1.
Tank destroyer
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The tank destroyer on the other hand is specifically designed to take on enemy armour. Many are based on a tank chassis, while others are wheeled. Since World War II, gun-armed tank destroyers have fallen out of favor as armies have favored multirole main battle tanks, however, lightly armored anti-tank guided missile carriers are commonly used for supplementary long-range anti-tank work. Dedicated anti-tank vehicles made their first major appearance in the Second World War as combatants developed effective armored vehicles, some were little more than stopgap solutions, mounting an anti-tank gun on a tracked vehicle to give mobility, while others were more sophisticated designs. Except for most American designs, tank destroyers were all turretless and had fixed or casemate superstructures, the turretless design allowed accommodation of a more powerful gun, typically a dedicated anti-tank gun that had a longer barrel than could be mounted in a turreted tank on the same chassis. The lack of an increased the vehicles internal volume, allowing for increased ammunition stowage. Eliminating the turret allowed the vehicle to carry thicker armor than would otherwise be the case, sometimes there was no armored roof to keep the overall weight down to the limit that the chassis could bear. Variants of the Polish TKS and TK-3 tankettes up-armed with 20 mm gun were operationally deployed in the invasion of Poland and they were used as an anti-tank component of the reconnaissance units. Due to the defeat of France, few French vehicles were built. The Laffly W15 TCC was an attempt to build a light tank destroyer by mounting a 47 mm SA37 anti-tank gun onto a lightly armored Laffly W15T artillery tractor. Other French tank destroyers were being developed, including the SOMUA SAu-40, ARL V39, for instance,202 obsolete Panzer I light tanks were modified by removing the turret and were rebuilt as the Panzerjäger I self-propelled 4.7 cm PaK. Similarly, Panzer II tanks were used on the eastern front, captured Soviet 76.2 mm anti-tank guns were mounted on modified Panzer II chassis, producing the Marder II self-propelled anti-tank gun. The most common mounting was a German 75 mm anti-tank gun on the Czech Panzer 38 chassis to produce the Marder III, the Panzer 38 chassis was also used to make the Jagdpanzer 38 casemate style tank destroyer. The Panzerjäger series continued up to the 88 mm equipped Nashorn, German tank destroyers based on the Panzer III and later German tanks were unique in that they had more armor than their tank counterparts. One of the more successful German tank destroyers was actually designed as an artillery gun. Based on the Panzer III tank chassis, the Sturmgeschütz III was originally fitted with a low-velocity gun, later, after encountering Soviet tanks, it was refitted with a comparatively short-barreled high-velocity anti-tank gun, usually with a muzzle brake, enabling it to function as a tank destroyer. The Sturmgeschütz III from its 1938 origin used a new superstructure with an integrated design similar to the later Jagdpanzer to completely enclose the crew. It was employed in support and offensive armored operations as well as in the defensive anti-tank role
2.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
3.
Vehicle armour
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Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, missiles or shells, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting vehicles like tanks, aircraft and ships, civilian vehicles may also be armoured. These vehicles include cars used by reporters, officials and others in conflict zones or where violent crime is common, armoured cars are also routinely used by security firms to carry money or valuables to reduce the risk of highway robbery or the hijacking of the cargo. Armour may also be used in vehicles to protect from other than a deliberate attack. Some spacecraft are equipped with specialised armour to protect them against impacts from micrometeoroids or fragments of space junk, the design and purpose of the vehicle determines the amount of armour plating carried, as the plating is often very heavy and excessive amounts of armour restrict mobility. In order to decrease this problem, some new materials and material compositions are being researched which include buckypaper, rolled homogeneous armour is strong, hard, and tough. Steel with these characteristics is produced by processing cast steel billets of appropriate size, rolling and forging irons out the grain structure in the steel, removing imperfections which would reduce the strength of the steel. Aluminium is used when weight is a necessity. It is most commonly used on APCs and armoured cars, wrought iron was used on ironclad warships. Early European iron armour consisted of 10 to 13 cm of wrought iron backed by up to one meter of solid wood, titanium is roughly the weight of aluminium, but as strong as iron. So despite being rather expensive, it finds an application in areas where weight is a concern, such as personal armour, because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in tank armour, sandwiched between sheets of steel armour plate. Plastic metal was a type of vehicle armour originally developed for merchant ships by the British Admiralty in 1940, the original composition was described as 50% clean granite of half-inch size, 43% of limestone mineral, and 7% of bitumen. It was typically applied in a two inches thick and backed by half an inch of steel. Plastic armour could be applied by pouring it into a cavity formed by the backing plate. Bulletproof glass is a term for glass that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets. The industry generally refers to it as bullet-resistant glass or transparent armour, bullet-resistant glass is usually constructed using a strong but transparent material such as polycarbonate thermoplastic or by using layers of laminated glass. The desired result is a material with the appearance and light-transmitting behaviour of standard glass, the polycarbonate layer, usually consisting of products such as Armormax, Makroclear, Cyrolon, Lexan or Tuffak, is often sandwiched between layers of regular glass. The use of plastic in the laminate provides impact-resistance, such as physical assault with a hammer, the plastic provides little in the way of bullet-resistance
4.
Casemate
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A casemate, sometimes erroneously rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. Originally, the referred to a vaulted chamber in a fortress. In armoured fighting vehicles that do not have a turret for the main gun, the word comes from the Italian casamatta, the etymology of which is uncertain. Others think that it comes from the Arabic word kasaba, transliterated to kasbah, menagio speculated that it came from the Greek word for pit, khasma, the plural of which is khasmata. Hensleigh Wedgwood thought that it came from the Spanish casa and matar, others take matto in its archaic Italian meaning of dark, equivalent to the English matt, as in opaque, making a casamatta a dark house. Casematte were also used as prisons, making use of their lack of light to add to the punishment. This explanation seems to be the most agreed upon, a casemate was originally a vaulted chamber usually constructed underneath the rampart. It was intended to be impenetrable and could be used for sheltering troops or stores, with the addition of an embrasure through the scarp face of the rampart, it could be used as a protected gun position. In the early 19th century, French military engineer Baron Haxo designed a free-standing casemate that could be built on the top of the rampart, casemates built in concrete were used in the Second World War to protect coastal artillery from air attack. In warship design the term casemate has been used in a number of ways, the most famous naval battle of the war was the duel at Hampton Roads between the Union turretted ironclad USS Monitor and the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. Casemate ship was a term for central battery ship or center battery ship. The casemate was a box that extended the full width of the ship protecting many guns. The armoured sides of the box were the sides of hull of the ship, there was an armoured bulkhead at the front and rear of the casemate, and a thick deck protecting the top. The lower edge of the casemate sat on top of ships belt armour, some ships, such as the Alexandra, had a two-storey casemate. A casemate was a room in the side of a warship. A typical casemate held a 6-in gun, and had a 6 front plate, with armour plates on the sides and rear, with a protected top and floor. Casemates were similar in size to turrets, ships carrying them had them in pairs, the first battleships to carry them were the British Royal Sovereign class laid down in 1889. They were adopted as a result of live-firing trials against HMS Resistance in 1888, the use of casemates enabled the 6-in guns to be dispersed, so that a single hit would not knock out all of them
5.
12.8 cm Pak 44
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The 12.8 cm Pak 44 L/55 was a German heavy anti-tank gun used during World War II. It was designed as a result of experiences on the Eastern front in 1943, the German army had encountered the Russian 122 mm guns and had issued a requirement for a similar weapon. Development initially concentrated on a gun known as the Kanone K44. However, once heavier Russian armour, such as the IS-2, the choice for 128 mm calibre anti-tank gun was made because of the availability of tooling due to the use of this calibre for naval weapons. The design contracts were awarded to Rheinmetall Borsig and Krupp, the first prototype guns were delivered for testing in late 1944. Rheinmetall began development of a variant of the 128 mm FlaK gun, after initial tests, the Rheinmetall design was dropped and development continued with the Krupp design. However, the tests showed that a towed anti-tank gun weighing nearly 11 tonnes was impractical. Approximately 50 barrels and breeches were used on existing carriages, the weapon that used the ex-French GPF-T carriage was known as the K 81/1, while the K 81/2 used the ex-Russian carriage. Both of these designs were rushed, and were too heavy, in 1943, a design programme using the Pak 44 as its starting point was started for a gun to mount on the Jagdtiger and the Maus super-heavy tank. This weapon, of which approximately 100 were made, was known both as the Pak 44 and Pak 80 / Panzerjägerkanone Pjk 80. Performance was identical to the initial design, the gun was fed with two-piece ammunition, the projectile and cartridge making up separate pieces. Because of this, the gun could be fired using three different sized propellant charges, a light, medium and heavy charge. Finally the heavy charge was used when the gun was fulfilling its role as an anti-tank gun. 12.8 cm Kanone 44, Pak 4412.8 cm Kanone 81/1,12.8 cm Kanone 81/2, K44 mounted on the ex-Russian 152mm howitzer model 1937 carriage. 12.8 cm Kanone 81/3, K44 mounted on a Gerät 579 Medium Weapons Carriage, 4-wheeled version where two wheels at one end and two at the other. 12.8 cm Pak 80, Pak 44 mounted on Jagdtiger tank destroyers, as is common at this time, this weapon underwent several name changes. At various times it was known as K44, Pak 44, Kanone 81, Pak 80, equipment numbered in the 8x range were temporary irems usually issued in small numbers and not regarded as standard issue service weapons. Hence Pak 80 and Pjk 80 were temporary names, as were K81/x, had this equipment been accepted into full service, it would have had a Pak 4x designation attached
6.
MG 34
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The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, is a German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It accepts the 7. 92×57mm Mauser cartridge, and is considered the worlds first general-purpose machine gun. The versatile MG34 was arguably the most advanced machine gun in the world at the time of its deployment and its combination of exceptional mobility – being light enough to be carried by one man – and high rate of fire was unmatched. It entered service in numbers following Hitlers repudiation of the Versailles Treaty in 1936. Nonetheless, the design proved too complex for production, and was supplemented by the cheaper and simpler MG42. The MG34 was based on a 1930 Rheinmetall design, the MG30, the Swiss and Austrian militaries had both licensed and produced the MG30 from Rheinmetall shortly after patent. The MG30 design was adapted and modified by Heinrich Vollmer of Mauser Industries, Vollmer modified the feed mechanism to accept either drum magazines or belt ammunition. He also increased the rate of fire, the MG 34s double crescent trigger dictated either semiautomatic or fully automatic firing modes. In the field, the weapon could operate in offensive or defensive applications, the offensive model, with a mobile soldier, used a drum magazine that could hold either 50 or 75 rounds of ammunition. In a stationary defensive role, the gun was mounted on a bipod or tripod, belts were carried in boxes of five. Belt lengths could be linked for sustained fire, during sustained fire, barrels would have to be changed at intervals due to the heat generated by the rapid rate of fire. If the barrels were not changed properly, the weapon would misfire, changing barrels was a rapid process for the trained operator and involved disengaging a latch and swinging the receiver to the right for the insertion of a new barrel. Accordingly, stationary defensive positions required more than one operator, the MG34 was the mainstay of German Army support weapons from the time of its first issue in 1935 until 1942, when it was supplanted by the next generation Maschinengewehr 42 or MG42. For its successor, the MG42, the Germans instead used mass production techniques similar to those that created the MP40 submachine gun, however, the Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s until the end of the war. The MG34 was used as the primary machine gun during the 1930s. The MG34 was intended to replace the MG13 and other machine guns. It was designed primarily by Heinrich Vollmer from the Mauser Werke, changes to the operating mechanism improved the rate of fire to between 800 and 900 rpm. The new gun was accepted for service almost immediately and was liked by the troops
7.
Maybach
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Maybach Motorenbau was a German car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son, in 1960 Maybach was acquired by Daimler-Benz and remains nowadays as an ultra-luxury car brand of Mercedes-Benz, which is owned by Daimler AG. Daimler currently produces an ultra-luxury edition of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class under the Mercedes-Maybach brand, Wilhelm Maybach was technical director of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft until he left in 1907. On 23 March 1909 he founded the new company, Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH, in 1912 they renamed it to Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH. The company originally developed and manufactured diesel and petrol engines for Zeppelins and its Maybach Mb. IVa was used in aircraft and airships of World War I. The company first built a car in 1919, introduced as a production model two years later at the Berlin Motor Show. Between 1921 and 1940, the company produced a variety of opulent vehicles, the company also continued to build heavy-duty diesel engines for marine and rail purposes. During the Second World War, Maybach produced the engines for Nazi Germanys medium and heavy tanks, as well as the light tank, the engine plant was one of several industries targeted at Friedrichshafen. After WW II the factory performed some work, but automotive production was never restarted, and some 20 years later. Daimler-Benz purchased the company in 1960, post-1960 the company was mainly used to make special editions of Mercedes cars in the W108 and W116 model range, which were virtually hand built. These cars however carried the Mercedes badge and serial numbers, Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG based in Friedrichshafen used to manufacture the commercial Maybach diesel engines under the MTU brand through its subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH. Daimler presented a concept car at the 1997 Tokyo Motorshow. A production model based on it was introduced in two sizes – the Maybach 57 and the Maybach 62, reflecting the lengths of the automobiles in decimetres. In 2005, the 57S was added, powered by a 6.0 L V12 bi-turbo engine producing 450 kW and 1,000 N·m of torque, and featuring various cosmetic touches. To promote the new Maybach line, Mercedes-Benz engaged figures such as Maybach heir Ulrich Schmid-Maybach and golfer Nick Faldo, initially, Daimler-Chrysler predicted annual sales of 2,000 worldwide with 50 per cent coming from the United States, however, these expectations never materialized. In 2007, Mercedes bought back 29 US dealers, reducing the total from 71 to 42, in 2010, only 157 Maybachs were sold worldwide, compared to 2,711 similarly priced Rolls-Royces. Just 3,000 have been sold worldwide since the brand was revived in 2002, Daimler announced in November 2011 that Maybach would cease to be a brand by 2013 and manufactured the last Maybach vehicle in December 2012. This was because of poor sales, according to Automotive News, only 44 Maybachs had been sold in the U. S. through October 2011
8.
Maybach HL230
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The Maybach HL230 was a water-cooled 60°23 liter V12 gasoline engine designed by Maybach. It was used during World War II in heavy German tanks, namely the Panther, Jagdpanther, Tiger II, Jagdtiger, and later versions of the Tiger I and Sturmtiger. The engine was a version of the slightly smaller HL210 engine, The HL210 was used to equip the first 250 Tiger I tanks built. The HL210 engine had a displacement of 21.353 L or 1,779 cm³ per cylinder, bore 125 mm, the HL230 engine bore was increased from 125 mm to 130 mm. It had a displacement of 23.095 L or 1,925 cm³ per cylinder, bore 130 mm, the maximum output of 700 PS at 3,000 rpm. Maximum torque is 1850 Nm at 2,100 rpm, typical output was 600 PS at 2,500 rpm. The crankcase and block were made of grey cast iron and the heads from cast iron. The engine weighed 1200 kg and its dimensions were 1000 ×1190 ×1310 mm, aspiration was provided by four twin-choke Solex type 52JFF carburettors. As was typical practice for Maybach, the engine used a tunnel crankshaft, late in the war the HL234 upgrade with fuel injection was recommended by the Entwicklungskommission Panzer for use in the underpowered Tiger II tank. The power output was expected to increase to between 800 and 900 PS, and with supercharging to 1100 to 1200 hp, approximately 9,000 HL230s were produced in total by Maybach, Auto Union and Daimler-Benz. Les plans du bureau détudes de lAtelier dIssy-les-MoulineauX
9.
Torsion bar suspension
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A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is a general term for any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight bearing spring. Vertical motion of the causes the bar to twist around its axis and is resisted by the bars torsion resistance. The effective spring rate of the bar is determined by its length, cross section, shape, material, manufacturers change the torsion bar or key to adjust the ride height, usually to compensate for heavier or lighter engines. Over-rotating the torsion bars can cause the suspension to hit the bump-stop prematurely. Aftermarket forged-metal torsion key kits use relocked adjuster keys to prevent over-rotation, the main advantages of a torsion bar suspension are durability, easy adjustability of ride height, and small profile along the width of the vehicle. It takes up less of the interior volume than coil springs. Torsion bars reached the height of their popularity on mass-production road cars in the middle of the 20th century at the time that unitary construction was being adopted. Using MacPherson struts to achieve independent front suspension with coil springs meant providing strong turrets in the structure of the car. A disadvantage is that torsion bars, unlike coil springs, usually provide a progressive spring rate. In most torsion bar systems, ride height may be changed by simply adjusting bolts that connect the torsion bars to the steering knuckles, in most cars with this type of suspension, swapping torsion bars for a different spring rate is usually an easy task. Some vehicles use torsion bars to provide automatic levelling, using a motor to pre-stress the bars to provide resistance to load and, in some cases. Height adjustable suspension has been used to implement a wheel-change mode where the vehicle is raised on three wheels so that the wheel is lifted off the ground without the aid of a jack. Before World War II, the front wheel drive Citroen Traction Avant had independent front torsion bar suspension, the flexibility of the axle beam provided wheel location features like a twist beam axle. The Czechoslovakian Tatra cars designed by Professor Hans Ledwinka in the mid-1930s used all round independent torsion bar suspension, also in the 1930s, prototypes of the first Volkswagen Beetle incorporated torsion bars—especially its transverse mounting style. The system first saw use in the Swedish Stridsvagn L-60 tank of 1934. It was used extensively in European cars Renault, Citroën and Volkswagen, the Packard used torsion bars at both front and rear, and interconnected the front and rear systems to improve ride quality. Morris Minor and Oxford from the late 1940s onwards used a front torsion bar system very similar to the Citroen, the single torsion bar was mounted through the frame sides behind the rear axle and then attached by arms and links to the front side of the spring U-bolt plates. Axle Flex was discontinued for the 1936 model year, the designer of these cars, Alec Issigonis was inspired by the Traction Avants suspension although the Morris cars were rear-wheel drive and used conventional leaf springs for their rear axles
10.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
11.
Tiger II
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Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf, B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd. Kfz and it is also known under the informal name Königstiger, often translated literally as Royal Tiger, or somewhat incorrectly as King Tiger by Allied soldiers, especially by American forces. The Tiger II was the successor to the Tiger I, combining the latters thick armour with the armour sloping used on the Panther medium tank, the tank weighed almost 70 tonnes, and was protected by 100 to 185 mm of armour to the front. It was armed with the long barrelled 8.8 cm KwK43 L/71 anti-tank cannon, the chassis was also the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless tank destroyer. The Tiger II was issued to tank battalions of the Army. Development of a tank design had been initiated in 1937. Another design contract followed in 1939, and was given to Porsche, both prototype series used the same turret design from Krupp, the main differences were in the hull, transmission, suspension and automotive features. The Henschel version used a hull design with sloped armour resembling the layout of the Panther tank. The Porsche hull designs included a turret and a mid-mounted engine. The suspension was the same as on the Elefant tank destroyer and this had six road wheels per side mounted in paired bogies sprung with short longitudinal torsion bars that were integral to the wheel pair, this saved internal space and facilitated repairs. This method of propulsion had been attempted before on the Tiger and in some US designs, the Porsche suspension were later used on a few of the later Jagdtiger tank destroyers. Another proposal was to use hydraulic drives, dr. Porsches unorthodox designs gathered little favour. Henschel won the contract, and all Tiger IIs were produced by the firm. Two turret designs were used in production vehicles, the initial design is often misleadingly called the Porsche turret due to the belief that it was designed by Porsche for their prototype, in fact it was the initial Krupp design for both prototypes. This turret had a front and steeply sloped sides, with a difficult-to-manufacture curved bulge on the turrets left side to accommodate the commanders cupola. Fifty early turrets were mounted to Henschels hull and used in action, the turrets were designed to mount the 8.8 cm KwK43 L/71 gun. Combined with the Turmzielfernrohr 9d monocular sight by Leitz, which all but a few early Tiger IIs used, it was a very accurate and deadly weapon
12.
Armoured fighting vehicle
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An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and generally armed with weapons, which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked and it is not uncommon for AFVs to be simply referred to as armour. Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their role on the battlefield. This classification is not absolute, at different times different countries will classify the vehicle in different roles. For example, armoured carriers were generally replaced by infantry fighting vehicles in a similar role. Modern armoured fighting vehicles are the realization of an ancient concept, War machines with rudimentary armour have been used in battle for millennia. These designs historically struggled between the paradox of exposed-mobility, effective-firepower and cumbersome-protection, Siege engines, such as battering rams and trebuchets, would often be armoured in order to protect the crews from the defenders. Very large movable siege towers, helepolis were developed by Polyidus of Thessaly, the idea of a vehicle with a tortoise like cover has been known since antiquity. Frequently cited is Leonardo da Vincis 15th century sketch of a mobile, protected gun platform, the machine was to be mounted on four wheels which would be turned by the crew through a system of hand cranks and cage gears. Leonardo quoted I will build armored wagons which will be safe, there will be no obstacle which it cannot overcome. Modern replicas have demonstrated that the crew would have been able to move it over only short distances. The war wagon were medieval weapon-platforms developmed during the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia. These heavy wagon were given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using pikes, heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a ball of about 3.5 ounces, the first modern AFVs were armed cars, dating back virtually to the invention of the motor car. The Motor Scout was designed and built by British inventor F. R. Simms in 1898 and it was the first armed petrol engine powered vehicle ever built. The vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a mounted Maxim machine gun on the front bar, an iron shield offered some protection for the driver from the front, but it lacked all-around protective armour. The armoured car was the first modern fully armoured fighting vehicle, the first of these was the Simms Motor War Car, designed by Simms and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in 1899. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3. 3-litre 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a speed of around 9 miles per hour
13.
End of World War II in Europe
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The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Soviet Union and the Western Allies took place in late April and early May 1945. Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners, The total number of prisoners taken on the Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy, in the three or four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first Allied-governed Rheinwiesenlagers were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered Axis Forces personnel, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces, not POWs. The legal fiction circumvented provisions under the Geneva Convention of 1929 on the treatment of former combatants, by October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps and refugees, Allied forces begin to discover the scale of The Holocaust, the advance into Germany uncovers numerous Nazi concentration camps and forced labor facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated on April 15,1945, Four days later troops from the American 42nd Infantry Division found Dachau. Allied troops force the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses, due to the prisoners poor physical condition, thousands continue to die after liberation. Captured SS guards are subsequently tried at Allied war crimes tribunals where many are sentenced to death, however, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals will eventually flee Europe using ratlines such as ODESSA. Germans leave Finland, On 25 April 1945, the last Germans were expelled by the Finnish Army from Finland, Mussolinis death, On 25 April 1945, Italian partisans liberated Milan and Turin. On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and it is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland, and was traveling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino, the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo, the bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on the Piazzale Loreto of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta, Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolinis Italian Social Republic. Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers, hitler appointed his successors as follows, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler. However, Goebbels committed suicide the day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany. In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff at 2pm on 2 May, German forces in Berlin surrender, The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, on the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, surrendered to the Western Allies. Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann, confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998, were unearthed on 7 December 1972, the number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,000,000 men
14.
Western Front (World War II)
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The Western Front of the European theatre of World War II encompassed Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. World War II military engagements in Southern Europe and elsewhere are generally considered under separate headings, the Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The second phase consisted of ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy. The Phoney War was a phase of World War II marked by a few military operations in Continental Europe in the months following the German invasion of Poland. Although the great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack and this was also the period in which The United Kingdom and France did not supply significant aid to Poland, despite their pledged alliance. While most of the German Army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, there were only some local, minor skirmishes. The British Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while Western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months. In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun to buy large numbers of weapons manufacturers in the United States at the outbreak of hostilities. The non-belligerent United States, contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales of military equipment, German efforts to interdict the Allies trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Battle of the Atlantic. However, when the Allies made a counter-landing in Norway following the German invasion, the Kriegsmarine, nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses during the two-months of fighting required to seize all of mainland Norway. In May 1940, the Germans launched the Battle of France, the Western Allies soon collapsed under the onslaught of the so-called blitzkrieg strategy. The majority of the British and elements of the French forces escaped at Dunkirk, with the fighting ended, the Germans began to consider ways of resolving the question of how to deal with Britain. If the British refused to agree to a treaty, one option was to invade. However, Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine, had suffered losses in Norway. With the Luftwaffe unable to defeat the RAF in the Battle of Britain and these were built in anticipation of an Allied invasion of France. Because of the massive logistical obstacles a cross-channel invasion would face, on 19 August 1942, the Allies began the Dieppe Raid, an attack on Dieppe, France. Most of the troops were Canadian, with some British contingents, the raid was a disaster, almost two-thirds of the attacking force became casualties. However, much was learned as a result of the operation – these lessons would be put to use in the subsequent invasion
15.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
16.
Marder I
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The Marder I Marten was a German World War II tank destroyer, armed with the 75 mm anti-tank gun. From the early stages of Operation Barbarossa the Wehrmacht became aware that their abililty to combat some of the Soviet tanks was inadequate. The lighter tanks then in service, such as the Panzer II. What was needed was a more powerful anti-tank gun that was mobile, the Germans possessed such a gun in the 75 mm PaK40. They also had come into possession of a number of captured Soviet 76 mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field guns. The Germans had experience in taking the chassis of a tank to provide mobility to a heavier gun. The Panzerjäger I is such an example, where the turret was removed for a conversion to allow the gunners the necessary room to operate the gun. With the shock of having units overrun by new Soviet T-34s and KV-1s, the result was the Marder series, comprising the Marder I, Marder II, and Marder III respectively. These vehicles provided mobility to either the captured Soviet 7.62 cm Pak 36 gun or in later versions the German 75 mm PaK40 anti-tank gun, due to the weight and space constraints of the small chassis, the Marder series were not fully armored. Thin upper armor protection was provided only for the front and sides against shrapnel, all Marder series had open tops. Some were issued with canvas covers to protect the crew from the elements, the Marder series were not a proper Panzerjäger that could exchange shells with enemy tanks. The Marder I was developed in May 1942 by Major Alfred Becker and it carried the 75 mm PaK40 anti-tank gun on a Lorraine chassis. As the gun was relatively large, the crew compartment superstructure was removed to create the space needed to work the gun. This was done at Baustokommando Becker, the gun was then mounted atop the chassis. Alkett, working in conjunction with Becker, produced the angled armour shielding for the crew compartment, the shielding was relatively light, and was open from above. The shielding provided the crew protection from blast and small arms fire. The vehicles primary function was to provide mobility to the anti-tank gun and it was not intended as a replacement for a main battle tank. Between July and August 1942,170 Marder Is were built on the Lorraine chassis, later, several other French and Polish tanks were used as the conversion base for the Marder I, including the Hotchkiss H39 and FCM36
17.
Marder II
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The Marder II was a German tank destroyer of World War II based on the Panzer II chassis. There were two versions, the first mounted modified Soviet 7.62 cm guns firing German ammunition and its high profile and thin open-topped armor provided minimal protection to the crew. Nevertheless, the Marder II provided an increase in firepower over contemporary German tanks during 1942. Only four Marder IIs remain today, during the very first days of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans were shocked to encounter Soviet T-34 medium tanks and KV heavy tanks. Although the Wehrmacht succeeded in most operations due to tactics, air support and supply. An urgent need arose for a mobile and powerful anti-tank weapon than the existing towed anti-tank guns or tank destroyers like the Panzerjäger I. Among a series of solutions, it was decided to use light tanks, like the Panzer II, the Marder II came in two major versions. The first version was based on the light Panzer II Ausf, d/E and Flammpanzer II chassis with a new torsion bar suspension featuring four large road wheels and a slack track with no track return rollers. It was armed with captured Soviet 7.62 cm guns, re-chambered to accept German 7.5 cm Pak 40 ammunition and these early Marder IIs had a very high silhouette and thin armor - only 30 mm and 10 to 15 mm. There was no armour on the top or rear, leaving the crew with little protection. Alkett and Wegmann produced 201 Marder II from early 1942 to early 1943, the second version was originally based on Panzer II Ausf. A to C hulls removed from service, but later newly produced Ausf. This Marder II had a fighting compartment and used the German 75 mm Pak 40 anti-tank gun. The silhouette was lowered by about 40 cm to 2.20 m, but the armor was thin, FAMO, MAN and Daimler-Benz produced 576 Marder II conversions from June 1942 to Mid 1943. 75 more were converted from mid 1943 to early 1944 when the last Panzer IIs were taken out of active service, the various Marder IIs fought on all fronts of the war, but especially on the Eastern Front. The Marder IIs were used by the Panzerjäger Abteilungen of the Panzer divisions of both the Heer and the Waffen SS, as well as several Luftwaffe units, the Marders weaknesses were mainly related to survivability. The combination of a silhouette and open-top fighting compartment made them vulnerable to indirect artillery fire, aircraft strafing. The armor was quite thin, making them vulnerable to enemy tanks or infantry
18.
Marder III
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Marder III was the name for a series of World War II German tank destroyers. They mounted either Soviet 76. 2mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field guns, or German 7.5 cm PaK40 and they offered little protection to the crew, but added significant firepower compared to contemporary German tanks. They were in production from 1942 to 1944 and served on all fronts until the end of the war, the German word Marder means marten in English. This need became urgent in 1942, when shells failed to penetrate the armor of new Soviet tanks such as the T-34. The result was the Marder series, which were armed with either captured Soviet 76. 2mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field guns, due to weight and space constraints of these small chassis, the Marder series were not fully armored. Thin upper armor protection against just shrapnel and small fire was provided only for the front. All Marder series had open tops, some were issued with canvas tops to protect the crew from the elements. In this regard, the Marder was more of a gun carriage than a proper Panzerjäger that could exchange shells with enemy tanks. While the Panzer 38 had largely become obsolete as a tank in early 1942, it was still an excellent platform for adaptation into a tank destroyer, among other roles. Since the Soviet 76.2 mm field gun was captured in large quantities, to do so, the production of the Panzer 38 Ausf. G was stopped and a superstructure was bolted onto the standard tank chassis. The upper structure mounted the gun and a gun shield, giving very limited protection for the commander, gunner. Armor protection overall ranged from 10 to 50 mm with no armor at all above, the gun, commander, gunner and loader were located on top of the engine deck. It had a higher silhouette than the original Panzer 38, which made it vulnerable to enemy fire. The now-called 7.62 cm PaK36 was rechambered to be able to use standard German 75 mm ammunition, apart from the main gun, there was a 7.92 mm machine gun mounted in the hull. This tank destroyer was put into production as the Panzerjäger 38 für 7.62 cm PaK36, a total of 344 vehicles were built in three series from April to November 1942. Chassis numbers were 1360-1479, 1527-1600 and 1601-1750, the next variant of the Marder III fielded the standard 7.5 cm PaK40 German anti-tank gun on a slightly modified Panzer 38 Ausf. This chassis still had the engine in the rear of the vehicle but, unlike the previous model and this allowed the crew to stay low in the center of the vehicle, lowering their exposure to small arms fire and shell fragments
19.
Gun turret
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A gun turret is a location from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility, and some cone of fire. Rotating gun turrets have the protection, the weapon, and its crew rotate, when this meaning of the word turret started being used at the beginning of the 1860s, turrets were normally cylindrical. Barbettes were an alternative to turrets, with a barbette the protection was fixed, in the 1890s, armoured hoods were added to barbettes, these rotated with the platform. By the early 20th Century, these hoods were known as turrets, modern warships have gun-mountings described as turrets, though the protection on them is limited to protection from the weather. They may be manned or remotely controlled and are most often protected to some degree, the protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage, the weather conditions, general environment in which the weapon or its crew will be operating. A small turret, or sub-turret set on top of a one, is called a cupola. The term cupola is used for a rotating turret that carries a sighting device rather than weaponry. Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, firepower was provided by a large number of guns, each of which could traverse only in a limited arc. Additionally casemate mounts had to be recessed into the side of a vessel to afford a wide arc of fire, designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. The Lady Nancy proved a success and Coles patenting his rotating turret design after the war. Coless aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, the Admiralty accepted the principle of the turret gun as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns, the design was rejected as impractical, although the Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs. Coles enlisted the support of Prince Albert, who wrote to the first Lord of the Admiralty, in January 1862, the Admiralty agreed to construct a ship, the HMS Prince Albert which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. While Coles designed the turrets the ship was the responsibility of the chief Constructor Isaac Watts, another ship using Coles turret designs, HMS Royal Sovereign, was completed in August 1864. Its existing broadside guns were replaced with four turrets on a flat deck, early ships like the Royal Sovereign had little sea-keeping qualities being limited to coastal waters. Sir Edward James Reed, went on to design and build HMS Monarch, laid down in 1866 and completed in June 1869, it carried two turrets, although the inclusion of a forecastle and poop prevented the turret guns firing fore and aft. The gun turret was independently invented by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson in America, Ericsson designed the USS Monitor in 1861, its most prominent feature being a large cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships above the low-freeboard upper hull, also called the raft. This extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped hull, a small armoured pilot house was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow, however, its position prevented Monitor from firing her guns straight forward
20.
Carro Armato P 40
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The P 26/40 was an Italian World War II heavy tank. It was armed with a 75 mm gun and an 8 mm Breda machine gun, the official Italian designation was Carro Armato P 26/40. The designation means, P for pesante, the weight of 26 tonnes, design had started in 1940 but very few had been built by the time Italy signed the armistice with the Allies in September 1943 and the few produced afterwards were used by the Germans. The development work began in 1940, on Benito Mussolinis specific orders, initial requirements were for a 20 tonne tank with a 47 mm gun, three machine-guns and a crew of five, but this was quickly superseded by another 25 tonne design, to be named P26. The design of a new engine was slow, and in the end a 420 hp petrol engine was eventually tested. The gun designation 75/34 referred to a 75 mm bore diameter gun with a equal to 34 calibres. By the armistice, only a few models were completed before the Italian Armistice in September 1943. A few were used in combat, under the German designation of Panzerkampfwagen P40737, for example at Anzio, some, the turret was operated by two crew members and this was a significant drawback as it put excessive workload on the tanks commander. At that time, most new tanks were designed with three-man turrets, moreover, it lacked a commanders cupola. The main weapon was the 75/34 gun, a development of the Model 37 divisional gun and this weapon had a muzzle velocity of around 700 m/s, and was normally provided with around 75 rounds of ammunition. Its armour-piercing shells could penetrate roughly 70 mm of armour at 500 meters, nevertheless, the good power-to-weight ratio represented a significant improvement in mobility over its predecessors. The armour, quite resistant by Italian standards, was sloped and 60 mm thick at the front and mantlet. Compared to welded armour, riveted armour is vulnerable to breaking apart at the meaning that even quite resistant plates can be defeated by rivet failures. The front armour had a slope with a best facing of 50 mm/45 degrees. The P40 design was reasonably up-to-date, but the tank was without some features such as welded armour, modern suspension. The P40 was designated as a tank in Italy, not because of its weight. About a hundred P 40s were built by Ansaldo from then until the end of the war, although most were not entirely completed because of a lack of engines. There were at least two planned variants of the P40, developed from early 1943 when the Italian Army realized that the tank was inferior to other such as the German Panther
21.
Panther tank
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The Panther was a German medium tank deployed during World War II on the Eastern and Western Fronts in Europe from mid-1943 to its end in 1945. It had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd. Kfz, until 27 February 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther when Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted. Contemporary English language reports sometimes refer to it as the Mark V, the Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war and it is considered one of the best tanks of World War II for its excellent firepower and protection. The trade-off was weaker side armour, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire, the Panther proved to be effective in open country and long range engagements, but did not provide enough high explosive firepower against infantry. The Panther was far cheaper to produce than the Tiger I, key elements of the Panther design, such as its armour, transmission, and final drive, were simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material shortages. The overall design remained somewhat over-engineered, the Panther was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk despite numerous unresolved technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure. The Panther was born out of a project started in 1938 to replace the Panzer III, the initial requirements of the VK20 series called for a fully tracked vehicle weighing 20 tonnes and design proposals by Krupp, Daimler Benz and MAN ensued. The T-34 outclassed the existing models of the Panzer III and IV, at the insistence of General Heinz Guderian, a special tank commission was created to assess the T-34.2 mm gun, which had good armour penetration and fired an effective high explosive round. The DB design resembled the T-34 in its hull and turret and was also to be powered by a diesel engine and it was also driven from the rear drive sprocket with the turret situated forward. The incorporation of a diesel engine promised increased operational range, reduced flammability, Hitler himself considered a diesel engine imperative for the new tank. DBs proposal used an external leaf spring suspension, in contrast to the MAN proposal of twin torsion bars, wa Pruef 6s opinion was that the leaf spring suspension was a disadvantage and that using torsion bars would allow greater internal hull width. It also opposed the rear drive because of the potential for track fouling, Daimler Benz still preferred the leaf springs over a torsion bar suspension as it resulted in a silhouette about 200 mm shorter and rendered complex shock absorbers unnecessary. The MAN design embodied more a conventional configuration, with the transmission and drive sprocket in the front and it had a petrol engine and eight torsion-bar suspension axles per side. Because of the torsion bar suspension and the shaft running under the turret basket. These multiple large, rubber-rimmed steel wheels distributed ground pressure more evenly across the track, the two designs were reviewed from January to March 1942. Reichminister Todt, and later, his replacement Albert Speer, both recommended the DB design to Hitler because of its advantages over the initial MAN design, on 5 March 1942, Albert Speer reported that Hitler considered the Daimler-Benz design to be superior to MANs design. A review by a commission appointed by Hitler in May 1942 selected the MAN design
22.
Tiger I
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The Tiger I listen was a German heavy tank of World War II deployed from 1942 in Africa and Europe usually in independent heavy tank battalions. Its final designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf, the Tiger I gave the Wehrmacht its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted the 8.8 cm KwK36 gun. 1,347 were built between August 1942 and August 1944, after August 1944, production of the Tiger I was phased out in favour of the Tiger II. While the Tiger I has been called a design for its time, it was over-engineered, using expensive materials. The Tiger was prone to types of track failures and breakdowns. It was expensive to maintain, but generally mechanically reliable and this was a problem on the Eastern Front in the muddy rasputitsa season and during extreme periods of cold. The tank was given its nickname Tiger by Ferdinand Porsche, the initial designation was Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung H where H denoted Henschel as the designer/manufacturer. It was classified with ordnance inventory designation SdKfz 182, the tank was later re-designated as PzKpfw VI Ausf. E in March 1943, with ordnance inventory designation SdKfz 181, today, only a handful of Tigers survive in museums and exhibitions worldwide. The Bovington Tank Museums Tiger 131 is currently the only one restored to running order, Henschel & Sohn began development of a large tank design in January 1937 when the Waffenamt requested Henschel to develop a Durchbruchwagen in the 30–33 tonne range. Only one prototype hull was built and it was never fitted with a turret. The Durchbruchwagen Is general shape and suspension resembled the Panzer III while the turret resembled the early Panzer IV C turret with the short-barrelled 7.5 cm L/24 cannon.5 cm L/24 gun, overall weight would have been 36 tonnes. Only one hull was built and no turret was fitted, further development of the Durchbruchwagen was dropped in 1938 in favour of the larger and better-armoured VK30.01 and VK36.01 designs. Both the Durchbruchwagen I and II prototype hulls were used as test vehicles until 1941, the VK30.01 medium tank and the VK36.01 heavy tank designs pioneered the Schachtellaufwerk, the overlapping and interleaved main road wheels for tank use. This concept was common on German half-tracks such as the SdKfz 7. The VK30.01 was intended to mount a low-velocity 7.5 cm L/24 infantry support gun, overall weight was to be 33 tonnes. The armour was designed to be 50 mm on frontal surfaces and 30 mm on the side surfaces, four prototype hulls were completed for testing. Two of these were modified to build the Sturer Emil self-propelled anti-tank gun
23.
East Prussia
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East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and from 1878–1945. East Prussia was the part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast. East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the lands of the Baltic Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights, the indigenous Balts who survived the conquest were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the state of the Teutonic Knights. After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1525, with the Prussian Homage, the province became the Duchy of Prussia. The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, because the duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire, the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves King of Prussia beginning in 1701. Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. Following Nazi Germanys defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalins insistence between the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of Poland, the capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was evacuated during the war or expelled shortly thereafter in the expulsion of Germans after World War II. An estimated 300,000 died either in war time bombings raids or in the battles to defend the province. Upon the invitation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century, local Old-Prussian and Polish toponyms were gradually Germanised. Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years War, together with Warmia it formed the province of Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights, but as a fief of Poland,1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights were not verified. The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism, Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage. Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, in 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Alberts son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick. The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, when Maximilian died, Alberts line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia
24.
Jagdpanther
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The Jagdpanther was a tank destroyer built by Nazi Germany during World War II based on the chassis of the Panther tank. It entered service late in the war and saw service on the Eastern and Western Fronts, the Jagdpanther combined the very powerful 8. The Jagdpanther had been preceded by two attempts at mounting an 8, ferdinand proved to be too heavy and Nashorn small and underpowered. A heavy tank design based on the 8.8 cm Pak 43 gun. The prototype by Mühlenbau-Industrie A. G. was demonstrated in October 1943 before Hitler, production started in January 1944, in February, Hitler specified the simpler Jagdpanther name instead of its original 8.8 cm Pak 43/3 auf Panzerjäger Panther. The Jagdpanther had side armour of increased thickness to offset the slightly reduced angle of the armour necessary to provide enough interior space. G had the feature, to harmonize production and increase protection. It was armed with the same long-barreled 8.8 cm gun as the Tiger II King Tiger, the gun was mounted in a central mantlet, which gave it a limited traverse of 11 degrees to each side. A single 7.92 mm MG-34 machine gun for local defence was in a mount on the right side of the front glacis plate. The machine gunner was also the wireless operator, the driver sat on the left. The gunner had a rangefinder and a telescopic sight. The periscope - linked to the gun mount - was under an armoured housing on the roof, the Jagdpanther had a good power-to-weight ratio and a powerful main gun, which enabled it to destroy any type of Allied tank. Based on the existing Panther Ausf G chassis, the vehicle did not suffer too many mechanical problems and it had an upgraded transmission - which had been planned for the Panther II - and final drive to counter the Panthers main weakness. It was manned by a crew of five, a driver, radio-operator, commander, gunner, early Jagdpanthers had two vision openings for the driver, whereas late versions had only one. The main gun originally had a gun barrel, but later versions were equipped with the Pak 43/4 gun with a two-part barrel. The two part barrel was more economical as barrel wear was not even, early G1s were given Zimmerit anti-magnetic mine coating in a distinctive small-squared pattern. A total of 415 Jagdpanthers were produced from January 1944 by three manufacturers, MIAG produced 270 from January 1944 until the end of the war. Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen-Hannover produced 112 from November 1944, maschinenbau und Bahnbedarf produced 37 vehicles from December 1944
25.
Glacis
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A glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a structure or of stone in more permanent structure. A glacis plate is the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armored fighting vehicle, more generally, the term glacis can denote any slope, natural or artificial, which fulfils the above requirements. The etymology of this French word suggests a slope made dangerous with ice, hence the relationship with glacier, a glacis could also appear in ancient fortresses, such as the one built at Semna, by the ancient Egyptians. Here it was used by them to prevent enemy siege engines from weakening defensive walls, ancient British hill forts started to incorporate glacis around 350 BC. Those at Maiden Castle in Dorset were 25 metres high, towards the end of the medieval period some castles were modified to make them defensible against cannons. Glacis consisting of earthen slopes faced with stones were placed in front of the curtain walls, towers were lowered to the same height as the curtain walls and converted into gun platforms. Early modern European fortresses were so constructed as to any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment. This gave defenders a direct line of sight into the assaulting force, additionally, but secondarily, the bank of earth would shield the walls from being hit directly by cannon fire. Though defenders on a high ground already have a line of sight. The term glacis plate describes the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armored fighting vehicle, in a head-on-head armored engagement, the glacis plate is the largest and most obvious target available to an enemy gunner. For example, an aimed at 4 of plate steel set on a 45-degree angle will have to pass through 5.67 of material to penetrate. Anti-tank mines which employ a tilt-rod fuze are also designed to detonate directly underneath the glacis plate, as a result, it is generally the thickest, most robust armored section of a tank, followed by the turret face and gun mantlet. Fortification Siege Sloped armour Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Fortification, caen Castle, A Ten Centuries Old Fortress. Greenwood guides to historic events of the medieval world
26.
Victory in Europe Day
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It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory, on 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germanys surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz, the administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin. The former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries have historically celebrated the end of World War II on 9 May, however, the Baltic countries now commemorate VE day on 8 May. In Ukraine from 2015,8 May was designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, upon the defeat of Germany, celebrations erupted throughout the world. From Moscow to Los Angeles, people celebrated, in the United Kingdom, more than one million people celebrated in the streets to mark the end of the European part of the war. Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were allowed to wander incognito among the crowds, in the United States, the victory happened on President Harry Trumans 61st birthday. He dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, flags remained at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period. Truman said of dedicating the victory to Roosevelts memory and keeping the flags at half-staff that his wish was that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day. Later that day, Truman said that the victory made it his most enjoyable birthday, massive celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and especially in New Yorks Times Square. As the Soviet representative in Reims had no authority to sign the German instrument of surrender, the surrender ceremony was repeated in Berlin on 8 May, where the instrument of surrender was signed by supreme German military commander Wilhelm Keitel, by Georgy Zhukov and Allied representatives. East Germany as Tag der Befreiung, a holiday from 1950 to 1966. Between 1975 and 1990, as Tag des Sieges, France as Victoire 1945 Slovakia as Deň víťazstva nad fašizmom Czech Republic as Den vítězství or Den osvobození Poland as Narodowy Dzień Zwycięstwa – National Victory Day. Norway as Frigjøringsdagen Ukraine День памяті та примирення Ukraine День перемоги над нацизмом у Другій світовій війні — from 2015
27.
Zimmerit
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Zimmerit was a paste-like coating used on mid- and late-war German armored fighting vehicles during World War II. Zimmerit was often left off late-war vehicles due to the concern that it could catch on fire when hit. It was developed by the German company Chemische Werke Zimmer AG, the coating was normally ridged to increase overall thickness, the high points on the pattern increasing the average thickness without adding more weight. The mixture had the consistency of a paste or putty. It was applied to the vehicle, usually at the factory, patterned, there were many variations seen in application designs, from the regular ridge-shaped pattern, to a less common waffle-shaped pattern. The differences mostly related to the factory producing each type of AFV, for example, the waffle pattern was seen almost exclusively on Sturmgeschütz III assault guns. In general, vehicles already in service were not coated with Zimmerit, the German army introduced the Hafthohlladung anti-tank weapon in 1942. This consisted of a shaped charge warhead connected to a ring of metal holding three powerful horseshoe magnets, issued to infantry, the user would run up to the tank and place the device on any surface to which the magnets would stick. The user would then pull the safety pin and run for safety, the magnets not only held the mine to the vehicle but also provided the correct spacing between warhead and armor, allowing the penetrator jet to form properly. Concerned that the design could be easily copied in the USSR. Zimmerit was applied to some tanks and casemate-style closed-top self-propelled guns and it was only rarely applied to open topped AFVs. The rough appearance of the gave a distinct appearance, for one type. Zimmerit was discontinued from factory application on 9 September 1944 and from field application on 7 October 1944 and this was due to concerns that projectile impacts could ignite it. These proved false, but the order was never rescinded, applying and drying the paste added days to the production of each vehicle, which was unacceptable as there was a shortage of tanks. No similar material was used on post-war tanks as the use of man-portable HEAT rockets such as the Bazooka made magnetic mines obsolete
28.
Otto Carius
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Otto Carius was a German tank commander in the army of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, soon after Otto Carius graduated from school, World War II broke out. Carius enlisted in the army and first served in the infantry, in 1943, Carius transferred to the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. He became commander of a Jagdtiger company of the 512th Heavy Antitank Battalion at the beginning of 1945, on 8 March 1945, 2nd Company was directed to the front line near Siegburg, where it took part in the defense of the River Rhine. He surrendered to the United States Army on 7 May 1945 and was released on 21 May 1945, after the war, Carius set up a pharmacy which was aptly called Tiger Apotheke. Carius died on 24 January 2015 at age 92, the news coverage around his death described him as a panzer ace credited with destroying more than 150 enemy tanks, mostly on the Eastern Front. Tigers in the Mud, The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius
29.
Ruhr Pocket
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The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945, near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. It marked the end of organized resistance on Nazi Germanys Western Front. In March 1945, the Allies crossed the River Rhine, bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the crossing made on March 7,1945, and expanded the bridgehead until the bridge collapsed 10 days later. Having crossed the Rhine, both Army groups fanned out into the German hinterland, in the south, while the Third Army headed east, the First Army headed northeast and formed the southern pincer of the Ruhr envelopment. Facing the Allied armies were the remnants of a shattered Wehrmacht, a few SS training units, lead elements of the two Allied pincers met on April 1,1945, near Lippstadt. By April 4, the encirclement was completed and the Ninth Army reverted to the command of General Bradleys 12th Army Group, while the main operations headed further toward central and northern Germany, American forces concentrated on the pocket, taking it section by section. On April 12,1945, the U. S, First and Ninth Armies divided the area coming from the south, the smaller, eastern part surrendered the next day. The western part continued a weak resistance until April 18 and April 21,1945, rather than surrender and face trial for war crimes, the commander, Field Marshal Walter Model, committed suicide in a forest south of the city of Duisburg, in Ratingen. German anti-Nazi resistance groups in Düsseldorf attempted to surrender the city to the Allied armies in the so-called Aktion Rheinland in order to spare Düsseldorf from further destruction, however, SS units were able to crush the resistance, and executed a number of those involved. Executions of foreign labourers and political prisoners by the Gestapo had already been occurring since February, the act of resistance did accomplish a cancellation of further bombings on the city by another 800 bombers, through contact with the Americans. Düsseldorf was captured by Americans on 17 April without any notable fighting, the surviving 325,000 German soldiers from the Ruhr Pocket, and some civilians, were imprisoned in the Rheinwiesenlager near Remagen, a temporary prison enclosure
30.
Panzerfaust
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The Panzerfaust is an inexpensive, single shot, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consists of a small, disposable pre-loaded launch tube firing a high-explosive anti-tank warhead, the Panzerfausts direct ancestor was the similar, smaller-warhead Faustpatrone ordnance device. The Panzerfaust was in use from 1943 until the end of the war, the weapons concepts played an important part in the development of the later Russian RPG weapon systems such as the RPG-2. Most notably, the RPG-7 added a sustainer rocket motor to the grenade, a forerunner of the Panzerfaust was the Faustpatrone. The Faustpatrone was much smaller in appearance than the better known Panzerfaust. The propellant consisted of 54 g of powder, the metal launch tube had a length of 80 cm. Fitted to the warhead was a shaft with folded stabilizing fins. These bent blades straightened into position by themselves as soon as left the launch tube. The warhead was accelerated to a speed of 28 m/s, had a range of about 30 m, soon a crude aiming device similar to the one used by the Panzerfaust was added to the design, it was fixed at a range of 30 m. Several designations of this weapon were in use, amongst which Faustpatrone 1 or Panzerfaust 30 klein, however, it was common to refer to this weapon simply as the Faustpatrone. Of the earlier model,20,000 were ordered and the first 500 Faustpatronen were delivered by the manufacturer, HASAG Hugo Schneider AG, Werk Schlieben, development began in 1942 on a larger version of the Faustpatrone. The resulting weapon was the Panzerfaust 30, with a weight of 5.1 kilograms. The launch tube was made of low-grade steel 44 millimetres in diameter, along the side of the tube were a simple folding rear sight and a trigger. The edge of the warhead was used as the front sight, the oversize warhead was fitted into the front of the tube by an attached wooden tail stem with metal stabilizing fins. The warhead weighed 2.9 kilograms and contained 0.8 kilograms of a 50,50 mixture of TNT and hexogen explosives, the Panzerfaust often had warnings written in large red letters on the upper rear end of the tube, the words usually being Achtung. This was to warn soldiers to avoid the backblast, after firing, the tube was discarded, making the Panzerfaust the first disposable anti-tank weapon. The weapon, when fired from the crook of the arm. To use the Panzerfaust, the soldier took off the safety, aimed, unlike the Americans original M160 mm Bazooka and the Germans own heavier 88 mm Panzerschreck tube-type rocket launchers based on the American ordnance piece, the Panzerfaust did not have a trigger
31.
Volkssturm
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The Volkssturm was a national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was staffed by conscripting males between the ages of 16 and 60 years who were not already serving in military unit as part of a German Home Guard. The new Volkssturm drew inspiration from the old Prussian Landsturm of 1813–1815 that fought in the wars against Napoleon. Plans to form a Landsturm national militia in Eastern Germany as a last resort to boost fighting strength were first proposed in 1944 by General Heinz Guderian, the Army did not have enough men to resist the Soviet onslaught. So additional categories of men were called into service, including those in non-essential jobs, those deemed unfit, over-age, or under-age. The Volkssturm had existed, on paper, since around 1925, the intended strength of six million was never attained. Joseph Goebbels and other propagandists depicted the Volkssturm as an outburst of enthusiasm, while it had some marginal effect on morale, it was undermined by the recruits visible lack of uniforms and weaponry. Nazi themes of death, transcendence, and commemoration were given full play to encourage the fight, many realized that this was a desperate attempt to turn the course of the war. Sardonic old men would remark, We old monkeys are the Führer’s newest weapon, a popular joke about the Volkssturm went Why is the Volkssturm Germanys most precious resource. Because its members have silver in their hair, gold in their mouths, for these militia units to be effective, they needed not only strength in numbers, but also fanaticism. During the early stages of Volkssturm planning, it became apparent that units lacking morale would lack combat effectiveness, to generate fanaticism, Volkssturm units were placed under direct command of the local Nazi party officials, the Gauleiters and Kreisleiters. The new Volkssturm was also to become an organization, with Heinrich Himmler, as Replacement Army Commander, responsible for armament. Though normally under party control, Volkssturm units were placed under Wehrmacht command when engaged in action, the largest Volkssturm unit seems to have corresponded to the next smaller territorial subdivision of the Nazi Party organization—the Kreis. The basic unit was a battalion of 642 men, units were mostly composed of members of the Hitler Youth, invalids, the elderly, or men who had previously been considered unfit for military service. Further desperation showed when on 12 February 1945, the Nazis conscripted German women, correspondingly, girls as young as 14 years were trained in the use of small arms, bazookas, machine guns, and hand grenades from December 1944 through May 1945. Municipal organization, A Bataillon in every Kreis A Kompanie in every Ortsgruppe, a Zug in every Zelle A Gruppe in every Block Each Gauleiter and Kreisleiter, had a Volkssturm Chief of Staff to assist in handling militia problems. Historian David Yelton described the situation as two ranking officers at the helm of a sinking ship fighting over command, the Volkssturm uniform was only a black armband with words Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht with a series of silver collar pips pinned to the wearers collar. These were characteristically derived from the insignia of the various paramilitary organizations of the Nazi Party, which had control over them
32.
Hull-down
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In sailing and warfare, hull-down means that the upper part of a vessel or vehicle is visible, but the main, lower body is not, the term hull-up means that all of the body is visible. The terms originated with sailing and naval warfare in which the curvature of the causes an approaching vessel to be first visible sails-up. Beginning in the 20th century, hull-down has also used in armoured warfare. In modern armoured warfare, hull-down is a position taken up by a fighting vehicle so that its hull is behind a crest or other raised ground. Turret-down is the position in which the crew can observe forward from roof hatches. The belly armour should not be exposed, because it is vulnerable to even modest antitank weapons, with a clear horizon, whether a vessel is hull-down or hull-up gives some idea of its distance from the observer, using the line-of-sight formula. Hull down was used to describe a commercial sailing vessel being under sail. In modern armoured warfare, hull-down is a position taken up by a fighting vehicle such that its hull is behind a crest or other raised ground. This allows it to observe and fire upon the ground ahead, a hull-down AFV is said to be in defilade. Taking advantage of hull-down positions is an element of tactical movement, turret-down is the position in which the vehicles crew can observe forward from roof hatches, but the vehicle is completely hidden. This can also apply to vehicles without turrets, in flat or gently rolling terrain, a hull-down position is difficult to find. The actual protecting rise of ground may be hundreds of metres long, in steep or abrupt terrain cover is plentiful, but it may be difficult to find covered positions from which the vehicles main gun can fire upon terrain ahead. In preparing defensive works, a position can be created or improved by digging shallow tank scrapes. Tank units usually have one or two tanks with dozer blades attached for this purpose, and some models have a built-in blade. Combat engineering vehicles often accompany armoured vehicles as they manoeuvre to dig tank scrapes, crossing a crest or ridge-line is a dangerous manoeuvre for AFVs, as they are particularly exposed to enemy fire while silhouetted against the sky. While cresting a steep slope, the armour on the front bottom of a tanks hull can be exposed to fire. After cresting, the top armour may be exposed while it moves down the forward slope. If an antitank gunner has spotted the AFV, he may train his sights on it and wait for a shot while it moves forward
33.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
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The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a World War II era fighter aircraft produced by the United States between 1941–1945. Its primary armament was eight. 50-caliber machine guns and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack role it could carry five-inch rockets or a load of 2,500 pounds. When fully loaded the P-47 weighed up to eight tons making it one of the heaviest fighters of the war. The P-47 was designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine which was used by two U. S. Navy fighters, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Vought F4U Corsair. The Thunderbolt was effective as a short-to-medium range escort fighter in high-altitude air-to-air combat, the P-47 was one of the main United States Army Air Forces fighters of World War II, and served with Allied air forces including France, Britain, and Russia. Mexican and Brazilian squadrons fighting alongside the U. S. were equipped with the P-47, the armored cockpit was relatively roomy and comfortable, offering good visibility. A modern-day U. S. ground-attack aircraft, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, both had fled from their homeland to escape the Bolsheviks. In 1939, Republic Aviation designed the AP-4 demonstrator powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine with a belly-mounted turbocharger. While the resulting Republic P-43 Lancer was in limited production, Republic had been working on an improved P-44 Rocket with a powerful engine. The latter was an aircraft powered by the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V-12 engine. The United States Army Air Corps backed the project and gave it the designation XP-47, as the war in Europe escalated in spring 1940, Republic and the USAAC concluded that the XP-44 and the XP-47 were inferior to the Luftwaffe fighters. Republic unsuccessfully attempted to improve the design, proposing the XP-47A, kartveli then designed a much larger fighter, which was offered to the USAAC in June 1940. The Air Corps ordered a prototype in September, to be designated the XP-47B, the XP-47A, which had little in common with the new design, was abandoned. The XP-47B was of construction with elliptical wings, with a straight leading edge that was slightly swept back. The air-conditioned cockpit was roomy and the seat was comfortable—like a lounge chair. Main and auxiliary self-sealing fuel tanks were placed under the cockpit, the cowling admitted cooling air for the engine, left and right oil coolers, and the turbosupercharger intercooler system. At full power, the pipes glowed red at their forward ends, the complicated turbosupercharger system with its ductwork gave the XP-47B a deep fuselage, and the wings had to be mounted in a relatively high position. This was problematic since long-legged main landing gear struts were needed to provide clearance for the enormous propeller
34.
The Tank Museum
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The Tank Museum is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about 1 mile north of the village of Wool and 12 miles west of the port of Poole. The collection traces the history of the tank, with almost 300 vehicles on exhibition from 26 countries it is the largest collection of tanks and the third largest collection of armoured vehicles in the world. It includes Tiger 131, the only working example of a German Tiger I tank and a British First World War Mark I and it is the museum of the Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps and a registered charity. Bovington Camp, in which the museum is located, trains most sections of the British Army in tracked-vehicle driving as well as repairing and maintaining the vehicles in its workshops, in 1916 the British War Office established the Bovington camp as a tank crew training facility. At that time the army was introducing tanks into the First World War in an attempt to break the stagnation of trench warfare, in 1919 the tanks returned to Bovington from France. Many of them were fit only for scrap, a small number of the least damaged vehicles were put to one side so that tank crews and designers could have an idea of the tanks early heritage. In 1923 the writer Rudyard Kipling visited Bovington and recommended a museum should be set up, the collection grew greatly after the Second World War, as many Allied and captured Axis tanks were added. In 1947 it was opened to the general public, the Tank Museum has continued to expand and today it is primarily seen as a means of educating and entertaining the general public, with the exhibition being geared in this direction. Many of the tanks are in working order and can be seen in action throughout summer months in special displays. The museum holds an annual TankFest display of their operating vehicles, in 2012, the museums historian David Fletcher, who had been an employee since 1982, was made an MBE for his services to the history of armoured warfare. World War I Hall Along with “The Trench Experience” this hall has recently been refurbished & renamed, as well as containing the majority of the museums World War I tanks it now tells the story of men who crewed the first tanks between 1916 and 1918. The Lawrence of Arabia exhibition is no longer in the hall, featured tanks, Mark I tank, IV, V, IX & Mark VIII Libertytanks. Inter War Hall Refurbished in 2014, this hall now explores the rise of the tank, featured tanks, Vickers A1E1 Independent, Peerless Armoured Car & Vickers Light tank, Mark II. World War II Hall The biggest section, with tanks from most nations involved in the conflict and this hall contains the Battlegroup Afghanistan exhibition. The men of the Royal Armoured Corps who have involved in some of the fiercest fighting since World War Two. The hall also contains a Conqueror, Chieftain, Challenger 1, the newly installed children’s soft play area is also located there. British Steel Hall Explores the design & technology that goes into making tanks, there is a mock production line of Centurions, as well as prototype and experimental vehicles
35.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
36.
Balkenkreuz
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The Balkenkreuz is a straight-armed cross that was the emblem of the Wehrmacht and its branches in World War II. It was used by the Heer, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine, German Balken means beam, bar, so a literal translation of Balkenkreuz would be beam cross or bar cross. Germanys Luftstreitkräfte first officially adopted the Balkenkreuz in mid-April 1918, the IdFlieg directive of 20 March 1918 to all manufacturers states in the first sentence, To improve the recognition of our aircraft, the following is ordered. In paragraph 2, the sentence specifies, This alteration is to be carried out by 15 April 1918. The closing sentence reads, Order 41390 is to be speedily executed and its use resumed, with new standardized dimensions, from the beginning of the Third Reichs Luftwaffe in 1935, as part of the new Wehrmacht unified German military forces founded in mid-March 1935
37.
Fort Benning
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Fort Benning is a United States Army base straddling the Alabama-Georgia border next to Columbus, Georgia. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and it is a power projection platform, and possesses the capability to deploy combat-ready forces by air, rail, and highway. It is named after Henry L. Benning, a general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Since 1918, Fort Benning has served as the Home of the Infantry, included in this transformation was the move of the Armor School from Fort Knox to Fort Benning. On December 26,1918, a portion of the Camp Polk tank school was transferred to Camp Benning to work in conjunction with the Infantry school, Camp Benning tank troops were moved to Camp Meade from February 19–21,1919. By the fall of 1920, more than 350 officers,7,000 troops and 650 student officers lived at Camp Benning, the post was renamed to Fort Benning in 1922, after Henry L. Benning, a general in the army of the Confederate States of America. During Wells tenure, the post developed recreational facilities such as Doughboy Stadium, Gowdy Field, Doughboy Stadium was erected as a memorial by soldiers to their fallen comrades of World War I. One of the Doughboys original coaches was a captain named Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lt. Col George C. Marshall was appointed assistant commandant of the post in 1927, Marshall, who later became the Army Chief of Staff during World War II, was appalled by the high casualties of World War I caused, he thought, by insufficient training. He was determined to prevent a lack of preparation from costing more lives in future conflicts and he and his subordinates revamped the education system at Fort Benning. The changes he fostered are still known as the Benning Revolution, later in his life, Marshall went on to author the Marshall Plan for reviving postwar Europe and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. During World War II Fort Benning had 197,159 acres with billeting space for 3,970 officers and 94,873 enlisted persons. The battalion, later expanded to become the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was trained at Fort Benning but did not deploy overseas, during this period, the specialized duties of the Triple Nickel were primarily in a firefighting role, with over one thousand parachute jumps as smoke jumpers. The 555th was deployed to the Pacific Northwest of the United States in response to the concern that forest fires were being set by the Japanese military using long-range incendiary balloons, the 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was activated July 15,1940, and trained at the Fort. The 17th Armored Engineer Battalion became active and started training July 15,1940, the Airborne School on Main Post has three 249-foot drop towers called Free Towers. They are used to train paratroopers, the towers were modeled after the parachute towers at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York. Only three towers stand today, the tower was toppled by a tornado on March 14,1954. During the spring of 1962 General Herbert B, continental Army Command, directed that all instruction at the Infantry School after July 1 reflect Reorganization Objective Army Division structures
38.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
39.
Glacis plate
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A glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a structure or of stone in more permanent structure. A glacis plate is the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armored fighting vehicle, more generally, the term glacis can denote any slope, natural or artificial, which fulfils the above requirements. The etymology of this French word suggests a slope made dangerous with ice, hence the relationship with glacier, a glacis could also appear in ancient fortresses, such as the one built at Semna, by the ancient Egyptians. Here it was used by them to prevent enemy siege engines from weakening defensive walls, ancient British hill forts started to incorporate glacis around 350 BC. Those at Maiden Castle in Dorset were 25 metres high, towards the end of the medieval period some castles were modified to make them defensible against cannons. Glacis consisting of earthen slopes faced with stones were placed in front of the curtain walls, towers were lowered to the same height as the curtain walls and converted into gun platforms. Early modern European fortresses were so constructed as to any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment. This gave defenders a direct line of sight into the assaulting force, additionally, but secondarily, the bank of earth would shield the walls from being hit directly by cannon fire. Though defenders on a high ground already have a line of sight. The term glacis plate describes the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armored fighting vehicle, in a head-on-head armored engagement, the glacis plate is the largest and most obvious target available to an enemy gunner. For example, an aimed at 4 of plate steel set on a 45-degree angle will have to pass through 5.67 of material to penetrate. Anti-tank mines which employ a tilt-rod fuze are also designed to detonate directly underneath the glacis plate, as a result, it is generally the thickest, most robust armored section of a tank, followed by the turret face and gun mantlet. Fortification Siege Sloped armour Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Fortification, caen Castle, A Ten Centuries Old Fortress. Greenwood guides to historic events of the medieval world
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