1.
Nachtjagdgeschwader 4
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Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 was a Luftwaffe night fighter-wing of World War II. NJG4 was formed on 18 April 1941 in Metz, the units objective was to counter RAF Bomber Commands strategic night-bombing offensive. The units commanding officers included Oberstleutnant Wolfgang Thimmig and Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer
2.
Heavy fighter
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A heavy fighter is a fighter aircraft designed to carry heavier weapons or operate at longer ranges. To achieve acceptable performance, most heavy fighters were twin-engined, the twin-engine heavy fighter was a major design class during the pre-World War II period, conceived as long-range escort fighters or heavily armed bomber destroyers. Many twin-engined heavy fighters eventually found their niche as night fighters, a major heavy fighter design was the Messerschmitt Bf 110, a German fighter that, prior to the war, the Luftwaffe considered more important than their single-engine fighters. Many of the best pilots were assigned to Bf 110 wings and this doctrine proved to be a costly mistake. In practice the Bf 110 was capable of using this combination of features for only a short time, following the example set by the Bf 110, the Japanese built the broadly similar Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu. Likewise neutral Netherlands built the twin-boom Fokker G. I, only to be seized by the Luftwaffe after the German invasion of the Netherlands, perhaps in the belief that The bomber will always get through, the British lagged behind in its heavy fighter development. Apart from the Westland Whirlwind and the Welkin, built only in modest numbers, during the Battle of Britain, Bristol Blenheim bombers were fitted, as an interim measure and in utmost secrecy, with radars and ventral gun packs, turning them into the RAFs first night fighters. More successful was the Bristol Beaufighter, which reused major portions of the earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber. Armed with six.303 inch machine guns, four 20 mm cannon and an assortment of bombs and rockets, with the addition of radar, it was one of the Royal Air Forces main night fighters. Similarly, the de Havilland Mosquito fast bomber was later adapted for both day and night fighter use, during the late 1930s, Bell Aircraft of the United States designed the YFM-1 Airacuda bomber destroyer. Very large and heavily armed, the Airacuda was plagued with design flaws, only 13 examples were eventually built, the most successful heavy fighter of the war was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was designed to carry heavy armament at high speed or long range, for a variety of reasons, notably its excellent twin turbochargers and its crew of one, it dramatically outperformed its German and British counterparts. In service it was used as a fighter, following B-17 Flying Fortress raids deep into German-held Europe where it was able to hold its own with the much lighter German fighters. In its escort role, the P-38 was the first Allied fighter over Berlin and it was also highly successful in the Pacific theatre, where its long range proved a pivotal advantage. Expensive to produce and maintain, it was relegated to other roles when the single-engined, but equally long-ranged, P-51D Mustang reached squadrons. It was among the fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built, and heavily armed with four 20mm M2 cannon and four 0.50 inch M2 Browning machine guns, with hard points for bombs or a torpedo. Although Grumman designed and developed the aircraft during World War II and it served in the Korean War and retired in 1954. The last piston-engined heavy fighters to see service were the de Havilland Hornet and its version the Sea Hornet
3.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface
4.
Fighter-bomber
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A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. Although still used, the term fighter-bomber has less significance since the introduction of rockets, modern aircraft with similar duties are now typically called multirole combat aircraft or strike fighters. Prior to World War II, general limitations in available engine, engine power grew dramatically during the early period of the war, roughly doubling between 1939 and 1943. It had two Bristol Mercury XV radial engines of 920 hp each, a crew of three, and its payload was just 1,200 lbs of bombs. The Blenheim suffered disastrous losses over France in 1939 when it encountered Messerschmitt Bf 109s, in contrast, the Vought F4U Corsair fighter — which entered service in December 1942 — had in common with its eventual U. S. With less airframe and crew to lift, the Corsairs ordnance load was either four High Velocity Aircraft Rockets or 2,000 lbs of bombs, increased engine power meant that many existing fighter designs could carry useful bomb loads, and adapt to the fighter-bomber role. Notable examples include the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Hawker Typhoon and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, larger twin-engined aircraft were also used in the fighter-bomber role, especially where longer ranges were needed for naval strikes. Examples include the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the Bristol Beaufighter, the Beaufighter MkV had a Boulton-Paul turret with four 0.303 in machine guns mounted aft of the cockpit but only two were built. Bristols Blenheim was even pushed into service as a fighter during the Battle of Britain, equipped with an early Airborne Interception radar set, however, it proved to be an effective night fighter. The first single seat fighters to drop bombs were on the Western Front, when fighter patrols were issued with bombs and ordered to drop them at random if they met no German fighters. The Sopwith Camel, the most successful Allied aircraft of the First World War with 1,294 enemy aircraft downed, was losing its edge by 1918, the Royal Aircraft Factory S. E.5. was used in the same role. The Royal Flying Corps received the first purpose-built fighter-bomber just as the war was ending and it was not called a fighter bomber at the time, but a Trench Fighter as that was what it was designed to attack. The Sopwith Salamander was based on the Sopwith Snipe fighter but had armour plating in the nose to protect the pilot, originally it was intended to have two machine guns jutting through the cockpit floor so as to spray trenches with bullets as it passed low overhead. But this did not work and it was fitted with four Cooper bombs and it was ordered in very large numbers, but most were cancelled after the Armistice. In February and April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps conducted bombing tests at Orfordness, both WW1 fighter bombers were used with novice and experienced pilots. Best results were achieved with a dive into the wind using the Aldis Sight to align the aircraft. But they were not considered enough to justify the expected casualty rate. When war broke out in Europe, Western Allied Air Forces employed light twin-engined bombers in the role for low level attack
5.
Night fighter
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A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were modified to operate at night. Many WW II night fighters also included instrument landing systems for landing at night as turning on the runway lights made runways into a target for opposing intruders. The use of the night fighter gradually faded away as a result of these improvements making the vast majority of fighters capable of night operation. At the start of World War I, most combatants had little capability of flying at night, the only targets that could be attacked with any possibility of being hit in limited visibility would be cities, an unthinkable target at the time. The general assumption of a war meant there was no need for strategic attacks. Things changed on 22 September and 8 October 1914, when the Royal Naval Air Service bombed the production line and hangars of the Zeppelin facilities in Cologne, although defences had been set up, all of them proved woefully inadequate. As early as 1915, a number of B. E. 2c aircraft were modified into the first night fighters and this technique would prove to be very effective. After over a year of night Zeppelin raids, on the night of 2–3 September 1916, a B. E. 2c flown by Captain William Leefe Robinson downed the SL11, the first German airship to be shot down over Britain. This action won the pilot a Victoria Cross and cash prizes totaling £3,500 put up by a number of individuals, because of airships limitations, the Luftstreitkräfte began to introduce long-range heavy bombers, starting with the Gotha G. IV aircraft that gradually took over the offensive. To counter night attacks, Sopwith Camel day fighters were deployed in the fighter role. Further modification led to the cockpit being moved rearwards, the modified aircraft were nicknamed the Sopwith Comic. With little money to spend on development, especially during the great depression and they flew fast enough that the time between detecting them and the bombers reaching their targets left little time to launch interceptors to shoot them down. At night, or with limited visibility, these problems were compounded, the Spanish Republican Air Force used some Polikarpov I-15 as night fighters. Pilot José Falcó had equipped his fighter with a receiver for land-based guidance for interception. One of the I-15s configured for night operations, fitted with tracer and explosive.30 rounds, nevertheless, there were some new technologies that appeared to offer potential ways to improve night fighting capability. During the 1930s there was development of infrared detectors among all of the major forces. The only such system to see any sort of operational use was the Spanner Anlage system used on the Dornier Do 17Z night fighters of the Luftwaffe
6.
Messerschmitt
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The company survived in the post-war era, undergoing a number of mergers and changing its name from Messerschmitt to Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm before being bought by Deutsche Aerospace in 1989. In February 1916, the south German engineering company MAN AG and several banks purchased the aircraft builder Otto-Flugzeugwerke, starting a new company. The articles of association were drawn up on February 19 and 20, details of the company were recorded in the Commercial Register with an equity capital of RM1,000,000 on March 7,1916. 36% of the capital was provided by the Bank für Handel und Industrie, Berlin, 30% by MAN AG, the first Chairman of the Board of Management was Peter Eberwein, who had previously been employed at Albatros Flugzeugwerke. Due to the need for aircraft production for the ongoing war, there was no time for development work. Within a month of being set up, the company was able to supply aircraft to the war ministries of Prussia and Bavaria, however, major quality problems were encountered at the start. The German air crews frequently complained about the serious defects that appeared in the first machines from BFW, the same thing had happened with the aircraft from the predecessor company run by Gustav Otto. It was only organizational changes and more intensive supervision of the line that succeeded in resolving these problems by the end of 1916. BFW then started turning out over 200 aircraft a month, with their workforce growing to 3,000, the end of the war hit BFW hard, since military demand for aircraft collapsed. The companys management were forced to look for new products with which to maintain their position in the market, since World War I aircraft were largely built from wood to keep their weight down, BFW was equipped with the very latest joinery plant. What is more, the company still held stocks of materials sufficient for about 200 aircraft and it therefore seemed a good idea to use both the machinery and the materials for the production of furniture and fitted kitchens. In addition, from 1921 onwards, the company manufactured motorcycles of its own design under the names of Flink, in the autumn of 1921, Austrian financier Camillo Castiglioni first announced his interest in purchasing BFW. While most of the shareholders accepted his offer, MAN AG initially held on to its shareholding in BFW, apparently Popp was still in close contact with Castiglioni and was perhaps even privy to the latters plans for merging BMW with BFW. It was probably in the spring of 1922 that Castiglioni and Popp persuaded MAN to give up its shares in BFW, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke was reformed in 1926, in Augsburg, Bavaria, when Udet-Flugzeugbau GmbH was changed into a joint-stock company. In the early stages, BMW AG held a stake in company and was represented by Josef Popp. Willy Messerschmitt joined the company in 1927 as chief designer and engineer, one of the first designs, the Messerschmitt M20, was a near-catastrophe for the designer and the company. Many of the crashed, one of them killing Hans Hackmack, a close friend of Erhard Milch, the head of Deutsche Luft Hansa. Milch was upset by the lack of response from Messerschmitt and this led to a hatred towards him
7.
Willy Messerschmitt
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Wilhelm Emil Willy Messerschmitt was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer. He was born in Frankfurt am Main, the son of Baptist Ferdinand Messerschmitt and his second wife, probably Messerschmitts single most important design was the Messerschmitt Bf 109, designed in 1934 with the collaboration of Walter Rethel. The Bf 109 became the most important fighter in the Luftwaffe as Germany rearmed prior to World War II. To this day, it one of the most-produced warplanes in history, with some 34,000 built. His firm also produced the first jet-powered fighter to enter service — the Messerschmitt Me 262, as a young man, Messerschmitt befriended German sailplane pioneer Friedrich Harth. Harth joined the German army in 1914 and while he was away at war, Messerschmitt continued work on one of Harths designs, in 1917, Messerschmitt himself signed up for military service. Following the war, the two were reunited and continued to work together while Messerschmitt commenced study at the Munich Technical College, the S8 glider they designed and built together in 1921 broke a world duration record and they went into partnership for a while running a flying school. The same year, the first plane designed by Messerschmitt flew — the S9 glider. During 1923 Harth and Messerschmitt had an out and went their separate ways. At first, Messerschmitt built sailplanes, but within two years had progressed via motor gliders to small powered aircraft - sports and touring types. These culminated in the Messerschmitt M17 and Messerschmitt M18 designs, which Messerschmitt sold to BFW in 1927 and these were followed by the Messerschmitt M20 light transport in 1928, which proved a disaster for BFW and Messerschmitt himself. Two Deutsche Luft Hansa M20s were involved in serious crashes very soon after purchase, and this caused a serious cashflow problem for the company and led to its bankruptcy in 1931. The M20 crashes also created a powerful enemy for Messerschmitt in the person of Erhard Milch, nevertheless, only the ties that Messerschmitt had formed with leading Nazis Rudolf Hess and Hermann Göring saved him from sharing the fate of Milchs other great enemy, Hugo Junkers. When Milch learned of this, he publicly denounced Messerschmitt as a traitor, probably due to Croneiss intervention, no further action was taken. The establishment of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium by the Nazi government in 1933, headed by Milch, led to a resurgence in the German aircraft industry, the following year, Messerschmitt would incorporate many advanced design features of this aircraft into the Bf 109 fighter. On 11 July 1938, Messerschmitt was appointed chairman and managing director of Bayerische Flugzeugwerke and this same year, the company began work on what would eventually become the Me 262, and of the Messerschmitt Me 210, planned as successor for the Bf 110. Following World War II, Messerschmitt was tried by a court for using slave labor. After two years in prison, he was released and resumed his position as head of his company and he designed the later Helwan HA-300, a light supersonic interceptor, for the Egyptian air forces
8.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate
9.
Hungarian Air Force
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The Hungarian Air Force is the air force branch of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The task of the current Hungarian Air Force is primarily defensive purposes, the flying units of the air force are organised into a single command, under the Air Command and Control Centre There are 3 Air Force bases in Hungary. Transport Helicopter Battalion Attack Helicopter Battalion Mixed Training Squadron 12th Air Defense Missile Regiment Pápa AFB The 59th Tactical Fighter Wing is the part of the Air Force. The 59th consists of 2 Fighter plane Squadrons and 1 Transport Squadron, There are one Fighter Squadron in the 59th Wing, the Puma squadron. The Hungarian Air Force is leasing-buying 14 JAS39 Gripens,2 of which are dual-seaters, by December 2007 all the 14 jets had been delivered. On May 19,2015 one two-seater Saab JAS39D Gripen crashed at the end of the runway at the Čáslav AFB, the pilots ejected safely, but the aircraft, nr.42 with callsign PUMA66 was written off, damaged beyond repair. After the lease expires, Hungary will own the remaining Gripens. This is the squadron of the 59th Wing. The An-26s are due to be replaced by new transport planes after 2016, the 86th Wing is the helicopter regiment of the Hungarian Air Force. The 86th consists of one Transport and one Attack battalion and this is the transport helicopter battalion of the 86th Wing. They operate, Mi-8T Mi-17N This is the attack helicopter battalion of the 86th Wing and this unit has recently been disbanded and a new regiment, in combination with the transport helicopters, will be formed. They operated, Mi-24D/V/P This is the squadron of the Air Force. This squadron is based at Szolnok AFB again. They operate, Yak-52 The 12th Air Defense Missile Brigade is in charge of providing air defense to parts of Hungary, mistral missiles, a French-made lightweight SAM system with dual launchers and radar sets mounted on Unimog all-terrain vehicles. All-altitude surveillance radar, modernized with domestically developed digital electronics suite and this table may include some aircraft that have been placed in reserve, or stored. The Hungarian aircraft marking is a set of aligned triangles which points toward the front of the aircraft and they are the same colour as the Hungarian flag, red, white, and green. The innermost triangle is green, follow by white, and then red and it is displayed on the side of helicopters and in the standard four wing positions on aircraft. It was used by the Royal Hungarian Air Force until 1942, the new Gripen fighters will wear a NATO standard compliant grey-on-grey version of the Hungarian triangle insignia
10.
Regia Aeronautica
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The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as an independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished and the Kingdom of Italy became the Italian Republic, during World War I, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare, then still part of the Regio Esercito, operated a mix of French fighters and locally-built bombers, notably the gigantic Caproni aircraft. The Regia Marina had its own air arm, operating locally-built flying boats, the Italian air force became an independent service—the Regia Aeronautica—on March 28,1923. This pioneering achievement was organized and led by General of Aviation Italo Balbo, during the latter half of the 1930s, the Regia Aeronautica participated in the Spanish Civil War, as well as the invasions of Ethiopia and Albania. The first test for the new Italian Royal Air force came in October 1935, during the final stages of the war, Regia Aeronautica deployed up to 386 aircraft, operating from Eritrea and Somalia. The Italian aviators did not have any opposition in the air, as the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force had just 15 transport and liaison aircraft, only nine of which were serviceable. However the Regia Aeronautica lost 72 planes and 122 aircrew members while supporting the operations of the Regio Esercito, and after the end of hostilities, on 5 May 1936, for the following 13 months the Regia Aeronautica had to assist Italian forces in fighting Ethiopian guerrillas. During the Spanish Civil War Italian pilots fought alongside Spanish Nationalist and this deployment took place from July 1936 to March 1939 and complimented an expeditionary force of Italian ground troops titled Corps of Volunteer Troops. In Spain, the Italian pilots were under command of the Spanish Nationalists and took part in training. The Aviazione legionaria achieved approximately 500 air victories, losing 86 aircraft in air combat, the Regia Aeronautica played a limited role during the Italian invasion of Albania. When World War II began in 1939, Italy had the smallest air force among the three major Axis powers, with a paper strength of 3,296 machines, only 2,000 were fit for operations, of which just 166 were modern fighters. The Macchi MC.200 and Fiat G.50 were the best available but were slower than potential Allied fighters. While numerically still a force to be reckoned with, it was hampered by the aircraft industry which was using obsolete production methods. Technical assistance provided by its German ally did little to improve the situation, on 10 June 1940, during the closing days of the Battle of France, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom. On 13 June, Fiat CR. 42s attacked French air bases, two days later, CR. 42s from 3° Stormo and 53° Stormo attacked again French Air Force bases and clashed with Dewoitine D. 520s and Bloch MB. 152s, claiming eight kills for five losses. The Regia Aeronautica carried out 716 bombing missions in support of the Italian invasion of France by the Regio Esercito, Italian aircraft dropped a total of 276 tons of bombs. Only about 80 long tons of bombs were dropped on the targets, during this short war, Regia Aeronautica lost 10 aircraft in aerial combat and 24 aircrew personnel, while claiming 10 kills and 40 French planes destroyed on the ground
11.
Romanian Air Force
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The Romanian Air Force is the air force branch of the Romanian Armed Forces. It has an air force headquarters, a command, four air bases. Reserve forces include two air bases and three airfields, in 2010, the Romanian Air Force employed 9,700 personnel. The Romanian Air Force modernized 110 MiG21 LanceRs, in cooperation with Israel between 1993 and 2002, today,48 of these MiG21 LanceRs are operational. The Romanian Air Force also operates C-130 Hercules, C-27J Spartan, An-26s transport planes, IAR-330 PUMA SOCAT helicopters have been modernized by the Romanian Aviation Industry in cooperation with Elbit Systems for attack missions. The Romanian Air Force also includes locally built IAR-99 Şoim jet planes, the remaining MiG-29s have been removed from service in 2003. Due to the old age of the MiGs, the Romanian Air Force is in the process of procurement of new fighters or possibly used fighters from partner states, Romania has signed a contract in 2013 with Portugal for 12 F-16 A/B Block 15 MLU fighters. The first six fighters have entered service with the Romanian Air Force in October 2016 while another three have been delivered in December, the last three will enter service during 2017. Beside the 12 F-16s bought from Portugal, Romanian authorities intend to buy at least another 24 F-16s, possibly newer Block 50 ones, in the spring of 2009, the Romanian government decided to purchase VSHORAD/SHORAD systems from France. The deal included Mistral MANPADS and MICA VL surface-to-air missiles, however, after preliminary talks with MBDA in August, the deal was put on hold and canceled afterwards because of the defense cuts. In February 2010, the Supreme Council of National Defense signed an agreement with the United States for missile defense under whose terms land-based SM-3 systems would be installed in Romania. On 3 May 2011, the president of Romania Traian Băsescu announced the location for the SM-3 systems, the system includes 3 batteries with 24 SM-3 Block I rockets, manned by approximately 200 US soldiers under Romanian Air Force overall command. The Deveselu Aegis Ashore site has been declared operational on the 13th of May 2016, the current chief of the Romanian Air Force Staff, succeeding Major General Fănică Cârnu on 19 December 2013, is Major General Laurian Anastasof. In 1818, during the reign of John Caradja, the prince of Wallachia, an unmanned hot air balloon was flown off Dealul Spirii in Bucharest. On July 7,1874, Colonel Nicolae Haralambie with Ion Ghica and a third person flew over Bucharest in a balloon named Mihai Bravul. On November 20,1909 the Chitila Piloting School was formed as a joint venture by Mihail Cerchez, the school, conducted by French flight instructors, had five hangars, bleachers for spectators and shops where the Farman planes imported from France were assembled. Guillemin was succeeded by Michel Molla who made the first flight across Bucharest on September 7,1910, Molla was succeeded by two others before the school closed in late 1912 due to financial difficulties, having trained six officers, but only licensed two. In November 1909, the Romanian Minister of War commissioned Aurel Vlaicu to build the A. Vlaicu I airplane at the Bucharest Army Arsenal which first flew on June 17,1910, along with other Romanian pilots, Vlaicu flew reconnaissance missions during the Second Balkan War
12.
Messerschmitt Bf 109
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The Messerschmitt Bf 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft that was the backbone of the Luftwaffes fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw service during the Spanish Civil War and was still in service at the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II. It was one of the most advanced fighters of the era, including such features as all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy and it was powered by a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine. From the end of 1941, the Bf 109 was steadily being supplemented by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and it was commonly called the Me 109 most often by Allied aircrew and even among the German aces themselves even though this was not the official German designation. The designation Messerschmitt Bf 109 was issued by the Ministry of Aviation and it was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser, who worked at Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, during the early to mid-1930s. It was supplied to and operated by several states during World War II, the Bf 109 is the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 airframes produced from 1936 up to April 1945. The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring German fighter aces of World War II, who claimed 928 victories among them while flying with Jagdgeschwader 52, mainly on the Eastern Front. The highest scoring ace of all time, Erich Hartmann. The aircraft was flown by Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign who achieved 158 aerial victories. Through constant development, the Bf 109 remained competitive with the latest Allied fighter aircraft until the end of the war, during 1933, the Technisches Amt, the technical department of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, concluded a series of research projects into the future of air combat. In late March 1933 the RLM published the tactical requirements for a fighter in the document L. A. 1432/33. The fighter needed to have a top speed of 400 km/h at 6,000 m, to be maintained for 20 minutes, while having a total flight duration of 90 minutes. The critical altitude of 6,000 metres was to be reached in no more than 17 minutes, power was to be provided by the new Junkers Jumo 210 engine of about 522 kW. The MG C/30 was an adaption of the 2 cm FlaK30 anti-aircraft gun, which fired very powerful Long Solothurn ammunition. It was also specified that the wing loading should be kept below 100 kg/m2, the performance was to be evaluated based on the fighters level speed, rate of climb, and manoeuvrability, in that order. A. 1432/33 requirements at the time in February 1934. A fourth company, Focke-Wulf, received a copy of the development contract only in September 1934, the powerplant was to be the new Junkers Jumo 210, but the proviso was made that it would be interchangeable with the more powerful, but less developed Daimler-Benz DB600 powerplant. Each was asked to deliver three prototypes for testing in late 1934
13.
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
14.
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
15.
MG FF cannon
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The MG FF was a drum-fed,20 mm aircraft autocannon, developed in 1936 by Ikaria Werke Berlin of Germany. On the other hand, it was lighter and shorter. An ammunition drum of 90-round nominal capacity was developed for the Fw 190 A-5, there were also experiments with belt feedings. The MG FF was adapted to fire a new type of high-capacity, high-explosive mine shell and this projectile was lighter and generated less recoil than earlier projectiles requiring a modification of the recoil mechanism. With this modification it could fire the new shell. The now-called MG FF/M was introduced with the Bf 109 E-4, the MG FF and FF/M saw widespread use in fighters such as the Bf 109 E-3 to F-1, Bf 110 C to F, and Fw 190 A-1 to A-5. The Fw 190 was typically fitted with a pair of MG151. The cannon was fitted to bombers such as the Do 217, Ju 88, He 111, Do 17. The MG FF fired a 134 g projectile with a velocity of some 600 m/s. The MG FF/M fired a 90 g HE/M projectile with a velocity of c.700 m/s. AP, HE and incendiary projectiles were also available because the mine-shot was not capable of holding incendiary or tracer parts, williams Cannon, Machine Guns and Ammunition Emmanuel Gustins WWII fighter gun performance tables
16.
MG 15
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The MG15 was a German 7.92 mm machine gun designed specifically as a hand manipulated defensive gun for combat aircraft during the early 1930s. By 1941 it was replaced by types and found new uses with ground troops. The MG15 was developed from the MG30 which was designed by Rheinmetall using the system invented by Louis Stange in the mid to late 1920s. Though it shares the MG15 designation with the earlier gun built by Bergmann, the World War I gun used a tipping lock system while the WWII aircraft gun uses a rotating bolt/lockring. The World War II MG15 was used in nearly all Luftwaffe aircraft with a flexible-mount defensive position and it was a modular design with various attachments that could be quickly attached or removed. Operation was easy and the bolt remained in the position after expending the 75 round double drum magazine. Pulling the trigger releases the bolt and allows it to go forward, the bolt continues pushing the round into the chamber and locks up when the lockring rotates and locks the bolt and barrel extension together. At this point the lever releases the firing pin and the gun fires. Recoil pushes the barrel, lock and bolt backwards until the lockring hits a cam that rotates it unlocking the bolt, inertia carries the bolt backwards until the base of the fired case hits the ejector flinging the empty out of the receiver. If the trigger is held down the cycle will continue, if the trigger is released the bolt will remain in the rearward position. The 75 rounds of ammunition was distributed in each side of the magazine with a central feed tower where the ammunition is fed to the bolt. Various methods where used to secure the magazines in the aircraft, ammunition was fed by a spring forced spiral double-drum containing 75 rounds total. This combined with a rate of 1000+ rpm means it could empty the magazine in 4.5 seconds or less. Typical practice was to provide at least 10 reloads for each gun on the aircraft, starting in late 1940 the MG15 was replaced by the Mauser 7.92 mm MG81, MG 81Z, MG13113 mm machine guns, or MG 151/2020 mm cannons. Many MG 15s were modified for use as heavier weapons replaced them on Luftwaffe aircraft. There are a number of showing the guns, both aircraft and ground versions, with 25-round magazines from the MG13 but the magazines dont actually work with the MG15. Official numbers of conversions was about 17,648 by January 1,1944, the license-produced MG15 was used in the Japanese aircraft as the Type 98 flexible-mounted machine gun and as the Type 1 in the Imperial Japanese Navy. 15, Manual for using MG15 owned by contributor Panzerfaust WW II German Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons Page 5, MG15 in private collection, forum site Imperial Japanese Weapons
17.
MG 81 machine gun
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The MG81 was a German belt fed 7.92 mm machine gun, used in flexible installations in World War II Luftwaffe aircraft, replacing the older drum magazine-fed MG15. The MG81 was developed by Mauser as a derivative of their successful MG34 infantry machine gun, development focus was to reduce production cost and time and to optimize for use in aircraft. Developed in 1938/1939, it was in production from 1940 to 1945, a special twin-mount MG 81Z was introduced in 1942. It paired up two of the weapons on one mount to provide more firepower with a maximum rate of fire of 3200 rounds/minute without requiring much more space than a standard machine gun. The MG 81Z was found in many installations in Luftwaffe combat aircraft. Designated R19 as a factory designed field conversion/upgrade kit, it allowed the pilot of the Do 217 to shoot at pursuers, another application was the Gießkanne, an externally mounted pod with three gun pairs, making a total of six guns and their ammunition. Able to fire 9000 rounds per minute, this was attached to Junkers Ju 87 or Ju 88 in an underwing mount and used to strafe ground targets. MG81 Weight,6.5 kg Length,915 mm Muzzle velocity,705 m/s,760 m/s,785 m/s or 790 m/s, depending on ammo type Rate of fire, 1400–1600 rpm MG 81Z Weight,12. ru Luftwaffe39-45
18.
Messerschmitt Me 210
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The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft of World War II. The Me 210 was designed to replace the Bf 110, design started before the opening of World War II, the first examples of the Me 210 were ready in 1939, but they proved to have unacceptably poor flight characteristics from serious wing planform and fuselage design flaws. A large-scale operational testing program throughout 1941 and early 1942 did not cure the aircrafts problems, the design entered limited service in 1943, but was almost immediately replaced by the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse. The Me 410 was a development of the Me 210. The failure of the Me 210s development program meant that the Luftwaffe was forced to continue fielding the outdated Bf 110, Messerschmitt designers had started working on an upgrade of the Bf 110 in 1937, before the production version of the Bf 110 had even flown. In late 1938, the Bf 110 was just entering service, Messerschmitt sent in their modified Bf 110 design as the Me 210, and Arado responded with their all-new Ar 240. The Me 210 was a departure from the 110. On paper, the Me 210s performance was impressive and it could reach 620 km/h on two 1,350 PS Daimler-Benz DB 601F engines, making it about 80 km/h faster than the Bf 110, and nearly as fast as single-engine fighters of the era. Unlike the Ju 88, however, the Me 210s main gear wheels were inboard of the main gear struts when fully extended, the Me 210 could carry up to two 500 kg bombs. The Me 210 had dive brakes fitted on the tops of the wings, in the fighter role, the bomb bay was fitted with four 20 mm cannons. For defence, the Me 210s rear gunner was armed with two 13 mm MG131 machine guns, the rear of the cockpit canopys lower side glazing panels were bulged out to allow the gunner to see in almost any rearward-facing direction. An order for 1,000 Me 210s was placed before the prototype had flown, in time, this would prove to be a major error. The first prototype flew with DB 601B engines in September 1939, stability was bad in turns, and it tended to oscillate even while flying level. At first, the designers concentrated on the arrangement that had been taken from the 110. This had almost no effect, and the continued to snake. The Me 210 also suffered from terrible stalls, with the nose up or in a turn, the stalls whipped into spins when the automatic leading-edge slats opened. The second prototype, Me 210 V2, was lost this way in September 1940, the chief test pilot commented that the Me 210 had all the least desirable attributes an aeroplane could possess. It took 16 prototypes and 94 pre-production examples to try to resolve the many problems, nevertheless, the RLM was desperate to replace the Bf 110s currently in service, and ordered full production in early 1941
19.
Messerschmitt Me 410
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The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse was a German heavy fighter and Schnellbomber used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Though essentially a modification of the Me 210, it was designated the Me 410 to avoid association with its notoriously flawed predecessor. Development of the Me 210 had been under way since 1939, modifications to the layout produced the Me 210C and 210D, which proved somewhat superior. The engine performance increased the Me 410s maximum speed to 625 km/h, greatly improved rate of climb, service ceiling, and most notably the cruising speed, which jumped to 579 km/h. It also improved payload capability to the point where the aircraft could lift more war load than could fit into the bay under the nose. To address this, shackles were added under the wings for four 50 kg bombs, the changes added an extra 680 kg to the Me 210 design, but the extra engine power more than made up for the difference. The new version included a fuselage and new, automatic leading edge slats. The slats had originally featured on the earliest Me 210 models. However, when the problems with the general lateral instability were addressed and this resulted in unreasonable handling characteristics in flight for the original Me 210 design. 5° sweepback angles, which improved handling. Deliveries began in January 1943, two late and continued until September 1944, by which point a total of 1,160 of all versions had been produced by Messerschmitt Augsburg. When it arrived, it was liked by its crews, even though its performance was not enough to protect it from the swarms of high performance Allied fighters they faced at this stage of the war. The Me 410 night bomber proved to be a target for the RAF night fighters. The first unit to operate over the UK was V. /KG2, which lost its first Me 410 on the night of 13–14 July 1943, when it was shot down by a de Havilland Mosquito of No.85 Squadron RAF. For breaking up the formations, many Me 410s also had four underwing tubular launchers. Two Geschwader, Zerstörergeschwader 26 and 76, were equipped with the Me 410 by late 1943. They were moderately successful against unescorted bombers through 1943, with a number of kills against USAAF day bomber formations being achieved. However, the Me 410 was no match in a dogfight with the lighter Allied single-engine fighters such as the North American P-51 Mustang and Supermarine Spitfire. The following month on 11 April, with 8th AF raids hitting Sorau, Rostock and Oschersleben, II. /ZG 26s Me 410s accounted for a clear success
20.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
21.
Norwegian Campaign
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The Norwegian Campaign was fought in Norway between Norway, the Allies and Germany in World War II after the latters invasion of the country. In April, the United Kingdom and France came to Norways aid with an expeditionary force, despite moderate success in the northern parts of Norway, Germanys invasion of France in May eventually compelled the Allies to withdraw and the Norwegian government to seek exile in London. The campaign ended with the occupation of Norway by Germany, the 62 days of fighting made Norway the nation that withstood a German invasion for the second longest period of time, after the Soviet Union. Britain and France had signed military assistance treaties with Poland and two days after the German invasion, both declared war on Nazi Germany. However, neither country mounted significant offensive operations and for several months no major engagements occurred in what known as the Phoney War or Twilight War. Winston Churchill in particular wished to move the war into an active phase. During this time both sides wished to open secondary fronts, for the Allies, in particular the French, this was based on a desire to avoid repeating the trench warfare of the First World War, which had occurred along the Franco-German border. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the Norwegian government had mobilized parts of the Norwegian Army and all, the Norwegian Army Air Service and the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service were also called up to protect Norwegian neutrality from violations by the warring countries. The first such violations were the sinkings in Norwegian territorial waters of several British ships by German U-boats, in the following months aircraft from all the belligerents violated Norwegian neutrality. Following protracted negotiations between 25 September and 20 November 1939, the Norwegians agreed to charter 150 tankers, as well as other ships with a tonnage of 450,000 gross tons. The Norwegian governments concern for the supply lines played an important role in persuading them to accept the agreement. Norway, although neutral, was considered important for both sides of the war for two main reasons. Narvik became of greater significance to the British when it became apparent that Operation Catherine, the Norwegian ports could have also served as holes in the blockade of Germany, allowing the latter access to the Atlantic Ocean. The principal reason for Germanys invasion of Norway was its dependence on Swedish iron ore, by securing access to Norwegian ports, the Germans could more easily obtain the supply of iron ore they needed for their war effort. Control of Norway was considered to be important to Germanys ability to use its sea power effectively against the Allies. While Norway was strictly neutral, and unoccupied by either of the fighting powers, but the weakness of the Norwegian coastal defences, and the inability of her field army to resist effectively a determined invasion by a stronger power were clear. A successful invasion of Norway by either side had the potential to strike a blow against the other without getting bogged down in the trench warfare of the previous conflict. Norway had particular importance to the Germans during the Battle of the Atlantic
22.
Battle of France
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The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France, the German plan for the invasion of France consisted of two main operations. After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces began Fall Rot on 5 June, the sixty remaining French divisions made a determined resistance but were unable to overcome the German air superiority and armoured mobility. German tanks outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, German forces occupied Paris unopposed on 14 June after a chaotic period of flight of the French government that led to a collapse of the French army. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept an armistice that amounted to surrender and this led to the end of the French Third Republic. France was not liberated until the summer of 1944, in 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion. In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began, France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was met without reply. Following this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, on 7 September, in accordance with their alliance with Poland, France began the Saar Offensive with an advance from the Maginot Line 5 km into the Saar. France had mobilised 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against a German force consisting of 43 divisions, the French advanced until they met the then thin and undermanned Siegfried Line. On 17 September, the French supreme commander, Maurice Gamelin gave the order to withdraw French troops to their starting positions, following the Saar Offensive, a period of inaction called the Phoney War set in between the belligerents. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in the conquest of Poland, on 6 October, he made a peace offer to both Western powers. On 9 October, Hitler issued a new Führer-Directive Number 6, the plan was based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that German military strength would have to be built up for several years. For the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged and were aimed at improving Germanys ability to survive a long war in the west. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice to forestall the French and it would also provide the basis for a long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. On 10 October 1939, Britain refused Hitlers offer of peace and on 12 October, colonel-General Franz Halder, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb on 19 October. This was the codename of plans for a campaign in the Low Countries. Halders plan has been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, the given to the German strategy of 1914 in the First World War. It was similar in both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium
23.
Bomber
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A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry, firing torpedoes or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop bombs on Turkish positions, captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber, the first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T. B.8, both of 1913. The Bristol T. B.8 was an early British single engined biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, under the command of Charles Rumney Samson, a bombing attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke, Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century, early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war, Zeppelins, a larger and these were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and the German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships, the Caproni Ca 30 was built by Gianni Caproni in Italy. It was a biplane with three 67 kW Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October 1914. Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, the improved design was bought by the Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August 1915. Bombing raids and interdiction operations were carried out by French. Sustained attacks with a view to interrupting the enemys railway communications, in conjunction with the main operations of the Allied Armies. The most important bombers used in World War I were the French Breguet 14, British de Havilland DH-4, German Albatros C. III, the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, was the first four-engine bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit during World War I. This heavy bomber was unrivaled in the stages of the war. With engine power as a limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors. By the start of the war included, dive bomber — specially strengthened for vertical diving attacks for greater accuracy. Light bomber, medium bomber and heavy bomber — subjective definitions based on size, torpedo bomber — specialized aircraft armed with torpedoes. Ground attack aircraft — aircraft used against targets on a such as troop or tank concentrations
24.
Battle of Britain
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The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks from the end of June 1940. It is described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces, the primary objective of the Nazi German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal shipping convoys, ports and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth. On 16 July Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as an amphibious and airborne assault on Britain. Nazi Germany was unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. Its first Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard was among the military strategists in the 1920s like Giulio Douhet who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare, interception was near impossible with fighter planes no faster than bombers. Their view was that the bomber will always get through, Germany was forbidden military air forces by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but developed aircrew training in civilian and sport flying. In 1926 the secret Lipetsk fighter-pilot school began operating, a winter 1933–34 war game indicated a need for fighters and anti-aircraft protection as well as bombers. On 1 March 1935 the Luftwaffe was formally announced, with Walther Wever as Chief of Staff, the list excluded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale, as that was considered a waste of strategic effort, but the doctrine allowed revenge attacks if German civilians were bombed. A revised edition was issued in 1940, and the central principle of Luftwaffe doctrine was that destruction of enemy armed forces was of primary importance. In the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe in the Condor Legion tried out air fighting tactics, wolfram von Richthofen become an exponent of air power providing ground support to other services. The difficulty of hitting targets prompted Ernst Udet to require that all new bombers had to be dive bombers. Priority was given to producing large numbers of aeroplanes. The speed with which German forces defeated most of the armies in Norway in early 1940 created a significant political crisis in Britain. In early May 1940, the Norway Debate questioned the fitness for office of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on 10 May, the same day Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, the Germans initiated the Battle of France with an aggressive invasion of French territory. The Germans were so convinced of an imminent armistice that they began constructing street decorations for the parades of victorious troops. Instead, Churchill used his skilful rhetoric to harden public opinion against capitulation, the Battle of Britain has the unusual distinction that it gained its name before being fought. In secret conference on 23 May 1939 Hitler set out his rather contradictory strategy that an attack on Poland was essential, if this is impossible, then it will be better to attack in the West and to settle Poland at the same time with a surprise attack
25.
Air superiority fighter
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Air superiority fighters are designed primarily to effectively engage enemy fighters, more than other types of aircraft, although some may have a secondary role for air-to-ground strikes. They are usually expensive and procured in smaller numbers, compared to multirole fighters which are designed with a balance between air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. In order to maximize their effectiveness and strategic usefulness, air superiority fighters usually operate under the control/co-ordination of an airborne early warning. During World War II and through the Korean War, fighters were classified by their role, heavy fighter, interceptor, escort fighter, night fighter, and so forth. These aircraft would sacrifice high maneuverability, and instead focus on remaining performance characteristics, combat experiences during the Vietnam War proved BVR proponents wrong. Owing to restrictive rules of engagement and the failings of 1960s missile and radar technology, the two designs were built to achieve air superiority and significant consideration was given during the development of both aircraft to allow them to excel at the shorter ranges of fighter combat. Both aircraft also serve as interceptors due to their maximum speed. By contrast, the Soviets developed and continue to operate types of air superiority. For the US Navy, the F-14 Tomcat was initially deployed solely as an air superiority fighter, by contrast, the multirole F/A-18 Hornet was designed as strike fighter while having only enough of an edge to defend itself against enemy fighters if needed. In the 1990s, the US Navy added LANTIRN pods to its F-14s, the F-15 Eagle was envisioned originally as an air superiority fighter and interceptor under the mantra not a pound for air-to-ground. However, the F-15C can carry dumb and GPS guided bombs, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was originally designed as an air superiority fighter but has evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. The Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale are classified as multirole fighters, the Rafale is regarded as a more balanced design which sacrifices air-to-air ability for being able to carry more ordinance. Interceptor aircraft Fighter aircraft Glossary of Nato Definitions Rand, Revival of the Air-Superiority Fighter
26.
United States Army Air Forces
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Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Army Chief of Staff. S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel, the peak size of the AAF during the Second World War was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943. By V-E Day, the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas, in its expansion and conduct of the war, the AAF became more than just an arm of the greater organization. By the end of World War II, the Army Air Forces had become virtually an independent service and this contrast between theory and fact is. fundamental to an understanding of the AAF. Gen. Billy Mitchell that led to his later court-martial, a strategy stressing precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed, long-range bombers emerged, formulated by the men who would become its leaders. Since 1920, control of units had resided with commanders of the corps areas. Both were created in 1933 when a conflict with Cuba seemed possible following a coup détat. Activation of GHQ Air Force represented a compromise between strategic airpower advocates and ground force commanders who demanded that the Air Corps mission remain tied to that of the land forces. GHQ Air Force organized combat groups administratively into a force of three wings deployed to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts but was small in comparison to European air forces. Corps area commanders continued to control over airfields and administration of personnel. The expected activation of Army General Headquarters prompted Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to request a study from Chief of the Air Corps Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold resulting on 5 October 1940 in a proposal for creation of an air staff, unification of the air arm under one commander, and equality with the ground and supply forces. Marshall implemented a compromise that the Air Corps found entirely inadequate, naming Arnold as acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air but rejecting all organizational points of his proposal. GHQ Air Force instead was assigned to the control of Army General Headquarters, although the latter was a training and not an operational component, when it was activated in November 1940. A division of the GHQ Air Force into four air defense districts on 19 October 1940 was concurrent with the creation of air forces to defend Hawaii. The air districts were converted in March 1941 into numbered air forces with an organization of 54 groups. Marshall had come to the view that the air forces needed a simpler system, Arnold and Marshall agreed that the AAF would enjoy a general autonomy within the War Department until the end of the war, while its commanders would cease lobbying for independence. Marshall, a proponent of airpower, left understood that the Air Force would likely achieve its independence following the war
27.
Eighth Air Force
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The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command. It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, the command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command. The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of Americas heavy bomber force, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and it was the largest of the deployed combat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and equipment. Elements of 8 AF engaged in operations during the Korean War, Vietnam War. Eighth Air Force is one of two active duty numbered air forces in Air Force Global Strike Command, Eighth Air Force, with headquarters at Barksdale AFB, in the Bossier City – Shreveport, Louisiana, metro area, supports U. S. Joint Forces Command, and is designated as U. S. Strategic Commands Task Force 204, providing on-alert, the mission of The Mighty Eighth is to safeguard Americas interests through strategic deterrence and global combat power. Eighth Air Force controls long-range nuclear-capable bomber assets throughout the United States and its flexible, conventional and nuclear deterrence mission provides the capability to deploy forces and engage enemy threats from home station or forward positioned, anywhere, any time. The 8th Air Force motto is Peace Through Strength and this air power includes the heart of Americas heavy bomber force, the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress. The B-2 force consists of 20 bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, for additional history and lineage, see United States Air Forces in Europe The history of Eighth Air Force begins on 2 January 1942 with its activation at Savannah Air Base, Georgia. In quick order, on 5 January, Major General Carl Spaatz assumed command of HQ Eighth Air Force at Bolling Field, Washington, on 8 January the order activating the U. S. Air Forces in the British Isles was announced. On 12 May, the first contingent of USAAF personnel arrived in England to join the Eighth Air Force, on 15 June, Spaatz arrived in England to establish the Headquarters of Eighth Air Force at Bushy Park,15 miles WSW of London. Eighth Air Force was the command and control organization over its operational components, VIII Bomber Command Strategic bombardment using heavy, VIII Fighter Command Provide fighter escort of heavy bombers VIII Air Support Command Provide reconnaissance, troop transport, and tactical bombardment using twin-engine medium bombers. VIII Air Service Command Service and logistical support, VIII Bomber Command was activated at Langley Field, Virginia, It was reassigned to Savannah Air Base, Georgia on 10 February 1942. The first combat group of VIII Bomber Command to arrive in the United Kingdom was the ground echelon of the 97th Bombardment Group, during World War II, the offensive air forces of the United States Army Air Forces came to be classified as strategic or tactical. In Europe, Eighth Air Force was the first USAAF strategic air force, Eighth Air Force carried out strategic daytime strategic bombing operations in Western Europe from airfields in eastern England. On 4 January 1944, the B-24s and B-17s based in England flew their last mission as a part of VIII Bomber Command. On 22 February 1944, a reorganization of American airpower took place in Europe. VIII Bomber Command was redesignated as Eighth Air Force, with VIII Fighter and this is from where the present-day Eighth Air Forces history, lineage and honors derive
28.
Jimmy Doolittle
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James Harold Jimmy Doolittle was an American aviation pioneer. He was eventually promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, Doolittle was born in Alameda, California, and spent his youth in Nome, Alaska, where he earned a reputation as a boxer. His parents were Frank Henry Doolittle and Rosa Cerenah Shephard, by 1910, Jimmy Doolittle was attending school in Los Angeles. When his school attended the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field Doolittle saw his first airplane and he was a member of Theta Kappa Nu fraternity, which would merge into Lambda Chi Alpha during the latter stages of the Great Depression. Doolittle received his Reserve Military Aviator rating and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the U. S. Army on March 11,1918, Doolittles service at Rockwell Field consisted of duty as a flight leader and gunnery instructor. At Kelly Field, he served with the 104th Aero Squadron and his detachment of the 90th Aero Squadron was based at Eagle Pass, patrolling the Mexican border. On May 10,1921, he was engineering officer and pilot for an expedition recovering a plane that had force-landed in a Mexican canyon on February 10 during a flight attempt by Lieut. Doolittle reached the plane on May 3 and found it serviceable, then returned May 8 with a replacement motor, the oil pressure of the new motor was inadequate and Doolittle requested two pressure gauges, using carrier pigeons to communicate. The additional parts were dropped by air and installed, and Doolittle flew the plane to Del Rio, Texas himself, subsequently, he attended the Air Service Mechanical School at Kelly Field and the Aeronautical Engineering Course at McCook Field, Ohio. Having at last returned to complete his degree, he earned the Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922. Doolittle was one of the most famous pilots during the inter-war period, the U. S. Army awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross. Within days after the flight, he was at the Air Service Engineering School at McCook Field, Dayton. For Doolittle, the assignment had special significance, In the early 20s. So some of us who had previous engineering training were sent to the school at old McCook Field. After a years training there in practical aeronautical engineering, some of us were sent on to MIT where we took advanced degrees in aeronautical engineering, I believe that the purpose was served, that there was thereafter a better understanding between pilots and engineers. In July 1923, after serving as a test pilot and aeronautical engineer at McCook Field, in March 1924, he conducted aircraft acceleration tests at McCook Field, which became the basis of his masters thesis and led to his second Distinguished Flying Cross. He received his M. S. in Aeronautics from MIT in June 1924. Because the Army had given him two years to get his degree and he had done it in just one, he started working on his Sc. D. in Aeronautics
29.
Air supremacy
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Air supremacy is a position in war where a side holds complete control of air warfare and air power over opposing forces. It is defined by NATO and the United States Department of Defense as the degree of air superiority wherein the opposing air force is incapable of effective interference. There are three levels of control of the air, Air supremacy is the highest level, where a side holds complete control of the skies, Air superiority is the second level, where a side is in a more favorable position than the opponent. It is defined in the NATO glossary as the degree of dominance in air battle and that permits the conduct of operations by and its related land, sea and air forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by opposing air forces. Air parity is the lowest level of control, where a side only holds control of skies above friendly troop positions, the degree of a forces air control is a zero-sum game with its opponents, increasing control by one corresponds to decreasing control by the other. Air power has become a powerful element of military campaigns. Air supremacy allows increased bombing efforts, tactical air support for forces, paratroop assaults, airdrops and simple cargo plane transfers. Air power is a function of the degree of air superiority and numbers or types of aircraft, during the First World War, air superiority on the Western Front changed hands between the Germans and the Allies several times. Periods of German air superiority included the Fokker Scourge of late 1915 to early 1916, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare established air superiority over the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The defeat suffered by Austria-Hungary in the battle caused the dissolution of the empire, in 1921, Italian aerial warfare theorist Giulio Douhet published The Command of the Air, a book positing that future wars would be decided in the skies. At the time, mainstream military theory did not see air power as a war-winning tactic, Douhets idea that air power could be a decisive force and be used to avoid the long and costly War of Attrition was influential although later events proved him wrong in many details. That would terrorize citizens into pressuring their government into immediate surrender, at the beginning of World War II, Douhets ideas were dismissed by some, but it became apparent that his theories on the importance of aircraft were supported by events as the war continued. In 1925, the Royal Air Force tested the ability of air supremacy in isolation from other warfare forms during their first independent action in Waziristan, American general Billy Mitchell was another influential air power theorist of the inter-war period. After World War I, then-Assistant Chief of Air Service in the United States Army Air Service, the first of these was Project B in 1921, in which the captured German World War I battleship, SMS Ostfriesland, was sunk by a flight of bombers in 22 minutes. He would also go on to air power advocates such as Russian-American Alexander P. Roosevelt in support of long-range bombing. At the beginning of World War II, the sides took different views on the importance of air power. Adolf Hitler saw it as a tool to support the German Army. The Allies saw it, specifically long-range strategic bombing, as being an important part of warfare which they believed capable of crippling Germanys industrial centers
30.
Balkan Campaign (World War II)
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The Balkan Campaign of World War II began with the Italian invasion of Greece on 28 October 1940. In the early months of 1941, Italys offensive had stalled, Germany sought, by deploying troops to Romania and Bulgaria, to aid Italy by attacking Greece from the east, while the British landed troops and aircraft to shore up Greek defences. A coup détat in Yugoslavia on 27 March caused Hitler to order the conquest of that country, the invasion of Yugoslavia by Germany and Italy began on 6 April, simultaneously with the new Battle of Greece. On 11 April, Hungary joined the invasion, by 17 April the Yugoslavs had signed an armistice and by 30 April all of mainland Greece was under German or Italian control. On 20 May Germany invaded Crete by air and by 1 June all remaining Greek, although it had not participated in the attacks in April, Bulgaria occupied parts of both Yugoslavia and Greece shortly thereafter for the remainder of the war in the Balkans. After World War I, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There were attempted backroom negotiations that ultimately failed, however, after 1925, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sought to dominate Albania. In 1928, Albania became a kingdom under Zog I, who was a clan chief, Zog failed to stave off Italian ascendancy in Albanian internal affairs. On 7 April 1939, Mussolinis troops occupied Albania, overthrew Zog, the Italian invasion of Greece lasted from 28 October 1940 to 30 April 1941 and was part of World War II. Italian forces invaded Greece and made limited gains, but soon the Greeks counter-attacked and the Italians were repulsed and driven back into Albania. The Italians spent much of the winter stabilizing a line which left them in control of only about two-thirds of Albania, a much anticipated Italian offensive in March 1941 failed to make sufficient progress. Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, intervened in April and invaded Greece after an invasion of Yugoslavia. The invasion of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941 and ended with the surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April. The invading Axis powers occupied and dismembered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, by cobbling together Bosnia and Herzegovina, some parts of Croatia, and Syrmia, the Independent State of Croatia was created by Germany and Italy. Montenegro remained under Italian occupation, and Bulgaria was permitted to annex eastern areas of Yugoslavia, Hitler began planning to invade Greece in November 1940, after the British occupied Crete and Lemnos. He ordered the German Invasion of Greece — code-named Unternehmen Marita by Germany — on 13 December 1940 for execution in March 1941, the stated aim of the operation was to prevent the British from getting air bases within striking range of the Romanian oilfields. On 6 April 1941, the German Army invaded northern Greece, breaking through the Yugoslav lines in southern Yugoslavia allowed Germany to send reinforcements to the battlefields of northern Greece. The German army out-flanked the Greek Metaxas Line fortifications and, despite the assistance provided by a British expeditionary corps, on 20 May 1941, German paratroopers were dropped over the airfields of northern Crete to occupy the island
31.
North African Campaign
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The North African Campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco, the campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe, the United States entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, on 14 June, the British Armys 11th Hussars crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured the Italian Fort Capuzzo. Information gleaned via British Ultra code-breaking intelligence proved critical to Allied success in North Africa, victory for the Allies in this campaign immediately led to the Italian Campaign, which culminated in the downfall of the fascist government in Italy and the elimination of a German ally. On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht had started the Battle of France, one month later, it was plain to see that France would have to surrender within two weeks. On 10 June 1940, the Kingdom of Italy aligned itself with Nazi Germany and declared war upon France, British forces based in Egypt were ordered to undertake defensive measures, but to act as non-provocatively as possible. However, on 11 June they began a series of raids against Italian positions in Libya, following the defeat of France on 25 June, Italian forces in Tripolitania—facing French troops based in Tunisia—redeployed to Cyrenaica to reinforce the Italian Tenth Army. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Tenth Army to invade Egypt by 8 August, two days later, no invasion having been launched, Mussolini ordered Marshal Graziani that, the moment German forces launched Operation Sea Lion, he was to attack. The battle plan was to advance along the road, while limited armoured forces operated on the desert flank. To counter the Italian advance, Wavell ordered his forces to harass the advancing Italians, falling back towards Mersa Matruh. Positioned on the flank was the 7th Armoured Division, which would strike the flank of the Italian force. By 16 September, the Italian force had advanced to Maktila, around 80 mi west of Mersa Matruh, in response to the dispersed Italian camps, the British planned a limited five-day attack, Operation Compass, to strike at these fortified camps one by one. The British Commonwealth force, totalling 36,000 men, attacked the forward elements of the 10-division-strong Italian army on 9 December, following their initial success, the forces of Operation Compass pursued the retreating Italian forces. In January, the port at Bardia was taken, soon followed by the seizure of the fortified port of Tobruk. Some 40,000 Italians were captured in and around the two ports, with the remainder of the Tenth Army retreating along the coast road back to El Agheila. Richard OConnor sent the 7th Armoured Division across the desert, with a reconnaissance group reaching Beda Fomm some ninety minutes before the Italians. Although desperate attempts were made to overcome the British force at the Battle of Beda Fomm, the Italians were unable to break through, and the remnants of the retreating army surrendered
32.
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
33.
Close air support
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The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with Special Operations Forces, if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire, the term battlefield air interdiction is not currently used in U. S. joint doctrine. Close air support requires excellent coordination with ground forces, in advanced modern militaries, this coordination is typically handled by specialists such as Joint Fires Observers s, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers s, and Forward Air Controllers s. The use of aircraft in the air support of ground forces dates back to World War I. By that point, the startling and demoralizing effect that attack from the air could have on the troops in the trenches had been made clear, at the Battle of the Somme,18 British armed reconnaissance planes strafed the enemy trenches after conducting surveillance operations. The success of this improvised assault spurred innovation on both sides, in 1917, following the Second Battle of the Aisne the British debuted the first ground-attack aircraft, a modified F. E 2b fighter carrying 20-lb bombs and mounted machine-guns. After exhausting their ammunition the planes returned to base for refuelling and rearming, other modified planes used in this role were the Airco DH.5 and Sopwith Camel—the latter was particularly successful in this role. Aircraft support was first integrated into a plan on a large scale at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai. British doctrine at the time came to two forms of air support, trench strafing, and ground strafing —attacking tactical ground targets away from the land battle. As well as strafing with machine-guns, the planes were modified with bomb racks, the Germans were also quick to adopt this new form of warfare and were able to deploy aircraft in a similar capacity at Cambrai. While the British used single-seater planes, the Germans preferred the use of heavier two-seaters with a machine gunner in the aft cockpit. The Germans adopted the powerful Hannover CL. II and built the first purpose built ground attack aircraft, during the 1918 Spring Offensive the Germans employed 30 squadrons, or Schlasta, of ground attack fighters and were able to achieve some initial tactical success. The British later deployed the Sopwith Salamander as a ground attack aircraft. It was during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of 1918 that Close Air Support was first proven to be an important factor in ultimate victory, combined with a ground assault led by General Edmund Allenby, three Turkish armies soon collapsed into a full rout. In the words of the squadrons official report, No 1 Squadron made six heavy raids during the day. The panic and slaughter beggared description, the close air support doctrine was further developed in the interwar period. Most theorists advocated the adaptation of fighters or light bombers into the role, during this period, airpower advocates crystallized their views on the role of air-power in warfare. Aviators and ground officers developed largely opposing views on the importance of CAS, the inter-war period saw the use of CAS in a number of conflicts, including the Russo-Polish War, the Spanish Civil War, colonial wars in the Middle East and the Gran Chaco War
34.
Major
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Major is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank senior to that of an army captain and it is considered the most junior of the field officer ranks. Majors are typically assigned as specialised executive or operations officers for battalion-sized units of 300 to 1,200 soldiers, in some militaries, notably France and Ireland, the rank of major is referred to as commandant, while in others it is known as captain-major. The rank of major is used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures, such as the Pennsylvania State Police, New York State Police, New Jersey State Police. As a police rank, major roughly corresponds to the UK rank of superintendent, the term major can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in pipe-major or drum-major. Historically, the rank designation develops in English in the 1640s, taken from French majeur, in turn a shortening of sergent-majeur, which at the time designated a higher rank than at present
35.
Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer
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Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer was a German Luftwaffe night-fighter pilot and the highest-scoring night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. A flying ace is an aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during combat. He was nicknamed The Spook of St. Trond, from the location of his units base in occupied Belgium, born in Calw, Schnaufer grew up in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Already a glider pilot at school, he began service in the Wehrmacht by joining the Luftwaffe in 1939. After training at various pilot and fighter-pilot schools, he was posted to Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, operating on the Western Front and he flew his first combat sorties in support of Operation Cerberus, the breakout of the German ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen from Brest. Schnaufer participated in the Defence of the Reich campaign from 1942 onwards and he claimed his first aerial victory on the night of 1/2 June 1942. As the war progressed, he accumulated further victories and later became a squadron leader and he was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross on 31 December 1943 for reaching 42 aerial victories. Schnaufer achieved his 100th aerial victory on 9 October 1944 and was awarded the Diamonds to his Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and he was appointed Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 on 4 November. By the end of hostilities, Schnaufers night-fighter crew held the distinction that every member—radio operator. Schnaufer was taken prisoner of war by British forces in May 1945, after his release a year later, he returned to his home town and took over the family wine business. He sustained injuries in an accident on 13 July 1950 during a wine-purchasing visit to France. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer was born on 16 February 1922 in Calw, located in the Free Peoples State of Württemberg of the German Reich and he was the first of four children of mechanical engineer and merchant Alfred Schnaufer and his wife Martha, née Frey. The other three children were his brother Manfred, his sister Waltraut and his brother Eckart and his father owned and operated the family business, the winery Schnaufer-Schlossbergkellerei, in the Lederstraße, Calw. The winery had been founded by both his father and his grandfather, Hermann Schnaufer, in 1919, shortly after World War I, following the death of his grandfather in 1928 the winery was run by his father alone. When his father died in 1940, his mother ran the business until the children took over the winery after World War II. The company then expanded the business and in addition to the winery offered wine imports, sparkling wines, the distribution channel worked with agents and sales offices throughout Germany. Schnaufer, at the age of six, went to the local Volksschule at Calw, after completing his fourth grade, he received two years of schooling at the Oberschule, also in Calw. At an early age he expressed his wish to join an organisation of military character, the goal of the Napola schools was to raise a new generation for the political, military and administrative leadership of the Third Reich
36.
Biplane
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A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, while a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs, they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading, however, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where the wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above, the term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals. In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other, either or both of the main wings can support ailerons, while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires and/or slender interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage. The primary advantage of the biplane over the traditional single plane or monoplane is to combine great stiffness with light weight. A braced monoplane wing must support itself fully, while the two wings of a help to stiffen each other. The biplane is therefore inherently stiffer than the monoplane, also, the structural forces in the spars of a biplane wing tend to be lower, so the wing can use less material to obtain the same overall strength and is therefore much lighter. A disadvantage of the biplane was the need for extra struts to space the wings apart, the low power supplied by the engines available in the first years of aviation meant that aeroplanes could only fly slowly. This required an even lower stalling speed, which in turn required a low wing loading, combining both large wing area with light weight. A biplane wing of a span and chord has twice the area of a monoplane the same size and so can fly more slowly. Alternatively, a wing of the same area as a monoplane has lower span and chord, reducing the structural forces. Biplanes suffer aerodynamic interference between the two planes and this means that a biplane does not in practice obtain twice the lift of the similarly-sized monoplane. The farther apart the wings are spaced the less the interference, given the slow speed and low power of early aircraft, the drag penalty of the wires and struts and the mutual interference of airflows were relatively minor and acceptable factors. The smaller biplane wing also allows greater maneuverability, during World War One, this further enhanced the dominance of the biplane and, despite the need for speed, military aircraft were among the last to abandon the biplane form. Specialist sports Aerobatic biplanes are still occasionally made, biplanes were originally designed with the wings positioned directly one above the other
37.
Monoplane
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A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with a single main wing plane, in contrast to a biplane or other multiplane, each of which has multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing configuration and is the simplest to build, however, during the early years of flight, these advantages were offset by its greater weight and lower manoeuvrability, making it relatively rare until the 1930s. Since then, the monoplane has been the most common form for a fixed-wing aircraft, although the first successful aircraft were biplanes, the first attempts at heavier-than-air flying machines were monoplanes, and many pioneers continued to develop monoplane designs. For example, the first aeroplane to be put into production was the 1907 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle, while the Blériot XI flew across the English Channel in 1909, throughout 1909–1910, Hubert Latham set multiple altitude records in his Antoinette IV monoplane, eventually reaching 1,384 m. The equivalent German language term is Eindecker, as in the mid-wing Fokker Eindecker fighter of 1915 which for a time dominated the skies in what known as the Fokker scourge. The German military Idflieg aircraft designation system prior to 1918 prefixed monoplane type designations with an E, however, the success of the Fokker was short-lived, and World War I was dominated by biplanes. Towards the end of the war, the parasol monoplane became popular, nonetheless, relatively few monoplane types were built between 1914 and the late 1920s, compared with the number of biplanes. The reasons for this were primarily practical, towards the end of the First World War, the inherent high drag of the biplane was beginning to restrict performance. Engines were not yet enough to make the heavy cantilever-wing monoplane viable. It remained popular throughout the 1920s, on flying boats with a shallow hull, a parasol wing allows the engines to be mounted above the spray from the water when taking off and landing. It was popular on flying boats during the 1930s, an example being the Consolidated PBY Catalina. It died out when taller hulls became the norm during World War II, most military aircraft of WW II were monoplanes, as have been virtually all aircraft since. Jet and rocket engines have more power, and all modern high-speed aircraft. The inherent efficiency of the monoplane can best be realised in the cantilever wing which carries all structural forces internally. By contrast, a wing has additional drag from the exposed bracing struts and/or wires. On the other hand, the wing has greater structural efficiency. This in turn means that for a wing of a size, bracing allows it to fly slower with a lower-powered engine, while a heavy cantilever wing needs a more powerful engine. A cantilever wing can be lighter by making it thicker
38.
Fighter aircraft
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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition
39.
Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany)
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The Ministry of Aviation, abbreviated RLM, was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany. It is also the name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin, Germany. As a result, early successes in aircraft development progressed slowly and erratically during World War II. The Ministry was formed in April 1933 from the Reich Commissariat for Aviation, in this early phase the Ministry was little more than Görings personal staff. One of its first actions was to control of all patents and companies of Hugo Junkers. These included all rights to the Junkers Ju 52 aircraft, defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg decided that the importance of aviation was such that it should no longer be subordinate to the German Army. In May 1933 he transferred the armys Department of Military Aviation and this is often considered the birth of the Luftwaffe. The Ministry was now larger, consisting of two large departments, the military Luftschutzamt and the civilian Allgemeines Luftamt. Erhard Milch, the head of Deutsche Luft Hansa, was placed in direct control of the LA. In September 1933, a reorganization was undertaken to reduce duplication of effort between departments, the primary changes were to move the staffing and technical development organizations out of the LB, and make them full departments on their own. In 1934, a department was added, the Luftzeugmeister in charge of logistics. With the rapid growth of the Luftwaffe following the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and this period was marked by an increasing inability to deliver the new aircraft designs that were desperately needed, as well as continued shortages of aircraft and engines. In 1943 Albert Speer took over from Milch, and things immediately improved, the Ministry building was one of the few public edifices in central Berlin to survive the severe Allied bombings in 1944–45. On 5 May 1933 the German Air Ministry, with Hermann Göring as Reich Minister for Aviation was founded and this event came along with the introduction of a command flag that was produced in different sizes, ranging from 200 cm down to 30 cm. The flag consisted of red material on which was placed in the centre of the obverse a wreath of silver coloured laurel leaves. In the centre of the leaves was a black eagle, suspended from the base of the wreath was a true-coloured representation of the Pour le Mérite. Extending from the left and right side of the wreath were a pair of stylised wings each consisting of four ascending feathers, in each of the four corners was set a black swastika. The flag was in use until the end of 1935, exact details about the reverse of this flag are not established
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Bomb bay
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The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircrafts fuselage, with bomb bay doors which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over the target or at a launching point. Bomb bays were born of necessity, early military aircraft suffered severe aerodynamic drag with bombs hanging from the wings or below the fuselage, so military aviation designers moved the bombs inside the aircraft. Notable exceptions are the F-101, F-102 and F-106 interceptor aircraft, all of which had used to store missiles. The principal reason for the change is to use technology to make aircraft more difficult to detect on radar. Military fighters are now designed to have the smallest possible radar cross-section, large racks of missiles and bombs hanging below the wings return very distinct radar signatures which can be eliminated by bringing the weapons inside the fuselage. This also improves performance and increases the payload which can be carried. Examples of modern U. S. fighters with weapons bays are the F-117 Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor and these stealth aircraft such as the Chengdu J-20 use retractable guided missile launchers which move out on rails allowing the weapons bay to be closed while the missiles still hang outside. The Breda Ba.88 was one of a few aircraft to use a semi-recessed bomb bay. Large-sized bombs, which may be nuclear, are dropped from hook-type releases or bomb cradles, when a bomber carries many smaller bombs, the bombs are typically loaded onto mechano-electrical devices known as ejector racks, which allow for larger bomb loads to be dropped with greater accuracy. The advantage of a bomb rack is a prompt release of all stores in short order. Bombers like the B-52, the B-1 or the B-2 use custom designed bomb rack support structures with their own designation e. g, Common Bomb Rack, Common Bomb Module, or Smart Bomb Rack Assembly. These bomb racks may have special store release control mechanisms, aside from the release options of a rack a pilot can select release mode for releasing one or multiple stores. Stores can be jettisoned selectively in single mode or ripple mode or salvo mode, the term ripple applies to the single- or ripple and single- continuous release mode from one or from mirror stations. Salvo release mode applies to a combination of several stations together e. g. adjacent stations, for multiple store release an interval timer can be set to release stores in fixed time steps. For an external store emergency release there may be a button to release all of the weapons. A rotary launcher is a rotating suspension equipment mounted inside the bomb bay, rotary launchers have stations of their own and offer the ability to select certain stores within the bomb bay for release. Advantages include the ability for different weapons and easier loading for the ground crew
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Focke-Wulf
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Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the companies of todays Airbus Group. The company was founded in Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Henrich Focke, Georg Wulf, almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG. Focke-Wulf merged, under government pressure, with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin in 1931, the Albatros-Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz. Dr Ludwig Roselius became Chairman in 1925 and handed over to his brother Friedrich in early 1933, in 1938 Roselius HAG combine increased its shareholding to 46% and C. The company was reconstituted as Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH and no longer had to publish its accounts, a substantial capital injection occurred at this time. In August 1933 Hans Holle and Rudolf Schubert were given power of attorney over the Berlin branch of Focke-Wulf, then in October 1933, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A. G. Albatros Berlin was officially registered with the Department of Trade. Dr Roselius always remained the driving force of Focke-Wulf and he and his closest collaborator, Barbara Goette, often met with technical director Professor Kurt Tank. The four-engined Fw 200 airliner flew nonstop between Berlin and New York City on August 10,1938, making the journey in 24 hours and 56 minutes and it was the first aircraft to fly that route without stopping. The return trip on August 13,1938 took 19 hours and 47 minutes and these flights are commemorated with a plaque in the Böttcherstraße street of Bremen. The Fw 190 Würger, designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941–1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during World War II and those plants used many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Focke-Wulfs 100-acre plant at Marienburg produced approximately half of all Fw 190s and was bombed by the Eighth Air Force on October 9,1943, many Focke-Wulf workers, including Kurt Tank, worked at the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba, Argentina between 1947 and 1955. Focke-Wulf began to make gliders in 1951, and in 1955, Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in 1961 to form the Entwicklungsring Nord to develop rockets. Focke-Wulf A3 Focke-Wulf A4 Focke-Wulf A5 Focke-Wulf A6 Focke-Wulf A7 Focke-Wulf A16 - light transport aircraft,1924, Focke-Wulf A17 Möwe, 8-passenger airliner,1927. Focke-Wulf GL18 - light transport aircraft developed from the A16,1926, Focke-Wulf F19 Ente - experimental civil utility aircraft,1927. Focke-Wulf A20 Habicht, 4-passenger airliner,1927, Focke-Wulf A21 Photomöwe, aerial photography version of A17,1929. Focke-Wulf GL22 - revised GL18,1927, Focke-Wulf K23 - two-seat reconnaissance aircraft,1928
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Henschel & Son
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Georg Christian Carl Henschel founded the factory in 1810 at Kassel. His son Carl Anton Henschel founded another factory in 1837, in 1848, the company began manufacturing locomotives. The factory became the largest locomotive manufacturer in Germany by the 20th century, Henschel built 10 articulated steam trucks, using Doble steam designs, for Deutsche Reichsbahn railways as delivery trucks. Several cars were built as well, one of which became Hermann Görings staff car, early in 1935, Henschel began manufacturing Panzer I tanks. During World War II, the firm was responsible for production of the Dornier Do 17Z medium bomber. Henschel was the manufacturer of the Tiger I and Tiger II. In 1945, the company had 8000 workers working in two shifts each of 12 hours, and forced labour was used extensively. Henschel Hs P.87, a similar to the Hs P.75, except that the canards in the front are straight. Henschel Zitterrochen, air-to-surface missile Manufacturing began again in 1948, in 1964, the company took over Rheinische Stahlwerke and became Rheinstahl Henschel AG, in 1976 Thyssen-Henschel, and 1990 ABB Henschel AG. In 1996, the company became ABB Daimler Benz Transportation Adtranz, the company was subsequently acquired by Bombardier around 2002. The Kassel facility still exists and is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of locomotives, herbert A. Wagner <http, //www. steamlocomotive. info/vlocomotive. cfm. Display=1309> Henschels Mittelfeld Werkes Tiger tank factory Luft 46
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Prototype
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A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. It is a used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics. A prototype is used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one, in some design workflow models, creating a prototype is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea. The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον prototypon, primitive form, neutral of πρωτότυπος prototypos, original, primitive, from πρῶτος protos, first and τύπος typos, a Working Prototype represents all or nearly all of the functionality of the final product. A Visual Prototype represents the size and appearance, but not the functionality, a User Experience Prototype represents enough of the appearance and function of the product that it can be used for user research. A Functional Prototype captures both function and appearance of the design, though it may be created with different techniques. A Paper Prototype is a printed or hand-drawn representation of the interface of a software product. In some cases, the final production materials may still be undergoing development themselves, process - Mass-production processes are often unsuitable for making a small number of parts, so prototypes may be made using different fabrication processes than the final product. Differences in fabrication process may lead to differences in the appearance of the prototype as compared to the final product, verification - The final product may be subject to a number of quality assurance tests to verify conformance with drawings or specifications. These tests may involve custom inspection fixtures, statistical sampling methods, prototypes are generally made with much closer individual inspection and the assumption that some adjustment or rework will be part of the fabrication process. Prototypes may also be exempted from some requirements that apply to the final product. Engineers and prototype specialists will attempt to minimize the impact of these differences on the role for the prototype. Engineers and prototyping specialists seek to understand the limitations of prototypes to exactly simulate the characteristics of their intended design and it is important to realize that by their very definition, prototypes will represent some compromise from the final production design. Due to differences in materials, processes and design fidelity, it is possible that a prototype may fail to perform acceptably whereas the design may have been sound. In general, it can be expected that individual prototype costs will be greater than the final production costs due to inefficiencies in materials. Prototypes are also used to revise the design for the purposes of reducing costs through optimization and it is possible to use prototype testing to reduce the risk that a design may not perform as intended, however prototypes generally cannot eliminate all risk. As an alternative, rapid prototyping or rapid application development techniques are used for the prototypes, which implement part
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Daimler-Benz DB 600
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The Daimler-Benz DB600 was a German aircraft engine designed and built before World War II as part of a new generation of German engine technology. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 110, most newer DB engine designs used in WW2 were based on this engine. 1937 prototype - naval variant of Arado Ar 68, dornier Do 17 S-0 Three pre-production aircraft. Focke-Wulf Fw 57 Focke-Wulf Fw 187 V6, Heinkel He 60C One test aircraft. Heinkel He 111 V5, DB 600A, B-1, B-2, DB 600C, G-4, DB 600G, G-5, DB 600C, J-1, DB 600C Heinkel He 112 V7, Heinkel He 114 Three He 114 B-2 exported to Romania. Twin engine, pressurised cockpit, high-altitude research aircraft, Messerschmitt Bf 109 V10 through V14. Messerschmitt Bf 110 V1, V2, V3
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20 mm caliber
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The 20 mm caliber is a specific size of cannon or autocannon ammunition. Since 20mm is the point where most nations switch from bullets to shells. A machine gun does not fire shells, so historically a weapon that fires shells below 20 mm can be a cannon, a true definition will always mention whether the weapon fires bullets or shells in addition to its caliber. A very small number of anti-tank rifles have been produced in 20 mm,20 mm caliber cartridges have an outside bullet diameter and inside barrel diameter of 0.787 inches. Projectiles or bullets are typically 75 to 127 mm long, cartridge cases are typically 75 to 152 mm long. Many but not all 20 mm rounds have a filling and detonating fuze. As an example, the RT-20 fires a 20×110mm 130-gram projectile at a velocity of 850 m/s. For a simple slug this gives an energy of 47 kilojoules. Like most cannon ammunition,20 mm caliber weapons are used against large targets such as vehicles, buildings. Though lethal against individual soldiers, 20mm ammunition is so large, target Practice Tracer - Inert projectile with tracer material in base for visual trajectory tracking. Only rarely do two designers use the case length, so this designation is usually definitive. Some cartridge types have additional letters or information about them listed.50 BMG.950 JDJ14
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Gun turret
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A gun turret is a location from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility, and some cone of fire. Rotating gun turrets have the protection, the weapon, and its crew rotate, when this meaning of the word turret started being used at the beginning of the 1860s, turrets were normally cylindrical. Barbettes were an alternative to turrets, with a barbette the protection was fixed, in the 1890s, armoured hoods were added to barbettes, these rotated with the platform. By the early 20th Century, these hoods were known as turrets, modern warships have gun-mountings described as turrets, though the protection on them is limited to protection from the weather. They may be manned or remotely controlled and are most often protected to some degree, the protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage, the weather conditions, general environment in which the weapon or its crew will be operating. A small turret, or sub-turret set on top of a one, is called a cupola. The term cupola is used for a rotating turret that carries a sighting device rather than weaponry. Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, firepower was provided by a large number of guns, each of which could traverse only in a limited arc. Additionally casemate mounts had to be recessed into the side of a vessel to afford a wide arc of fire, designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. The Lady Nancy proved a success and Coles patenting his rotating turret design after the war. Coless aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, the Admiralty accepted the principle of the turret gun as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns, the design was rejected as impractical, although the Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs. Coles enlisted the support of Prince Albert, who wrote to the first Lord of the Admiralty, in January 1862, the Admiralty agreed to construct a ship, the HMS Prince Albert which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. While Coles designed the turrets the ship was the responsibility of the chief Constructor Isaac Watts, another ship using Coles turret designs, HMS Royal Sovereign, was completed in August 1864. Its existing broadside guns were replaced with four turrets on a flat deck, early ships like the Royal Sovereign had little sea-keeping qualities being limited to coastal waters. Sir Edward James Reed, went on to design and build HMS Monarch, laid down in 1866 and completed in June 1869, it carried two turrets, although the inclusion of a forecastle and poop prevented the turret guns firing fore and aft. The gun turret was independently invented by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson in America, Ericsson designed the USS Monitor in 1861, its most prominent feature being a large cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships above the low-freeboard upper hull, also called the raft. This extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped hull, a small armoured pilot house was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow, however, its position prevented Monitor from firing her guns straight forward
