Anti-aircraft guns are weapons designed to attack aircraft. Such weapons commonly have a high rate of fire and are able to fire shells designed to damage aircraft. They also are capable of firing at high angles, but are also usually able to hit ground targets as well in a direct fire role.
The Katyusha is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on almost any chassis. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire.
The V-1 flying bomb was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) designation was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany as Kirschkern or Maikäfer (maybug).
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The T-34 had a profound effect on the conflict on the Eastern Front, and had a long-lasting impact on tank design. The tank was praised by multiple German generals when encountered during Operation Barbarossa, although its armour and armament were surpassed later in the war. Its main strength was its cost and production time, meaning that German panzer forces would often fight against Soviet tank forces several times their own size. The T-34 is also a critical part of the mechanized divisions that form the backbone of the Deep Battle Strategy.
The Kliment Voroshilov tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour protection during the early stages of the war, especially during the first year of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In certain situations, even a single KV-1 or KV-2 supported by infantry could halt German formations. The German Wehrmacht at that time rarely deployed its tanks against KVs, as their own armament was too poor to deal with the "Russischer Koloss" – "Russian Colossus".
The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther with ordnance inventory designation: Sd.Kfz. 171, is a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war in May 1945.
The Tupolev Tu-22 was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with Long-Range Aviation and Soviet Naval Aviation in the 1960s.
The Tankgewehr M1918 (transl. Tankgun), also known as the Mauser 13mm anti-tank rifle and T-Gewehr in English, is a German anti-tank rifle—the first rifle designed for the sole purpose of destroying armored targets—and the only anti-tank rifle to see service in World War I. Approximately 16,900 were produced.
The Type 97 automatic cannon is a 20-millimeter (0.79 in) Japanese anti-tank rifle that began development in the 1930s. It was used by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts and the Pacific War. Improvements in armour thicknesses on tanks rendered the Type 97 obsolete by about 1942. This weapon was not related to the Type 97 heavy tank machine gun used in armored vehicles or the Type 97 aircraft machine gun used in Japanese Navy aircraft.
The Solothurn S18-1000 20 mm was a Swiss anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It was a variant of the earlier S-18/100 with modifications for a higher muzzle velocity, as well as a larger cartridge size. The more powerful ammunition resulted in significant recoil, which was problematic for the gunner, and its size made portability difficult.
The Type 1 medium tank Chi-He was an improved version of the Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. It had a more powerful main gun, engine and thicker armor. It was the first Japanese tank to have a communication radio as standard equipment. Production of the tank did not begin until 1943, due to the higher priority of steel allocated to the Imperial Navy for warship construction. A total of 170 units were built. All of the tanks produced were allocated for the defense of the Japanese home islands, against the anticipated Allied Invasion.
The Type 92 heavy armoured car, also known as the Type 92 cavalry tank, was the Empire of Japan's first indigenous tankette. Designed for use by the cavalry of the Imperial Japanese Army by Ishikawajima Motorcar Manufacturing Company, the Type 92 was designed for scouting and infantry support. The Type 92 was thin armored and lightly armed. Although actually a light tank, it was called sōkōsha in Japanese due to political sectionalism within the Japanese Army. Exactly the same device was used in America with the M1 Combat Car.
The Type 98 light tank Ke-Ni or Type 98A Ke-Ni Ko was designed to replace the Imperial Japanese Army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, Japan's most numerous armored fighting vehicle during World War II. Although designed before World War II began, production did not start until 1942, with 104 being produced by the end of the war in the Pacific.
The 76 mm gun M1 was an American World War II–era tank gun developed by the U.S United States Ordnance Department in 1942 to supplement the 75 mm gun on the basic Medium tank M4. It was also used to arm the M18 Hellcat tank destroyer.
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Normandy landings. A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) initially purchased foreign tanks for evaluation during World War I, and began developing its own indigenous designs during the late 1920s.
The 240 mm howitzer M1, popularly nicknamed the "Black Dragon", was a towed howitzer used by the United States Army. The 240 mm M1 was designed to replace the World War I era 240 mm howitzer M1918, which was based on a 1911 French design and was outdated by World War II.
This article deals with the history and development of tanks of the Japanese Army from their first use after World War I, into the interwar period, during World War II, the Cold War and modern era.
The Battle of Merville Gun Battery was a series of British assaults beginning 6 June 1944, as part of Operation Tonga, part of the Normandy landings, during the Second World War. Allied intelligence believed the Merville Gun Battery was composed of heavy-calibre 150 mm (5.9 in) guns that could threaten the British landings at Sword Beach, only 8 miles (13 km) away.
The IS-2 is a Soviet heavy tank, the second of the IS tank series named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. It was developed and saw combat during World War II and saw service in other Soviet allied countries after the war.
