1.
Half-track
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A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the capabilities of a tank. It is not difficult for someone who can drive a car to drive a half-track, half-tracks thus facilitate moving personnel and equipment successfully across varying terrain. The main disadvantage is the maintenance to maintain track tension. The French engineer Adolphe Kégresse converted a number of cars from the car pool of the Tsar of Russia to half-tracks in 1911. His system was named after him, the Kégresse track, which used a belt rather than interlocking metal segments. He applied it to vehicles in the imperial garage, including Rolls-Royce cars. The Russian army also fitted the system to a number of their Austin Armoured Cars, from 1916 onward, there was a Russian project by the Putilov plant to produce military half-tracks, along the same lines, using trucks and French track parts. After the Russian Revolution, Kégresse returned to his native France, the concept originated with the hauling of logs in the northeastern US, with the Lombard Steam Log Hauler built by Alvin Lombard of Waterville, Maine, from 1899 to 1917. The vehicle resembled a railway locomotive, with sled steering in front and at the rear. By 1907, dog and pony show operator H. H, by 1909 this was replaced by a smaller machine with two wheels at the front and a single track behind, since rural wooden bridges presented problems. Lombard attempted to follow but, for the most part, remained a pulling machine, linn would later register Haftrak and Catruk as trademarks, the latter for a halftrack meant to convert hydraulically from truck to crawler configuration. In the early days of bulldozers, Holt tractors had tricycle steering, owing to engineering difficulties with the tracks, the companys initial products focused on agricultural machinery and were distributed internationally. During World War I, its capacity became focused on military needs. Its tractors replaced horses and were used by the Allies as artillery tractors. The Holt tractor went on to become the basis for the Mark I, the Schneider CA1, the Holt would be renamed the Caterpillar 60, after merging with C. L. Best Company of California, in 1925, the Holt Manufacturing Company went on to form the company that would become known as Caterpillar. Tractors used to tow artillery and designs with front wheels and tracks at the rear began to appear prior to the outbreak of war, the basic half-track concept was originally showcased by the British during the war
2.
Armoured personnel carrier
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An armoured personnel carrier is a type of armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield. APCs are colloquially referred to as taxis or battle buses. Armoured personnel carriers are distinguished from infantry fighting vehicles by the weaponry they carry, by convention, they are not intended to take part in direct-fire battle, but are armed for self-defence and armoured to provide protection from shrapnel and small arms fire. Examples include the American M113, the French VAB, the Dutch-German GTK Boxer, the genesis of the armoured personnel carrier was on the Western Front of World War I. In the later stage of the war, Allied tanks could break through enemy lines, without infantry support, the tanks were isolated and more easily destroyed. In response, the British experimented with carrying machine-gun crews in the Mark V* tank, britain therefore designed the first purpose built armoured troop transport, the Mark IX, but the war ended before it could be put to use. During World War II, half-tracks like the American M3 and German SdKfz 251 played a similar to post-war APCs. British Commonwealth forces relied on the full-tracked Universal Carrier, over the course of the war, APCs evolved from simple armoured cars with transport capacity, to purpose built vehicles. Obsolete armoured vehicles were also repurposed as APCs, such as the various Kangaroos converted from M7 Priest self-propelled guns and from Churchill, M3 Stuart, during the Cold War, more specialized APCs were developed. Western nations have since retired most M113s, replacing them with newer APCs, the Soviet Union produced the BTR-40, BTR-152, BTR-60, BTR-70, BTR-80 in large numbers. The BTR-60 and BTR-80 remain in production, czechoslovakia and Poland together developed the universal amphibious OT-64 SKOT. A cold war example of a Kangaroo is the heavily armoured Israeli Achzarit, weight can vary from 6 to 40 tons or more, but 9 to 20 tons is typical. Most have a capacity of between 8 and 12 dismountable troops, although some can carry more than 20, in addition, it has a crew of at least one driver, many with a gunner and/or commander as well. An APC is either wheeled or tracked, or occasionally a combination of the two, as in a half-track, both systems have advantages and limitations. Tracked vehicles have more traction off-road and more maneuverability, including a turn radius. Wheeled APCs are faster on road, can cross long distances, and are expensive to develop, produce. However, wheeled vehicles have higher pressure than tracked vehicles with a comparable weight. The higher ground pressure increases the likelihood of becoming immobilized by soft terrains such as mud and their tracks can propel the APC in the water
3.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
4.
Kingdom of Romania
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The Kingdom of Romania was a constitutional monarchy which existed between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania. As such, it is distinct from the Romanian Old Kingdom. From 1859 to 1877, Romania evolved from a union of two vassal principalities under a single prince to a full-fledged independent kingdom with a Hohenzollern monarchy. During 1918-20, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Eastern Moldavia, in 1947 King Michael was compelled to abdicate and a socialist republic ruled by the Romanian Communist Party replaced the monarchy. The 1859 ascendancy of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire united an identifiably Romanian nation under a single ruler. On 5 February 1862 the two principalities were united to form the Principality of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital. On 23 February 1866 a so-called Monstrous coalition, composed of Conservatives and radical Liberals, the German prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was appointed as Prince of Romania, in a move to assure German backing to unity and future independence. He immediately adopted the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol, on 15 March 1881, as an assertion of full sovereignty, the Romanian parliament raised the country to the status of a kingdom, and Carol was crowned as king on 10 May. Abstaining from the Initial Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Romania entered the Second Balkan War in June 1913 against the Tsardom of Bulgaria,330,000 Romanian troops moved across the Danube and into Bulgaria. One army occupied Southern Dobrudja and another moved into northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia, Romania thus acquired the ethnically-mixed territory of Southern Dobrudja, which it had desired for years. In 1916 Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, the term came into use after World War I, when the Old Kingdom was opposed to Greater Romania, which included Transylvania, Banat, Bessarabia, and Bukovina. Nowadays, the term mainly has a historical relevance, and is used as a common term for all regions in Romania included in both the Old Kingdom and present-day borders. Romania delayed in entering World War I, but ultimately declared war on the Central Powers in 1916, War with the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 resulted in the occupation of Budapest by Romanian troops and the end of Béla Kuns Bolshevik regime. At the Paris Peace Conference, Romania received territories of Transylvania, part of Banat, Bessarabia, thus, Romania in 1920 was more than twice the size it had been in 1914. Although the country was satisfied and had no territorial claims, it aroused the enmity of Bulgaria, and especially Hungary. Greater Romania now encompassed a significant minority population, especially of Hungarians, by contrast, the prewar Romanian state had only one real minority, Jews, but nonetheless anti-Semitism was widespread. Transylvania had significant Hungarian and German population, and with a contemptuous attitude towards Romanians. Both groups were excluded from politics as the postwar Romanian regime passed an edict stating that all personnel employed by the state had to speak Romanian
5.
Kingdom of Hungary
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The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
6.
Italian Social Republic
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The Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Republic of Salò, was a state with limited recognition that was created during the later part of World War II, existing from 1943 until 1945. Mussolini had originally intended to call his new republic the “Italian ‘Socialist’ Republic. ”It was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state and was led by Duce Benito Mussolini and his reformed Republican Fascist Party. The state declared Rome its capital, but was de facto centered on Salò, a town on Lake Garda, near Brescia, where Mussolini. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern and central Italy, but was dependent on German troops to maintain control. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers. When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced in September, Germany was prepared, Germany seized control of the northern half of Italy, freed Mussolini and brought him to the German-occupied area to establish a satellite regime. The RSI was proclaimed on 23 September 1943, although the RSI claimed most of the lands of Italy as rightfully belonging to it, it held political control over a vastly reduced portion of Italy. The RSI received diplomatic recognition from only Germany, Japan and their puppet states, around 25 April 1945, Mussolinis republic came to an end. In Italy, this day is known as Liberation Day, on this day a general partisan uprising alongside the efforts of Allied forces, during their final offensive in Italy, managed to oust the Germans from Italy almost entirely. At the point of its demise, the Italian Social Republic had existed for more than nineteen months. On 27 April partisans caught Mussolini, his mistress, several RSI ministers, on 28 April the partisans shot Mussolini and most of the other captives. The RSI Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, surrendered what was left of the RSI on 2 May when the German forces in Italy capitulated, this put a definitive end to the Italian Social Republic. On 24 July 1943, after the Allied landings in Sicily, the next day, King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini from office and ordered him arrested. The failed war effort left Mussolini humiliated at home and abroad as a sawdust Caesar, the new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret negotiations with the Allied powers and made preparations for the capitulation of Italy. These surrender talks implied a commitment from Badoglio not only to leave the Axis alliance, while the Germans formally recognised the new status quo in Italian politics, they intervened by sending some of the best units of the Wehrmacht to Italy. This was done both to resist new Allied advances and to face the predictably imminent defection of Italy, on 8 September, Badoglio announced Italys armistice with the Allies. German Führer Adolf Hitler and his staff, long aware of the negotiations, acted immediately by ordering German troops to control of northern. The Germans disarmed the Italian troops and took all of the Italian Armys materials
7.
Independent State of Croatia
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The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Germany and Italy. It was established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941 and its territory consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as some parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia. During its entire existence, the state was governed by the fascist Ustaše movement and its Poglavnik, the regime targeted Serbs, Jews and Roma as part of a large-scale genocide campaign, as well as anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Muslims. Between 1941–45,22 concentration camps existed inside the territory controlled by the Independent State of Croatia, the state was officially a monarchy after the signing of the Laws of the Crown of Zvonimir on 15 March 1941. He later accepted the throne due to pressure from Victor Emmanuel III and was titled Tomislav II of Croatia, but never moved from Italy to reside in Croatia. From the signing of the Treaties of Rome on 18 May 1941 until the Italian capitulation on 8 September 1943, the state was a condominium of Germany and Italy. In its judgement in the Hostages Trial, the Nuremberg Military Tribunal concluded that NDH was not a sovereign state, according to the Tribunal, Croatia was at all times here involved an occupied country. In 1942, Germany suggested Italy take military control of all of Croatia out of a desire to redirect German troops from Croatia to the Eastern Front, Italy however rejected the offer as it did not believe that it could handle the unstable situation in the Balkans alone. The NDH attempted to annex Zara, which had been a territory of Italy since 1919 but long an object of Croatian irredentism. Geographically, the NDH encompassed most of modern-day Croatia, all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of modern-day Serbia, and a small portion of modern-day Slovenia in the Municipality of Brežice. It bordered the Third Reich to the north-west, Kingdom of Hungary to the north-east, Serbian administration to the east, Montenegro to the south-east, the exact borders of the Independent State of Croatia were unclear when it was established. Approximately one month after its formation, significant areas of Croat-populated territory were ceded to its Axis allies, on 13 May 1941, the NDH government signed an agreement with Nazi Germany which demarcated their borders. On 19 May the Rome contracts were signed by diplomats of the NDH, on 7 June the NDH government issued a decree that demarcated its eastern border with Serbia. On 27 October the NDH and Italy reached an agreement on the Independent State of Croatias border with Montenegro. On 8 September 1943, Italy capitulated and the NDH officially considered the Rome contracts to be void, along with the Treaty of Rapallo of 1920 which had given Italy Istria, Fiume and Zara. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop approved the NDH acquisition of the Dalmatian territories gained by Italy at the time of the Rome contracts, by now, most such territory was actually controlled by the Yugoslav Partisans, since the ceding of those areas had made them strongly anti-NDH. By 11 September 1943, NDH foreign minister Mladen Lorković received word from German consul Siegfried Kasche that the NDH should wait before moving on Istria, Germanys central government had already annexed Istria and Fiume into the Operational Zone Adriatic Coast a day earlier. Međimurje and southern Baranja were annexed by the Kingdom of Hungary, NDH disputed this and continued to lay claim to both, naming the administrative province centred in Osijek as Great Parish Baranja
8.
Horch
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Horch was a car brand manufactured in Germany by August Horch & Cie, at the beginning of the 20th century. The company was established by August Horch and his first business partner Salli Herz on November 14,1899 at Ehrenfeld, August Horch had previously been a production manager for Karl Benz. Three years later in 1902 he moved the company to Reichenbach im Vogtland, on May, 10th,1904 he founded the Horch & Cie. Motorwagenwerke AG, a joint-stock company in Zwickau. The city of Zwickau was the capital of the South Western Saxon County, after troubles with the Horch chief financial officer, August Horch founded a second company on 16 July 1909, the August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH in Zwickau. He had to rename the company because Horch was already a registered brand, on 25 April 1910 the name Audi Automobilwerke was entered in the companys register at the Zwickau registration court. Audi is the Latin translation of horch, from the German verb Horchen, the Audi name was proposed by a son of one of his business partners from Zwickau. In 1932 both companies from Zwickau were unified with Zschopauer Motorenwerke J. S. Rasmussen and the Wanderer car production facilities to become the Auto Union corporation of Saxony, the company initially began producing 5 hp and 10 hp twin-cylinder engine automobiles near Cologne in 1901. The first Horch had a 4.5 hp engine, with an alloy crankcase and it had an open-body design, with lighting provided by lanterns with candles in them. In contrast with the cars of later years, the first Horch could barely reach a top speed of 32 km/h. It was significant at that time because it used a friction clutch, the firm soon ran into financial troubles, not surprising considering the pioneering nature of the automobile business at that time. Horch had to seek new partners, in March 1902, August Horch produced a 20 hp four-cylinder car with a shaft drive in Reichenbach in Vogtland. Horch cars were considered advanced and superior to those being then built by Mercedes or Benz. By 1903, Horch had built a car with a four-cylinder engine, in March of the following year, he introduced his new car at the Frankfurt Fair. In 1904, August Horch developed the first six-cylinder engine, which appeared in 1907, in 1906 a Horch automobile driven by Dr. Rudolf Stöss from Zwickau won the Herkomer Competition. In the 1920s, Moritz Stauss, a cosmopolitan Berliner, was the principal stockholder of the Horch company and he succeeded in making the Horch brand highly desirable by introducing art into the advertising of their products. He recognized that only a brand emphasising Horchs unique characteristics would be successful, in 1923, Paul Daimler worked for Horch as the chief engineer for 8-cylinder engines. Horch vehicles were subsequently the first to introduce 8-cylinder engines in series production, in 1909, the supervisory board of the corporation forced out Horch. Horch went on to found Audi as Audiwerke GmbH, which became effective on 25 April 1910, the name was a solution to the legal dispute with his old company over use of the Horch brand and a clever play of words
9.
Borgward
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Borgward is an automobile manufacturer that was founded by Carl F. W. Borgward. The original company, based in Bremen in Germany, ceased operations in 1961, the Borgward group produced four brands of cars, Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd. The marque was revived by Carl Borgwards grandson, Christian Borgward, with his partner Karlheinz L. Knöss and it unveiled the companys first new car in over 50 years, the BX7 at the 2015 International Motor Show. These two businesses merged in 1914 to form the Hansa-Lloyd-Werke A. G, after the war, in the troubled economic situation then confronting Germany, the business failed to prosper and by the late 1920s faced bankruptcy. The first automobile] Carl Borgward designed was the 1924 Blitzkarren, a sort of tiny three-wheeled van with 2 hp, traders with a small budget bought it for delivery. The Reichspost ordered many of them for postal service, in 1929, Borgward became the director of Hansa Lloyd AG having been able to merge his Goliath-Werke Borgward & Co. with Hansa-Lloyd. The small Goliath-Blitzkarren had by now evolved into the three wheeler timber framed synthetic leather bodied 5 or 7 hp Goliath Pioneer. Borgward turned his attention to the businesses and led the development of the Hansa Konsul. In February 1937, there came the new Hansa Borgward 2000, the 2000 model was followed by the Borgward 2300 that remained in production until 1942. After World War II, in 1946 Carl Borgward used some of the names from businesses he had acquired over the years to found three separate companies, Borgward, Goliath and Lloyd. This was intended to increase the quantity of steel allocated to his business at a time of austerity, in 1949 company presented the Borgward Hansa 1500. One of the top engineers at Borgward from 1938-1952 was Dipl, production of the Borgward Isabella began in 1954. The Isabella would become Borgwards most popular model and remained in production for the life of the company, in 1960 the Borgward P100 was introduced, equipped with pneumatic suspension. Borgward introduced a line of 1500 cc sports racers in the late 1950s, although Borgward pioneered technical novelties in the German market such as air suspension and automatic transmission, the company had trouble competing in the marketplace. Borgward suffered quality problems as well, the Lloyd Arabella was technically advanced as a water-cooled boxer with front wheel drive, but plagued with problems such as water leakage and gearbox glitches. Lloyd lost money on the car though it was more expensive than its direct competitors. In 1961, the company was forced into liquidation by creditors, Carl Borgward died in July 1963, still insisting the company had been technically solvent. This proved to be true in the sense that after the creditors were paid in full, reports of difficulties at Borgward surfaced in an article that appeared in Germanys leading news magazine, Der Spiegel” on 14 December 1960
10.
MG 34
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The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, is a German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It accepts the 7. 92×57mm Mauser cartridge, and is considered the worlds first general-purpose machine gun. The versatile MG34 was arguably the most advanced machine gun in the world at the time of its deployment and its combination of exceptional mobility – being light enough to be carried by one man – and high rate of fire was unmatched. It entered service in numbers following Hitlers repudiation of the Versailles Treaty in 1936. Nonetheless, the design proved too complex for production, and was supplemented by the cheaper and simpler MG42. The MG34 was based on a 1930 Rheinmetall design, the MG30, the Swiss and Austrian militaries had both licensed and produced the MG30 from Rheinmetall shortly after patent. The MG30 design was adapted and modified by Heinrich Vollmer of Mauser Industries, Vollmer modified the feed mechanism to accept either drum magazines or belt ammunition. He also increased the rate of fire, the MG 34s double crescent trigger dictated either semiautomatic or fully automatic firing modes. In the field, the weapon could operate in offensive or defensive applications, the offensive model, with a mobile soldier, used a drum magazine that could hold either 50 or 75 rounds of ammunition. In a stationary defensive role, the gun was mounted on a bipod or tripod, belts were carried in boxes of five. Belt lengths could be linked for sustained fire, during sustained fire, barrels would have to be changed at intervals due to the heat generated by the rapid rate of fire. If the barrels were not changed properly, the weapon would misfire, changing barrels was a rapid process for the trained operator and involved disengaging a latch and swinging the receiver to the right for the insertion of a new barrel. Accordingly, stationary defensive positions required more than one operator, the MG34 was the mainstay of German Army support weapons from the time of its first issue in 1935 until 1942, when it was supplanted by the next generation Maschinengewehr 42 or MG42. For its successor, the MG42, the Germans instead used mass production techniques similar to those that created the MP40 submachine gun, however, the Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s until the end of the war. The MG34 was used as the primary machine gun during the 1930s. The MG34 was intended to replace the MG13 and other machine guns. It was designed primarily by Heinrich Vollmer from the Mauser Werke, changes to the operating mechanism improved the rate of fire to between 800 and 900 rpm. The new gun was accepted for service almost immediately and was liked by the troops
11.
MG 42
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The MG42 is a 7. 92×57mm Mauser general purpose machine gun designed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. It was intended to replace the earlier MG34, which was expensive and took much longer to produce. The MG42 has a record of reliability, durability, simplicity, and ease of operation. It also spawned the Swiss MG51, Zastava M53, SIG MG 710-3, Austrian MG74, and the Spanish 5. 56×45mm NATO Ameli light machine gun, and lent many design elements to the American M60 and Belgian MAG. The MG42 was adopted by several armed organizations after the war, even prior to World War I the German army was already looking forward to replacing the heavy machine guns which proved to be such a success in that war. The MG13 was one of the first developments toward a goal of producing a weapon that could perform multiple roles, the MG13 was the result of reengineering the Dreyse Water cooled machine gun to fit the new requirement. The Gast gun was developed with the goal of providing a rate of fire weapon for anti-aircraft use which was reported to have reached rates of fire as high as 1600 rpm. The concept eventually led to the development of the MG34 which was envisaged and well developed to provide coverage, highly portable infantry coverage. The MG34 was developed to use the standard German rifle round of 7.92 x 57mm Mauser, the MG34 was issued with 6 additional interchangeable barrels. The three-man crew that each weapon was also issued asbestos gloves to use when changing the barrel. As a result, the rate of fire was very high. The MG34 was so accurate that it was mounted on a tripod with a telescopic sight for sniping at very long distances. It was chambered in the standard 7. 92×57mm Mauser cartridge, in German army tactics, the machinegun was supported by the entire squad. Each man would carry belts of 7. 92×57mm Mauser for the machine gun, US tactics put the machinegun and its crew largely alone with far less support or emphasis on use. A German squads purpose was to protect the gun, while a US squads purpose used the machine gun to support the men. In addition to the 6 barrels carried for the MG34, switching between a bipod and a tripod required no special tools, as the mounting latch was spring-loaded. However, it did have its drawbacks, such as sensitivity to dirt, one attempt at improvement was the MG 34S, an incremental improvement on the basic 34 design. In order to address issues, a contest was held for a true MG34 replacement
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