1.
Grenade launcher
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A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The most common type are man-portable, shoulder-fired weapons issued to individuals, Grenade launchers can either come in the form of standalone weapons or attachments mounted to a parent firearm, usually a rifle. Larger crew-served automatic grenade launchers such as the Mk 19 are mounted on tripods or vehicles, some armored fighting vehicles also mount fixed arrays of short range, single-shot grenade launchers as a means of defense. These devices usually fire smoke grenades to conceal the vehicle behind a screen, though can also be loaded with chaff, flares. Vehicle-mounted smoke grenade launchers are known as smoke dischargers. The earliest devices which could conceivably be referred to as grenade launchers were slings, a new method of launching grenades was developed during the First World War and used throughout the Second. The disadvantage of this method is that when a soldier wants to launch a grenade, if they are surprised by a close-range threat while preparing to fire the grenade, they have to reverse the procedure before they can respond with rifle fire. Due to the lack of a barrel, rifle grenades also tend to be difficult to fire accurately compared to underbarrel or standalone designs. One of the first examples of a dedicated breech-loading launcher for unitary explosive grenade rounds was the M79 grenade launcher, the goal for the M79 was the production of a device with greater range than a rifle grenade but more portable than a mortar. Such single-shot devices were replaced in military service with underbarrel grenade launchers. Single shot launchers are still commonly used in riot control operations. This reduces the weight the soldier must carry by eliminating the grenade launchers buttstock, underbarrel 40mm grenade launchers generally have their own trigger group, to fire, one simply changes grips, disengages the safety, and pulls the trigger. In Western systems, the barrel slides forward or pivots to the side to allow reloading, soviet/Russian launchers are instead loaded from the muzzle, with the cartridge casing affixed to the projectile in the style of a mortar shell. Modern launchers often have the option of mounting more sophisticated aiming systems, such as ballistic rangefinders, one AAI submission for SPIW mounted a simple single-action, single-shot breech-loading underbarrel grenade launcher in lieu of the required semi-automatic multi-shot device. With refinement, this was adopted as the M203 grenade launcher in 1968, a variety of lengths of M203 are available along with numerous parts kits to fit it to various rifles aside from the AR15 pattern weapons it was designed for. A variant of the weapon, the M320 Grenade Launcher Module, was salvaged from the failed XM8 program. Further developments led to the GP series of grenade launchers, an automatic grenade launcher or grenade machine gun is a crew-served support weapon which fires explosive rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine
2.
Imperial Japanese Army
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The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA, literally Army of the Greater Japanese Empire, was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. Later an Inspectorate General of Military Aviation became the agency with oversight of the army. During the Meiji Restoration, the forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma. This central army, the Imperial Japanese Army, became even more essential after the abolition of the han system in 1871. One of the differences between the samurai and the peasant class was the right to bear arms, this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan under Qing rule in 1874 was an expedition by Japanese military forces in response to the Mudan Incident of December 1871. The Paiwan people, who are indigenous peoples of Taiwan, murdered 54 crewmembers of a merchant vessel from the Ryukyu Kingdom on the southwestern tip of Taiwan. 12 men were rescued by the local Chinese-speaking community and were transferred to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands and it marked the first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, the new led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the riots, led by Saigō Takamori, was the Satsuma Rebellion. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution, top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the Emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were mostly from the peasantry, tended to draw the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look more for guidance in matters more to military than to political leaders. By the 1890s, the Imperial Japanese Army had grown to become the most modern army in Asia, well-trained, well-equipped, however, it was basically an infantry force deficient in cavalry and artillery when compared with its European contemporaries. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the weakness of the military of the Qing dynasty and this was the result by Japans 120, 000-strong western-style conscript army of two armies and five divisions, which was well-equipped and well-trained when compared with their Qing counterparts. The Treaty of Shimonoseki made the Qing defeat official, with a shift in regional dominance in Asia from China to Japan. In 1899–1900, Boxer attacks against foreigners in China intensified eventually resulting in the siege of the legations in Beijing
3.
Indonesian Army
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The Indonesian Army, the land component of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, has an estimated strength of 300,000 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its roots in 1945 when the Tentara Keamanan Rakyat Civil Security Forces first emerged as a paramilitary and police corps. The Indonesia Army is composed of a headquarters,12 military area commands, a reserve command KOSTRAD, a special forces command Kopassus. In the week following the Japanese surrender of 1945, the Giyugun, most PETA and Heiho members did not yet know about the declaration of independence. Command structures and membership vital for an army were consequently dismantled. In the self-created Indonesian army, Japanese-trained Indonesian officers prevailed over those trained by the Dutch, a thirty-year-old former school teacher, Sudirman, was elected commander-in-chief at the first meeting of Division Commanders in Yogyakarta on 12 November 1945. At critical moments during the revolution, the managed to manifest itself as a peoples army, the army of the revolution. As the power of the newborn, in addition to arranging the TNI itself, at the time must also face various challenges. From within the country, the military face-undermining undermining both a political dimension as well as military dimensions, political undermining sourced from the communist groups who want to put the military under their influence through political officers, the Bureau of Struggle, and TNI community. Challenges from abroad, namely TNI twice face the Dutch military aggression that had a more advanced weaponry, thus, the integrity and existence of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia has been able to be maintained by military force with the people. In accordance with the decision of the Round Table Conference, at the end of 1949 formed the United States of Indonesia, correspondingly, also formed the Angkatan Perang Republik Indonesia Serikat which is combined with the TNI and the former KNIL as its core. In August 1950 RIS was disbanded and returned to form unitary State, APRIS was renamed to Angkatan Perang Republik Indonesia. The period is called the period of liberal democracy is characterized by various rebellions in the country. The army also need to confront the uprising in Makassar led by Andi Azis, meanwhile, DaruI Tslam in West Java widen its influence to South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and Aceh. In 1958 the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia / Peoples Struggle started arebellion in large parts of Sumatra, all of the rebellion were crushed by the military along with the strength of other national components. On 17 November 1952, General Nasution is suspended as army chief of staff following army indiscipline over command, on 5 July 1959, Sukarno, with armed forces support, issued a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly and reintroducing the Constitution of 1945 with strong presidential powers. He assumed the role of Prime Minister, which completes the structure of Guided Democracy. At the same time, the Indonesian government started sending their troops on UN peacekeeping mission, the first batch of soldiers were sent to Sinai, Egypt and were known as Garuda Contingent 1
4.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war
5.
Indonesian National Revolution
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It took place between Indonesias declaration of independence in 1945 and the Dutch recognition of Indonesias independence at the end of 1949. The Indonesian independence movement began in May 1908, which is commemorated as the Year of National Awakening, the struggle lasted for over four years and involved sporadic but bloody armed conflict, internal Indonesian political and communal upheavals, and two major international diplomatic interventions. Dutch military forces were able to control the towns, cities and industrial assets in Republican heartlands on Java and Sumatra. In 1949 international pressure on the Netherlands became such that, together with the existing partial military stalemate, the revolution marked the end of the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies, except for Netherlands New Guinea. It also significantly changed ethnic castes, as well as reducing the power of many of the local rulers and it did not significantly improve the economic or political fortune of the majority of the population, although a few Indonesians were able to gain a larger role in commerce. Budi Utomo, Sarekat Islam and others pursued strategies of co-operation by joining the Dutch initiated Volksraad in the hope that Indonesia would be granted self-rule, others chose a non-cooperative strategy demanding the freedom of self-government from the Dutch East Indies colony. The most notable of these leaders were Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the occupation of Indonesia by Japan for three and a half years during World War II was a crucial factor in the subsequent revolution. The Netherlands had little ability to defend its colony against the Japanese army, in Java, and to a lesser extent in Sumatra, the Japanese spread and encouraged nationalist sentiment. Just as significantly for the subsequent revolution, the Japanese destroyed and replaced much of the Dutch-created economic, administrative, on 7 September 1944, with the war going badly for the Japanese, Prime Minister Koiso promised independence for Indonesia, but no date was set. For supporters of Sukarno, this announcement was seen as vindication for his collaboration with the Japanese, under pressure from radical and politicised pemuda groups, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence, on 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese Emperor’s surrender in the Pacific. The following day, the Central Indonesian National Committee elected Sukarno as President, PROCLAMATION We, the people of Indonesia, hereby declare the independence of Indonesia. Matters which concern the transfer of power and other things will be executed by careful means, as the news spread, most Indonesians came to regard themselves as pro-Republican, and a mood of revolution swept across the country. External power had shifted, it would be weeks before Allied Forces entered Indonesia, the resulting power vacuums in the weeks following the Japanese surrender, created an atmosphere of uncertainty, but also one of opportunity for the Republicans. Many pemuda joined pro-Republic struggle groups, the most disciplined were soldiers from the Japanese-formed but disbanded Giyugun and Heiho groups. Many groups were undisciplined, due to both the circumstances of their formation and what they perceived as revolutionary spirit, in the first weeks, Japanese troops often withdrew from urban areas to avoid confrontations. To spread the message, pemuda set up their own radio stations and newspapers. On most islands, struggle committees and militia were set up, Republican leaders struggled to come to terms with popular sentiment, some wanted passionate armed struggle, others a more reasoned approach. Some leaders, such as the leftist Tan Malaka, spread the idea that this was a struggle to be led
6.
Malayan Emergency
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Malayan Emergency was the colonial governments term for the conflict. The MNLA termed it the Anti-British National Liberation War, the rubber plantations and tin-mining industries had pushed for the use of the term emergency since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyds insurers if it had been termed a war. Despite the communists defeat in 1960, communist leader Chin Peng renewed the insurgency against the Malaysian government in 1967 and he fled to exile in Thailand, where he lived until his death on 16 September 2013. The Malayan economy relied on the export of tin and rubber, when the British took control of the Malayan economy, they imposed taxes on some Malayan goods, affecting their traditional industries. This led to an increase in poverty for the Malayan people, many Chinese people found employment in tin mines or fields responsible for the trade of materials. This heightened inter-ethnic tensions as the Malay people found that ethnic Chinese had replaced them in certain jobs and this forced many Malays into the rubber industry, which in turn was heavily dependent upon volatile world prices. Economic tension intensified during the Second World War. The Japanese occupation of Malaya began in 1941 and from that point onwards the “export of primary products was limited to the small amounts required for the Japanese economy. ”This led to large areas of rubber plantations being abandoned. The latter was progressively affected by a shortage of parts for machines. Rice imports, which made up a portion of the Malayan diet, fell rapidly due to limited trade. Many people believed that the British would soon return and ‘save’ them so they did not attempt to learn the skills that would be essential for survival. This then led to famine in Malaya from 1942. The withdrawal of Japan at the end of World War II left the British Malayan economy disrupted, problems included unemployment, low wages, and high levels of food inflation, well above the healthy rate of 2–3%. The Malayan Communist Party began to use the failing economy as a tool of propaganda against the British, the British had not addressed the underlying economic problems that were now worse within Malaya than they had ever been. There was considerable labour unrest and a number of strikes occurred between 1946 and 1948. One example of this was a 24-hour general strike organised by the MCP on 29 January 1946, during this time, the British administration was attempting to organise Malayas economy, as revenue from Malayas tin and rubber industries was important to Britains own post-war recovery. Protesters were dealt with harshly, by measures including arrests and deportations, in turn, protesters became increasingly militant. In 1947, alone, the communists in Malaya organised a further 300 strikes, on 16 June 1948, the first overt act of the war took place when three European plantation managers were killed at Sungai Siput, Perak
