1.
Yad La-Shiryon
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Yad La-Shiryon is Israels official memorial site for fallen soldiers from the armored corps, as well as one of the most diverse tank museums in the world. The cornerstone for Yad La-Shiryon was laid on December 14,1982, the site was created through the initiative of veteran officers of the armored corps. The main building, an era, Tegart fortress, houses a library with a publicly accessible computerized record of every fallen Israeli tank soldier. The deeply pocked outer walls of the fort are a reminder of the buildings wartime past, the tower of the fortress has been converted into a Tower of Tears by Israeli artist, Danny Karavan. The inside of the tower is covered by steel taken from a tank, the museum also features a large amphitheater, an auditorium, and has photos, poetry, paintings and cartoons on display. Screenings are held regularly, showing both historical film footage and more recent tributes to Israelis injured and fallen, the Wall of Names, erected outside, displays the names of all the soldiers from the Armored Corps killed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and later wars. The most famous sight at Yad La-Shiryon is most likely that of a tank on top of a tower, which serves as the museums logo. In 1979, by decision of late Major General Moshe Peled, the tank was hoisted on top of a tower on the site, the tank that was chosen is an American M4 Sherman, one of the first tanks that fought in the service of the Israel Defense Forces. Since the water tower was designed to support 25 tons. Yad La-shiryon is famous worldwide for its unique and diverse collection of tanks, there are over a hundred different vehicles in the collection. It is being reconstructed as of December 2011, there is also a birdwatching facility equipped with a radar to track migratory birds. com
2.
Tanks in France
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French development into tanks began during World War I as an effort to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. The Schneider CA1 was the first tank produced by France, and 400 units were built, the French also experimented with various tank designs, such as the Frot-Laffly landship, Boirault machine and Souain experiment. While the British began the design and use of tanks in World War I, France at the time developed its own tracked AFVs. In Britain a single committee had coordinated design, while the major industries remained passive, almost all production effort was thus concentrated into the Mark I and its direct successors, all very similar in shape. In France, on the hand, there were multiple and conflicting lines of development which were badly integrated. Already in January and February 1916 quite substantial orders were made, Army enthusiasm and haste would have its immediate drawbacks however. The first, the Char Schneider CA equipped with a short 75 mm howitzer, had poor mobility due to a track length combined with a hull that overhung front. It was unreliable as well, a maximum of only about 130 of the 400 built were ever operational at the same time and its innovative petro-electrical transmission, while allowing for easy steering, was insufficiently developed and led to a large number of breakdowns. But industrial initiative also led to swift advances, previous models had been box tanks, with a single crowded space combining the role of engine room, fighting compartment, ammunition stock and drivers cabin. The FT would have the largest production run of any tank of the war, with over 3700 built and that this would happen was at first far from certain, some in the French army lobbied for the alternative mass production of super-heavy tanks. Much design effort was put in line of development resulting in the gigantic Char 2C. French production at first lagged behind the British, after August 1916 however, British tank manufacture was temporarily halted to wait for better designs, allowing the French to overtake their allies in numbers. When the French used tanks for the first time on 16 April 1917, during the Nivelle Offensive, but that would not last long as the offensive was a major failure, the Schneiders were badly deployed and suffered 50% losses from German long-range artillery. The Saint-Chamond tanks, first deployed on 5 May, proved to be so designed that they were unable to cross the first line of German trenches. The French used a wide range of tanks, including many unique types. France was the second largest tank producer in the world, behind the Soviet Union, French cavalry tank designs saw attempts to balance the needs of firepower, protection and mobility. They also fielded a heavy tank design, and several types for scouting. In addition to these types, they were working on super-heavy breakthrough tanks
3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
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Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
6.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
7.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
8.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, that existed during the interwar period and first half of World War II. It was formed in 1918 by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats, the Kingdom of Montenegro had united with Serbia five days previously, while the regions of Kosovo, Vojvodina and Vardar Macedonia were parts of Serbia prior to the unification. For its first eleven years of existence, the Kingdom was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929. The state was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karađorđević, which ruled the Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I from 1903 onwards. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia until his death in 1921 and he was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who had been regent for his father. He was known as Alexander the Unifier and he renamed the kingdom Yugoslavia in 1929 and he was assassinated in Marseille by Vlado Chernozemski, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, during his visit to France in 1934. The crown passed to his then-still under-aged son Peter and his cousin Paul ruled as Prince regent until 1941, when Peter II would come of age. The royal family flew to London the same year, prior to the country being invaded by the Axis powers, in April 1941, the country was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers. A royal government-in-exile, recognized by the United Kingdom and, later, in 1944, after pressure from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the King recognized the government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia as the legitimate government. This was established on 2 November following the signing of the Treaty of Vis by Ivan Šubašić, Trumbić faced initial hostility from Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, who preferred an enlarged Serbia over a unified Yugoslav state. In 1916, the Serbian Parliament in exile decided on the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at a meeting inside the Municipal Theatre of Corfu. The Kingdom was formed on 1 December 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, on 1 December 1918, the new kingdom was proclaimed by Alexander Karađorđević, Prince-Regent for his father, Peter I of Serbia. The creation of the state was supported by pan-Slavists and Serbian nationalists, for the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav people had united into a single state. For Serbian nationalists, the goal of uniting the majority of the Serb population across south-eastern Europe into one state was also achieved. Furthermore, as Serbia already had a government, military, and police force, the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes participated in the Paris Peace Conference with Trumbić as the countrys representative. Almost immediately, it ran into disputes with most of its neighbours, Slovenia was difficult to determine, since it had been an integral part of Austria for 400 years. The Vojvodina region was disputed with Hungary, Macedonia with Bulgaria, a plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria. Austrians had formed a majority in this region although numbers reflected that some Slovenes did vote for Carinthia to become part of Austria, the Dalmatian port city of Zadar and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy
9.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
10.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
11.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
12.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
13.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
14.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943
15.
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
16.
Renault
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Groupe Renault is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured trucks, tractors, tanks, buses/coaches, the Renault–Nissan Alliance is the fourth-largest automotive group. Renault has a 43. 4% controlling stake in Nissan of Japan, a 37% indirectly-owned stake in AvtoVAZ of Russia, Renault also owns subsidiaries RCI Banque, Renault Retail Group and Motrio. Renault has various joint ventures, including Oyak-Renault, Renault Pars, Carlos Ghosn is the current chairman and CEO. The French government owns a 19. 73% share of Renault as of April 2015, Renault Trucks, previously known as Renault Véhicules Industriels, has been part of Volvo Trucks since 2001. Renault Agriculture became 100% owned by German agricultural equipment manufacturer CLAAS in 2008, together Renault and Nissan invested €4 billion in eight electric vehicles over three to four years beginning in 2011. Renault is known for its role in sport, particularly rallying, Formula 1. Its early work on mathematical curve modeling for car bodies is important in the history of computer graphics, the Renault corporation was founded in 1899 as Société Renault Frères by Louis Renault and his brothers Marcel and Fernand. While Louis handled design and production, Marcel and Fernand managed the business, the first Renault car, the Renault Voiturette 1CV, was sold to a friend of Louis father after giving him a test ride on 24 December 1898. In 1903, Renault began to manufacture its own engines, until then it had purchased them from De Dion-Bouton, the first major volume sale came in 1905 when Société des Automobiles de Place bought Renault AG1 cars to establish a fleet of taxis. These vehicles were used by the French military to transport troops during World War I which earned them the nickname Taxi de la Marne. By 1907, a significant percentage London and Paris taxis had been built by Renault, Renault was also the best-selling foreign brand in New York in 1907 and 1908. In 1908 the company produced 3,575 units, becoming the countrys largest car manufacturer, the brothers recognised the value of publicity that participation in motor racing could generate for their vehicles. Renault made itself known through succeeding in the first city-to-city races held in Switzerland, both Louis and Marcel raced company vehicles, but Marcel was killed in an accident during the 1903 Paris-Madrid race. Although Louis never raced again, his company remained very involved, Louis took full control of the company as the only remaining brother in 1906 when Fernand retired for health reasons. Fernand died in 1909 and Louis became the owner, renaming the company Société des Automobiles Renault. Renault fostered its reputation for innovation from very early on, at the time, cars were luxury items. The price of the smallest Renaults at the time were ₣3000 francs, in 1905 the company introduced mass-production techniques and Taylorism in 1913
17.
Vehicle armour
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Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, missiles or shells, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting vehicles like tanks, aircraft and ships, civilian vehicles may also be armoured. These vehicles include cars used by reporters, officials and others in conflict zones or where violent crime is common, armoured cars are also routinely used by security firms to carry money or valuables to reduce the risk of highway robbery or the hijacking of the cargo. Armour may also be used in vehicles to protect from other than a deliberate attack. Some spacecraft are equipped with specialised armour to protect them against impacts from micrometeoroids or fragments of space junk, the design and purpose of the vehicle determines the amount of armour plating carried, as the plating is often very heavy and excessive amounts of armour restrict mobility. In order to decrease this problem, some new materials and material compositions are being researched which include buckypaper, rolled homogeneous armour is strong, hard, and tough. Steel with these characteristics is produced by processing cast steel billets of appropriate size, rolling and forging irons out the grain structure in the steel, removing imperfections which would reduce the strength of the steel. Aluminium is used when weight is a necessity. It is most commonly used on APCs and armoured cars, wrought iron was used on ironclad warships. Early European iron armour consisted of 10 to 13 cm of wrought iron backed by up to one meter of solid wood, titanium is roughly the weight of aluminium, but as strong as iron. So despite being rather expensive, it finds an application in areas where weight is a concern, such as personal armour, because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in tank armour, sandwiched between sheets of steel armour plate. Plastic metal was a type of vehicle armour originally developed for merchant ships by the British Admiralty in 1940, the original composition was described as 50% clean granite of half-inch size, 43% of limestone mineral, and 7% of bitumen. It was typically applied in a two inches thick and backed by half an inch of steel. Plastic armour could be applied by pouring it into a cavity formed by the backing plate. Bulletproof glass is a term for glass that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets. The industry generally refers to it as bullet-resistant glass or transparent armour, bullet-resistant glass is usually constructed using a strong but transparent material such as polycarbonate thermoplastic or by using layers of laminated glass. The desired result is a material with the appearance and light-transmitting behaviour of standard glass, the polycarbonate layer, usually consisting of products such as Armormax, Makroclear, Cyrolon, Lexan or Tuffak, is often sandwiched between layers of regular glass. The use of plastic in the laminate provides impact-resistance, such as physical assault with a hammer, the plastic provides little in the way of bullet-resistance
18.
Puteaux SA 18
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The Puteaux SA18 was a French single-shot, breech-loading cannon, used from World War I onward, primarily mounted on combat vehicles. It was a simple, reliable weapon with a rate of fire made possible by a semi-automatic breech system. It was primarily intended to be used against infantry and machine-gun nests because its low velocity made it unsuitable for anti-armour use. Although its armour penetration capabilities were poor, it was able to light armoured vehicles as late as 1939. The gun was operated by one soldier and was easy to use. It was sighted on target with a scope attached to the left side of the weapon. The barrel length was 21 calibres, while its maximum fire rate was 15 rounds per minute, its practical rate was only 10 rounds. After firing, the opened and ejected the used cartidge case automatically. The weapon was served only by the gunner who aimed it through a simple 1x direct sight and this gun was standard on French light tanks, being mounted on the Renault FT in World War I. In World War II, it was used on the Renault R-35, Hotchkiss H-35 and H-38, FCM-36 and several types of French armored cars, mainly the White-Laffly WL-50. In the Polish Army the wz.18 Puteaux gun was used on the Renault FT light tanks and Renault R-35 and Hotchkiss H-35, Peugeot armoured cars,28, Samochód pancerny wz.29 and Samochód pancerny wz.34 armoured cars. It was also used on some Polish riverine craft and armoured trains
19.
Reibel machine gun
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The MAC mle 1931 machine gun, was a machine gun used in French tanks of the World War II era, as well as in fortifications such as the Maginot line. The JM twin-mounts were the standard emplacement for the mle 1931 in fixed fortifications, while tanks, the Reibel machine gun is a gas operated weapon chambered in the 7.5 mm MAS cartridge and was loaded with vertical, side-mounted, 150-round pan magazines. The variant used in fortifications was modified with a different rifling to accommodate the balle D heavy ball type of ammunition. Some other guns in French service during the late 1940s were converted to ground role, with adoption of the side-mounted 35-round box magazines, the modele 1931 machine gun is a gas operated weapon which fires from open bolt and in full automatic only. It is derived from the French FM 24/29 Fusil-Mitrailleur also designed by Lt Colonel Reibel, the FM 24/29 was developed into a heavier machine gun capable of relatively sustained fire, by giving it an extremely thick and massive barrel, to act as a heat sink. The long stroke gas piston is located below the barrel and operates the vertically tilting bolt group, ammunition is fed from side-mounted multi-layer 150-round pan magazines. The gun can be modified to take magazines on either the left or right side, the gun was fitted with a forward-curved pistol grip to aid control and a standard rifle-style trigger. The operator would face the breeches of the guns and place these pads against his shoulders and he would then use his body to control traverse, while his hands would grip the pistols grips to fire one or both guns. Elevation was controlled by a brass crank underneath the weapon, the standard for a mle 1931 in fixed emplacements was a JM Reibel twin-mount, complete with telescopic sight, azimuth and level indicators, elevation screw and spent case ejection chutes. It was manned by a crew of eight, including two gunners, two loaders, two assistant loaders, a mechanic to repair any faults or jams, and a commander to direct or coordinate fire. The purpose of pairing the guns was to allow for sustained, during normal use, the two guns would be fired in turn, allowing the other gun time to cool down. When called for, both guns could be fired together, increasing rate of fire. Charts were posted on the walls in each emplacement, outlining standard operating technique, normal fire was 150 rounds per minute, each gun would be fired for one minute, in bursts, until the magazine was empty. Then, the gunner would stop, and fire the gun for a minute while the first gun cooled and was reloaded. Then the first gun could be used again and this rate of fire could be sustained for 3 minutes per gun, before the accumulated heat built to a dangerous level. Such a rapid rate would very quickly overheat the barrel if not limited to only 75 rounds, to help cool the guns down faster, buckets of water and water sprayers were kept next to each JM emplacement. Barrels were cooled either by spraying them with water or by removing the gun from the mount, up to 20 liters of water could be used per day per emplacement just to cool the barrels. The JM mount consisted of a thick, metal, square frame, sized to fit into a standard French fortification embrasure, the square frame fit snugly into the embrasure and was attached by hinges and bolts
20.
Infantry tank
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The infantry tank was a concept developed by the British and French in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantry-soldiers in an attack, to achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily armoured to allow them to operate in close concert with infantry even under heavy fire. The extra armour came at the expense of speed, which was not an issue when supporting relatively slow-moving infantry, the British tank arm was constrained by decisions about procurement made in the early 1930s. A close support tank armed with a gun firing high explosive, the cost of experiments with tanks led in 1932 to the Director of Mechanisation to cancel work on a replacement for the medium tank, during the financial cuts imposed during the Great Depression. When work resumed in 1935, the army had Light Tank but no design bureau for a new medium tank, the prototype of October 1936 weighted 10 long tons had a maximum speed of only 8 mph but carried 60–65 mm of armour and was mechanically reliable. By 1939, further amendments to FSR added counter-attacks on an enemy armoured breakthrough, defence against tanks could be achieved by troops finding physical obstacles and by controlling their own anti-tank guns. The obstacles could be woods and rivers or minefields as long as they were covered by fire from other weapons. Capable of 15 mph, the A12 was still slow but had 60–70 mm of armour, making it almost invulnerable to tank guns and standard foreign guns like the German 37 mm Pak 36 anti-tank gun. The tank had a crew and a turret big enough for a radio. Vickers and government factories could not take on the work and it was farmed out to a civilian firm, which lacked experience, designers and draftsmen. It took until 1939 to bring the A12 into production as the Matilda II and it had not gone into service when the war began, only 67 A11s having been delivered. Using later terminology, the tank has been compared to a heavy tank, while the cruisers were compared to mediums, lights. This comparison can be misleading, particularly as the tank was never intended to have the same anti-tank capabilities as a heavy tank. The Neubaufahrzeug was considered too slow for Blitzkrieg tactics and fell from favour, German wartime doctrine shifted towards faster medium and heavy tanks fighting large multi-tank battles, with the role of the infantry tank in the assault taken by simpler Sturmgeschütz. An important difference, however, was that tanks were generally very well armed. For example, the Soviet KV-1 heavy tank and British Matilda II infantry tank were deployed at about the time in 1940. These two models had similar levels of protection and mobility, but the KVs 76.2 mm main gun was much larger than the Matildas 2-pounder. In British practice, the armament of the infantry tank went in three phases
21.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
22.
Tank destroyer
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The tank destroyer on the other hand is specifically designed to take on enemy armour. Many are based on a tank chassis, while others are wheeled. Since World War II, gun-armed tank destroyers have fallen out of favor as armies have favored multirole main battle tanks, however, lightly armored anti-tank guided missile carriers are commonly used for supplementary long-range anti-tank work. Dedicated anti-tank vehicles made their first major appearance in the Second World War as combatants developed effective armored vehicles, some were little more than stopgap solutions, mounting an anti-tank gun on a tracked vehicle to give mobility, while others were more sophisticated designs. Except for most American designs, tank destroyers were all turretless and had fixed or casemate superstructures, the turretless design allowed accommodation of a more powerful gun, typically a dedicated anti-tank gun that had a longer barrel than could be mounted in a turreted tank on the same chassis. The lack of an increased the vehicles internal volume, allowing for increased ammunition stowage. Eliminating the turret allowed the vehicle to carry thicker armor than would otherwise be the case, sometimes there was no armored roof to keep the overall weight down to the limit that the chassis could bear. Variants of the Polish TKS and TK-3 tankettes up-armed with 20 mm gun were operationally deployed in the invasion of Poland and they were used as an anti-tank component of the reconnaissance units. Due to the defeat of France, few French vehicles were built. The Laffly W15 TCC was an attempt to build a light tank destroyer by mounting a 47 mm SA37 anti-tank gun onto a lightly armored Laffly W15T artillery tractor. Other French tank destroyers were being developed, including the SOMUA SAu-40, ARL V39, for instance,202 obsolete Panzer I light tanks were modified by removing the turret and were rebuilt as the Panzerjäger I self-propelled 4.7 cm PaK. Similarly, Panzer II tanks were used on the eastern front, captured Soviet 76.2 mm anti-tank guns were mounted on modified Panzer II chassis, producing the Marder II self-propelled anti-tank gun. The most common mounting was a German 75 mm anti-tank gun on the Czech Panzer 38 chassis to produce the Marder III, the Panzer 38 chassis was also used to make the Jagdpanzer 38 casemate style tank destroyer. The Panzerjäger series continued up to the 88 mm equipped Nashorn, German tank destroyers based on the Panzer III and later German tanks were unique in that they had more armor than their tank counterparts. One of the more successful German tank destroyers was actually designed as an artillery gun. Based on the Panzer III tank chassis, the Sturmgeschütz III was originally fitted with a low-velocity gun, later, after encountering Soviet tanks, it was refitted with a comparatively short-barreled high-velocity anti-tank gun, usually with a muzzle brake, enabling it to function as a tank destroyer. The Sturmgeschütz III from its 1938 origin used a new superstructure with an integrated design similar to the later Jagdpanzer to completely enclose the crew. It was employed in support and offensive armored operations as well as in the defensive anti-tank role
23.
Renault FT
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The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17 or FT17, was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret, the Renault FTs configuration – crew compartment at the front, engine compartment at the back, and main armament in a revolving turret – became and remains the standard tank layout. As such, historians of armoured warfare have called the Renault FT the worlds first modern tank, over 3,000 Renault FT tanks were manufactured by French industry, most of them during the year 1918. Another 950 of an almost identical licensed copy of the FT were made in the United States, the FT was designed and produced by the Société des Automobiles Renault, one of Frances major manufacturers of motor vehicles then and now. It is thought possible that Louis Renault began working on the idea as early as 21 December 1915, Estienne had drawn up plans for a tracked armoured vehicle based on the Holt caterpillar tractor, and, with permission from General Joffre, approached Renault as a possible manufacturer. Renault declined, saying that his company was operating at capacity producing war materiel. Estienne took his plans to the Schneider company, where they became Frances first operational tank, at a later, chance meeting with Renault on 16 July 1916, Estienne asked him to reconsider, which he did. The speed with which the project progressed to the mock-up stage has led to the theory that Renault had been working on the idea for some time. Louis Renault himself conceived the new overall design and set its basic specifications. He imposed a limit to the FTs projected weight, which could not exceed 7 tons. Renaults most talented industrial designer, Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, generated the FTs detailed execution plans, charles-Edmond Serre, a long time associate of Louis Renault, organized and supervised the new tanks mass production. The FTs tracks were kept automatically under tension to prevent derailments, because the engine had been designed to function normally under any slant, very steep slopes could be negotiated by the Renault FT without loss of power. Effective internal ventilation was provided by the radiator fan, which drew its air through the front crew compartment of the tank. Renaults design was far more advanced than the other two French tanks at the time, namely the Schneider CA1 and the heavy Saint-Chamond. Nevertheless, Renault encountered some difficulties in getting his proposal fully supported by the head of the French tank arm. After receiving two large government orders for the FT tank, one in April 1917 and the other in June 1917, however, his design remained in competition with the superheavy Char 2C until the end of the war. The prototype was refined during the half of 1917. Only 84 were produced in 1917, but 2,697 were delivered to the French army before the Armistice, about half of all FTs were manufactured in Renaults factory at Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, with the remainder subcontracted to other concerns
24.
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
25.
Combined arms
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Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects. The mixing of arms is sometimes pushed down below the level where homogeneity ordinarily prevails, combined arms operations dates back to antiquity, where armies would usually field a screen of skirmishers to protect their spearmen during the approach to contact. Especially in the case of the Greek hoplites however, the focus of military thinking lay almost exclusively on the heavy infantry. Philip II of Macedon greatly improved upon the combined arms tactics of the Greek city-states and combined the newly created Macedonian Phalanx with heavy cavalry. The Phalanx would hold the line in place, until the heavy cavalry could smash. The pre-Marian Roman Legion was a combined force and consisted of five classes of troops. Lightly equipped velites acted as skirmishers armed with light javelins, the fifth class were the equites, the cavalry, used for scouting, pursuit and to guard the flanks. The army of the Han Dynasty is also an example, fielding mêlée infantry, crossbowmen, civilizations such as the Carthaginians and Sassanids also were known to have fielded a combination of infantry supported by powerful cavalry. At the Battle of Hastings English infantry fighting from behind a wall were defeated by a Norman army consisting of archers, infantry. One of the used by the Normans was to tempt the English to leave the shield wall to attack retreating Norman infantry only to destroy them in the open with cavalry. Both Hastings and Falkirk showed how combined arms could be used to defeat enemies relying on one arm. The lightly protected longbowmen could down their French opponents at a distance and this is the crux of combined arms, to allow a combination of forces to achieve what would be impossible for its constituent elements to do alone. During the Middle Ages military forces used combined arms as a method of winning battles, some historians claim that during the Middle Ages there was no strategic or tactical art to military combat. Kelly DeVries uses the Merriam-Webster definition of combat “as a general military engagement. ”In the pursuit of a leaders goals and self-interest tactical and strategic thinking was used along with taking advantage of the terrain and weather in choosing when and where to give battle. The simplest example is the combination of different specialties such as archers, infantry, cavalry, at times, each force fought on its own and won or lost depending on the opposing military competence. During the Middle Ages leaders utilized a combination of skilled and unskilled forces to win battles. An army that has multiple skills available can engage a force that is comprised mainly of one or two types of troops. Each type of military formation –infantry, archers, cavalry, or peasant –has certain advantages that the other does not have
26.
Infiltration tactics
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These were partially adopted on 9 May 1915, the opening day of the Second Battle of Artois, by the French XXXIII Corps which advanced 4.5 kilometres in the first hour and a half of the attack. The problem was reinforcing and holding the gains against German counterattack, a young French infantry officer, Captain André Laffargue, put forward similar ideas in a pamphlet written in August 1915 Étude sur l’attaque dans la période actuelle de la guerre. Laffargue based his proposals in particular on his experiences attacking immediately south of Neuville-Saint-Vaast on 9 May 1915 when commanding a company of 153rd Infantry Regiment. Laffargue was left wounded on the German front line but his regiment advanced another 1.5 kilometres and they would then be encircled and dealt with by successive waves. Had these methods been followed Laffargue suggests that the attack could have resulted in a breakthrough of the German defences. Laffargue put forward the view that the support of the attack in line was necessary to enable men to advance against heavy fire. The French Army published Laffargues pamphlet in 1915 and the year a commercial edition found wide circulation. The British, like all combatants during 1914–1918, made frequent use of wave attacks, the US Infantry Journal published a translation as The Attack in Trench Warfare in 1916. The claim that the Germans translated and used Laffargues pamphlet as a training manual has been refuted by Gudmundsson, the bombardment also targeted enemy rear areas to destroy or disrupt roads, artillery, and command units. This was done to confuse the enemy, and reduce their capability to launch effective counterattacks from secondary defense lines, for maximum effect, the exact points of attack remained concealed until the last possible moment. They would attempt to penetrate weak points to bypass and isolate heavily defended positions in the front line. Infantrymen with heavier weapons would then follow-up and have an advantage when attacking the isolated enemy strong points. Other reinforcements would then enter these breaches, and the enemy line would shortly collapse. The attacks relied heavily on speed and surprise and this tactic initially worked well and saw heavy use. However, because of this implementation, the enemy quickly developed effective defenses. Also, as in the case of the traditional mass attack. One of the problems of World War I was that even when a breakthrough was made, thus, even with the new tactics and their relatively light use of artillery, attacks would tend to bog down sooner or later, and no massive breakthrough was possible. Other parachute battalion and company also used similar tactics during the battle
27.
Char D1
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The Char D1 was a pre-World War II French medium tank. The French plan of 1926, calling for the creation of a Light Infantry Support Tank, one hundred and sixty vehicles of this type were produced between 1931 and 1935. There was a pre-series of ten vehicles and later 150 standard vehicles were built, until 1936 the vehicles were fitted with Renault FT turrets because the intended cast ST2 turrets were not yet ready. The ST2 turret was armed with a short 47mm SA34 tank gun with a coaxial 7. 5mm machine gun, the hull carried a 7. 5mm MG in the bow. After World War I, France possessed a large fleet of Renault FT light infantry support tanks. Although many of these were sold to nations, over 2800 remained. This implied that in the early twenties France had the strongest and most modern armoured force in the world, development of new tank models was not seen as urgent, and budgetary restraints would for the immediate future prohibit any further tank production. When in 1922 General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne concluded a study containing guidelines for long term tank design. It was therefore decided to modify a number of existing vehicles, the first modifications were of the Renault FT Kégresse-type, which featured the suspension of the Kégresse half-track, fitted with a special rubber steel-reinforced track. In 192542 vehicles were rebuilt this way and deployed in 1926 during the Berber insurrection in Morocco, nine Renault FT Kégresse vehicles were later sold to Yugoslavia and five to Poland. Like FT, NC is a combination of code letters devoid of any meaning, one prototype happened to be finished second, in December 1925, and was therefore called the NC2. It was fitted with a modified Kégresse leaf spring suspension and a 62 hp engine and it had as an alternative designation Renault Modèle 24/25, because Renault proposed to build it as a possible fast tank as specified in Plan 1924 of the French Cavalry. This line of development was discontinued however, the first prototype to be ready, thus named the NC1, had a different suspension system, with twelve wheels and three large vertical volute springs per side. It allowed for a top speed of 18.5 km/h, as had been the case for the Renault FT Kégresse, this project was still primarily intended to result in a modification proposal to rebuild existing Renault FTs. In 1926 it transpired that the Char de Bataille project, that resulted in the Char B1, was evolving into a far heavier tank than at first intended. Renault immediately tried to offer his NC1, now called the Renault Modèle 26/27, Renault also tried to open foreign markets.5 to 9.5 metric tons. In the early 1930s a single tank was delivered to Greece, all of these vehicles were described by postwar writers under the name NC27, but this was not a contemporary designation. In 1928 Renault succeeded in his attempt to get his Renault NC accepted as the basis for light infantry tank development
28.
Hotchkiss et Cie
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Société Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Hotchkiss et Cie was a French arms and, in the 20th century, automobile manufacturer first established by United States gunsmith Benjamin B. He moved to France and set up a factory, first at Viviez near Rodez in 1867, an example of the companys output was the Hotchkiss revolving cannon. The cannon had five barrels each able to fire 43 shells a minute a distance of one mile, it was made in four sizes from 37 mm to 57 mm, the first Hotchkiss car, a 17 CV four-cylinder model, appeared in 1903. The badge for the marque consisted of a pair of crossed cannons — a salute to the companys first products, a factory fire nearly killed all projects. Despite this, a model followed in 1906. During World War I, they mass-produced the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun, tank parts, in 1933, they developed the Hotchkiss H35 tank. Post war came a luxury model called Type AK but only one was built, in 1920, there was an unsuccessful attempt to build Hotchkiss cars by a British arm of Hotchkiss in the United Kingdom — only a prototype was made. A refined model named Type AM was in production between 1923 and 1928, a new six-cylinder model, named AM80 came in 1928. The company made several successful racing cars, Hotchkiss racers won the Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo in 1932,1933,1934,1939,1949 and 1950. The Hotchkiss 680 was an important model between the wars—it had a 6-cylinder, 3-litre engine, in 1937, the company merged with Amilcar. J. A. Grégoire joined the company as a designer, after World War II, the 680 continued. The first new car post war was a 13 CV four-cylinder model, from 1947, 2-litre flat-four models are frequently called Hotchkiss-Grégoire. After 1954, Hotchkiss manufactured Jeeps under licence from Willys, in 1956, Hotchkiss merged with French car manufacturer Brandt, producing jeeps at their factory near Paris for the French military until 1966. The firm was merged into Thomson-Houston in 1966 and in 1970 stopped producing vehicles of any sort, in the early 1970s, the Hotchkiss marque disappeared, as the French conglomerate came to be known as Thomson-Brandt. This, in turn, was nationalized in 1982 to form Thomson SA
29.
Hotchkiss H35
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The Hotchkiss H35 or Char léger modèle 1935 H was a French cavalry tank developed prior to World War II. From 1938 an improved version was produced with an engine, the Char léger modèle 1935 H modifié39. For the remainder of the war Germany and its allies used captured Hotchkiss tanks in several modifications, in 1926 it had been decided to provide armour support to the regular infantry divisions by creating autonomous tank battalions equipped with a light and cheap infantry tank, a char daccompagnement. For this role at first the Char D1 was developed which type however proved to be particularly light nor cheap. On 30 June 1933 this proposal was approved by the Conseil Consultatif de lArmement, on 2 August 1933 the specifications were made known, a weight of six tons and 30 mm armour protection all around. Three prototypes were ordered from Hotchkiss, but the entire French industry was also invited to provide proposals for a nouveau char léger. This allowed the Renault company to beat Hotchkiss in delivering the first prototype and it was tested until 4 March 1935, when it was replaced by the second identical prototype to be tested until 6 May. Both had to be rejected because new specifications had been made on 21 June 1934 that increased the desired armour thickness to 40 mm, on 27 June 1935 the commission approved the type on the provision that the necessary changes would be made. On 19 August the third prototype was delivered, equipped with a cast APX turret and featuring a redesigned hull, it was tested until 20 September, on 6 November 1935 a first order was made for 200 vehicles. Though it should have been completed between July 1936 and July 1937, the first production vehicle was in fact delivered on 12 September 1936, a first additional orders had already been made of 92 on 7 September 1936, to be completed in November 1937. A third one of 108 vehicles followed on 23 January 1937 and these vehicles had the series number 40000 to 40400. By 1 January 1937132 hulls had been produced, none of these had at that date yet been fitted with a turret. The first series vehicle was extensively and intensively tested until 4 December 1936. The testing soon showed that its qualities in terrain were unacceptably poor. It was simply impossible to steer the vehicle on a somewhat bumpy surface. The Infantry therefore initially rejected any further procurement, eventually, in 1937, it decided to accept only the last hundred tanks to equip just two battalions with the type, the 13e and 38e Bataillon de Chars de Combat. For political reasons however stopping production of the tank was unacceptable, and so the first 300 vehicles of the production run were offered to the Cavalry, which was forced to accept them because it would not have been granted a budget for other tanks anyway. As the cavalry units would be making use of the road network and of mounted infantry
30.
Delaunay-Belleville
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Automobiles Delaunay-Belleville was a French luxury automobile manufacturer at Saint-Denis, France, north of Paris. At the beginning of the 20th century they were among the most prestigious cars produced in the world, julien Belleville had been a maker of marine boilers from around 1850. Louis Delaunay joined the firm in 1867 and married Delaunays daughter, changing his name to Delaunay-Belleville, S. A. des Automobiles Delaunay-Belleville was formed in 1903 by Louis Delaunay and Marius Barbarou. Barbarous family owned the boiler making company St. Denis in Belleville, Barbarou, then 28, had experience working for Clément, Lorraine-Dietrich and Benz and was responsible for design and styling, including the trademark round grille shell. The first car was exhibited at the 1904 Paris Salon, the company started with three models, all fours, a live axled 16 hp and a 24 hp and 40 hp model, both chain-driven. These were likely the first automobiles to have pressure-lubricated camshafts, the bodies were attached with just four bolts, and the brakes were water-cooled, from a 2 imp gal reservoir. Delaunay-Belleville were a prestige marque, and one of the leaders, from the outset. Other royal owners included King George I of Greece and King Alphonso XIII of Spain, the first French car maker to offer a six-cylinder engine, Delaunay-Bellevilles 70 hp became available only in 1909, and then only in small numbers, remaining in limited production until 1912. This model came to be known as the Type SMT, or Sa Majesté le Tsar, because Nicholas purchased one of the last 70s built. He also ordered another in 1909, the demand for a silent starter, operable from the seat, became known as a Barbey starter. Like most prestige marques, the cars were sold as bare chassis, between 1906 and 1914, British imports were mainly bodied by Shinnie Brothers, a Burlington subsidiary, in Aberdeen, then shipped to London for sale. After Barbarou resigned, Delaunay-Belleville quality began to slip, in 1919, the company offered a 10 hp four-cylinder, undoubtedly the most expensive voiturette on the market, as well as a 15.9 hp four, the P4B, in 1922. French anarchist gangster Jules Bonnot used a Delaunay-Belleville for his first hold-up, new four-cylinder overhead valve 14/40 and 16/60 models appeared in 1926, and the prewar 20 hp and 10 hp six-cylinder models continued to be produced until 1927. The last gasps were the 3,180 cc 21 hp six of 1928, in 1931, Continental engines, imported from the U. S. were offered, being quieter and cheaper. By the late 1920s, Delaunay-Belleville had lost its prestige, and converted to truck, in 1936 the previously separate car company was merged with the Delaunay Belleville parent. Production of the Delaunay-Belleville RI-6 continued through the late 1930s and was revived after the Second World War, however, the business was in decline, anyone buying a RI-6 in the 1940s would have done so in the knowledge after-sales service might disappear soon. Six cars were completed in 1947 and this sank to four during the first part of 1948, the company continued to advertise new cars for sale until 1950, but the factory was sold to Robert de Rovin in 1948 and thereafter used to make cyclecars. Delahaye, Famous on Road and Race Track, in Ward, Ian, World of Automobiles, Volume 5, pp. 525–526
31.
Louis Renault (industrialist)
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Louis Renault was a French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault and a pioneer of the automobile industry. Renault built one of Frances largest automobile manufacturing concerns, which bears his name to this day, during World War I his factories contributed massively to the war effort notably so by the creation and manufacture of the first effective tank, the Renault FT tank. Accused of collaborating with the Germans during World War II, he died while awaiting trial in liberated France toward the end of 1944 under uncertain circumstances and his company was seized and nationalized by the provisional government of France although he died before he could be tried. His factories were the only ones permanently expropriated by the French government, the fourth of six children born into the bourgeois Parisian family of Alfred and Berthe Renault, Louis Renault attended Lycée Condorcet. Renault called his car the Voiturette, on 24 December 1898, he won a bet with his friends that his invention with an innovative crankshaft could beat a car with a bicycle-like chain drive up the slope of Rue Lepic in Montmartre. As well as winning the bet, Renault received 13 definite orders for the vehicle, seeing the commercial potential, he teamed up with his two older brothers, Marcel and Fernand, who had business experience from working in their fathers button and textiles firm. They formed the Renault Frères company on 25 February 1899, initially, business and administration was handled entirely by the elder brothers, with Louis dedicating himself to design and manufacturing. Marcel was killed in the 1903 Paris-Madrid motor race, and in 1908, on 26 September 1918 Renault, then aged 40, married the 21-year-old Christiane Boullaire, sister of French painter Jacques Boullaire. The Chateau fronted on more than 3 km of the Seine, at Renaults request and expense, the small town hall of Herqueville was moved. Renaults personnel entered the residence via an underground tunnel, locations of Chateau Herqueville, 49°14′31. 66″N 1°15′24. Identical methods were used by Andre Citroen in his own factory. Over 600 French 75mm guns were destroyed by explosions in 1915. Louis Renault was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Légion dhonneur after the war for the contribution of his factories to the war effort. During the interwar period his right-wing opinions became well known, leading to cases of labour unrest with proletarian avant-garde workers at the Boulogne Billancourt plant. He pleaded for a union between European nations. In 1938, Renault visited Adolf Hitler, and by 1939 he had become an important supplier for the French army, at the time Hitlers Wehrmacht invaded France in 1940, Louis Renault was in the U. S. sent by his government to ask for tanks. He returned to find the Franco-German armistice in place and he put his factories at the service of Vichy France, which meant that he was also assisting the Nazis. Over a period of four years, Renault manufactured 34,232 vehicles for the Germans, Renault argued that by continuing operations he had saved thousands of workers from being transported to Germany
32.
German re-armament
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The German rearmament was an era of rearmament in Germany during the interwar period, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. It began as soon as the treaty was signed, on a small, secret, and informal basis, but it was massively expanded after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. The re-armament program quickly increased the size of the German officer corps, count Johann von Kielmansegg later said that the very involved process of outfitting 36 divisions kept him and his colleagues from reflecting on larger issues. The World War I reparations would be difficult or impossible to pay without viable export markets for Germanys industrial sector, another example was that the government tolerated that various Weimar paramilitary groups armed themselves to a dangerous degree. Thus various Freikorps, the Stahlhelm, the Reichsbanner, the Nazi SA, the Nazi SS, one of the reasons why this militarization of society was difficult to prevent relates to the distinction between the government and the state. The democratically elected government, being composed of groups of people, inevitably reflected the factional strife, some of the antidemocratic ideas aimed for zero democracy via totalitarianism. Others aimed for diminished democracy subordinated in power to other forces, after the Nazi takeover of power in January 1933, the Nazis pursued a greatly enlarged and more aggressive version of rearmament. During its struggle for power, the National Socialist party promised to recover Germanys lost national pride and it proposed military rearmament claiming that the Treaty of Versailles and the acquiescence of the Weimar Republic were an embarrassment for all Germans. The rearmament became the topmost priority of the German government, Hitler would then spearhead one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen. Covert organizations like the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule were established under a civilian guise in order to train pilots for the future Luftwaffe, although available statistics dont include non-citizens or women, the massive Nazi re-armament policy almost led to full employment during the 1930s. The re-armament began a change in fortune for many factories in Germany. Many industries were taken out of a crisis that had been induced by the Great Depression. By 1935, Hitler was open about rejecting the military restrictions set forth by the Treaty of Versailles, Rearmament was announced on 16 March as was the reintroduction of conscription. Some large industrial companies, which had until then specialized in traditional products began to diversify. Shipyards, for example, created branches that began to design, thus the German re-armament provided an opportunity for advanced, and sometimes revolutionary, technological improvements, especially in the field of aeronautics. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 would provide an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced by the German factories during the re-armament years, Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as Blumenkrieg. Re-armament in the 1930s saw the development of different theories of how to prepare the German economy for total war, the first amongst these was defence in depth which was put forward by Georg Thomas. He suggested that the German economy needed to achieve Autarky and one of the main proponents behind this was I. G, since World War II, both academics and laypeople have discussed the extent to which German re-armament was an open secret among national governments
33.
French franc
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The franc, also commonly distinguished as the French franc, was a currency of France. Between 1450 and 1999, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it was revalued in 1960, with each new franc being worth 100 old francs. The French franc was a commonly held reserve currency of reference in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360 to pay the Ransom of King John II of France and this coin secured the kings freedom and showed him on a richly decorated horse earning it the name franc à cheval. The obverse legend, like other French coins, gives the title as Francorum Rex. Its value was set as one livre tournois, john’s son, Charles V, continued this type. It was copied exactly at Brabant and Cambrai and, with the arms on the horse cloth changed, conquests led by Joan of Arc allowed Charles VII to return to sound coinage and he revived the franc à cheval. John II, however, was not able to strike enough francs to pay his ransom, John II died as a prisoner in England and his son, Charles V was left to pick up the pieces. Charles V pursued a policy of reform, including stable coinage, an edict dated 20 April 1365 established the centerpiece of this policy, a gold coin officially called the denier d’or aux fleurs de lis which had a standing figure of the king on its obverse. Its value in money of account was one livre tournois, just like the franc à cheval, in accordance with the theories of the mathematician, economist and royal advisor Nicolas Oresme, Charles struck fewer coins of better gold than his predecessors. In the accompanying deflation both prices and wages fell, but wages fell faster and debtors had to settle up in better money than they had borrowed, the Mayor of Paris, Etienne Marcel, exploited their discontent to lead a revolt which forced Charles V out of the city. The States General which met at Blois in 1577 added to the pressure to stop currency manipulation. Henry III agreed to do this and he revived the franc and this coin and its fractions circulated until 1641 when Louis XIII of France replaced it with the silver Écu. Nevertheless, the franc continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois. The decimal franc was established as the currency by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit of 4.5 g of fine silver. This was slightly less than the livre of 4.505 g, silver coins now had their denomination clearly marked as “5 FRANCS” and it was made obligatory to quote prices in francs. e. Coinage with explicit denominations in decimal fractions of the franc also began in 1795, decimalization of the franc was mandated by an act of 7 April 1795, which also dealt with of weights and measures. France’s first decimal coinage used allegorical figures symbolizing revolutionary principles, like the designs the United States had adopted in 1793
34.
AMR 35
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The Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance Renault Modèle 35 Type ZT was a French light tank developed during the Interbellum and used in the Second World War. It was not intended to reconnoitre and report as its name suggests but was an armoured combat vehicle, mostly without a radio. The AMR35 originated from a project in 1933 to improve the earlier AMR33 by moving the engine from the front to the back, in 1934 also a stronger suspension was fitted and the type was chosen to replace the AMR33 on the production lines that year. Three orders were made by the French Cavalry of in two hundred vehicles in five versions, including two machine-gun tanks, two tank destroyer types and a command tank. Later ten were ordered of a radio communication variant, the Renault YS, and over forty were built of a tropical version, the production would be much delayed by financial and technical problems, deliveries only starting in 1936. The AMR35 proved to be an unreliable vehicle and it was one of the fastest tanks of its day, but its very speed overstressed its mechanical parts. During the Battle of France the AMR 35s were part of armoured and motorised divisions, during the remainder of the Second World War Germany made use of some captured vehicles. With his AMR33 not yet being delivered to the French army — this would happen in June 1934 — Louis Renault used two of the five AMR33 prototypes to improve the type. The exhaust pipe was placed at the back and the ventilator moved from the right to the left side. Renault was hesitant to introduce such expensive improvements in the production run, during testing the maximum speed was shown to be an impressive 72 km/h. Weight was just 4.68 metric tonnes, the road speed 40.5 km/h. However, some cavalry officers pointed out that the Renault Nerva Stella was a car and its engine rather delicate. They proposed to use a more robust Renault city bus engine instead, in March the second prototype, N°79760, was also lengthened twenty centimetres and fitted with a Renault 43222 CV four-cylinder bus engine. A subsequent order of 92 for the vehicle with its more reliable engine was made on 3 July 1934. This type, replacing the AMR33 in the run, was to have the name AMR35. Of these, twelve should be of a platoon command type, fitted with the AVIS-1 turret with a 7,5 mm machine gun and equipped with an ER1 radio set. Also eight radio command tanks were to be produced, which eventually would be called AMR35 ADF1, a complete redesign of the suspension was ordered, also to be used for the new Renault R35. Three types were considered and tested on AMR33 prototype N°79758, the first had the idler resting on the ground and this Renault ZB was rejected, but in March 1936 twelve were ordered by China and four a few months later by the Yunnan province administration
35.
AMC 35
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The AMC35, also known under a manufacturers designation Renault ACG-1, was a French medium cavalry tank of the later Interwar era that served in the Second World War. It was developed as a result of the change of the specification that had led to the design of the AMC34, calling for a vehicle that was not only well-armed and mobile but also well-armoured. Due to technological and financial problems production was delayed and limited, the AMC35 was one of the few French tanks of the period featuring a two-man turret. Renault had developed the AMC34 according to the specifications of the Plan 1931, on 26 June 1934 these were changed, it was now demanded that the vehicle attain a maximum speed of 50 km/h and be immune to antitank guns. The French materiel commission, the Commission de Vincennes, became suspicious however by the fact that the designation had been changed from Renault YR to Renault ACG. When the commission inspected the prototype on 9 March it indeed transpired that it was a new design. Accordingly, a complete test programme was ordered, which was finished on 27 November, at that date the commission judged that despite many changes the type was still unfit for service due to its mechanical unreliability. However already in the spring the Cavalry, worried by the German remilitarisation of the Rhineland, had first ordered seventeen vehicles and later expanded that order to fifty. For political reasons the commission did not dare to cancel the order, it accepted the type, the first vehicle was received by the Cavalry on 1 November 1938. The AMC35 had about the dimensions as the AMC34. The suspension used as springs horizontal rubber cylinders, at 42 km/h the vehicle was slower than the specified speed. A three hundred litre fuel tank allowed for a range of 160 kilometres, the wading capacity was sixty centimetres and it could cross a trench of two metres. The 25 mm armour plates, riveted and bolted onto the chassis, the prototype had a two-man APX2 turret, with the commander/loader on the left and the gunner on the right, fitted with a 25 mm SARF fortress gun and a 7.5 mm Reibel machine gun. As the 25 mm antitank guns were needed in the Maginot line, the roughly octagonal APX2 turret consisted of cast sections, welded, riveted and bolted together. The tank carried 120 gun rounds and 5250 machine gun rounds.5 million Belgian franc, the hulls were indicated to be of a second series, an improved AMC34 — referring to the same line of development that would result in the AMC35. Their delivery was supposed to commence in October 1935, however, that month Renault started production of the original AMC34, he was as yet unable to manufacture the improved version. As large orders had become unlikely, the project had a low priority, on 3 June 1937 the Belgian minister of defence, General Henri Denis, demanded that the single prototype be sent to Belgium, it was transported on 4 June. This outcome however, embarrassed the French government, it pressured Renault to accept a new arrangement and it was agreed on 21 April 1938 to complete 35 vehicles, ten to be delivered to Belgium including the prototype, the countervalue of its contractual fine
36.
Self-sealing fuel tank
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Used primarily in aviation, self-sealing is a technology—in wide use since World War II—that prevents fuel tanks or bladders from leaking fuel and igniting after being damaged by enemy fire. When a fuel tank is punctured, the fuel seeps into the layers, causing the untreated layer to swell, military aircraft built by the Glenn L. Martin Company used this self-sealing fuel tank. In the newer generations of pre-war and early-war aircraft, self-sealing tanks were used to minimize the damage from leaking or burning fuel. A conventional fuel tank, when hit by gunfire, could leak fuel rapidly and this would not only reduce the aircrafts effective range, but was also a significant fire hazard. Damaged fuel tanks could also rupture, destroying the airframe or critically affecting flight characteristics and it was realized that, because of weight limitations, it was not practical to simply add armor plate to aircraft fuel tanks, a method of stopping fuel leaking from damaged tanks was necessary. Early attempts at protecting fuel tanks consisted of using metal tanks, research revealed that the exit of the projectile, rather than the entry, was the greater problem, as it often tumbled, thus creating a large exit hole. Among the earliest versions of these types of tanks were manufactured in the UK at Portsmouth airport by Fireproof Tanks Ltd. The Henderson Safety Tank company provided crash-proof self-sealing tanks for the Miles Master trainer, the Germans were using layers of rubber laid over leather hide with a treated fibre inner surface for the self-sealing tanks on their Junkers Ju 88 bombers early in the war. In the US, Ernst Eger of United States Rubber Company patented a self-sealing fuel tank design in 1941, by 1942 Fireproof Tanks had developed the first flexible fuel bladders as range extender tanks for the MkIX Spitfire. These tanks were flexible containers, made of a laminated self-sealing material like vulcanized rubber, as early tests showed that impact could overpressurize a fuel tank, the self-sealing fuel cell is suspended, allowing it to absorb shocks without rupture. U. S. Navy fuel tanks during the war were able to withstand.50 in bullets and, not all fighters were fitted with the relatively new invention. Self-sealing tanks tended to be heavier with lower capacity than non-sealed tanks, nonetheless, aircraft that were fitted with self-sealing tanks regularly took more punishment than those without, and were able to return to base. Combat experience in the Pacific war showed that the heavily protected American aircraft could sustain far more damage than the lightly armored Japanese designs without self-sealing fuel tanks, the same principles were applied to give self-sealing fuel lines in aircraft. Most jet fighters and all US military rotary wing aircraft have some type of self-sealing tanks, military rotary wing fuel tanks have the additional feature of being crashworthy. High altitudes require the tanks to be pressurized, making self-sealing difficult, newer technologies have brought advances like inert foam-filled tanks to prevent detonation. This foam is an open cell foam that effectively divides the gas space above the fuel into thousands of small spaces. This foam also serves to reduce fuel slosh, major manufacturers of this technology include Hutchinson, Amfuel, Meggitt, Robertson Fuel Systems, GKN USA and FPT Industries. For military use, tanks are qualified to MIL-DTL-27422 or MIL-DTL-5578, an aircraft fuel tank sometimes consists of several interconnected fuel cells
37.
Puteaux
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Puteaux is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department 8.7 kilometres from the center of Paris, La Défense, Paris business district hosting the tallest buildings in the metropolitan area, spreads over the northern part of Puteaux and parts of the neighbouring communes Courbevoie and Nanterre. The inhabitants of Puteaux are called Putéoliens, the creation of the city dates from 1148, by Abbot Suger and gave him the name Putiauz. The foundation of Puteaux part of other towns in the region by Abbot Suger, as Carrières-sur-Seine, Vaucresson or Villeneuve-la-Garenne. This appeal was reinforced by certain privileges granted by the Abbot Suger, the name Putiauz comes from the old French Putel, which means a quagmire or swamp and was certainly making reference to the condition of the area before its reorganization. But another etymology exists, hence the name Puteaux would come from Latin puteoli, the name of Puteaux in turn appears to the sixteenth century or seventeenth century. Legend has it that Puteaux inspired the story of the gadfly from La Fontaine, located on the left bank of the river Seine, Puteaux borders Courbevoie to the north, Nanterre to the west and Suresnes to the south. In the east, Puteaux is connected to Paris by the bridge of Puteaux near Neuilly, the territory of the commune of Puteaux also includes the largest part of the Île de Puteaux, on the Seine. Within Puteaux several districts can be distinguished, the district Bas de Puteaux, located between the railway line and the Seine, is the oldest urbanized district. Notable in particular are the old church, the Théâtre des Hauts-de-Seine, the town hall, the town hall was built in 1934 and is a typical example of the architecture of this time. The boulevard Richard Wallace is the Champs-Élysées of Puteaux, the district La Défense is located in the north, separated by the circular boulevard. The district, developed since the end of the 1950s, is one of the business districts in Europe. It mainly consists of buildings, but some notable dwellings can be found within the district as well. Two thirds of the territory of La Défense is located within Puteaux, thus, the CNIT, the Arche de la Défense and the Quatre Temps shopping mall are in Puteaux. The district Île de Puteaux, on there are no dwellings besides some barges. A sporting complex, the Palais des sports, opened in July 2006, tour Pascal B in La Défense and in Puteaux has the head offices of the Bureau dEnquêtes sur les Événements de Mer and of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea. The tax revenue of La Défense makes Puteaux one of the richest communes of France, Puteaux receives forty million euros per year coming from the companies within the district alone. Puteaux does not have a debt and its reserves, placed in Treasury bills
38.
Machine gun
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A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Note that not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, unlike semi-automatic firearms, which require one trigger pull per round fired, a machine gun is designed to fire for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays the term is restricted to heavy weapons, able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition lasts. Machine guns are used against personnel, aircraft and light vehicles, or to provide suppressive fire. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours, because they become very hot, practically all machine guns fire from an open bolt, to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, although subdivided into light, medium, heavy or general-purpose, even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy guns are either mounted on a tripod or on a vehicle, when carried on foot. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on a tripod. 50in, the M249 automatic rifle is operated by an automatic rifleman, but its ammunition may be carried by other Soldiers within the squad or unit. The M249 machine gun is a crew-served weapon, Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. Many heavy machine guns, such as the Browning M2.50 caliber machine gun, are enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War, Carlos Hathcock set the record for a shot at 7382 ft with a.50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight. This led to the introduction of.50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles, selective fire rifles firing a full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles, while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles. Unlocking and removing the spent case from the chamber and ejecting it out of the weapon as bolt is moving rearward Loading the next round into the firing chamber. Usually the recoil spring tension pushes bolt back into battery and a cam strips the new round from a feeding device, cycle is repeated as long as the trigger is activated by operator. Releasing the trigger resets the trigger mechanism by engaging a sear so the weapon stops firing with bolt carrier fully at the rear, the operation is basically the same for all autoloading firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. Most modern machine guns use gas-operated reloading, a recoil actuated machine gun uses the recoil to first unlock and then operate the action. Machine guns such as the M2 Browning and MG42, are of this type, a cam, lever or actuator demultiplicates the energy of the recoil to operate the bolt
39.
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
40.
Charles de Gaulle
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, in 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era, born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was an officer of the First World War, wounded several times. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions, during the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division which counterattacked the invaders, he was then appointed Under-Secretary for War. Refusing to accept his governments armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and he led a government in exile and the Free French Forces against the Axis. Despite frosty relations with Britain and especially the United States, he emerged as the leader of the French resistance. He became Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, frustrated by the return of petty partisanship in the new Fourth Republic, he resigned in early 1946 but continued to be politically active as founder of the RPF party. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, when the Algerian War was ripping apart the unstable Fourth Republic, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a presidency. He granted independence to Algeria and progressively to other French colonies and he restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations, De Gaulle openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his later years, his support for an independent Quebec, De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization. He died a year later at his residence in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, leaving his Presidential memoirs unfinished, many French political parties and figures claim the Gaullist legacy. De Gaulle was ranked as Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps, De Gaulle was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord departement, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic and traditional family and his father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college who eventually founded his own school. Henri de Gaulle came from a line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy. De Gaulles mother, Jeanne, descended from a family of entrepreneurs from Lille
41.
10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade (Poland)
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The Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade was an armoured formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Led by General Stanisław Maczek, it took part in the Battle of France in May 1940 and it was later reformed in Great Britain as a part of the 1st Armoured Division. Under the terms of the Franco-Polish Military Alliance, France and Poland were allies in the lead-up to World War II. After Poland was defeated by Germany in September 1939, many Polish soldiers made their way to France where a new Polish Army in France was created to continue the fight against the Germans. These forces were commanded by General Władysław Sikorski, who was also Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, French generals were not, however, interested in Polish information about the German tactics of Blitzkrieg displayed in the campaign in Poland. There was a belief among the French High Command that the Polish armed forces jad been incompetent. When General Maczek and his veterans tried to create a Polish mechanized division, they were not able to procure the equipment necessary for rapid training and this state of affairs changed when Germany invaded the Low Countries in 1940, out-flanking the French fortifications. General Maczeks unit suddenly received all the equipment they had asked for on condition and this proved impossible because many Polish soldiers were unfamiliar with their new equipment and there was no time for training. General Maczek decided to lead a force of his best trained men. That small force, comprising veterans of the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, was now renamed the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, on June 6, the brigade had one tank battalion, two strong motorized cavalry squadrons, one anti-tank battery and one anti-aircraft battery. The brigade was attached to the French Fourth Army near Reims, however, Maczeks unit was much too weak to hold back full German armoured divisions successfully. Polish soldiers managed to only one retreating French infantry division by attacking German forces in Champaubert-Montgivroux. Later, the brigade had to withdraw along with French troops, on June 16 the brigade attacked by night the town of Montbard over the Burgundy Canal. Maczeks soldiers completely surprised the Germans and took many prisoners, the brigade was by this time fighting alone, with the French units on both flanks either routed or in retreat. There were no French forces to exploit its victory and the decimated Polish unit found itself surrounded y the enemy, on June 18, General Maczek decided to destroy most of his equipment and withdraw on foot. Later that day he split the remnants of his brigade into small groups, the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade was a small formation, but with an excellent fighting spirit. Most of its soldiers, after reaching Britain, formed part of General Maczeks 1st Armoured Division created in February 1942, the brigade fought as part of the 1st Armoured Division in north-west Europe in 1944-45, but was disbanded after the war. However it was reformed in 1995 and later equipped with Leopard 2 tanks purchased from Germany and it is now part of the 11th Armoured Cavalry Division headquartered at Żagań
42.
Fascine
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A fascine /fəˈsiːn/ is a rough bundle of brushwood or other material used for strengthening an earthen structure, or making a path across uneven or wet terrain. Typical uses are protecting the banks of streams from erosion, covering marshy ground, in war they are often used to create paths for tanks and other vehicles across uneven terrain. Fascine bundles were used in military defences for revetting trenches or ramparts, especially around artillery batteries and they were also used as a visual obstruction, providing cover for sappers and engineers. Military fascine bridges were used on a basis by the Romans to cross obstacles. Subsequently, the use of fascines by military engineers continued almost wherever armies were deployed. First World War tanks, namely the British Mark IV, started the practice of carrying fascines on the roof and these were constructed from the traditional bundles of brushwood used to make fascines since Roman times. Although these were cumbersome to deploy they proved an effective gap crossing device and were used widely by the tanks of the day that weighed up to about 30 tons. The Imperial Japanese Army pre-positioned fascines made of metal pipes across the Khalkha River in advance of the IJAs 1939 foray into Mongolia. While these fascines were designed for stealth rather than combat deployment and were not deployed via armoured vehicles, the majority of obstacles to mobility in West Germany run north–south, and movement by military forces would have been east–west. Given the low number of AVLBs available, a solution was needed to bridge these gaps quickly and cheaply, in earlier wars, wooden fascines had been used, but these were ineffective for use with the much heavier modern vehicles, some of which weighed up to 70 tons. The Royal Engineers Experimental Establishment at Christchurch did initial tests on the use of 9-inch high-density plastic pipes held together with chains. These would allow flow, and not be damaged with the higher modern vehicle weight. Further development was done by Lt C Roebuck RE and his troop,5 Troop,31 Armoured Engineer Squadron,32 Armoured Engineer Regiment at Munsterlager, when in position, they travel over it to level the road surface for other vehicles to cross. This whole process would take less than 1 minute, essential for an assault crossing possibly under fire and it was used in combat for the first time during the First Iraq war to breach anti tank ditches. The British Army now use the Trojan, based on the Challenger 2 tank, to carry, billhook Fasces Fascine knife Ferula Withy Spiling Live and Inert Fascine Streambank Erosion Control. An article on use of fascines in river training for erosion control
43.
Royal Yugoslav Army
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Shortly before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the army staged a coup against the Yugoslav monarchy on 26 March. Beyond the problems of equipment and incomplete mobilization, the Royal Yugoslav Army suffered badly from the Serbo-Croat schism in Yugoslav politics. Yugoslav resistance to the invasion collapsed overnight, the main reason was that neither of the subordinate national groups were prepared to fight in defence of a Serbian Yugoslavia. The only effective opposition to the invasion was from wholly Serbian units within the borders of Serbia itself, the Serbian General Staff were united on the question of Yugoslavia as a Greater Serbia, ruled, in one way or another, by Serbia. During the occupation of Yugoslavia, the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović were referred to as the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, the Royal Yugoslav Army was formally disbanded on 7 March 1945 when Yugoslav government-in-exile appointed by King Peter II of Yugoslavia was abolished. The Austro-Hungarian Army exited the First World War after the Armistice of Villa Giusti was struck with the Kingdom of Italy on 3 November 1918, all affected units of the Common Army, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Croatian Home Guard came under that unified command. Immediately after the Armistice of Villa Giusti, Italy began occupying parts of the Kingdom of Dalmatia that had promised to it under the secret Treaty of London. On 1 December 1918 the unification of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the Kingdom of Serbia was declared, forming the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, the Kingdom of Montenegro had already united with Serbia five days earlier. This declaration and firm action by armed groups halted any further encroachments by Italy, the National Council subsequently organised a celebration in Zagreb on 5 December with a Te Deum at the Zagreb Cathedral. Members of the 25th Croatian Home Guard Infantry Regiment and the 53rd Infantry Division held a protest at the time at the nearby Ban Jelačić Square. The protest was quelled by the police with 15 dead and 17 injured, both units were subsequently demobilised and disbanded. By 1 January 1919, a total of 134 former high-ranking Austro-Hungarian officers had retired or relieved of their duties. At one point, KSCS troops briefly occupied Klagenfurt, after a plebiscite in October 1920 the frontier with Austria was fixed and tensions subsided. The 16 infantry divisions were grouped into four numbered army areas, with headquarters at Novi Sad, Sarajevo, Skoplje, later in 1921, a second cavalry division was formed using the four army-level cavalry regiments. Artillery allocation was one heavy artillery regiment and one regiment at army level. The army was based on conscription, and annual call-ups were used to maintain the strength of the army at 140,000. Of the four armies, two were equipped with French-pattern rifles, and the two used an Austrian model. In 1922, the allocation of artillery within the army was enhanced using material captured in World War I, from the earliest days of the army, a clique of officers known as the White Hand, were actively engaged in politics
44.
7TP
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The 7TP was a Polish light tank of the Second World War. A development of the British Vickers 6-ton, it was better armed than its most common opponents. A standard tank of the Polish Army during the 1939 Invasion of Poland and its chassis was used as the base for C7P artillery tractor. The 7TP was the Polish development of the British Vickers 6-ton Mark E tank licence, about 132 tanks were produced between 1935 and the outbreak of the war, plus four iron prototypes. The designation 7TP meant 7 Tonne, Polish, although 7TP is often claimed to be the worlds first diesel-powered tank, this distinction actually goes to Japanese Type 89B I-Go Otsu, produced with a diesel engine from 1934 onwards. Barring that, the claim of a first purpose-designed diesel-powered tank is tied with Type 95 Ha-Go, whose series production also commenced in 1935. Like its British predecessor, the 7TP was initially produced in two variants, twin turret version armed with 2 Ckm wz.30 machine guns, and a single turret version, armed with 37 mm Bofors wz.37 gun. After initial tests, it clear that the twin-turret variant was obsolete and lacked firepower. Prior to the outbreak of World War II most of the twin turret tanks were converted to single turret versions and it is to be noted that twin and single turret variants had no specific designations. In some modern books they are unofficially designated 7TP dw. in 1938 Państwowe Zakłady Inżynierii also produced 13 prototype models of a better armored version of the 7TP – the 9TP. Although the 9TP never entered production, these prototypes were used in the defense of Warsaw in September 1939, romania sent a military commission in late autumn 1935 to evaluate the 7TP for a future acquisition. All 7TP tanks took part in combat in the defence of Poland during the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, most of them were attached to two light tank battalions. The remaining tanks, that is the used for training as well as tanks that were finished after the outbreak of the war, were used in an improvised tank unit fighting in the defence of Warsaw. Although technically superior to any of the German light tanks of the era, the 1st Light Tank Battalion fought in the ranks of the Prusy Army as part of the strategic reserve force of the Polish Army. It entered combat on September 4,1939 and fought with distinction in a variety of roles, mostly as a mobile reserve and it fought in a number of battles, most notably in the battles of Przedbórz, Sulejów, Inowłódz, Odrzywół and Drzewica. On September 8 it managed to stop the German advance on the centre of the Polish forces, but the following day it got separated from the main force and had to be withdrawn to the rear. As part of unit, the battalion took part in the Battle of Józefów and formed part of the spearhead of the Polish units trying to break through to Lwów. After the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski, on September 21,1939, the tanks were destroyed by their crews
45.
SOMUA S35
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The SOMUA S35 was a French Cavalry tank of the Second World War. It was constructed from well-sloped, mainly cast, armour sections, after the defeat of France in June 1940, limiting production to a number of about 440, captured SOMUA S35s were used by the Axis powers, some of them on the Eastern Front. A derived type, the SOMUA S40, with a suspension, lowered hull cast. Agreements to produce this type for the benefit of Vichy France, Germany and Japan. The design of the SOMUA S35 comes from the specifications of 26 June 1934 for an Automitrailleuse de Combat issued for cavalry use. These called for a heavier design than had been originally specified in 1931. The new type had to be immune to contemporary antitank gun fire, on 17 May the Army had already contacted a subsidiary of Schneider et Cie — the Société dOutillage Mécanique et dUsinage dArtillerie based at Saint-Ouen — to build a prototype. The company accepted this proposal on 16 July and construction began on 12 October 1934, the prototype, with the name AC3, was ready on 14 April 1935. It was tested from 4 July until 2 August 1935, then a preseries of four was produced of an improved type, the AC4, to be tested until 27 January 1938. These first vehicles had the standard APX1 turret, fitted with the short 47 mm SA34 gun. On 25 March 1936, the AC4 was taken on as the medium tank of the Cavalry with the official new name Automitrailleuse de Combat modèle 1935 S. The tank was more commonly known as SOMUA S35, today the even shorter abbreviation S35 is most often used, in English sources usually with a hyphen. The mass-production vehicles would have the longer SA35 gun, originally, a total production of six hundred was planned, to provide each of the three Cavalry armoured divisions with two hundred tanks. Later, budgetary restraints led to a gradual and limited procurement. In 1936 a second order was made of fifty, followed by a hundred in 1937, radios were planned to be part of the standard equipment of S35s. The suspension was designed by Eugène Brillié, the man who had developed the first French tank. He had worked with the Czech Škoda company and based his design on that of the LT35, eight road wheels paired on four bogies with leaf springs and an equally large tension wheel. The first fifty vehicles had tracks consisting of 144 track links, each link with a length of 75 mm, later vehicles had 103 links of 105 mm length
Lebanon
