I, Local control had been used up until that time, and remained in use on smaller warships and auxiliaries through World War II. It may still be used for machine guns aboard patrol craft, beginning with the British battleship HMS Dreadnought, large warships had at least six similar big guns, which facilitated central fire control. For the UK, their first central system was built before the Great War, at the heart was an analogue computer designed by Commander Frederic Charles Dreyer that calculated rate of change of range. The Dreyer Table was to be improved and served into the period at which point it was superseded in new. Guns could then be fired in planned salvos, with each gun giving a different trajectory. Directors high on the superstructure had a view of the enemy than a turret mounted sight
14.
Tribal-class destroyer (1936)
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The Tribal class, or Afridi class, were a class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy that saw service in World War II. The Tribals were well admired by their crews and the public when they were in due to their power. As some of the Royal Navys most modern and powerful escort ships, only one Tribal survives to this day, HMCS Haida, which is now a museum ship in Hamilton Harbour, Ontario, Canada. From 1926, all Royal Navy destroyers had descended from a common lineage based upon the prototypes Amazon, to counteract this trend, the Admiralty decided on a new destroyer type, with an emphasis on gunnery over torpedo warfare. The destroyer was based on Design V, a study for a small fleet cruiser. This design envisioned a 1, 850-ton ship with a speed of 36.25 knots, an endurance of 5,500 nautical miles, and five twin 4.7 inch guns as main armament. To provide close range anti-aircraft protection, the design was fitted with a quadruple Mark VII QF2 pdr pom pom mounting and these ships introduced the Fuze Keeping Clock High Angle Fire Control Computer, which was used on all subsequent British wartime destroyers. The ships were armed with a quadruple bank of torpedo tubes. They were considered to be handsome ships, with a bow that provided excellent seakeeping. They are remembered with affection to this day. The Royal Navy placed an order for seven Tribals on 10 March 1936, the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy both ordered a flotilla of Tribals. The eight Australian ships were to be built in Australian shipyards, three were completed, two in 1942 and one in 1945, but the rest were cancelled. The Canadian order was for four ships from British yards in 1940, the latter were not completed until after the war. Between 1937 and 1945, twenty-seven Tribals were built, estimated cost per ship was around £340,000 excluding weaponry, and £520,000 overall. However, prewar, the Royal Navy assumed that destroyers would be acting mainly as escorts for the battle-fleet, events soon showed that destroyers often functioned independently and so became the main target of Luftwaffe attack, especially by dive bombers. After the loss of Afridi and Gurkha, the ships were taken in hand to improve the situation. Each ships X turret, which held a 4. 7-inch mounting, was removed and replaced by a twin 4-inch gun QF Mark XVI on the mounting HA/LA Mark XIX. The mainmast was cut down and the funnel was lowered to improve the arcs of fire for the anti-aircraft weapons
15.
4.7 inch QF Mark IX & XII
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The 4.7 inch QF Mark IX and Mark XII were 45-calibre,4. These guns succeeded the similar World War I-era BL4.7 inch gun, changing the cartridges from BL silk bags to separate QF in brass cases and a new horizontal sliding block breech mechanism. Mark IX was deployed in single mountings CP Mk XIV on the A-class destroyers of 1930 and on most subsequent destroyer classes up to and including the R class of 1942. The almost-identical Mk XII gun was deployed in twin mountings CP Mk XIX on the Tribal class destroyers of 1936, typical maximum rate of fire was twelve rounds per gun, per minute. During gunnery trials in 1930, HMS Basilisk was able to fire. five rounds in 17 seconds. The Mk XII gun fired a 50 lb shell and used a cartridge, with both shell and cartridge being loaded via a loading tray, with power ramming, elevation. The maximum range at 40 degrees elevation was 16,970 yards fired at the new gun muzzle velocity of 2,650 fps, there was too little sea-room for full freedom of manoeuvre, and the aircrafts approach was screened by the rock walls. As often as not, when they did come into view it was at such an angle that our 4. 7-inch guns, whose elevation was only forty degrees. Aandalsnes is approached through the Romsdal Fiord, and lies forty miles from the entrance, off which we arrived on the 24th April. Junkers attacks persisted to the end, but the fire of the destroyers, not a ship received a direct hit, though some were damaged by the splinters from near misses. The S class, introduced the CP single Mark XXII mounting for the QF Mark XII4.7 in gun, the Savage was the exception in this respect, being fitted with 4.5 inch calibre, a twin mounting forward and two singles aft. The 4.7 inch calibre was finally superseded by the 4.5 inch calibre on the Z class destroyers in 1943. 12.7 cm SK C/34 naval gun, equivalent German destroyer gun, firing slightly heavier shell 5/38 caliber gun, approximate US equivalent, firing a heavier shell Campbell. Naval Weapons of World War II, destroyer Weapons of World War 2. British Destroyers, A History of Development, 1892-1953, Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, illustration of a 4.7 inch single mount Tony DiGiulian, Britain 4. 7/45 QF Mark IX4. 7/45 QF Mark XII
16.
Fuze Keeping Clock
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The Fuze Keeping Clock was a simplified version of the Royal Navys High Angle Control System analogue fire control computer. It first appeared as the FKC MkII in destroyers of the 1938 Tribal class, while variants were used on sloops, frigates, destroyers, aircraft carriers. The FKC MkII was a non-tachymetric anti-aircraft fire control computer and it could accurately engage targets with a maximum speed of 250 knots. Most guns controlled by the FKC had Fuze Setting Pedestals or Fuze Setting Trays where the correct fuze timing was set on a mechanism within the AA shell warhead. Type 285 radar was an addition to the FKC system, being fitted on new destroyers from mid-1941 onward. The FKC saw extensive use during the war on British Commonwealth naval ships, typically on destroyers, an air attack by a single Italian machine took place on Aden. The Italian aircraft are painted with a light sand under-colour, which at the high level bombing height favoured merges very successfully into the usual hard bright sky. At times when near the sun, they have been difficult to see. The Escort engaged the planes without visible results, the second attack took place during the first dog watch. The five Italian planes, inexplicably gave H. M. S, Auckland and myself considerable warning by dropping several bombs some miles away before attacking. The remainder of the bombs were aimed with obvious intention of attacking the Convoy, but they released early, the ship, then nearly stopped getting in the mine-sweeps, was not struck, although there were several near misses. The Italian planes continued over the Convoy at approximately 14,000 ft and gave H. M. S Auckland, two of the aircraft appeared to drop out of formation, one going into a spin. It has been ascertained that not one of the five aircraft reached home. WARREGO was at anchor near Soemoe Soemoe Island and had closed up to action stations at 0530I. Just after 0600 an aircraft appeared in the direction of Bandera Hill, in the next few minutes three aircraft were picked up by radar on the starboard side. Two of these had closed to 9,000 yards when a HAMP appeared at Red 75 at a height of about 1,000 feet apparently making a run on the ship. Fire was opened in director barrage firing and the first broadside burst immediately ahead of the aircraft forcing it to bank, the aircraft passed down the port side at an estimated speed of 340 knots. The port Oerlikons opened fire at the time as the main armament and
17.
Porter-class destroyer
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The Porter-class destroyers were a class of eight 1, 850-ton large destroyers in the United States Navy. Like the preceding Farragut-class, their construction was authorized by Congress on 26 April 1916, the first four Porters were laid down in 1933 by New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey and the next four in 1934 at Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. All were commissioned in 1936 except Winslow, which was commissioned in 1937 and they were built in response to the large Fubuki-class destroyers that the Imperial Japanese Navy was building at the time, and were initially designated as flotilla leaders. They served extensively in World War II, in the Pacific War, the Atlantic, Porter was the classs only loss, in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942. The larger destroyer leader type had been under consideration since 1921. Indeed the General Board recommended the construction of five of the type in that year, one factor in favor of leaders was the Navys total lack of modern light cruisers, only partly alleviated by the ten Omaha-class ships built in the 1920s. Naval historian Norman Friedman believed that the number of Wickes. The London Naval Treaty and large French destroyers seem to have become the tipping points, the Porters had the same propulsion technology as the immediately preceding Farraguts, with 400 psi steam superheated to 645 °F. The plant was somewhat larger than in the Farraguts, with designed horsepower increased from 42,800 shaft horsepower to 50,000 shaft horsepower, resulting in a speed of 37 kn. Along with the fuel efficiency resulting from superheated steam, the four boilers included economizers to further extend the ships range by preheating incoming feedwater. The main steam turbines were manufactured by New York Shipbuilding in the case of the built by that yard. However, as in the Farraguts, the turbines had single reduction gearing and no cruising turbines. There were extensive discussions about the armament, the 5-inch /25 caliber anti-aircraft gun being favored as being easy to work and train in a fast moving, the other candidate was the 5-inch/51 caliber surface type, being very powerful but all but useless against aircraft. It was a discussion made more interesting as the 5-inch/38 caliber dual purpose gun became available in the early 1930s, the 5-inch/38 gun was simply a 5-inch/25 gun with the same projectiles and a longer barrel, but that significantly increased its range against both air and surface targets. The class was built with eight Mk 12 5-inch/38 caliber guns in four Mark 22 single purpose twin enclosed mounts. Anti-aircraft protection was provided by two quadruple 1. 1-inch mounts, in the 1930s this was considered sufficient, although the Porters had the same eight 21-inch torpedo tubes as the Farraguts, a full set of reloads was carried. In some ships, mount 52 was replaced by a quad 40 mm mount, additional 40 mm guns were added amidships along with 20 mm weapons. On most ships four K-gun depth charge throwers were added to augment the as-built pair of depth charge racks, selfridge and Phelps were in port during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and engaged enemy aircraft
18.
5"/38 caliber gun
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The Mark 12 5/38 caliber gun was a US naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used primarily by the US Navy, the 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5/51 low-angle gun and 5/25 anti-aircraft gun. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5/25 gun, however, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5/38 gun was derived from the 5/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft, the 5/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley. Even this advanced system required nearly 100 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill, however, the planes were normally killed by shell fragments and not direct hits, barrage fire was used, with many guns firing in the air at the same time. Base ring mounts with integral hoists had a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel, however. On pedestal and other mounts lacking integral hoists,12 to 15 rounds per minute was the rate of fire, useful life expectancy was 4600 effective full charges per barrel. The 5/38 cal gun was mounted on a large number of US Navy ships in the World War II era. It was backfitted to many of the World War I-era battleships during their wartime refits and it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is also used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships, each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, and it is the gun in twin mounts. It is loaded from the left side, the left gun in twin mounts is the mirror image of the right gun, and it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb, the major Mk12 Gun Assembly characteristics are,158 Semi-automatic During recoil, some of the recoil energy is stored in the counter-recoil system. That stored energy is used during counter-recoil to prepare the gun for the next round, the firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent powder case is ejected, and the bore is air cleaned. Hand loaded A Projectile-Man and a Powder-Man are stationed at each gun assembly and their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a powder case, from the hoists to the rammer tray, and then start the ram cycle. The hydraulically driven Rammer Spade, called the Power Spade in that picture, is at the back of the Rammer Tray, if the multiple names of the Spade is confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block The breech block closes the chamber behind the powder case and it also holds the firing pin assembly
19.
Philip Vian
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Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Louis Vian GCB, KBE, DSO & Two Bars was a Royal Navy officer who served in both World Wars. Vian specialised in naval gunnery from the end of World War I, in the early 1930s, he was given command of a destroyer, HMS Active, and, later, various destroyer flotillas. Much of Vians wartime service was in the Mediterranean, where he commanded a squadron, defended several critical convoys. His wartime service was completed in command of the air component of the British Pacific Fleet, with actions against the Japanese in Sumatra. Post-war, Vian served in the United Kingdom, as a Fifth Sea Lord and as Commander-in-Chief and he retired in 1952 with the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, took up commercial directorships and died at home, in 1968. Born the son of Alsager Vian and Ada Vian, Vian joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in May 1907 and was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne. On passing out from Dartmouth in 1911, Vian and his term sailed for the West Indies on the training cruiser HMS Cornwall and he became a midshipman on the pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Lord Nelson, which was serving with the Home Fleet, on 15 January 1912. At the start of World War I Vian remained on Lord Nelson which and this was disappointing for Vian, but when the ship was to be transferred to the Mediterranean he was posted to what he considered to be an even less desirable appointment. From October 1914 to September 1915, Vian served in the HMS Argonaut and he was confirmed as a sub-lieutenant in January 1915. Whilst on this ship, he was a spectator at the Battle of Jutland, promotion to lieutenant in 1917 resulted in two appointments as First Lieutenant in the destroyers HMS Ossory and HMS Sorceress. Following gunnery courses in 1916,1918 and 1919 at the Royal Naval gunnery school, Vian obtained a First Class certificate in Gunnery in October 1919. On his return to the Royal Navy, Vian was given a series of appointments as gunnery officer, first, in January 1923, to the battleship HMS Thunderer, during this appointment, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander on 15 February 1924. This was followed in 1924 by two appointments to aging C-class cruisers, there was a short period at the Devonport gunnery school and another sea posting, to the battleship HMS Emperor of India in the Mediterranean Fleet in May 1925. There followed two foreign postings, still as a gunnery specialist, First in February 1927 to HMS Royal Sovereign, in the Mediterranean Fleet. This was followed, in November 1927, to HMS Kent, the then-flagship of the China Station, where he was promoted to commander on 30 June 1929. For the two years up to January 1933, Vian had an appointment at the Admiralty in London, with the Director for Staff Training and Development. He then attended a short Tactical Course in Portsmouth and subsequently took command, in March 1933, of the destroyer HMS Active and a Division within the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla. Two incidents occurred during this command for which Vian was held to be at fault, damage to Active while going astern alongside a depotship in Malta and the loss of a torpedo from HMS Anthony
20.
Norwegian Campaign
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The Norwegian Campaign was fought in Norway between Norway, the Allies and Germany in World War II after the latters invasion of the country. In April, the United Kingdom and France came to Norways aid with an expeditionary force, despite moderate success in the northern parts of Norway, Germanys invasion of France in May eventually compelled the Allies to withdraw and the Norwegian government to seek exile in London. The campaign ended with the occupation of Norway by Germany, the 62 days of fighting made Norway the nation that withstood a German invasion for the second longest period of time, after the Soviet Union. Britain and France had signed military assistance treaties with Poland and two days after the German invasion, both declared war on Nazi Germany. However, neither country mounted significant offensive operations and for several months no major engagements occurred in what known as the Phoney War or Twilight War. Winston Churchill in particular wished to move the war into an active phase. During this time both sides wished to open secondary fronts, for the Allies, in particular the French, this was based on a desire to avoid repeating the trench warfare of the First World War, which had occurred along the Franco-German border. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the Norwegian government had mobilized parts of the Norwegian Army and all, the Norwegian Army Air Service and the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service were also called up to protect Norwegian neutrality from violations by the warring countries. The first such violations were the sinkings in Norwegian territorial waters of several British ships by German U-boats, in the following months aircraft from all the belligerents violated Norwegian neutrality. Following protracted negotiations between 25 September and 20 November 1939, the Norwegians agreed to charter 150 tankers, as well as other ships with a tonnage of 450,000 gross tons. The Norwegian governments concern for the supply lines played an important role in persuading them to accept the agreement. Norway, although neutral, was considered important for both sides of the war for two main reasons. Narvik became of greater significance to the British when it became apparent that Operation Catherine, the Norwegian ports could have also served as holes in the blockade of Germany, allowing the latter access to the Atlantic Ocean. The principal reason for Germanys invasion of Norway was its dependence on Swedish iron ore, by securing access to Norwegian ports, the Germans could more easily obtain the supply of iron ore they needed for their war effort. Control of Norway was considered to be important to Germanys ability to use its sea power effectively against the Allies. While Norway was strictly neutral, and unoccupied by either of the fighting powers, but the weakness of the Norwegian coastal defences, and the inability of her field army to resist effectively a determined invasion by a stronger power were clear. A successful invasion of Norway by either side had the potential to strike a blow against the other without getting bogged down in the trench warfare of the previous conflict. Norway had particular importance to the Germans during the Battle of the Atlantic
21.
Aandalsnes
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Åndalsnes is a town in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Åndalsnes is the center of Rauma Municipality. The 2. 22-square-kilometre town has a population of 2,244, Åndalsnes has an association football club, Åndalsnes IF. The local church is Grytten Church, but its actually located across the river in Veblungsnes, the towns newspaper, Åndalsnes Avis, had a circulation of 4,125 in 2007. Åndalsnes is located at the mouth of the river Rauma, at the shores of the Romsdalsfjord, the rivers salmon population is currently undergoing restoration after seeing strong declines in the 1980s following an infestation with the salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris. As many other infested rivers, the river Rauma is experiencing an increase in the population of sea trout, the river flows through the Romsdalen valley, which features some of the most spectacular scenery in the entire country. Trollveggen one of the formations in the valley, has a vertical drop of over 1,000 metres. It was a launch site for European BASE jumpers. The European route E136 highway and Norwegian County Road 64 both pass through Åndalsnes, County Road 64 heads to the towns of Molde and Kristiansund to the north and the E136 highway heads to the town of Ålesund to the west and to Dombås to the southeast. The Rauma Line terminates at the port of Åndalsnes, with bus connections to the towns of Molde. After the German World War II invasion of Norway in April 1940, the northern arm of the attack was based in Namsos. Lacking control of the air, the forces at Åndalsnes were withdrawn in early May 1940, in 1996, the municipal council of Rauma Municipality declared Åndalsnes a town
22.
Junkers Ju 88
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The Junkers Ju 88 was a German World War II Luftwaffe twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called Schnellbomber that would be too fast for fighters of its era to intercept. It suffered from a number of problems during later stages of its development and early operational roles. Despite its protracted development, the aircraft one of the Luftwaffes most important assets. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants, throughout production the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged. In August 1935, the German Ministry of Aviation submitted its requirements for an unarmed, three-seat, design of the Ju-88 began with a study EF59 which evolved into two parallel designs, Ju-85 and Ju-88. The Ju 85 was a bomber aircraft prototype, designed by Junkers in 1935. The Reich Air Ministry requested the aircraft, which differed from the Ju 88 due to the use of a twin fin tail unit, the aircraft was never put into service. Design was initiated by Junkers Chief Designer Ernst Zindel and he was assisted by Wilhelm Heinrich Evers and American engineer Alfred Gassner. Evers and Gassner had worked together at Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America where Gassner had been Chief Engineer, Junkers presented their initial design in June 1936, and were given clearance to build two prototypes. The first two aircraft were to have a range of 2,000 km and were to be powered by two DB 600s, three further aircraft, Werknummer 4943,4944 and 4945, were to be powered by Jumo 211 engines. These single-leg landing gear struts also made use of stacks of conical Belleville washers inside them, as their form of suspension for takeoffs. By 1938, radical modifications from the first prototype began to produce a heavy dive bomber, the wings were strengthened, dive brakes were added, the fuselage was extended and the number of crewmen was increased to four. Due to these advances, the Ju 88 was to enter the war as a medium bomber, the aircrafts first flight was made by the prototype Ju 88 V1, which bore the civil registration D-AQEN, on 21 December 1936. When it first flew, it managed about 580 km/h and Hermann Göring and it was an aircraft that could finally fulfill the promise of the Schnellbomber, a high-speed bomber. The streamlined fuselage was modeled after its contemporary, the Dornier Do 17, the fifth prototype set a 1,000 km closed-circuit record in March 1939, carrying a 2,000 kg payload at a speed of 517 km/h. However, by the time Luftwaffe planners like Ernst Udet had their opportunities to their own pet features added, the Ju 88 V7 was fitted with cable-cutting equipment to combat the potential threat of British barrage balloons, and was successfully tested in this role. The Ju 88 V8 flew on the 3 October 1938, the A-0 series was developed through the V9 and V10 prototypes
23.
Battleship secondary armament
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The secondary armament of a capital ship are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main weapons. The nature, disposition, size and purpose of secondary weapons changed dramatically as the changed from torpedo boats, to torpedo-carrying destroyers, to aircraft. Pre-dreadnoughts, from the period 1890 to 1905, were fitted with 3 or 4 different calibres of weapon. The main guns were usually approximately 12-inch caliber, secondary weapons usually 6-inch, guns smaller than 4. 7-inch are usually considered tertiary. Secondary guns were quick firers, and could fire 5 to 10 rounds per minute and it was this attribute, rather than their destructive power or accuracy, that provided the military value. Secondary guns were almost universally carried in casemates, or a long armoured wall through which the battery of guns projected, such weapons were designed to fire at both capital ship targets and smaller targets such as torpedo craft and destroyers. Small targets were of course vulnerable to 6-inch projectiles, and a rate of fire was necessary to be able to hit a small. In this era, secondary weapons were also expected to engage capital ships, heavily-armoured areas of battleships would not be vulnerable to 6-inch fire, but there were large areas that could not be heavily protected. These lightly armoured and unarmoured areas would be riddled at the ranges of perhaps 3000 yards. This would knock out the secondary armament, punch holes in the lightly armoured bow and stern, perhaps knock down funnels and spotting tops. Secondary guns were an important factor in battleship combat. Dreadnoughts were characterized by an all-big-gun armament, broadly, this era spans from 1906, through the super-dreadnought era, to the end of World War I. During this period, there was variation in the selection of secondary weapon. British practice, at first, was to mount very small guns that were considered a tertiary battery and these guns were often mounted unarmoured in the open, or later, in a casemate battery. Later, the guns grew to 6-inch size, in other navies, the 6-inch size was commonly mounted throughout the era as a casemate battery. British doctrine at first held that the guns were for anti-torpedo defense only. Other navies, with a secondary battery, held that they should also be used against capital ships. For instance, German doctrine, for fighting in the North Sea, britain later came around to this point of view, although the primary justification for mounting a 6-inch battery remained fighting against the increasingly large torpedo boats and destroyers
24.
Cruiser
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A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundred years, and has had different meanings throughout this period. In the middle of the 19th century, cruiser came to be a classification for the intended for cruising distant waters, commerce raiding. Cruisers came in a variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the battleship before World War I. The very large battlecruisers of the World War I era that succeeded armored cruisers were now classified, along with dreadnought battleships, in the later 20th century, the obsolescence of the battleship left the cruiser as the largest and most powerful surface combatant after the aircraft carrier. The role of the cruiser varied according to ship and navy, often including air defense, during the Cold War, the Soviet Navys cruisers had heavy anti-ship missile armament designed to sink NATO carrier task forces via saturation attack. The U. S. Adams guided-missile destroyers tasked with the air defense role. Indeed, the newest U. S. Navy destroyers are more heavily-armed than some of the cruisers that they succeeded, currently only three nations operate cruisers, the United States, Russia, and Peru. The term cruiser or cruizer was first commonly used in the 17th century to refer to an independent warship, Cruiser meant the purpose or mission of a ship, rather than a category of vessel. However, the term was used to mean a smaller, faster warship suitable for such a role. The Dutch navy was noted for its cruisers in the 17th century, while the Royal Navy—and later French and Spanish navies—subsequently caught up in terms of their numbers, during the 18th century the frigate became the preeminent type of cruiser. A frigate was a small, fast, long range, lightly armed ship used for scouting, carrying dispatches, the other principal type of cruiser was the sloop, but many other miscellaneous types of ship were used as well. During the 19th century, navies began to use steam power for their fleets, the 1840s saw the construction of experimental steam-powered frigates and sloops. By the middle of the 1850s, the British and U. S. Navies were both building steam frigates with very long hulls and a gun armament, for instance USS Merrimack or Mersey. The 1860s saw the introduction of the ironclad, the first ironclads were frigates, in the sense of having one gun deck, however, they were also clearly the most powerful ships in the navy, and were principally to serve in the line of battle. In spite of their speed, they would have been wasted in a cruising role. The French constructed a number of smaller ironclads for overseas cruising duties, starting with the Belliqueuse and these station ironclads were the beginning of the development of the armored cruisers, a type of ironclad specifically for the traditional cruiser missions of fast, independent raiding and patrol
25.
Battleship
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A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, the word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as dreadnoughts. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, the launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during their heyday, there were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes before being stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns, from 1794, the alternative term line of battle ship was contracted to battle ship or battleship. The sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a sail battleship could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, and killing her crew. However, the range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards. The first major change to the ship of the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft. The French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship, Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition. This was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships, the adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad, powered by steam, protected by metal armor, and armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. In the Crimean War, six ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853
26.
Glossary of British ordnance terms
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This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces ordnance and also ammunition. The terms may have different meanings in the military of other countries. Between decks, applies to a gun mounting in which part of the rotating mass is below the deck. This allows for a profile of turret, meaning that turrets need not be superfiring The term BL, in its general sense, stood for breech loading. The shell was loaded via the breech followed by the propellant charge, sealing the chamber to prevent escape of the propellant gases. The term BL was first used to refer to the Armstrong breechloaders, following the discontinuation of Armstrong breechloaders and the period of British rifled muzzle-loaders, British breechloaders were re-introduced in 1880. Early British Elswick breechloaders in the 1880s used a steel cup obturation method and this was quickly superseded in guns designed by the Royal Gun Factory by the French de Bange method, the basic principle of which is still in use today. In British service this became a Crossley pad with an interrupted thread screw block e. g. a Welin screw, the shell was loaded via the breech, followed by the propellant charge in a cloth bag. A single-use vent sealing tube, a type of primer not dissimilar in appearance to a rifle round, was inserted into the breech for firing the gun. For instance, Britain before World War I had both QF and BL6 inch guns and this presented difficulties for BL guns at high angles. A special cartridge was developed for BL9.2 inch guns on H. A. mountings, using multiple small fabric bags also allows the gunners to use a reduced charge if need be. The term BLC stood for BL converted and referred to a breech and breech mechanism modified from an early long-screw three- or four-motion to modern short-screw single-motion, an example is the conversion of the BL15 pounder to BLC15 pounder. Calibre radius head, the radius of a circle with the curve of the nose on its circumference. The longer and more pointed the nose, the higher the C. R. H. Typical C. R. H. for British shells leading up to World War I was two, e. g. the curve of the nose of a two C. R. H. Six-inch shell was equivalent to the curve of a circle with a radius of 12 inches, shells of four C. R. H. were soon developed in World War I, identified by an A following the shell mark number, B for six and so on. For modern streamlined shells post-World War I, two numbers were necessary to more correctly denote a shells C. R. H, for instance, the World War I6 inch 26 cwt howitzer shell was two C. R. H. The World War II Mk 2D shell was correctly described as 5/10 C. R. H, in this use it is synonymous with round
27.
Bofors 57 mm gun
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Production of the baseline 57 mm Mark 1 variant began in 1966 and was initially used to equip smaller coastal patrol craft and fast attack craft. The gun was upgraded and improved several times, first the Mark 2 in 1981 which drastically lowered the weight as well as introduced new servo stabilizers, the Mark 3 came in 1995 with modifications made to enable the smart ammunition developed. The Bofors 40mm gun was one of the most popular naval anti-aircraft guns during World War II, however, as jet aircraft became more prevalent in the post-war era, it was clear the gun did not have the weight of fire needed to effectively deal with these threats. Flying at speeds close to 1,000 kilometres per hour, Bofors engineers considered two solutions to the problem. One was to increase the firing speed of the 40 while also incorporating any minor changes that would improve its range. This produced the 40mm L70, which remains popular to this day, the other was to design a larger weapon with much greater effective range and a larger explosive load that offset a lower firing rate. This was based on the existing 57 mm lvakan M/50 design, likewise upgraded for more range and this design became the 57 mm L70 gun. With minor modifications, the Mark 1 guns could use ammunitions developed for the Mark 2 gun, the Mark 2 was designed in 1981 but introduced into service with the Stockholm-class corvette—HSwMS Stockholm in 1985, the rate of fire was slightly increased to 220 rounds per minute. Also, it featured a new light gun mount with a new gun barrel that was forged from monobloc steel. The latest development is the Mark 3, which was designed in 1995 and this new design retained the Mark 2 gun mount, rate of fire and ammunition capacity and has another 1,000 rounds stowed in the standby rack beneath deck. Also, a new optional low radar profile stealth mounting was developed, in American service, the United States Navy has designated the Mark 3 as the Mark 110 Mod 0 57mm gun. According to a BAE Systems press release dated 1 August 2005, ammunition for the Bofors 57 mm gun is produced by Bofors, Sako Limited in Finland, SME Ordnance in Malaysia and Nammo in Norway. In December 2015, the U. S. Navy revealed they were working on developing a guided 57 mm round for its Mk 110 guns on the Littoral Combat Ship and other Navy and Coast Guard ships. Bofors 57 mm Mk 1 Bofors developed the Mark 1 from the Bofors 57 mm/L60 in 1962, Finland, Malaysia, Norway, Indonesia, Singapore and Yugoslavia are among the countries that adopted the Mark 1. Bofors 57 mm Mk 2 The Mark 2 was a lighter weight version, Bofors designed the gun in 1981 and it entered active service on the Stockholm-class corvette in 1985. The gun was partly dual-purpose in the sense that it is accurate, Bofors manufactured a total of about 25 Mk 2 guns. Bofors 57 mm Mk 3 The Mark 3 is the latest version of the gun, Bofors designed it in 1996 and it entered service in 2000. The gun uses smart ammunition but can fire the same ammunition as the Mk 2
28.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
29.
76mm/L62 Allargato
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Currently, the gun remains in service with Italys Cassiopea class patrol vessels but has otherwise been largely replaced by the Otobreda 76 mm series of cannons. After World War Two, when Italy joined NATO, it received a part of its weapons from the United States in the form of direct military assistance. This included the transfer of surplus United States Navy warships from that war also, in addition the armament would be updated. At that time Italian warships were equipped for the most part with US built naval cannons, with the USN 5-inch gun and the Bofors 40mm/L60 being the most numerous. As a result, the Italian Navy contracted the Italian firm of OTO-Melara to design, stemming from Italian Navys studies and experiences using the USN 3-inch gun, it was decided to be the best compromise for a dual purpose cannon. Development began in 1958, with the first cannon delivered in 1961 for testing, in 1962 the first 76/62 MMI Allargato was delivered to the Italian Navy for mounting on the Carlo Bergamini class frigates. In the five following years, OTO-Melara produced a total of 84 exclusively for the Italian Navy, all Italian warships that had the twin Sovrapposto turret, that were to remain in service had them replaced with the single barrel Allargato turret. And while OTO-Melara attempted to marketed their new naval cannon for export, as of 2011, the gun remained in use only on board the Cassiopea class patrol vessels. The Allargato has a barrel which is water-sprayed cooled. The cannon and its loading tray is covered in a water tight turret cover that is protection against small shell splinters. Also in the turret there is a station for one-man who is need to direct the cannon from data provided by the fire control system. All other actions when the cannon is fired are automatic, the cannon is slewed by hydraulic-electrical system, with a manual backup. Ammunition is stored in a magazine below the turret from which rounds are fed to the tray and then rammed in the breech. Spent shell casing are automatically ejected outside the turret after being fired, total weight of the turret and magazine is 12 tons. The rate of fire can be adjusted between 10 and 60 rounds per minute, in the late 1960s, the Allargato was replaced in production by the highly successful OTO-Melara 76mm Compact. M. I. Model of Castor frigate F.553 showing unusual arrangement of 76mm/L62 SMP3 twin barrels
30.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
31.
OTO Melara 76 mm
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The OTO Melara 76 mm gun is a naval artillery piece built and designed by the Italian defence company Oto Melara. It is based on the Oto Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR, the Oto Melara 76 mm Compatto cannon system is compact enough to be installed on relatively small warships, such as corvettes, avisos, and patrol boats. Specialised ammunition includes armour-piercing, incendiary, directed fragmentation effects, a stealth cupola is now offered. The OTO Melara 76 mm has been exported, currently in use internationally by 60 navies. It has recently been favoured over the French 100mm naval gun for the joint French/Italian Horizon-class frigate project, on 27 September 2006 Iran announced it has started mass production of a marine artillery gun, named the Fajr-27, which is a reverse-engineered Oto Melara 76 mm gun. The Super Rapids higher rate of fire was achieved by designing a faster feed system, DART 76m had a longer range than other CIWS, but the Italian navy wanted an even longer range weapon. The Durand de la Penne class was planned to carry four 40 mm Fast Forty dual turrets. The longer range means one single gun can engage more than one missile in a single engagement, the 76 mm was also capable of being used versus surface targets, being a medium caliber gun with relatively long range. The early versions utilised radars such the RTN-10X Orion, From the early 1980s there was a powerful and flexible system, the RTN-30X. The 76/62 has also used with countless other fire control systems. There have been developments in the fuses, essential to shoot down low-flying missiles. The best fuse developed for the 76/62 guns is arguably the 3A-Plus programmable multi-role fuse, manufactured by Oto Melara and Simmel Difesa and this fuse requires the installation of a fuse programmer in the mount. The system includes a DSP which rejects ground/sea clutter and makes the fuse capable of detecting a missile flying as low as two meters above sea level and it has the capability to recognise a target at a 10-meter stand-off. In all, the fuse greatly increases the effectiveness of the gun when engaging anti-ship missiles, since the 1980s efforts were made for development of guided 76 mm ammunition, but this was not achieved until recently. The first such ammunition was the CCS, also known as CORRETTO, the projectile had several small rockets in order to deviate the trajectory. Radio commands were sent from the ship FCS, the FCS did not know the exact position of the projectile, only that of the target. This system was too complex and unreliable, so OTO studied another development in order to obtain a real guided ammunition. The result of development is a system which was called DAVIDE just for the Italian market
32.
AK-176
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The AK-176 is a Soviet naval gun mounted in an enclosed turret, that may be used against sea, coastal, and aerial targets, including low flying anti-ship missiles. The system is designed to arm small displacement ships and comprises the Gun Mount with a MR-123-02/76 Fire Control Radar System, the gun is fed by 152 ready to fire rounds and has selectable rates of fire of 30,60 and 120 rounds per minute. Rate is achieved by firing a burst of 75, but afterwards the gun has to cool off for 30 minutes, the AK-176 is effective against missiles, being able to shoot down AT-2 Swatter, taking an average of 25 rounds per kill. In the late 1980s an upgraded version the AK-176M, with a new control system MR-123-02, television targeting. This gun, is still in production and is the primary medium-caliber artillery systems to all small Soviet ships and is widely exported. AK-176MA, an upgrade of the design intended for newer ship classes, such as the Karakurt-class corvettes and project 22160-class patrol ships. The AK-176MA features improved accuracy, a turret design. The 713th Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation of the Peoples Republic of China has developed a Chinese variant of AK-176, design begun in 2000 and was completed in 2003. The primary difference between this H/PJ-26 and AK-176 is that the Chinese variant adopts a stealthy design. In addition, ready rounds for the H/PJ-26 are doubled to 150 rounds from the original 75 of the AK-176, bangladesh Bulgaria Peoples Republic of China India Poland Romania Soviet Union Russia Ukraine Vietnam Yemen Algeria Cameroon Egypt Pakistan http, //www. navweaps. com/Weapons/WNRussian_3-60_ak176. htm
33.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
34.
Type 79 100 mm naval gun
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The Type 79 Twin 100 mm gun is the first indigenously developed large caliber Chinese naval gun. A decision was made in 1970 to replace the Soviet 100/56 Bu-34 single 100 mm semi-enclosed gun mount, by June 1973, the first batch was completed and two were installed onboard frigates for test and evaluation. Two more upgrades were eventually developed, the first of the family, this gun was fully automatic and controlled by Type 343 radar. This proved to be baseless because later operation proved that the reliability of the system was just as good as the simpler manual system. Based on the performance of the automated system, the manual backup system was eliminated in this upgrade. As a result, the weight and size of the gun mount was reduced. The newest family of the Type 79 family is the PJ33A Twin 100 mm gun, and this version has a redesigned gun turret with stealthy features
35.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
36.
French 100 mm naval gun
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Modern French 100 mm naval guns are multipurpose artillery pieces, capable of a high rate of fire. Most modern French warships are equipped with one of its versions, at the end of the Second World War, the French Navy was equipped with guns of numerous calibres, most of which were obsolete. In 1953, the STCAN of Paris, under engineer Tonnelé, the most common version, modèle 68, features a completely automatic action and control. The ammunition is stored in a magazine underneath the turret, a flexible pipe allows feeding the gun under any orientation. Rounds of ammunition are fed automatically, after firing, the empty casing is ejected through an evacuation door on the front of the turret. Cooling is provided by water circulating in layers of steel around the tube of the gun, aiming is performed by two electric motors, one for the elevation and the other for the traverse. Two hydraulic systems feed the gun, the gun can also be moved manually for maintenance. Since it is installed on the bow deck of warships. To prevent corrosion and mechanical problems, the turret is made water-tight with rubber joints, the muzzle itself is sealed by a rubber tampion, which can be shot through in case of emergency. The plexiglas viewbay used to aim the gun is usually protected by a steel cover. Employs electro-mechanical fire control, with two command stations on the front of the turret. The modèle 64 is an offspring of the 53, with a 78 round/min rate of fire. This version can be connected to modern firing computers, modèle 68 In this model, the turret was lightened and can load the first round automatically, but rate of fire is reduced back to 60 rounds per minute. This version may operate unmanned with only one manual station remaining as a backup and this version was later improved to the CADAM standard, restoring the 78 rounds/min rate of fire. A derivative is the modèle 100 TR, mechanically similar to the 68, the manual control has been removed. Compact, This weapon has only been exported to China, Malaysia, Portugal and it is even lighter than the modèle 68, at only 19 metric tons including gunhouse, deck and magazine. Later Mk 2 versions also fire faster, at up to 90 rounds per minute, however, it is also limited to firing short bursts of no more than 6 rounds. The 100 mm gun has been used in the French navy on most warships equal or greater than avisos, the Charles de Gaulle, with her MBDA Aster-only defence, is the main exception
37.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
38.
QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun
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This QF gun was introduced to provide a higher rate of fire than the BL4 inch Mk VII. It first appeared in 1914 as secondary armament on Arethusa class cruisers, was adapted to a high-angle anti-aircraft role. It was typically used on cruisers and heavier ships, although V and W class destroyers of 1917 also mounted the gun. Mk V was superseded by the QF4 inch Mk XVI as the HA gun on new warships in the 1930s, early in World War I several guns were supplied by the Navy for evaluation as anti-aircraft guns for the home defence of key installations in Britain. They were mounted on platforms and proved fairly successful after a fixed round was developed to replace the original separate round. The AA mounting allowed elevation to 80° but loading was not possible above 62°, at the Armistice a total of 24 guns were employed in AA defences in Britain and 2 in France. After World War I the guns were returned to the Navy, from 1915 to 1928 several guns were mounted in forts to guard the estuary of the River Humber. The fixed Mk V ammunition was 44.3 inches long and weighed 56 pounds, List of anti-aircraft guns List of naval guns List of naval anti-aircraft guns Cannon 102/45 Italian copy of the QF Mk V made under license 10. V. Hogg & L. F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918, routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Naval Weapons of World War Two, gun drill for 4-inch Q. F. gun mark V1924 at State Library of Victoria
39.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
40.
QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun
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The QF4 inch Mk XVI gun was the standard British Commonwealth naval anti-aircraft and dual-purpose gun of World War II. The Mk XVI superseded the earlier QF4 inch Mk V naval gun on many Royal Naval ships during the late 1930s, the ammunition fired by the Mk V gun and the Mk XVI guns was different. The Mk V ammunition was 44.3 inches long and weighed 56 pounds, while the ammunition fired by the Mk XVI gun was 42.1 inches long and weighed 66.75 pounds. The weight of the high-explosive projectile grew from 31 pounds for the Mk V to 35 pounds for the Mk XVI, there were three variants of the gun produced with differing construction methods. The original Mk XVI had an A tube, jacket to 63.5 inches from the muzzle, the Mk XVI* replaced the A tube with an autofretted loose barrel with a sealing collar at the front of the jacket. The Mk XXI was a version with an autofretted monobloc barrel. The total number of Mk XVI and XVI* guns produced was 2,555 while there were 238 Mk XXI guns produced, of those totals 604 Mk XVI* and 135 of the Mk XXI guns were produced in Canada and 45 of the Mk XVI* were produced in Australia. These guns were mounted on HA/LA Mark XIX twin mountings. QF4 inch Mk V naval gun, Royal Navy anti-aircraft predecessor List of naval anti-aircraft guns List of naval guns On HMCS Haida, Hamilton, Ortario, Naval Museum of Alberta, Canada On HMS Belfast, London. Museum of Naval Firepower, Gosport, Hampshire, UK On ORP Błyskawica, a pair at South African National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg A pair in a turret from INS Haifa, at Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, Haifa, Israel. Two single guns on HMAS Diamantina, Brisbane, Australia One twin gun at the Marinemuseet, Horten, One twin gun in the Aldhurst military vehicles collection, Surrey England Campbell, John. Naval Weapons of World War Two, handbook for the 4 inch Q. F. Mark XVI* Gun on the H. A, twin Mark XIX And Single Mark XX Mountings. G3821/41 Naval Ordnance Department, Admiralty, July 1941
41.
4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun
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The 4.5 inch Mark 8 is a British naval gun system which currently equips the Royal Navys destroyers and frigates, and some British destroyers and frigates sold to other countries. The 4.5 inch gun has been the standard medium-gun calibre of the Royal Navy for use against surface, aircraft, the current 55-calibre Mark 8 gun replaced the World War II era 45-calibre QF4.5 inch Mk I - V naval guns. Like all British 4.5 inch naval guns, it has a calibre of 4.45 inches. A completely new type of 4.5 inch gun with a longer 55-calibre barrel, it was designed in the 1960s for the Royal Navys new classes of frigates, the outer shell of the gunhouse is built from glass-reinforced plastic. The weapon is semi-automatic and can be operated by a crew than its predecessors. With no personnel in the gunhouse, loading is supported by personnel in the gunbay to load the feed ring, the captain of the gun in the control room ensures continued weapon readiness and the gun controller in the operations room aims and fires the weapon. The gun has a rate of fire of about 25 rounds per minute, the first recipient of the new gun and mount, the Mark 8, was the Iranian frigate Zaal in 1971. The gun entered Royal Navy service in 1973 on the new destroyer Bristol and these guns proved to be less reliable than the older 4.5 inch Mark V gun during the Falklands War, being forced to cease fire on several occasions due to faults. This particular gun has been nicknamed the Kryten gun by members of Royal Navy, babcock upgraded 13 guns to Mod 1 standard between 2005 and 2012. The Ministry of Defence investigated a proposal from BAE Systems to up gun the 4.5 inch to accept the 155 mm gun barrel and breech from the AS-90 self-propelled gun. Although the Mk 8 was fitted to the Type 45 destroyer, on the Type 26 Global Combat Ship it will be supplanted by the BAE5 inch Mk 45 naval gun. 5/55 Mark 8 Mod 0114 mm/55 Mark 8 Mod 1
42.
Bofors 120 mm gun
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The Bofors 120 automatic mm gun was a dual purpose naval gun. It was initially used aboard Halland-class destroyers and Colombian Navy 7 de Agosto and 20 de Junio, the guns also were used on the Dutch Holland-class and Friesland class destroyers, and later the Tromp-class frigates
43.
QF 4.7 inch Mark XI gun
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The 4.7 inch QF Mark XI was a 50-calibre,4. 7-inch naval gun deployed on Royal Navy and Allied destroyers during World War II. The QF4. 7-inch Mk XI gun, on the Mk XX twin mounting, was introduced to the RN aboard the L and M class destroyers, in commission from 1941 onwards. It featured a 62 lb shell fired at 2,538 ft/second to a range of 21,240 yards at 45 degrees of elevation. The Mk XX mounting was fully enclosed, but the hoists did not revolve with the turret, the guns firing cycle was six seconds and the separate shell and cordite hoists for each gun provided shells and cartridges at a rate of 10 per minute. The shells and cartridges were transferred from the hoists to the tray of the fuze-setting machine by hand. Once the fuzes were set, they slid forward to the tray from which they were rammed forward into the breech by a hydraulic rammer. The horizontal sliding-block breech opened semi-automatically after the guns fired, the guns could be loaded at any angle of elevation. The Mk XX mounting could elevate to a maximum of 50°, the turret had a maximum powered training rate of 10° per second, but was manually elevated. Including the crew and ammunition, the weight of the mounting was 37.363 long tons. It was protected by a gun shield.25 inches thick, too thin to hold a direct hit, but still appreciable versus small splinters, explosions, small caliber rifles. It could now penetrate 3 inches of armour at a range of 10 km rather than 5.9 km, in the Battle of Pantelleria on 15 June 1942, HMS Marne, Matchless and HMS Ithuriel engaged a superior Italian task force. Marne fired 704 shells, Matchless 746 shells, while Ithuriel managed to fire only 246 shells, Marne hit the cruiser RN Eugenio di Savoia with a single shell at around 5.50 AM. Matchless failed to hit the cruiser, RN Montecuccoli. The new 120/50 mm shell was heavy and powerful, and the Italian destroyer was soon lying dead in the water and that destroyer was saved only towing her to a near naval base, where the fire was finally extinguished. In the words of Tony DiGiulian, the 120/50 Mark XI gun was perhaps the finest destroyer gun made by British during World War II, naval Weapons of World War II. Destroyer Weapons of World War 2, British Destroyers, A History of Development, 1892-1953, Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships Covers & Building Plans. Fighting Flotilla, RN Laforey Class Destroyers in WW2, barnsley, South Yorkshire, Pen & Sword Books. Acque di Pantelleria,15 giugno 1942, QF Mark XI4. 7/50 on Navweaps. com
44.
Otobreda 127/64
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The compactness of the gun feeding system makes possible the installation on narrow section crafts. The gun can fire all standard 127 mm ammunition including the new Vulcano long range guided ammunition, modular automatic feeding magazines allow the firing of up to four different and immediately selectable types of ammunition, the magazines can be reloaded while the mount is in operation. An ammunition manipulator system is available to transport projectiles and propelling charges from the ammunition store to the feeding magazines. Rounds can be unloaded from the gun. Digital and Analog interfaces are available for any Combat Management System, also according to COBRA protocol
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