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First world war technolgy: Chlorine Gas
In 1914 a chemist called Fritz Haber offered his knowledge to the German Army. He soon began experimenting with chlorine gas to be used in trench warfare.
In April 1915, 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas was used by the German forces against the French Army at Ypres.
Note: For the first attack at Ypres the Germans actually delivered the gas from cylinders using the wind, instead of shells as it looks in the video!
Faction: The Indian Army
The First World War
By June 6th 1944, the Allies had landed 150,000 men in Normandy. The five beaches were secure and the troops were pushing inland.
George Washington was born on 22 February 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, into a family of prosperous farmers.
He began his career as a professional surveyor in 1749 at the age of 17 and was quickly appointed surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, his first public office.
Faction: The Australian Army
Australia’s regular army was formed in 1901 with all males of combat age required to undertake military training regularly.
When the first world war began, Australia immediately offered to supply Britain with 20,000 troops.
While the regular army was organised for home defence a new overseas force called the ‘Australian Imperial Force’ or the AIF was created.
The FT-17 Light tank
(First World War Tech)
Aired February 5, 2017
The Berlin wall would become a symbol of ideological division and suppression of human rights during the Cold War.
As the Germans advanced towards Stalingrad in the Summer of 1942, the war came to the locals of the city and evacuation was slow to the speed of the Wehrmacht’s advancement.
The first American ground forces deployed against the viet cong and the NVA were the US Marines, who came ashore at Da nang on the coast of South Vietnam on March 8th 1965.
The first world war saw modern weaponry used on a immense scale.
Out of this came unique technological advancements in weapons and equipment, but also primitive designs reminiscent of earlier eras of warfare.
The Tank Mark I Heavy Tank
Infantry Units: German Stormtrooper, World War One
German officers and NCOs would start to experiment with new assault tactics.
This would lead to the creation of elite ‘Stormtroopers’ or Sturmtruppen who would spearhead the German offensive of march 1918 known as ‘Kaiserschlacht’
The year is 1917. Millions of Russians had been either killed or wounded.
The Russian people were angry at Tsar Nicholas II for getting Russia into the war.
Special Forces unit: British SAS, World War Two
The Special Air Service was formed by David Stirling in 1941. Its purpose was to act as a desert raiding airborne force unit that would secretly fight behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign.
The first unit of the SAS, of around 60 men was called the "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade.
This name was used to confuse the Axis into thinking it was a much larger paratrooper regiment.
Germany was unusually slow to realise and develop a tank, considering that in 1916, the British and the French had introduced tanks on the battlefield.
Faction: The German Army WWII
In 1935, Hitler, Fuhrer of Nazi Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding the German army’s strength by bringing in military conscription and rearmament. The German armed forces as a whole, previously known as the Reichswehr now became the Wehrmacht. This was the Heer - Army, the Kriegsmarine - Navy and the Luftwaffe - Air force.
The 369th Infantry Regiment was constituted on 2nd June 1913 in the New York Army National Guard as the 15th New York Infantry Regiment. And would become known as the first ‘African-American regiment’ to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.
One rival company based at Saint Chamond started to develop its own tank design under technical director Colonel Émile Rimailho.
The Cuban missile crisis was the moment during the Cold War when the two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union came close to nuclear war.
The British Sopwith Camel was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith pup, which had become outpaced by the new German fighters that emerged in the skies.
Figures in History: Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898)
Otto von Bismarck was responsible for transforming a collection of small German states, unifying them into the German empire, and becoming its first chancellor. His diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule gained him the nickname of the "Iron Chancellor."
Great Pyramid of Giza
Ancient Egypt, 2580–2560 BC (4th dynasty)
Faction: The Bulgarian Army
The First World War
The Cold war was a time of espionage between the CIA and KGB and other organisations. Technology played a key role in an agent's inventory, gadgets were well disguised and portable some were even deadly.
Airforce Unit: US B-17 Bomber Crewman World War Two
The United States Army Air force was made up of volunteers mostly in their late teens to early twenties from every part of the US. Bomber crews would receive extensive training at American air bases before being sent overseas for combat duty.
A B-17 would typically have a crew of 10 including: a pilot who was the flight commander, a co-pilot, a bombardier and a navigator, a radio operator, a flight engineer, two waist gunners, a tail gunner and a ball- turret gunner.
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Chauchat Light Machine Gun
The First World War
The ‘Chauchat’ or "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG" was the standard machine rifle or light machine gun of the French Army during World War I.
Country of Origin: France
Caliber: 8×50mmR Lebel
Weight: 9KG /20lb
Rate of Fire: 250 RPM
Range: 1000 m / 3300ft
Faction: The British Army
Before the war had started, Britain had a small professional army, sacrificing manpower for superior mobility and technology over the enemy. There was also a Territorial Army which was poorly trained and supplied.
Faction: The Greek Army
The First World War
When the First World War had begun, Greek prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos favoured an alliance with the Entente powers in comparison to King Constantine I who favoured supporting Germany as he was married to the Kaiser's sister.
The ‘Winter War’ of 1939-1940 or the Russo-Finnish War was fought between the Soviet Union and Finland.
The Vietcong would raid villages, and eliminate government appointed village leaders. They would ambush the enemy on roads and launch attacks on US military advisors.
Infantry Unit: Imperial Japanese Army Infantryman, World War Two
Training would be a tough process of hardening of mind, spirit, and body. During wartime, training could last only three months. An emphasis was put on bayonet fighting, which drew upon a belief in the Emperor and the ancient samurai warriors. The bayonet being a modern version of the samurai sword.
After world war two in a rapidly changing world, young men were called up in Britain to become peacetime conscripts and do national Service.
Faction: The U.S. Army
Before the war had started the US army was a small professional force. When Germany overran Poland within a matter of weeks in 1939, a greater urgency was put on building up the numbers in the Army already envisioned by the Rainbow plan.
In 1940 the United States introduced selective conscription requiring registration of all men between 21 and 35 and by 1941 the US Army had grown to 1,500,000 men.
WWII Tanks: Light Tank M3 'Stuart'
The M3 was designed to be more than just an infantry support tank, and could be used for scouting.
Heckler & Koch G11 Assault Rifle (Prototype Weapon)
The H&K G11 series started development in the late 1960’s when the West German government decided to replace the G3 series of rifles. They would be intended for the Bundeswehr and other NATO partners.
Gunslingers - The Wild West -4 Mini stories.
From 1850 to 1890 the Old west had little in the way of government law or police.
Men would carry guns on them to protect themselves: some were outlaws, and some were the lawmen who tried to stop them.
Good aim and speed with a gun and a willingness to pull the trigger would make them famous.
Today we call them gunfighters or gunslingers, but back then they were called gunmen or shootists.
APS Underwater Assault Rifle
Avtomat Podvodny Spetsialnyy
The APS rifle was developed by Vladimir Simonov along with the SPP-1 Pistol during the 1970’s in the Soviet Union so that it's frogmen could have the ability to to shoot underwater.
Human Achievements / Firsts
Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, Millville, Indiana and Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871, Dayton, Ohio. Both brothers were pioneers credited with inventing the first airplane.
The Samurai
The samurai warrior trained by serving under his master and following a strict code called bushido - ‘the way of the warrior’.
A rise of protests by students and workers waving Hungarian flags with the communist emblem in the centre cut out arose in Budapest, erupting into active fighting in October 1956.
Thousands of British and French troops sat on the beaches waiting for a rescue attempt.
Evacuation began on the 29th of May by the Royal Navy and civilian fishing and lifeboats pressed into service known as ‘little ships’.
Hellriegel 1915 (Secret Weapon)
The Standschütze Hellriegel 1915 was an Austro-Hungarian prototype submachine gun developed in 1915. Little is known about this weapon.
In 1941 the US Military began looking for an alternative for the Thompson submachine guns.
In December of 1942 they adopted a new submachine gun, the M3.
Built from an all steel construction using mainly stamped parts, it fired from an open bolt and had simple controls.
German Panzer Crewman
Panzerwaffe
World War II
In the early parts of World War two, Germany had fewer armoured vehicles than their enemies. Early tank designs such as the light Panzer I tank were technologically inferior. The tank commander and his crew however, were highly skilled and well trained.
Panzer crewmen wore close fitting black uniforms, known as Panzer wraps inspired by the traditional uniform of the Brunswick Hussars. The headgear was a beret which worked as a soft padded crash helmet or a black field cap.
The Char 2C was designed during the latter half of the First World War in an effort to break the stalemate of trench warfare.
The Colosseum is located in Rome, Italy.
Also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre,it is an oval amphitheatre, and the largest ever built.
The arena hosted a variety of blood sports as entertainment. with ceremonies and shows that lasted for 100 days.
The schedule for the day consisted of men hunting dangerous animals and executions of criminals, but the main event would be the gladiatorial combat. Ancient writers wrote about mock sea battles or naumachiae before the Hypogeum was developed . It is speculated that hydraulic mechanisms were used to flood the arena rapidly for such naval battles.
Yang Kyoungjong was forced to fight in three different foreign armies before he was finally captured by U.S. paratroopers.
After the Russian revolution in 1917, the new Soviet government formed a Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.
By 1941 the red army was 4.8 million strong with 2.9 million were deployed at western military districts. The Conscription age was 18.
The Beretta Model 1918 did not require production of many new parts which was beneficial to Italy’s poor industrial capabilities.
The Model 1918 design was one side of the dual weapon Villar Perosa, set in a shortened wooden Carcano stock, and given a trigger and folding bayonet.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident or the USS Maddox incident is the event responsible for America’s entry into the Vietnam war.
The Italian Army during the second world war was a Royal Army with King Victor Emmanuel III as Commander-in-Chief . However dictator and Prime Minister Mussolini and the facist party were in true control of the Italian Army even if he had to ask permission from the king.
The Italian Royal Army had tested itself during the conquest of Ethiopia from 1935 to 1936, the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, and the invasion of Albania in 1939.
Prohibition began in the United States in January 1920, after the 18th Amendment became effective, making the manufacture and sale of alcohol now illegal.
The inventor Nikola Tesla had dreamed of supplying the world with electricity wirelessly.
Tesla developed a device in 1891 which could produce bolts of high voltage electricity, known as the Tesla Coil.
The device has a primary coil which passes a current onto a secondary coil, creating a high voltage and low current, which shoots out a lightning like discharge.
Short Magazine Lee Enfield Mark III
The SMLE was a shortened and modernized version of the Lee Metford and Lee Enfield MLE. Its size was beneficial to the military providing one service rifle instead of a mixture of rifles and carbines.
It would serve Britain throughout both World Wars and for the commonwealth throughout the 20th century.
The Fedorov Avtomat was a groundbreaking design that was ahead of it’s time.
Developed by Captain Fedorov first as a semi automatic rifle and then a fully automatic rifle, the fedorov avtomat was submitted to trials in 1913 and was finally adopted in 1916.
On 5 May 1945, a few days after Hitler’s suicide, American soldiers under command of US Army Captain John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr. teamed up with a number of Wehrmacht soldiers under German major, Josef Sepp Gangl who was opposed to the Nazis to rescue VIP prisoners from Castle Itter .
During the 1920s, the Imperial Japanese Army expanded greatly in its number of men and military spending.
The Imperial Japanese Army was victorious early on in the Pacific theatre. As the war progressed and the situation became more desperate for the army, Japanese soldiers started to use more sacrificial tactics.
A brown Syrian bear was given to a new Polish Army, setting up in the Middle east in 1942.
The 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps would name him ‘Wojtek’ by the soldiers and soon he would become a morale boosting mascot for the troops.
In 1916 the Russians would launch a summer offensive to support the British and French efforts on the Western front.
Introduction to some of the elements of the Industrial Revolution, more on this subject to come!
The economic developments of the 1800s saw the development of agrarian and handicraft economies in Europe and America transform into industrial urbanised ones.
The term to describe this phenomenon would be known as the ‘Industrial Revolution’ and was first used by French writers, but made popular by English economic historian Arnold Toynbee.
Strange Stories of WWII
Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, who refused to surrender until decades after World War II had ended.
The Plague Doctor's costume was designed to protect you from what was thought of as "evil" smells or bad air which was seen as the cause of infection at the time. This is now known as the medically obsolete ‘Miasma theory’.
For Germany, it’s early war helmet was the leather spike helmet called the pickelhaube which was expensive, offered little protection and was unsuitable for the trenches.
In 1916 the pickelhaube was replaced by the more practical steel helmet called the Stahlhelm. The Germans were the first to test a steel helmet but the slow to introduce it on the battlefield.
A need for more manpower upon America’s deeper involvement in the Vietnam war in 1965, made President Johnson bring in conscription. Now young men who were not considering military service, would consider whether they might get picked to fight in the Vietnam conflict across the globe.
As the First World War ended and Germany had been defeated, paramilitary groups emerged. The Friekorps formed from German soldiers returning home from the war. Their beliefs were nationalist, anti-treaty of Versailles and anti-communist.
The British Helmet in World War I
John L. Brodie had invented and patented a design in 1915, called the Helmet, steel, Mark one or 'Brodie helmet' after its inventor.
RAF pilots consisted of British volunteers who were an average age of 20.
1 in 10 pilots were from commonwealth nations such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
While others came from occupied nations in Europe, including: Czechs, Poles, French and Belgians. The Polish made up the largest amount of foreign volunteers, followed by New Zealand, Canada and Czechoslovakia.
The design by General John J. Thompson was complicated yet reliable. It utilized the Blish Lock to delay the opening of the bolt when fired which made the M1928 Thompson a delayed blowback firearm.
During Elizabeth's reign, England saw a golden age of progress.
To clear out the dangerous enemy tunnels, brave infantrymen from Australia, New Zealand, South Vietnam and the United States volunteered for this unenviable job. They would gain the nickname ‘tunnel rats’
China is quite complicated in WW2: The military arm of the KMT was known as the National Revolutionary Army. The Chinese Civil War would begin in 1927 and see the formation of the other largest faction -the Communists which would oppose the KMT. Its military force was the Chinese Red Army.
Bill Gates
Co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist
Gates and Allen then established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO. The name was a blend of "micro-computer" and "software". While Gates oversaw the business he would also continue to write code himself and review it before it shipped.
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres was one of the largest battles of the first world war.
As the Vietnam war became more controversial and morale dipped, a disturbing new phenomenon emerged in the U.S. military called ‘fragging’.
The legendary German Tiger I has a reputation as a machine feared by the allies, combining lethal firepower and excellent armour.
In 1915 the Osowiec Fortress on the Eastern Front would see a shocking event, of men reanimating from a gas attack that should have killed them..
John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was born in Hong Kong, and graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1926. He would later earn the nickname “Mad Jack” or “Fighting Jack” for fighting with a longbow, bagpipes, and a sword in World war two.
Gulags or ‘Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps’ were forced labor camps in the Soviet Union, created under Vladimir Lenin after the Russian Revolution but made famous during the Stalin era.
In 1913, at Highland park, Michigan, Henry Ford’s Model T revolutionised a moving assembly line on a mass scale, as standardised car parts were added on by workers who were trained to perform one task.
As celebration of the lunar new year, the ‘tet’ is an important holiday to Vietnamese people.
In January 1968, the North Vietnamese and Communist Viet Cong forces would use the event to their advantage to strategically launch an offensive when the enemy’s guard was down.
After the Polish defeat in 1939 to German forces, many polish soldiers and civilians flocked to western europe to ensure they could continue the fight.
They would form ‘the Polish Armed Forces in the West’ therefore emphasising a continuity of Poland and hope of liberation.
The Schwerer Gustav was the largest artillery gun ever made.
At age 27 on the morning of 12 April 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was helped into his spacesuit and made his way to the launch pad.
He climbed into the Vostok spacecraft, wondering if he would return back to earth, but was calm.
Resistance soon took place in different ways after Charles de Gaulle encouraged the fight to continue after the impending German occupation. Groups such as the Maquis - were men and women who avoided Vichy France’s forced labor by hiding in the mountains. They used violent means and guerrilla warfare tactics, attacking the Milice and the German occupiers and sabotaging their communication lines and vehicles.
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle fought by the Americans in World War II.
The Trebuchet was similar to a giant catapult or stave sling, and launched heavy stones into enemy castles or walls.
During the evacuation of Gallipoli by the Allies, which started in December 1915, an ingenious invention was constructed on the battlefield by ANZAC forces to deceive the ottoman enemy into thinking a large force was still firing back at them, when in reality the rifles were shooting without a person pulling the trigger!
