Bracing (aeronautics)
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in compression or tension as the need arises, and/or wires, which act only in tension. Another disadvantage of bracing wires is that they require routine checking and adjustment, or rigging, during the early years of aviation, bracing was a universal feature of all forms of aeroplane, including the monoplanes and biplanes which were equally common. Today, bracing in the form of lift struts is still used for light commercial designs where a high wing. Bracing works by creating a triangulated truss structure which resists bending or twisting, by comparison, an unbraced cantilever structure bends easily unless it carries a lot of heavy reinforcement. Making the structure allows it to be much lighter and stiffer. To reduce weight and air resistance, the structure may be made hollow, for example, a high-wing monoplane may be given a diagonal lifting strut running from the bottom of the fuselage to a position far out towards the wingtip.
This increases the depth of the wing root to the height of the fuselage. Typically, the ends of bracing struts are joined to the internal structural components such as a wing spar or a fuselage bulkhead. Bracing may be used to resist all the forces which occur in an airframe, including lift, drag. A strut is a bracing component stiff enough to resist these forces whether they place it under compression or tension, a wire is a bracing component able only to resist tension, going slack under compression, and consequently is nearly always used in conjunction with struts. A square frame made of bars is not rigid but tends to bend at the corners. Bracing it with a diagonal bar would be heavy. A wire would be much lighter but would stop it collapsing only one way, to hold it rigid, two cross-bracing wires are needed. This method of cross-bracing can be clearly on early biplanes. Another way of arranging a rigid structure is to make the cross pieces solid enough to act in compression and this method was once common on monoplanes, where the wing and a central cabane or a pylon form the cross members while wire bracing forms the outer diamond.
Most commonly found on biplane and other aircraft, wire bracing was common on early monoplanes. Unlike struts, bracing wires always act in tension The thickness and profile of a wire affect the drag it causes, wires may be made of multi-stranded cable, a single strand of piano wire, or aerofoil sectioned steel
Nazi Germany
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 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 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, 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 and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were 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 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
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks from the end of June 1940. It is described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces, the primary objective of the Nazi German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth. On 16 July Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as an amphibious and airborne assault on Britain. Nazi Germany was unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. Its first Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard was among the military strategists in the 1920s like Giulio Douhet who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare, interception was near impossible with fighter planes no faster than bombers.
Their view was that the bomber will always get through, Germany was forbidden military air forces by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but developed aircrew training in civilian and sport flying. In 1926 the secret Lipetsk fighter-pilot school began operating, a winter 1933–34 war game indicated a need for fighters and anti-aircraft protection as well as bombers. On 1 March 1935 the Luftwaffe was formally announced, with Walther Wever as Chief of Staff, the list excluded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale, as that was considered a waste of strategic effort, but the doctrine allowed revenge attacks if German civilians were bombed. A revised edition was issued in 1940, and the central principle of Luftwaffe doctrine was that destruction of enemy armed forces was of primary importance. In the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe in the Condor Legion tried out air fighting tactics, wolfram von Richthofen become an exponent of air power providing ground support to other services. The difficulty of hitting targets prompted Ernst Udet to require that all new bombers had to be dive bombers.
Priority was given to producing large numbers of aeroplanes. The speed with which German forces defeated most of the armies in Norway in early 1940 created a significant political crisis in Britain. In early May 1940, the Norway Debate questioned the fitness for office of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, on 10 May, the same day Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister, the Germans initiated the Battle of France with an aggressive invasion of French territory. The Germans were so convinced of an imminent armistice that they began constructing street decorations for the parades of victorious troops. Instead, Churchill used his skilful rhetoric to harden public opinion against capitulation, the Battle of Britain has the unusual distinction that it gained its name before being fought. In secret conference on 23 May 1939 Hitler set out his rather contradictory strategy that an attack on Poland was essential, if this is impossible, it will be better to attack in the West and to settle Poland at the same time with a surprise attack
German Empire
The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base.
In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system.
The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same.
The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front.
The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world.
The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
Pfalz Flugzeugwerke
Pfalz Flugzeugwerke was a World War I German aircraft manufacturer, located at the Speyer airfield in the Palatinate. They are best known for their series of fighters, notably the Pfalz D. III, the company went bankrupt after the Armistice, when the French occupation forces confiscated all of the equipment, but the factory was re-used by various other companies until re-forming in 1997. Today they are a parts manufacturer referred to as PFW, Pfalz was the brainchild of Alfred Eversbusch, son of a foundry owner in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. It appears that he had built his own aircraft between 1912 and 1913, although the origin of the design is unclear. They initially proposed to build designs from Albatros, but their attempts at a deal amounted to nothing and their next deal was with Gustav Otto Flugzeugwerke, building examples of his pusher-propeller biplane design. The original example was sent to Africa on a tour, the company had always planned to set up shop at the new airfield in Speyer, but they initially had problems securing land for a factory.
The Gustav designs were built in the Speyer Festival Hall. It was not until February 6,1914, that the city agreed to sell Pfalz 7,000 m² to build their factory, construction was completed in July, only one month before the start of World War I. By this point, the company had arranged a license to produce Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, when these became uncompetitive on the Western Front, Pfalz shifted production to the LFG Roland D. I and D. II. The D. II was produced into late 1916, by which point it too was no longer competitive. III engine to create the Pfalz D. III. About 600 D. IIIs and slightly modified D. IIIas were built between its introduction in August and its replacement a year later, many were still in service at that time, about 450. Adaptations of the D. III with the new Siemens-Halske Sh. III rotary resulted in the Pfalz D. VIII, III proved to be rather unreliable due to the ersatz engine oil available, and only a small number of D. VIIIs were built. These did see use by Jasta 2 at least, although it is unclear how many were built in total.
The D. VIII was adapted to triplane configuration as the Pfalz Dr. I for entry in the First Fighter Competition at Adlershof in January 1918, like the D. VIII, it was powered by the Sh. III, and therefore completely outpowered its Oberursel UR. II powered contemporaries, is were built and used operationally for some time. It entered the Second Fighter Competition in June 1918 against the famous Fokker E. V monoplane, although generally similar to the Fokker D. VII in looks and performance, the D. XII was widely considered to be inferior in handling characteristics and difficult to land. Nevertheless the D. XII was ordered into production, and about 800 were produced before the Armistice, many of these survived the war and were taken as booty by the Allies. A few aircraft were featured in various movies, notably Hells Angels
Defence of the Reich
The Defence of the Reich is the name given to the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe over German-occupied Europe and Nazi Germany during World War II. Its aim was to prevent the destruction of German civilians, the day and night air battles over Germany during the war involved thousands of aircraft and aerial engagements to counter the Allied strategic bombing campaign. The campaign was one of the longest in the history of warfare and with the Battle of the Atlantic. The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace of German-occupied territory against attack, first by RAF Bomber Command, in the early years, the Luftwaffe was able to inflict a string of defeats on Allied strategic air forces. In 1939, Bomber Command was forced to operate at night, in 1943, the USAAF suffered several reverses in daylight and called off the offensive over Germany in October. The British built up their force and introduced navigational aids. In February 1944, the USAAF introduced the P-51 Mustang, a capable of escorting the USAAF bombers to.
With new fighter tactics, the Eighth Air Force gained air supremacy over Nazi Germany by the spring of 1944 against the Luftwaffe. By the summer of 1944, the Luftwaffe was suffering from fuel shortages. By the end of the campaign, American forces claimed to have destroyed 35,783 enemy aircraft and the RAF claimed 21,622, for a total of 57,405 German aircraft claimed destroyed. The USAAF dropped 1.46 million tons of bombs on Axis-occupied Europe while the RAF dropped 1.31 million tons, for a total of 2.77 million tons, of which 51.1 percent was dropped on Germany. By this time, the Allied armies had reached the German border, the air campaign continued until April 1945, when the last strategic bombing missions were flown and it ended upon the capitulation of Germany on 8 May. The Luftwaffe lacked an effective air defence system early in the war, Allied daylight actions over German controlled territory were sparse in 1939–1940. The responsibility of the defence of German air space fell to the Luftgaukommandos, the defence systems relied mostly on the Anti-aircraft artillery arm.
The defences were not coordinated and communication was poor and this lack of understanding between the AAA and flying branches of the defence would plague the Luftwaffe throughout the war. Adolf Hitler in particular wanted the defence to rest on AAA as it gave the population a psychological crutch no matter how ineffective the weapons. Germanys Ruhr region, frequently targeted by Allied raids during this time, on 21 September 1939, Hans Jeschonnek, the Luftwaffes Chief of Staff, clarified the role of the day fighter force in the defence of German territory. Fighter units earmarked for specific defensive tasks would remain under local air-defence command, in other words, the Luftwaffe fighter force would act as both a defensive and offensive force, maintaining air superiority over enemy air space would prevent enemy attacks on German-held territory
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and in the German Empire and Nazi Germany. It was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in March 1813 backdated to the birthday of his late wife Queen Louise on 10 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars, Louise was the first person to receive this decoration. The recommissioned Iron Cross was awarded during the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, the Iron Cross was normally a military decoration only, though there were instances of it being awarded to civilians for performing military functions. The design of the symbol was black with a white or silver outline. It was ultimately derived from the cross pattée occasionally used by the Teutonic Order from the 13th century, the black cross patty was used as the symbol of the German Army from 1871 to March/April 1918, when it was replaced by the Balkenkreuz. In 1956, it was re-introduced as the symbol of the Bundeswehr, the Black Cross is the emblem used by the Prussian Army, and by the army of Germany from 1871 to present.
It was designed on the occasion of the German Campaign of 1813, from this time, the Black Cross featured on the Prussian war flag alongside the Black Eagle. The design is due to neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, based on a sketch by Frederick William, the design is ultimately derivative of the black cross used by the Teutonic Order. This heraldic cross took various forms throughout the history, including a simple Latin cross. When the Quadriga of the Goddess of Peace was retrieved from Paris at Napoleons fall, an Iron Cross was inserted into her laurel wreath, making her into a Goddess of Victory. The Black Cross was used on the naval and war flags of the German Empire, the Black Cross was used as the symbol of the German Army until 1915, when it was replaced by a simpler Balkenkreuz. The Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, the traditional design in black is used on armored vehicles and aircraft, while after German reunification, a new design in blue and silver was introduced for use in other contexts.
The ribbon for the 1813,1870 and 1914 Iron Cross was black with two white bands, the colors of Prussia. The non-combatant version of this award had the same medal, but the black, the ribbon color for the 1939 EKII was black/white/red/white/black. Since the Iron Cross was issued several different periods of German history. For example, an Iron Cross from World War I bears the year 1914, the reverse of the 1870,1914 and 1939 series of Iron Crosses have the year 1813 appearing on the lower arm, symbolizing the year the award was created. The 1813 decoration has the initials FW for King Frederick William III, the final version shows a swastika. There was the 1957 issue, a replacement medal for holders of the 1939 series which substituted an oak-leaf cluster for the banned swastika
Somme (river)
The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning tranquility, the department Somme was named after this river. The river is 245 km long, from its source in the ground of the former Forest of Arrouaise at Fonsommes near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme. It lies in the geological syncline which forms the Solent and this gives it a fairly constant and gentle gradient where several fluvial terraces have been identified. The Invasion Fleet of William the Conqueror assembled in the Bay of the Somme at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, the river featured in the 1346 withdrawal of Edward IIIs army, which forded the river at the battle of Blanchetaque during the campaign which culminated in the Battle of Crécy. Crossing the river featured prominently in the campaign led to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The river is famous for the World War I Battle of the Somme from July to November 1916. Aisne, Saint-Quentin Somme, Ham, Péronne, Amiens, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Le Crotoy The river is characterized by a gentle gradient.
The valley is more or less steep-sided but its bottom is flat with fens and these characteristics of steady flow and flooded valley bottom arise from the rivers being fed by the ground water in the chalk basin in which it lies. At earlier, colder times, from the Günz to the Würm the river has cut down into the Cretaceous geology to a level below the water table. The valley bottom has now therefore, filled with water which and this picture, of the source of the Somme in 1986, shows it when the water table had fallen below the surface of the chalk in which the aquifer lies. Here, the flow of water had been sufficient to keep fen from forming and this satellite photograph shows the fenny valley crossing the chalk to the sea on the left. The sinuous length at the centre of the picture lies downstream from Péronne, one of the fens, the Marais de lÎle is a nature reserve in the town of St. Quentin. The traditional market gardens of Amiens, the Hortillonages are on this sort of land, once exploited for peat cutting, the fen is now used for fishing and shooting The construction of the Canal de la Somme began in 1770 and reached completion in 1843.
It is 156 km long, beginning at St. Simon, from St. Simon to Froissy, the canal is alongside the river. Thence to the sea, the river is partly river and partly navigation, from Abbeville, it is diverted through the silted, former estuary, to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, where the maritime canal, once called the canal du Duc dAngoulême enters the English Channel. The St Quentin Canal, famous for the 1918 battle, links the Somme to northern France and Belgium, the Canal du Nord links the Somme to the Oise, at Noyon, thence to Paris. In 2001, the Somme valley was affected by high floods
German Empire
Nazi Germany
Bavarian Army
Luftwaffe
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