Displaying 1-10 of 15
Displaying 1-10 of 15
Nine months following Germany’s glider assault at Fort Eben Emael, America began to look to the potential of gliders – not as a combat strategy, but as a training aid for future power pilots and to deliver cargo.
The outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914 encouraged US companies to privately develop armored cars for potential export. The Autocar Company in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, manufactured armored machine-gun carriers for Canadian forces in small numbers. The US Congress funded the first US Army armored cars in 1915. In July 1916, the two prototype armored cars were sent to Texas to support Gen.
Bouvet was to be the last of five 1st class battleships with similar general characteristics but of independent design subsequently known as the ‘Fleet of Samples’ (Flotte d’échantillons).
The U-2 proposal originated in November 1953 as Project Bald Eagle, a CIA initiative for a new reconnaissance type which the initially sceptical USAF would eventually buy into. It was needed to fly over the Soviet Union and provide information that was severely lacking on its military and industrial resources.
In March 1943, assault guns were supplied for the first time in larger numbers to branches of the armed forces other than the assault artillery. Initially, the three Panzer divisions that were destroyed at Stalingrad (14.PzDiv, 16.PzDiv and 24.PzDiv) each received a Panzer-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung (PzStuGAbt – armoured assault gun battalion). This was followed in June by the PzGrenDiv (created from infantry division [mot]), which were in the process of being formed.
The early 1940s saw the introduction of a new destroyer class for the US Navy, which became known as the Fletcher-class. The first ships were commissioned just in time to take part in heavy combat during the Pacific War, and the excellent performance of the Fletcher-class enabled some refitted destroyers to serve in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The Thunderbolt was the first USAAF single-engined fighter to exceed 400mph in level flight.
German military leaders faced with the challenge of the size and technical proficiency of the Red Army sought the annihilation of the enemy and thought they had the weapon to achieve this with the Tiger. Two firms produced prototypes in 1942: Porsche and Henschel. The Army General Staff realized not enough Tigers could be produced to allocate one Tiger company per panzer battalion. The decision to concentrate them into independent heavy battalions was made; dispersing Tigers in penny packets to support other panzer units was not thought to be a good idea because maintenance resources needed to be centralized.
The Tiger would soon begin to show its dominance of the battlefield when conditions permitted. Commanders thought better technology was needed to fight numerous, smaller engagements. The importance of superior technology also satisfied notions of racial superiority.
In general, the trireme was a sleek wooden oar-powered warship armed with a bronzesheathed waterline ram (Gk. émbolos). Because she was designed primarily to act as a buoyant projectile for ramming enemy vessels, the trireme was very long and narrow for her length and beam, which made it as fragile as it was fast.
Displaying 1-10 of 15
