Weapons of War Through History

[ducttapetech]

No objection jerseydevil. Facts are facts. Maybe it's how different it looks.

All good.  Sorry if that response came off a bit strong, not my intention. 

Not strictly speaking a weapon of war, but I think it has its place on multi tool forum. The apache revolver, probably useless but mos ingenious combination weapon combining brass knuckles, dagger and pepperbox revolver:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_revolver

  

  I've read that the only way you could guarantee hitting your target with a shot from one of those was to stick the dagger all the way in and then pull the trigger......

Whole new meaning to "don't shoot til you see the whites of there eyes".

that's us mobile, eh.

[Wilfried]

Katyusha rocket launcher



Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II.

Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver a devastating amount of explosives to a target area more quickly than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are inexpensive and easy to produce. Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on trucks.

Katyusha rocket launchers were mounted on many platforms during World War II, including on trucks, artillery tractors, tanks, and armoured trains, as well as on naval and riverine vessels as assault support weapons, Soviet engineers also mounted single Katyusha rockets on lengths of railway track to serve in urban combat.

The design was relatively simple, consisting of racks of parallel rails on which rockets were mounted, with a folding frame to raise the rails to launch position. Each truck had between 14 and 48 launchers. The M-13 rocket of the BM-13 system was 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) long, 13.2 cm (5.2 in) in diameter and weighed 42 kg (93 lb).

The weapon is less accurate than conventional artillery guns, but is extremely effective in saturation bombardment, and was particularly feared by German soldiers. A battery of four BM-13 launchers could fire a salvo in 7–10 seconds that delivered 4.35 tons of high explosives over a 400,000-square-metre (4,300,000 sq ft) impact zone, making its power roughly equivalent to that of 72 guns. With an efficient crew, the launchers could redeploy to a new location immediately after firing, denying the enemy the opportunity for counterbattery fire.

Katyusha batteries were often massed in very large numbers to create a shock effect on enemy forces. The weapon's disadvantage was the long time it took to reload a launcher, in contrast to conventional guns which could sustain a continuous low rate of fire.

The distinctive howling sound of the rocket launching terrified the German troops and could be used for psychological warfare. The rocket's devastating destruction also helped to lower the morale of the German army.


BM-31-12 on ZIS-12 chassis at the Museum on Sapun Mountain Sevastopol




A battery of Katyusha in action



Sometimes I've wondered how anyone on the receiving end could have survived THIS:

[Wilfried]

Dreadnoughts



The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century.

The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's Dreadnought, made such a strong impression on people's minds when it was launched in 1906 that similar battleships built subsequently were referred to generically as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts. The Dreadnought's design had two revolutionary features: an "all-big-gun" armament scheme, with an unprecedented number of heavy-calibre guns, and steam turbine propulsion.

As dreadnoughts became a crucial symbol of national power, the arrival of these new warships renewed the naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany.

While dreadnought-building consumed vast resources in the early 20th century, there was only one battle between large dreadnought fleets. At the Battle of Jutland, the British and German navies clashed with no decisive result.


I'm confident that jerseydevil will have to say a thing or two (much more I suspact) on this subject.



Some photographs of the HMS Dreadnought ca. 1906-1907








The only remaining dreadnought still afloat, the USS Texas, now a museum ship




VIDEO: Jutland: Clash of the Dreadnoughts

I still have to watch it myself...

[Wilfried]

P-51 Mustang



The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and other conflicts.

From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944.

The P-51 was also in service with Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theaters, and saw limited service against the Japanese in the Pacific War.

At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang was the main fighter of the United Nations until jet fighters such as the F-86 took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber.

Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s.





Decisive Weapons: P-51 Mustang

[bmot]

P-51 Mustang



The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and other conflicts.

From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944.

The P-51 was also in service with Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theaters, and saw limited service against the Japanese in the Pacific War.

At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang was the main fighter of the United Nations until jet fighters such as the F-86 took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber.

Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s.


(Image removed from quote.)


Decisive Weapons: P-51 Mustang

Still one of the best looking plane's ever, IMHO

[kirk13]

Some more info on the P-51


The P-51 was originally designed to an RAF specification,at the instigation of the British Purchasing committee in 1940.

It was designed around the Allison V-1710,and was one of the first combat aircraft to feature laminar flow wings.

The A-36 Apache was,in essence, a P-51A fitted with dive brakes. Early cannon armed models of the A-36 and P-51 were used to great effect by the RAF as strike aircraft. There were dedicated photo-recon versions of both V-1710, and V-1650 Mustangs,the V-1650 being the Packard licence built Merlin's.

In the late 50s and early 60s,Cavalier Aircraft re-manufactured a number of P-51s as high speed executive transports,before adapting the Mustang as a COIN aircraft,the ultimate development was powered by a turboprop,featured wingtip fuel tanks and up to 8 underwing hard points 

[jerseydevil]

Ah, the Mustang.....   Best fighter of the war?  Quite possibly.  But it's interesting to note that the highest-scoring US pilots of all time never flew a single combat mission in a P-51.    Richard Bong scored all 40 of his kills in the P-38, as did Jersey boy Tommy McGuire and his 38 kills.  David McCampbell shot down 34 Japanese aircraft with the F6F Hellcat.  Joe Foss got 26 in the Wildcat, and Gabby Gabreski (mentioned in my F-86 post) was credited with 34 1/2 Germans while flying the P-47.  Also, during Korea, many pilots pushed for the use of the P-47 over the P-51 for ground attack missions.  Why?  The P-51 would basically bleed to death in minutes if hit in the radiator under the fuselage!  The P-47 didn't have that issue.......

[jerseydevil]

Now, about HMS Dreadnought......  Jacky Fisher was a brilliant, innovative, and at times unorthodox officer.  The Dreadnought was a coup for the Royal Navy, putting them ahead of every other navy in the world in 1906.  But her main virtue was being finished first.  The Japanese had actually launched the Satsuma class battleships, planning originally to fit them with an all-big gun armament.  However, money was tight (the Russo-Japanese War had nearly bankrupt Japan), and they were finished with four 12-inch and twelve 10-inch guns.  The US Navy was building the South Carolina class, armed with eight 12-inch guns, but were slow in building.  Neither of these two classes owed anything to the Dreadnought.  The South Carolina's actually had the same eight gun broadside as Dreadnought while using one fewer turret.  Fisher didn't trust superfiring turret mounts, hence Dreadnought's wing turrets.  The biggest innovation in the British design was actually her turbines.  Dreadnought was the fastest battleship in the world in 1906.  Fisher was able to throw all the weight of British naval shipbuilding into his pet project, stopping construction on the Lord Nelson-class predreadnoughts until Dreadnought was complete.  Eight of Dreadnought's main guns came from the Lord Nelsons.  HMS Dreadnought never fired her guns in action, but has one combat distinction - she is the only battleship ever to sink an enemy submarine, ramming U-29 on March 18, 1915. 

Two excellent books about the Anglo-German naval race that eventually helped bring about World War I, and the naval war of 1914-18 are Dreadnought and Castles of Steel, both by Robert Massie.

[RT1969]

Concerning Atomic Annie:
Does anyone know if the grenades used an impact fuse or a time-delayed fuse?


This reminds me of the atomic mines, proposed to detonate strategic bridges in Germany in case of wwiii. A sure suicide mission for those sappers.

[jerseydevil]

Concerning Atomic Annie:
Does anyone know if the grenades used an impact fuse or a time-delayed fuse?


This reminds me of the atomic mines, proposed to detonate strategic bridges in Germany in case of wwiii. A sure suicide mission for those sappers.

Mechanical time delay. http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html  Check out the W-9, that was the shell.  The original design work was done just up the road from me at Picatinny Arsenal. 

[Wilfried]

Paris Gun (Paris-Geschütz)



The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz) was a German long-range siege gun used to bombard Paris during World War I. It was in service from March to August 1918. When it was first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a high-altitude Zeppelin, as neither the sound of an airplane nor a gun could be heard. It was the largest piece of artillery used during the war by barrel length if not caliber, and is considered to be a supergun.

The Paris Gun holds a significant place in the history of astronautics, as its shells were the first man-made objects to reach the stratosphere.

As a military weapon, the Paris Gun was not a great success: the payload was minuscule, the barrel required frequent replacement and its accuracy was only good enough for city-sized targets. The German objective was to build a psychological weapon to attack the morale of the Parisians, not to destroy the city itself.

With the discovery -in the 1980s- and publication  of a long note on the gun written shortly before his death in 1926 by Dr. Fritz Rausenberger, who was in charge of its development at Krupp, the details of its design and capabilities were considerably clarified.

The gun was capable of firing a 106-kilogram (230 lb) shell to a range of 130 kilometers (81 miles) and a maximum altitude of 42.3 kilometers (26.3 miles) — the greatest height reached by a human-made projectile until the first successful V-2 flight test in October 1942. At the start of its 182-second trajectory, each shell from the Paris Gun reached a speed of 1,640 meters per second (5,400 ft/s).

Since it was based on a naval weapon, the gun was manned by a crew of 80 Imperial Navy sailors under the command of Vice-Admiral Rogge, chief of the Ordnance branch of the Admiralty. It was surrounded by several batteries of standard army artillery to create a "noise-screen" chorus around the big gun so that it could not be located by French and British spotters.

[Wilfried]

German submarine U-480


U-480 was an experimental Kriegsmarine Type VIIC U-boat of World War II, considered by many to be the first stealth submarine,it was equipped with a special rubber coating (codenamed "Alberich", probably after the German mythological character who had the ability to become invisible), that made it difficult to detect with British ASDIC (sonar).

The U-boat was laid down in the Deutsche Werke in Kiel as 'werk' 311 on 8 August 1942, launched on 14 August 1943 and commissioned on 6 October 1943 under Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Joachim Förster.

U-480 carried out three war patrols, all under Förster's command. Because of its coating, the boat was sent to the heavily-defended English Channel. The Alberich worked: U-480 was never detected by sonar.

The technology of anechoic tiles was developed by the Kriegsmarine in the Second World War, codenamed Alberich after the invisible dwarf from Germanic Mythology. The coating was made up of sheets approximately 1 m (3 ft 3 in) square and 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, with rows of holes in two sizes, 4 mm (0.16 in) and 2 mm (0.079 in) in diameter. It was manufactured by IG Farben from a material known under its trade name of "Oppanol". The material was not homogeneous but contained air cavities; it was these cavities that degraded the reflection of ASDIC.

After the war the technology was not utilized again until the 1970s when the Soviet Union began coating its submarines in rubber tiles. These were initially prone to falling off, but as the technology matured it was apparent that the tiles were having a dramatic effect in reducing the submarines' acoustic signatures. Modern Russian tiles are about 100 mm thick, and apparently reduced the acoustic signature of Akula-class submarines.

I couldn't find any reliable photographs of the U-480.


Another U-boat which was also coated with Alberich was "The Black Panther" - U-1105

[Gareth]

[Wilfried]

Little Willie - The World's First Tank


The Tank Museum's historian David Fletcher discusses Little Willie, the world's first tank. Little Willie is on display at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.

[jerseydevil]

What do you get when a Webley Mk VI and a Colt automatic have a fling and breed?  A Webley-Fosbery!




This vid was from a very neat website - http://www.forgottenweapons.com/

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Great stuff guys please keep them coming

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Gareth]

What do you get when a Webley Mk VI and a Colt automatic have a fling and breed?  A Webley-Fosbery!




This vid was from a very neat website - http://www.forgottenweapons.com/

I've always loved the look of the Webley-Fosbery.   IIRC it also came in a 8 shot version using a .38 cartridge.  There is just something a touch 'Steampunk' about the design; complicated yet functional.

[Wilfried]

The Korean Turtle Ships



The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon , was a type of large Korean warship that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon Dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century.

Turtle ships participated in the war against Japanese naval forces that supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempts to conquer Korea from 1592-1598.

Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin is credited with designing the ship. His turtle ships were equipped with at least five different types of cannons. Their most distinguishable feature was a dragon-shaped head at the bow that could launch cannon fire or flames from the mouth. Each was also equipped with a fully covered deck to deflect arrow fire, musket-shots, and incendiary weapons.The deck was covered with iron spikes to discourage enemy men from attempting to board the ship.

There are sources that state that the turtle ship was covered with metal plates, making it a form of ironclad, and thus the first known ship of this kind in history. The claim is questioned by some historians. While it is clear from the available sources that the roof of the ship was covered with iron spikes to prevent boarding, some historians believe there is insufficient evidence to support the claim that it was iron plated.



A Turtle Ship replica at the War Memorial of Korea museum

[Whoey]

Little Willie - The World's First Tank


The Tank Museum's historian David Fletcher discusses Little Willie, the world's first tank. Little Willie is on display at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.

Some years ago I visited the French tank museum :

http://www.museedesblindes.fr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Blind%C3%A9s

Here's a gallery of my photos from my visit... I have posted it here before... but it's still a rather impressive spot... and the fact that so many of the tanks are actually in working order!
https://plus.google.com/photos/103187361905066166444/albums/5209554653906851985?authkey=CM_R_NXpiPWurQE

[Chako]

HMS Victory



HMS Victory is an 18th century first-rate warship. it has four masts, 104 guns and took six years to build at a final cost of £ 63,176,  a present day cost of around £50 million pounds. The main function of the first-rates warship like HMS Victory was a floating gun platform to deliver shattering 'broadsides' from their powerful batteries of guns arranged in tiers on three decks.

The term 'first-rates' warship came from the battle strategy of the British Royal Navy and the old square riggers. In battle the ships would line up astern of each other and sail in a line past the enemy, when the ship was abeam of their opponent they would then aim and fire their guns. The guns use in this period could not be turned and aimed at their targets like modern turret guns, so sailing in a line meant they had to bear a long onslaught for an extended period.

On the 13 December 1758, the same year of Lord Nelson's birth the Board of Admiralty in London gave orders that twelve new line of battle ships were to be built, among them a 'first-rate' with 100 guns. In 1759 it was decided that this ship would be called Victory. She was designed by Thomas Slade, the Senior Surveyor of the Royal Navy and was laid down in Chatham Dockyard in Southern England.

According to reports at the time it was a "bright and sunny day" when the elm keel was laid down in the old single dock at Chatham dockyard in Kent on 23 July 1759. Forty-seven years later on the 21 October 1805, HMS Victory was the flagship of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Important dates for HMS Victory

1759 Keel laid  --  1765 Launched  -- 1778 First commissioned  -- 1781 Battle of  Ushant -- 1782 Relief of Gibraltar  -- 1783  End of the American Revolution  -- 1793 First refit along with an increase of armament  -- 1794 French Revolution  -- 1795 Refits at Portsmouth and Chatham  --1797  Battle of St. Cape Vincent  --  1798 Battle of the Nile  --  1801 Battle of Copenhagen  -- 1804  The 4th refit at Chatham  was completed -- 1805  Lord Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar  -- 1806 Extensive repairs at Portsmouth  -  1808 Re-commissioned, two Baltic campaigns  - 1817 Put into reserve  -- 1824 Flagship for the Port Admiral  -- 1889  First made the Flagship for Commander-in-Chief   -- 1903  Accidentally rammed while under tow -- 1922  Placed into No 2 dry dock for restoration which continues today.


https://www.stvincent.ac.uk/Heritage/1797/Victory/index2.html

http://www.hms-victory.com/things-see

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2335458/HMS-Victory-youve-seen-The-amazing-3D-map-Nelsons-battleship-created-lasers-bid-help-restore-it.html



And a photo of a special Classic that I got off of Dunc which features wood reclaimed from the 1922 salvage operation. I also bought a piece of the original hull with copper plating (paper weight), and a bookmark with some of the same wood.

[Wilfried]

@Chako

She's a real beauty, isn't she?       

Back in the 60s my father assembled a 1/225  Revell scale model of the Victory.       

[Chako]

That she is. 

[ducttapetech]

What do you get when a Webley Mk VI and a Colt automatic have a fling and breed?  A Webley-Fosbery!




This vid was from a very neat website - http://www.forgottenweapons.com/

I've always loved the look of the Webley-Fosbery.   IIRC it also came in a 8 shot version using a .38 cartridge.  There is just something a touch 'Steampunk' about the design; complicated yet functional.

I always wanted one of those. Very cool firearm.

that's us mobile

[Wilfried]

Renault FT



The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the "FT-17" or "FT17", was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history.

The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret.

The Renault FT's configuration – crew compartment at the front, engine compartment at the back, and main armament in a revolving turret – became and remains the standard tank layout.

Over 3,000 Renault FT tanks were manufactured by French industry, most of them during the year 1918. Another 950 of an almost identical licensed copy of the FT (the M1917 or "Six Ton Tank") were made in the USA, but not in time to enter combat. Armour historian Steven Zaloga has called the Renault FT “the world's first modern tank”.

The Renault FT was widely used by French forces in 1918 and by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France in the later stages of World War I.

George S. Patton was the commanding officer and organizer of the first US Light Tank Brigade, entirely made up of Renault FT tanks.


FT with Girod turret at Royal Museum of the Armed Forces, Belgium.




Char Renault FT17 at the Invalides




US Army operating FTs on the Western Front, 1918

[Wilfried]

Weapons of the Middle Ages: Armour


Plate armour is a historical type of personal armour made from iron or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. While there are early predecessors such as the Roman-era lorica segmentata, full plate armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates worn over mail suits during the 13th century.

In Europe plate armour reached its peak in the late 15th and 16th centuries, and the full suit of armour, commonly perceived as "medieval", was actually only a feature of the very end of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance period.

[Chako]

10 weirdest weapons.

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-weirdest-weapons.php

[Gareth]

10 weirdest weapons.

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-weirdest-weapons.php

I've seen a few of those myself.   I take issue with their description of the "sword breaker", though it's a myth I've heard many times associated with that knife so I'll forgive them.  For one; it's not a 'medieval' knife, it's a little later than that.  More importantly is that there is just no way it was ever going to break a sword.  Firstly swords just weren't that brittle, even the later rapiers, small swords and court swords would take a heck of a lot more than a flick of the wrist to snap.  Also just look at the way the teeth are made.  Which is going to break first, a sword or the tooth on that blade?

The good news for that style of knife is that you didn't really have to break the other chaps sword, all you needed to do was bind it up for a few heartbeats while you ran him through with your sword.

PS I should point out that the one pictured is a reproduction and the original version that I have seen had even more delicate looking teeth and IIRC one of them was bent.

[Chako]

The only thing I have seen first hand was a puckle gun which was at Fort Henry in Kingston Ontario. As for that sword breaker, I agree. Still a fun list.

[jerseydevil]

10 weirdest weapons.

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-weirdest-weapons.php

Project Habakkuk is pretty neat.  The scary part is they were ready to begin construction of it at one point..... 

One of the US Navy's airship "aircraft carriers" broke up in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey, the USS Akron.  This state didn't exactly have the best of luck in regards to rigid airships...... 

[Wilfried]

Mitrailleuse



A mitrailleuse (from French mitraille, "grapeshot") is a type of volley gun with multiple barrels of rifle caliber that can fire either multiple rounds at once, or several in rapid succession.

The earliest true mitrailleuse was invented in 1851 by Belgian Army Captain Fafschamps, 10 years before the advent of the Gatling gun. It was followed by the Belgian Montigny mitrailleuse in 1863. Then the French 25 barrel "Canon à Balles", better known as the Reffye mitrailleuse, was adopted in great secrecy in 1866. It became the first rapid-firing weapon deployed as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict. This happened during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.

A steel block containing twenty-five 13 mm (.51 caliber) center-fire cartridges was locked against the breech before firing. With the rotation of a crank, the 25 rounds were discharged in rapid succession. The sustainable firing rate of the Reffye mitrailleuse was 100 rounds per minute. The effective reach of the Reffye mitrailleuse extended to about 2000 yards, a distance placing their batteries beyond the reach of Dreyse needle rifle fire. Reffye mitrailleuses were deployed in six gun batteries and were manned by artillery personnel. They were not infantry support weapons but rather a form of special artillery.

Although innovative and capable of good ballistic performance, the Reffye mitrailleuse failed as a tactical weapon because its basic concept and operational usage were flawed. Furthermore only 210 Reffye mitrailleuses were in existence at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Their field use was discontinued by the French Army after 1871.

In contrast, the Gatling gun became widely successful and even survives in powered form to this day. The word mitrailleuse nonetheless became the generic term for a machine gun in the French language, although the mitrailleuse itself was manually operated.



The 37-barrels Montigny mitrailleuse, completed in 1863, was derived from the invention of Fafschamps




Reffye mitrailleuse Le Général Hanicque ("Canon à balles modèle 1866"), manufactured in 1867, on display in Les Invalides.




Montigny 1863




Reffye 1867