1.
HMS Royal Oak (08)
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HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Launched in 1914 and completed in 1916, Royal Oak first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet, in peacetime, she served in the Atlantic, Home and Mediterranean fleets, more than once coming under accidental attack. The ship drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court-martialled, attempts to modernise Royal Oak throughout her 25-year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed and by the start of the Second World War, she was no longer suited to front-line duty. On 14 October 1939, Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, of Royal Oaks complement of 1,234 men and boys,833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The raid made a celebrity and war hero out of the U-boat commander, Günther Prien. The shock resulted in changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow. The wreck of Royal Oak, a war grave, lies almost upside down in 100 feet of water with her hull 16 feet beneath the surface. In an annual ceremony to mark the loss of the ship, unauthorised divers are prohibited from approaching the wreck at any time under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The Revenge-class ships were designed as smaller, slower. As an economy measure they were intended to revert to the practice of using both fuel oil and coal, but First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher rescinded the decision for coal in October 1914. Still under construction, the ships were redesigned to employ oil-fired boilers that increased the power of the engines by 9,000 shaft horsepower over the original specification. Royal Oak had an overall of 620 feet 7 inches, a beam of 88 feet 6 inches. She had a displacement of 27,790 long tons. She was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 18 Yarrow boilers, the turbines were rated at 40,000 shp and intended to reach a maximum speed of 23 knots. During her sea trials on 22 May 1916, the ship reached a top speed of 22 knots from 40,360 shp. She had a range of 7,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. Her crew numbered 909 officers and enlisted men in 1916 and their anti-aircraft armament consisted of two quick-firing 3-inch 20 cwt Mk I guns. The ships were fitted with four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, Royal Oak was completed with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot rangefinders
2.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
3.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
4.
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
5.
Vickers
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Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999. Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a foundry by the miller Edward Vickers. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson and Vickers brother William owned a steel rolling operation, edwards investments in the railway industry allowed him to gain control of the company, based at Millsands and known as Naylor Vickers and Company. It began life making steel castings and quickly became famous for casting church bells and its great architects, the historian Clive Trebilcock writes, Colonel T. E. and Albert Vickers. Both men were autocrats by temperament, but neither shunned advice or avoided delegation, each, in 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside. The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses, in 1868 Vickers began to manufacture marine shafts, in 1872 they began casting marine propellers and in 1882 they set up a forging press. Vickers produced their first armour plate in 1888 and their first artillery piece in 1890, Vickers bought out the Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, acquiring its subsidiary the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company. At the same time, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Ordnance and ammunition made during this period, including World War I, was stamped V. S. M. The yard at Barrow became the Naval Construction Yard, with these acquisitions, Vickers could now produce a complete selection of products, from ships and marine fittings to armour plate and a whole suite of ordnance. In 1901 the Royal Navys first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at the Naval Construction Yard, in 1902 Vickers took a half share in the famous Clyde shipyard John Brown and Company. In 1911 a controlling interest was acquired in Whitehead and Company, in 1919, the British Westinghouse electrical company was taken over as the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company, Metrovick. At the same time came into Metropolitans railway interests. In 1927, Vickers merged with the Tyneside based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, armstrongs shipbuilding interests became the Naval Yard, those of Vickers on the west coast the Naval Construction Yard. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was not absorbed by the new company, in 1928 the Aviation Department became Vickers Ltd and soon after acquired Supermarine, which became the Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. In 1938, both companies were re-organised as Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, although the former Supermarine and Vickers works continued to brand their products under their former names. 1929 saw the merger of the railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon. In 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of the Bristol, English Electric Company and this was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol. BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting, the Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers name for aircraft was dropped in 1965
6.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
7.
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
8.
Shell (projectile)
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A shell is a payload-carrying projectile that, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used, originally, it was called a bombshell, but shell has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Words cognate with grenade are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages, shells are usually large-calibre projectiles fired by artillery, combat vehicles, and warships. Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by a nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base. Solid cannonballs did not need a fuse, but hollow munitions filled with something such as gunpowder to fragment the ball, needed a fuse, percussion fuses with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism hit the target. Therefore, shells needed a fuse that was ignited before or during firing. The earliest record of shells being used in combat was by the Republic of Venice at Jadra in 1376, shells with fuses were used at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. These were two hollowed hemispheres of stone or bronze held together by an iron hoop, as described in their book, these hollow, gunpowder-packed shells were made of cast iron. At least since the 16th Century grenades made of ceramics or glass were in use in Central Europe, a hoard of several hundred ceramic greandes were discovered during building works in front of a bastion of the Bavarian City of Ingolstadt, Germany dated to the 17th Century. Lots of the grenades obtained their orignal blackpowder loads and igniters, most probably the grenades were intentionally dumped the moat of the bastion before the year 1723. Early powder burning fuses had to be loaded fuse down to be ignited by firing or a portfire put down the barrel to light the fuse, other shells were wrapped in bitumen cloth, which would ignite during the firing and in turn ignite a powder fuse. Nevertheless, shells came into use in the 16th Century. By the 18th Century, it was known that the fuse towards the muzzle could be lit by the flash through the windage between the shell and the barrel, the use of exploding shells from field artillery became relatively commonplace from early in the 19th century. Until the mid 19th century, shells remained as simple exploding spheres that used gunpowder and they were usually made of cast iron, but bronze, lead, brass and even glass shell casings were experimented with. The word bomb encompassed them at the time, as heard in the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner, typically, the thickness of the metal body was about a sixth of their diameter and they were about two thirds the weight of solid shot of the same calibre. To ensure that shells were loaded with their fuses towards the muzzle, in 1819, a committee of British artillery officers recognised that they were essential stores and in 1830 Britain standardised sabot thickness as a half inch. The sabot was also intended to reduce jamming during loading, despite the use of exploding shell, the use of smoothbore cannons, firing spherical projectiles of shot, remained the dominant artillery method until the 1850s. By the late 18th century, artillery could use canister shot to defend itself from infantry or cavalry attack and this involved loading a tin or canvas container filled with small iron or lead balls instead of the usual cannonball
9.
Breech-loading weapon
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A breech-loading gun is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel. Modern mass production firearms are breech-loading, early firearms, on the other hand, were almost entirely muzzle-loading. In field artillery, breech loading allows the crew to reload the gun without exposing themselves to fire or repositioning the piece. The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms was sealing the breech and this was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw, breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. The breech-loading swivel gun had a rate of fire, and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century, Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century, one such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge, patrick Ferguson, a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Later on into the century there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition, the cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly, Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812. In 1846 another Paris Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell, Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the.22 BB, the first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming. The Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr or Dreyse needle gun, was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech and it was so called because of its. 5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under von Dreyse and eventually a version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and the gun had numerous deficiencies, specifically, however, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866
10.
Recoil
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Recoil is the backward movement of a gun when it is discharged. To apply this counter-recoiling force, modern mounted guns may employ recoil buffering comprising springs and hydraulic recoil mechanisms, early cannons used systems of ropes along with rolling or sliding friction to provide forces to slow the recoiling cannon to a stop. Recoil buffering allows the maximum counter-recoil force to be lowered so that strength limitations of the gun mount are not exceeded, however, the same pressures acting on the base of the projectile are acting on the rear face of the gun chamber, accelerating the gun rearward during firing. This results in the required counter-recoiling force being proportionally lower, modern cannons also employ muzzle brakes very effectively to redirect some of the propellant gasses rearward after projectile exit. This provides a force to the barrel, allowing the buffering system. The same physics affecting recoil in mounted guns and cannons applies to hand-held guns, hands, arms and shoulders have considerable strength and elasticity for this purpose, up to certain practical limits. For this reason, establishing recoil safety standards for small arms remains challenging, a change in momentum of a mass requires a force, according to Newtons first law, known as the law of inertia, inertia simply being another term for mass. That force, applied to a mass, creates an acceleration, according to Newtons second law, the law of momentum -- changing the velocity of the mass changes its momentum. It is important to understand at this point that velocity is not simply speed, velocity is the speed of a mass in a particular direction. In a very technical sense, speed is a scalar, a magnitude, in summation, the total momentum of the system equals zero, surprisingly just as it did before the trigger was pulled. There are two conservation laws at work when a gun is fired, conservation of momentum and conservation of energy, recoil is explained by the law of conservation of momentum, and so it is easier to discuss it separately from energy. The nature of the process is determined by the force of the expanding gases in the barrel upon the gun. It is also determined by the force applied to the gun. The recoil force only acts during the time that the ejecta are still in the barrel of the gun, except for the case of zero-recoil, the counter-recoil force is smaller than the recoil force but lasts for a longer time. Since the recoil force and the force are not matched. In the zero-recoil case, the two forces are matched and the gun will not move when fired. In most cases, a gun is very close to a free-recoil condition, an example of near zero-recoil would be a gun securely clamped to a massive or well-anchored table, or supported from behind by a massive wall. For example, placing the butt of a large caliber gun directly against a wall, the recoil of a firearm, whether large or small, is a result of the law of conservation of momentum
11.
Glossary of British ordnance terms
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This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces ordnance and also ammunition. The terms may have different meanings in the military of other countries. Between decks, applies to a gun mounting in which part of the rotating mass is below the deck. This allows for a profile of turret, meaning that turrets need not be superfiring The term BL, in its general sense, stood for breech loading. The shell was loaded via the breech followed by the propellant charge, sealing the chamber to prevent escape of the propellant gases. The term BL was first used to refer to the Armstrong breechloaders, following the discontinuation of Armstrong breechloaders and the period of British rifled muzzle-loaders, British breechloaders were re-introduced in 1880. Early British Elswick breechloaders in the 1880s used a steel cup obturation method and this was quickly superseded in guns designed by the Royal Gun Factory by the French de Bange method, the basic principle of which is still in use today. In British service this became a Crossley pad with an interrupted thread screw block e. g. a Welin screw, the shell was loaded via the breech, followed by the propellant charge in a cloth bag. A single-use vent sealing tube, a type of primer not dissimilar in appearance to a rifle round, was inserted into the breech for firing the gun. For instance, Britain before World War I had both QF and BL6 inch guns and this presented difficulties for BL guns at high angles. A special cartridge was developed for BL9.2 inch guns on H. A. mountings, using multiple small fabric bags also allows the gunners to use a reduced charge if need be. The term BLC stood for BL converted and referred to a breech and breech mechanism modified from an early long-screw three- or four-motion to modern short-screw single-motion, an example is the conversion of the BL15 pounder to BLC15 pounder. Calibre radius head, the radius of a circle with the curve of the nose on its circumference. The longer and more pointed the nose, the higher the C. R. H. Typical C. R. H. for British shells leading up to World War I was two, e. g. the curve of the nose of a two C. R. H. Six-inch shell was equivalent to the curve of a circle with a radius of 12 inches, shells of four C. R. H. were soon developed in World War I, identified by an A following the shell mark number, B for six and so on. For modern streamlined shells post-World War I, two numbers were necessary to more correctly denote a shells C. R. H, for instance, the World War I6 inch 26 cwt howitzer shell was two C. R. H. The World War II Mk 2D shell was correctly described as 5/10 C. R. H, in this use it is synonymous with round
12.
Gun laying
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Gun laying is the process of aiming an artillery piece, such as a gun, howitzer or mortar on land, or at sea, against surface or air targets. It may be laying for direct fire, where the gun is aimed similarly to a rifle, or indirect fire, the term includes automated aiming using, for example, radar-derived target data and computer-controlled guns. Gun laying means moving the axis of the bore of the barrel in two planes, horizontal and vertical. A gun is traversed – rotated in a horizontal plane – to align it with the target, Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes, Gun laying may be for direct fire, where the layer sees the target, or indirect fire, where the target may not be visible from the gun. Gun laying has sometimes called training the gun. Laying in the vertical plane uses data derived from trials or empirical experience, for any given gun and projectile types, it reflects the distance to the target and the size of the propellant charge. It also incorporates any differences in height between gun and target, with indirect fire, it may allow for other variables as well. With indirect fire the horizontal angle is relative to something, typically the guns aiming point, depending on the gun mount, there is usually a choice of two trajectories. The dividing angle between the trajectories is about 45 degrees, it varies due to gun dependent factors. Below 45 degrees the trajectory is called low angle, above is high angle, the differences are that low angle fire has a shorter time of flight, a lower vertex and flatter angle of descent. All guns have carriages or mountings that support the barrel assembly, early guns could only be traversed by moving their entire carriage or mounting, and this lasted with heavy artillery into World War II. Mountings could be fitted into traversing turrets on ships, coast defences or tanks, from circa 1900 field artillery carriages provided traverse without moving the wheels and trail. The carriage, or mounting, also enabled the barrel to be set at the elevation angle. With some gun mounts it is possible to depress the gun, some guns require a near-horizontal elevation for loading. An essential capability for any elevation mechanism is to prevent the weight of the barrel forcing its heavier end downward and this is greatly helped by having trunnions at the centre of gravity, although a counterbalance mechanism can be used. It also means the elevation gear has to be enough to resist considerable downward pressure. However, mortars, where the forces were transferred directly into the ground
13.
War Office
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The name War Office is also given to the former home of the department, the War Office building located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. During August 2013 it was announced that the former War Office building would be sold on the open market. The War Office developed from the Council of War, an ad hoc grouping of the King and his military commanders which managed the Kingdom of Englands frequent wars. It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy, and the Air Ministry, the department had several London homes until it settled at Horse Guards in Whitehall during 1722, where it was to remain until 1858. The first War Office Secretary at War is usually said to have been William Blathwayt and it was, however, a fairly minor government job which dealt with the minutiae of administration rather than grand strategy. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the Northern and Southern Departments, from 1704 to 1855, the job of Secretary was possessed by a minister of the second rank, although he was occasionally part of the Cabinet. Many of his responsibilities were transferred to the Secretary of State for War after the creation of more senior post during 1794. The job of Secretary at War was merged with that of the Secretary of State for War during 1855, during 1855 the Board of Ordnance was abolished as a result of its perceived poor performance during the Crimean War. This powerful independent body, dating from the 15th century, had directed by the Master-General of the Ordnance. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War resulted in the consolidation of all duties during 1855 as subordinate to the Secretary of State for War. He was not, however, solely responsible for the Army and this was reduced in theory by the reforms introduced by Edward Cardwell during 1870, which subordinated the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary for War. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind that of Britains rivals, the management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of H. H. Asquith attempted to resolve this during the First World War by appointing Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War, making him the first, however, this was thought unsatisfactory, during his tenure, the Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the Committee of Imperial Defence, the War Office decreased greatly in importance after the First World War, a fact illustrated by the drastic reductions of its staff numbers during the inter-war period. On 1 April 1920, it employed 7,434 civilian staff and its responsibilities and funding were also reduced. During 1936, the government of Stanley Baldwin appointed a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister during 1940, he bypassed the War Office altogether and appointed himself Minister of Defence. Clement Attlee continued this arrangement when he came to power during 1945, during 1964, the present form of the Ministry of Defence was established, unifying the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry. The records of the War Office are kept by The National Archives with the code WO and it contains about 1,000 rooms across seven floors, linked by 2½ miles of corridors
14.
Welin breech block
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The Welin breech block was a revolutionary stepped, interrupted thread design for locking artillery breeches, invented by Axel Welin in 1889 or 1890. Shortly after, Vickers acquired the British patents, the breech block incorporated a screw design with multiple steps of threads of progressively increasing radius, each step occupying the same circular sector. Each step engaged with its matching thread cut in the gun breech when inserted and rotated and it was also simpler and more secure.5 inches. Rifled breech loader YouTube video showing Welin breech mechanism Royal New Zealand Artillery Association, Breech Mechanisms
15.
QF 3.7-inch AA gun
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The QF3. 7-inch AA was Britains primary heavy anti-aircraft gun during World War II. It was roughly the equivalent of the German 88 mm FlaK and American 90 mm and it was used throughout World War II in all theatres except the Eastern Front. The gun was produced in six variants, two versions and in considerable numbers. The Mk VI ordnance used only with a fixed mounting gave vastly increased performance and it remained in use after the war until AA guns were replaced by guided missiles, notably the Thunderbird, in the late 1950s. During World War I, anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft gunnery developed rapidly, the British Army eventually adopted the QF 3-inch 20 cwt as the most commonly used type. Shortly before the end of the war a new QF3.6 inch gun was accepted for service, after the war, all anti-aircraft guns except the three-inch gun were scrapped. However, the war had shown the possibilities and potential for air attack, the British had used AA guns in most theatres in daylight, as well as against night attacks at home. They had also formed an AA Experimental Section during the war, after an immediate post war hiatus, the army re-established peacetime anti-aircraft units in 1922. In 1925 the RAF established a new command, Air Defence of Great Britain, in 1924–5 the war office published the two-volume Textbook of Anti-Aircraft Gunnery. First, aimed fire was the method and this was enabled by predicting gun data from visually tracking the target with continuous height. Second, that the target would maintain a course, speed. Heavy anti-aircraft units were to engage targets up to 24,000 feet, mechanical, as opposed to igniferous, time fuzes were required because the speed of powder burning varied with height so fuze length was not a simple function of time of flight. Automated fire ensured a constant rate of fire made it easier to predict where each shell should be individually aimed. The three-inch AA guns were modified accordingly, in 1928 the general characteristics for a new HAA gun were agreed, a bore of 3.7 inches firing 25 lb shells with a ceiling of 28,000 feet. In 1934, Vickers Armstrong produced a mock-up and proceeded to develop prototypes of the weapon, the weight specification was exceeded, the muzzle velocity not achieved and the mechanical time fuze, No. 206, was some years from production. The igniferous No.199 had to be used and its running time limited the effective ceiling. Gun production started the following year, on 1 January 1938, the British air defences had only 180 anti-aircraft guns larger than 50 mm and most of these were the older 3-inch guns
16.
QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun
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This QF gun was introduced to provide a higher rate of fire than the BL4 inch Mk VII. It first appeared in 1914 as secondary armament on Arethusa class cruisers, was adapted to a high-angle anti-aircraft role. It was typically used on cruisers and heavier ships, although V and W class destroyers of 1917 also mounted the gun. Mk V was superseded by the QF4 inch Mk XVI as the HA gun on new warships in the 1930s, early in World War I several guns were supplied by the Navy for evaluation as anti-aircraft guns for the home defence of key installations in Britain. They were mounted on platforms and proved fairly successful after a fixed round was developed to replace the original separate round. The AA mounting allowed elevation to 80° but loading was not possible above 62°, at the Armistice a total of 24 guns were employed in AA defences in Britain and 2 in France. After World War I the guns were returned to the Navy, from 1915 to 1928 several guns were mounted in forts to guard the estuary of the River Humber. The fixed Mk V ammunition was 44.3 inches long and weighed 56 pounds, List of anti-aircraft guns List of naval guns List of naval anti-aircraft guns Cannon 102/45 Italian copy of the QF Mk V made under license 10. V. Hogg & L. F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918, routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Naval Weapons of World War Two, gun drill for 4-inch Q. F. gun mark V1924 at State Library of Victoria
17.
HMAS Australia (1911)
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HMAS Australia was one of three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. Ordered by the Australian government in 1909, she was launched in 1911, Australia was the only capital ship ever to serve in the RAN. At the start of World War I, Australia was tasked with finding and destroying the German East Asia Squadron, Australia was then assigned to North Sea operations, which consisted primarily of patrols and exercises, until the end of the war. During this time, Australia was involved in attempts at naval aviation. The battlecruiser was not at the Battle of Jutland, as she was undergoing repairs following a collision with sister ship HMS New Zealand, Australia only ever fired in anger twice, at a German merchant vessel in January 1915, and at a suspected submarine contact in December 1917. Post-war budget cuts saw Australias role downgraded to a ship before she was placed in reserve in 1921. The disarmament provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty required the destruction of Australia as part of the British Empires commitment, the Indefatigable class of battlecruisers were based heavily on the preceding Invincible class. The main difference was that the Indefatigables design was enlarged to give the two wing turrets a wider arc of fire. Australia had a length of 590 feet, a beam of 80 feet. She displaced 18,500 long tons at load and 22,130 long tons at deep load, the Parsons direct-drive steam turbines were designed to produce 44,000 shaft horsepower, which would propel the ship at 25 knots. However, during trials in 1913, Australias turbines provided 55,000 shp, Australia carried approximately 3,200 long tons of coal, and an additional 850 long tons of fuel oil, this was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. Australia carried eight BL 12-inch Mark X guns in four BVIII* twin turrets, two turrets were mounted fore and aft on the centreline, identified as A and X respectively. The other two were wing turrets mounted amidships and staggered diagonally, P was forward and to port of the funnel, while Q was situated starboard. Each wing turret had limited ability to fire to the opposite side. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen BL 4-inch Mark VII guns positioned in the superstructure and she mounted two submerged tubes for 18-inch torpedoes, one on each side aft of X barbette, and 12 torpedoes were carried. Australias A turret was fitted with a 9-foot rangefinder at the rear of the turret roof and it was also equipped to control the entire main armament, in case normal fire control positions were knocked out or rendered incommunicado. Australia received a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun on a high-angle Mark II mount that was added in March 1915 and this had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90°. It fired a 12. 5-pound shell at a velocity of 2,500 ft/s at a rate of fire of 12–14 rounds per minute
18.
Royal Naval Reserve
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The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve, created in 1859, the Royal Naval Reserve has seen action in World War I, World War II, the Iraq War and Afghanistan. This led to a Royal Commission on Manning the Navy in 1858 and this established the RNR as a reserve of professional seamen from the British Merchant Navy and fishing fleets, who could be called upon during times of war to serve in the regular Royal Navy. The RNR was originally a reserve of only, but in 1862 this was extended to include the recruitment. From its creation, RNR officers wore on their uniforms a unique, after initial shore training, officers embarked in larger ships of the Royal Navys fleet for one year, to familiarise themselves with gunnery and naval practice. In 1910, the RNR was formed to recruit and train fishermen for wartime service in minesweepers, prior to the First World War, one hundred RNR officers were transferred to permanent careers in the regular navy—forever after referred to as the hungry hundred. In their professional careers, many RNR officers went on to command the largest passenger liners of the day and some also held positions in the shipping industry. On mobilisation in 1914, the RNR consisted of 30,000 officers, Officers of the permanent RNR on general service quickly took up seagoing appointments in the fleet, many in command, in destroyers, submarines, auxiliary cruisers and Q-ships. Others served in units of the battle fleet including a large number with the West Indies Squadron who became casualties at the Battle of Coronel. One such casualty was armed naval drifter HMT Frons Olivae, which hit a mine off Ramsgate on 12 October 1915 in an explosion killed at least five other seamen. One casualty, a Newfoundlander serving with the Royal Naval Reserve, was buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal. Merchant service officers and men serving in armed merchant cruisers, hospital ships, fleet auxiliaries, although considerably smaller than both the RN and the RNVR, the RNR had an exceptional war record, members being awarded twelve Victoria Crosses. Again, RNR officers found themselves in command of destroyers, frigates, sloops, landing craft and submarines, or as specialist navigation officers in cruisers, in convoy work, the convoy commodore or escort commander was often an RNR officer. As in the First World War, the RNR acquitted itself well, during the Second World War, no more ratings were accepted into the RNVR, which then became the main route for wartime officer entry. The service was called the Wavy Navy, after the 3/8-inch wavy sleeve rings that RNVR officers wore to differentiate them from RN/RNR officers. From 30 November 2007, mainly due to increasing involvement of the RNR in RN operations and deployments, similarly, RNR ratings no longer wear RNR shoulder flashes. From 1938 until 1957, the RNVR provided aircrew personnel in the form of their own Air Branch, in 1947, their contribution was cut to anti-submarine and fighter squadrons only. By 1957, it was considered by the UK government that the required to operate modern equipment was beyond that expected of reservists
19.
Royal Garrison Artillery
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The Royal Garrison Artillery came into existence as a separate entity when existing coastal defence, mountain, siege and heavy batteries of the Royal Artillery were amalgamated into a new sub-branch. A royal warrant provided that from 1 June 1899, the mounted and dismounted branches of the Royal Regiment of Artillery shall be separated into two corps. To be named respectively the Royal Horse Artillery and the Royal Field Artillery, the Royal Regiment of Artillery, thenceforth, was divided into four branches. Other than mounted or unmounted dress, the distinction in uniform was by the shoulder title badges, RGA, RFA, RHA. The RGA retained the badge and dress uniform of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the corps name was discontinued in 1924, when the RGA was re-amalgamated into the Royal Artillery. Prior to the First World War artillery would manoeuvre on the battlefield beside the infantry and cavalry. The field artillery would form part of a line alongside the infantry and, on occasion. Fixed artillery was placed in forts and batteries in locations where they might protect potential targets from attack and this included forts and batteries intended to protect against military forces on the land, and against naval forces on the sea. Coastal artillery relied primarily on high velocity guns, capable of striking out at ships at a great distance, inland defensive batteries might have armament better suited for use against personnel. Mobile artillery pieces were used that could be quickly re-deployed as required between fortifications that were not permanently manned or armed. Fixed batteries were operated in the early 20th Century by the RGA, including its Militia Artillery and Volunteer Force reservists. By the start of the 20th century, the size of the capital ships of the worlds largest navies. The advent of artillery had changed the design of fortifications centuries before, by the 20th century, fortifications were being designed with as much surrounding embankment by earthworks as possible. With the advent of the aeroplane, and the missile, fixed artillery was obsolete and too vulnerable to continue in use. The last coastal artillery was removed from use in the 1950s, with the new long-range small arms available to the infantry in the era before World War I, artillery fighting in the infantry line was increasingly brought under fire. The solution to this was the principle of standing off and engaging the enemy with indirect fire, however, even after this became official military doctrine, field and horse artillery on both sides kept trying to fight in the old way. One instance was a gun duel fought between British and German horse artillery units using open sights during the Retreat to the Marne, in the quagmire of trench warfare that followed it was finally realised that it was not the place for the artillery to be in the infantry line. Henceforth the artillery would be positioned well behind the battle line, firing at unseen targets, at co-ordinates on a map calculated with geometry
20.
Army Service Corps
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It became a Forming Corps of the Royal Logistic Corps. For centuries, army transport was operated by contracted civilians, the first uniformed transport corps in the British Army was the Royal Waggoners formed in 1794. It was not a success and was disbanded the following year, in 1799, the Royal Waggon Corps was formed, by August 1802, it had been renamed the Royal Waggon Train. This was reduced to two troops in 1818 and finally disbanded in 1833. A transport corps was not formed again until the Crimean War, in 1855, the Land Transport Corps was formed. This was renamed the Military Train the following year, in 1869, there was a major reorganisation of army supply and transport capabilities. Before 1869, supply duties had been the responsibility of the Commissariat, in 1869, the commissaries of the Commissariat and the officers of the Military Train amalgamated into the Control Department. The following year the other ranks of the Military Train were redesignated the Army Service Corps, in November 1875, the Control Department was divided into the Commissariat and Transport Department and the Ordnance Store Department. In January 1880, the Commissariat and Transport Department was renamed the Commissariat and Transport Staff, the ASC subsequently absorbed some transport elements of the Royal Engineers. In 1918, the received the Royal prefix for its service in the First World War. It was divided into Transport and Supply Branches, before the Second World War, RASC recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall and could enlist up to 30 years of age. They initially enlisted for six years with the colours and a six years with the reserve. Alone among the Services, RASC personnel were considered to be combatant personnel, in 1965, the RASC was merged with the Transportation and Movement Control Service of the Royal Engineers to form the Royal Corps of Transport. All its supply functions, along with the clerks, were transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, leaving the new RCT solely responsible for transport. In 1993, the RCT and RAOC were merged to form the Royal Logistic Corps, officers of the Control Department, Commissariat and Transport Department, and Commissariat and Transport Staff held different ranks from the rest of the Army. From February 1885 they were given military ranks, which they held in conjunction with their commissary ranks. Officers of the ASC and RASC held full military rank
21.
Hampstead Heath
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Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering 320 hectares. This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling and hilly, embracing ponds, recent and ancient woodlands, a lido, playgrounds, and a training track, the south-east part of the heath is Parliament Hill, from which the view over London is protected by law. Running along its perimeter are a chain of ponds – including three open-air public swimming pools – which were originally reservoirs for drinking water from the River Fleet. The heath is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, lakeside concerts are held there in summer. The heath first entered the books in 986 when Ethelred the Unready granted one of his servants five hides of land at Hemstede. This same land is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held by the monastery of St. Peters at Westminster Abbey. Over time, plots of land in the manor were sold off for building, particularly in the early 19th century, the main part of the heath was acquired for the people by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Parliament Hill was purchased for the public for £300,000, Golders Hill was added in 1898 and Kenwood House and grounds were added in 1928. From 1808 to 1814 Hampstead Heath hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London to its ships in the port of Great Yarmouth. The City of London Corporation has managed the heath since 1989, before that it was managed by the GLC and before that by the London County Council. In 2009, the City of London proposed to upgrade a footpath across the heath into a service-road, the proposal met with protests from local residents and celebrities, and did not proceed. The heath sits astride a sandy ridge that rests on a band of London clay and it runs from east to west, its highest point being 134 metres. As the sand was easily penetrated by rainwater which was held by the clay. Hampstead Heath contains the largest single area of land in Greater London. Buses serve several roads around the heath, the heaths 320 hectares include a number of distinct areas. Hampstead Heath is an important refuge for wildlife, including snakes, foxes, rabbits, slow worms, squirrels. Common kingfishers, jackdaws, pipistrelles and Daubentons bats are seen over the ponds, some introduced species have also thrived at the site, for example muntjac deer, terrapins and ring-necked parakeets
22.
Ordnance QF 13-pounder
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The Ordnance QF 13-pounder field gun was the standard equipment of the British and Canadian Royal Horse Artillery at the outbreak of World War I. It was developed as a response to experience gained in the Boer War and entered service in 1904, replacing the Ehrhard QF15 pounder. It was developed in parallel with the QF 18-pounder used by field artillery, the original Mk I barrel was wire wound. Later Mk II barrels had a tapered inner A tube which was pressed into the outer tube. The first British artillery round on the Western Front in World War I was fired by No.4 gun of E Battery Royal Horse Artillery on 22 August 1914, northeast of Harmignies in Belgium. It saw action most famously at the Battle of Le Cateau in August 1914 as the British Expeditionary Force retreated from Mons. It was used to great effect by L Bty, Royal Horse Artillery in its famous defensive action on September 1,1914 at Néry, France, for which 3 Victoria Crosses were awarded. The medals, and No.6 gun and limber involved in action, are held in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. From late 1914, when the Western Front settled into trench warfare, as a result, a few RHA batteries that were not supporting cavalry formations converted to 18-pounder guns and 4.5 inch howitzers. Batteries normally carried 176 rounds per gun, the gun and its filled limber weighed 3668 lbs and was towed by a 6 horse team, all members of the gun detachments were mounted on their own horses. As the war progressed, however, the air activity created a requirement for a medium anti-aircraft gun. Some 13-pounders were slightly modified to become Ordnance QF13 pdr Mk III, in 1940, some 13-pounders were brought out of store for use as emergency anti-tank guns, mounted in pill boxes, for the home defence of Britain against possible German invasion. For combat purposes the gun is long obsolete, yet it remains in service with the Kings Troop, Royal Horse Artillery for ceremonial purposes and as state saluting guns. Because of the German U-boat campaign, many of the guns were used to equip Defensively Armed Merchant Ships, with the Kings Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, London Imperial War Museum collection, The Néry Gun and limber, used during the action at Néry,1 September 1914. No.4 Gun, E Battery Royal Horse Artillery, fired the first British artillery round on the Western Front, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa Fort Seclin - 1914/1918 Museum Musee des Abris, Albert, France. Mark V naval gun recovered from a merchant ship, is on display at the harbour in Scarborough. There is one example on display in the Tsumeb Museum in Namibia, the gun was used by the THA at the Battle of Sandfontein on 26 September 1914 and was captured by German Troops and later dumped into Lake Otjikoto prior to the German surrender in June 1915. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK,2004 Cruickshank, Dan, Invasion - Defending Britain from Attack, boxtree,2001 ISBN 0-7522-2029-2 General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Western Front 1914–18
23.
Ordnance QF 18-pounder
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The Ordnance QF18 pounder, or simply 18-pounder Gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the World War I era. It formed the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery during the war and it was used by British Forces in all the main theatres, and by British troops in Russia in 1919. Its calibre and shell weight were greater than those of the equivalent field guns in French and it was generally horse drawn until mechanisation in the 1930s. The first versions were introduced in 1904, later versions remained in service with British forces until early 1942. In 1900, General Sir Henry Brackenbury, the then Director-General of Ordnance, the committee was chaired by General Sir George Marshall, who had been artillery commander in South Africa. It formed in January 1901 with a wide ranging area of study from horse-drawn mobile guns and the more static field guns, to harness design. British gun manufacturers were invited to propose designs, of the many entries, five for the horse artillery gun and three for the field gun were selected and their makers invited to submit a specimen. These were tested in 1902, but none was suitable for service although they all had good features. The makers were called to a conference and agreed to collaborate to produce a composite design and this used the Armstrong gun, Vickers recoil system, and Royal Ordnance Factorys sighting and elevating gear and ammunition carrying. Reduced wheel size from 5 ft to 4 ft 8 in was also accepted which saved weight, Four Artillery batteries of the composite design took part in trials of in 1903, and the new 18-pounder design was accepted. The 18-pounder was used on all fronts during the First World War and it remained in service during the inter-war period. Starting in 1938, carriages Marks IV and V were converted to 25 Pounder Ordnance QF Mark 1 on Carriage Mark 1. 18-pounder Guns served with the British Expeditionary Force in France in the Second World War and were used in theatres as well as for training or beach defence. The 18-pounder was a quick-firing horse-drawn field gun designed to be towed behind a limber, the gun barrel was wire bound nickel-steel with a single-motion screw breech with a cartridge extractor. It fired a round of shell and cartridge fixed together. The lower carriage comprised a single hollow steel trail fixed to the centre of the axle-tree, the limited traverse saddle supported the elevating mass and a shield. Traverse controls were on the left and elevation on the right of the saddle, recoil was by a hydraulic buffer with telescopic running-up springs to return the barrel to its firing position. The Equipment Committees conditions required tangent sights with the option of a telescope, however, the 18-pounder entered service with rocking bar sights - open sights with the option of a telescope on the left and a range scale on the right of the cradle
24.
QF 13-pounder 9 cwt
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The 13 pounder 9 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard mobile British anti-aircraft gun of the World War I era, especially in theatres outside Britain. Earlier anti-aircraft guns based on 13 pounder and 18 pounder guns proved unsatisfactory, on 18 February 1915 Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France, asked for an anti-aircraft gun with a muzzle velocity of 2,000 feet per second. On 19 August 1915 the Army Council proposed adapting existing 18-pounder guns to use 13-pounder shells, a slight neck was introduced in the 18 pounder cartridge to hold the slightly narrower 13 pounder shell in place. The initial Mk III mounting was based on the 13 pounder Mk II anti-aircraft mounting, the Mk IV mounting which followed raised the height by 9 inches and increased recoil from 24 to 35 inches and hence relieved the strain on the mounting. Several guns are known to have mounted on 2-wheeled high-angle field carriages. Hogg & Thurston state that they could theoretically be used as guns, field guns or howitzers. Routledge states that the carriage was improvised because some of 4th AA Groups guns had arrived in Italy without mountings. As World War I progressed, it was replaced in the air defence of England by the more powerful QF3 inch 20 cwt gun. It was usually deployed mounted on medium lorries such as the Thornycroft Type J with a speed of 18 miles per hour, on the Western Front they were typically used to protect troop columns, airfields, bases, supply dumps and observation balloons. As important as the raw performance of the gun itself was the new technology being developed to allow fast calculation of aircraft height and predict where it would be when the shell arrived near it. Modern aircraft could fly at over 100 miles per hour and to 20,000 ft by 1918, which made the old reliable artillery shooting techniques obsolete. The shell took 10.1 seconds to reach 5,000 ft fired at 25° above horizontal,15.5 seconds to reach 10,000 ft at 40°,22.1 seconds to reach 15,000 ft at 55°. Hence the aircraft position had to be calculated 10–22 seconds in advance, german fighters countered by attacking at low level—a few hundred feet. AA guns would continue to fire but the shells would then explode over the heads of those they were defending, but it brought attacking aircraft within range of defensive machine guns. Brigadier Routledge notes that in the BEF stress was laid on long-range deterrent fire, moreover, gun and fighter zones were not separated, as in Britain, and this made set plans for action less workable. Routledge further comments that in World War I British cooperation between infantry and anti-aircraft sections was generally rudimentary and this tactic later became common in World War II. At the end of World War I, a total of 306 were in worldwide,232 of these on the Western Front. Official History of The Ministry of Munitions,1922, volume X The Supply of Munitions
25.
Zeppelin
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A Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelins notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893 and they were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the worlds first airline in revenue service, by mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I the German military made use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts. The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed down the airship business, an exception was made allowing the construction of one airship for the US Navy, which saved the company from extinction. In 1926 the restrictions on airship construction were lifted and with the aid of donations from the public and this revived the companys fortunes, and during the 1930s the airships Graf Zeppelin and the larger LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along political and economic issues. The principal feature of Zeppelins design was a rigid metal framework made up from transverse rings. The advantage of design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships. The framework of most Zeppelins was made of duralumin, early Zeppelins used rubberised cotton for the gasbags, but most later craft used goldbeaters skin, made from the intestines of cattle. The first Zeppelins had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins and they were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework. Some of these could provide reverse thrust for manoeuvring while mooring, early models had a comparatively small externally mounted gondola for passengers and crew which was attached to the bottom of the frame. This space was never heated so passengers during trips across the North Atlantic or Siberia were forced to bundle themselves in blankets, the flight ceiling was so low that no pressurization of the cabins was necessary, though the Hindenburg did maintain a pressurized air-locked smoking room. Access to the Zeppelin was achieved in a number of ways, the Graf Zeppelins gondola was accessed while the vessel was on the ground, via gangways. This describes a large rigidly framed outer envelope containing several separate gasbags and he had previously encountered Union Army balloons in 1863 when he visited the United States as a military observer during the American Civil War. Count Zeppelin began to pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52. Convinced of the importance of aviation, he started working on various designs in 1891
26.
Explosive booster
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An explosive booster is a sensitive explosive charge that acts as a bridge between a conventional detonator and a low-sensitivity explosive such as TNT. By itself, the initiating detonator would not deliver sufficient energy to set off the low-sensitivity charge, however, it detonates the primary charge, which then delivers an explosive shockwave that is sufficient to detonate the secondary, main, high-energy charge. Unlike C4 plastic explosive, not all explosives can be detonated simply by inserting a detonator, therefore, some form of booster is required to amplify the energy released by the detonator so that the main charge will detonate. At first, picric acid was used as a booster to detonate TNT, Tetryl replaced picric acid because it is more stable, and was once a very popular chemical for booster charges, particularly during World War II. However, since then Tetryl has largely replaced by other compositions. Note, booby traps and improvised devices frequently use plastic explosive as the booster charge, for example. This is because any standard detonator will initiate plastic explosive as is, when encountered in connection with artillery shells or air dropped bombs, a booster charge is sometimes referred to as the gaine. At a purely technical level, a sufficiently large detonator would initiate high explosives without the need for a booster charge, however, there are very good reasons why this method is never used. Firstly, there is a safety issue, i. e. detonators are much more sensitive to shock, heat. Therefore, minimising the amount of explosive that users must store or carry greatly reduces the likelihood of serious accidents. A common form for boosters is to cast the material into a cylindrical shell made of cardboard or plastic
27.
Western Front (World War I)
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The Western Front or Western Theater was the main theatre of war during World War I. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, the tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained unchanged for most of the war. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front, the attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire, as a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new technology, including poison gas, aircraft. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored, the German Armys Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. In spite of the stagnant nature of this front, this theatre would prove decisive. The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, belgiums neutrality was guaranteed by Britain under the 1839 Treaty of London, this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at 11 pm GMT on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914, Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August, Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under von Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days. Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August, for their part, the French had five armies deployed on their borders. The pre-war French offensive plan, Plan XVII, was intended to capture Alsace-Lorraine following the outbreak of hostilities, on 7 August the VII Corps attacked Alsace with its objectives being to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with 1st and 2nd Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French advanced the 3rd and 4th Armies toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau, before being driven back
28.
QF 12-pounder 12 cwt AA gun
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Writers commonly refer to it simply as 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun. 12 cwt referred to the weight of the barrel and breech to differentiate it from other 12 pounder guns, when World War I began Britain had no anti-aircraft artillery and had given little thought to it. All QF12 pounder ammunition at the time was Separate loading QF i. e. the propellant came in a cartridge case with primer ready installed. For anti-aircraft firing, fixed QF rounds were quickly developed i. e. with the shell already attached to the cartridge case and it was also deployed on static mountings to defend prominent targets such as dockyards. While the gun was lighter than the QF3 inch 20 cwt dedicated AA gun, for anti-aircraft use it lacked its range. Hence the 3 inch 20 cwt gun became the heavy AA gun of choice both on land and ships from 1914 to 1937, the 12 pdr 12 cwt also proved only marginally superior to the much lighter QF13 pounder 9 cwt as a light AA gun. Comparison, - At the end of World War I,36 guns were still in service in the air defense of Britain,10 on the Western Front and 2 in Mesopotamia where it was typically mounted on river barges. The gun remained in Royal Navy anti-aircraft use, in the form of the new Mk V version, on ships in World War II because of its dual capability of both low and high angle firing. List of anti-aircraft guns QF12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun Surviving Examples There are no surviving examples I. V. Hogg & L. F. Thurston, ISBN 978-0-7110-0381-1 Brigadier NW Routledge, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. ISBN 1-85753-099-3 12-pdr 12cwt QF Marks I, II and V
29.
RAF Regiment
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The Royal Air Force Regiment is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist airfield defence corps founded by Royal Warrant in 1942. The RAF Regiment is trained in CBRN defence, and equipped with advanced vehicles, RAF Regiment instructors are responsible for training all Royal Air Force personnel in basic force protection such as first aid, weapon handling and CBRN skills. The regiment and its members are known within the RAF as The Regiment, RAF Regiment squadrons use aggressive defence tactics whereby they actively seek out infiltrators in a large area surrounding airfields. These were equipped with Rolls-Royce armoured cars and were successful in ground combat operations throughout the Middle East in the 1920s and 1930s. The RAF Regiment came into existence, in name, on 1 February 1942, from the start it had 66,000 personnel drawn from the former Defence Squadrons No. s 701-850. The new regiment was made up of both squadrons and light anti-aircraft squadrons, the latter originally armed with Hispano 20mm cannon. Its role was to seize, secure and defend airfields to enable air operations to take place, several parachute squadrons were formed to assist in the seizing of airfields and No. 284 Field Squadron was the first RAF unit to arrive in West Berlin in 1945 to secure RAF Gatow. During the Second World War, with its first headquarters established at RAF Belton Park, Grantham, Squadrons usually consisted of a headquarters flight, three rifle flights, an air defence flight, and an armoured car flight. The flights were grouped together into wings as needed and it also operated six armoured car squadrons to provide an area response capability to several RAF stations. They proved to be of high quality. This was overcome by holding defensive boxes mainly or entirely supplied by air, the defence of forward airfields close to the main army concentrations was vital to this strategy. A training school and depot for the RAF Regiment was established at Secunderabad in October 1942 to retrain former ground defence airmen and it had an assault course considered tougher than anything the army had in India. Six field squadrons and seventy AA flights were initially formed containing 160 officers and 4,000 other ranks, until mid-1944 the AA flights were equipped only with light machine guns, then with Hispano 20 mm cannon for the rest of the war. Regiment units defended airfields and forward mobile radar units in Arakan in the Allied offensive in late 1942, during the Battle of Imphal all supplies and reinforcements had to be flown in between 29 March and 22 June 1944 with RAF Regiment units providing vital airfield defence. Units of 1307 Wing were flown into the captured and strategically vital Meiktila airfield on 1 March 1945. As one of the RAF Regiments proudest battle honours this three week battle destroyed the Japanese hold on northern Burma, on 26 November 1944, a Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel of III/KG51 based at Hopsten/Rheine near Osnabruck was the first confirmed ground-to-air kill of a jet combat aircraft. The 262 was shot down by a 40/L60 40mm Bofors gun of B.11 Detachment of 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment at the RAF forward airfield of Helmond, near Eindhoven
30.
Bofors 40 mm gun
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The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, a small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of more power. In spite of sharing almost nothing with the design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider. Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service to this day, especially as a weapon for light armored vehicles. Bofors itself has been part of BAE Systems AB since March 2005, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 2 pounder Pom-Poms from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns in 1922. The Navy approached Bofors about the development of a capable replacement. Bofors signed a contract in late 1928, Bofors produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm semi-automatic gun developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspong. Their first test gun was a re-barreled Nordenfelt version of the Finspong gun, testing of this gun in 1929 demonstrated that a problem existed feeding the weapon in order to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to move quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve this problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired and this proved to leave heavy zinc deposits in the barrel, and had to be abandoned. This seemed to be the solution they needed, improving firing rates to a level. During this period Krupp purchased a share of Bofors. Krupp engineers started the process of updating the Bofors factories to use equipment and metallurgy. The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931, and by the middle of the month it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the mechanism were all that remained, and by the end of the year it was operating at 130 rounds per minute. Continued development was needed to turn it into a suitable for production. Since acceptance trials had been passed the year before, this known as the 40 mm akan M/32
31.
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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The British Expeditionary Force was the name of the British Army in Western Europe from 1939 to 1940, in the early stages of the Second World War. During the 1930s, the British government planned to deter war by rearming from the low level of readiness of the early 30s. The bulk of the money went to the Royal Navy. The BEF began moving to France in September 1939, the British assembled along the Belgian–French border on the left of the French First Army as part of the French 1er groupe darmées of the Front du Nord-est. Most of the BEF spent the Phoney War digging field defences on the French–Belgian border before the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940, the BEF constituted 10 percent of the Allied forces on the Western Front. The BEF, French and Belgian forces were evacuated from Dunkirk on the French North Sea coast in Operation Dynamo, Saar Force, the 51st Infantry Division, had been detached for service along the Maginot Line as part of a plan for the BEF units to gain experience. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Ten Year Rule had reduced war spending from £766 million in 1920 to £102 million when it was abolished on 23 March 1932. The British army had fewer men than in 1914, no organisation or equipment for a war in Europe and in three weeks, the War Office could only mobilise an infantry division and a cavalry brigade. The committee urged the creation of a Field Force of four infantry divisions, expenditure of £71 million was recommended, half to go in the army, which would be the defence against an invasion. The government accepted the report apart from the price and cut 1⁄3 from the estimate, in March 1937, the Regular Army stood at 121,000 men at home and 89,000 overseas, with some 716 tanks, of which 200 were obsolete First World War models. By the later 1930s, the despatch of an Expeditionary Force to France of Belgium might increase British security, the government also announced that the twelve TA divisions would be brought up to establishment and then another twelve. Anti-Aircraft Command formed seven divisions and early steps were taken to requisition the necessary to carry the Expeditionary Force to France. According to the 1939 Army Estimates, Britain had home forces of 230,000 men in the army,183,000 in reserve and 270,000 part-timers in the TA a total of 683,000 men. One lieutenant stuffed his holster with paper because he had no pistol, there were immense pressures to produce equipment, which led to a rapid increase in output. Clothing items were one example of this, greatcoats and boots being produced at up to fifty times the normal peacetime rates, twenty-five years of greatcoats were produced in six months and 18 months army boots were turned out in one week but shortages remained. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the BEF was despatched to France, German submarines had been limited by Hitlers orders to avoid provoking the Allies and only a few mines were laid near Dover and Weymouth. By 19 October, the BEF had received 25,000 vehicles to complete the first deployment, Belgium and the Netherlands were neutral countries and no troops were stationed in them. Morale was high amongst the British troops but the actions of the Germans by 9 May, had led many into assuming that there would not be much chance of a big German attack in that area
32.
Churchill tank
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It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war. The origins of the lay in the expectation that war in Europe might be fought under similar conditions to those of the First World War. The Churchill was rushed into production to build up British defences against a possible German invasion, the first vehicles had flaws that had to be overcome before the Churchill was accepted for wide use. After several Marks had been built, an armoured version. The Churchill was used by British and Commonwealth forces in North Africa, Italy, in addition, a few hundred were supplied to the USSR and used on the Eastern Front. The Churchill tank was named after Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had promoted the development of the tank in the First World War, Churchill told Field Marshall Jan Smuts That is the tank they named after me when they found out it was no damn good. Post-war, the universal or main battle tanks would also adopt these C names, Centurion, Conqueror, Chieftain, initially specified before the outbreak of the Second World War the A20 was to be the replacement for the Matilda II and Valentine infantry tanks. The vehicle was specified initially to be armed with two QF2 pounder guns each located in a side sponson, with a coaxial BESA machine gun, a third BESA and a smoke projector would be fitted in the front hull. The specification was revised to prefer a turret with 60 mm of armour to protect against ordinary shells from the German 37 mm gun, outline drawings were produced based on using the A12 Matilda turret and the engine of the Covenanter tank. Detail design and construction of the A20 was given to the Belfast shipbuilders Harland, during the construction period the armament was reconsidered, including fitting either a 6-pounder or a French 75 mm gun in the forward hull. In the end, a 3-inch howitzer was chosen, the A20 designs were short-lived, however, as at roughly the same time the emergency evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk occurred. At 43 tons, with a 300 hp flat-12 Meadows engine and this was a less serious limitation than it might appear, owing to the British distinction between the high-speed cruiser tanks and the slow-speed infantry tanks. Vauxhall were approached to see if they could build the A20, to this end, they developed a flat-12 petrol engine. For speed of production, this engine was based on a Bedford six-cylinder lorry engine, although still a sidevalve engine, the engine was developed with high squish pistons, dual ignition and sodium-cooled exhaust valves in Stellite seats to give 350 bhp. These new specifications, for the A22 or Infantry Tank Mark IV, were given to Vauxhall in June 1940, all those things which we know are not as they should be will be put right. The document then described known faults, with work-rounds and what was being done to correct the problem, because of its hasty development, there had been little testing, and the Churchill was plagued with mechanical faults. Most apparent was that the Churchills engine was underpowered, unreliable, production of a turret to carry the QF6 pounder gun began in 1941, but problems with the plate used in an all-welded design led to an alternative cast turret also being produced. These formed the distinction between Mark III and Mark IV, the Churchill was also famously used at the Dieppe Raid, also in 1942
33.
Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
34.
British U-class submarine
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The British U-class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War. The class is known as the Undine class, after the first submarine built. These small submarines, of around 630 tons, were intended as unarmed training vessels to replace the ageing H class. The first three boats, HMS Undine, HMS Unity, and HMS Ursula were ordered in 1936, and during construction were modified to accommodate four internal and two external bow torpedo tubes. Apart from Undine and Unity, all boats were equipped with a three-inch gun, although they lacked a hatch for the gun crew. As war loomed, twelve more vessels were ordered, although only four had the external tubes, the external tubes were dropped from later vessels because they generated a large bow wave and made depth keeping more difficult at periscope depth. They proved to be useful warships in the waters of the North Sea. A further 34 vessels, forming the group, were ordered in 1940 and 1941. They were similar to the group, but were lengthened by 5 feet to provide a more streamlined shape. All but two of the 49 boats built were constructed by Vickers-Armstrong, the exceptions were HMS Umpire and HMS Una, both built at Chatham Dockyard. The submarines were powered by Paxman diesels generating 615 bhp and electric motors that could put out 825 shp giving a speed of 11.25 knots. Most of the boats built served with the 10th Submarine Flotilla based at Malta,19 were lost during the war,13 in the Mediterranean and the remainder in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In addition, one vessel, HMS Untamed sank in May 1943 but was salvaged and reconstructed to be recommissioned as HMS Vitality, from 1941, some of the boats were transferred to Soviet, Free French and other allied navies. The design was developed into the welded V class later in the war, the initial three U class boats all entered service in the latter half of 1938. Only Ursula would survive the war however, in addition, Ursula spent some time in service with an allied navy, in this case, the Soviet Navy, a practice that would be continued with other ships of the class. HMS Undine HMS Unity HMS Ursula Unity was the first British submarine to have a designed for best submerged performance rather than surfaced performance. It was thought this might reduce propeller noise, the second group of the U-class consisted of twelve submarines, of a similar design to the original three, but most were modified to improve depth keeping. This group included a number of submarines that would go on to become particularly famous, urchin was transferred to the Polish Navy, where, as the ORP Sokół, she sank a large amount of enemy shipping
35.
British S-class submarine (1931)
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As part of the major naval construction for the Royal Navy during the Second World War, the S class became the largest single group of submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. A total of 62 was constructed over a period of 15 years, the submarines operated in the waters around the United Kingdom and in the Mediterranean, and later in the Far East after being fitted with extra tankage. After the war S-class boats continued to serve in the Royal Navy until the 1960s, the last operational boat in the Royal Navy was Sea Devil, launched in 1945 and scrapped in February 1966. Springer was in Israeli service as INS Tanin and was decommissioned in 1972, several S-class submarines were sold on or lent to other navies, Netherlands 1 Portugal 3 France 4 Israel 2. A modified version was ordered by the Turkish navy in 1939 as the Oruç Reis class, twelve little S-boats go to it like Bevin, Starfish goes a bit too far — then there were eleven. Eleven watchful S-boats doing fine and then Seahorse fails to answer — so there are ten, ten stocky S-boats in a ragged line, Sterlet drops and stops out — leaving us nine. Nine plucky S-boats, all pursuing Fate, Shark is overtaken — now we are eight, eight sturdy S-boats, men from Hants and Devon, Salmon now is overdue — and so the numbers seven. Seven gallant S-boats, trying all their tricks, Spearfish tries a newer one — down we come to six, six tireless S-boats fighting to survive, No reply from Swordfish — so we tally five. Five scrubby S-boats, patrolling close inshore, Snapper takes a short cut — now we are four, four fearless S-boats, too far out to sea, Sunfish bombed and scrap-heaped — we are only three. Three threadbare S-boats patrolling oer the blue, the survivors, left blank in the fatalistic rhyme, were HMS Sealion, HMS Seawolf, and HMS Sturgeon. The first group of S-class submarines consisted of four boats and they were smaller and slower than later classes, and carried less armament, but could be crewed by fewer men. All four were built at Chatham Dockyard, between 1930 and 1932, during the war, they operated in home waters, particularly the English Channel, and off the Scandinavian coast. The later second and third groups of S-class submarines would have their fuel capacity expanded to allow them to operate further, the mortality rate of these early boats was particularly high. Only one, HMS Sturgeon, survived to the end of the war and they were larger than the preceding first group and required more men to crew, but carried a similar armament. Construction was divided between Chatham Dockyard, and the yards of Scotts, of Greenock and Cammell Laird & Co Limited, All the ships were built between 1934 and 1937. During the war, they, like the submarines of the first group, mostly operated in home waters, ranging as far afield as the Bay of Biscay and the Scandinavian coast. One, HMS Sunfish, was assigned to the Soviet Navy and was sunk by aircraft on the transfer route from Dundee to Murmansk. A large percentage of these submarines were also lost during the war, only two, HMS Sealion and HMS Seawolf, survived to the end of the war
36.
British V-class submarine
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The British V-class submarine was a class of submarines built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. 42 vessels were ordered to design, all to be built by Vickers-Armstrong at either Barrow-in-Furness or at Walker-on-Tyne. Note that 7 of these vessels received U names and they were sometimes referred to as Vampire-class submarines after HMS Vampire. The vessels which were ordered are shown below in their programme order, HMS Vivid HMS Voracious HMS Vulpine HMS Varne HMS Upshot HMS Urtica HMS Vineyard, completed as FFL Doris HMS Variance, completed as HNMS Utsira. HMS Vengeful HMS Vortex, completed as FFL Morse HMS Veto, cancelled 23 January 1944, HMS Virile, cancelled 23 January 1944 and scrapped on the slip. HMS Visitant, cancelled 23 January 1944, HMS Upas, cancelled February 1944 and scrapped on the slip. HMS Virulent HMS Volatile A further six vessels were ordered on 17 November 1942 under the same years programme, HMS Votary HMS Vagabond HMS Vantage, cancelled 23 January 1944. HMS Vehement, cancelled 23 January 1944, HMS Venom, cancelled 23 January 1944. HMS Verve, cancelled 23 January 1944, finally, a further ten vessels were ordered under the 1943 Programme, but all of these were cancelled on 20 November 1943, eight of these were never given names. HMS Unbridled, cancelled 20 November 1943, HMS Upward, cancelled 20 November 1943. Notes References Allied Warships – Submarine – V Class Walters, Derek, the History of the British U Class Submarine
37.
A- and B-class destroyer
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The A- and B-class destroyers were a group of 18 destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s, with two additional ships built for the Royal Canadian Navy. The British ships were divided into two flotillas of eight destroyers, each with a flotilla leader, the A-class design was derived from the 1926 prototypes Amazon and Ambuscade for the 1927–28 Naval Construction Programme. The initial staff requirements were unrealistic and would have resulted in a larger, unaffordable ship, they were scaled back. Nonetheless, the design had a gun armament, heavier torpedo armament. This was the beginning of the Admiraltys policy of alternating TSDS, the ships displaced 1, 350–1,360 long tons at standard load and 1, 778–1,790 long tons at deep load. They had a length of 323 feet, a beam of 32 feet 3 inches. The A class had a height of 1.76 feet at deep load. The ships complement was 138 officers and ratings as built, the destroyers were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three water-tube boilers equipped with superheaters. Acheron was given experimental Thornycroft boilers that had a pressure of 500 psi. Her specific fuel consumption was reduced from 0.8 lb /hp/hour in her sisters to 0.6 lb /hp/hour, the turbines developed a total of 34,000 shaft horsepower for a designed speed of 35 knots and the ship exceeded that during their sea trials. The destroyers carried a maximum of 388–390 long tons of oil that gave them a range of 4,800 nautical miles at 15 knots. All of the ships had the main armament, four quick-firing 4. 7-inch Mark IX guns in single mounts with enlarged gun shields, designated A, B, X. They fired a 50-pound shell at a velocity of 2,650 ft/s to a range of 16,970 yards. Each gun was provided with 190 rounds, for anti-aircraft defence, the A- and B-class ships carried two 40-millimetre QF two-pounder Mark II AA guns mounted on platforms between the funnels, each with 500 rounds. They were fitted with two mounts for 21-inch torpedo tubes. The Bs were equipped with two throwers and one rack for twenty depth charges, while not initially fitted with ASDIC, space was reserved for it, and at least some of the As received it beginning in the late 1930s. The fire-control system for ships was little advanced over their First World War-era predecessors. They had no capability for anti-aircraft fire and the guns were aimed solely by eye
38.
I-class destroyer
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The I-class destroyers were a group of nine destroyers, including a flotilla leader, built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. They served in World War II and six were lost, with a ship being written off as a constructive total loss. The Is were a repeat of the preceding H class, except that they had ten torpedo tubes instead of eight and they incorporated the new bridge and wheelhouse layout as trialled in Hero and Hereward. Inglefield also had a tripod foremast, her sisters having pole masts. All ships were fitted for minesweeping and with charges and Asdic for anti-submarine work and were capable of conversion to minelayers. For this, they landed A and Y4.7 inch guns, the Turkish I-class ships were of a similar design to their British counterparts, but shipped only eight torpedoes, like the British H class. Icarus lost Y gun to stow extra depth charges and their mortars, surviving ships received a third pair of Oerlikons, added abreast the searchlight position, and the 12 pounder gun was deleted to increase depth charge stowage. In some ships, A gun was replaced with a Hedgehog ahead-throwing A/S weapon, but this alteration seems to have been reversed at a later stage. Ilex, Intrepid, Impulsive and Isis had B gun removed and two QF6 pounder 10 cwt guns were added, on the twin mounting Mark I* along with a Hedgehog, the former for anti-E boat work. Inglefield later had the bank of torpedo tubes re-instated, but like her sisters. A 4-inch AA gun was added in lieu of X gun, Type 291 radar was later added at the foremast head as well as Huff-Duff in some ships. The ex-Turkish ships were modified along similar lines to their I-class sisters, inconstant later received Type 270 radar, a centimetric wavelength target-indication set, in lieu of the director and rangefinder on the bridge. Again, eventually six Oerlikons were carried, † = fitted as minelayers Four ships were ordered for the Turkish Navy in 1938. Upon the outbreak of war, two were purchased by the British, but two were delivered to Turkey in 1942 as the Sultanhisar and the Demirhisar, amazon to Ivanhoe, British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War, British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945, The Naval History of World War Two, whitley, M. J. Destroyers of World War Two, An International Encyclopedia
39.
Winter War
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The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of 1937. With more than 30,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, including most of those of the highest ranks, because of these factors, and high morale in the Finnish forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for several months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defenses at the borders, hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11% of its area and 13% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the international reputation suffered. While the Soviet Union did not conquer all Finland, Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and they gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga, providing a buffer for Leningrad, and territory in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation, the end of the war cancelled the Franco-British plan to send troops to Finland through northern Scandinavia. One of the goals of the projected Franco-British operation had been to take control of northern Swedens iron ore. For this reason it was also a factor in the launching of Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful, until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland constituted the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809, to protect their capital, Saint Petersburg. While abortive because of Russias internal strife, these attempts ruined Russias relations with the Finns, the new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and with the threat of civil war looming Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. Sovereignty was fully achieved in May 1918 after a civil war. Finland joined the League of Nations in 1920, from which it sought security guarantees, nevertheless, the government of Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Another Finnish military policy was the top secret military cooperation between Finland and Estonia, the 1920s and early 1930s were a politically unstable time in Finland
40.
Continuation War
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The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of war between the Soviet Union and Finland recommenced on 22 June 1941, the day Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, open warfare began with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, at the pre-World War II border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, in 1944, Soviet air forces conducted air raids on Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September, the 1947 Paris peace treaty concluded the war formally. Finland ceded Pechengsky District to the Soviets, leased Porkkala peninsula to them, shortly afterward, Germany invaded Poland and as a result the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, next, Moscow demanded that the Baltic states allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The Baltic governments accepted these ultimatums, signing corresponding agreements in September and October 1939, the Finnish government refused, and the Red Army attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. Condemnation of the Soviets by the League of Nations and by all over the world had no effect on Soviet policy. International help for Finland was planned, but very little actual help materialized, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which was signed on 12 March 1940, ended the Winter War. By the terms of the treaty, Finland lost one eleventh of its national territory, however, Finland had avoided having the Soviet Union annex the whole country. Finlands foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from the League of Nations, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. Finlands government declared the countrys defense to be its first priority, Finland purchased and received donations of war material during and immediately after the Winter War. On Finlands southern frontier the Soviet Union had acquired a base in Hanko near the capital Helsinki. Finland also had to resettle some 420,000 evacuees from the lost territories, to ensure the supply of food, it was necessary to clear new land for the evacuees to cultivate. This was facilitated by the Rapid Settlement Act, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was commonly felt throughout the country during the Winter War
41.
Type 88 75 mm AA gun
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The Type 8875 mm AA Gun was an anti-aircraft gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. The Type 88 number was designated for the year the gun was accepted,2588 in the Japanese imperial year calendar, or 1928 in the Gregorian calendar. Although it was overtaken by improvements in aircraft technology and was lately obsolete by 1941. The Type 88 number was designated for the year the gun was accepted,2588 in the Japanese imperial year calendar, the Type 88 was superior to Type 11 in accuracy and range of fire. The Type 8875 mm AA gun entered service between 1927 and 1928, and was deployed to virtually every anti-aircraft field artillery unit as protection against medium level aircraft attacks, over 2000 units completed by the time of the surrender of Japan. In the early phases of World War II, Allied military intelligence assumed that the Japanese Type 88 was a copy of the formidable German Flak 36/3788 mm gun due to its name. However, there is no connection between the two weapons, the confusion arose from the Japanese Armys nomenclature system. “Type 88” corresponds to the year 2588 in the Japanese imperial year, the Type 8875 mm AA gun had a single piece gun barrel with sliding breech, mounted on a central pedestal. The firing platform was supported by five legs, each of which had adjustable screwed foot for leveling, for transport each of the legs could be folded, and the barrel was also partially retractable. Tactically employed in battle as a 4-gun field battery, Japanese combat forces used the weapon during the invasion of Manchuria, Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Second Sino-Japanese War. They found the Type 88 guns high velocity rounds were extremely effective anti-tank weapon when fired horizontally, the weapon was the standard Japanese mobile antiaircraft artillery weapon and used against Allied forces more than any other artillery weapon. During both the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa it was used effectively with armor-piercing rounds against American M4 Sherman tanks and as a coastal-defense gun. Against armor, it had the advantage of a 360 degree traverse, some guns were also assigned to coastal defense batteries. A variant was fitted to a Ki-109 bomber in an attempt to shoot down the B-29 Superfortress bombers at high altitude. Type 96 AA Gun Prime Mover British QF3 inch 20 cwt United States 3-inch M1918 gun Anti-aircraft Type 90 HE AA pointed Complete round,8.94 kg, projectile,6.52 kg with Type 89 AA fuse. High-explosive Type 90 HE pointed Complete round,8.55 kg, armor-piercing Type 95 APHE Complete round,6.2 kg. Bishop, Chris The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, artillery of World War II, Zenith Press,2001, ISBN 0-7603-1172-2. The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan, War Department TM-E-30-480 Handbook on Japanese Military Forces September 1944 Takis Imperial Japanese Army
42.
3-inch Gun M1918
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The 3-inch M1918 gun was a United States 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that entered service in 1918 and served until it was finally superseded by the 3 M3 gun in 1930. The M3 was subsequently replaced by the M1 90mm AA gun just prior to the opening of World War II, the M33 gun was later adapted for the anti-tank role, serving as the main armament of the M10 tank destroyer during World War II. The 3-inch M1917 was the United States Armys first dedicated anti-aircraft gun, only a few were built, as the similar 3-inch M1918 on a mobile mount was considered more useful and was produced in large numbers. Development of the M1917 started in 1915, and as the name implies, the gun was essentially an unmodified 3-inch M1903 coastal-defense gun barrel on a new fixed mount allowing it to be aimed to high elevations. A number were used during World War I on fixed mountings,116 were completed by April 1919, most of the weapons were deployed at United States Army Coast Artillery Corps installations after World War I. In the immediate post-war era it was developed as the 3-inch M2, in 1928 it was further improved in the 3-inch M4 by using a thicker removable liner that eased manufacturing. However, the M2 and M4 appear to have produced in small quantities. The M1917, M2, and M4 remained in service through World War II, for mobile use the original coastal gun was too heavy, so a smaller version was developed as the 3-inch M1918. This weapon was based on the 3-inch gun M1898, a predecessor of the M1903. This weapon had a barrel 50 calibers long instead of 55 calibers, the barrel of the M1918 was shortened to 40 calibers and a semi-automatic breech was added. Semi-automatic on this type of weapon meant that the breech would open automatically after firing, another upgrade was started in 1931 as the T8, and then T9, but these projects were cancelled in 1938 when the 90 mm gun was selected in their place. The gun was accepted for service as the 3-inch M5, a similar derivative of the T9 - the 3-inch M6 - was intended to be mounted on the M5 self-propelled gun, which was eventually abandoned. A final adaptation was the 3-inch M7, which included modifications for mounting on the M6 heavy tank. M7 saw wide use although it was supplanted to some extent by powerful weapons such as the 90mm M3. 3-inch Gun M1917 - Original fixed-place anti-aircraft gun introduced in 1917, M1918 - Mobile anti-aircraft gun using a cut-down version of the original M1917 gun and a new mount. M1 - Variant of the M1918 with a removable barrel liner, M2 - Variant of the M1917 with a removable barrel liner. M3 - Development of the M1917 with a removable barrel liner, M4 - Version of the M2 with a thicker liner for easier manufacturing. M5 - Version of the T9 adapted for anti-tank use, M6 - Version of the T9 as mounted in the 3in Gun Motor Carriage M5
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Pendennis Castle
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Pendennis Castle is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII near Falmouth, Cornwall, England between 1540 and 1542. It formed part of the Kings Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, Pendennis saw service during the English Civil War, when it was held by the Royalists, and was only taken by Parliament after a long siege in 1646. It survived the interregnum and Charles II renovated the fortress after his restoration to the throne in 1660. In the 1880s and 1890s an electrically operated minefield was laid across the River Fal, operated from Pendennis and St Mawes, the castle saw service during both the First and Second World Wars, but in 1956, by now obsolete, it was decommissioned. It passed into the control of the Ministry of Works, who cleared away many of the modern military buildings. In the 21st century, the castle is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, the heritage agency Historic England considers Pendennis to be one of the finest examples of a post-medieval defensive promontory fort in the country. Pendennis Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire in the years of the reign of King Henry VIII. In 1533, Henry broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul the marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and this resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England appeared certain, in response, Henry issued an order, called a device, in 1539, giving instructions for the defence of the realm in time of invasion and the construction of forts along the English coastline. The stretch of water known as Carrick Roads at the mouth of the River Fal was an important anchorage serving shipping arriving from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. A small gun tower, called the Little Dennis Blockhouse, was built in 1539 overlooking the entrance, and plans were made to protect the anchorage further with five additional castles. In the event, only two of these were constructed, Pendennis and St Mawes Castle, positioned on each side of Carrick Roads and able to provide overlapping fire across the water. John Killigrew, a prominent member of the local Cornish gentry, probably oversaw the construction of Pendennis, it was built on his land, Pendennis Castle cost £5,614 to construct. The Killigrews controlled the castle for several decades, with John Killigrews son and grandson continuing in turn as the captain there until 1605, the Admiralty eventually issued a compromise, proposing that the castles share the searching of the traffic. Meanwhile, a peace with France was made in 1558. The Spanish threat to the south-west of England became more serious, however, the levels of the garrison varied considerably during the period. Pendennis had a garrison of 100 men in 1578, and could have mustered around 500 men in 1596, the Spanish threat continued, raiding parties destroyed the Killigrews family home at Arwenack in 1593, and four Spanish ships attacked the towns along the coast in 1595
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Dover Castle
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Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent. It was founded in the 11th century and has described as the Key to England due to its defensive significance throughout history. It is the largest castle in England, the site may have been fortified with earthworks in the Iron Age or earlier, before the Romans invaded in AD43. This is suggested on the basis of the pattern of the earthworks which does not seem to be a perfect fit for the medieval castle. Excavations have provided evidence of Iron Age occupation within the locality of the castle, there have also been excavations on the mound which the church and Roman Pharos are situated on, which has been discovered to be a Bronze Age mound. On the site is a classic montrol where the Normans landed after their victorious conquest, after the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces marched to Westminster Abbey for his coronation. They took a route via Romney, Dover, Canterbury, Surrey. From the Cinque Ports foundation in 1050, Dover has always been a chief member—it may also have been this that first attracted Williams attention, in the words of William of Poitiers, Then he marched to Dover, which had been reported impregnable and held by a large force. The English, stricken with fear at his approach had confidence neither in their ramparts nor in the numbers of their troops. While the inhabitants were preparing to surrender unconditionally, greedy for money, set the castle on fire, having taken possession of the castle, the Duke spent eight days adding new fortifications to it. The Castle was first built, entirely out of clay and it collapsed to the ground and the clay was then used as the flooring for many of the ground-floor rooms. It was during the reign of Henry II that the castle began to take recognisable shape, the inner and outer baileys and the great keep belong to this time. Maurice the Engineer was responsible for building the keep, one of the last rectangular keeps ever built, in 1216, a group of rebel barons invited the future Louis VIII of France to come and take the English crown. He had some success breaching the walls, but was ultimately to take the castle. During the siege, the English defenders tunnelled outwards and attacked the French and this can still be seen in the medieval works. During the time of Stephen de Pencester, a windmill was erected on Tower 22, by the Tudor age, the defences themselves had been superseded by gunpowder. They were improved by Henry VIII, who made a personal visit, during the English Civil War it was held for the king but then taken by a Parliamentarian trick without a shot being fired in 1642. This work was overseen by General William Roy, the other English viewpoint used to make measurements across to Cap Blanc Nez in France was at Fairlight, East Sussex
