Wallonia is a region of Belgium. As the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is French-speaking, accounts for 55% of Belgium's territory, but only a third of its population; the Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium, the political entity responsible for matters related to culture and education, because the French Community of Belgium encompasses both Wallonia and the majority French-Speaking Brussels-Capital Region. The German-speaking minority in eastern Wallonia results from World War I and the subsequent annexation of three cantons that were part of the former German empire; this community represents less than 1% of the Belgian population. It forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues. During the industrial revolution, Wallonia was second only to the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal and iron; this brought the region wealth, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century, Wallonia was the more prosperous half of Belgium.

Since World War II, the importance of heavy industry has diminished, the Flemish Region surpassed Wallonia in wealth, as Wallonia declined economically. Wallonia now suffers from high unemployment and has a lower GDP per capita than Flanders; the economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of political conflicts in Belgium and a major factor in Flemish separatism. The capital of Wallonia is Namur, the most populous city is Liège. Most of Wallonia's major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north lies the Central Belgian Plateau, like Flanders, is flat and agriculturally fertile. In the southeast lie the Ardennes and sparsely populated. Wallonia borders Flanders and the Netherlands in the north, France to the south and west, Germany and Luxembourg to the east. Wallonia has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1980; the term "Wallonia" can mean different things in different contexts.

One of the three federal regions of Belgium is still constitutionally defined as the Walloon Region, but the region's government has renamed it Wallonia, it is called Wallonia. Preceding 1 April 2010, when the renaming came into effect, Wallonia would sometimes refer to the territory governed by the Walloon Region, whereas Walloon Region referred to the government. In practice, the difference between the two terms is small and what is meant is clear, based on context; the root of the word Wallonia, like the words Wales and Wallachia, is the Germanic word Walha, meaning the strangers. Wallonia is named after the Walloons, the population of the Burgundian Netherlands speaking Romance languages. In Middle Dutch, the term Walloons included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic sprachraum within the medieval Low Countries. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 57 BC; the Low Countries became part of the larger Gallia Belgica province which stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and the southern part of the Netherlands.

The population of this territory was Celtic with a Germanic influence, stronger in the north than in the south of the province. Gallia Belgica became progressively romanized; the ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours. The "Walha" started to speak Vulgar Latin; the Merovingian Franks gained control of the region during the 5th century, under Clovis. Due to the fragmentation of the former Roman Empire, Vulgar Latin regionally developed along different lines and evolved into several langue d'oïl dialects, which in Wallonia became Picard and Lorrain; the oldest surviving text written in a langue d'oïl, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, has characteristics of these three languages and was written in or near to what is now Wallonia around 880 AD. From the 4th to the 7th century, the Franks established several settlements mostly in the north of the province where the romanization was less advanced and some Germanic trace was still present.

The language border began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingians and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance. French-speaking cities, with Liège as the largest one, appeared along the Meuse river and Gallo-Roman cities such as Tongeren and Aachen became Germanized; the Carolingian dynasty dethroned the Merovingians in the 8th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun gave the territory of present-day Wallonia to Middle Francia, which would shortly fragment, with the region passing to Lotharingia. On Lotharingia's breakup in 959, the present-day territory of Belgium became part of Lower Lotharingia, which fragmented into rival principalities and duchies by 1190. Literary Latin, taught in schools, lost its hegemony during the 13th century and was replaced by Old French. In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy took over the Low Countries; the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 raised the issue of succession, the Liégeois took advantage of this

The BMW N73 is a aspirated V12 petrol engine which replaced the BMW M73 and was produced from 2003–2016. It was used in Rolls-Royce Phantom; the N73 was the world's first production V12 engine to use gasoline direct port injection. Compared with its M73 predecessor, the N73 has dual overhead camshafts, double-VANOS and valvetronic; the variable valve timing is a continuously variable design and is present on both the intake and exhaust camshafts. The VANOS units were designed as integral components of the chain drive, the adjustment ranges are 63 degrees for the intake camshaft and 60 degrees for the exhaust camshaft; the redline for the N73 is 6,500 rpm. The N73 engine has variable valve lift, which varied intake valve opening lift from 0.30–9.85 mm, according to engine speed and load. Each cylinder head has a valvetronic assembly – including a motor, control module and position sensor; the N73 was superseded by a twin-turbocharged V12 engine. The 5,972 cc version has a stroke of 80 mm. Application: 2003-2008 E65/E66 760i/760Li The 6,749 cc version has a bore of 92 mm and a stroke of 84.6 mm. Application: 2003-2016 Rolls-Royce Phantom List of BMW engines

The 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze M. 15 was a heavy howitzer used by Austria-Hungary in World War I. Austrian and Czech guns were taken into Wehrmacht service after the Anschluss and the occupation of Czechoslovakia as the 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 15 or; the M. 15 was adapted from a fortress turret howitzer called the 15 cm Turmhaubitze M15 designed to throw the same ammunition as the schwere Feldhaubitze M.14 some 3.5 kilometres further. It didn't breakdown for transport, but could be disassembled into four loads for transport in mountainous areas; the first five weapons were delivered in the first half of 1916. A total of 57 barrels and 56 carriages were completed by the end of the war; the Finns purchased twenty weapons after the end of the Winter War. They arrived on the SS Widor on 9 October 1940, they were issued to Heavy Artillery Battalions 21, 22 and 28. They were unpopular with the field artillery as they were thought to be too heavy and were withdrawn from field duty during the Continuation War.

Some went to equip the Maaselkä Fortification Artillery Battalions. Gander and Chamberlain, Peter. Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945. New York: Doubleday, 1979 ISBN 0-385-15090-3 Ortner, M. Christian; the Austro-Hungarian Artillery From 1867 to 1918: Technology and Tactics. Vienna, Verlag Militaria, 2007 ISBN 978-3-902526-13-7 Finnish howitzers on jaegerplatoon