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Polsten
The Polsten was a Polish development of the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, 20 mm Oerlikon gun. The Polsten was designed to be simpler and much cheaper to build than the Oerlikon, without reducing effectiveness. Development When Nazi Germany Invasion of Poland, invaded Poland in 1939, the Polish design team evacuated to the UK and resumed work together with British designers. The need for the Polsten was apparently mooted in June 1941. It went into service in March 1944 alongside the Oerlikon. Both the Oerlikon and the Polsten used similar 60 round drum Magazine (firearms), magazines, although the Polsten could also use a simpler box magazine with 30 rounds. It remained in service into the 1950s. Use Compared to the Oerlikon's 250 parts, the Polsten had only 119, but it matched the Oerlikon's effectiveness and reliability. The simpler design of the Polsten cannon made its production much cheaper. The cost of one Oerlikon cannon was about Pound sterling, £350, while the cost of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centurion Tank
The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat into the 1980s. The chassis was adapted for several other roles, and these variants have remained in service. It was a very popular tank with good armour, maneuverability, mobility, and a powerful main armament. Development of the Centurion began in 1943 with manufacture beginning in January 1945. Six prototypes arrived in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945. It entered combat with the British Army in the Korean War in 1950 in support of the UN forces. The Centurion later served on the Indian side in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, where it fought against US-supplied M47 Patton, M47 and M48 Patton tanks, and it served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in the Vietnam War. Israel's army used Centurio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skink Anti-aircraft Tank
Tank AA, 20 mm Quad, Skink was a Canadian self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, developed in 1943–44, in response to a requirement from the First Canadian Army. Due to a lack of threat from the German , the Skink was cancelled in 1944 after only three were built from Grizzly I cruisers. Development The development of a fully enclosed quadruple 20 mm mounting on the chassis of the Grizzly tank (M4A1 Sherman tanks built in Canada from August 1943) was approved by the Canadian Army Technical Development Board as Project 47 in March, 1943. In keeping with the tradition of giving Canadian armoured fighting vehicles animal names, the proposed tank was named after the skink, Ontario's only lizard. The Canadian Ministry of Munitions and Supply had the turret designed in-house by its Army Engineering Design Branch (AEDB) with help from the Inspection Board. The Waterloo Manufacturing Co. in Waterloo, Ontario, was given the task of building a preliminary wooden mock-up. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cromwell Tank
The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War–era military leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine high speed from a powerful, reliable engine (the Rolls-Royce Meteor) and reasonable vehicle armour, armour. The intended dual-purpose high-velocity gun could not be fitted in the turret, so a medium-velocity dual-purpose gun was fitted instead. Further development of the Cromwell combined with a high-velocity gun led to the Comet tank. The name "Cromwell" was initially applied to three vehicles during development. Early Cromwell development led to the creation of the A24 Cavalier. Later Cromwell development led to the creation of the competing Centaur tank (officially the ''Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Centaur (A27L)''). This was closely related to the Cromwell, both vehicles being exter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landing Vehicle Tracked
The Amphibious Vehicle, Tracked (LVT or AMTRAC) is an amphibious warfare vehicle and Amphibious vehicle, amphibious landing craft, introduced by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. (The USN and USMC use ''L'' to designate amphibious vessels, also called ''L class''.) The United States Army, Canadian Army, and British Army used several LVT models during World War II, and referred to those vehicles as ''Landing Vehicle, Tracked.'' Originally intended solely as cargo carriers for ship to shore operations, they evolved into assault troop and fire support vehicles. The types were known as ''amphtrack'', ''amtrak'', ''amtrac'', etc. (portmanteaus of ''amphibious tractor''), ''alligator'' and ''gator''. Development The Alligator The LVT had its origins in a civilian rescue vehicle called the ''Alligator''. Developed by Donald Roebling in 1935, the Alligator was intended to operate in swampy areas, inaccessible to both traditional cars and boats. Two years late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oerlikon 20 Mm Cannon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II. Many versions of the cannon are still used. Blowback-operated models History Origins During World War I, the German industrialist Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon, known now as the 20 mm Becker using the advanced primer ignition blowback (API blowback) method of operation. This used a 20×70mmRB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a limited scale as an aircraft gun on ''Luftstreitkräfte'' warplanes, and an anti-aircraft gun towards the end of that war. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of such weapons in Germany, the patents and design works were transferred in 1919 to the Swiss firm SEMAG (''Seebach M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Inglis And Company
John Inglis and Company was a Canadian manufacturing firm which made weapons for the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth military forces during the World War II era, then later became a major appliance manufacturer. Whirlpool Corporation acquired control of Inglis in 1987 and changed the company's name to Whirlpool Canada in 2001. Today the Inglis name survives as a brand under Whirlpool. History The company traces its roots to John Inglis who was involved in early enterprises in Dundas and Guelph, Ontario. On 27 July 1859, he, Thomas Mair and Francis Evatt formed Mair, Inglis and Evatt, a machine shop in Guelph, Ontario, that produced machinery for grist and flour mills. In 1864, they added a steam engine to power the machines. Some time after 1864, Daniel Hunter replaced Thomas Mair, and the name of the business was changed to Inglis and Hunter. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Autocannon
Autocannons are automatic guns with calibers of to . There are many types, including chain guns, gast guns, revolver cannons, and rotary cannons. They are being used as military aircraft main guns, naval guns, anti-aircraft weapons, infantry fighting vehicle main guns and are occasionally found on reconnaissance vehicles like the LAV-25. General autocannons Revolver cannons Rotary cannons See also *Gatling gun The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling of North Carolina. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling gun's operatio ... Citations Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Autocannon Lists of artillery Lists of weapons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autocannon
An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a automatic firearm, fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary ammunition, incendiary shell (projectile), shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bullets) fired by a machine gun. Autocannons have a longer effective range and greater terminal ballistics, terminal performance than machine guns, due to the use of larger/heavier munitions (most often in the range of , but bigger calibers also exist), but are usually smaller than tank guns, howitzers, field guns, or other artillery. When used on its own, the word "autocannon" typically indicates a non-rotary weapon with a single gun barrel, barrel. When multiple rotating barrels are involved, such a weapon is referred to as a "rotary autocannon" or "rotary cannon". If it uses a single barrel with a rotating cylinder with multiple chambers, it is known as a "revolver autocannon" or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Becker Type M2 20 Mm Cannon
The Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon was a German autocannon developed for aircraft use during World War I by . It was first mass-produced in 1916 and was installed in a variety of aircraft. It was the only German autocannon to see service in the air during the war. The Becker also served as the pattern for the famous Swiss-built Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, which is in service to this day, and in a later form, was the original inspiration, through the Swiss design after World War I, for the World War II German Luftwaffe's MG FF (''Maschinengewehr Flügel Fest'', "fixed wing-mount automatic ordnance") 20 mm autocannon design. History Design and development The original design was based on the 19 mm Becker cannon cartridge by the Coenders brothers at Stahlwerke Becker of Reinickendorf, Germany. Development commenced in 1913 and was therefore already advanced when the War Ministry issued a specification in June 1915 calling for an aircraft cannon of under 37 mm caliber a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sten
The STEN (or Sten gun) is a British submachine gun chambered in 9×19mm which was used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and during the Korean War. The Sten paired a simple design with a low production cost, facilitating mass production to meet the demand for submachine guns. As well as equipping regular units, the Sten was distributed to resistance groups within occupied Europe. Its simple design made it an effective insurgency weapon for resistance groups. The Sten is a select fire, blowback-operated weapon with a side-mounted magazine. Sten is an acronym, derived from the names of the weapon's chief designers: Major Reginald V. Shepherd and Harold J. Turpin, and "En" for the Enfield factory. Around four million Stens in various versions were made in the 1940s, making it the second most produced submachine gun of the Second World War, after the Soviet PPSh-41. The Sten served as the basis for the Sterling submachine gun, which repl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type 99 Cannon
The Type 99 Mark 1 machine gun and Type 99 Mark 2 machine gun were Japanese versions of the Oerlikon FF and Oerlikon FFL autocannons respectively. They were adopted by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in 1939 and served as their standard aircraft autocannon during World War II. Adoption In 1935, officers in the Imperial Japanese Navy began to investigate 20 mm automatic cannon as armament for future fighter aircraft.Robert C. Mikesh, ''Zero'', Motorbooks USA, 1994. Their attention was drawn to the family of aircraft autocannon manufactured by Oerlikon, the FF, FFL and FFS. These all shared the same operating principle, the advanced primer ignition blowback mechanism pioneered by the Becker cannon, but fired different ammunition: 20×72RB, 20×101RB, and 20×110RB, respectively. Following the import and evaluation of sample guns, the Imperial Japanese Navy decided in 1937 to adopt these weapons. To produce the Oerlikon guns, a group of retired Navy admirals created a new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of The Second World War
The ''History of the Second World War'' is the official history of the British contribution to the Second World War and was published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). The immense project was sub-divided into areas to ease publication, ''United Kingdom Military Series'', the ''United Kingdom Civil Series'' for the civilian war effort; the ''Foreign Policy series'', the ''Intelligence series'' and the ''Medical series'' are eponymous. Other volumes not under the aegis of the series but published by HMSO may be read as adjuncts, covering matters not considered in great detail or at all, in one case, in the main series. Further volumes, published after the privatisation of HMSO or in the series about the Special Operations Executive, are also useful. The volumes were intended to be read individually, rather than in series, which led to some overlapping. In their introductions to their parts of the series, Sir Keith Hancock and Sir James Butler wrote that this was to obv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
