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...