The production MiG-9 in detail
The MiG-9 was a cantilever mid-wing monoplane of all-metal construction with a smooth stressed skin and a retractable tricycle undercarriage. To simplify the process of assembly the aircraft was divided into several production units. Fuselage: semi-monocoque stressed-skin structure. Duralumin was used as the main structural material. Technologically the fuselage was built in two sections – the forward fuselage (frames Nos.…
Before Stamford Bridge
Unnamed and unarmoured Norwegian warrior, wielding an axe, who according to the Anglo-Saxons sources killed 40 warriors on the Stamford bridge inn 1066. Modern British Viking reenactment group demonstrates a skjaldborg (shield-wall) Harald of Norway certainly had more than enough experience and the necessary temperament to undertake an invasion of England. He had a battle-hardened army and fleet at his…
Eboracum in AD 400
AD 400. The Legio Praesidiensis was in Eboracum , but the legionary fortress was straining to hold so many infantry…
A Tale of Two Hillforts
Old Sarum The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has Cerdic and Cynric doing nothing much in southern Hampshire until A.D. 534, and Cynric…
THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA, 16 JANUARY 1809
42nd Highlanders the Black Watch at the Battle of Corunna on 16th January 1809 in the Peninsular War: picture by…
Most Recent
American Revolutionary Naval History II
Combat de la Dominique, 17 Avril 1780, by Auguste Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736–1804) Planters demanded more soldiers and sailors to repel enemy invasion and suppress maroons. But the empire struggled to sustain a large force of Britons on islands where malaria and yellow fever killed so many newcomers.…
Israeli Armored Corps I
Centurion “Shot Kal” MBT- IDF Tank Corps Among the most respected armored corps in the world is that of the Israeli Defense Force and Israel is often perceived as one of the leaders in modern tank technology. It was not always so. In its initial combat engagement, on 16 October…
Israeli Armored Corps II
Lieutenant-Colonel David Eshel was a founding member of the Israeli Armored Corps and its Chief of Signals. On retirement, he became proprietor and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, Defence Update International. In his book, Chariots of the Desert, he comments on the 1967 conflict: “The Egyptian handling of their armored forces…
Baltic Auxiliary Units
Schuma graduates from Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia attend a trip/conference in Germany. Lithuanian schuma, police and TLR members. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were independent nations on the eve of World War II. These former provinces of Russia had been independent only since 1920. Unfortunately, the…
Italian Renaissance Cavalry
In the early years of the fifteenth century, Italian warfare was certainly affected by the absence of any large bodies of highly trained infantry. There was no lasting equivalent to the English archers or later the Swiss pike squares in Italian warfare. Thus there was no pressure on Italian cavalry…
Baltic Waffen-SS
Lithuanian SS Recruits In addition to the above units, there were also five Lithuanian battalions formed during 1943 which were attached to German pioneer units and under the control of Army Group North. The commanding officers of these units were all Lithuanians. Their tasks were road and railway construction and…
Second Battle of St Albans – 17 February 1461
Detail from Graham Turner‘s Battle of st Albans.Fought on the 22nd May 1455, this was the first battle of what would become known as the Wars of the Roses. Kingmaker, Earl of Warwick, still only thirty-three, had not waited for his young ally before leaving London. With the queen far…
Early Post-WWII US Carrier Aircraft I
Fighter Aircraft The straight-wing F2H Banshees and F9F Panthers that filled most carrier fighter squadrons at the end of the Korean War were replaced with the second generation of swept-wing fighters. Swept wings allowed jets to deal with the Mach effects of supersonic flight and the performance of carrier-based aircraft…
Early Post-WWII US Carrier Aircraft II
Attack Aircraft After World War II the Navy combined its separate torpedo and bomber squadrons into a new category of “attack” aircraft. Although it entered service too late to see combat in that war, the Douglas AD Skyraider, a propeller-driven “dump truck with wings,” served admirably in the Korean War…
THE JAPANESE AUXILIARY CARRIERS
Japanese aircraft carrier Kaiyō The strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy was centred on one policy; attack. The concept of escorting convoys waiting for attack was contrary to official philosophy, and even when, on one occasion, the First Fleet was asked to escort a convoy as it moved from one…