The Tornado Bomb
Zippermeyer Wirbelwind Kanone. Dr. Mario Zippermayr, an eccentric Austrian inventor working at an experimental establishment at Lofer in the Tyrol, designed and built a series of highly unorthodox anti-aircraft weapons that were observed very closely by the Reichsluftfahrtamt (Office of Aeronautics) in Berlin. Due to the overwhelming numerical air superiority of the Allies every effort was made during the last…
Bohemian-Hungarian War (1468-1478)
Pál Kinizsi (1432-1494) was a Hungarian general, legendary commoner commander in the army of king Matthias Corvinus. He was comes of Temes (comes Temesiensis) since 1484 and Captain General of the Lower Parts of the Kingdom of Hungary (generalis capitaneus inferiorum partium regni). He is famous for his participation with Stephen V Bathory, the Voivode of Transylvania in the victory…
Akkadian Military
Rear: Akkadian archer wielding a composite bow, from the time of Naram-Sin. Front: Babylonian foot-soldier from the time of Hammurabi.…
Pre-Roman North Africa I
Hannibal and his staff at the battle of Zama – art by Giuseppe Rava THE CARTHAGINIAN PERIOD North Africa (with…
HE WILL SOON LOSE THAT SMILE…
…whether sharing a joke with his comrade or just happy to have survived…so far… The war between Nazi…
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Five Forks
By 1 p.m. on the 1st of April 1865, Sheridan had deployed Federal cavalry under Wesley Merritt in front of George Pickett’s Confederates, who were entrenched at Five Forks. Sheridan planned to pin down Pickett with the cavalry while Warren’s V Corps assaulted the Angle on the Confederate left. It…
Befehls Panthers
Throughout the nine months of the Model D Panther production run in 1943, German firms made about ten per cent of them into command tanks, or Befehls Panthers. These vehicles mainly served as commander’s and adjutant’s vehicles at company, battalion and even regimental levels. The Command Panther was simply a…
VPAF Fresco
A VPAF MiG-17 dives. A series of fighter planes, named after the Soviet aircraft design team of Mikoyan and Gurevich. Both Soviet-made MiGs and Chinese copies are referred to as MiGs. The MiGs used by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) were typically armed with cannon (23-mm or 30-mm) and/or…
NEPTUNE’S INVASION FLEET
Bangor-Class Minesweeper (reciprocating engine): A wide minesweeper class-it formed a large part of the Neptune minesweeper strength of 287. Bangor-class ‘sweepers were built in three versions-diesel, turbine, and reciprocating engines. Displacement: 672 tons. Crew: 60. Speed: 16 knots. Armament: 1 x 3-in, 1 x 40-mm, 4 x .303-in mg RAF…
Soviet G5 Torpedo Boat
The extremely fast G5 torpedo boat was ultimately derived from a series of designs by a team under the leadership of the noted aircraft designer A.N. Tupolev. Nearly over 300 were built, with 73 being lost during the war, and dozens remained in commission after 1945. There were strong influences…
Winter Clothing German Army before Moscow 1941
One of the often-repeated misconceptions about this campaign goes that because the Germans planned and counted on the war in the east being a short one, they didn’t take steps soon enough to begin the manufacture of needed winter uniforms and gear. Yet anyone who’s spent a winter anywhere in…
Toward a Professional Army
“Escape of Charles the Bold” by Eugène Burnand (1894) The wars conducted by Charles the Bold were a disaster for the Burgundian Army On numerous occasions it was defeated by more mobile and aggressive Swiss forces, and at Nancy in 1477 Charles was killed trying to rally his forces…
Two Raids – July-August 1863
In an attempt to curb the activities of Confederate guerillas, Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing ordered that any women aiding and abetting the raiders should be detained in Kansas City. The building in which the women were held collapsed, killing five and injuring many others, and spurring-on Quantrill and his men…
Tank Brigades, Stalingrad 1942
133rd Tank Brigade’s had nearly 17 heavy KV tanks. At the start of the battle on September 13, 1942, the 62nd Army had some 105 tanks (78 T-34s, 17 KV-1s and ten T-70s) in Stalingrad: in the city south of the Tsaritsa were the 26th and 133rd Tank Brigades with…
Multi-barrel Miscellany
In 1786 the leading London gunmaker Henry Nock devised one of the most satisfactory of all flintlock breechloaders. A reloadable cartridge which forms part of the breech is pivoted on a slide. When the slide is drawn towards the butt, the cartridge hinges upwards to a vertical position for loading.…