1.
Kubinka Tank Museum
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The museum consists of open-air and indoor permanent exhibitions of many famous tanks and armored vehicles from throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The Kubinka Tank Museum is located on a historically classified Red Army armor testing facility, most of its displays in the museum were derived from the research collection of the still-functioning Kubinka armour testing and proving ground. Due to its history as well as its close relationship with the military. Guided tours in English are more expensive, starting at 4000 rubles, access to children under the age of 6 is free. Permission to film and record videos cost 350 rubles, foreign citizens are highly recommended to have a copy of the passport to enter the museum as well as the original. Weapons and alcohol are prohibited, at the entrances inspections are carried out by security staff with the help of metal detectors, the museum hosts a wide variety of tanks and armored vehicles developed and used throughout the 20th century by the Soviets, Germans and many other nations. Around 60% of the exhibits are Soviet-era vehicles, with the most recent display being the Object 172, located in the outskirt of Moscow, Kubinka is easily accessible by suburban train from Belorussky railway station, Moscow. Until the recent times, the network of local trains. There is also marshrutka minibus №59 connect Kubinka railway station with Tank museum bus stop, Kubinka was a top-secret armour testing range and proving ground from before World War II. All new tanks from Russian research and design bureaus and facilities and factories had to be first tested here, also, Nazi German tanks and armoured fighting vehicles that were either captured by Soviet troops or transferred by the USA and the UK were tested in Kubinka. Before Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, some German tanks and AFVs were sold to the Soviet Union and these were also tested at Kubinka. Some of these included the Panzer I light tank, the Panzer II light tank and the Panzer III medium tank. After 1941, several captured tanks and AFVs of Nazi Germany, a few captured Tiger I heavy tanks were brought to the testing and proving grounds at Kubinka in 1943 to be subjected to firing tests. Several Tiger II heavy tanks were captured by the Soviet Union and were brought to Kubinka for more evaluations in 1944. In 1945 the Soviet Union also tested captured Japanese tanks that were seized after the rapid Soviet invasion of Manchuria, South Sakhalin, today, the Kubinka Tank Museum exhibits more than 50 tanks procured from abroad during the Cold War. Some of these tanks are as follows, An M24 Chaffee light tank, during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Viet Minh captured at least three French M24 Chaffees and sent a few of them to the Soviet Union after the war. An M41 Walker Bulldog light tank was sent to the Kubinka Force Technology Center in 1962 and it was captured by Cuba in 1961 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion by the USA and anti-communist Cuban rebels. Fidel Castro, then the leader of Cuba, decided to offer it to the Soviet Union to show the firm friendship between the two countries against the USA, some M48 Patton medium tanks are also on display there
2.
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
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
5.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
6.
New Zealand Army
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The New Zealand Army is the land component of the New Zealand Defence Force and comprises around 4,500 Regular Force personnel,2,000 Territorial Force personnel and 500 civilians. Formerly the New Zealand Military Forces, the current name was adopted by the New Zealand Army Act 1950, the New Zealand Army traces its history from settler militia raised in 1845. Since the 1970s, deployments have tended to be assistance to multilateral peacekeeping efforts, considering the small size of the force, operational commitments have remained high since the start of the East Timor deployment in 1999. New Zealand personnel also served in the First Gulf War, Iraq and are serving in several UN. They have just been withdrawnfrom East Timor, RAMSI in the Solomons, War had been an integral part of the life and culture of the Māori people. The Musket Wars dominated the first years of European trade and settlement, the first European settlers in the Bay of Islands formed a volunteer militia from which some New Zealand Army units trace their origins. Towards the end of the war, the numbers of British troops were reduced, the first permanent military force was the Colonial Defence Force, which was active from 1862. This was replaced in 1867 by the Armed Constabulary, which performed both military and policing roles, after being renamed the New Zealand Constabulary Force, it was divided into separate military and police forces in 1886. The military force was called the Permanent Militia and later renamed the Permanent Force, Major Alfred William Robin led the First Contingent sent from New Zealand to South Africa to participate in the Boer War in October 1899. The New Zealand Army sent ten contingents in total, of which the first six were raised and instructed by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Henry Banks and these were mounted riflemen, and the first contingents had to pay to go, providing their own horses, equipment and weapons. The Defence Act 1909, which displaced the old system, remodelled the defences of the dominion on a territorial basis. It provided for a force, or fighting strength, fully equipped for modern requirements. These troops, with the reserve, formed the first line. Under the terms of the Act, every male, unless physically unfit, was required to take his share of the defence of the dominion. The Act provided for the military training of every male from the age of 14 to 25. After serving in the territorials until 25, and in the reserve until 30, a discharge was granted, Major-General Sir Alexander Godley, of the Imperial General Staff, was engaged as commandant. A New Zealand division then formed which fought on the Western Front, the total number of New Zealand troops and nurses to serve overseas in 1914-1918, excluding those in British and other dominion forces, was 100,000, from a population of just over a million. Forty-two percent of men of military age served in the NZEF,16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war - a 58 percent casualty rate
7.
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
8.
Vickers-Armstrongs
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Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, Vickers merged with the Tyneside-based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers had developed along lines, expanding into various military sectors. Armstrong Whitworth were notable for their manufacture at Elswick and shipbuilding at a yard at High Walker on the River Tyne. 1929 saw the merger of the railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon. In 1935, before rearmament began, Vickers-Armstrongs was the third-largest manufacturing employer in Britain, behind Unilever, in 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol, English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation. This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol, BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC in 1965, under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace. The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers shipbuilding division as part of British Shipbuilders, Vickers Container and Packaging Machinery Division, including the Vickers Stitcher and Vickers Hardness Machine business, was bought by Fords Industrial Products, part of Barry Wehmiller in 1986. In 1991 the Vickers Hardness Machinery business was bought by the field engineers. The Vickers Stitcher was still being manufactured in India as recently as 2005, the steelmaking division became part of British Steel Corporation and the remaining interests were divested as the public company Vickers plc, whose various components were later split. The Vickers name ceased to exist in 2003 when Rolls-Royce renamed its acquisitions Vinters plc, Vickers-Armstrongs inherited the Vickers machine gun of 1912 used in World War I from Vickers Limited. An unusual machine gun also made was the Vickers Higson, Vickers produced larger weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun used on tanks. In 1948 Vickers bought the Australian business of Charles Ruwolt Ltd for £750,000 following Ruwolts death in 1946, during WW2 Ruwolts firm produced armaments for the Australian Government, including field artillery such as mortars and howitzer cannon. Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the most important warship manufacturers in the world and these interests were renamed as Vickers-Armstrongs Shipbuilders in 1955, changing again to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1968. The Barrow yard was nationalised and became part of British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised as VSEL in 1986, the company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton. It also produced the influential, if never actually produced, Independent A1E1 tank, one of the companys most important designs was the Valentine Infantry Tank, produced in the thousands in World War II. The military vehicle manufacturing interests were divested into Vickers plc, and would pass to Alvis Vickers, now part of BAE Systems Land
9.
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
10.
Ordnance QF 2-pounder
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The Ordnance QF 2-pounder, or simply 2 pounder gun, was a 40 mm British anti-tank and vehicle-mounted gun, employed in the Second World War. It was actively used in the Battle of France, and during the North Africa Campaign. As Axis tanks improved in armoured protection, it lost effectiveness and this QF 2-pounder was not the same gun as the QF2 pounder pom-pom gun extensively used by the Royal Navy as an anti-aircraft gun, they shared only the projectile weight of 2 pounds. The gun was developed as both a weapon and an anti-tank gun. For reasons of economy and standardization, it was accepted - as the 2-pdr Mark IX - for both purposes in October 1935, carriages for the gun were designed by Vickers and the Design Department at the Woolwich Arsenal. Vickers was the first to submit a design, which was accepted as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder Mark IX on Carriage Mark I, a limited number of pieces was built in 1936. The carriage had an innovative three-legged construction, in the travelling position, one of the legs was used as a towing trail, and the other two were folded. When the gun was positioned for combat, the legs were emplaced on the ground and it was conceptually similar, although when the gun was emplaced for combat the wheels had to be removed. This carriage was also manufactured by Vickers, the unusual construction gave the gun good stability and a traverse of 360 degrees, allowing it to quickly engage moving vehicles from any approach. With the Vickers carriage, the gun could also be fired from its wheels, at the expense of limited traverse. The 40 mm 2-pounder could outperform a typical 37 mm piece, such as the German 3.7 cm PaK36 or the Bofors 37 mm, a drawback of the 2-pounder was that it was nearly twice as heavy as the PaK36 and had a higher profile. The gun was first put into use on a tank as the armament of the Vickers-designed Cruiser Tank Mk I. A late-war project was the Canadian David High Velocity to allow 2-pdr ammunition to be fired from the larger-calibre 6-pdr and this was intended to improve the muzzle velocity of the shot. The system was still being developed when the war ended, the program ending along with it. Another development was the 2-pdr HV Pipsqueak, a gun using a 40x438R cartridge originally intended as the main armament for the Saladin armoured car that was to replace the AEC Armoured Car. This was designed to fire Armour-piercing discarding sabot rounds, which would match the penetration of the Littlejohn shot while still allowing high-explosive shells to be fired. In fact, the performance was better, the 1,295 m/s shot penetrating 85mm of armour at 60 degrees at 900m. Development of this gun was also abandoned when the role of the Saladin shifted towards infantry fire support, a high-explosive shell was designed for the 2-pdr, but never produced
11.
Ordnance QF 6-pounder
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It was first used in North Africa in April 1942, and quickly replaced the 2 pounder in the anti-tank role, allowing the 25 pounder to revert to its intended artillery role. The United States Army also adopted the 6 pounder as their primary anti-tank gun under the designation 57 mm Gun M1. Limitations of the existing 2-pounders were apparent even as the gun was first entering service, the Woolwich Arsenal was entrusted with the development of a new gun with a calibre of 57 mm calibre. Guns of this calibre had been employed by the Royal Navy from the late 19th century, the design was complete by 1940, but the carriage design was not completed until 1941. The production was delayed by the defeat in the Battle of France. It was estimated that 100 6-pounders would displace the production of 600 2-pounders and this had the effect of delaying production of the 6-pounder until November 1941 and its entry into service until May 1942. Unlike the 2-pounder, the new gun was mounted on a conventional two-wheeled split trail carriage, the first mass production variant—the Mk II—differed from the pre-production Mk I in having a shorter L/43 barrel, because of shortage of suitable lathes. The subsequent Mk IV was fitted with a L/50 barrel, with muzzle brake, optional side shields were issued to give the crew better protection, but were apparently rarely used. The Churchill Marks III and IV, Valentine Mark IX and Crusader Mark III all began to service during 1942. The Valentine and Crusader both needed to lose a member from the turret. Those tanks designed to take the 6-pounder from the outset were the problematic Cavalier, the Cromwell, the 6-pounder was also fitted to the AEC Armoured Car Mark II. Although the 6-pounder was kept at least somewhat competitive through the war, the aim was to produce a gun with the same general dimensions and weight as the 6-pounder, but with improved performance. The first attempt was an 8-pounder of 59 calibre length, a second attempt was made with a shorter 48 calibre barrel, but this proved to have only marginally better performance than the 6-pounder. The program was cancelled in January 1943. Instead, the 6-pounder was followed into production and service by the next generation British anti-tank gun, the 17 pounder, which came into use from February 1943. As a smaller and more gun, the 6-pounder continued to be used by the British Army not only for the rest of World War II. A 57/42.6 mm squeeze bore adaptor was developed for the gun but was never adopted, in addition to the UK, the gun was produced in both South Africa, where the Combined Ordnance Factories produced 300, and Canada. The idea of manufacturing the 6 pounder in the US was expressed by the US Army Ordnance in February 1941, at that time, the US Army still favoured the 37mm Gun M3 and production was planned solely for lend lease
12.
Ordnance QF 75 mm
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The Ordnance QF75 mm, abbreviated to OQF75 mm, was a British tank-gun of the Second World War. The QF came from quick-firing, referring to the use of ammunition with the shell, the gun was also sometimes known as ROQF from Royal Ordnance Quick-Firing. Prior to the introduction of the ROQF75 mm, British tanks had been equipped with such as the QF2 pounder. These guns were designed to fire armour-piercing shot, small high-velocity solid rounds that were effective against tanks, some tanks operating in the infantry support role were given howitzers firing HE shells, such as early models of the Churchill and CS versions of the Matilda II. The decision to equip British tanks with a gun capable of firing HE shells at soft targets was taken by the War Office, a HE shell for the 6 pounder was in production by the start of the Tunisia Campaign and available in large numbers in the Italian Campaign. However, the round lacked sufficient explosive power, approximately 200 were converted in this way. Vickers was working on a high velocity 75 mm gun to be fitted to British tanks and this took the cartridge case of the 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun mated to the US 75mm AP and HE shell. With a barrel length of 50 calibres, it would have had twice the muzzle energy of the US 75mm gun. However, the final gun turned out to be too big to fit into the tank that it had expected to fit. It was noticed that the US 75mm cartridge was almost the same diameter as the British 6 pounder case, the resulting gun could then be fitted without redesigned tank mountings. It gained British tanks a good HE shell, but came with an inferior anti-tank round, in the Battle of Villers-Bocage, Cromwell tanks with the 75mm were outgunned by Tiger tanks of the 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion. Though the 75mm had a good HE shell, it was thought that a more powerful close support weapon was needed. The QF 75mm used US ammunition, the shells were fixed ammunition, the shell cartridge and projectile being joined together as a single complete round. Shell HE M46 with either the M48 or M54 fuze Bursting charge was 1.49 lb TNT or 1.36 lb 50/50 Amatol or 1.52 lb trimonite. The M48 fuze could be set for impact detonation or delayed detonation, the M54 round had variable delay, the fuze starting burning at the instance of firing the round. Shot APC M61, with tracer in the base A armour-piercing capped projectile with a ballistic cap for better aerodynamics. Shot AP M72, with tracer in the base an entirely solid projectile The ROQF75 mm was used on the Churchill and Cromwell tanks. The weapon was used in Italy and the Normandy invasion until the end of the war, externally, the gun was nearly identical to the 6-pounder gun
13.
Ordnance QF 3-inch howitzer
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Ordnance QF3 inch howitzer was a howitzer fitted to British tanks of the Second World War so they could fire a HE shell in close support of infantry. It was used to equip the British Infantry tanks, Matilda II, Churchill tank Mk I, Valentine tank, a field artillery version seems to have been developed or under development in 1941, its ammunition codes are listed in Field Service Pocket Book, Pamphlet No. The ammunition is listed in BOTH the anti-tank and field artillery sections, later in the war a larger 95 mm howitzer was employed for the same purpose
14.
Besa machine gun
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The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun, which in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the TK vz.37. Although it required a large opening in the tanks armour. The name came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company, who signed an agreement with Československá zbrojovka to manufacture the gun in the UK, the War Office ordered the weapon in 1938, and production began in 1939, after modifications. Although Britains armed forces used the.303 in rimmed round for rifles and machine guns, although it had been intended for the British to move from rimmed to rimless ammunition generally, with war imminent wholesale change was not possible. It was considered by BSA and the Ministry of Supply that the industrial, technical, as a consequence, the round was not changed for British production. Since the Besa used the same ammunition as Germany used in its rifles and machine guns, while American-produced armoured cars or tanks would have been fitted with.30 cal Browning machine guns, many British tanks and armoured cars would be equipped with the Besa machine gun. It fed from non-disintegrating disposable 225-round steel metal-link belts, the Mark II version entered service in June 1940. It was modified with a selector to give a rate of fire for close combat or focused targets or a low rate of fire for long-range combat or area targets. As the war progressed the design was modified to be rapidly and economically produced. Three simplified models, the Mark II*, Mark III and Mark III*, the Mark II* was a transitional model designed to use the new simplified parts, but had backwards compatibility with the Mark II. The Mark III and Mark III* versions did away with the selector and had simplified parts like the Mark II*. The Mark III/2 introduced in 1952 was a conversion of the Mark III* with a new bracket, the post-war Mark III/2 and Mark III/3 remained in service until the late 1960s. A larger, heavier – at 57 kg –15 mm version and it could be fired in semi-automatic mode as well as fully automatic. It was introduced in British service in June 1940 and was used on the Light Tank Mk VIC, over 3,200 15mm Besa were manufactured until it was declared obsolete in 1949. It fired a 75 gram bullet from a 15×104mm cartridge with a velocity of 818.3 m/s at a rate of 450 rounds per minute. A few of the original ZB-60 guns were used by the SS although mostly with the ammunition of the MG 151/15
15.
Associated Equipment Company
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AEC was a British vehicle manufacturer which built buses, motorcoaches and lorries from 1912 until 1979. The acronym stood for Associated Equipment Company, but this name was ever used, instead it traded under the AEC. While famously associated with Londons AEC Routemaster buses, AEC supplied commercial vehicles to many companies, the London General Omnibus Company, or LGOC, was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. The company began producing motor omnibuses for its own use in 1909 with the X-type designed by its chief engineer, Frank Searle, at works in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow. The X-type was followed by Searles B-type design, considered to be one of the first mass-produced commercial vehicles, in 1912, LGOC was taken over by the Underground Group of companies, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, and extensive tram operations. As part of the following the takeover, a separate concern was set up for the bus manufacturing elements. AECs first commercial vehicle was a based on the X-type bus chassis. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, AECs ability to produce large numbers of vehicles using assembly line methods became important in supplying the increasing need for army lorries. AEC began large-scale production of the 3-ton Y-type lorry, commenced in 1916, from then on, AEC became associated with both lorries and buses. In 1926, AEC and Daimler formed the Associated Daimler Company, in 1927, AEC moved its manufacturing from Walthamstow to a new plant at Southall in Middlesex. G. J. Rackham was appointed Chief Engineer and Designer in 1928 and he had previously worked for Leyland Motors. His ideas contributed significantly to AECs reputation for quality and reliability, from 1929, AEC produced new models, the names of lorries began with M, and those of buses began with R. These original M-models continued in production until the end of the Second World War, AEC introduced diesel engines across the range in the mid-1930s. From 1931 to 1938, AEC and English Electric co-produced trolleybuses, AEC supplied the chassis, and EE the electric motors and control equipment. In 1932, AEC took a controlling interest in the British subsidiary of the American Four Wheel Drive company, to avoid confusion, these were marketed under the name Hardy. A 6x6 version was designated as the AEC Marshall but almost always called the Matador, to this they added the AEC Armoured Car in 1941. Other uses of the Matador chassis were the Deacon self-propelled anti-tank gun vehicle, used briefly in North Africa, in 1946 AEC resumed civilian production with the 0661/20 Regent II and the 0662/20 Regal I. These were not new models but a recommencement of the most basic AEC1939 specification bus models
16.
Petrol engine
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A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels. In most petrol engines, the fuel and air are usually pre-mixed before compression, the process differs from a diesel engine in the method of mixing the fuel and air, and in using spark plugs to initiate the combustion process. In a diesel engine, only air is compressed, and the fuel is injected into very hot air at the end of the compression stroke, and self-ignites. The first practical petrol engine was built in 1876 in Germany by Nikolaus August Otto, although there had been attempts by Étienne Lenoir, Siegfried Marcus, Julius Hock. The first petrol engine was prototyped in 1882 in Italy by Enrico Bernardi. British engineer Edward Butler constructed the first petrol combustion engine. Butler invented the spark plug, ignition magneto, coil ignition and spray jet carburetor, with both air and fuel in a closed cylinder, compressing the mixture too much poses the danger of auto-ignition — or behaving like a diesel engine. Spark plugs are typically set statically or at idle at a minimum of 10 degrees or so of crankshaft rotation before the piston reaches T. D, higher octane petrol burns slower, therefore it has a lower propensity to auto-ignite and its rate of expansion is lower. Thus, engines designed to run high-octane fuel exclusively can achieve higher compression ratios, Petrol engines run at higher rotation speeds than diesels, partially due to their lighter pistons, connecting rods and crankshaft and due to petrol burning more quickly than diesel. However the lower compression ratios of petrol engines give petrol engines lower efficiency than diesel engines, examples, Bedford OB bus Bedford M series lorry GE 57-ton gas-electric boxcab locomotive Petrol engines may run on the four-stroke cycle or the two-stroke cycle. For details of working cycles see, Four-stroke cycle Two-stroke cycle Wankel engine Common cylinder arrangements are from 1 to 6 cylinders in-line or from 2 to 16 cylinders in V-formation. Flat engines – like a V design flattened out – are common in airplanes and motorcycles and were a hallmark of Volkswagen automobiles into the 1990s. Flat 6s are still used in many modern Porsches, as well as Subarus, less common, but notable in vehicles designed for high speeds is the W formation, similar to having 2 V engines side by side. Alternatives include rotary and radial engines the latter typically have 7 or 9 cylinders in a single ring, Petrol engines may be air-cooled, with fins, or liquid-cooled, by a water jacket and radiator. The coolant was formerly water, but is now usually a mixture of water and either ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, the cooling system is usually slightly pressurized to further raise the boiling point of the coolant. Petrol engines use spark ignition and high current for the spark may be provided by a magneto or an ignition coil. In modern car engines the ignition timing is managed by an electronic Engine Control Unit, the most common way of engine rating is what is known as the brake power, measured at the flywheel, and given in kilowatts or horsepower. This is the mechanical power output of the engine in a usable
17.
Diesel engine
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Diesel engines work by compressing only the air. This increases the air temperature inside the cylinder to such a degree that it ignites atomised diesel fuel that is injected into the combustion chamber. This contrasts with spark-ignition engines such as an engine or gas engine. In diesel engines, glow plugs may be used to aid starting in cold weather, or when the engine uses a lower compression-ratio, the original diesel engine operates on the constant pressure cycle of gradual combustion and produces no audible knock. Low-speed diesel engines can have an efficiency that exceeds 50%. Diesel engines may be designed as either two-stroke or four-stroke cycles and they were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electricity generation plants followed later, in the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the US increased. According to the British Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders, the EU average for diesel cars accounts for 50% of the total sold, including 70% in France and 38% in the UK. The worlds largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Common Rail marine diesel, the definition of a Diesel engine to many has become an engine that uses compression ignition. To some it may be an engine that uses heavy fuel oil, to others an engine that does not use spark ignition. However the original cycle proposed by Rudolf Diesel in 1892 was a constant temperature cycle which would require higher compression than what is needed for compression ignition. Diesels idea was to compress the air so tightly that the temperature of the air would exceed that of combustion, to make this more clear, let it be assumed that the subsequent combustion shall take place at a temperature of 700°. Then in that case the pressure must be sixty-four atmospheres, or for 800° centigrade the pressure must be ninety atmospheres. In later years Diesel realized his original cycle would not work, Diesel describes the cycle in his 1895 patent application. Notice that there is no longer a mention of compression temperatures exceeding the temperature of combustion, now all that is mentioned is the compression must be high enough for ignition. In 1806 Claude and Nicéphore Niépce developed the first known internal combustion engine, the Pyréolophore fuel system used a blast of air provided by a bellows to atomize Lycopodium
18.
Detroit Diesel Series 71
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This feature also assisted in keeping down the overall cost of these large engines by maintaining parts commonality with the smaller models. The inline six-cylinder 71 series engine was introduced as the flagship product of the Detroit Diesel Engine Division of General Motors in 1938. The V-type first appeared in 1957, the 71 in the model series designation refers to the displacement per cylinder in cubic inches. Bore and stroke is the same to all units, at 4.25 x 5.0 inches. Inline models were famously symmetrical, meaning that blower, exhaust, water manifold, starter, a number of models could also run either clock-wise or counter clock-wise, called Right Hand or Left Hand engines. The less common Left Hand engines were used in buses. The engine exhausts through pushrod-operated poppet valves in the cylinder head, unit injection is employed, one injector per cylinder, with no high fuel pressure outside of the injector body. The injectors are cycled from the same responsible for opening the exhaust valves. As a two-stroke diesel engine that does not use crankcase aspiration cannot naturally aspirate combustion air and they can also be known as Naturally Aspirated versions with an N suffix. Later high-performance versions were available with turbochargers, and turbochargers with intercooling, the 71 Series went off of the market in the summer of 1995, and the Four Stroke Detroit Diesel Engine was introduced as a replacement. The most popular incarnations of the series 71 engine as used for vehicle applications included the inline 6-71, the V-block 6V-71. The 71 series is popular in marine applications, not only as a propulsion engine in small craft but as auxiliary power to drive generators, winches. The Motor Lifeboat CG36500 featured in The Finest Hours movie had a used Detroit 4-71 added AFTER the SS Pendleton rescue and her original engine was a Sterling Petrel 6 cylinder gas engine, which suffered fuel starvation when the boat rolled violently due to the carburetor float getting hung up. Over the years, the 71 series has enjoyed a reputation for dependability, due to their ubiquity and operating characteristics, inline models acquired a variety of nicknames from those who used and serviced them. Most common were Screaming Jimmy or Rocky Mountain Humming Bird, which referred to the engines sound at full throttle. The V12 has been called the Buzzin Dozen due to the higher RPM needed for it to produce power and what sound it makes when the exhaust brake is on. The inline 6-71 was adapted to British requirements as the plant for Canadian built Valentine tanks where it was known as the GMC6004. The 6046 Diesel was a twin engine setup used by US, the eight engines produced a total of 1600BHP
19.
Horsepower
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Horsepower is a unit of measurement of power. There are many different standards and types of horsepower, two common definitions being used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is approximately 746 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of engines with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the power of other types of piston engines, as well as turbines, electric motors. The definition of the unit varied among geographical regions, most countries now use the SI unit watt for measurement of power. With the implementation of the EU Directive 80/181/EEC on January 1,2010, units called horsepower have differing definitions, The mechanical horsepower, also known as imperial horsepower equals approximately 745.7 watts. It was defined originally as exactly 550 foot-pounds per second [745.7 N. m/s), the metric horsepower equals approximately 735.5 watts. It was defined originally as 75 kgf-m per second is approximately equivalent to 735.5 watts, the Pferdestärke PS is a name for a group of similar power measurements used in Germany around the end of the 19th century, all of about one metric horsepower in size. The boiler horsepower equals 9809.5 watts and it was used for rating steam boilers and is equivalent to 34.5 pounds of water evaporated per hour at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. One horsepower for rating electric motors is equal to 746 watts, one horsepower for rating Continental European electric motors is equal to 735 watts. Continental European electric motors used to have dual ratings, one British Royal Automobile Club horsepower can equal a range of values based on estimates of several engine dimensions. It is one of the tax horsepower systems adopted around Europe, the development of the steam engine provided a reason to compare the output of horses with that of the engines that could replace them. He had previously agreed to take royalties of one third of the savings in coal from the older Newcomen steam engines and this royalty scheme did not work with customers who did not have existing steam engines but used horses instead. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour, the wheel was 12 feet in radius, therefore, the horse travelled 2.4 × 2π ×12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force. So, P = W t = F d t =180 l b f ×2.4 ×2 π ×12 f t 1 m i n =32,572 f t ⋅ l b f m i n. Watt defined and calculated the horsepower as 32,572 ft·lbf/min, Watt determined that a pony could lift an average 220 lbf 100 ft per minute over a four-hour working shift. Watt then judged a horse was 50% more powerful than a pony, engineering in History recounts that John Smeaton initially estimated that a horse could produce 22,916 foot-pounds per minute
20.
Horstmann suspension
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Horstmann suspension is a type of tracked suspension devised by the British engineer Sidney Horstmann in 1922. It was widely used on World War II-era tank designs but in the era was increasingly limited to British designs. The last tank to use the design was the Chieftain, from the 1960s, the principle design feature is that two or more wheels are mounted to a common framework. Each wheel is mounted on an L-shaped swing arm that forms a bell crank, the two arms may be mounted on a common shaft between them, or more commonly, two closely spaced shafts. The two wheels share a coil spring running horizontally between the tops of the crank arms and this way if one wheel moves up over an obstacle, the spring is compressed against the swing arm of the other wheel. In systems with fully independent wheels, its possible for the tank to become suspended on one wheel. Another advantage is that the spring may work both in compression and expansion, increasing the total travel of the suspension. From a maintenance standpoint, the fact that it connects at a single non-moving point and is otherwise self-contained makes it easy to remove. The location of the spring over the wheels also makes it quite compact, mechanically, Horstmann shares much in common with the Christie suspension, which also uses a bell crank to press on a spring. The main difference is that in the Christie each wheel is mounted separately, the longer spring allows for more controlled flexion and potentially longer throw. Christie suspensions are generally difficult to maintain because the wheels and suspension are mounted separately. Externally, the Horstmann suspension appears similar to the American vertical volute spring suspension, the two systems are very different mechanically, the VVSS wheels are mounted on independent pivot points and each has as separate vertical spring. Late World War II American designs replaced VVSS with a version of the Horstmann suspension that replaced its coil springs with the springs from the earlier VVSS. This was known as the volute spring suspension, or HVSS. HVSS was a feature of the M4A3E8 model Easy Eight. The name Horstmann suspension may be applied to any system that has two opposed swing arms, no matter the type of springing between them. The name also refers to any built by the Horstman company whether of the bogie type, torsion beam design, hydrogas
21.
Rivet
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A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or drilled hole, in other words, pounding creates a new head on the other end by smashing the tail material flatter, resulting in a rivet that is roughly a dumbbell shape. To distinguish between the two ends of the rivet, the head is called the factory head and the deformed end is called the shop head or buck-tail. Because there is effectively a head on each end of a rivet, it can support tension loads, however. Bolts and screws are better suited for tension applications, solid rivets consist simply of a shaft and head that are deformed with a hammer or rivet gun. A rivet compression or crimping tool can also deform this type of rivet and this tool is mainly used on rivets close to the edge of the fastened material, since the tool is limited by the depth of its frame. A rivet compression tool does not require two people, and is generally the most foolproof way to solid rivets. Solid rivets are used in applications where reliability and safety count, a typical application for solid rivets can be found within the structural parts of aircraft. Hundreds of thousands of rivets are used to assemble the frame of a modern aircraft. Such rivets come with rounded or 100° countersunk heads, typical materials for aircraft rivets are aluminium alloys, titanium, and nickel-based alloys. Some aluminum alloy rivets are too hard to buck and must be softened by solution treating prior to being bucked, ice box aluminum alloy rivets harden with age, and must likewise be annealed and then kept at sub-freezing temperatures to slow the age-hardening process. Steel rivets can be found in structures such as bridges, cranes. The setting of these fasteners requires access to both sides of a structure, solid rivets are driven using a hydraulically, pneumatically, or electromagnetically driven squeezing tool or even a handheld hammer. Applications where only one side is accessible require blind rivets, high-strength bolts have largely replaced structural steel rivets. Indeed, the latest steel construction specifications published by AISC no longer covers their installation, the reason for the change is primarily due to the expense of skilled workers required to install high strength structural steel rivets. Whereas two relatively unskilled workers can install and tighten high strength bolts, it takes a minimum of four highly skilled riveters to install rivets, at a central location near the areas being riveted, a furnace was set up
22.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
23.
Valentine's Day
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Valentines Day, also called Saint Valentines Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an annual holiday celebrated on February 14. According to legend, during his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius, the day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery. In Europe, Saint Valentines Keys are given to lovers as a romantic symbol, Valentines Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards, Saint Valentines Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine, the Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred in 269 and was added to the calendar of saints by Pope Galesius in 496 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The flower-crowned skull of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian in 273 and he is buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location from Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni, oruch states that abstracts of the acts of the two saints were in nearly every church and monastery of Europe. The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, Saint Valentines head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester, and venerated. February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentines Day in various Christian denominations, it has, for example, in addition, the feast day of Saint Valentine is also given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. J. C. Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century. The same events are found in Bedes Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century. It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person, Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead, because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the jailers daughter and his forty-six member household came to believe in Jesus and were baptized
24.
Sir John Carden, 6th Baronet
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Sir John Valentine Carden, 6th Baronet MBE was an English tank and vehicle designer. He was the sixth Baronet of Templemore, Tipperary, from 1931, born in London, Carden was a talented, self-taught engineer, with an ability to put his ideas to practical use. From 1914 to 1916, he ran a company that manufactured light passenger-cars under the brand Carden, the companys first model was a cyclecar, with seating only for the driver. During the First World War, Carden served in the Army Service Corps and gained the rank of Captain, after the war, he returned to car manufacturing but sold his original design and factory to Ward and Avey who renamed it the AV. He then designed a new cyclecar and started manufacture at Ascot, a further design followed with a two-seat fibreboard body. Carden even sold one of these to King Alfonso XIII of Spain before selling the company to new owners in 1922 who renamed it the New Carden. Two or three years later, Carden met car-designer Vivian Loyd and the two started a company in Chertsey named Carden-Loyd, working on light, tracked vehicles for military use. Carden was reportedly described as an engineering genius, while Loyd was conversely described as an extrovert engineer-salesman. What brought the real success was a tankette design, the first Carden-Loyd One-Man Tankette. In the next two years, it was developed into Marks I, II and III, and later, two-man tankette models Mark IV, all were built in small numbers but were very promising, and, as a result, Carden-Loyd was bought by Vickers-Armstrongs in March 1928. Carden himself was employed by Vickers as the technical director, the pair continued developing their tankette model, eventually creating their best-known design, the Mark VI. It became the first successful design for that type in the world. Many foreign tankette models developed later were said to be inspired by the Mark VI, Carden and Loyd also designed light tanks, such as the well-known Vickers-Armstrongs Commercial Light Tanks series and the British Armys Light Tanks, including Light Tank Mk VI. The pair also developed the worlds first amphibious tank, the Vickers-Carden-Loyd Amphibian Tank, aside from tanks, Carden and Loyd also developed several light artillery tractors and carriers, including the VA D50 model, which was a prototype of the Bren Carrier. Cardens interest in flying led him to build an ultralight plane based on the French Flying Flea. In 1935, Carden started Carden Aero Engines Ltd. an aircraft engine manufacturer, Baynes led to the founding of Carden Baynes Aircraft Ltd. which produced gliders of Baynes design fitted with auxiliary engines. John Carden was killed in an air crash near Tatsfield, Surrey on 10 December 1935, the Vickers Tanks,1995, ISBN 978-1-899506-10-1 Arthur E. Carden. Available from Lulu website, blocked by Wikipedia but to be found at Google and this book contains a 30-page chapter on Sir John Valentine Carden, with 24 illustrations
25.
Newcastle upon Tyne
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Newcastle is the most populous city in the North East and forms the core of the Tyneside conurbation, the eighth most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Newcastle is a member of the English Core Cities Group and is a member of the Eurocities network of European cities. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it became a county of itself, the regional nickname and dialect for people from Newcastle and the surrounding area is Geordie. Newcastle also houses Newcastle University, a member of the Russell Group, the city developed around the Roman settlement Pons Aelius and was named after the castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conquerors eldest son. The city grew as an important centre for the trade in the 14th century. The port developed in the 16th century and, along with the lower down the River Tyne, was amongst the worlds largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres. Newcastles economy includes corporate headquarters, learning, digital technology, retail, tourism and cultural centres, among its icons are Newcastle United football club and the Tyne Bridge. Since 1981 the city has hosted the Great North Run, a marathon which attracts over 57,000 runners each year. The first recorded settlement in what is now Newcastle was Pons Aelius and it was given the family name of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who founded it in the 2nd century AD. This rare honour suggests Hadrian may have visited the site and instituted the bridge on his tour of Britain, Pons Aelius population at this period was estimated at 2,000. Fragments of Hadrians Wall are visible in parts of Newcastle, particularly along the West Road, the course of the Roman Wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort in Wallsend—the walls end—and to the supply fort Arbeia in South Shields. After the Roman departure from Britain, completed in 410, Newcastle became part of the powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, conflicts with the Danes in 876 left the river Tyne and its settlements in ruin. After the conflicts with the Danes, and following the 1088 rebellion against the Normans, Monkchester was all, because of its strategic position, Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, erected a wooden castle there in the year 1080. The town was known as Novum Castellum or New Castle. The wooden structure was replaced by a castle in 1087. The castle was again in 1172 during the reign of Henry II. Much of the keep which can be seen in the city dates from this period. Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was Englands northern fortress, incorporated first by Henry II, the city had a new charter granted by Elizabeth in 1589
26.
Cruiser Mk I
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The Tank, Cruiser, Mk I was a British cruiser tank of the interwar period. It was the first cruiser tank, a fast tank designed to bypass the main lines and engage the enemys lines of communication. The Cruiser Mk II was a heavily armoured adaptation of the Mark I. In 1934, Sir John Carden of Vickers-Armstrong was asked to provide a cheap tank as a replacement for some of the medium models then in use. The pilot model of his design was finished in 1936 and given the designation A9E1 and it incorporated the best features of the earlier Mk III Light Tank, and was powered by a commercial petrol engine. However, this was still in the time of the Great depression and it was the first British tank to have a centrally located turret and to have powered traverse. The system was by Nash & Thompson and similar to that introduced on the Vickers Wellington bomber aircraft. The armour was light, with a maximum of 14 mm thickness, many armour faces were vertical, and there were numerous shot traps, but it could achieve 25 mph and carried the new high velocity QF 2-pounder gun. The drivers compartment and the compartments were not separated. Both of these turrets were permanently manned, which gave the tank a total crew of 6. The A9E1 was tested against other designs and, although lacking in some areas, an order was placed for 125. Seventy-five were built by Harland and Wolff, and the other 50 were built by Vickers, originally, a Rolls-Royce car engine was used, but this proved underpowered and was replaced by an AEC bus engine. The later Valentine Infantry tank essentially used the lower hull and suspension. The A9 weighed 12 long tons, was 19 feet long,8.7 feet high,8.2 feet wide and had a top speed of 25 miles per hour on road and 15 miles per hour off and its maximum road range was 150 miles. The ammunition load was 100 2-pounder rounds and 3,000 rounds for the three Vickers machine guns, the Mark I cruiser began to be delivered in January 1939. The Cruiser was a tank in the French, Greek. The 2 pdr gun was lethal against the early Italian tanks encountered during the North African campaign, the A9s 2-pounder gun could also breach the 20 –30 mm of protective steel on later opponents, such as the Panzer IIID and the Panzer IVD variants. It was effective until the Germans introduced the more thickly armoured Panzer IVE variant to the desert in the Spring of 1941, however, its minimal armour made the A9 very vulnerable to most Axis anti-tank weapons
27.
Cruiser Mk II
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The Tank, Cruiser, Mk II, was a cruiser tank developed alongside the A9 cruiser tank, and was intended to be a heavier, infantry tank version of that type. In practice, it was not deemed suitable for the tank role and was classified as a heavy cruiser. The A10 was developed by Sir John Carden of Vickers in 1934 by the adaptation of his A9 design, the A10 specification called for armour of up to 1 inch standard, a speed of 10 mph ) was acceptable. The A10 was two tonnes heavier than the A9, but used the same 150 bhp engine, and as a consequence the tanks top speed was cut from 25 miles per hour to 16 miles per hour. The turret armament consisted of a QF 2-pounder gun and a coaxial.303 Vickers machine gun, for the production version, there was a 7.92 mm BESA machine gun mounted in the hull in a barbette to the right of the driver. This was added to give extra firepower, but at the expense of simplicity - the Vickers, the tank had a crew of five. There was no separation between the drivers compartment and the fighting compartments, the prototype was completed in 1936, a few months after the A9 prototype. Carden had died in an air crash in 1935 and development was slower than expected, in 1937, the A10 was dropped as an infantry support tank, but in 1938 it was decided to produce it as a heavy cruiser. The A10 was accepted for service - initially as Tank, Cruiser, Heavy Mk I and then Tank, Cruiser A10 Mk I and finally Tank, production was ordered in July 1938. Total production was 175 vehicles, including the 30 CS versions,45 were built by Birmingham Railway Carriage, in late 1939, another order was placed with Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, this time for a larger order of 75 vehicles. A number of Mark IIs were part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France in the stages of the Second World War. Classified as a cruiser,31 were sent to France with the 1st Armoured Division. The tank also served in the North African Campaign until late 1941, the coaxial Vickers machine guns were replaced with BESA machine guns. The CS version of the Mark II had a 3.7 inches howitzer in the turret instead of the 2-pdr, the standard ammunition load was 40 rounds smoke, and a few HE shells. This weapon was derived from a World War I field howitzer, the QF3. 7-inch mountain howitzer
28.
Matilda I (tank)
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The Tank, Infantry, Mk I, Matilda I was a British infantry tank of the Second World War. The development, of the design by Sir John Carden at Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, the General Staff specification required a cheap tank, requiring the use of commercially available components. It resulted in a small vehicle with a low hull. The turret was fitted with a heavy machine gun, either a.303 Vickers machine gun or a larger. The hull and turret were protected against contemporary anti-tank weapons but the tracks and running gear were exposed. The lack of a gun with anti-tank capability severely limited its utility on the battlefield, besides operating the machine gun, the commander had to direct the driver and operate the wireless. There being no room in the turret for the wireless, it was placed in the hull, the drivers position was equally cramped and the turret could not be traversed forwards while the drivers hatch was open. The top speed of 8 mph was thought to be sufficient for supporting an infantry advance, General Hugh Elles, the Master-General of the Ordnance, is credited with giving the tank the name Matilda due to the vehicles diminutive size and duck-like shape and gait. However the codename Matilda for the project was created for Vickers at the time of drawing up the specification in 1935, the Tank, Infantry, Mark I name was an Army Council decision of June 1940. The first order of sixty Matilda tanks was placed in April 1937, Matilda I tanks equipped the 4th Battalion and 7th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment. In September 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War and they were joined at the start of May 1940 by 7th RTR and formed the 1st Army Tank Brigade. Apart from light tanks assigned to the various British infantry divisions,58 Matilda Is and 16 Matilda IIs spearheaded the counter-attack in the Battle of Arras on 21 May, temporarily discomfiting the 7th Panzer Division under Rommel. On the following day, only 26 Matilda Is and two Matilda II tanks were still serviceable, on 23 May, tanks from 7 RTR fought a rearguard action at Souchez before joining the general withdrawal towards Dunkirk. The surviving tanks of both battalions were formed into a unit, which fought another counter-attack at La Bassée. Only two tanks reached Dunkirk in the stages of Operation Dynamo. On 8 June, the supported the force, which was mainly infantry, in their unsuccessful defence of the rivers Andelle. The division was evacuated from Cherbourg during Operation Ariel, although 22 tanks of various types were brought back during these evacuations. A Matilda I was selected by the German Army for evaluation, Matilda Is left in the United Kingdom were withdrawn for training purposes
29.
War Office
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The name War Office is also given to the former home of the department, the War Office building located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. During August 2013 it was announced that the former War Office building would be sold on the open market. The War Office developed from the Council of War, an ad hoc grouping of the King and his military commanders which managed the Kingdom of Englands frequent wars. It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy, and the Air Ministry, the department had several London homes until it settled at Horse Guards in Whitehall during 1722, where it was to remain until 1858. The first War Office Secretary at War is usually said to have been William Blathwayt and it was, however, a fairly minor government job which dealt with the minutiae of administration rather than grand strategy. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the Northern and Southern Departments, from 1704 to 1855, the job of Secretary was possessed by a minister of the second rank, although he was occasionally part of the Cabinet. Many of his responsibilities were transferred to the Secretary of State for War after the creation of more senior post during 1794. The job of Secretary at War was merged with that of the Secretary of State for War during 1855, during 1855 the Board of Ordnance was abolished as a result of its perceived poor performance during the Crimean War. This powerful independent body, dating from the 15th century, had directed by the Master-General of the Ordnance. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War resulted in the consolidation of all duties during 1855 as subordinate to the Secretary of State for War. He was not, however, solely responsible for the Army and this was reduced in theory by the reforms introduced by Edward Cardwell during 1870, which subordinated the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary for War. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind that of Britains rivals, the management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of H. H. Asquith attempted to resolve this during the First World War by appointing Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War, making him the first, however, this was thought unsatisfactory, during his tenure, the Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the Committee of Imperial Defence, the War Office decreased greatly in importance after the First World War, a fact illustrated by the drastic reductions of its staff numbers during the inter-war period. On 1 April 1920, it employed 7,434 civilian staff and its responsibilities and funding were also reduced. During 1936, the government of Stanley Baldwin appointed a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister during 1940, he bypassed the War Office altogether and appointed himself Minister of Defence. Clement Attlee continued this arrangement when he came to power during 1945, during 1964, the present form of the Ministry of Defence was established, unifying the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry. The records of the War Office are kept by The National Archives with the code WO and it contains about 1,000 rooms across seven floors, linked by 2½ miles of corridors
30.
Cruiser tank
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The cruiser tank was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed to function as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry. Cruiser tanks were developed after the Royal Armoured Corps were not satisfied with many of the tank designs of the 1930s. The cruiser tank concept was conceived by Giffard Le Quesne Martel, there were two main types of cruiser tanks, light cruiser tanks and heavy cruiser tanks. Light cruiser tanks were armoured and relatively fast, while heavy cruiser tanks were more heavily armoured. The Crusader was superseded by the A27 Cromwell reaching service in 1944, the A34 Comet - a better-armed development of Cromwell - entered service in lesser numbers in late 1944. The Centurion tank introduced in 1946 became the Universal tank of the United Kingdom, transcending the cruiser and infantry tank roles, financial constraints had made it impossible to produce a vehicle suitable for close support and for exploitation. The thinking was behind several tank designs which saw action during the Second World War, British armoured operations theory flowed from the decision to build two types of tank in parallel and use them to equip two types of unit and formation. Infantry tanks went to Army Tank Battalions, sometimes grouped administratively into Army Tank Brigades of the RTR, small, fast, lightly-armed tanks like the Light Tank Mk VI operated as reconnaissance vehicles. Armoured division theory emphasised using the speed of cruiser tanks for independent action to protect flanks, attacks on an opponents flanks and rear, pursuit and counter-attack. Giffard Le Quesne Martel originated the concept, while Assistant Director. Martel preferred a large number of smaller and simpler tanks to swamp an opponent, like naval cruisers, cruiser tanks were fast and mobile for operations independent from slower-moving infantry with their heavier infantry tanks and artillery. F. C. Fuller, Percy Hobart and B. H. Liddell-Hart, the cruiser tank was designed for use in a way similar to cavalry, which made speed the most important factor and to achieve this, early cruisers were lightly armoured and armed to save weight. The emphasis on speed unbalanced the British designs, on limited engine power, the idea that speed is armour was considered most important in the Royal Tank Corps. An even bigger problem for most cruiser tanks was the small calibre of their main gun, the first cruisers were armed with the 2-pounder gun. This gun had adequate armour penetration against early war tanks, but was never issued high explosive ammunition and this made the cruisers less able to deal with towed anti-tank guns. The Cromwell had too small a turret ring for the intended high-velocity gun and was fitted with the dual-purpose medium-velocity 75 mm gun, the tank had a high-power engine giving it a maximum speed around 40 mph on roads. It was the tank design in the British cruiser line. As the UK had large numbers of US M4 Sherman tanks, despite the emphasis on high mobility, most cruisers were plagued by mechanical unreliability, notably the Crusader tank in the hot and gritty desert of the North Africa Campaign
31.
Matilda II
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The Infantry Tank Mark II, best known as the Matilda, was a British infantry tank of the Second World War. The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a counterpart to the first British infantry tank. The Mark I was also known as Matilda, and the larger A12 was initially known as the Matilda II, the Mark I was abandoned in 1940, and from then on the A12 was almost always known simply as the Matilda. With its heavy armour, the Matilda II was an excellent infantry support tank but with limited speed. It was the only British tank to serve from the start of the war to its end and it was replaced in front-line service by the lighter and less costly Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine beginning in late 1941. H. In 1934 Hobart, the then Inspector, Royal Tank Corps, one was a very small, heavily armoured, machine gun-armed model that would be fielded in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy defences. The other was a vehicle with a cannon as well as machine guns. Vickers designed a tank to a General Staff specification based on the first option as the A11 Matilda, within the limitations of military finances, the Master-General of the Ordnance, Hugh Elles, went for the smaller machine gun tank and the larger cannon-armed version did not proceed. This requirement was passed to Vickers-Armstrongs which had a prototype but with armour proof against current anti-tanks guns ready by September 1936, the first suggestion for a larger Infantry Tank was made in 1936, with specification A12. The design was produced by the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, A12 used a number of design elements of the A7, a medium tank that was built in limited numbers in the early 1930s whose mechanical layout was used for many following designs. With its greatly increased armor, a lack of power was seen as a problem, the solution was to use two AEC straight-six water-cooled diesel engines, used in London buses, providing up to 87 hp each. These were linked along a common shaft, suspension was to use the Japanese Type bell crank suspension used on the A7. Vulcan received a contract for two wooden mock-ups and two prototypes in November 1936. The first mock-up was delivered in April 1937 and the A12E1 prototype in April 1938, the prototypes proved excellent in a 1,000 miles test, resulting in only a few changes to improve the gearbox, suspension and cooling. When war was recognised as imminent, production of the Matilda II was ordered, the first order was placed shortly after trials were completed, with 140 ordered from Vulcan in June 1938. The Matilda Senior weighed around 27 long tons, more than twice as much as its predecessor, the turret traversed by hydraulic motor or by hand through 360 degrees, the gun could be elevated through an arc from −15 to +20 degrees. One of the most serious weaknesses of the Matilda II was the lack of a round for its main gun. A high-explosive shell was designed for the 2 pounder but for reasons never explained, it was not issued, like many other British infantry tanks, it was heavily armoured
32.
Dunkirk evacuation
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The operation was decided upon when large numbers of Belgian, Canadian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France. In his We shall fight on the speech on 4 June. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Commonwealth, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to aid in the defence of France. After the Phoney War, Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, by 21 May, the German forces had trapped the BEF, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French armies in an area along the northern coast of France. On 22 May 1940, an order was issued by the German High Command. This gave the trapped Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops toward Dunkirk, to fight the Battle of Dunkirk. On the first day of the evacuation, only 7,669 men were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, the BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of their tanks, vehicles, and other equipment. In his speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, wars are not won by evacuations. By May 1940 the force consisted of ten divisions in three corps under the command of General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, working with the BEF were the Belgian Army and the French First, Seventh, and Ninth Armies. During the 1930s, the French had constructed the Maginot Line and this line had been designed to deter a German invasion across the Franco-German border and funnel an attack into Belgium, which could then be met by the best divisions of the French Army. Thus, any war would take place outside of French territory avoiding a repeat of the First World War. He believed that any enemy force emerging from the forest would be vulnerable to a pincer attack, the French commander-in-chief, Maurice Gamelin, also believed the area to be of a limited threat, noting that it never favoured large operations. With this in mind, the area was lightly defended. The initial plan for the German invasion of France called for an encirclement attack through the Netherlands and Belgium, avoiding the Maginot Line. Erich von Manstein, then Chief of Staff of the German Army Group A, prepared the outline of a different plan and submitted it to the OKH via his superior, Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt. Mansteins plan suggested that Panzer divisions should attack through the Ardennes, then establish bridgeheads on the Meuse River, the Germans would thus cut off the Allied armies in Belgium and Flanders. This part of the later became known as the Sichelschnitt. Adolf Hitler approved a version of Mansteins ideas, today known as the Manstein Plan
33.
Metro Cammell
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The Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company was an English manufacturer of railway carriages and wagons, based in Saltley and subsequently Washwood Heath in Birmingham. The vast majority of the current and past London Underground rolling stock in mid 20th century was made by the company and it also designed and built the Blue Pullman for British Railways. The company was formed in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway Carriage, joseph Wright built coaches for the London and Southampton Railway in 1837 and the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838. In 1845 he moved the works from London to Birmingham. Metropolitan were contracted as a builder of the new tanks for the British Army during the First World War and they built all 400 of the Mark V tank and 700 improved Mark V* tanks. These were the most developed heavy tank designs to see service in the war, in 1917, Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and Vickers Limited took joint control of British Westinghouse. In 1919 Vickers bought out the Metropolitan shares and renamed the company Metropolitan-Vickers, by 1926, they had changed their name again to Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company Ltd. In 1932, Metro Cammell Weymann was formed by the MCCWs bus bodybuilding business, in the Second World War, Metro built tanks again, including the Valentine tank and Light Tank Mk VIII. Saltley works was closed in 1962 and group administration concentrated at Washwood Heath in 1967, in May 1989, the railway business was sold to GEC Alsthom Group. The last trains to be built at the Washwood Heath plant before its closure in 2005 were the Class 390 Pendolino tilting trains for the West Coast Main Line modernisation, pritchard, Robert, Fox, Peter, Hall, Peter. British Railways Locomotives & Coaching Stock 2009, hemel Hempstead, London Underground Railway Society. MCW archives at the Historical Model Railway Society, at Butterley in Derbyshire Metro-Cammell website
34.
Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
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The company was established in 1854. BRC&W made not only carriages and wagons, but a range of vehicles, from aeroplanes and military gliders to buses, trolleybuses and tanks. Nevertheless, it is as a builder of railway rolling stock that the company is best remembered, exporting to most parts of the new, the company even built, in 1910, Argentinas presidential coach, which still survives, and once carried Eva Perón. Examples of all three types are preserved, the company built hospital trains during the Second Boer War. Handley Page bombers and Airco DH10s in World War I, during World War 2, the company had a major impact on tank production as one the many companies building the A10 Cruiser tank, Valentine tank, Churchill tank, Cromwell tank and Challenger tank). They led the design and production of the Cromwell tank in liaison with Rolls Royce, the company also built Hamilcar gliders in 1939-1945. Some of the locomotives and multiple units built by the company are listed below,14 Commonwealth Railways NSU class in 1954, Works number DEL1-145 similar locos for Sierra Leone Development Corporation in 1954, plus one more in 1962. In June 2014 the company reformed as an organisation to rebuild prototype locomotives from the 1960s that were lost to the scrap man. At the time of writing the company has identified an area of the old South Works site that will provide a location for their headquarters. Other sites are also being evaluated which could prove to be suited to the companys requirements. Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company - A Century of Achievement,1855 -1963, John Hypher, Colin Wheeler and Stephen Wheeler
35.
Wednesbury
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Wednesbury is a market town in Englands Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire, at the 2011 Census the town has a population of 37,817, the first authenticated spelling of the name was Wodensbyri, written in an endorsement on the back of the copy of the will of Wulfric Spot, dated 1004. Wednesbury is one of the few places in England to be named after a pre-Christian deity, Wednesbury is one of the oldest parts of the Black Country. The ending -bury comes from the old English word burgh meaning a hill or barrow, so Wednesbury may mean Wodens Hill or Wodens barrow. It could also mean Wodens fortification, although the description is often accepted. During the Anglo-Saxon period there are believed to have been two battles fought in Wednesbury, in 592 and 715, according to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there was a great slaughter in 592 and Ceawlin was driven out. Ceawlin was a king of Wessex and the second Bretwalda, or overlord of all Britain, the 715 battle was between Mercia and the kingdom of Wessex. Both sides allegedly claimed to have won the battle, although it is believed that the victory inclined to Wessex, Wednesbury was fortified by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great and known as the Lady of Mercia. She erected five fortifications to defend against the Danes at Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford and Warwick, Wednesburys fort would probably have been an extension of an older fortification and made of a stone foundation with a wooden stockade above. Earthwork ramparts and water filled ditches would probably have added to its strength, exploration of the gardens reveals several dressed stones, which appear to be those referred to on the plaque. In 1086, the Domesday Book describes Wednesbury as being a rural community encompassing Bloxwich. During the Middle Ages the town was a village, with each family farming a strip of land with nearby heath being used for grazing. The town was held by the king until the reign of Henry II, medieval Wednesbury was very small, and its inhabitants would appear to have been farmers and farm workers. In 1315, coal pits were first recorded, which led to an increase in the number of jobs, nail making was also in progress during these times. William Paget was born in Wednesbury in 1505, the son of a nail maker and he became Secretary of State, a Knight of the Garter and an Ambassador. He was one of executors of the will of Henry VIII, in the 17th century Wednesbury pottery – Wedgbury ware – was being sold as far away as Worcester, while white clay from Monway Field was used to make tobacco pipes. By the 18th century the main occupations were coal mining and nail making, with the introduction of the first turnpike road in 1727 and the development of canals and later the railways came a big increase in population. In 1769 the canal banks were soon full of factories as in this year, in 1743 the Wesleys and their new Methodist movement were severely tested
36.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
37.
CPR Angus Shops
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The CPR Angus Shops in Montreal were a railcar manufacturing, repairing and selling facility of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The most of its production consisted of cars, freight cars. Built in 1904, and named for founder, Richard B, Angus, the Angus Shops was decommissioned in 1992 and the underlying lands subsequently redeveloped for commercial, industrial and housing uses. The 1, 240-acre site had 66 buildings and employed over 12,000 people over the lifetime of the facility, during World War II, Angus Shops produced Valentine tanks, produced for the Russian Army under the Lend-Lease program. The first was completed on May 22,1941 and production continued into 1943, after the acquiring of this land by the city of Montreal, the major part of which was then submitted to the private promotership urban plan, the redevelopment began. Development consisted of several phases including demolition of the buildings, decontamination of the soil, the redevelopment occurred between 1993 and 2000 at a cost of nearly $500 million. Colin Church,1201 Goes to Angus
38.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
39.
Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the states as free. The symbol of free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, the other Commonwealth members have different heads of state,31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch. Member states have no obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their values of democracy, free speech, human rights. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2, 20% of the worlds land area, and spans all six inhabited continents. She declared, So, it marks the beginning of that free association of independent states which is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. As long ago as 1884, however, Lord Rosebery, while visiting Australia, had described the changing British Empire—as some of its colonies became more independent—as a Commonwealth of Nations. Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers occurred periodically from the first one in 1887, the Commonwealth developed from the imperial conferences. Newfoundland never did, as on 16 February 1934, with the consent of its parliament, Newfoundland later joined Canada as its 10th province in 1949. Australia and New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1942 and 1947 respectively, after World War II ended, the British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its components have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics, there remain the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April 1949, following the London Declaration, the word British was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature, burma and Aden are the only states that were British colonies at the time of the war not to have joined the Commonwealth upon independence. Hoped for success was reinforced by such achievements as climbing Mount Everest in 1953, breaking the four minute mile in 1954, however, the humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 badly hurt morale of Britain and the Commonwealth as a whole. More broadly, there was the loss of a role of the British Empire. That role was no longer militarily or financially feasible, as Britains withdrawal from Greece in 1947 painfully demonstrated, Britain itself was now just one part of the NATO military alliance in which the Commonwealth had no role apart from Canada
40.
Lend-Lease
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This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11,1941 and ended in September 1945, in general the aid was free, although some hardware were returned after the war. In return, the U. S. was given leases on army, Canada operated a similar smaller program under a different name. A total of $50.1 billion worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U. S. In all, $31.4 billion went to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies. Reverse Lend-Lease policies comprised services such as rent on air bases that went to the U. S. and totaled $7.8 billion, of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. The terms of the agreement provided that the materiel was to be used until returned or destroyed, in practice very little equipment was returned. Supplies that arrived after the date were sold to Britain at a large discount for £1.075 billion. Canada operated a program called Mutual Aid that sent a loan of $1 billion and $3.4 billion in supplies and services to Britain. This program effectively ended the United States pretense of neutrality and was a step away from non-interventionist policy. Following the Fall of France in June 1940, the British Commonwealth and Empire were the forces engaged in war against Germany and Italy. During this same period, the U. S. government began to mobilize for war, instituting the first-ever peacetime draft. In the meantime, as the British began running short of money, arms, as one Roosevelt biographer has characterized it, If there was no practical alternative, there was certainly no moral one either. Britain and the Commonwealth were carrying the battle for all civilization, as the President himself put it, There can be no reasoning with incendiary bombs. In September 1940, during the Battle of Britain the British government sent the Tizard Mission to the United States, in December 1940, President Roosevelt proclaimed the U. S. would be the Arsenal of Democracy and proposed selling munitions to Britain and Canada. Isolationists were strongly opposed, warning it would lead to American involvement in what was seen by most Americans as an essentially European conflict. In time, opinion shifted as increasing numbers of Americans began to see the advantage of funding the British war against Germany, while staying out of the hostilities themselves. After a decade of neutrality, Roosevelt knew that the change to Allied support must be gradual, originally, the American position was to help the British but not enter the war
41.
Detroit Diesel
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The company manufactures heavy-duty engines and chassis components for the on-highway and vocational commercial truck markets. Detroit Diesel has built more than 5 million engines since 1938, Detroit Diesel’s product line includes engines, axles, transmissions, and Virtual Technician. Detroit engines, transmissions, and axles are used in models of truck manufactured by Daimler Trucks North America. Detroit Diesel consists of two divisions, the off-highway division, which is owned by Tognum, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Engine Holding GmbH, a joint venture of Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Group plc. The on-highway division is owned by Daimler AG, april 1938, General Motors formed the GM Diesel Division, the origin of today’s Detroit Diesel Corporation. The first model was the Series 71 two-cycle engine, world War II, Tanks, landing craft, road building equipment and standby generators needed compact, lightweight, two-cycle engines. By 1943, GM Diesel employed 4,300 people, more than 1,400 of them women, together, these employees produced 57,892 engines in 1943. GM Diesel launches Series 110 engines used in equipment, rail cars. 1950s, Wide use of GM’s diesel engines in thousands of military applications aided their acceptance in commercial applications, the company developed heavy-duty engines for long-distance trucks. GM Diesel also began to develop a distribution network of independent, authorized distributors and dealers to provide parts. 1955, GM began selling diesel engines to other than GM. 1957, GM Diesel introduced the Series 53 engine, and put the Series 71 engine into use for both on-highway and off-road use. All engines within a Series were designed so that a vast majority of the parts were interchangeable,1965 and after, For the next 20 years, the Detroit Diesel Allison Division grew, tripling its sales during the 1960s alone. 1970, General Motors consolidated the company with the closely allied transmission and gas turbine businesses of the Allison Division,1974, The Series 92 engine was introduced, called the Fuel Squeezers, the 6V-92TT engine achieved fuel savings of 10 to 20% over previous models of comparable horsepower. During the energy crisis, turbine engines became uncompetitive,1980, Detroit Diesel-Allison produced its first four-cycle engine. A few years later in the early 1980s diesel engine production split off as Detroit Diesel Division while turbine engines remained as Allison Division,1987, The Series 60 — the four-cycle heavy-duty engine for which the company is well known — was introduced. It was the first production engine to have integrated electronic controls as a standard feature, the Series 60 was cleaner and more fuel-efficient than previous heavy-duty engines, and quickly became the biggest selling heavy-duty diesel engine in the North American Class 8 truck market. 1988 January 1, A joint venture between Penske Corporation and General Motors created Detroit Diesel Corporation, Penske had a 60% majority ownership in the new venture and the CEO was former racecar driver Roger Penske
42.
Wireless set No. 11
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The wireless set No.11 was a wireless radio transceiver used by the British Army during World War II. The No.11 set, a radio transceiver featuring a single tuning unit, was designed in 1938 to replace the 1933 No.1 wireless set, the Germans reportedly captured several sets in France and put them to use for their own communication needs. The set was manufactured in Australia by AWA with different valves. Power, Batteries or 6V or 12V mains supply RF output,0. 6W to 4. 5W Communication range, dimensions,8.5 by 19.5 by 12 inches Weight,43 pounds, complete low and high power stations weigh 180 pounds and 216 pounds. Control, Direct or remote, enabling operation at 400 m and a remote aerial at up to 10 m Frequency range,4.5 to 7.1 MHz BC-348 SCR-284 Wireless Set No.19 Vintage amateur radio
43.
Wireless Set No. 19
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The Wireless Set No.19 was a Second World War mobile radio transceiver designed for use by armoured troops of the British Army. Designed for use in tanks and armoured vehicles, the radio provided three communication channels, The A set provided longer range communications with command, the B set provided shorter range communication between tanks in the formation. The IC channel provided internal communication between crewmembers in the tank, a high power version of the 19 set was also developed, allowing longer range use of the A set, liaising with primary command. A series of boxes and junction boxes provided distribution within the vehicle. Operator and commander could select the different sets, the driver was provided with a button to attract the commanders attention onto the IC. All three channels were mixed onto the headphones, allowing crew to monitor battlefield developments, in normal use the three channels were mixed onto the IC for monitoring. The commander or operator could select the A or B sets to remove them from the IC, a warning lamp would light if both were on the B set, leaving the A set uncontrolled. The other crew members could use the IC. The drivers push button incorporated a buzzer, allowing the commanders attention to be back to the IC if a situation requiring his attention arose. Later control boxes allowed the commander or operator to rebroadcast A onto B or vice-versa for message relay, command and link/relay vehicles had provision to operate two A sets, one of which could be a high-power variant. Later in the war, the importance of co-operation with infantry added a Wireless Set No.38 alongside, initially the standard 38 set was used, but later the WS38 AFV was developed specifically to compliment the 19 set. The set was designed to allow HF communication between tanks, VHF inter-tank communications Crew intercom Single dial receive and transmit tuning Flick switch for rapid frequency change RF output, A setting 2. 5–9 watts. Range, A set 10 miles, B set 1,000 yards, the Wireless Set No.19 was developed in 1940 by the British War Offices Signals Experimental Establishment and by Pye Radio. The Pye model was replaced with the MK II model in 1941, the sets proved valuable for armoured fighting in the Western Desert. In 1942, the No.19 Mk II was produced in Canada by Northern Electric Co, Canadian Marconi Co. and RCA Victor. The British design was improved and interchangeability of components such as the valves, was instituted, a majority of Canadian sets used English/Cyrillic front panel lettering, the result of a Lend-Lease contract to the Soviet Red Army. This employed FM and replaced the No.19 in this role from 1954, 19s VHF B section was abandoned and removed when sets were overhauled. An additional RF amplifier for the No.19 increased the operational range up to about 45 miles
44.
Troop
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A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the section or platoon. Exceptions are the Royal Horse Artillery and the US Cavalry, where troops are subunits that compare to a company or artillery battery. A cavalry soldier of private rank is called a trooper in many Commonwealth armies, a related sense of the term troops refers to members of the military collectively, as in the troops, see Troop. In some countries, like Italy, the cavalry unit is called Squadron. Today, a troop is defined differently in different armed forces, SASR troops are also unusual as they are commanded by a captain—most troop/platoon sized elements are commanded by a lieutenant. In all cases, units which refer to platoon sized elements as troops refer to company-sized elements as squadrons, privates in the RAAC and SASR hold the rank trooper, however this is not the case for any other Corps/units which use the term troops. In the British Army the definition of a troop varies by corps, household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps, Three or four armoured fighting vehicles commanded by a subaltern, i. e. effectively the same level element as an infantry platoon. A unit of two to four guns or launchers, or an equivalent headquarters unit, in the Royal Horse Artillery, a troop used to be the equivalent to a battery in other artillery units. The Royal Engineers and Royal Corps of Signals used platoons instead until after World War II, other army corps do not use the term. In the Royal Marines, a troop is the equivalent to an army platoon, in the Canadian Army, a troop is the equivalent of a platoon within the armoured, artillery, engineer, and signals branches. Two to four troops comprise the elements of a squadron. Companies were renamed troops in 1883, in the United States, state police forces are often regionally divided into troops. This usage came about from these organizations modelling themselves on the US Army, for this same reason the state police and highway patrol personnel of most states are known as trooper rather than officer. In Scouting, a troop is a made up of scouts or guides from the same locality under a leader. In the case of Guides, the company is used more often
45.
Base Borden Military Museum
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Base Borden Military Museum is a military museum located on the grounds of CFB Borden, in Borden, Ontario, Canada. F. Worthington Memorial Park and around the base, the museum is located about 100 km north of Toronto, Ontario. The museum, which all the separate museums at the base, was established in the 1990s. In June 2007 a new building for the museum complex was opened. The museum complex consists of buildings and a memorial park
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