1.
Autocannon
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An autocannon or automatic cannon is a large, fully automatic, rapid-fire projectile weapon that fires armour-piercing or explosive shells, as opposed to the bullet fired by a machine gun. Autocannons often have a larger calibre than a gun, but are usually smaller than a field gun or other artillery. When used on its own, the word autocannon indicates a single-barrel weapon, when multiple rotating barrels are involved, the word rotary is added, and such a weapon is referred to as a rotary autocannon. As such, ammunition is fed from a belt to reduce reloading or for a faster rate of fire. They can use a variety of ammunition, common shells include high-explosive dual-purpose types, any variety of armour-piercing types, both the US25 mm Bushmaster and the British 30 mm Rarden have relatively slow rates of fire so as not to use ammunition too quickly. The rate of fire of a modern autocannon ranges from 90 rounds per minute, systems with multiple barrels can have rates of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute. The first modern autocannon was the British QF1 pounder, also known as the pom-pom, during the First World War, autocannons were mostly used in the trenches as an anti-aircraft gun. Attempts to use them in aircraft failed as the severely limited both speed and altitude, thus making successful interception impossible. The more effective QF2 pounder naval gun would be developed during the war to serve as an anti-aircraft, autocannons would serve in a much greater capacity during the Second World War. During the inter-war years, aircraft underwent an evolution and the monoplane, pioneered as far back as the end of 1915, almost replaced wood. The subsequent increase in speed and durability greatly reduced the window of opportunity for defence and this was only reversed with the introduction of computer-controlled systems. The German Panzer II light tank, which was one of the most numerous in German service during the invasion of Poland and the campaign in France, used a 20 mm autocannon as its main armament. Although ineffective against tank armour even during the years of the war. Larger examples, such as the 40 mm Vickers S, were mounted in ground attack aircraft to serve as an anti-tank weapon, Polish 20 mm 38 Fk auto cannon was expensive to produce, but an exception. Unlike the Oerlikon, it was effective against all the tanks fielded in 1939, largely because it was built as an upgrade to the Oerlikon, Hispano—Suiza and it, with great difficulty, proved capable of knocking out even early Panzer IIIs and IVs. Only 55 were produced by the time of the Polish Defensive War, in aircraft, several factors brought about the replacement of rifle-calibre machine guns by autocannons. Early autocannons were heavy and had a rate of fire. Along with the speed, the size of aircraft grew substantially, particularly in the 1930s, so that the weight was less of an issue while the rate of fire, and reliability were greatly improved
2.
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
3.
Rheinmetall Air Defence
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Copies and derivatives of these designs were made by German, French, British and Japanese weapon manufacturers. Oerlikon Contraves was purchased by Rheinmetall, a German armament manufacturer, as of January 2009, Rheinmetall Air Defence had around 1,050 employees at locations in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Canada. The groups sales in 2008 were about 380,000,000 Euros, oerlikons earliest predecessor was Schweizerische Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon, founded in the Oerlikon district of Zurich, Switzerland in 1906. In 1923 it acquired a factory in Germany and it entered the anti-aircraft defence field in 1924. Oerlikon Contraves was purchased by Rheinmetall, a German armament manufacturer, in 1999, american versions of the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, such as the Mk 4, Mk 10, and Mk 24, were used extensively from World War II to the Vietnam War. Originally used as weapons by the US Navy, they were frequently the last line of defence against kamikaze attacks. Most combat ships from aircraft carriers to PT boats were equipped with Oerlikon guns, during the Vietnam War they were widely employed by riverine forces as anti-personnel weapons. They remained in service until the 1970s, when they were replaced by the Mk 1620 mm cannon, Oerlikon also developed the following surface-to-air missiles, the RSA Missile, the RSD58, and the Kriens RSC Missile. Rheinmetall Air Defence specializes in ground-based and naval air defence and their products include search-and-tracking sensors,35 mm air-defence guns, command-and-control posts, battle management and ship-based combat systems. As of October 2010, Rheinmetalls website no longer lists these products as part of the Air Defence group, Rheinmetall Air Defence is one of six companies that were blacklisted by Indias Ministry of Defence in March 2012 for their involvement in a bribery scandal. The companies are accused of bribing the Director General of Ordnance Factories Board, RAD has claimed that the charges against it are without merit. RAD Chairman Bodo Garbe and General Manager Gerhard Hoy were issued summons of the Indian courts, subsequently a red-corner notice was issued for their detention through Interpol. The case at present is under trial in Indian courts
4.
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
5.
Kilogram
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The kilogram or kilogramme is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram. The avoirdupois pound, used in both the imperial and US customary systems, is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds. Other traditional units of weight and mass around the world are also defined in terms of the kilogram, the gram, 1/1000 of a kilogram, was provisionally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water at the melting point of ice. The final kilogram, manufactured as a prototype in 1799 and from which the IPK was derived in 1875, had an equal to the mass of 1 dm3 of water at its maximum density. The kilogram is the only SI base unit with an SI prefix as part of its name and it is also the only SI unit that is still directly defined by an artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories. Three other base units and 17 derived units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram, only 8 other units do not require the kilogram in their definition, temperature, time and frequency, length, and angle. At its 2011 meeting, the CGPM agreed in principle that the kilogram should be redefined in terms of the Planck constant, the decision was originally deferred until 2014, in 2014 it was deferred again until the next meeting. There are currently several different proposals for the redefinition, these are described in the Proposed Future Definitions section below, the International Prototype Kilogram is rarely used or handled. In the decree of 1795, the term gramme thus replaced gravet, the French spelling was adopted in the United Kingdom when the word was used for the first time in English in 1797, with the spelling kilogram being adopted in the United States. In the United Kingdom both spellings are used, with kilogram having become by far the more common, UK law regulating the units to be used when trading by weight or measure does not prevent the use of either spelling. In the 19th century the French word kilo, a shortening of kilogramme, was imported into the English language where it has used to mean both kilogram and kilometer. In 1935 this was adopted by the IEC as the Giorgi system, now known as MKS system. In 1948 the CGPM commissioned the CIPM to make recommendations for a practical system of units of measurement. This led to the launch of SI in 1960 and the subsequent publication of the SI Brochure, the kilogram is a unit of mass, a property which corresponds to the common perception of how heavy an object is. Mass is a property, that is, it is related to the tendency of an object at rest to remain at rest, or if in motion to remain in motion at a constant velocity. Accordingly, for astronauts in microgravity, no effort is required to hold objects off the cabin floor, they are weightless. However, since objects in microgravity still retain their mass and inertia, the ratio of the force of gravity on the two objects, measured by the scale, is equal to the ratio of their masses. On April 7,1795, the gram was decreed in France to be the weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of the metre
6.
Pound (mass)
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The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement. The international standard symbol for the pound is lb. The unit is descended from the Roman libra, the English word pound is cognate with, among others, German Pfund, Dutch pond, and Swedish pund. All ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression lībra pondō, usage of the unqualified term pound reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight. This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms pound-mass and pound-force, the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. Since 1 July 1959, the avoirdupois pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg. In the United Kingdom, the use of the pound was implemented in the Weights and Measures Act 1963.9144 metre exactly. An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains, the conversion factor between the kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7, and an grain is thus equal to exactly 64.79891 milligrams. The US has not adopted the system despite many efforts to do so. Historically, in different parts of the world, at different points in time, and for different applications, the libra is an ancient Roman unit of mass that was equivalent to approximately 328.9 grams. It was divided into 12 unciae, or ounces, the libra is the origin of the abbreviation for pound, lb. A number of different definitions of the pound have historically used in Britain. Amongst these were the avoirdupois pound and the tower, merchants. Historically, the sterling was a tower pound of silver. In 1528, the standard was changed to the Troy pound, the avoirdupois pound, also known as the wool pound, first came into general use c. It was initially equal to 6992 troy grains, the pound avoirdupois was divided into 16 ounces. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the pound was redefined as 7,000 troy grains. Since then, the grain has often been a part of the avoirdupois system
7.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
8.
Shell (projectile)
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A shell is a payload-carrying projectile that, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used, originally, it was called a bombshell, but shell has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Words cognate with grenade are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages, shells are usually large-calibre projectiles fired by artillery, combat vehicles, and warships. Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by a nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base. Solid cannonballs did not need a fuse, but hollow munitions filled with something such as gunpowder to fragment the ball, needed a fuse, percussion fuses with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism hit the target. Therefore, shells needed a fuse that was ignited before or during firing. The earliest record of shells being used in combat was by the Republic of Venice at Jadra in 1376, shells with fuses were used at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. These were two hollowed hemispheres of stone or bronze held together by an iron hoop, as described in their book, these hollow, gunpowder-packed shells were made of cast iron. At least since the 16th Century grenades made of ceramics or glass were in use in Central Europe, a hoard of several hundred ceramic greandes were discovered during building works in front of a bastion of the Bavarian City of Ingolstadt, Germany dated to the 17th Century. Lots of the grenades obtained their orignal blackpowder loads and igniters, most probably the grenades were intentionally dumped the moat of the bastion before the year 1723. Early powder burning fuses had to be loaded fuse down to be ignited by firing or a portfire put down the barrel to light the fuse, other shells were wrapped in bitumen cloth, which would ignite during the firing and in turn ignite a powder fuse. Nevertheless, shells came into use in the 16th Century. By the 18th Century, it was known that the fuse towards the muzzle could be lit by the flash through the windage between the shell and the barrel, the use of exploding shells from field artillery became relatively commonplace from early in the 19th century. Until the mid 19th century, shells remained as simple exploding spheres that used gunpowder and they were usually made of cast iron, but bronze, lead, brass and even glass shell casings were experimented with. The word bomb encompassed them at the time, as heard in the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner, typically, the thickness of the metal body was about a sixth of their diameter and they were about two thirds the weight of solid shot of the same calibre. To ensure that shells were loaded with their fuses towards the muzzle, in 1819, a committee of British artillery officers recognised that they were essential stores and in 1830 Britain standardised sabot thickness as a half inch. The sabot was also intended to reduce jamming during loading, despite the use of exploding shell, the use of smoothbore cannons, firing spherical projectiles of shot, remained the dominant artillery method until the 1850s. By the late 18th century, artillery could use canister shot to defend itself from infantry or cavalry attack and this involved loading a tin or canvas container filled with small iron or lead balls instead of the usual cannonball
9.
Caliber
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In guns, particularly firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel, or the diameter of the projectile it fires, in hundredths or sometimes thousandths of an inch. For example, a 45 caliber firearm has a diameter of.45 of an inch. Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions, as in 9mm pistol, when the barrel diameter is given in inches, the abbreviation cal can be used. Good performance requires a bullet to closely match the diameter of a barrel to ensure a good seal. While modern cartridges and cartridge firearms are referred to by the cartridge name. Firearm calibers outside the range of 17 to 50 exist, but are rarely encountered. Larger calibers, such as.577.585.600.700, the.950 JDJ is the only known cartridge beyond 79 caliber used in a rifle. Referring to artillery, caliber is used to describe the length as multiples of the bore diameter. A 5-inch 50 calibre gun has a diameter of 5 in. The main guns of the USS Missouri are 1650 caliber, makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming the cartridges, since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets, these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No.56 became the. 56-56, and the smaller versions. 56-52. 56-50, the. 56-52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet. Optionally, the weight in grains was designated, e. g. 45-70-405. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the.204 Ruger, metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an × between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case, for example,7. 62×51 NATO. This indicates that the diameter is 7. 62mm, loaded in a case 51mm long. Similarly, the 6. 5×55 Swedish cartridge has a diameter of 6.5 mm. An exception to rule is the proprietary cartridge used by U. S. maker Lazzeroni. The following table lists commonly used calibers where both metric and imperial are used as equivalents
10.
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
11.
Action (firearms)
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In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Breech-loading weapons have actions, actions are not present on muzzleloaders. The mechanism that fires a muzzle-loader is called the lock, actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, and others. The term action can also short, long, and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle’s receiver. The short action rifle usually can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller, the long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, and the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. Manual operation is a term describing any type of firearm action that is loaded one shot at a time by the user rather than automatically. For example, break action is a form of operation using a simple hinge mechanism that is manually unlatched by the operator. These are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or drops into the receiver to open the breech, there are two principal types of dropping block, the tilting block and the falling block. In a tilting or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear, when the lever is operated, the block tilts down and forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. The 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the trapdoor Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the later Victorian era, charles H. Ballards self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, and earned a superlative reputation among long-range Creedmoor target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today highly prized by collectors, especially those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling-block action is a firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon. Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle, in a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis. The operator rotates or rolls the block to open and close the breech, it is a simple, rugged, a break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be broken open to expose the breech. The earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away, an internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifles existing side-hammer. The Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward, france countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle, also a paper-cartridge bolt action
12.
Blowback (firearms)
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Several blowback systems exist within this broad principle of operation, each distinguished by the methods used to control bolt movement. A few locked breech designs use a form of blowback to perform the unlocking function, the blowback principle may be considered a simplified form of gas operation, since the cartridge case behaves like a piston driven by the powder gases. Other operating principles for self-loading firearms include blow forward, gas operation and this rearward thrust, imparted against the breech, is a direct result of the expansion of propellant gases. The energy from the expansion of gases on firing appears in the form of energy transmitted to the bolt mechanism. The extent to which blowback is employed largely depends on the used to control the movement of the bolt. How the movement of the bolt is controlled is where blowback systems differ, relating blowback to other types of automatic firearm operation, George M. Chinn wrote that, In the larger sense, blowback might well be considered a special form of gas operation. This is reasonable because the case may be conceived of as a sort of piston driven by the powder gases. Actually, blowback involves so many problems that it is best considered to be in a class by itself. The question whether or not it should be included within the general class of gas operation or recoil operation is purely academic. The important point is that it some of the properties of both classes and, depending on the particular problem at hand, may be considered to be either one. The blowback system represents the most basic auto loading operation type, in a blowback mechanism, the bolt rests against the rear of the barrel, but is not locked in place. At the point of ignition, expanding gases push the bullet forward through the barrel while at the same time pushing the case rearward against the bolt. The expanding gases push the bolt assembly to the rear, but the motion is slowed by the mass of the bolt, internal friction, the design must ensure that the delay is long enough that bullet exits the barrel before the cartridge case clears the chamber. The empty case is ejected as the travels to the rear. The stored energy of the action spring then drives the bolt forward. A new cartridge is stripped from the magazine and chambered as the returns to its in-battery position. The blowback system is practical for firearms using relatively low-power cartridges with lighter weight bullets, higher power cartridges require heavier bolts to keep the breech from opening prematurely, at some point, the bolt becomes too heavy to be practical. Consequently, the spring is not powerful enough to keep the bolt closed when the gun is tilted up
13.
Gun laying
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Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece, such as a gun, howitzer or mortar on land, or at sea, against surface or air targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, the term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Gun laying means moving the axis of the bore of the barrel in two planes, horizontal and vertical. A gun is traversed – rotated in a horizontal plane – to align it with the target, Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes, Gun laying may be for direct fire, where the layer sees the target, or indirect fire, where the target may not be visible from the gun. Gun laying has sometimes called training the gun. Laying in the vertical plane uses data derived from trials or empirical experience, for any given gun and projectile types, it reflects the distance to the target and the size of the propellant charge. It also incorporates any differences in height between gun and target, with indirect fire, it may allow for other variables as well. With indirect fire the horizontal angle is relative to something, typically the guns aiming point, depending on the gun mount, there is usually a choice of two trajectories. The dividing angle between the trajectories is about 45 degrees, it varies due to gun dependent factors. Below 45 degrees the trajectory is called low angle, above is high angle, the differences are that low angle fire has a shorter time of flight, a lower vertex and flatter angle of descent. All guns have carriages or mountings that support the barrel assembly, early guns could only be traversed by moving their entire carriage or mounting, and this lasted with heavy artillery into World War II. Mountings could be fitted into traversing turrets on ships, coast defences or tanks, from circa 1900 field artillery carriages provided traverse without moving the wheels and trail. The carriage, or mounting, also enabled the barrel to be set at the elevation angle. With some gun mounts it is possible to depress the gun, some guns require a near-horizontal elevation for loading. An essential capability for any elevation mechanism is to prevent the weight of the barrel forcing its heavier end downward and this is greatly helped by having trunnions at the centre of gravity, although a counterbalance mechanism can be used. It also means the elevation gear has to be enough to resist considerable downward pressure. However, mortars, where the forces were transferred directly into the ground
14.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
15.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
16.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
17.
Flexible mount
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A weapon mount is a weapon component used to affix an armament for stabilization. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories, static mounts and non-static mounts, a static mount is a non-portable weapon support component used on a self-propelled vehicle. A gun turret protects the crew or mechanism of a weapon, a turret is a rotating weapon platform. This can be mounted on a building or structure such as a coast artillery battery, or on an armoured fighting vehicle. Turrets may be armed with one or more guns, automatic cannons, large-calibre guns, missile launchers. It may be manned or remotely controlled, and is often armoured, a small turret, or sub-turret on a larger one, is called a cupola. The term cupola also describes rotating turrets that carry no weapons but instead are sighting devices, a finial is an extremely small sub-turret or sub-sub-turret mounted on a cupola turret. The protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage or against the weather, conditions and environment in which the weapon or its crew operate. A coaxial mount is mounted beside the primary weapon and thus points in the general direction as the main armament. The term coaxial is a misnomer as the arrangement is often actually paraxial, nearly all main battle tanks and most infantry fighting vehicles have a coaxial machine gun mounted to fire along a parallel axis to the main gun. Coaxial weapons are usually aimed by use of the gun control. It is usually used to infantry or other soft targets when the main gun collateral damage would be excessive. A fixed mount is not moveable with respect to the vehicle, the vehicle must move in order to change direction of fire. Fixed mounts are most commonly found on aircraft, and most commonly direct the forward, along the aircrafts vector of movement, so that a pilot could aim. Some minor aircraft designs used different concept of fixed mounts, as found in Schräge Musik or AC-47 Spooky, a pintle mount is a fixed mount that allows the gun to be freely traversed and/or elevated while keeping the gun in one fixed position. It is most commonly found on armoured vehicles, gunner stations on bomber aircraft, unlike a turret, a pintle has little or no armour protection. A swing mount is a mount that allows a far greater. Utilising a system of one or two articulated arms the gunner can swing the weapon through a wide arc even though the position is fixed relative to the mount
18.
Hispano-Suiza
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Hispano-Suiza was a Spanish automotive/engineering company and, after World War II, a French aviation engine and components manufacturer. It is best known for its cars and aviation engines pre-World War II. In 1923, its French subsidiary became a partnership with the Spanish parent company. In 1946, the Spanish parent company sold all its Spanish automotive assets to Enasa, in 1968, the French arm was taken over by the aerospace company Snecma, now a part of the French SAFRAN Group. Hispano-Suiza designed the first 4-cylinder 16-valve engine and the car considered to have been the first sports car, in 1898 a Spanish artillery captain, Emilio de la Cuadra, started electric automobile production in Barcelona under the name of La Cuadra. In Paris, De la Cuadra met the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt, La Cuadra built their first gasoline-powered engines from a Birkigt design. At some point in 1902, the ownership changed hands to J. Castro and became Fábrica Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles, yet another restructuring took place in 1904, creating La Hispano-Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles, under Castros direction, also based in Barcelona. Four new engines were introduced in the year and a half, a 3. 8-litre and 7. 4-litre four-cylinder. This company managed to avoid bankruptcy and its largest operations remained in Barcelona until 1946, other factories in Spain were at Ripoll, Seville, and Guadalajara. France was soon proving to be a market for Hispanos luxury cars than Spain. In 1911, a factory called Hispano France began operating in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. Production was moved to larger factories at Bois-Colombes, under the name Hispano-Suiza in 1914, with the start of World War I, Hispano-Suiza turned to the design and production of aircraft engines under the direction of Marc Birkigt. His chief engineer during this period was another Swiss, Louis Massuger, traditionally, aircraft engines were manufactured by machining separate steel cylinders and then bolting these assemblies directly to the crankcase. Birkigts novel solution called for the block to be formed from a single piece of cast aluminum. Manufacturing an engine in this way simplified construction and resulted in a lighter, thus, Birkigts new construction method created the first practical, and what are commonly known today as, cast block engines. Another major design feature, for the later HS. 8B line was the use of a propeller shaft for both the 8B and 8C gear-reduction versions, which when used for the HS. After World War I, Hispano-Suiza returned to manufacturing and in 1919 they introduced the Hispano-Suiza H6. Licences for Hispano-Suiza patents were much in demand from prestige car manufacturers world-wide, Rolls-Royce used a number of Hispano-Suiza patents
19.
V12 engine
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By using split crankpins or ignoring minor vibrations, any V angle is possible. The 180° configuration is referred to as a flat-twelve engine or a boxer although it is in reality a 180° V since the pistons can. This is not important in a car if all-out performance is the only goal. Since cost and fuel economy are usually important even in luxury and racing cars and it is often used in marine engines where great power is required, and the hull width is limited, but a longer vessel allows faster hull speed. In twin-propeller boats, two V12 engines can be enough to sit side-by-side, while three V12 engines are sometimes used in high-speed three-propeller configurations. Large, fast cruise ships can have six or more V12 engines, after World War II, the compact, more powerful, and vibration-free turboprop and turbojet engines replaced the V12 in aircraft applications. The first V-type engine was built in 1889 by Daimler, to a design by Wilhelm Maybach, by 1903 V8 engines were being produced for motor boat racing by the Société Antoinette to designs by Léon Levavasseur, building on experience gained with in-line four-cylinder engines. In 1904, the Putney Motor Works completed a new V12 marine racing engine—the first V12 engine produced for any purpose, a single camshaft mounted in the central V operated the valves directly. As in many engines, the camshaft could be slid longitudinally to engage a second set of cams. Starting is by pumping a charge into each cylinder and switching on the trembler coils, a sliding camshaft gave direct reversing. The camshaft has fluted webs and main bearings in graduated thickness from the largest at the flywheel end, displacing 1,120 cu in, the engine weighed 950 pounds and developed 150 bhp. Little is known of the achievements in the 40-foot hull for which it was intended. One V12 Dörwald marine engine was still running in a Hong Kong junk in the late-1960s. Two more V12s appeared in the 1909-1910 motor boat racing season, the Lamb Boat & Engine Company of Clinton, Iowa built a 1,559 cu in engine for the companys 32-foot Lamb IV. It weighed in at 2,114 pounds, no weight is known for the massive 3,464 cu in F-head engine built by the Orleans Motor Company. Output is quoted as nearly 400 bhp, by 1914, when Panhard built two 2,356 cu in engines with four-valve cylinder heads the V12 was well established in motor boat racing. In October 1913, Louis Coatalen, chief engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Car Company entered a V12 powered car in the Brooklands short, the engine displaced 9 L, with bore and stroke of 80 x 150 mm. An aluminum crankcase carried two blocks of three cylinders each along each side, with a 60 degree included angle, the cylinders were of iron, with integral cylinder heads with L-shaped combustion chambers
20.
Icaria
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Icaria, also spelled Ikaria, is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea,10 nautical miles southwest of Samos. According to tradition, it derives its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, administratively, Icarian forms a separate municipality within the Ikaria regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Agios Kirykos, the historic capitals of the island include Oenoe and Evdilos. It is one of the islands of the northern Aegean,255.303 square kilometres in area with 102 miles of coastline. The topography is a contrast between verdant slopes and barren steep rocks, the island is mountainous for the most part. It is traversed by Aetheras range, whose highest summit is 1,037 metres, most of its villages are nestled in the plains near the coast, with only some of them on the mountains. Icaria has a tradition of producing strong red wine, many parts of the island, especially the ravines, are covered in large bushes, making the landscape lush with green. Aside from domestic and domesticated species such as goats, there are a number of wild animals to be found, such as martens, otters, jumping spiders. Icaria exhibits a typical Mediterranean climate, Icaria has been inhabited since at least 7000 BC, when it was populated by the Neolithic pre-Hellenic race of Pelasgians. Around 750 BC, Greeks from Miletus colonized Icaria, establishing a settlement in the area of present-day Campos, which later became the ancient capital city of Oenoe. Icaria, in the 6th century BC, became part of Polycrates sea empire, and, in the 5th century BC, in the 2nd century, the island was colonized by Samos. At this time, the Tauropolion, the temple of Artemis was built at Oenoe, coins of the city represented Artemis and a bull. There was another, smaller temenos that was sacred to Artemis Tauropolos, at Nas, Nas had been a sacred spot to the pre-Greek inhabitants of the Aegean and an important island port in antiquity, the last stop before testing the dangerous seas around Icaria. It was a place for sailors to make sacrifices to Artemis Tauropolos, who, among other functions, was a patron of seafarers, here. The temple stood in good repair until the middle of the 19th century when the marble was pillaged, for their local church, in 1939, it was excavated by the Greek archeologist Leon Politis. During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, many of the artifacts that were unearthed by Politis disappeared, local custom states that there are still marble statues embedded in the sand off the coast. The Knights of St. John, who had their base in Rhodes, exerted some control over Icaria until 1521, the inshore waters, Georgirenes asserted, provided the best cockles in the Archipelago. Goats and sheep roamed virtually untended in the rocky landscape, cheeses were made for consumption in each household
21.
MG FF
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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
22.
Imperial Japanese Navy
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The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japans defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was formed after the dissolution of the IJN, the Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy. It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and it was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War. This eventually led to the Meiji Restoration, accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kubilai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time Japan may have developed one of the first ironclad warships when Oda Nobunaga, in 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy, the pirates then became vassals of Hideyoshi, and comprised the naval force used in the Japanese invasion of Korea. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, from 1604 the Bakufu also commissioned about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating some Western technologies, mainly for Southeast Asian trade. For more than 200 years, beginning in the 1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion forbade contacts with the outside world and prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships on pain of death. Contacts were maintained, however, with the Dutch through the port of Nagasaki, the Chinese also through Nagasaki and the Ryukyus and Korea through intermediaries with Tsushima. Apart from Dutch trade ships no other Western vessels were allowed to enter Japanese ports, an exception was during the Napoleonic wars. However frictions with foreign ships started from the beginning of the 19th century, the Nagasaki Harbour Incident involving the HMS Phaeton in 1808 and other subsequent incidents in the following decades led to the Shogunate to enact an edict to repel foreign vessels. Western ships which were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling, the shogunate also began to strengthen the nations coastal defenses. Numerous attempts to open Japan ended in failure in part to Japanese resistance, during 1853 and 1854, American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay and made demonstrations of force requesting trade negotiations. After two hundred years of seclusion the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa led to the opening of Japan to international trade and this was soon followed by the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and treaties with other powers. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki were sent by the Shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the Naval Training Center relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo, in 1857 the Shogunate acquired its first screw-driven steam warship Kanrin Maru and used it as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States. In 1865 the French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build Japans first modern naval arsenals, at Yokosuka, in 1867–1868 a British Naval mission headed by Commander Richard Tracey went to Japan to assist the development of the Japanese Navy and to organize the naval school of Tsukiji. The Shogunate also allowed and then ordered various domains to purchase warships and to develop naval fleets, Satsuma, a naval center had been set up by the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima, students were sent abroad for training and a number of ships were acquired
23.
Type 99 cannon
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The Type 99 Mark 1 cannon and Type 99 Mark 2 cannon were Japanese versions of the Oerlikon FF and Oerlikon FFL. They were adopted by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1939 and served as their standard aircraft autocannon during World War II, in 1935, officers in the Imperial Japanese Navy began to investigate 20 mm automatic cannon as armament for future fighter aircraft. Their attention was drawn to the family of aircraft manufactured by Oerlikon. Following the import and evaluation of sample guns, the Imperial Japanese Navy decided in 1937 to adopt these weapons, to produce the Oerlikon guns, a group of retired Navy admirals created a new arms manufacturing company, the Dai Nihon Heiki KK. In 1939 this started producing a Japanese version of the FF, initially known as the Type E, a Japanese version of the FFL was produced as the Type 99 Mark 2. The FFS was tested, but not put in production, the 99 in the designation derived from the Japanese imperial calendar year,1939 corresponding to the Japanese year 2599. The formal designations were Type 99 Mark 1 machine gun and Type 99 Mark 2 machine gun and Kyū-Kyū Shiki Nigō Kizyū, Kanji, the Japanese Navy classified 20 mm weapons as machine guns rather than cannon. These weapons were never used by the Japanese Army—there was almost no commonality in gun types or ammunition between Army and Navy, the Type 99 Mark 1 and Mark 2 were not models of the same gun, instead they had parallel lines of development into several different models. Because of the close similarity, several modifications were adopted to both guns simultaneously. Because it fired a cartridge than the Type 99 Mark 1, the Type 99 Mark 2 had a higher muzzle velocity but a lower rate of fire. In the first years of the war the IJN preferred the Type 99 Mark 1, towards the end of the war it developed a preference for installing the Type 99 Mark 2, presumably to counter the improving performance and ruggedness of US combat aircraft. The close economic and political ties between the IJN and Dai Nihon Heiki KK ensured that the latter had little competition, the Type 99 Mark 1 was adopted by the Japanese for both fixed and flexible installations. The fixed installation was developed first, as a fighter gun fed by a 60 round drum magazine, a flexible version, initially developed for the Mitsubishi G3M bomber, was inverted to put the ammunition drum below the line of sight of the gunner. Smaller drums were used on flexible installations where space was limited, the limited ammunition capacity was an important disadvantage. A more practical solution was provided by the Type 99 Mark 1 Fixed Model 4 and it was used exclusively in fixed installations, i. e. either in fighters or in power-operated turrets. The Type 99 Mark 2 was carried by models of the A6M, starting with the A6M3a Reisen Model 22 Ko. The Model 4 of this weapon adopted the same belt-feed mechanism as the Type 99 Mark 1 Model 4, the Type 99 Mark 2 Model 5 resulted from attempts to increase the rate of fire. By modifications that included the addition of strong buffer springs, the rate of fire was raised to between 670 and 750 rpm
24.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
25.
Improved Military Rifle
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These propellants were DuPont modifications of United States artillery propellants. DuPont miniaturized the large artillery grains to form military rifle propellants suitable for use in small arms and these were improved during the first world war to be more efficient in rimless military cartridges replacing earlier rimmed rifle cartridges. Four-digit numbers identified experimental propellants, and a few successful varieties warranted extensive production by several manufacturers, some were used almost exclusively for military contracts, or commercial ammunition production, but a few have been distributed for civilian use in handloading. Improved military rifle propellants are coated with dinitrotoluene to slow initial burning and they contain 0. 6% diphenylamine as a stabilizer and 1% potassium sulfate to reduce muzzle flash. John Bernadou patented a single-base propellant while working at the Naval Torpedo Station in 1897, Bernadous colloid of nitrocellulose with ether and alcohol was formulated for the reaction pressures generated within naval artillery. The colloid was extruded in dense cylinders with longitudinal perforations to decompose in accordance with Pioberts law, rate of reaction is controlled by heat transfer through the temperature gradient from the luminous reacting gas through the bubbles to the intact colloid. Heat transfer is faster if the bubbles are under pressure, because heat transfer is more efficient through smaller bubbles and these propellants may not react satisfactorily at low pressures within the oxygen-deficient atmosphere of a gun barrel. The United States Army also used Bernadous propellant for artillery and for the new M1903 Springfield service rifle in 1909 with the 150-grain M1906 bullet, grain size varied with bore diameter. While artillery grain dimensions might be several inches or centimeters, the grains of military rifle propellant were 0.085 inches long and 0.03 inches in diameter. The Army identified this military rifle propellant as Pyro DG, and 500 tons per day were manufactured by plants through the first world war. Each batch had somewhat different reaction rates, so testing was required to determine the charge to generate required reaction pressure in the intended cartridge. Test results were forwarded to the factory or arsenal assembling cartridges, orders from countries fighting World War I required determining charges for different European military rifle cartridges, and production volume supported research for improvements. Early propellants were identified by a two-digit number, as the number of experimental variations increased, each improved military rifle propellant was identified by a four-digit number. In addition to the canisters available from DuPont, the Director of Civilian Marksmanship sold surplus improved military rifle propellants to members of the National Rifle Association, non-conforming batches were used to load commercial and military cartridges following traditional testing procedures. Wartime temporarily interrupted production of civilian specification propellants, as quantities of new specifications were manufactured. Number 4831 was used to load navy anti-aircraft machine gun ammunition, as these propellants became military surplus after the war, large quantities of different batches were blended together to make products with uniform average performance for sale to civilians. IMR® is a trademark of the IMR Powder Company assigned to the Hodgdon Powder Company. Hodgdon Powder Company Smokeless powder Handloading Davis, Tenney L, the Chemistry of Powder & Explosives
26.
Smokeless powder
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Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of propellants used in firearms and artillery that produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the black powder they replaced. The basis of the term smokeless is that the products are mainly gaseous. Despite its name, smokeless powder is not completely free of smoke, while there may be little noticeable smoke from small-arms ammunition, since the 14th century gunpowder was not actually a physical powder, and smokeless powder can be produced only as a pelletized or extruded granular material. Smokeless powder allowed the development of modern semi- and fully automatic firearms and lighter breeches, burnt black powder leaves a thick, heavy fouling that is hygroscopic and causes rusting of the barrel. The fouling left by smokeless powder exhibits none of these properties and this makes an autoloading firearm with many moving parts feasible. However, they are used as propellants, in normal use. Before the widespread introduction of smokeless powder the use of black powder caused many problems on the battlefield, Military commanders since the Napoleonic Wars reported difficulty with giving orders on a battlefield obscured by the smoke of firing. Verbal commands could not be heard above the noise of the guns, unless there was a strong wind, after a few shots, soldiers using black powder ammunition would have their view obscured by a huge cloud of smoke. Snipers or other concealed shooters were given away by a cloud of smoke over the firing position, black powder is also corrosive, making cleaning mandatory after every use. Likewise, black powders tendency to produce severe fouling caused actions to jam, nitroglycerine was synthesized by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847. Nitroglycerine is also sensitive, making it unfit to be carried in battlefield conditions. A major step forward was the discovery of guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based material and he promoted its use as a blasting explosive and sold manufacturing rights to the Austrian Empire. Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the time was once again somewhat more unstable. John Taylor obtained an English patent for guncotton, and John Hall & Sons began manufacture in Faversham, English interest languished after an explosion destroyed the Faversham factory in 1847. Small arms could not withstand the pressures generated by guncotton, Abel patented this process in 1865 when the second Austrian guncotton factory exploded. After the Stowmarket factory exploded in 1871, Waltham Abbey began production of guncotton for torpedo, in 1863, Prussian artillery captain Johann F. E. Schultze patented a small-arms propellent of nitrated hardwood impregnated with saltpeter or barium nitrate. Prentice received an 1866 patent for a powder of nitrated paper manufactured at Stowmarket. In 1871, Frederick Volkmann received an Austrian patent for a version of Schultze powder called Collodin
27.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
28.
Dido-class cruiser
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The Dido class was a class of sixteen light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. The design was influenced by the Arethusa-class light cruisers, the first group of three ships was commissioned in 1940, the second group and third group were commissioned in 1941–1942. The Bellona subclass ships were commissioned between 1943 and 1944, most members of the class were given names drawn from classical history and legend. The 5.25 was primarily a weapon, but it was intended to fire the heaviest shell suitable for AA and probably accounted for 23 aircraft. The Improved Didos and 4 rebuilt of the originals were mainly intended as picket ships for AW and direction of the RN and USN carrier aircraft in the Pacific. The class were intended to be armed with ten 5.25 inch guns in five twin turrets, a shortage of the guns, due to difficulties in manufacturing them, led to the first group being armed with only eight 5.25 inch guns in four twin turrets. The fifth twin turret was added later to Dido only, the first group was also armed with a 4-inch gun for firing star shell and two quadruple QF2 pounder pom-poms. The second group had the five twin 5.25 inch guns, the third groups armament was changed due to the shortage of 5.25 in guns, being armed with eight 4.5 inch guns in four twin turrets instead. The 4.5 inch gun was better suited to the primary role of the Dido class. The 4.0 inch gun was fitted and the 2 pounder armament was increased from eight to ten. The Bellona subclass differed in appearance somewhat from their predecessors and they had eight 5.25 inch RP10MkII guns in four twin turrets and had greatly improved anti-aircraft armament, with twelve 2 pounder guns and twelve Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. These ships used the HACS high angle control system. The two funnels were more upright than the ones of the original Dido class. The class lost five ships during the war, in addition Scylla was badly damaged by a mine, the post-war survivors continued in service, all were decommissioned by the 1960s. Bellona, Black Prince and Royalist were lent to the Royal New Zealand Navy post-World War II, in 1956, Diadem was sold to Pakistan and renamed Babur. Bonaventure completed with four twin 5.25 in turrets because of shortages. She had received a set before October 1940 but was otherwise unaltered. She received five single 20 mm in September 1941 and had radar Type 279 by this time, Phoebe completed with four turrets and was fitted with a 4 inch in Q position forward of the bridge
29.
Cruiser
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A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundred years, and has had different meanings throughout this period. In the middle of the 19th century, cruiser came to be a classification for the intended for cruising distant waters, commerce raiding. Cruisers came in a variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the battleship before World War I. The very large battlecruisers of the World War I era that succeeded armored cruisers were now classified, along with dreadnought battleships, in the later 20th century, the obsolescence of the battleship left the cruiser as the largest and most powerful surface combatant after the aircraft carrier. The role of the cruiser varied according to ship and navy, often including air defense, during the Cold War, the Soviet Navys cruisers had heavy anti-ship missile armament designed to sink NATO carrier task forces via saturation attack. The U. S. Adams guided-missile destroyers tasked with the air defense role. Indeed, the newest U. S. Navy destroyers are more heavily-armed than some of the cruisers that they succeeded, currently only three nations operate cruisers, the United States, Russia, and Peru. The term cruiser or cruizer was first commonly used in the 17th century to refer to an independent warship, Cruiser meant the purpose or mission of a ship, rather than a category of vessel. However, the term was used to mean a smaller, faster warship suitable for such a role. The Dutch navy was noted for its cruisers in the 17th century, while the Royal Navy—and later French and Spanish navies—subsequently caught up in terms of their numbers, during the 18th century the frigate became the preeminent type of cruiser. A frigate was a small, fast, long range, lightly armed ship used for scouting, carrying dispatches, the other principal type of cruiser was the sloop, but many other miscellaneous types of ship were used as well. During the 19th century, navies began to use steam power for their fleets, the 1840s saw the construction of experimental steam-powered frigates and sloops. By the middle of the 1850s, the British and U. S. Navies were both building steam frigates with very long hulls and a gun armament, for instance USS Merrimack or Mersey. The 1860s saw the introduction of the ironclad, the first ironclads were frigates, in the sense of having one gun deck, however, they were also clearly the most powerful ships in the navy, and were principally to serve in the line of battle. In spite of their speed, they would have been wasted in a cruising role. The French constructed a number of smaller ironclads for overseas cruising duties, starting with the Belliqueuse and these station ironclads were the beginning of the development of the armored cruisers, a type of ironclad specifically for the traditional cruiser missions of fast, independent raiding and patrol
30.
HMS Dido (37)
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HMS Dido was the name ship of her class of light cruisers for the Royal Navy. Constructed by Cammell Laird Shipyard of Birkenhead, United Kingdom, she entered service in 1940 during World War II, the cruiser took part in several battles in the Mediterranean and Arctic theatres of war. Following the war, the ship performed ceremonial functions before being sold for scrapping in 1957, Didos keel was laid down on 26 October 1937 by Cammell Laird Shipyard of Birkenhead. She was launched on 18 July 1939 and commissioned on 30 September 1940 at Birkenhead, following her commissioning, Dido was sent to Scapa Flow for working up in September 1940. Part of this included high-speed sweeps off Fair Isle and Greenland, immediately after this, Didos first mission, in November 1940, was to escort the aircraft carrier Furious to West Africa, ferrying aircraft. Dido then spent four months on duty in the Atlantic before running supplies to Malta where she joined the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet in April 1941. In May of that year Dido was sent to Crete and assisted in the evacuation of the British forces, on 29 May 1941 Dido was badly damaged by bombs whilst taking troops from Crete to Alexandria. On 8 June 1941, Marines from Dido accepted the surrender of Assab in Eritrea, from July to November 1941, Dido was sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City for a refit, rejoining the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet in December 1941. The first three months of 1942 were spent on convoy duty between Alexandria and Malta but in March that year, Dido took part in a bombardment of Rhodes. A week later Dido joined the cruisers Cleopatra, Penelope, Carlisle, on 18 August 1942 Captain H. W. U. McCall brought Dido to Massawa for major repairs to a bomb-damaged stern. As Dido was at that time one-quarter of British surface power in the Eastern Mediterranean it was critical that she be repaired as quickly as possible. The only working drydock in Massawa was not large enough to lift Dido entirely so she was floated up to clear the stern. Six days later Dido was undocked to return to battle alongside her three ships, Euryalus, Cleopatra and Sirius. Dido then spent the rest of the supporting the British campaign in North Africa before being transferred to the Western Mediterranean Fleet in December 1942. Dido then performed the duty of anti-aircraft guard at Bone and Algiers until March 1943, in April 1943, Dido returned to Liverpool for a 3-month refit before rejoining the Western Mediterranean squadron. The next month was spent taking part in diversionary bombardments against North Sicily during the landings, Dido was then used as an anti-aircraft guard for invasion bases at Palermo and Bizerte. On 12 September 1943, Dido escorted 600 troops to Taranto where the Italian Fleet surrendered, from Taranto, Dido went to Sorrento where she took part in the shelling to support troops. October and November 1943 saw Dido back in Alexandria for another refit, on return to service, Dido spent time in Malta and Taranto before taking part in a diversionary action off Civitavecchia in support of the landing at Anzio
31.
PZL P.24
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The PZL P.24 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed in mid-1930s in the PZL factory in Warsaw. It was exported to countries, but not used in Poland. The PZL P.24 was developed as a version of the PZL P.11. The P.11 was powered with a license-built Bristol Mercury engine, the license did not permit export sales, so the French Gnome-Rhône company proposed using their engines in the P.11. The first P. 24/I prototype, based on the P. 11a, the second P. 24/II prototype, named the Super P.24, set a world speed record for radial engine-powered fighters. The third P. 24/III prototype was the Super P. 24bis with a more powerful 14Kfs engine, the type was shown at the Paris air show in 1934 attracting great interest from the participants. The aircraft was conventional in layout, with high wings, the wings had a gull-wing shape, with a thin profile close to the fuselage, to provide a good view for the pilot. This configuration was developed by Zygmunt Puławski and called the Polish wing, an internal 360 liter fuel tank in the fuselage could be dropped in case of fire emergency. It had conventional fixed landing gear, with a rear skid, the armament was a combination of 20 mm Oerlikon FF cannon and 7.92 mm Colt-Browning machine guns in the wings. P. 24A, P. 24E and P. 24F had two cannon and two machine guns, P. 24B, P. 24C and P. 24G had four machine guns. Despite being a fighter than the PZL P.11, none were acquired by the Polish Air Force. When it became clear the PZL.50 would not be ready in time to counter the imminent German attack, the PAF briefly considered ordering PZL-24H, despite such rumours, no PZL. 24s were used in the Polish Campaign. The aircraft had greater success abroad, though, Turkey Turkish P. 24s were used for training until the late 1940s. Some were refitted with Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines, Romania The Romanian Air Force already used PZL P. 11Fs built under license in the IAR factory, and decided to acquire the P.24 as well. Romania bought five P. 24Es and a license. Some components of the P. 24E, mainly its tail section, were used in construction of the Romanian low-wing fighter IAR80, the fighters were used to guard Bucharest and the Ploieşti oilfields from Soviet bombers at the start of Operation Barbarossa. Flying from Otopeni military airbase, the PZL P.24 fighters managed to shoot down 37 unescorted VVS bombers, the P. 24E was also used for ground attack missions until the end of 1941 and after 1942 it was relegated to training duties because of its obsolescence. Greece The Royal Hellenic Air Force is the air force during World War II to operate the PZL.24 as its main fighter type
32.
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
33.
Mitsubishi
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The Mitsubishi Group is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Its total revenue is about 1. 4% percent of Japans GDP and it is historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 to 1947 and was disbanded during the occupation of Japan following World War II. The former constituents of the continue to share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark. The three main companies in the group are The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Mitsubishi company was established as a shipping firm by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870. In 1873, its name was changed to Mitsubishi Shokai, the name Mitsubishi consists of two parts, mitsu meaning three and hishi meaning water caltrop, and hence rhombus, which is reflected in the companys logo. It is also translated as three diamonds, Mitsubishi was established in 1870, two years after the Meiji Restoration, with shipping as its core business. Its diversification was mostly into related fields, the experience of overseas shipping led the firm to enter into a trading business. In 1881, the company bought into coal mining by acquiring the Takashima Mine, followed by Hashima Island in 1890 and they also diversified into shipbuilding, banking, insurance, warehousing, and trade. Later diversification carried the organization into such sectors as paper, steel, glass, electrical equipment, aircraft, oil, as Mitsubishi built a broadly based conglomerate, it played a central role in the modernization of Japanese industry. After moving to Japan, they designed the Mitsubishi 1MT, Mitsubishi B1M, Mitsubishi 1MF, the merchant fleet entered into a period of diversification that would eventually result in the creation of three entities, Mitsubishi Bank was founded in 1919. After its mergers with the Bank of Tokyo in 1996, and UFJ Holdings in 2004, Mitsubishi Atomic Industry, a nuclear power company. Mitsubishi Chemical, the largest Japan-based chemicals company Mitsubishi Power Systems, during the Second World War, Mitsubishi manufactured military aircraft under the direction of Dr. Jiro Horikoshi. The Mitsubishi A6M was a primary Japanese naval fighter in World War II and it was used by Imperial Japanese Navy pilots throughout the war, including in kamikaze attacks during the later stages. Allied pilots were astounded by its maneuverability, and it was successful in combat until the Allies devised tactics to utilize their advantage in armor. Mitsubishi made use of forced labor during this tenure, laborers included allied POWs, as well as Chinese citizens. In the post-war period, lawsuits and demands for compensations were presented against the Mitsubishi Corporation, on July 24,2015, the company agreed to formally apologize for this wartime labor, and compensated 3765 Chinese laborers who were conscripted to Mitsubishi Mining during the war. On July 19,2015, the company apologized for using American soldiers as slave laborers during World War II, Mitsubishi was involved in the opium trade in China during this period. Mitsubishi was among a number of major Japanese companies targeted for dissolution during the occupation of Japan and it was broken up into a large number of smaller enterprises whose stock was offered to the public
34.
Mitsubishi A6M Zero
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The Mitsubishi A6M Zero is a long-range fighter aircraft, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter, the A6M was usually referred to by its pilots as the Reisen,0 being the last digit of the Imperial year 2600 when it entered service with the Imperial Navy. The official Allied reporting name was Zeke, although the use of the name Zero was later adopted by the Allies as well. When it was introduced early in World War II, the Zero was considered the most capable carrier-based fighter in the world, combining excellent maneuverability, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service also frequently used the type as a land-based fighter. During the final year of the War in the Pacific, the Zero was also adapted for use in kamikaze operations, during the course of the war, Japan produced more Zeros than any other model of combat aircraft. The Mitsubishi A5M fighter was just entering service in early 1937, on October 5,1937, they issued Planning Requirements for the Prototype 12-shi Carrier-based Fighter, sending it to Nakajima and Mitsubishi. Both firms started preliminary design work while they awaited more definitive requirements to be handed over in a few months. Based on the experiences of the A5M in China, the Imperial Japanese Navy sent out updated requirements in October calling for a speed of 600 km/h and a climb to 3,000 m in 3.5 min. With drop tanks, they wanted an endurance of two hours at normal power, or six to eight hours at cruising speed. Armament was to consist of two 20 mm cannons, two 7.7 mm machine guns and two 30 kg or 60 kg bombs, a complete radio set was to be mounted in all aircraft, along with a radio direction finder for long-range navigation. The maneuverability was to be at least equal to that of the A5M, all this was to be achieved with available engines, a significant design limitation. Nakajimas team considered the new requirements unachievable and pulled out of the competition in January, mitsubishis chief designer, Jiro Horikoshi, thought that the requirements could be met, but only if the aircraft could be made as light as possible. Every possible weight-saving measure was incorporated into the design, most of the aircraft was built of a new top-secret aluminium alloy developed by Sumitomo Metal Industries in 1936. Called Extra Super Duralumin, it was lighter, stronger and more ductile than other alloys used at the time, but was prone to corrosive attack and this detrimental effect was countered with an anti-corrosion coating applied after fabrication. No armor was provided for the pilot, engine or other points of the aircraft, and self-sealing fuel tanks. However, that tradeoff in weight and construction made it prone to catching fire. It had a fairly high-lift, low-speed wing with a low wing loading. This, combined with its weight, resulted in a very low stalling speed of well below 60 kn
35.
Hispano-Suiza 12Y
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The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force in the pre-WWII period. The 12Y became the primary 1,000 hp class engine and was used in a number of aircraft, including the Morane-Saulnier M. S.406. Its design was based on the earlier and somewhat smaller, 12X, a further development was under way, the 12Z, but ended due to the German occupation of France. The 12Y was also produced under Hispano-Suiza licence in the Soviet Union as the Klimov M-100 and this design later spawned the highly successful Klimov VK-105 series that powered the Yakovlev and Lavochkin fighters as well as the Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber. Licensed production of the models was also undertaken in Czechoslovakia as the Avia HS 12Ydrs. The 12Y was a traditional in construction, a 36-litre water-cooled V-12 with the two cast aluminium cylinder banks set at 60 degrees to each other. The cylinder heads were not removable, instead the entire block could be removed from the engine. This made it famous for being leak-proof, a design feature that was considered by other designers. The major design change from the earlier 12X was to use a connecting rod system. A single overhead camshaft drove the valves, which were filled with liquid sodium for cooling, only a single intake and exhaust valve were used, unlike most designs of the era which had moved to three or four valves per cylinder. The first 12Y test articles were constructed in 1932, and almost immediately the entire French aviation industry started designing around it, at the time the engine developed only 760 hp, but it was clear it had potential to the 1,000 hp class. An early modification led to the Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs which used a propeller shaft to allow a 20 mm cannon to fire through the propeller spinner. All later designs shared this feature, the 12Ydrs was the next major series, with a basic rating of 836 hp at sea level with a compression ratio of 5.8,1. The Armée de lAir changed their nomenclature, so the version was the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-21, which increased the compression ratio to 7,1. This boosted power to 867 hp, in 1936 the connecting rod design was changed slightly to create the 12Y-31, but the lower 5.8,1 compression ratio was retained and the power was increased only slightly over the drs model to 850 hp. Nevertheless, this one of the most used engine designs of the pre-war era, used in almost all French fighter designs. The Szydlowski-Planiol device was larger, but much more efficient than the indifferent Hispano-Suiza models, when used with 100 octane fuel, the supercharger boosted to the -21s 7,1, increasing power to 900 hp. Combined with the fully adjustable Ratier propeller, this allowed the D.520 to perform as well as designs from Germany
36.
Morane-Saulnier M.S.406
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The Morane-Saulnier M. S.406 was a French fighter aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. Numerically, it was Frances most important fighter during the stages of World War II. Although sturdy and highly maneuverable, it was underpowered and weakly armed when compared to its contemporaries, most critically, it was outperformed by the Messerschmitt Bf 109E during the Battle of France. The M. S.406 held its own in the stages of the war. In return M. S.406 squadrons achieved 191 confirmed victories, the type was more successful in the hands of Finnish and Swiss air forces who developed indigenous models. Morane-Saulniers response was the M. S.405 developed by Engineer in Chief Paul-René Gauthier, the MS.405 was a low-wing monoplane of mixed construction, with fabric-covered wooden tail, but a bonded metal/wood material skin fixed to duralumin tubing. Plymax consisted of a sheet of duralumin bonded to a thicker sheet of plywood. Morane-Saulnier had a history of producing warplanes dating back to pre-World War I years. The aircraft was a departure for them, being their first low-wing monoplane, first with an enclosed cockpit, prior to this, their most modern designs were fixed-gear parasol monoplanes. The new 641.3 kW Hispano-Suiza 12Ygrs engine driving a two-pitch Chauvière propeller powered the first M. S405-1 prototype, which flew on 8 August 1935. Development was very slow, and the second M. S. 405-2 prototype with a 671.1 kW Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs engine didnt fly until 20 January 1937, almost a year and a half later. With the new engine the fighter reached 443 km/h, fast enough to secure an order for a further 16 pre-production prototypes, the result of these changes was the M. S.406. The two main changes were the inclusion of a new wing structure which saved weight, and a retractable radiator under the fuselage, powered by the production 641.3 kW HS 12Y-31 engine, the new design was over 8 km/h faster than the 405, at 489 km/h. Armament consisted of a 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.9 or 404 cannon with 60 rounds in the V of the engine and fired through the propeller hub, a weakness of the MAC1934 was its operation at high altitudes. It was found that at altitudes over 6,000 m, heaters were added to the guns for high-altitude use. While the 406s were entering service in 1939, a series was started to improve the design. The added thrust boosted the top speed to 509 km/h, an improvement of about 16 km/h over the 406, production had just started when France fell, and only five examples had been completed. Production was allowed to continue under German supervision, converting earlier 406s to the 410 standard, a single example of the M. S.411 was constructed by converting the 12th aircraft of the pre-production line with the 406 wing and the 745.7 kW Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45 engine
37.
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
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During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. He was the last Viceroy of India and the first Governor-General of independent India, from 1954 until 1959 he was First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 1965, during this period Mountbatten also served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee for a year. He was the youngest child and the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse. His maternal grandparents were Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and his paternal grandparents were Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia, Princess of Battenberg. His siblings were Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Queen Louise of Sweden, young Mountbattens nickname among family and friends was Dickie, although Richard was not among his given names. This was because his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, had suggested the nickname of Nicky, but to avoid confusion with the many Nickys of the Russian Imperial Family, Nicky was changed to Dickie. Mountbatten was educated at home for the first 10 years of his life, he was sent to Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire and on to the Royal Naval College. His second son acquired the courtesy title Lord Louis Mountbatten and was known as Lord Louis until he was created a peer in 1946 and he paid a visit of ten days to the Western Front, in July 1918. He was appointed officer of the small warship HMS P.31 on 13 October 1918 and was promoted sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1919. HMS P.31 took part in the Peace River Pageant on 4 April 1919, Mountbatten attended Christs College, Cambridge for two terms, starting in October 1919, where he studied English literature in a programme that was specially designed for ex-servicemen. He was posted to the battlecruiser HMS Renown in March 1920 and accompanied Edward, Prince of Wales and he was promoted lieutenant on 15 April 1920. HMS Renown returned to Portsmouth on 11 October 1920, early in 1921 Royal Navy personnel were used for civil defence duties as serious industrial unrest seemed imminent. Mountbatten had to command a platoon of stokers, many of whom had never handled a rifle before and he transferred to the battlecruiser HMS Repulse in March 1921 and accompanied the Prince of Wales on a Royal tour of India and Japan. Edward and Mountbatten formed a friendship during the trip. Mountbatten survived the deep defence cuts known as the Geddes Axe and he was posted to the battleship HMS Revenge in the Mediterranean Fleet in January 1923. Promoted lieutenant-commander on 15 April 1928, he returned to the Signals School in July 1929 as Senior Wireless Instructor. He was appointed Fleet Wireless Officer to the Mediterranean Fleet in August 1931, in 1934, Mountbatten was appointed to his first command – the destroyer HMS Daring
38.
Captain (Royal Navy)
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Please see Captain for other versions of this naval rank. Captain is an officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5, the rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army and Royal Marines, and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. There are similarly named equivalent ranks in the navies of other countries. In former times Royal Navy officers who were Captains by rank and in command of a vessel were referred to as Post-Captains. In the Ministry of Defence, and in Joint Service establishments, the rank insignia features four rings of gold braid with a loop in the upper ring. When in mess dress or mess undress, officers of the rank of Captain and above wear gold-laced trousers, and may wear the undress tailcoat
39.
Commander-in-chief
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A commander-in-chief is the person or body that exercises supreme operational command and control of a nations military forces or significant elements of those forces. In the latter case, the element is those forces within a particular region. Often, a given countrys commander-in-chief need not be or have been an officer or even a veteran. This follows the principle of civilian control of the military, the role of commander-in-chief derives from the Latin, imperator. Imperatores of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire possessed imperium powers, in its modern use, the term first applied to King Charles I of England in 1639. It continued to be used during the English Civil War, a nations head of state usually holds the nominal position of commander-in-chief, even if effective executive power is held by a separate head of government. Governors-general and colonial governors are also often appointed commander-in-chief of the forces within their territory. A commander-in-chief is sometimes referred to as commander, which is sometimes used as a specific term. The term is used for military officers who hold such power and authority, not always through dictatorship. The term is used for officers who hold authority over an individual military branch. According to the Constitution of Albania, The President of the Republic of Albania is the Commander-in-chief of Albanian Armed Forces, the incumbent Commander-in-chief is President Bujar Nishani. The Ministry of Defense is the government department that assists and serves the President in the management of the armed forces, the Minister for Defence and several subordinate ministers exercise this control through the Australian Defence Organisation. The Constitution states, in Article 80, that the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Armed Forces. e, the cabinet under the chairmanship of the Federal Chancellor, as defined in Article 69. The commander-in-chief is the president, although executive power and responsibility for national defense resides with the prime minister and he retired on 7 April 1972 and relinquished all authority and duties to the President of Bangladesh. Article 142 of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 states that the Brazilian Armed Forces is under the command of the President of the Republic. The Sultan of Brunei is the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, the powers of command-in-chief over the Canadian Armed Forces are vested in the Canadian monarch, and are delegated to the Governor General of Canada, who also uses the title Commander-in-Chief. In this capacity, the general is entitled to the uniform of a general/flag officer, with the crest of the office. According to the National Defence Act, the Minister of National Defence is responsible and accountable to parliament for all related to national defence
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Home Fleet
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The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated in the United Kingdoms territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. Rear-Admiral George Atkinson-Willes was Second-in-Command of the Home Fleet, with his flag in the battleship HMS Empress of India, in May 1903 Noel was succeeded as Commander-in-Chief by Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. On 14 December 1904, the Channel Fleet was re-styled the Atlantic Fleet, in 1907, the Home Fleet was reformed with Vice-Admiral Francis Bridgeman in command, succeeded by Admiral Sir William May in 1909. Bridgeman took command again in 1911, and in the year was succeeded by Admiral Sir George Callaghan. On 4 August 1914, as the First World War was breaking out, John Jellicoe was ordered to command of the Fleet. The name Home Fleet was resurrected in March 1932, as the new name for the Atlantic Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet in 1933 was Admiral Sir John Kelly. Its chief responsibility was to keep Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine from breaking out of the North Sea, for this purpose, the First World War base at Scapa Flow was reactivated as it was well placed for interceptions of ships trying to run the blockade. The operational areas of the Home Fleet were not circumscribed, only with the destruction of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944 did the Home Fleet assume a lower priority, and most of its heavy units were withdrawn to be sent to the Far East. With the Cold War, greater emphasis was placed on protecting the North Atlantic from the Soviet Union in concert with other countries as part of NATO, Admiral Sir Rhoderick McGrigor supervised combined Western Union exercises involving ships from the British, French, and Dutch navies in June–July 1949. Admiral McGrigor flew his flag from the aircraft carrier Implacable, also taking part in the exercises were Victorious and Anson, along with cruisers and destroyers. During the exercise, the combined force paid a visit to Mounts Bay in Cornwall from 30 June-4 July 1949, Admiral Sir Philip Vian, who was Commander-in-Chief from 1950-1952, flew his flag in Vanguard. In late 1951, Theseus joined the fleet as flagship of the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet still flew his flag however in Tyne at Portsmouth. During Exercise Mainbrace in 1952, NATO naval forces came together for the first time to practice the defence of northern Europe, Denmark, navys Atlantic Fleet, in his NATO position as SACLANT, by the end of 1952. The submarine tender Maidstone was the flagship in 1956. In 1960, C-in-C Home Fleet moved to Northwood, and in 1966 the NATO Channel Command moved to Northwood from Portsmouth, in April 1963, the naval unit at the Northwood Headquarters was commissioned as HMS Warrior under the command of the then Captain of the Fleet. The Home Fleet was amalgamated with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1967, the British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 –1995
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