Forgotten Weapons
Published 4 Dec 2020http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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Combat experience with the bazooka rocket launcher in World War Two and its larger versions in the Korean War convinced the US military that a better weapon was needed to give front-line troops a direct-fire way to attack enemy strong points. The bazooka was bulky, not particularly accurate, and created a lot of backblast signature when fired. This led to a multi-part development effort involving design of a small grenade body, reliable but cheap fusing system, and a cartridge design that could launch it.
The result was the 40x46mm grenade. It uses a “high-low” system (originally developed by Rheinmetall during World War Two) in which a powder charge is fired in a small compartment within the cartridge case. The initial pressure in this compartment is some 35,000 psi, which is plenty high to ensure complete and repeatable powder burn. At peak pressure, the internal compartment ruptures, allowing the propellant gasses to expand into the full case volume, which lowers the pressure to about 3,000 psi. This lower pressure is safe to use with an aluminum barrel, and propels the grenade at about 250 fps, giving it a range of about 400 yards without generating excessive recoil.
The M79 proved to be very accurate and reliable. Its downside was the need for the grenadier to carry a backup sidearm, as the M79 could not be used at close range. Almost as soon as it was introduced, work began on developing a launcher which could be attached to the M16 service rifle. This would first be the XM-148, and then ultimately the M203 that would replace the M79 in service. M79 launchers can still be found all over the world, however, as they are robust and reliable.
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March 8, 2021
M79: The Iconic “Bloop Tube” 40mm Grenade Launcher
March 4, 2021
How the Roman Army Became the Byzantine Army
Kings and Generals
Published 2 Mar 2021Video is Sponsored by Ridge Wallet: https://www.ridge.com/KINGSANDGENERALS Use Code “
KINGSANDGENERALS” for 10% off your order!The Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the evolution of the Roman Army continues with the first episode of the series on the Army of the Eastern Roman Empire — the Byzantine Empire. In this episode, we’ll mainly focus on how the Roman army was transformed into the Byzantine army and talk about the armies of Justinian and Belisarius described by Procopius.
Support us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/KingsandGenerals or Paypal: http://paypal.me/kingsandgenerals. We are grateful to our patrons and sponsors, who made this video possible: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o…
The video was made by our Arb Paninken http://bit.ly/2Ow3oC8, while the script was developed by Leo Stone. This video was narrated by Officially Devin (https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficiallyDevin)
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#Documentary #Byzantines #Romans
Teenagers vs the British Empire: Smith Bateman’s Hall Rifle
Forgotten Weapons
Published 24 Nov 2020http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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On May 20, 1826 the United States Congress formally presented Model 1819 Hall rifles with personalized silver plaques to the 20 members of Aikin’s Volunteers, for their “Gallantry at the Siege of Plattsburg”. The Volunteers were a group of 20 boys, aged 14-17, from the Plattsburg Academy who joined up under 21-year-old Martin Aikin to help in the Defense of Platssburg during the British Invasion in 1814. The boys acted as valuable scouts in the days leading up to the battle, and on the main day of fighting they manned positions at a mill on the Saranac River, preventing British troops from crossing under rifle fire. The American General Macomb commended the boys’ contribution to the battle, and promised each a rifle as a token. Of thanks. It would take Congress 14 years to fulfill that promise, but they finally did in 1826, with the only rifles ever presented to civilians by Congress before or since.
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Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
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March 2, 2021
The Evolution of Shock Cavalry – From Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Invicta
Published 1 Mar 2021Learn about the evolution of shock cavalry from antiquity before the use of saddles and stirrups! Check out The Great Courses Plus to learn about shock cavalry in the campaigns of Alexander the Great: http://ow.ly/osex30rvhjf
In this history documentary we explore the topic of ancient cavalry. The basic idea is that these units often get depicted in media as performing glorious massed charges headlong into the enemy ranks as seen in such scenes as the Charge of the Rohirrim from the Battle of Pelenor Fields. In reality this would have been a very dangerous situation for cavalrymen even under the best circumstances. But to make matters worse, riders from antiquity fought without the use of either saddles or stirrups. So how on earth did they manage to dominate the battlefield with these handicaps. Let’s find out.
We begin by covering the history of cavalry with the first domestication of the horse and its introduction to warfare first as member of the baggage train and soon after as a part of chariot crews rather than as actual mounted forces. This was in large part due to the lack of riding experience and technology on behalf of the rider. Soon after the Bronze Age Collapse however cavalry began to rise to prominence across the armies of the Mediterranean. We speak about the various forms of equine practices which ranged from riding bareback into combat as with the Numidian Cavalry to the use of simple bridles and cloth seats as with Greek Cavalry and Persian Cavalry.
We then cover the techniques used by these cavalrymen to mount, ride, and fight. As a part of this discussion, we rely heavily on Xenophon’s Manual on Horsemanship which provides excellent first hand details from the period. We also show how these techniques were successfully used by shock cavalry of antiquity such as the Macedonian Companion Cavalry, the Saka Steppe Lancers, and the Persian Cataphracts to great effect even without the use of saddles and stirrups.
Finally we do pose the question of why they didn’t use the saddle and stirrup given its seemingly obvious advantages. To answer this question we look at the history of its development from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages.
Bibliography and Suggested Reading
On Horsemanship, by Xenophon
Adrian Goldsworthy, The Complete Roman Army
Adrian Goldsworthy, Roman Warfare
J.C. Coulston, Cavalry Equipment of the Roman Army in the First Century A.D.
George T. Dennis, Maurice’s Strategikon, p. 38.
Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili
Russel H. Beaty, Saddles#History
#Documentary
#ShockCavalry
From the comments:
Invicta
13 hours ago
I was inspired by comments on our latest Units of History episode covering the Companion Cavalry which asked about how shock tactics worked in an age before the stirrup and saddle. I went down the rabbit hole finding answers and present to you my findings in this video! One awesome source we used was the Manual on Horsemanship by Xenophon which you can read for yourself here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1176/1176-h/1176-h.htm
Tank Chats #97 | Panzer II | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published 20 Mar 2020Here David Willey discusses the Panzer II, a German tank which was instrumental in the early days of the Second World War, especially during the Blitzkrieg.
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March 1, 2021
Solothurn S18-1000: The Pinnacle of Anti-Tank Rifles
Forgotten Weapons
Published 13 Oct 2017Among all the antitank rifles developed between the World Wars, the highest quality and most sophisticated was the Solothurn S18-1000. It fires the 20x138B cartridge which was also used in the Finnish Lahti L-39 and the German 20mm Flak guns, and it does so using a semiautomatic action and an 8-round box magazine. It is a short-recoil system, with a rotating bolt rather similar to that of the MG-34 machine gun.
The recoil-operated action of the Solothurn helps dampen its recoil more than the Lahti, and is definitely a more comfortable gun to shoot. The Solothurn is equipped with both iron sights and an optical sight (we used the irons in this shooting, because the rubber eye cup on the scope is fairly hard and brittle on this example). Remarkably for its 100+ pound weight, the gun definitely jumps back a few inches when fired unless one has firmly sunk the bipod feet into the earth. However, the recoil force is really more of a push than a sharp impact, and combined with the large surface area of the shoulder pad it is not at all a bad experience.
A number of different countries bought the S18-1000 (and many others bought the smaller S18-100), including the Italians and Hungarians. The only combat account I was able to find was from a Dutch antitank gun team that used one to successfully engage several German armored cars during the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.
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February 26, 2021
Germany’s First Smokeless Carbines: the Kar 88 and Gewehr 91
Forgotten Weapons
Published 27 May 2018http://www.forgottenweapons.com/germa…
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With the development of the smokeless Gewehr 88 “Commission Rifle”, the German Army finally made a serious effort to bring their cavalry units up to a modern standard. There had never been a carbine variant of the Mauser 71/84 produced, and even by the late 1880s many German cavalrymen were still carrying single shot Mauser 71 carbines — or worse, converted captured Chassepots from the Franco-Prussian War. While the Karabiner 88 wasn’t in production quite as quickly as they would have liked, guns were coming off the factory line in quantity by the summer of 1890. The factories tasked with this production were not actually the major state arsenals, but rather two private companies in Suhl — CG Haenel and VC Schilling (although the Erfurt Arsenal would step in in 1891 to make a batch of 25,000 carbines).
The Kar 88 was remarkable light and handy, and designed for use in a cavalry scabbard, meaning that it had a nice slick profile. This became a problem when the Army wanted to issue the carbines for foot artillery crews as well, because it gave them no way to stack the rifles while tending to their artillery pieces. The result was the Gewehr 91, which was identical to the Kar 88 in every way except for the addition of a stacking rod under the muzzle.
Both the Kar 88 and Get 91 were already being slowly taken out of service before World War One, as the new Mauser 98 pattern carbines introduced in 1909 or 1910 were taking their place. This would change with the outbreak of war, of course, and every one of the 88 pattern carbines in German inventory would be issued out during the Great War. Their size and weight made them ideal for the troops who needed a personal weapon but were unlikely to actually have to fight with it (artillery crews, cyclists, supply drivers, balloon crews, etc). After the war, they all disappeared from military service, though. The arms limitations of the Treaty of Versailles gave Germany no reason to keep obsolescent arms, and they were discarded in favor of keeping Mauser 98 pattern rifles and carbines.
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Forgotten Weapons
6281 N Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85704
February 25, 2021
Tank Chats #96 | D3E1 Wheel-cum-Track Machine | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published 28 Feb 2020David Fletcher looks at the experimental inter-war Vickers D3E1, which was conceived to solve the problem of track wear, with wheels that could be used instead where the ground was suitable. In practice the concept proved too complicated.
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February 24, 2021
Japan’s Biological Terror! – The Horror of Unit 731 – WW2 Special
World War Two
Published 23 Feb 2021As one of the few nations during World War Two, Japan made expensive use of biological and chemical weapons, both on and off the battlefield. Unit 731 is their special bio-warfare department, which conducts testing on living human civilians.
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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesHosted by: Spartacus Olsson
Written by: Joram Appel
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Joram Appel
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Sound design: Marek KamińskiColorizations by:
– Daniel Weiss
– Mikołaj Uchman
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia
– Klimbim
– Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/Sources:
– National Archive NARA
– Imperial War Museums: D 3162, HU67224, HU 44941, Q 114057
– BundesarchivSoundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “For the Many STEMS INSTRUMENTS” – Jon Bjork
– “Weapon of Choice” – Fabien Tell.
– “Moving to Disturbia” – Experia
– “Symphony of the Cold-Blooded” – Christian Andersen
– “It’s Not a Game” – Philip Ayers
– “Please Hear Me Out STEMS INSTRUMENTS” – Philip Ayers
– “London” – Howard Harper-Barnes
– “Break Free” – Fabien Tell
– “Not Safe Yet” – Gunnar JohnsenArchive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
February 22, 2021
The “Infantry Revolution” of the Late Middle Ages
SandRhoman History
Published 21 Feb 2021CuriosityStream link: https://curiositystream.com/sandrhoman
The “Infantry Revolution” of the late Middle Ages is kind of a hot topic among armchair historians and academics alike. This is how the argument goes: In the late Middle Ages, infantry grew in importance to the detriment of heavy cavalry; by then battles were increasingly won with pikes, longbows and arquebuses instead of mounted knights with lances, the argument continues, and as a result of that, the socio-political make-up and development of European polities changed lastingly. So, this Infantry Revolution supposedly had an incredible impact on European state building processes AND, the argument finally concludes, it laid the foundation to Europe’s conquest and colonization of many parts of the world. However, in public spaces such as YouTube this whole debate is more discussed in regards to tactics and fighting techniques than economics and politics. Consequently, much of the public discussion is about how and if the importance of knights changed after the High Middle Ages. Likewise, topics such as the efficacy of the English longbow or the impact of pikes in the late Middle Ages are frequently the subject of discussions. All of that is controversial to say the least but it gets worse: these changes must be viewed in the broader military changes such as the rise of gunpowder artillery between 1420 and 1530 — called an artillery revolution — the decline of sieges between the 1420s and the 1530s which, among many things, led to the resurgence of heavy cavalry in the later late Middle Ages. Lastly, all of these revolutions belong to a notion called “military revolution”. This video is not intended to argue one side or the other of the “infantry revolution” but to provide a broad overview over both the debate and the military changes during the 14th and 15th centuries. It explains how contemporary historiography quarrels over the infantry revolution.
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Bibliography:
Bane, M., English Longbow Testing against various armor circa 1400, 2006.
Ayton, A., / Price, J. L., (Hrsg.), The Medieval Military Revolution. State, Society and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 199J.
Black, A Military Revolution? Military Change and European Society 1550–1800, 1991.
Devries, K., Medieval Military Technology, 1994.
Dierk, W., s.v. “Heeresreform”, in: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit
Ortenburg, G., “Waffe und Waffengebrauch im Zeitalter der Landsknechte” (Heerwesen der Neuzeit, Abt. 1, Bd. 1) Koblenz 1984.
Magier, Mariusz; Nowak, Adrian; et al., “Numerical Analysis of English Bows used in Battle of Crécy”. Problemy Techniki Uzbrojenia. 142 (2), 2017, 69–85.
Meumann, M., s.v. “Military Revolution”, in: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit.
Parker G., “The ‘Military Revolution’, 1560–1660 – a Myth?”, in: Journal of Modern History 48.2, 1976, 196–214
Parker, G., Die militärische Revolution. Die Kriegskunst und der Aufstieg des Westens 1500–1800, 1990 (Engl. 1988)
Roberts, M.: “The military revolution, 1560–1660”. In: Clifford J. Rogers: The military revolution debate. Readings on the military transformation of early modern Europe. Westview Press, Boulder, Colo. 1995, S. 13–35.
Rogers, C.J. / Tallet F. (editors), European Warfare, 1350–1750, 2010.
Rogers, C.J., The Efficacy of the English Longbow, 1998.
Schmidtchen, Volker, Kriegswesen im späten Mittelalter. Technik, Taktik, Theorie, Weinheim 1990.
Soar, H., Gibbs, J., Jury, C., Stretton, M., Secrets of the English War Bow. Westholme, 2010, pp. 127–151.
The Best BAR: Luxembourg .30-06 FN-D at the Range
Forgotten Weapons
Published 17 Nov 2020http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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I normally want to have something specific to demonstrate when I take a gun to the range, but today I don’t. What I have today is and FN-D, the very best iteration of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) — and I just wanted an excuse to take it out to enjoy. Specifically, this is a Luxembourg contract FN-D chambered for .30-06. So, please pardon my flimsy excuse, and enjoy!
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Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
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February 19, 2021
Krupp 50mm Mountain Guns for Siam (Thailand)
Forgotten Weapons
Published 16 Nov 2020http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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Edit: The three interlocking rings are Krupp’s logo, not a Thai property mark — sorry!
In 1906, Siam (now Thailand) purchased a batch of 50mm mountain guns from Krupp of Germany. These were simple fixed-barrel guns with steel-belted wooden wheels. Designed to be carried by elephant, mule, or even soldiers, the guns disassemble into a number of man-portable pieces. Two different styles of rear sight were used, although it is unclear when one replaced the other. Today, these guns are a great choice for the cannon enthusiast as they have been specifically exempted from the NFA and thus transfer like any simple firearm (no tax stamp required).
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Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85740
February 18, 2021
Tank Chats #95 | L1E3 Amphibious Tank | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published 21 Feb 2020Here David Fletcher examines the Vickers-Carden-Loyd L1E3 Amphibious Tank. Produced in the 1930s, the L1E3 was a pre-WW2 experimental tank which never entered service with the British Army.
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February 15, 2021
Gewehr 71/84: Germany’s Transitional Repeating Rifle
Forgotten Weapons
Published 10 Jun 2018http://www.forgottenweapons.com/geweh…
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In the ongoing arms race between France and Germany, the Mauser 71/84 was the first German repeating rifle. Paul Mauser began work on it in the late 1870s, patented the design in 1881, and it was adopted formally in 1884. Production began in 1885, with a total of 1,161,148 rifles being delivered by the four major state arsenals (Spandau, Amberg, Erfurt, and Danzig) by 1888 — when it was replaced by the Gewehr 88. With an 8-round tube magazine under the barrel, the 71/84 represented a substantial increase in firepower over the single-shot Mauser 71 and the French 1874 single shot Gras — but it was put into production just in time to be rendered obsolete by the Lebel and its smokeless powder cartridge in 1886.
The 71/84 was perhaps the German rifle with the shortest service life, at barely 5 years. It would come back out as a reserve rifle during World War One, of course, and it also was responsible for a change in German arms that would last all the way to the present day — the pull-through cleaning kit. The tubular magazine made it impossible to leave a cleaning rod under the barrel as on the Gew71, and rather than put it on the side like the French and Portuguese, Germany opted to remove it entirely in favor of the then-new pull-through cleaning kit.
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February 12, 2021
Nock’s Volley Gun: Clearing the Decks in the 1700s
Forgotten Weapons
Published 3 Mar 2018The Nock Volley Gun was actually invented by an Englishman named James Wilson in 1789, and presented to the British military as a potential infantry weapons. This was declined as impractical, but the Royal Navy found the concept interesting for shipboard use. In 1790 the Navy ordered two prototypes made by the British gunsmith Henry Nock, and finding them suitable, proceeded to oder a total of 500 of the guns (thus forever associating Nock’s name with the gun instead of Wilson’s). A further 100 or so were ordered in 1797, and the guns were in fact issued out to various ships — although accounts of their use in combat are difficult to find.
Unfortunately for Nock, the guns presented a couple of substantial problems in use. One was simply the recoil of firing. A single 32-bore (approximately .55 caliber) round ball over 40 grains of black powder is not a very impressive load, but seven of them firing simultaneously add up to a recoil comparable to 4- or 6-bore rifles, and in a volley gun weighing just 13 pounds (5.9kg). In addition, the guns did not always reliably fire all barrels, especially when dirty. This produced a conundrum: how to determine which barrels had fired and which had not? The practical result was double-loaded barrels, which could be liable to bulge or burst. For these reasons, the weapon was declared obsolete in 1805, and never appeared to play any significant military role.
The gun did receive a new wave of popular awareness in 1960, when the character of Jim Bowie was outfitted with one in the movie The Alamo (against all historical evidence). His easy handling of the weapon and the waves of men he was able to mow down with it brought the gun back into the popular consciousness.
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