Bullets And Missiles

Battleships Yamato and Musashi    The Battleships Yamato and Musashi were two huge structures of their kind weighing a total of 72,800 tonnes and 73,000 tonnes respectively when fully loaded. Their main batteries were armed with nine 46 cm 45 Caliber Type 94 naval guns, the biggest gun ever put on a warship. Secondary batteries were with 155 mm guns mounted in four triple turrets (one forward, one aft and two midships), twelve 127 mm guns in six twin mounts (three on each side) and a total of 162 25 mm anti-aircraft guns for Yamato  and 130 25 mm anti-aircraft guns for Musashi. The sister ships were indeed two floating fortresses. Yamato and Musashi were designed and created by the Imperial Japanese Navy to counter their rival in the Asia-Pacific region, the US Navy. Too bad for the Japanese and good for the Americans, these massive structures never lived to their expectations. The battleships were mostly used to transport and escort forces and resources to is...

Major Charles Wittlesey   In the annals of military history, few stories capture the blend of heroism, tragedy, and sheer misfortune as vividly as that of the "Lost Battalion" of World War I. This group of American soldiers, part of the 77th Infantry Division, found themselves isolated and surrounded by German forces in the dense Argonne Forest in October 1918. Their ordeal, marked by relentless enemy fire, dwindling supplies, and unwavering courage, stands as a testament to the resilience and sacrifice of the American Doughboys on the Western Front.   The 77th Infantry Division, composed largely of men from New York City, entered the Argonne Forest as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a major Allied push aimed at breaking through the German lines. On October 2, 1918, nine companies of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 308th Infantry Regiment, along with elements of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion, advanced into the forest under the command of Major Charles Whit...

British soldiers in the trenches The succeeding month of July 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a month long of diplomatic maneuvers, conspiracy and inactions by some European countries. Where in the murder of the archduke who is too Slavophile and wanted peace with Serbia was used to spoil a war to settle political differences. July crisis is a period of time where the European powers turned an eye away from peace and chose to brawl in the Great War.  The murder of the archduke in Sarajevo in June 28, 1914 caused consternation and fear in Europe. Investigations were already in process immediately after the assassination and all fingers are pointing to Serbia. The assassins, Nedjelko Cabrinovic who threw the grenade into the archduke’s car and Gavrilo Princip, the person who shot the royal couple dead were both members of the group called Young Bosnia, an affiliate to the Black Hand who is led by Dragutin Dimitrijevic, the Chief of Intelligence ...

A-10 Thunderbolt II  Learning from experience in the Vietnam War where the US only had F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom or even A-1 Skyraider and Army helicopters to do the CAS or close air support, the US Air Force in the 1970’s decided it needed a dedicated airplane for the role of ground attack aircraft that can support friendly ground troops and destroy armoured vehicles and static enemy positions that is harder to shoot down and can withstand shots from anti-armor weaponry. What the US Air Force got in 1972 was the A-10 Thunderbolt II, a single seat, twin turbofan engine, straight wing jet from the Fairchild Republic. The A-10 itself was built around its main gun, the General Electric’s 30 millimeter GAU-8 Avenger cannon that can fire 65-70 rounds of depleted uranium armor piercing shells every second. The GAU-8 has seven independent barrels with rotary-locking bolts that are mechanically actuated. The gun's 5 feet 11.5 inches ammunition drum generally holds 1,...

Archduke Franz Ferdinand It is known that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand , heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne ,  and his wife Sophie ,   Dutchess of Hohenberg  by Gavrilo Princip ,   a member of The Black Hand    at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 served as the catalyst for World War 1. But in reality the world at war was already shaping years before the assassination of the archduke in a region called then as the Powder Keg Of Europe . “ I shall not live to see the world war… [but] it will start in the east.” Otto von Bismarck, 1891, Chancellor of Germany The Balkan The Balkan   is a peninsula in the eastern and southeastern part of Europe surrounded by four oceans, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Aegean. Within the land mass was a group of countries and provinces that includes Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia. For centuries the whole region was under the rule of the Ot...

Fort Drum  This is Fort Drum, a concrete battleship built in 1909 named after Brigadier General Richard C. Drum. Originally this was an islet called El Fraile until the Board Of Fortifications chaired by William H. Taft recommended that all key harbors of territories acquired after the Spanish-American War be fortified, which led to the construction of Fort Drum for the defense of Manila and Subic Bay. In 1909, El Fraile Island was first leveled for a massive steel reinforced concrete fortress resembling that of a battleship to be erected. Fort Drum was 350 ft long, 144 ft wide with a top deck of 40 ft high above water at low tide. Over head protection was a 20 foot thick steel reinforced concrete deck with its exterior walls ranging approximately from 25 to 36 ft making it impregnable by enemy naval assault. The first proposal was to equip it with two twin twelve inch (305 mm) guns on top of the fortress but the US War Department decided to change it with fourteen inch (3...

Boeing B-52H s  The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range strategic bomber. Also known as BUFF or big ugly fat fellow to its own crew, it has been the face of the US might and superiority since it first entered service in 1955. It has a wingspan of 185 feet and a length of 160 feet 10.9 inches, powered by eight jet engines mounted under its wings in four twin pods. Maximum speed is at 595 miles per hour or 957 kilometers per hour. With its built and might it can carry 70,000 pounds of load and dispose of it within combat range of 8,800 miles without refueling. Originally, it was built with a conscious effort to carry the atomic bomb to its rival then known as USSR. Within the span of ten years from 1952, a total of 744 B-52s were created in eight versions classified from A to H. B-52A is the test version, B-52B is the long range nuclear bomber that entered the US Strategic Air Command, B-52s C to F are versions with larger fuel capacity with in-flight...