1.
Gefreiter
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Gefreiter is a German, Swiss and Austrian military rank that has existed since the 16th century. It is usually the rank or grade to which an enlisted soldier. Within the combined NATO rank scale, the rank of Gefreiter is usually equivalent to the NATO-standard rank scale OR-2. The word has also been lent into the Russian language, and is in use in several Russian, the Gefreiter rank was also considered a transition rank for promotion to and wherefrom replacements were selected to the Unteroffizier rank. The Gefreite-Korporale was a rank that existed along with Gefreiter in the Austrian Army during the Thirty Years War. From the 1920s the German rank of Gefreiter has expanded into several additional ranks and duties, all Gefreiter ranks are now in use with the German Army, Airforce and Navy. Gefreiter is the enlisted rank grade within the modern-day Army, Air Force. It is grade A4 in the pay scale of the Federal Ministry of Defence, within the army branch of the German Wehrmacht, a rank of Oberschütze once existed between the ranks of Gefreiter and Schütze/Soldat. In modern times the Unteroffizier rank is now considered in English the equivalent to a sergeant and less a corporal rank, under the NATO rank scale OR-5. One of the holders of the rank of Gefreiter was Adolf Hitler. Gefreiter is a rank of the Austrian Bundesheer. It might be comparable to enlisted men OR2/ private 1st Class ranks in Anglophone armed forces, however, in the Bundesheer it belongs to the so-called charges rank group. Austro-Hungarian Army Gefreiter was corresponding to Patrouilleführer, and Vormeister and it was used by the k. u. k. Kaiserjäger as well as the Feldjäger, Standschützen troops, k. u. k, then rank insignia was a single white celluloid-star on the stand-up collar of the so-called Waffenrock on gorget patch. Stand-up collar and background of the gorget patch showed a particular egalisation colour, Rank insignia Gefreiter in adjustation of the infantry See also Yefreytor is a German loanword in Russian and denotes a similar rank in the Russian army. In Russia, the rank of yefreytor was introduced by Peter I in 1716 to the infantry, cavalry, the rank was not used after 1722. During the reign of Paul I it was made an equivalent rank to private, Yefreytor was re-introduced in the course of the military reforms of 1826. In the armed forces of the Soviet Union yefreytor is the highest rank of enlisted personnel, according to NATO-ranksystem the rank might be comparable to OR-2 in Anglophone armed forces
2.
Recoilless rifle
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This allows for the elimination of much of the heavy and bulky recoiling mechanisms of a conventional cannon while still enabling the unit to fire a powerful projectile. Besides this, the pressures involved allow thinner walled and lighter tubes. Technically, only devices that use a barrel are recoilless rifles. This distinction is often lost, and both are often called recoilless rifles, though it is similar in form and appearance to a rocket launcher, it fires modified artillery shells, not rockets. Nevertheless, there are also boost-after-launch rocket-propelled projectiles available for modern recoilless rifles, the typical recoilless gun functions very much like a conventional gun. The projectile and propellant are supplied as a round and loaded into the breech. This balance of momenta ensures that the momentum of the rifle/projectile/exhaust gas system is conserved without imparting much momentum to the rifle itself, since recoil has been mostly removed, the heavy and complex gun carriage and recoil damping mechanism can be dispensed with. Despite the name, it is rare for the forces to completely balance, conversely, if a projectile becomes lodged in the barrel for any reason, the entire weapon will recoil forward, in the manner of a rocket. Unlike a rocket launcher, which fires fin-stabilized rockets from a smooth bore and they generally have a pre-engraved rifling band to engage the rifled launch tube, spin-stabilizing the projectile, hence the term rifle. The case area of the shell can be perforated to vent the propellant gases, on firing, the propellant expands rapidly, pushing the pistons outward. This pushes the projectile forwards towards the target and the countermass backwards providing the recoilless effect, the shredded plastic countermass is quickly slowed by air resistance and is harmless at a distance more than a few feet from the breech. The pistons jam at the ends of the barrel, trapping the hot propellant gases inside, all this allows safe firing in enclosed spaces. The first recoilless gun was developed by Commander Cleland Davis of the US Navy and his design, named the Davis gun, connected two guns back-to-back, with the backwards-facing gun loaded with lead balls and grease of the same weight as the shell in the other gun. His idea was used experimentally by the British as an anti-Zeppelin and anti-submarine weapon mounted on a Handley Page O/100 bomber, in the Soviet Union, the development of recoilless weapons began in 1923. In the 1930s, many different types of weapons were built, some of the smaller examples were tested in aircraft and saw some limited production and service, but development was abandoned around 1938. The best-known of these early recoilless rifles was the Model 193576 mm DRP designed by Leonid Kurchevsky, a small number of these mounted on trucks saw combat in the Winter War. Two were captured by the Finns and tested, one example was given to the Germans in 1940, the 75 was found to be so useful during the invasion of Crete that a larger 105 mm version was developed on the same basic pattern. The US did have a development program, and it is not clear to what extent the design was copied, as there were, in fact, differences
3.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
4.
Panzerfaust
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The Panzerfaust is an inexpensive, single shot, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consists of a small, disposable pre-loaded launch tube firing a high-explosive anti-tank warhead, the Panzerfausts direct ancestor was the similar, smaller-warhead Faustpatrone ordnance device. The Panzerfaust was in use from 1943 until the end of the war, the weapons concepts played an important part in the development of the later Russian RPG weapon systems such as the RPG-2. Most notably, the RPG-7 added a sustainer rocket motor to the grenade, a forerunner of the Panzerfaust was the Faustpatrone. The Faustpatrone was much smaller in appearance than the better known Panzerfaust. The propellant consisted of 54 g of powder, the metal launch tube had a length of 80 cm. Fitted to the warhead was a shaft with folded stabilizing fins. These bent blades straightened into position by themselves as soon as left the launch tube. The warhead was accelerated to a speed of 28 m/s, had a range of about 30 m, soon a crude aiming device similar to the one used by the Panzerfaust was added to the design, it was fixed at a range of 30 m. Several designations of this weapon were in use, amongst which Faustpatrone 1 or Panzerfaust 30 klein, however, it was common to refer to this weapon simply as the Faustpatrone. Of the earlier model,20,000 were ordered and the first 500 Faustpatronen were delivered by the manufacturer, HASAG Hugo Schneider AG, Werk Schlieben, development began in 1942 on a larger version of the Faustpatrone. The resulting weapon was the Panzerfaust 30, with a weight of 5.1 kilograms. The launch tube was made of low-grade steel 44 millimetres in diameter, along the side of the tube were a simple folding rear sight and a trigger. The edge of the warhead was used as the front sight, the oversize warhead was fitted into the front of the tube by an attached wooden tail stem with metal stabilizing fins. The warhead weighed 2.9 kilograms and contained 0.8 kilograms of a 50,50 mixture of TNT and hexogen explosives, the Panzerfaust often had warnings written in large red letters on the upper rear end of the tube, the words usually being Achtung. This was to warn soldiers to avoid the backblast, after firing, the tube was discarded, making the Panzerfaust the first disposable anti-tank weapon. The weapon, when fired from the crook of the arm. To use the Panzerfaust, the soldier took off the safety, aimed, unlike the Americans original M160 mm Bazooka and the Germans own heavier 88 mm Panzerschreck tube-type rocket launchers based on the American ordnance piece, the Panzerfaust did not have a trigger
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Shaped charge
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A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosives energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, initiate nuclear weapons, penetrate armor, the Munroe or Neumann effect is the focusing of blast energy by a hollow or void cut on a surface of an explosive. The earliest mention of hollow charges occurred in 1792, the first true hollow charge effect was achieved in 1883, by Max von Foerster, chief of the nitrocellulose factory of Wolff & Co. in Walsrode, Germany. By 1886, Gustav Bloem of Düsseldorf, Germany had obtained U. S, patent 342,423 for hemispherical cavity metal detonators to concentrate the effect of the explosion in an axial direction. The Munroe effect is named after Charles E. Munroe, who discovered it in 1888. As a civilian chemist working at the U. S. Conversely, if letters were raised in relief above the surface of the explosive, in 1894, Munroe constructed the first crude shaped charge, Among the experiments made. Was one upon a safe twenty-nine inches cube, with four inches. Hen a hollow charge of nine pounds and a half in weight and untamped was detonated on it. The hollow cartridge was made by tying the sticks of dynamite around a tin can, part of that 1900 article was reprinted in the February 1945 issue of Popular Science, describing how shaped-charge warheads worked. It was this article that at last revealed to the public how the fabled Bazooka actually worked against armored vehicles during WWII. In 1910, Egon Neumann of Germany discovered that a block of TNT, the military usefulness of Munroes and Neumanns work was unappreciated for a long time. Between the world wars, academics in several countries – Myron Yakovlevich Sukharevskii in the Soviet Union, payment and Donald Whitley Woodhead in Britain, and Robert Williams Wood in the U. S. – recognized that projectiles could form during explosions. However, it was not until 1932 that Franz Rudolf Thomanek, when the Austrian government showed no interest in pursuing the idea, Thomanek moved to Berlins Technische Hochschule, where he continued his studies under the ballistics expert Carl Julius Cranz. There in 1935, he and Hellmuth von Huttern developed a prototype anti-tank round, although the weapons performance proved disappointing, Thomanek continued his developmental work, collaborating with Hubert Schardin at the Waffeninstitut der Luftwaffe in Braunschweig. By 1937, Shardin believed that hollow-charge effects were due to the interactions of shock waves and it was during the testing of this idea that, on February 4,1938, Thomanek conceived the shaped-charge explosive. During World War II, shaped-charge munitions were developed by Germany, Britain, the Soviet Union, the development of shaped charges revolutionized anti-tank warfare. Tanks faced a serious vulnerability from a weapon that could be carried by an infantryman or aircraft, one of the earliest uses of shaped charges was by German glider-borne troops against the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael. These demolition charges – developed by Dr. Wuelfken of the German Ordnance Office – were unlined explosive charges and didnt produce a metal jet like the modern HEAT warheads
8.
Anti-tank warfare
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Anti-tank warfare arose as a result of the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the first tanks were developed by the Triple Entente in 1916 but not operated in battle until 1917, because tanks represent an enemys land greatest force projection, anti-tank warfare has been incorporated into the doctrine of nearly every combat service since. Most predominant anti-tank weapons at the start of World War II were the gun, anti-tank guns. Through the Cold War, The United States, Soviet Union, while previous technology was developed to protect crews of armored vehicles from projectiles and explosive damage, the possibility of radiation arose. In the NATO countries little if any development took place on defining a doctrine of how to use armed forces without the use of nuclear weapons. The solution they arrived at was maneuver warfare while massively increasing the number of anti-tank weapons and this led to the development of improved guided anti-tank missiles, though similar design work was being performed in Western Europe and the United States. Also being developed were new varieties of artillery munitions in the form of top-attack shells, helicopters could be used as well to rapidly deliver scattered anti-tank mines. Anti-tank warfare evolved as a countermeasure to the threat of the appearance on the battlefields of the Western Front of the First World War. The tank had been developed to negate the German system of trenches, however, there was no means of communication between the tanks crew and the accompanying infantry, or between the tanks participating in combat. Radios were not yet portable or robust enough to be mounted in a tank, attaching a field telephone to the rear would become a practice only during the next war. The early tanks were mechanically rudimentary, the 0. 23-to-0. 47-inch thick armor generally prevented penetration by small arms fire and shell fragments. However, even a near miss from field artillery or an impact from a mortar HE round easily disabled the tank, or destroyed it if the tank was ruptured. This was achieved by mounting a QF6 pounder Hotchkiss light 57 mm naval gun mounted in the hull barbettes, turrets were later introduced on medium and light tanks to react to ambushes during the advance. The tank, when it appeared on the Western Front in September 1916, was a surprise to the German troops. The French Army Staff was highly critical of the British Armys early fielding of the Mark I vehicles in small numbers because the French trials showed the armored vehicles to be highly unreliable. They judged that large numbers had to be employed to sustain an offensive despite losses to mechanical failure or vehicles being foundered in intractable no mans land terrain. These losses, coupled with those from enemy fire, later amounted to as high as 70% of the starters during some operations. Deploying small numbers of tanks would therefore cause the Allies to lose the element of surprise, because the German Army was the only force in need of anti-tank weapons, it was they that had to develop a viable technology to combat the tank
9.
High-explosive anti-tank warhead
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High-explosive anti-tank warhead is a type of shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate armor. The warhead functions by having the explosive charge melt a metal liner to form a high-velocity superplastic jet and this concentrated metal jet is capable of penetrating armor steel to a depth of seven or more times the diameter of the charge. Contrary to a misconception, the jet does not melt its way through armor. The HEAT warhead has become less effective against tanks and other armored vehicles due to the use of composite armour, HEAT warheads were developed during World War II, from extensive research and development into shaped charge warheads. Shaped charge warheads were promoted internationally by the Swiss inventor Henry Mohaupt, before 1939, Mohaupt demonstrated his invention to British and French ordnance authorities. Claims for priority of invention are difficult to due to subsequent historic interpretations, secrecy, espionage. This has some claim to have been the first HEAT warhead, the design of the warhead was simple and was capable of penetrating 52 millimetres of armour. The fuze of the grenade was armed by removing a pin in the tail which prevented the firing pin from flying forward. Simple fins gave it stability in the air and, provided the hit the target at the proper angle of 90 degrees. Detonation occurred on impact, when a striker in the tail of the grenade overcame the resistance of a spring and was thrown forward into a stab detonator. By mid-1940, Germany introduced the first HEAT round to be fired by a gun, the 7.5 centimetres fired by the Kw. K.37 L/24 of the Panzer IV tank and the Stug III self-propelled gun. The Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck gave the German infantryman the ability to any tank on the battlefield from 50–150 metres with relative ease of use. The Germans made use of quantities of HEAT ammunition in converted 7.5 cm Pak 97/38 guns from 1942. These so-called Schwere Hohlladung warheads were intended for use against heavily armoured battleships, operational versions weighed nearly two tons and were perhaps the largest HEAT warheads ever deployed. A five-ton version code-named Beethoven was also developed, meanwhile, the British No.68 AT rifle grenade was proving to be too light to deal significant damage, resulting in it rarely being used in action. Due to these limits, a new infantry weapon was needed. By 1942, the PIAT had been developed by Major Millis Jefferis and it was a combination of a HEAT warhead with a spigot mortar delivery system. While cumbersome, the weapon allowed British infantry to armour at range for the first time
10.
RPG-2
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The RPG-2 was a man-portable, shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon designed in the Soviet Union. It was the first successful anti-tank weapon of its type, a response to the earlier, the RPG-2 offered better range and armor penetration, making it useful against late and post-World War II tanks where the RPG-1 was of marginal use. The basic design and layout was further upgraded to produce the ubiquitous RPG-7, studying German and US anti-tank rocket designs, in 1944 the Soviets began development of the RPG-1 with the goal of combining the best features of the German Panzerfaust with the US Bazooka. Propelled by a 30 mm cartridge, the 70 millimetres HEAT round could penetrate about 150 millimetres of homogeneous armor, the warhead was already straining the capabilities of the cartridge and its range was already considered too low. Modifications to improve this began, but in 1947 the RPG-2 program started as a parallel project, the main difference in performance between the two were due to size. The RPG-2 used a custom designed 40 millimetres cartridge to provide greater power. This improved penetration to 180 millimetres which allowed it to penetrate the armor of all but very heaviest tanks. The larger cartridge gave the PG-2 warhead slightly better practical range as well, the design of the PG-2 was considerably different than the PG-1 of the RPG-1. The rear section of the PG-1 consisted of a central tube holding the charge. When the round was inserted in the launcher, the tube was outside the launcher tube. The PG-2 replaced the fins with small metal leafs attached to the inner tube and this allowed the entire propellant section to be inserted in the launcher, which in turn allowed the sights and trigger assembly to be mounted right at the front of the launcher. This slightly reduced the length compared to the RPG-1, made the entire assembly more robust, the new design was such an improvement on the earlier design that development of the RPG-1 ended in 1948. The first production versions of the RPG-2 entered service with the Soviet Armys infantry squads in 1949, in 1957 the launcher was adapted to be able to mount the NSP-2 infrared night-sight system, which consisted of an IR spotlight and a detector, together weighing 6 kilograms. The NSP-2 was usable to 150 to 200 metres under good conditions, when fitted with the NSP-2, the launcher became known as the RPG-2N. Widely distributed to allies of the Soviet Union, it was produced under license by other countries, including China. Widely used against the U. S. military in the Vietnam War, its Vietnamese variants were called the B-40, the RPG-2 anti tank grenade launcher is a simple 40 millimeter steel tube into which the PG-2 grenade is fitted. The tailboom of the grenade inserts into the launcher, the diameter of the PG-2 warhead is 80mm. The center section of the tube has a wooden covering to protect the user from the heat generated by the grenade launch
11.
RPG-7
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The RPG-7 is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Originally the RPG-7 and its predecessor, the RPG-2, were designed by the Soviet Union, the weapon has the GRAU index 6G3. The English-language term rocket-propelled grenade, though frequently encountered and reasonably descriptive, is a backronym for RPG, RPG-7 properly refers to the launcher itself, whereas RPG refers to the ammunition. The ruggedness, simplicity, low cost, and effectiveness of the RPG-7 has made it the most widely used weapon in the world. Currently around 40 countries use the weapon, and it is manufactured in several variants by nine countries and it is popular with irregular and guerrilla forces. The RPG has been used in almost all conflicts across all continents since the mid-1960s from the Vietnam War to the early 2010s War in Afghanistan, widely produced, the most commonly seen major variations are the RPG-7D paratrooper model, and the lighter Chinese Type 69 RPG. DIO of Iran manufactures RPG-7s with olive green handguards, H&K pistol grips, the RPG-7 was first delivered to the Soviet Army in 1961 and deployed at a squad level. It replaced the RPG-2, having clearly out-performed the intermediate RPG-4 design during testing, the RPG-7D3 is the equivalent paratrooper model. Both the RPG-7V2 and RPG-7D3 were adopted by the Russian Ground Forces in 2001, the launcher is reloadable and based around a steel tube,40 millimeters in diameter,95.3 centimeters long, and weighing 7 kilograms. The middle of the tube is wood wrapped to protect the user from heat, sighting is usually optical with a back-up iron sight, and passive infra-red and night sights are also available. As with similar weapons, the grenade protrudes from the launch tubes and it is 40–105 millimeters in diameter and weighs between 2.0 and 4.5 kilograms. It is launched by a booster charge, giving it an initial speed of 115 meters per second. The rocket motor ignites after 10 meters and sustains flight out to 500 meters at a velocity of 295 meters per second. The grenade is stabilized by two sets of fins that deploy in-flight, one set on the stabilizer pipe to maintain direction. The grenade can fly up to 1,100 meters, the sets the maximum range. These must be assembled into the ready-to-use grenade, the TRADOC bulletin provides anecdotal commentary that the RPG-7 has been fired from within buildings, which agrees with the two-stage design. It is stated only a 2-meter standoff to a rear obstruction is needed for use inside rooms or fortifications. The fins not only provide drag stabilization, but are designed to impart a slow rotation to the grenade, due to the configuration of the RPG-7 sustainer/warhead section, it responds counter-intuitively to crosswinds
12.
HASAG
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HASAG was a German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in Leipzig, it grew from a business making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory. During the Second World War, Hasag became a Nazi arms-manufacturing conglomerate with dozens of factories across German-occupied Europe using slave labour on a massive scale, tens of thousands of Jews from Poland, and other prisoners, died producing munition for Hasag. It began making armaments during the First World War, a decision that increased the companys profitability. The loss of business after the war resulted in dropping sales. HASAG struggled during the 1920s in the Weimar Republic, as the Nazi Party grew in influence and eventually came to power in 1933, growing militarism led to the companys return to small arms production under the new SS leadership. Following the invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II the company expanded to thousands of NS-Zwangsarbeiters from concentration camps. It was the third largest user of forced labor in Europe, with factories in Germany. Though HASAG was dismantled after the war, the trademark remained in use until 1974, the company was founded in September 1863 as Häckel und Schneider in Paunsdorf, near Leipzig, with 20 employees who made lamps by hand. Hugo Schneider was a 27-year-old Silesian salesman, his partner, Ernst Häckel, was a plumber, over the next few years, the company began making gas lamps, the production of which soon increased with the growing use of gas lighting. Schneider took over his partners share of the business in 1871 and by 1880 and it soon grew to over 300 employees and began exporting not just to other European countries, but also to South America, Asia and Australia. Schneider died on June 1,1888 and his son, Johnannes Schneider-Dörfel took over the business, schneiders sons retained 63 percent of the company, but bankers now sat on the board controlling the company. A venture involving other banks resulted in the opening of a factory in Warsaw, in 1902, in addition to lamps, the company began making portable stoves for heating and cooking, bicycle headlights and brass sheeting and wire. The company grew to 1200 employees and the value of the stock increased several times, by 1913, the company was a major producer of all types of petroleum and gas lamps. The outbreak of World War I briefly interrupted the success of the business, as HASAG lost important foreign markets, in fact, the companys net profit tripled over its previous non-military sales. The company made rounds and other items in heavy use on the front. After the war, the returned to the manufacture of goods it had produced before the war. The worldwide economic crisis and the situation in Germany affected HASAG as well, by 1930, HASAG had 1,000 employees and annual sales of 5 million Reichsmarks, but this was a drop from previous levels
13.
Leipzig
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Leipzig is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 570,087 inhabitants it is Germanys tenth most populous city, Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleisse, and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain. Leipzig has been a city since at least the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The city sits at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, Leipzig was once one of the major European centers of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing. Leipzig became an urban center within the German Democratic Republic after the Second World War. Leipzig later played a significant role in instigating the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through events which took place in, Leipzig today is an economic center and the most livable city in Germany, according to the GfK marketing research institution. Since the opening of the Leipzig City Tunnel in 2013, Leipzig forms the centerpiece of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland public transit system, Leipzig is currently listed as Gamma World City and Germanys Boomtown. Outside of Leipzig the Neuseenland district forms a lake area of approximately 300 square kilometres. Leipzig is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means settlement where the linden trees stand, an older spelling of the name in English is Leipsic. The Latin name Lipsia was also used, the name is cognate with Lipetsk in Russia and Liepāja in Latvia. In 1937 the Nazi government officially renamed the city Reichsmessestadt Leipzig, the common usage of this nickname for Leipzig up until the present is reflected, for example, in the name of a popular blog for local arts and culture, Heldenstadt. de. Leipzig was first documented in 1015 in the chronicles of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg as urbs Libzi and endowed with city, Leipzig Trade Fair, started in the Middle Ages, became an event of international importance and is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. During the Thirty Years War, two battles took place in Breitenfeld, about 8 kilometres outside Leipzig city walls, the first Battle of Breitenfeld took place in 1631 and the second in 1642. Both battles resulted in victories for the Swedish-led side, on 24 December 1701, an oil-fueled street lighting system was introduced. The city employed light guards who had to follow a schedule to ensure the punctual lighting of the 700 lanterns. The Leipzig region was the arena of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig between Napoleonic France and a coalition of Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden. It was the largest battle in Europe prior to the First World War, in 1913 the Monument to the Battle of the Nations celebrating the centenary of this event was completed. The railway station has two entrance halls, the eastern one for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the western one for the Prussian state railways
14.
Rocket (weapon)
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A rocket is a self-propelled, unguided weapon system powered by a rocket motor. Examples of modern surface-to-surface rocket systems include the BM-27 Uragan and M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, in military parlance, a rocket differs from a missile primarily by lacking an active guidance system, early missiles were known as guided rockets or guided missiles. Some rockets were developed as unguided systems and later upgraded to guided versions, like the GMLRS, rockets or missiles that travel underwater, like the VA-111 Shkval, are known as torpedoes no matter what their propulsion system is. The use of rockets as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as arrows were used, and gradually spread to Europe. Rockets became a significant weapon during the 20th Century, when precise manufacturing processes made relatively accurate rockets possible, rockets have been used as an artillery weapon for centuries, and continue to be used in the modern age after being extensively modernized in World War II. Rockets in the artillery role compliment traditional field guns, at which they are superior in some ways, Rocket artillery tends to be simpler, lighter and more mobile than guns or howitzers, most of which must be emplaced. The saturation fire produced by rocket artillery is only somewhat approximated in effectiveness with gun artillery via the time on target barrage method, time-sensitive soft target interdiction is where rocket artillery is particularly useful. With the invention of the tank, the infantry required a weapon to counter the threat, development continued after the war, with weapons such as the RPG-7, although a need to increase range led to the development of guided weapons to fulfill the anti-tank role. Most modern armies now use guided missiles for long-range engagements and rockets for close-range or emergency use, unguided rockets are a widely used weapon system and have been launched from aircraft since the early 20th century, to attack land, sea and air targets. Even after the development of guided missiles, rockets remain useful for short-range attacks – typically for close air support missions, the standard NATO calibre is 70mm and is meanwhile considered as the international calibre. The rockets can be fired from a variety of rotary and fixed-wing platforms, the 70mm rocket system offers several warhead configurations that fulfill a wide range of special mission requirements to defeat soft to lightly armored targets
15.
Grenade launcher
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A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The most common type are man-portable, shoulder-fired weapons issued to individuals, Grenade launchers can either come in the form of standalone weapons or attachments mounted to a parent firearm, usually a rifle. Larger crew-served automatic grenade launchers such as the Mk 19 are mounted on tripods or vehicles, some armored fighting vehicles also mount fixed arrays of short range, single-shot grenade launchers as a means of defense. These devices usually fire smoke grenades to conceal the vehicle behind a screen, though can also be loaded with chaff, flares. Vehicle-mounted smoke grenade launchers are known as smoke dischargers. The earliest devices which could conceivably be referred to as grenade launchers were slings, a new method of launching grenades was developed during the First World War and used throughout the Second. The disadvantage of this method is that when a soldier wants to launch a grenade, if they are surprised by a close-range threat while preparing to fire the grenade, they have to reverse the procedure before they can respond with rifle fire. Due to the lack of a barrel, rifle grenades also tend to be difficult to fire accurately compared to underbarrel or standalone designs. One of the first examples of a dedicated breech-loading launcher for unitary explosive grenade rounds was the M79 grenade launcher, the goal for the M79 was the production of a device with greater range than a rifle grenade but more portable than a mortar. Such single-shot devices were replaced in military service with underbarrel grenade launchers. Single shot launchers are still commonly used in riot control operations. This reduces the weight the soldier must carry by eliminating the grenade launchers buttstock, underbarrel 40mm grenade launchers generally have their own trigger group, to fire, one simply changes grips, disengages the safety, and pulls the trigger. In Western systems, the barrel slides forward or pivots to the side to allow reloading, soviet/Russian launchers are instead loaded from the muzzle, with the cartridge casing affixed to the projectile in the style of a mortar shell. Modern launchers often have the option of mounting more sophisticated aiming systems, such as ballistic rangefinders, one AAI submission for SPIW mounted a simple single-action, single-shot breech-loading underbarrel grenade launcher in lieu of the required semi-automatic multi-shot device. With refinement, this was adopted as the M203 grenade launcher in 1968, a variety of lengths of M203 are available along with numerous parts kits to fit it to various rifles aside from the AR15 pattern weapons it was designed for. A variant of the weapon, the M320 Grenade Launcher Module, was salvaged from the failed XM8 program. Further developments led to the GP series of grenade launchers, an automatic grenade launcher or grenade machine gun is a crew-served support weapon which fires explosive rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine
16.
Warhead
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The term warhead refers to the explosive or toxic material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, or torpedo. Types of warheads include, Explosive, An explosive charge is used to disintegrate the target, conventional, Chemicals such as gunpowder and high explosives store significant energy within their molecular bonds. This energy can be released quickly by a trigger, such as an electric spark, thermobaric weapons enhance the blast effect by utilizing the surrounding atmosphere in their explosive reactions. Blast, A strong shock wave is provided by the detonation of the explosive, fragmentation, Metal fragments are projected at high velocity to cause damage or injury. Continuous rod, Metal bars welded on their ends form a cylinder of interconnected rods. The rapidly expanding ring produces a planar cutting effect that is devastating against military aircraft, shaped charge, The effect of the explosive charge is focused onto a specially shaped metal liner to project a hypervelocity jet of metal, to perforate heavy armour. Nuclear, A runaway nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reaction causes immense energy release, chemical, A toxic chemical, such as poison gas or nerve gas, is dispersed, which is designed to injure or kill human beings. Biological, An infectious agent, such as spores, is dispersed. Often, a biological or chemical warhead will use a charge for rapid dispersal. Type of detonators include Guidance system List of aircraft weapons List of missiles Nuclear weapon yield Missile The Nuclear Weapon Archive, the B61 Bomb - Intermediate yield strategic and tactical thermonuclear bomb. Atomic Audit - The Costs and Consequences of U. S, ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah. NNSA Achieves Significant Milestone for B61 Bomb, Nuclear Weapons, The Secret History, pp. 162–164
17.
TNT
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Trinitrotoluene, or more specifically 2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H23CH3. This yellow-colored solid is used as a reagent in chemical synthesis. The explosive yield of TNT is considered to be the measure of bombs. In chemistry, TNT is used to charge transfer salts. TNT was first prepared in 1863 by German chemist Julius Wilbrand and its potential as an explosive was not appreciated for several years, mainly because it was so difficult to detonate and because it was less powerful than alternatives. Its explosive properties were first discovered by another German chemist, Carl Häussermann, the German armed forces adopted it as a filling for artillery shells in 1902. The British started replacing lyddite with TNT in 1907, TNT is still widely used by the United States military, as well as construction companies around the world. The majority of TNT currently used by the US military is manufactured by Radford Army Ammunition Plant near Radford, in industry, TNT is produced in a three-step process. First, toluene is nitrated with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid to produce mononitrotoluene, the MNT is separated and then renitrated to dinitrotoluene. In the final step, the DNT is nitrated to trinitrotoluene using a mixture of nitric acid. Nitric acid is consumed by the process, but the diluted sulfuric acid can be reconcentrated and reused. The rinse water from sulphitation is known as red water and is a significant pollutant, control of nitrogen oxides in feed nitric acid is very important because free nitrogen dioxide can result in oxidation of the methyl group of toluene. This reaction is exothermic and carries with it the risk of a runaway reaction leading to an explosion. In the laboratory,2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene is produced by a two-step process, a nitrating mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids is used to nitrate toluene to a mixture of mono- and di-nitrotoluene isomers, with careful cooling to maintain temperature. The nitrated toluenes are then separated, washed with dilute sodium bicarbonate to remove oxides of nitrogen, towards the end of the nitration, the mixture is heated on a steam bath. The trinitrotoluene is separated, washed with a solution of sodium sulfite. TNT is one of the most commonly used explosives for military, industrial, TNT has been used in conjunction with hydraulic fracturing, a process used to recover oil and gas from shale formations. The technique involves displacing and detonating nitroglycerin in hydraulically induced fractures followed by wellbore shots using pelletized TNT, TNT is valued partly because of its insensitivity to shock and friction, with reduced risk of accidental detonation compared to more sensitive explosives such as nitroglycerin
18.
RDX
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RDX is the organic compound with the formula 3. It is a white solid used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as nitramide, a more powerful explosive than TNT, it was used widely in World War II. It is often used in mixtures with other explosives and plasticizers or phlegmatizers, RDX is stable in storage and is considered one of the most powerful and brisant of the military high explosives. RDX is also known, but less commonly, as cyclonite, hexogen, T4, in the 1930s, the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, started investigating cyclonite to use against German U-boats that were being built with thicker hulls. The goal was a more powerful than TNT. For security reasons, Britain termed cyclonite as Research Department Explosive, the term RDX appeared in the United States in 1946. The first public reference in the United Kingdom to the name RDX, RDX was widely used during World War II, often in explosive mixtures with TNT such as Torpex, Composition B, Cyclotols, and H6. RDX was used in one of the first plastic explosives, the bouncing bomb depth charges used in the Dambusters Raid each contained 6,600 pounds of Torpex. RDX is believed to have used in many bomb plots including terrorist plots. RDX forms the base for a number of military explosives, Composition A, Granular explosive consisting of RDX. C-4 consists of RDX, a plasticizer, a binder, which is usually polyisobutylene, Composition CH-6,97. 5% RDX,1. 5% calcium stearate,0. 5% polyisobutylene, and 0. 5% graphite. DBX, Castable mixture consisting of 21% RDX, 21% ammonium nitrate, 40% TNT, developed during World War II, it was to be used in underwater munitions as a substitute for Torpex employing only half the amount of then-strategic RDX. As the supply of RDX became more adequate, the mixture was shelved, Cyclotol, Castable mixture of RDX with TNT designated by the amount of RDX/TNT, such as Cyclotol 70/30. HBX, Castable mixtures of RDX, TNT, powdered aluminium, h-6, Castable mixture of RDX, TNT, powdered aluminum, and paraffin wax. PBX, RDX is also used as a component of many polymer-bonded explosives. RDX-based PBXs typically consist of RDX and a polymer/co-polymer binder, semtex, Plastic demolition explosives containing RDX and PETN as major energetic components. Torpex, 42% RDX, 40% TNT, and 18% powdered aluminium, the mixture was designed during World War II and used mainly in underwater ordnance
19.
Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations
20.
Fin
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A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, fins are also used to increase surface areas for heat transfer purposes, or simply as ornamentation. Fins first evolved on fish as a means of locomotion, Fish fins are used to generate thrust and control the subsequent motion. Fish, and other animals such as cetaceans, actively propel and steer themselves with pectoral. As they swim, they use other fins, such as dorsal and anal fins to achieve stability, foil shaped fins generate thrust when moved, the lift of the fin sets water or air in motion and pushes the fin in the opposite direction. Aquatic animals get significant thrust by moving back and forth in water. Often the tail fin is used, but some aquatic animals generate thrust from pectoral fins, fins can also generate thrust if they are rotated in air or water. Turbines and propellers use a number of rotating fins, also called foils, wings, propellers use the fins to translate torquing force to lateral thrust, thus propelling an aircraft or ship. Turbines work in reverse, using the lift of the blades to generate torque, cavitation can be a problem with high power applications, resulting in damage to propellers or turbines, as well as noise and loss of power. Cavitation occurs when negative pressure causes bubbles to form in a liquid and it can cause significant damage and wear. Cavitation damage can occur to the tail fins of powerful swimming marine animals, such as dolphins. Cavitation is more likely to occur near the surface of the ocean, even if they have the power to swim faster, dolphins may have to restrict their speed because collapsing cavitation bubbles on their tail are too painful. Cavitation also slows tuna, but for a different reason, unlike dolphins, these fish do not feel the bubbles, because they have bony fins without nerve endings. Nevertheless, they cannot swim faster because the cavitation bubbles create a film around their fins that limits their speed. Lesions have been found on tuna that are consistent with cavitation damage, scombrid fishes are particularly high-performance swimmers. Along the margin at the rear of their bodies is a line of small rayless, non-retractable fins, there has been much speculation about the function of these finlets. Fish use multiple fins, so it is possible that a given fin can have an interaction with another fin. In particular, the fins immediately upstream of the fin may be proximate fins that can directly affect the flow dynamics at the caudal fin
21.
Armour
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Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships and armoured fighting vehicles, a second use of the term armour describes armoured forces, armoured weapons, and their role in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry and their weapons came to be referred to collectively as armour, the word armour began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a mail, defensive covering worn in combat, the word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning arms and/or equipment, with the root armare meaning arms or gear. Armour has been used throughout recorded history and it has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into todays modern composites. For much of history the manufacture of metal personal armour has dominated the technology. Its production was influential in the revolution, and furthered commercial development of metallurgy. Armour was the single most influential factor in the development of firearms, significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper, also, modern militaries usually do not equip their forces with the best armour available because it would be prohibitively expensive. The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century, Japanese lamellar armour passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century. These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket, armour did not always cover all of the body, sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs, in East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures including, scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates were also used, the Chinese, during that time used partial plates for important body parts instead of covering their whole body since too much plate armour hinders their martial arts movement. The other body parts were covered in cloth, leather, lamellar, in pre-Qin dynasty times, leather armour was made out of various animals, with more exotic ones such as the rhinoceros. Mail, sometimes called chainmail, made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC and its invention is credited to the Celts, the Romans were thought to have adopted their design. Gradually, small plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces, the coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat
22.
Panzerschreck
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Panzerschreck was the popular name for the Raketenpanzerbüchse, an 88 mm calibre reusable anti-tank rocket launcher developed by Nazi Germany in World War II. The Panzerschreck was designed as a lightweight infantry anti-tank weapon, the weapon was shoulder-launched and fired a fin-stabilized rocket with a shaped-charge warhead. It was made in numbers than the Panzerfaust, which was a disposable recoilless gun firing an anti-tank warhead. It was a copy of the American bazooka. The Panzerschreck was developed as a copy from captured bazookas of American origin, the American bazookas also spurred the development of the Faustpatrone and successor Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launchers that each also used a high-explosive anti-tank warhead. Calibre 88 mm was selected as existing RPzB, gr.4312 for 8.8 cm Raketenwerfer 43 was reused for Panzerschreck. Warhead and fuzing was carried over but engine section needed lengthening from 490 mm to 650 mm to accommodate the rocket motor. Raketenwerfer 43 had percussion firing, whereas for Panzerschreck an electrical priming was selected, other munitions were developed, including drill dummy, practice live rocket with inert warhead and standard grenade with improved contact system. The first model was the RPzB43, which was 164 centimetres long, operators of the RPzB43 had to wear a protective poncho and a gas mask without a filter to protect them from the heat of the backblast when the weapon was fired. In October 1943, it was succeeded by the RPzB54 and this was followed by the RPzB 54/1, which had an improved rocket, a shorter barrel, and a range increased to about 180 meters. Firing the RPzB generated a lot of both in front and behind the weapon. Because of the tube and the smoke, the German troops nicknamed it the Ofenrohr. This also meant that Panzerschreck teams were revealed once they fired, making them targets and, therefore and this type of system also made it problematic to fire the weapon from inside closed spaces, filling the room with toxic smoke and revealing the firing location immediately. The Panzerschreck could penetrate 100 mm of armor using early war rockets, late war German tactical doctrine called for Panzerschreck and/or Panzerfaust teams to set up in staggered trenches no further than 115 metres apart. In this way, attacking armor would face anti-tank fire from multiple directions at a distance of no more than 69 metres, anti-tank teams were instructed to aim for the thinner side or rear armor whenever possible. Allied armored units frequently attempted to add improvised protection to their tanks, e. g. sandbags, spare track units, logs, most of this makeshift protection had little protective effect, and overtaxed the vehicles engine, transmission, and suspension systems. Another defense was to rig metal mesh and netting around the tank, the Panzerschrecks combat success caused the Bazooka to be completely redesigned at the close of World War II. A larger,90 mm model was adopted, hence, the M20 Super Bazooka, though bearing a superficial resemblance to the Panzerschreck, the M20 had greater effective range and penetrating capability, and was nearly 20% lighter than its former counterpart
23.
Military Museum of Finland
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The Military Museum of Finland is the central museum of the Finnish Defence Forces and the national special museum of military history. It is located in Helsinki and it is part of the Finnish National Defence University, Military Museums exhibitions in Kruununhaka and Suomenlinna had around 55,000 visitors in 2012. The most popular exhibition space is submarine Vesikko, visited by around 27,000 people annually. The Military Museums task is to collect, preserve, research and display artifacts and other related to the Defence Forces of Finland, to military history. Military Museum was founded November 25,1929, the opening ceremony followed October 18,1930 at Liisankatu, Kruununhaka. Before the foundation Finnish military history was shown to public first in 1908 at Valtion historiallinen museo, the former exhibition’s theme was The War of 1808–1809 and latter’s Finnish Civil War. In January 1930 The Ministry of Defence ordered Military Museum to continue in Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, lieutenant Reijo Wilhelm Palmroth was elected as museum’s manager. The opening ceremony occurred June 11,1933 and after that museum was seen by around 9254 visitors annually, the exhibition consisted of different arms sections which included jaegers, engineers, arms and navy. There were also civil war collections to be seen, Military Museum was closed however in autumn 1939, just before the break out of Winter War against Soviet Union. The items and collections were removed from bastion Carpelan during the war, the museum office had to also relocate from Helsinki because of the Soviet air bombings in 1944. During the Winter War and Continuation War Military Museum organized a series of exhibitions at the Exhibition Hall, the first was Sotasaalisnäyttely in February 1940 which was shortly followed by Sotamuistonäyttely I and II in 1941. Military Museum organized also touring exhibitions around Finland between 1941 and 1943 and even had exhibitions in Sweden in 1942–43, there were several purposes for these kinds of war exhibitions. It was, for example, a means to gather funds for war invalids and their families, to show how it was to fight on Finnish side at the front,1944 was the year of the foundation of Sotamuistoyhdistys, later to be named Suomen sotahistoriallinen seura. The Association is and independent unit but it runs in close relationship with The Military Museum and its goal is to cherish the memory of Finnish wars in various ways. After the war Military Museum had to manage without exhibition halls for a period of time. The situation changed when it received a hall at Maurinkatu, Kruununhaka, the Military Museum is now located in a garrison building designed by Evert Lagerspetz in 1883. Military Museum expanded more in the mid-1990s after setting up an exhibition also at Liisankatu, in March 2013, a new permanent exhibition was opened there. Military Museum’s presence in Suomenlinna ceased to be at the brink of Winter War in 1939, the collections in bastion Carpelan were moved to the mainland and later Military Museum had to make way for the Armfelt Museum
24.
Steel
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Steel is an alloy of iron and other elements, primarily carbon, that is widely used in construction and other applications because of its high tensile strength and low cost. Steels base metal is iron, which is able to take on two forms, body centered cubic and face centered cubic, depending on its temperature. It is the interaction of those allotropes with the elements, primarily carbon. In the body-centred cubic arrangement, there is an atom in the centre of each cube. Carbon, other elements, and inclusions within iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations that otherwise occur in the lattices of iron atoms. The carbon in steel alloys may contribute up to 2. 1% of its weight. Steels strength compared to pure iron is possible at the expense of irons ductility. With the invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century and this was followed by Siemens-Martin process and then Gilchrist-Thomas process that refined the quality of steel. With their introductions, mild steel replaced wrought iron, further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking, largely replaced earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing the quality of the product. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world and it is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations, the noun steel originates from the Proto-Germanic adjective stakhlijan, which is related to stakhla. The carbon content of steel is between 0. 002% and 2. 1% by weight for plain iron–carbon alloys and these values vary depending on alloying elements such as manganese, chromium, nickel, iron, tungsten, carbon and so on. Basically, steel is an alloy that does not undergo eutectic reaction. In contrast, cast iron does undergo eutectic reaction, too little carbon content leaves iron quite soft, ductile, and weak. Carbon contents higher than those of steel make an alloy, commonly called pig iron, while iron alloyed with carbon is called carbon steel, alloy steel is steel to which other alloying elements have been intentionally added to modify the characteristics of steel. Common alloying elements include, manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, and niobium. Additional elements are important in steel, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and traces of oxygen, nitrogen, and copper. Alloys with a higher than 2. 1% carbon content, depending on other element content, cast iron is not malleable even when hot, but it can be formed by casting as it has a lower melting point than steel and good castability properties
25.
Armoured fighting vehicle
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An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and generally armed with weapons, which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked and it is not uncommon for AFVs to be simply referred to as armour. Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their role on the battlefield. This classification is not absolute, at different times different countries will classify the vehicle in different roles. For example, armoured carriers were generally replaced by infantry fighting vehicles in a similar role. Modern armoured fighting vehicles are the realization of an ancient concept, War machines with rudimentary armour have been used in battle for millennia. These designs historically struggled between the paradox of exposed-mobility, effective-firepower and cumbersome-protection, Siege engines, such as battering rams and trebuchets, would often be armoured in order to protect the crews from the defenders. Very large movable siege towers, helepolis were developed by Polyidus of Thessaly, the idea of a vehicle with a tortoise like cover has been known since antiquity. Frequently cited is Leonardo da Vincis 15th century sketch of a mobile, protected gun platform, the machine was to be mounted on four wheels which would be turned by the crew through a system of hand cranks and cage gears. Leonardo quoted I will build armored wagons which will be safe, there will be no obstacle which it cannot overcome. Modern replicas have demonstrated that the crew would have been able to move it over only short distances. The war wagon were medieval weapon-platforms developmed during the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia. These heavy wagon were given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using pikes, heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a ball of about 3.5 ounces, the first modern AFVs were armed cars, dating back virtually to the invention of the motor car. The Motor Scout was designed and built by British inventor F. R. Simms in 1898 and it was the first armed petrol engine powered vehicle ever built. The vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a mounted Maxim machine gun on the front bar, an iron shield offered some protection for the driver from the front, but it lacked all-around protective armour. The armoured car was the first modern fully armoured fighting vehicle, the first of these was the Simms Motor War Car, designed by Simms and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in 1899. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3. 3-litre 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a speed of around 9 miles per hour
26.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
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Bazooka
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Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. Also referred to as the Stovepipe, the bazooka was among the first generation of rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat. Near the end of the war, the Japanese developed a weapon, the Type 470 mm AT Rocket Launcher. The term bazooka still sees use as a generic term referring to any ground-to-ground shoulder-fired missile weapon. The development of the bazooka involved the development of two lines of technology, the rocket-powered weapon, and the shaped-charge warhead. It was also designed for easy maneuverability and access, the rocket-powered weapon was the brainchild of Dr. Robert H. Goddard as a side project of his work on rocket propulsion. He and his co-worker, Dr. Clarence N, the delay in the development of the bazooka was as a result of Goddards serious bout with tuberculosis. Goddard continued to be a consultant to the US government at Indian Head, Maryland, until 1923. Hickman later became head of the National Defense Research Committee in the 1940s where he guided rocket development for the war effort, including completing the development of the bazooka. Shaped charge technology was developed in the US into a shaped charge hand grenade for use by infantry, the grenade was standardized as the M10. However, the M10 grenade weighed 3.5 lb, was difficult to throw by hand, the only practical way to use the weapon was for an infantryman to place it directly on the tank, an unlikely means of delivery in most combat situations. A smaller, less powerful version of the M10, the M9, was then developed and this resulted in the creation of a series of rifle grenade launchers, the M1, the M2, the M7, and the M8. The combination of motor and shaped charge warhead would lead to Army development of light antitank weapons. In 1942, U. S. Army Colonel Leslie Skinner received the M10 shaped-charge grenade which was capable of stopping German tanks and he gave Lieutenant Edward Uhl the task of creating a delivery system for the grenade. Uhl created a small rocket, but needed to protect the firer from the rocket exhaust, according to Uhl, I was walking by this scrap pile, and there was a tube that. Happened to be the size as the grenade that we were turning into a rocket. Put the tube on a shoulder with the rocket inside. By late 1942, the improved Rocket Launcher, M1A1 was introduced, the forward hand grip was deleted, and the design simplified
28.
Operation Overlord
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Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings, a 1, 200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. The coast of Normandy was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha, the British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a military deception, Operation Bodyguard. This misled the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings, Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion. A failed counterattack by German forces on 8 August left 50,000 soldiers of the 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket, the Allies launched an invasion of southern France on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord, in June 1940, Germanys leader Adolf Hitler had triumphed in what he called the most famous victory in history—the fall of France. The defending British Expeditionary Force, trapped along the northern coast of France, was able to evacuate over 338,000 troops to England in the Dunkirk evacuation. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for the creation of a front in Western Europe. Two tentative plans code-named Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer were put forward for 1942–43, instead, the Allies launched the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and invaded Italy in September. These operations provided the troops with valuable experience in amphibious warfare, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Churchill favoured making the main Allied thrust into Germany from the Mediterranean theatre, but was over-ruled by his American allies, British Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander, to begin detailed planning. The initial plans were constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. In part because of lessons learned in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the failure at Dieppe also highlighted the need for adequate artillery and air support, particularly close air support, and specialised ships able to travel extremely close to shore. Morgan considered four sites for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected. The Pas de Calais is the closest point in continental Europe to Britain and was the location of sites for V-1 and V-2 rockets. The Germans considered it to be the most likely initial landing zone, Normandy was hence chosen as the landing site
29.
Bocage
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Bocage is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture. Bocage is a Norman word that comes from the Old Norman boscage, the Norman place names retain it as Bosc-, -bosc, Bosc-, pronounced traditionally or. The suffix -age means a general thing, the boscage form was used in English for leafy decoration such as is found on eighteenth-century porcelain. Similar words occur in Scandinavian and other Germanic languages, the root is thought to be the Proto-Germanic *bŏsk-. The boscage form seems to have developed its meaning under the influence of eighteenth-century romanticism and it is the sort of landscape found in England in Devon. The 1934 Nouveau Petit Larousse defined bocage as a bosquet, a wood, an agreeably shady wood and a bosquet as a little wood. Bocage may also refer to a small forest, an element of leaves, or a type of rubble-work. In Southeast England, in spite of a soil which would not fit this landscape. England developed in the 17th century an ambitious sea policy and it imported Russian wheat, cheaper than English wheat. The enclosures favoured sheep husbandry and limited English cereal production, as a consequence of this policy, the rural exodus was amplified, accelerating the Industrial Revolution. The surplus of workers migrated to the cities to work in factories. In Normandy, the bocage acquired a significance in the Chouannerie and during the Battle of Normandy. In response, the Rhino tank was developed, a modification added to the front of tanks to aid them cut a hole through the bocage, American personnel usually referred to bocage as hedgerows. The German army also used sunken lanes to implement strong points and defenses to stop the American troops on the Cotentin peninsula, oxford English Dictionary Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré Petit Larousse Illustré2007
30.
Urban warfare
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Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level, complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the urban terrain. Fighting in urban areas negates the advantages that one side may have over the other in armour, heavy artillery, some civilians may be difficult to distinguish from combatants such as armed militias and gangs, and particularly individuals who are simply trying to protect their homes from attackers. The United States Armed Forces term for urban warfare is UO, the previously used U. S. military term MOUT, an abbreviation for military operations in urban terrain, has been replaced by UO, although the term MOUT Site is still in use. The British armed forces terms are OBUA, FIBUA, or sometimes FISH, or FISH, israel Defense Forces calls urban warfare לשב, a Hebrew acronym for warfare on urban terrain. LASHAB in the IDF includes large-scale tactics, CQB training for fighting forces, the IDF has a special large and advanced facility for training soldiers and units in urban warfare. Urban military operations in World War II often relied on large quantities of artillery bombardment, in some particularly vicious urban warfare operations such as Stalingrad and Warsaw, all weapons were used irrespective of their consequences. However, when liberating occupied territory some restraint was often applied, Military forces are bound by the laws of war governing military necessity to the amount of force which can be applied when attacking an area where there are known to be civilians. Until the 1970s, this was covered by the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws, sometimes distinction and proportionality, as in the case of the Canadians in Ortona, causes the attacking force to restrain from using all the force they could when attacking a city. In other cases, such as the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Berlin, when Russian forces attacked Grozny in 1999, large amounts of artillery fire were used. Fighting in an environment can offer some advantages to a weaker defending force or to guerrilla fighters through ambush-induced attrition losses. The attacking army must account for three dimensions more often, and consequently expend greater amounts of manpower in order to secure a myriad of structures, and mountains of rubble. Ferroconcrete structures will be ruined by heavy bombardment, but it is difficult to demolish such a building totally when it is well defended. The characteristics of a city include tall buildings, narrow alleys, sewage tunnels. Defenders may have the advantage of detailed knowledge of the area, right down to the layout inside of buildings. The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while alleys and rubble-filled streets are ideal for planting booby traps, defenders can move from one part of the city to another undetected using underground tunnels and spring ambushes. Meanwhile, the attackers tend to more exposed than the defender as they must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders secret. During a house to search the attacker is often also exposed on the streets
31.
Spaced armour
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Armour with two or more plates spaced a distance apart is called spaced armour. It has been in use since the First World War, where it was used on the Schneider CA1, many World War II German tanks had spaced armour in the form of armoured skirts, Schürzen, to make their thinner side armour more effective against anti-tank rifle fire. Schurzen were not designed to counter the bazooka, panzerfaust, the principle of spaced armour protects against high explosive anti-tank projectiles which create a focused jet of plasticised metal, very effective at the focus point, but much less so beyond there. Relatively thin armour plates or even slats or metal mesh, much lighter than fully protective armour, can be attached as side skirts or turret skirts on tanks and other armoured vehicles. This light armour detonates the warhead prematurely so that the jet of metal is focused well before the main armour, in response to increasingly effective HEAT warheads, integral spaced armour was reintroduced in the 1960s on the German Leopard 1. Sometimes the interior surfaces of these cavities are sloped, presenting angles to the anticipated path of the shaped charges jet in order to further dissipate its power. For example, a weight of armour can be distributed in 2 layers 15 cm thick instead of a single 30 cm layer. Today some main battle tanks carry rubber skirts to protect their relatively fragile suspension, an example for this construction is the armour of the Leopard 2 tank, which provides a slanted first armour stage, a specially hardened second stage and a softer third stage with high ductility. The disturber is to deflect or at least manipulate the direction of incoming kinetic energy penetrators. The absorber stage finally erodes and contains spalls and fragments, the Whipple shield uses the principle of spaced armour to protect spacecraft from the impacts of very fast micrometeoroids. The impact with the first wall melts or breaks up the incoming particle, causing fragments to be spread over a wider area when striking the subsequent walls
32.
Company (military unit)
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A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–250 soldiers and usually commanded by a major or a captain. Most companies are formed of three to six platoons, although the number may vary by country, unit type. Usually several companies are grouped as a battalion or regiment, the latter of which is formed by several battalions. Occasionally, independent or separate companies are organized for special purposes and these companies are not organic to a battalion or regiment, but rather report directly to a higher level organization such as a Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters. The modern military company became popularized during the reorganization of the Swedish Army in 1631 under King Gustav II Adolph, for administrative purposes, the infantry was divided into companies consisting of 150 men, grouped into regiments of eight companies. Tactically, the companies were organized into battalions and grouped with cavalry troops. From ancient times, some armies have used a base administrative. Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that humans are best able to maintain stable relationships in a group numbering between 100-250 members, with 150 members being the common number. The advent of accurate, long-range rifle fire, repeating rifles and this, coupled with the advent of radio communication, permitted relatively small numbers of men to have much greater firepower and combat effectiveness than previously possible. Companies, however, continue to remain within the range of 100-250 members, perhaps validating the premise that men fight best in organizations of around 150 members. These companies were not organic to any intermediate headquarters, but rather reported directly to the division headquarters, rifle companies consist of three platoons and a company headquarters. Until after the Second World War, the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals had both squadrons and companies depending on whether the units were supporting mounted or foot formations. The British Army infantry normally identifies its rifle companies by letter within a battalion, usually with the addition of a headquarters company and a support/heavy weapons company. Some units name their companies after regimental battle honours, this is commonly the case for composite units, for example the London Regiment with its Somme, Messines and Cambrai companies. The foot guards regiments use traditional names for some of their companies, for example Queens Company, Left Flank, Royal Marines companies are designated by a letter that is unique across the corps, not just within their command. The Intelligence Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Military Police, the defunct Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps and Royal Army Ordnance Corps had companies, the Royal Corps of Transport had squadrons. British companies are commanded by a major, the officer commanding. The Honourable Artillery Company is in fact a regiment, not a company, in terms of organisation, canadian Army organisation is modelled after the British
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Platoon
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A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads/sections/patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, a platoon leader or commander is the officer in command of a platoon. This person is usually a junior officer—a second or first lieutenant or an equivalent rank, the officer is usually assisted by a platoon sergeant. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer, Platoons normally consist of three or four sections or squads. In some armies, platoon is used throughout the branches of the army, in others, such as the British Army and other Commonwealth armies, platoons are associated with the infantry. In a few armies, such as the French Army, a platoon is specifically a cavalry unit, a unit consisting of several platoons is called a company/battery/troop. According to Merriam-Webster, The term was first used in the 17th century to refer to a body of musketeers who fired together in a volley alternately with another platoon. The word came from the 17th-century French peloton, from pelote meaning a small ball, nonetheless it is documented that it took the meaning of a group of soldiers firing a volley together, while a different platoon reloaded. This implies an augmentative intention in the etymology, the modern French word peloton, when not meaning platoon, can refer to the main body of riders in a bicycle race. Pelote itself originally comes from the low Latin pilotta from Latin pila, meaning ball, the platoon was originally a firing unit rather than an organization. The system was said to have been invented by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1618, in the French Army in the 1670s, a battalion was divided into 18 platoons who were grouped into three firings, each platoon in the firing either actually firing or reloading. The system was used in the British, Austrian, Russian. Each platoon was divided into four sections, each commanded by a corporal, due to a shortage of officers, a non commissioned officer rank of Platoon Sergeant Major was introduced from 1938 to 1940 for experienced non-commissioned officers who were given command of platoons. In the Australian Army, an infantry platoon has thirty-six soldiers organized into three sections and a twelve-man maneuver support section. A lieutenant as platoon commander and a sergeant as platoon sergeant, accompanied by a platoon sig, a section comprises eight soldiers led by a corporal with a lance corporal as second in command. Each section has two fireteams of four men, one led by the corporal and the other by the lance corporal, each fireteam has one soldier with a 7. 62mm Maximi GSMG and the other three armed with Steyr F88 assault rifles. One rifle is equipped with an attached 40mm grenade launcher attachment for the lance corporal, more recently, the designated marksman of an Australian fireteam has been issued the HK417 in Afghanistan and possibly afterwards. The platoon may also have three MAG58 general-purpose machine guns, one M2 Browning heavy machine gun or a Mk 19 grenade launcher at its disposal and this may not be the case for all British Infantry units, since the 51mm mortars are not part of the TOE post-Afghanistan
34.
Volkssturm
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The Volkssturm was a national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was staffed by conscripting males between the ages of 16 and 60 years who were not already serving in military unit as part of a German Home Guard. The new Volkssturm drew inspiration from the old Prussian Landsturm of 1813–1815 that fought in the wars against Napoleon. Plans to form a Landsturm national militia in Eastern Germany as a last resort to boost fighting strength were first proposed in 1944 by General Heinz Guderian, the Army did not have enough men to resist the Soviet onslaught. So additional categories of men were called into service, including those in non-essential jobs, those deemed unfit, over-age, or under-age. The Volkssturm had existed, on paper, since around 1925, the intended strength of six million was never attained. Joseph Goebbels and other propagandists depicted the Volkssturm as an outburst of enthusiasm, while it had some marginal effect on morale, it was undermined by the recruits visible lack of uniforms and weaponry. Nazi themes of death, transcendence, and commemoration were given full play to encourage the fight, many realized that this was a desperate attempt to turn the course of the war. Sardonic old men would remark, We old monkeys are the Führer’s newest weapon, a popular joke about the Volkssturm went Why is the Volkssturm Germanys most precious resource. Because its members have silver in their hair, gold in their mouths, for these militia units to be effective, they needed not only strength in numbers, but also fanaticism. During the early stages of Volkssturm planning, it became apparent that units lacking morale would lack combat effectiveness, to generate fanaticism, Volkssturm units were placed under direct command of the local Nazi party officials, the Gauleiters and Kreisleiters. The new Volkssturm was also to become an organization, with Heinrich Himmler, as Replacement Army Commander, responsible for armament. Though normally under party control, Volkssturm units were placed under Wehrmacht command when engaged in action, the largest Volkssturm unit seems to have corresponded to the next smaller territorial subdivision of the Nazi Party organization—the Kreis. The basic unit was a battalion of 642 men, units were mostly composed of members of the Hitler Youth, invalids, the elderly, or men who had previously been considered unfit for military service. Further desperation showed when on 12 February 1945, the Nazis conscripted German women, correspondingly, girls as young as 14 years were trained in the use of small arms, bazookas, machine guns, and hand grenades from December 1944 through May 1945. Municipal organization, A Bataillon in every Kreis A Kompanie in every Ortsgruppe, a Zug in every Zelle A Gruppe in every Block Each Gauleiter and Kreisleiter, had a Volkssturm Chief of Staff to assist in handling militia problems. Historian David Yelton described the situation as two ranking officers at the helm of a sinking ship fighting over command, the Volkssturm uniform was only a black armband with words Deutscher Volkssturm Wehrmacht with a series of silver collar pips pinned to the wearers collar. These were characteristically derived from the insignia of the various paramilitary organizations of the Nazi Party, which had control over them
35.
Conscription
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Conscription, or drafting, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and those conscripted may evade service, sometimes by leaving the country. As of the early 21st century, many no longer conscript soldiers. The ability to rely on such an arrangement, however, presupposes some degree of predictability with regard to both war-fighting requirements and the scope of hostilities, many states that have abolished conscription therefore still reserve the power to resume it during wartime or times of crisis. Around the reign of Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire used a system of conscription called Ilkum, under that system those eligible were required to serve in the royal army in time of war. During times of peace they were required to provide labour for other activities of the state. In return for service, people subject to it gained the right to hold land. It is possible that this right was not to hold land per se, various forms of avoiding military service are recorded. While it was outlawed by the Code of Hammurabi, the hiring of substitutes appears to have practiced both before and after the creation of the code. Later records show that Ilkum commitments could become regularly traded, in other places, people simply left their towns to avoid their Ilkum service. Another option was to sell Ilkum lands and the commitments along with them, with the exception of a few exempted classes, this was forbidden by the Code of Hammurabi. The levies raised in this way fought as infantry under local superiors, although the exact laws varied greatly depending on the country and the period, generally these levies were only obliged to fight for one to three months. Most were subsistence farmers, and it was in everyones interest to send the men home for harvest-time, the bulk of the Anglo-Saxon English army, called the fyrd, was composed of part-time English soldiers drawn from the landowning minor nobility. These thegns were the aristocracy of the time and were required to serve with their own armour. Medieval levy in Poland was known as the pospolite ruszenie, the system of military slaves was widely used in the Middle East, beginning with the creation of the corps of Turkish slave-soldiers by the Abbasid caliph al-Mutasim in the 820s and 830s. In the middle of the 14th century, Ottoman Sultan Murad I developed personal troops to be loyal to him, the new force was built by taking Christian children from newly conquered lands, especially from the far areas of his empire, in a system known as the devşirme
36.
IS tank family
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The IS Tank was a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. The heavy tank was designed with thick armor to counter German 88 mm guns and it was mainly a breakthrough tank, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 went into service in April 1944 and was used as a spearhead by the Red Army in the stage of the Battle of Berlin. The IS acronym is the initialism of Joseph Stalin. The KV-1 was criticized by its crews for its poor mobility and it was much more expensive than the T-34, without having greater combat performance. Moscow ordered some KV-1 assembly lines to shift to T-34 production, leading to fears that KV-1 production would be halted, in 1942, this problem was partially addressed by the KV-1S tank, which had thinner armor than the original, making it lighter and faster. It was competitive with the T-34 but at the cost of no longer having the heavier armor, production of the KV-1S was gradually replaced by the SU-152 and ended in April 1943. The capture of a German Tiger tank in January 1943 led to a decision to develop a new heavy tank, before Object 237 had time to mature, intense tank fighting in the summer of 1943 demanded a response. The KV-85 was created by mounting an Object 237 turret on a KV-1S hull, to accommodate the Object 237 turret, the KV-1S hull was modified, increasing the diameter of the turret ring with fillets on the sides of the hull. The radio operator was replaced with a rack for the larger 85 mm ammunition. The hull MG was then moved to the side of the driver. From September to October 1943, a total of 130 KV-85s were produced, like the KV-1S, the KV-85 served in dwindling numbers and was quickly overshadowed by the superior IS Stalin series. The Object 237 prototype, a version of the cancelled KV-13, was accepted for production as the IS-85 heavy tank, first deliveries were made in October 1943, and the tanks went immediately into service. Its designation was simplified to IS-1 after the introduction of the IS-122, by 1943 engineers had succeeded in mounting the 85 mm gun to the T-34 medium tank, making it as well-armed as the KV-85 heavy tank. Efforts to up-gun the IS-85 began in late 1943, two candidate weapons were the D-25122 mm tank gun, ballistic characteristics of which were identical to the A-19122 mm gun, and the D-10100 mm gun, based on a naval dual-purpose gun. The D-10 had been designed for fire and had better armor penetration than the A-19. Also, the D-10 was a new weapon in short supply, while there was excess production capacity for the A-19. Compared to the older F-3476.2 mm tank gun, after testing both guns on the IS-122 and IS-100 respectively, the former was selected as the main armament of the new tank
37.
M4 Sherman
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The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most numerous battle tank used by the United States and some of the other Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, thousands were distributed through the Lend-Lease program to the British Commonwealth and Soviet Union. The tank was named by the British for the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, the M4 Sherman evolved from the interim M3 Medium Tank, which had its main armament in a side sponson mount. The M4 retained much of the mechanical design, but put the main 75 mm gun in a fully traversing turret. The designers stressed mechanical reliability, ease of production and maintenance, durability, standardization of parts and ammunition in a number of variants. These factors, combined with the Shermans then-superior armor and armament, outclassed German light, the M4 went on to be produced in large numbers. It spearheaded many offensives by the Western Allies after 1942, for this reason, the US Army believed that the M4 would be adequate to win the war, and no pressure was exerted for further tank development. Logistical and transport restrictions, such as limitations imposed by roads, ports, Tank destroyer battalions using vehicles built on the M4 hull and chassis, but with open-topped turrets and more potent high-velocity guns, also entered widespread use in the Allied armies. Even by 1944, most M4 Shermans kept their dual purpose 75 mm gun, some Shermans were produced with a more capable gun, the 76 mm gun M1, or refitted with a 17-pounder by the British. These factors combined to give the Allies numerical superiority in most battles, the U. S. Army Ordnance Department designed the M4 medium tank as a replacement for the M3 medium tank. The M3 was a development of the M2 Medium Tank of 1939. The M3 was developed as a stopgap measure until a new turret mounting a 75 mm gun could be devised, though reluctant to adopt the British army weapons in their entirety the American designers were prepared to accept proved British ideas. British ideas, as embodied with in a designed by the Canadian General Staff. Before long American Services and designers had accumulated sufficient experience to forge ahead on several points, in the field of tank armament the American 75mm and 76mm dual-purpose tank guns won the acknowledgement of British tank experts. On 18 April 1941, the U. S, Armored Force Board chose the simplest of five designs. Known as the T6, the design was a modified M3 hull and chassis and this would later became the Sherman. The goals were to produce a fast, dependable medium tank able to support infantry, provide breakthrough striking capacity, the T6 prototype was completed on 2 September 1941. The T6 upper hull was a large casting
38.
Italian Social Republic
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The Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salò, was a state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from 1943 until 1945. Mussolini had originally intended to call his new republic the “Italian ‘Socialist’ Republic. ”It was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed Republican Fascist Party. The state declared Rome its capital, but was de facto centered on Salò, a town on Lake Garda, near Brescia, where Mussolini. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern and central Italy, but was dependent on German troops to maintain control. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced in September, Germany was prepared, Germany seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The RSI was proclaimed on 23 September 1943, although the RSI claimed most of the lands of Italy as rightfully belonging to it, it held political control over a vastly reduced portion of Italy. The RSI received diplomatic recognition from only Germany, Japan and their puppet states, around 25 April 1945, Mussolinis republic came to an end. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day, on this day a general partisan uprising alongside the efforts of Allied forces, during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for more than nineteen months. On 27 April partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress, several RSI ministers, on 28 April the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, surrendered what was left of the RSI on 2 May when the German forces in Italy capitulated, this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic. On 24 July 1943, after the Allied landings in Sicily, the next day, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from office and ordered him arrested. The failed war effort left Mussolini humiliated at home and abroad as a sawdust Caesar, the new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret negotiations with the Allied powers and made preparations for the capitulation of Italy. These surrender talks implied a commitment from Badoglio not only to leave the Axis alliance, while the Germans formally recognised the new status quo in Italian politics, they intervened by sending some of the best units of the Wehrmacht to Italy. This was done both to resist new Allied advances and to face the predictably imminent defection of Italy, on 8 September, Badoglio announced Italys armistice with the Allies. German Führer Adolf Hitler and his staff, long aware of the negotiations, acted immediately by ordering German troops to control of northern. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took all of the Italian Armys materials
39.
Government of National Unity (Hungary)
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The Government of National Unity existed during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany between October 1944 and May 1945. Formed by the Nazi Arrow Cross Party, it was established on 17 October 1944 after Regent Miklós Horthy was removed from power during Operation Panzerfaust, Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi became Prime Minister and, as Nation Leader, the head of state. After Miklós Horthy announced an armistice with the Allies on 15 October, to spare his sons life, Horthy signed a statement announcing both his abdication and the appointment of Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi as Magyar királyi miniszterelnök on 16 October. He was then deported to Germany and this act merely rubber-stamped an Arrow Cross coup, as Szálasis men had taken over Budapest the previous night. The Hungarian parliament approved the formation of a Council of Regency of three on 17 October, on 4 November, Szálasi was sworn as Leader of the Nation. He formed a government of sixteen ministers, half of which were members of the Arrow Cross Party and he did this in order to reduce the threat to Germany. Szálasis aim was to create a one-party state based on his Hungarist ideology, on 21 December 1944, with the approval of the Soviet Union, Béla Miklós was elected as the Prime Minister of a counter Hungarian government in Soviet-controlled Debrecen. Miklós was a commander of the Hungarian First Army. He had failed in his efforts to many of the men under his command to switch sides. The government that Miklós oversaw was a government and maintained control in the Soviet-occupied portions of Hungary. Upon the total Nazi and Fascist takeover, Hungary faced impending occupation by the Soviet Union, the Red Army was already deep inside the country, effectively limiting the Arrow Cross regimes jurisdiction to an ever-narrowing band of territory around Budapest. Seen in this context, the Arrow Cross regime was short, in cooperation with the Nazis, Szálasi restarted the deportations of Jews, particularly in Budapest. Thousands more Jews were killed by Arrow Cross members, of the approximately 800,000 Jews residing within Hungarys expanded borders of 1941, only 200,000 survived the Holocaust. An estimated 28,000 Hungarian Roma were also killed as part of the Porajmos, Szálasi envisioned a new economic order, which he called the Corporate order of the Working nation. Even as Hungary was in chaos, Szálasi refused theoretically to compromise Hungarian sovereignty, trying to retain command of all Hungarian military units. Ethnic Germans were still not allowed to join the Arrow Cross Party, at the beginning of December, Szálasi and his government relocated out of Budapest as Soviet troops advanced towards the capital. In a scorched earth strategy, the German armed forces destroyed Hungarian infrastructure as the Soviets closed in, in December 1944, the Battle of Budapest began. Fascist forces loyal to Szálasi and the badly damaged remnants of the Hungarian First Army fought alongside German forces and they fought against the Red Army to no avail
40.
Siege of Budapest
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The Siege of Budapest or the Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 26 December 1944 by the Red Army, during the siege, about 38,000 civilians died from starvation and military action. The city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945 and it was a strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin. Suffering from nearly 200,000 deaths in three years fighting the Soviet Union, and with the front lines approaching its own cities, as political forces within Hungary pushed for an end to the fighting, Germany preemptively launched Operation Margarethe 19 March 1944, and entered Hungary. Upon hearing of Horthys efforts, Hitler launched Operation Panzerfaust to keep Hungary on the Axis side, Horthy and his government were replaced by Hungarist Ferenc Szálasi, led by the far-right National Socialist Arrow Cross Party. The besieging Soviet forces were part of Rodion Malinovskys 2nd Ukrainian Front, arrayed against the Soviets was a collection of German Army, Waffen-SS, and Hungarian Army forces. The Siege of Budapest was one of the bloodiest sieges of World War II, the Red Army started its offensive against the city on 29 October 1944. More than 1,000,000 men, split into two operating maneuver groups, advanced, the plan was to isolate Budapest from the rest of the German and Hungarian forces. On 7 November 1944, Soviet and Romanian troops entered the suburbs,20 kilometers from the old town. The Red Army, after a pause in hostilities, resumed its offensive 19 December. On 26 December, a road linking Budapest to Vienna was seized by Soviet troops, the nazi Leader of the Nation, Ferenc Szálasi, had already fled 9 December. As a result of the Soviet link-up, nearly 33,000 German and 37,000 Hungarian soldiers, as well as over 800,000 civilians, became trapped within the city. Refusing to authorize a withdrawal, Adolf Hitler had declared Budapest a fortress city, Waffen SS General Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, the commander of the IX Waffen SS Alpine Corps, was put in charge of the citys defenses. Budapest was a target for Joseph Stalin. The Yalta Conference was approaching and Stalin wanted to display his strength to Churchill. He therefore ordered General Rodion Malinovsky to seize the city without delay, during the night of 28 December 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Front contacted the besieged Germans by radios and loudspeakers and told them about a negotiation for the citys capitulation. The Soviets promised to provide humane conditions and not to mistreat the German and Hungarian prisoners. They also promised that the groups would not bring weapons
41.
82nd Airborne Division
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The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army, specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areas. Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is part of the XVIII Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division is the U. S. Armys most strategically mobile division. Some sources consider the 82nd Airborne Division the most highly trained light infantry division in the world, recently the 82nd Airborne has been conducting operations in Iraq. The 82nd Airborne has been assigned to advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces, since its initial members came from all 48 states, the unit acquired the nickname All-American, which is the basis for its famed AA shoulder patch. Famous soldiers of the division include Sergeant Alvin C, York, General James M. Colonel Chris Gibson, Brigade Commander 325 Airborne Infantry, New York Congressman. The 82nd Division was first constituted on 5 August 1917 during World War I in the National Army and it was organized and formally activated on 25 August 1917 at Camp Gordon, Georgia. The division consisted entirely of conscripted soldiers. The citizens of Atlanta held a contest to give a nickname to the new division, Major General Eben Swift, the commanding general, chose All American to reflect the unique composition of the 82nd—it had soldiers from all 48 states. The bulk of the division was two infantry brigades, each commanding two regiments, the 163rd Infantry Brigade commanded the 325th Infantry Regiment and the 326th Infantry Regiment. The 164th Infantry Brigade commanded the 327th Infantry Regiment and the 328th Infantry Regiment and it sailed to Europe to join the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General John Pershing, on the Western Front. William P. Burnham, who had commanded the 164th Brigade, led the division during most of its training. In early April, the division embarked from the ports in Boston, New York and Brooklyn to Liverpool, England, on 16 June it moved by rail to Toul, France to take position on the front lines in the French sector. Its soldiers were issued French weapons and equipment to simplify resupply, the division was briefly assigned to I Corps before falling under the command of IV Corps until late August. It was then moved to the Woëvre front, in the Lagney sector, the division relieved the 26th Division on 25 June. Though Lagney was considered a defensive sector, the 82nd Division actively patrolled and raided in the region for several weeks, from there it moved to the Marbache sector in mid-August, where it relieved the 2nd Division under the command of the newly formed US First Army. There it trained until 12 September, when the division joined the St. Mihiel offensive, once the First Army jumped off on the offensive, the 82nd Division engaged in a holding mission to prevent German forces from attacking the right flank of the First Army. On 15 September, the 328th Infantry, in order to protect the 90th Divisions flank, resumed the advance, and reached Vandières, on 17 September, the St-Mihiel Operation stabilized, and the 90th Division relieved the 82nds troops west of the Moselle River. During this operation, the division suffered casualties from enemy artillery
42.
Operation Market Garden
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Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. Field Marshal Montgomerys strategic goal was to encircle the heart of German industry, the northern end of the pincer would circumvent the northern end of the Siegfried Line giving easier access into Germany. The aim of Operation Market Garden was to establish the end of a pincer ready to project deeper into Germany. Allied forces would project north from Belgium,60 miles through the Netherlands, across the Rhine, the operation made massed use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure the bridges and allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to consolidate north of Arnhem. The operation required the seizure of the bridges across the Maas, several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured at the beginning of the operation. Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks XXX Corps ground force advance was delayed by the failure of the airborne units to secure bridges at Son. German forces demolished the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son before being secured by the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Divisions failure to capture the main road bridge over the river Waal at Nijmegen before 20 September also delayed the advance of XXX Corps. At the furthest point of the operation at Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne Division encountered initial strong resistance. The delays in capturing the bridges at Son and Nijmegen gave time for German forces, including the 9th and 10th SS panzer divisions who were present at time, to organize. In the ensuing battle, only a small force managed to capture the end of the Arnhem road bridge and after the ground forces failed to relieve them. The remainder of the 1st Airborne Division were trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge, the Allies had failed to cross the Rhine and the river remained a barrier to their advance into Germany until offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, Rees and Wesel in March 1945. The failure of Market Garden to form a foothold over the Rhine ended Allied expectations of finishing the war by Christmas 1944. After major defeats in Normandy in the summer of 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border by the end of August. To the south, the U. S. 12th Army Group under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley was nearing the German border and had ordered to orient on the Aachen gap with Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges U. S. First Army, in support of Montgomerys advance on the Ruhr, Third Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, moved eastward towards the Saar. At the same time, the U. S. 6th Army Group under General Jacob L. Devers was advancing towards Germany after their landings in southern France. The Overlord plan had foreseen this, calling for the exploitation of ports in Brittany to move the supply points forward as the armies moved, Eisenhower persisted with his plans to capture these ports, but some argued that the capture of Le Havre and Antwerp made this unnecessary. Although over-the-beach supply operations outperformed expectations, September saw deteriorating weather and rising seas, deep-water ports were therefore required, Cherbourg was useful, but far from the front
43.
Nijmegen
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Nijmegen, historically anglicized as Nimeguen, is a municipality and a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is situated on the Waal river, close to the German border, Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, the first to be recognized as such in Roman times, and in 2005 celebrated 2,000 years of existence. The municipality is part of the Stadsregio Arnhem-Nijmegen, an area with 736,107 inhabitants. By 69, when the Batavians, the inhabitants of the Rhine and Maas delta, revolted. This village was destroyed in the revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the Legio X Gemina was stationed, soon after, another village formed around this camp. In 98, Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights. In 103, the X Gemina was re-stationed to Vindobona, modern day Vienna, in 104 Emperor Trajan renamed the town, which now became known as Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum, Noviomagus for short. Beginning in the half of the 4th century, Roman power decreased. It also appeared around this time on the Peutinger Map and it has been contended that in the 8th century Emperor Charlemagne maintained his palatium in Nijmegen on at least four occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son Lothar I, thanks to the Waal river, trade flourished. The powerful Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor was born at Nijmegen in 1165, in 1230 his son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor granted Nijmegen city rights. In 1247, the city was ceded to the count of Guelders as collateral for a loan, the loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade, Nijmegen even became part of the Hanseatic League in 1364, the arts also flourished in this period. Famous medieval painters like the Limbourg brothers were born and educated in Nijmegen, during the Dutch Revolt, trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces in 1585, it remained a border town and had to endure multiple sieges. In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years, the result was the Treaty of Nijmegen that, unfortunately, failed to provide for a lasting peace. In the second half of the 19th century, the fortifications around the city became a major problem, there were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands. When events in the Franco-Prussian war proved that old-fashioned fortifications were no more of use, this policy was changed, the old castle had already been demolished in 1797, so that its bricks could be sold. Through the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the Waal was bridged in 1878 by a rail bridge and in 1936 by a car bridge, which was claimed to be Europes biggest bridge at the time
44.
Battle of the Bulge
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The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, the surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war, the battle also severely depleted Germanys armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and later, Luftwaffe aircraft, also sustained heavy losses, the Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase Battle of the Bulge was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, once that was accomplished, the German dictator Adolf Hitler believed he could fully concentrate on the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops, intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. The Germans achieved total surprise on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule, improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, the Germans initial attack involved 406,000 men,1,214 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and 4,224 artillery pieces. These were reinforced a couple of later, bringing the offensives total strength to around 450,000 troops. Between 67,200 and 125,000 of their men were killed, missing, for the Americans, out of 610,000 troops involved in the battle,89,000 were casualties. While some sources report that up to 19,000 were killed, British historian Antony Beevor reports the number killed as 8,407. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II, after the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than anticipated. The Allies were faced with several military logistics issues, - troops were fatigued by weeks of continuous combat supply lines were stretched extremely thin supplies were dangerously depleted. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region which was occupied by the U. S, the Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They also had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as an area for its troops. The speed of the Allied advance coupled with a lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems
45.
Georgy Zhukov
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Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, was a career officer in the Red Army of the Soviet Union who became Chief of General Staff, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Minister of Defence and a member of the Politburo. During World War II he participated in battles, ultimately commanding the 1st Belorussian Front in the Battle of Berlin. In recognition of Zhukovs role in World War II, he was allowed to participate in signing the German Instrument of Surrender, born into a poverty-stricken peasant family in Strelkovka, Maloyaroslavsky Uyezd, Kaluga Governorate, Zhukov became an apprentice furrier in Moscow. In 1915 the Army of the Russian Empire conscripted him, he served first in the 106th Reserve Cavalry Regiment, during World War I, Zhukov was awarded the Cross of St. George twice, and promoted to the rank of non-commissioned officer for his bravery in battle. He joined the Bolshevik Party after the 1917 October Revolution, in Party circles his background of poverty became a significant asset. After recovering from a case of typhus he fought in the Russian Civil War over the period 1918 to 1921, serving with the 1st Cavalry Army. He received the decoration of the Order of the Red Banner for his part in subduing the Tambov Rebellion in 1921, at the end of May 1923, Zhukov became a commander of the 39th Cavalry Regiment. In 1924, he entered the Higher School of Cavalry, from which he graduated the next year, in May 1930, Zhukov became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the 7th Cavalry Division. In February 1931, he was appointed the Assistant Inspector of Cavalry of the Red Army, in May 1933, Zhukov was appointed a commander in the 4th Cavalry Division. In 1937, he became a commander of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, in 1938, he became a deputy commander of the Belorussian Military District for cavalry. This campaign was a war that lasted from 1938 to 1939. These events led to the strategically decisive Battle of Khalkhin Gol, Zhukov requested major reinforcements, and on 20 August 1939, his Soviet Offensive commenced. After a massive artillery barrage, nearly 500 BT-5 and BT-7 tanks advanced, supported by over 500 fighters and bombers and this was the Soviet Air Forces first fighter-bomber operation. The offensive first appeared to be a typical conventional frontal attack, however, two tank brigades were initially held back and then ordered to advance around on both flanks, supported by motorized artillery, infantry, and other tanks. This daring and successful manoeuvre encircled the Japanese 6th Army and captured the enemys vulnerable rear supply areas, by 31 August 1939, the Japanese had been cleared from the disputed border, leaving the Soviets clearly victorious. This campaign had significance beyond the immediate tactical and local outcome, Zhukov demonstrated and tested the techniques later used against the Germans in the Eastern Front of the Second World War. After this campaign, Nomonhan veterans were transferred to units that had not seen action, for his victory, Zhukov was declared a Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the campaign – and especially Zhukovs pioneering use of tanks – remained little known outside of the Soviet Union itself, Zhukov considered Nomonhan invaluable preparation for conducting operations during the Second World War
46.
Polish People's Army
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What later became the LWP was formed during the Second World War as the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, also unofficially known as the Berling Army. As late as the beginning of 1945, out of approximately 40 thousand officers, Polish forces soon grew beyond the 1st Division into two major commands - the Polish First Army and the Polish Second Army. The Polish First Army participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Battle of Kolberg before participating in its offensive with the Battle of Berlin. After the war the Polish Army was reorganized into six military districts and it was increasingly tied into the Soviet structures. This process was stopped in the aftermath of the Polish October in 1956, however. The LWP also took part in the suppressing of the 1968 democratization process of Czechoslovakia, air Force of the Polish Army Battle of Bautzen Battle of Lenino
47.
Battle of Leyte
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Japan had conquered the Philippines in 1942. Controlling it was vital for Japans survival in World War II because it commanded sea routes to Borneo and Sumatra by which rubber, for the US, capturing the Philippines was a key strategic step in isolating Imperial Japans military holdings in China and the Pacific theater. It was also a matter of pride for MacArthur. Those relief forces were non-existent, Roosevelts true intentions in ordering MacArthur to flee the Philippines had been to prevent his capture by the Japanese, still, MacArthur had vowed that he would return to the Philippines. He repeatedly stated that it was an obligation of the US to liberate the Philippines as soon as possible. In March 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered MacArthur to plan an attack on the southern Philippines by the end of the year, halsey then recommended a direct strike on Leyte, canceling other planned operations, and the Leyte invasion date moved forward to October. Leyte, one of the islands of the Philippines, has numerous deep-water approaches and sandy beaches which offered opportunities for amphibious assaults. American air forces based on Leyte could strike at enemy bases, a heavily forested north-south mountain range dominates the interior and separates two sizable valleys, or coastal plains. The larger Leyte Valley extends from the northern coast to the eastern shore and contains most of the towns. This continued south to the port of Ormoc City, then along the shore to Baybay town. The road then turned east to cross the mountainous waist of the island, below these towns, the mountainous southern third of Leyte was mostly undeveloped. High mountain peaks over 4,400 ft, as well as the jagged outcroppings, ravines, the timing late in the year of the assault would force combat troops and supporting pilots, as well as logistical units, to contend with monsoon rains. Japanese troop strength on Leyte was estimated by US intelligence at 20,000, preliminary operations for the Leyte invasion began at dawn on 17 October with minesweeping tasks and the movement of the 6th Rangers toward three small islands in Leyte Gulf. Although delayed by a storm, the Rangers were on Suluan, on Suluan, they dispersed a small group of Japanese defenders and destroyed a radio station, while they found Dinagat unoccupied. The next day, the third island Homonhon, was taken without any opposition, on Dinagat and Homonhom, the Rangers proceeded to erect navigation lights for the amphibious transports to follow. Meanwhile, reconnaissance by underwater demolition teams revealed clear landing beaches for assault troops on Leyte, independently, the 21st Infantry Regiment on 20 Oct. landed on Panaon Strait to control the entrance to Sogod Bay. Following four hours of naval gunfire on A-day,20 October. X Corps pushed across a 4 mi stretch of beach between Tacloban airfield and the Palo River,15 mi to the south, XXIV Corps units came ashore across a 3 mi strand between San José and the Daguitan River
Germany
Bulgaria[20]
Finland[20]
Hungary[20][21]
Italian Social Republic
Poland (use of captured Panzerfausts during the war, limited use post-war under a designation PG-49).[14]
Romania[20]
Soviet Union (mass usage of captured Panzerfausts in 1945).[14]
United States U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division used captured examples, from Operation Husky—VE Day[16]
Argentina Argentine-made PAPI and possibly Swedish made Pansarskott m/46.[22][23]
Sweden manufactured and used copies of the Panzerfaust in at least two different variants; Pansarskott m/45 and Pansarskott m/46[18]
Poland Polish-made copy Pc-100.[19]
