French battleship Suffren

Suffren was a predreadnought battleship built for the (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed in 1902, the ship was assigned to the Escadre de la Méditerranée (Mediterranean Squadron) for most of her career and often served as a flagship. She had an eventful career as she twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break before the start of World War I in 1914. "Suffren" was assigned to join the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a series of attacks on the Ottoman fortifications guarding the straits.
She was moderately damaged during the fighting on 18 March 1915 and had to be sent to Toulon for repairs. Upon their completion the ship returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli Campaign. "Suffren" provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. After repairs the ship was assigned to the French squadron tasked to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica Front. While en route to Lorient for a refit, "Suffren" was torpedoed off Lisbon by a Imperial German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sank with all hands.
Design and description.
The three battleships of the that had been authorized in 1893 were still building when the Navy Minister, (Vice Admiral) Armand Besnard, was able to get the Chamber of Deputies to authorize the battleship in 1897 to an improved "Charlemagne" design. The Chamber authorized another battleship the following year and Besnard, not wishing to delay construction for the time required for an entirely new design, requested an enlarged and improved version of "Iéna".
"Suffren" was only intended to have modest improvements in armament and armour, but the number of improvements grew as the project was discussed by the Conseil des travaux de la Marine (Board of Construction) so that she was essentially a new design, only retaining some of "Iéna"s layout. The biggest changes were that the bulk of the secondary armament was mounted in turrets, rather than "Iéna"s casemates, and the stowage of shells for the main armament was increased from 45 to 60 rounds per gun.
General characteristics.
"Suffren" was longer than "Iéna", being long overall. She had a beam of and a draught of forward and aft. She displaced at normal displacement, and at full load, over more than the earlier ship. "Suffren" was fitted with bilge keels to reduce her rolling. Her crew numbered 31 officers and 637 men as a private ship and 42 officers and 700 sailors as a flagship.
Propulsion.
"Suffren" was powered by three Indret vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. The centre shaft drove a three-bladed screw propeller and the wing propellers were four-bladed; each was in diameter. The engines used steam provided by 24 Niclausse boilers at a working pressure of . Rated at a total of , the engines were intended to give the ship a speed of . During her sea trials on 12 November 1903, they produced and gave a top speed of . The ship carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of . "Suffren" carried of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to improve its burn rate. The ship's 80-volt electrical power was provided by two 600-ampere and three 1,200-ampere dynamos.
Armament.
Like "Iéna", "Suffren" carried her main armament of four 40-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893/96 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The turrets were traversed by electric motors, but were elevated and depressed by hand. The guns were loaded at an angle of −5° and they had a maximum elevation of +15°. They fired armour-piercing projectiles at the rate of roughly one round per minute. They had a muzzle velocity of which gave a range of at maximum elevation. "Suffren" carried 60 shells for each gun with each turret holding ready-use racks for 22 projectiles.
The ship's secondary armament consisted of ten 45-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893/96 guns. Six of these were mounted in single-gun turrets on each side of the superstructure and the remaining four guns were positioned below them on the upper deck in individual casemates that were sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the sides. The guns fired shells at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of . Their theoretical rate of fire was between two and three rounds per minute. "Suffren" carried 200 shells for each gun. She also carried eight 45-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893 guns in shielded mounts on the shelter deck and on the superstructure. These guns fired a projectile at , which could be elevated up to +20° for a maximum range of . Their maximum rate of fire was four rounds per minute. The ship carried 2,000 shells for these guns.
For defence against torpedo boats, "Suffren" mounted twenty-two 50-calibre Canon de Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns. They were positioned in the fighting tops and on the superstructure. They fired a projectile at to a maximum range of . Their theoretical maximum rate of fire was fifteen rounds per minute, but only seven rounds per minute sustained. "Suffren" carried 16,500 rounds for these guns. Two Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns were also mounted on the upper bridge.
The ship was equipped with four torpedo tubes on the broadside. Two of these were submerged, abaft the forward turret, and fixed at a 30° angle to the side. The two above-water tubes could traverse 80°. Normally "Suffren" carried twelve Modèle 1892 torpedoes, of which four were training models.
Armour.
"Suffren" had a complete waterline armour belt of Harvey armour that had a maximum thickness of amidships and reduced to at the bow and at the stern. The lower edge of this belt was in thickness amidships and thinned to at the bow and at the stern. The armour plates were high of which was above the waterline and below it. Above this was a strake of special-steel armour that extended from the bow to the aft transverse bulkhead below the aft main-gun turret. In thickness it ranged from at the bow to amidships. This armour was backed by a highly subdivided cofferdam intended to reduce flooding from any penetrating hits as its compartments were filled by water-resistant "bricks" of dried Zostera seaweed (). The outer sides of the casemates were protected by special-steel plates 110 millimetres thick. The casemates were separated by an transverse bulkhead and a centreline bulkhead thick subdivided the casemates.
The main turret armour was in thickness with a 50-millimetre roof and the barbettes were protected by of armour. The armour for the secondary turrets ranged from thick at the front to at the rear. The conning tower had walls thick and its communications tube was protected by of armour. The armoured deck consisted of mild-steel plates laid over two plates. The splinter deck beneath it comprised two layers of plates.
Construction and career.
Prewar.
"Suffren", named after Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, was ordered on 21 April 1898 from the Arsenal de Brest. She was laid down on 5 January 1899 and launched on 25 July of the same year. Her fitting-out was delayed by the late delivery of fittings and armour. "Suffren" began her sea trials in November 1903, but was not commissioned until 3 February 1904. On 18 August 1903 she participated in a gunnery trial with the predreadnought off Île Longue. A mild-steel plate thick, measuring , was attached to the side of "Suffren"s forward turret to determine the resistance of an armour plate to a large-calibre shell with six sheep placed in the turret to simulate its crew. "Masséna" anchored away from "Suffren" and fired a number of 305-millimetre shells at the plate. The first three were training shells that knocked splinters off the armour plate. The last two shells, fired with full charges, cracked the plate, but "Suffren"s turret was fully operational, as was her Germain electrical fire-control system, and the sheep were unharmed. One splinter struck "Masséna" above her armour belt and left a 15-centimetre sized hole in her hull. Another splinter landed within a few metres of the Naval Minister, Camille Pelletan, who was observing the trials.
When "Suffren" was commissioned in Brest, she was assigned to the Escadre de la Méditerranée shortly afterwards. After arriving in Toulon, she became the flagship of its commander, Palma Gourdon, on 24 February. Two months later she carried the President of France, Émile Loubet, on a state visit to Naples. As time went by several defects were revealed in service, including the weakness of the underpowered capstan which was barely capable of raising the anchor in waters deep. Another problem was that the centre engine and its propeller shaft tended to overheat. Gourdon was relieved by Charles Touchard on 4 October 1905. During fleet exercises off the Îles des Hyères on 5 February 1906, "Suffren" accidentally rammed the submarine when the latter miscalculated the fleet's movements while manoeuvring into firing position. "Bonite" rose to periscope depth less than in front of "Suffren", but the latter managed to turn quickly enough while the submarine was crash-diving that "Suffren" only struck "Bonite" a glancing blow. This was enough, however, to breach two compartments abreast the ship's starboard engine room and she had to be docked for emergency repairs. "Bonite"s bow was crushed and several of her ballast tanks were ripped open. Only by rapidly dropping her weighted keel was the submarine able to avoid sinking. No casualties were suffered by either vessel. During the summer of 1906 "Suffren"s above-water torpedo tubes were removed. She then participated in an international fleet review in Marseille on 16 September.
She was drydocked adjacent to "Iéna" on 12 March 1907 at Toulon when the latter ship's magazine exploded. Burning fragments started a small fire aboard "Suffren", but she was not otherwise damaged by the explosion and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres that began on 1 July. By 5 November, the ship had been replaced as flagship by the semi-dreadnought , although she remained assigned to the 1re Division cuirassée (1st Battle Division). In early 1908 a Barr and Stroud rangefinder was mounted on the navigation bridge. "Suffren" was transferred to the 3e Division cuirassée in July. During manoeuvres off Golfe-Juan on 13 August, the ship's port propeller shaft broke and the propeller fell off in water deep. While a new shaft was ordered from Indret, "Iéna"s salvaged corresponding shaft was used with such success that the ship's engineers requested to keep it in place and save the new shaft as a spare. This proposal was rejected by the Naval Ministry and the shafts were exchanged. The opportunity was also taken to rework the centre propeller shaft's mounting so that it would overheat less often. In 1909 the battleships of the Escadre de la Méditerranée were reorganised into two Escadre de ligne (battle squadrons), each with a pair of three-ship divisions; the 3e Division cuirassée now assigned to the 2e Escadre de ligne. "Suffren", as the most modern of the predreadnoughts, was often attached to the 1re Escadre de ligne to replace ships that were refitting or under repair. In November 1910 the starboard propeller shaft broke and the propeller was lost in deep water. No shaft was immediately available so "Suffren" had to wait three months for repairs; her boilers were overhauled while a new one was manufactured. On 14 February 1911 the port anchor chain broke while "Suffren" was conducting towing exercises with two other battleships, killing one sailor and injuring two others. The ship participated in a naval review near Toulon on 4 September. The Escadre de la Méditerranée was renamed the 1er Armée Navale (1st Naval Army) on 31 October as the Marine Nationale concentrated its forces in the Mediterranean.
When the magazines of the semi-dreadnought exploded in Toulon on 25 September 1911, flying debris from the explosion killed four men aboard "Suffren". The ship was reassigned to the 2e Division cuirassée of the 2e Escadre de ligne as a replacement for the destroyed battleship. She was transferred to the 1re Division cuirassée of the 3e Escadre de ligne on 14 March 1913 and became the flagship of Laurent Marin-Darbel, commander of the Escadre de ligne, four days later. The annual manoeuvres of the 1er Armée Navale began on 19 May; when they were concluded the ships were reviewed by President Raymond Poincaré. The 3e Escadre de ligne was dissolved on 11 November and "Suffren" became the flagship of (Rear Admiral) Gabriel Darrieus, commander of the Division de complément (Complementary Division), four days later and he was relieved in his turn by Émile Guépratte on 1 April 1914. During a fleet exercise on 28 May, "Suffren" accidentally rammed the battleship ; the latter ship was undamaged, but "Suffren" had her port anchor and hawsepipe carried away and a hole punched in her hull that forced her to return to port for emergency repairs.
World War I.
When the Marine Nationale mobilized in anticipation of war on 1 August, the Division de complément was ordered to Algiers, French Algeria, to protect the convoy route to Metropolitan France. They conducted their first escort mission on 6 August before arriving at Bizerte, French Tunisia, on the 22nd where they began conducting contraband patrols in the Sicilian Narrows. In September "Suffren" was fitted with additional Barr and Stroud rangefinders near the bridge. Two of these were mounted on transverse rails fore and aft of the bridge. The after bulkhead was removed and the two 100-millimetre guns on the side of the superstructure were moved one deck lower. Guépratte complained that his ships were not well suited to such a mission and he was ordered to take "Suffren", the predreadnought and the torpedo cruiser to Port Said, Egypt, to escort troop convoys from British India on 23 September. The following day he was ordered to rendezvous with the semi-dreadnought at the island of Tenedos where he was to place himself under the orders of the British Vice-Admiral Sackville Carden to assist British ships in blockading the Dardanelles to prevent any sortie by the Ottoman battlecruiser and the light cruiser back into the Mediterranean. The Division de complément was renamed the Division des Dardanelles (Dardanelles Division) to reflect its new role. On 3 November the two French battleships joined British ships bombarding the Ottoman fortifications at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The short bombardment by the Allies, during which "Suffren" fired 30 shells from her main guns, did little damage, but alerted the Ottomans that their defences there required strengthening. After the predreadnought arrived on 16 November "Suffren" sailed for Toulon for a lengthy refit.
Dardanelles Campaign.
"Suffren" returned to the Dardanelles on 9 January 1915 and resumed her role as the flagship of the squadron. She bombarded the Ottoman fort of Kum Kale, on the Asiatic side of the strait on 19 February. assisted "Suffren" by sending firing corrections via radio while "Gaulois" provided counter-battery fire to suppress the Ottoman coastal artillery. Late in the day the British predreadnought was bombarding the fort at Orhaniye Tepe on the Asiatic side of the strait and began taking heavy fire as she approached the fort. The battlecruiser attempted to suppress the coastal artillery to allow "Vengeance" to extricate herself, but was unsuccessful. "Suffren" and "Gaulois" had to combine their fire with that of "Inflexible" before "Vengeance" could successfully withdraw. "Suffren" fired thirty 305-millimetre shells and 227 shells from her secondary guns during the day.
"Suffren" also participated in a more limited way in the bombardment of 25 February against the same targets, but this was far more successful as "Suffren" and the other ships moved as close as from the forts. On 2 March the French squadron bombarded targets in the Gulf of Saros at the base of the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 7 March the French squadron attempted to suppress the Ottoman guns in the Dardanelles while British battleships bombarded the fortifications. Guépratte and his squadron returned to the Gulf of Saros on 11 March where they again bombarded Ottoman fortifications.
They returned to assist in the major attack on the fortifications planned for 18 March. British ships made the initial entry into the Dardanelles, but the French ships passed through them to engage the forts at closer range. Shortly after having done so "Suffren" was under heavy fire and was struck no less than 14 times in 15 minutes. Most did no significant damage, including a shell that bounced off the after 305-millimetre turret, but one 24-centimetre shell ricocheted off the port midships 164-millimetre turret and ripped the roof off the port casemate, killing the entire gun crew. Some flaming debris dropped into that gun's magazine and started a fire, but it was quickly flooded to prevent an explosion. Another shell punctured a hole across in the bow which flooded the base of the forward turret. While the French squadron was withdrawing pursuant to Admiral John de Robeck's order "Bouvet" struck a mine and sank in 55 seconds. "Suffren" lowered her admiral's barge, her only intact boat, and rescued 75 men before she had to escort the badly-damaged "Gaulois" away from the Dardanelles. The latter was taking on water by the bow and had to be beached on one of the Rabbit Islands at the entrance of the Dardanelles before she sank.
"Suffren" was ordered to escort "Gaulois" to Toulon via Malta on 25 March. Two days later the ships encountered a storm and were forced to seek refuge in the Bay of Navarin. "Suffren" arrived at Toulon on 3 April and was repaired by 20 May when she returned to the Dardanelles to provide gunfire support for the troops ashore. She remained in the area until 31 December; upon returning to her anchorage at Kefalos on the island of Kos, she collided with and sank the British steamer "Saint Oswald", a horse transport involved in the evacuation from Gallipoli, and was badly damaged. "Suffren" arrived in Toulon on 20 January 1916 for repairs which were completed by April. That month she joined the French squadron of six predreadnoughts assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica Front. On 9 July "Suffren" briefly became flagship of the reestablished 3e Escadre de ligne when "Patrie" departed for a refit at Toulon. With the creation of a rival pro-Entente government in Greece in August, the Entente became concerned that the royal government might interfere with its use of Greek ports in October as King Constantine I endeavored to maintain Greek neutrality. On 7 October "Patrie", "Démocratie", and "Suffren" entered the harbour of Eleusina prepared to fire on the Greek predreadnoughts , and the cruiser , but things were resolved peacefully and the French ships returned to their base.
"Suffren" was originally intended to refit at the naval base at Bizerte, but the location was switched when the dockyard at Lorient informed the Naval Staff that it had room for her. On 15 November the ship departed to recoal at Bizerte which she reached on 18 November. She sailed on 20 November for Gibraltar; heavy weather en route delayed her arrival until 23 November. "Suffren" recoaled and departed Gibraltar the following day without an escort. On the morning of 26 November, roughly off the Portuguese coast near Lisbon, she was torpedoed by the German submarine , which was en route to the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro in the Adriatic Sea. The torpedo detonated a magazine and "Suffren" sank within seconds, taking her entire crew of 648 with her. "U-52" searched the scene, but found no survivors.


Jin Renqing

Jin Renqing (; born July 1944 in Suzhou, Jiangsu) was a member of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, serving as deputy chief of the Development Research Center of the State Council and most recently Finance Minister.
Biography.
Jin served in such positions as commissioner of the State Administration of Taxation, vice governor of Yunnan, deputy secretary general of the State Council, and executive vice mayor of Beijing. He served as Finance Minister, from 2003 until his resignation at age 63 in August 2007. During his tenure, China enjoyed economic growth and an increase in foreign currency reserves, while also experiencing an increase in its trade deficit to the US. Jin was succeeded by tax administrator Xie Xuren.
Sex scandal.
At the time of Jin's resignation the Hong Kong media have speculated a sex scandal. On 8 September 2007, "Ming Pao" reported that, Jin was in detention assisting security officials with their enquiries. In June 2011, WikiLeaks released a leaked US State Department cable dated 20 September 2007 which claims that Jin was sacked for his role in a sex scandal with a female intelligence operative from Taiwan. The cable claims that the alleged spy had affairs with several Chinese officials including former agricultural minister Du Qinglin, former party secretary of Qingdao Du Shicheng and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) chairman Chen Tonghai.


Exhibition shooting

Exhibition shooting or trick shooting is a sport in which a marksman performs various feats of skill, frequently using non-traditional targets. Exhibition shooting tends to stress both speed and accuracy, often with elements of danger added.
History.
Exhibition shooting has a very long history. Some of the first recorded exhibition shooters were Mongol warriors, who would show off their equestrian and archery skills by shooting at targets from the back of a galloping horse.
Famous shooters.
Annie Oakley.
With the advent of rifling came accurate firearms, and many exhibition shooters turned to these, forming the beginnings of western exhibition shooting. The most famous exhibition shooter is Annie Oakley, who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. While she could shoot well with handguns, rifles, and shotguns, Oakley's preferred firearm was a .22 caliber rifle. Standard tricks of Oakley's included:
Fabulous Topperweins.
The Fabulous Topperweins, a husband and wife pair, were exhibition shooters in the early to mid-20th century. Adolf, or "Ad", began shooting as a boy, and held many positions as a professional exhibition shooter. When he married his wife, Elizabeth, later known as "Plinky", she began to shoot, and soon eclipsed her husband's not inconsiderable skills. Together, they worked as professional shooters for Winchester for over 40 years. Common tricks were Plinky shooting cigarettes out of Ad's mouth, or shooting buttons off of his vest. Ad's closing act was to draw an Indian's head on a board with bullet holes. Both Topperweins held aerial shooting records, with Ad shooting at more than 72,000 hand thrown blocks 2½ inches in diameter, and missing only nine—his longest run without a miss was 14,540. Plinky's record, the first recorded for a woman shooting aerial targets, consisted of hitting 967 of 1,000 clay targets with a .22 Semi-automatic rifle. Plinky was also the first woman to shoot in the "Grand American" trap shooting tournament, and she shot 100 straight targets over 200 times in her career, and 200 straight targets 14 times.
Ed McGivern.
Ed McGivern was an exhibition shooter and firearms trainer who specialized in the revolver. He still holds a number of speed shooting records (a number of which have been challenged, and some broken, by modern IPSC champion Jerry Miculek, Jr.) and was known for shooting aerial targets. Common tricks included:
Jerry Miculek, Jr.
Jerry Miculek, Jr. is an American professional speed and competition shooter known for his many world records and appearances on TV. Miculek currently holds five officially sanctioned world records in revolver shooting and over 15 unsanctioned records with firearms ranging from rapid firing pistols to the Barrett M107 .50 BMG rifle.
Tom Frye.
In 1959, champion Tom Frye of Remington Arms Company broke Ad Topperwein's aerial shooting record for shooting 2¼ inch cubes of wood thrown into the air. He managed to hit 100,004 of the 100,010 wooden blocks - using several Remington Nylon 66 semi-automatic .22 Long Rifle rifles - over a period of 14 straight days. However although the same size of target was used, the comparison to Topperwein's record is disputed because of the test conditions. Firstly the shooting was undertaken in distances less than the regulation . Secondly Frye's thrower tossed the target blocks over his shoulder along the line of sight of the gun. In contrast Topperwein's thrower stood beyond the regulation distance tossing the blocks vertically into the air. In 1963, he had a run of 800 straight clay singles in trap shooting.
John Huffer.
In 1987, at the age of 50, John "Chief AJ" Huffer shot 40,060 consecutive 2½ inch square pine blocks over a period of 8 days without a single miss, shooting blocks he himself tossed into the air, for 14 hours a day. Huffer accomplished this using 18 .22 Long Rifle Ruger 10/22 rifles, which he cycled through as assistants loaded them for him. Huffer also markets a special "Chief AJ" branded Daisy BB gun, based on a modified model Huffer uses for daily practice, and an instruction manual and video for his style of point shooting.
In 2008, at the age of 70, Huffer set a Guinness World Record for slingshot shooting, hitting 1,500 flying targets.
Herb Parsons.
Herb Parsons (1908–1959) of Somerville, Tennessee, was Winchester's "Showman Shooter" for 30 years and was Adolph Topperwein's protégé and successor. His impressive list of honors includes: All-American Trap and Skeet Shooter; twice National and twice International Duck Calling Champion; and inductee to Trapshooting Hall of Fame, Cody Firearms Museum and Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. His signature feat was throwing by hand and individually breaking seven clay targets with a Winchester Model 12, 12 gauge pump action shotgun. Able to eject and shoot the hulls of a Model 61, .22 pump rifle, Herb was the behind-the-camera shot maker and technical adviser for James Stewart's 1950 movie "Winchester '73". Parsons was mentioned by Dr. Mallard in the "NCIS" episode "Ships in the Night", but Leroy Jethro Gibbs doesn't know who he is.
Bob & Becky Munden.
Both born in 1942. Bob was dubbed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the fastest man with a gun who ever lived". The pair first performed together at a fair in California in 1968 and started touring full-time in 1969, presenting shooting demonstrations at schools and teaching gun safety. Bob and Becky Munden surpassed in longevity the storied career of exhibition shooters Ad and Plinky Topperwein. Bob Munden is best known worldwide for his incredible speed from a western type holster with a standard weight single action revolver. Seen on television shows like Ripley's Believe it or Not, American Shooter, Shooting USA and Shooting USA's Impossible Shots on Outdoor Channel, and, Stan Lee's Superhumans on the History Channel. With his distinctive style of showmanship, Bob performs unique accuracy and speed demonstrations using handguns, rifles and shotguns. He has hit targets up to 600 yards with an open sighted handgun. He splits playing cards in the air that he throws. He has opened a safety pin firing a bullet from a 1911 .45 off-hand without any damage to the pin. He has spun a coin with a bullet, "threw" a knife with a bullet, shot coins down to dimes and aspirin out of the air, and has accomplished many more shots and without using a scope and with large caliber bullets that have high recoil. Becky is a champion shooter in her own right. She was also active in Fast Draw contests, winning many fast draw trophies and titles too. Bob and Becky met at a fast draw match. Becky won the 1986 Women's End of Trail World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting, put on by SASS or Single Action Shooting Society. Becky's best known trick shot pays honor to Annie Oakley. Becky shoots behind her back using a mirror to hit a target, using a .38 lever rifle. Bob Munden died on December 10, 2012.
D. A. Bryce.
D. A. Bryce, known as "Delf" or "Jelly", was born December 6, 1906 near Mountain View, in Oklahoma Territory. Bryce served as an officer first with the Oklahoma City police department, then the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and later the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bryce was also a skilled target shooter, and a fast draw expert. One of the tricks he used to demonstrate his speed was to hold a coin at shoulder height, drop it, then draw his revolver and shoot the coin by the time it reached waist height. This feat inspired an article in Life that included stroboscopic photographs of Bryce performing the draw.
Tom Knapp.
Tom Knapp traveled the world for CZ-USA,Benelli and the Federal Premium Ammunition Company. He performed throughout Europe and the Mid-East. Knapp performed for the public starting in 1987 and holds three distinctive World Records in 'Freestyle Target Shooting' or 'Exhibition Shooting'. Tom Knapp died April 26, 2013.
Martin Riggs.
Although Martin Riggs was in the military and later LAPD he spent time at the range entertaining with his marksmanship. He could shoot a smiley face onto a human silhouette target at a distance most would find difficult to hit at all. He used Beretta 92F and 92FS hand guns.


High Virgo

The High Virgo, also known as Weapons System 199C (WS-199C), was a prototype air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) jointly developed by Lockheed and the Convair division of General Dynamics during the late 1950s. The missile proved moderately successful and aided in the development of the later GAM-87 Skybolt ALBM. It was also used in early tests of anti-satellite weapons.
Design and development.
As part of the WS-199 project to develop new strategic weapons for the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command, the Lockheed Corporation and the Convair division of General Dynamics proposed the development of an air-launched ballistic missile, to be carried by the Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic medium bomber. In early 1958 the two companies were awarded a contract for development of the weapon, designated WS-199C and given the code-name "High Virgo". While the project was intended to be strictly a research-and-development exercise, it was planned that the weapon would be quickly capable of being developed into an operational system if required.
The High Virgo missile was a single-stage weapon, powered by a solid-fueled Thiokol TX-20 rocket, and was equipped with an advanced inertial guidance system derived from that of the AGM-28 Hound Dog cruise missile. Four tailfins in a cruciform arrangement provided directional control. The missile was developed by Lockheed, utilising components developed for several existing missiles to reduce the cost of the project, and also to reduce the development time required. Convair was responsible for development of a pylon for carriage and launching of the missile from the prototype B-58, the pylon replacing the aircraft's normal weapons pod.
Operational history.
Four test flights of the High Virgo missile were conducted. Due to development problems, the first two did not include the inertial guidance system, instead they were fitted with a simple autopilot guiding the weapon on a pre-programmed course. Launched from its B-58 carrier aircraft at high altitude and supersonic speed, the initial flight, conducted on September 5, 1958, was a failure when the missile's controls malfunctioned. The second test, three months later, proved more successful, with the missile flying over a range of nearly . The third flight test, the following June, utilized the inertial guidance system for the first time. It was a successful flight.
Anti-satellite test.
The fourth High Virgo missile was utilized in a test mission intended to demonstrate the capability of the missile for use as a "satellite interceptor", or anti-satellite missile (ASAT). The missile, modified with cameras to record the results of the test, was initially targeted at the Explorer 4 satellite. Due to errors in calculating the satellite's orbit Explorer 5 was targeted instead.
The ASAT test mission, the final flight of the High Virgo missile, was conducted on September 22, 1959. Less than a minute after the launch of the missile from its B-58 carrier aircraft at Mach 2, the telemetry signal was lost. No data was recovered from the test, and the camera data, intended to be recovered afterward, was not located. Hence the test was inconclusive.
No further test firings of High Virgo were conducted, the research project having been concluded. The Air Force had begun work on what would become the GAM-87 Skybolt missile, which incorporated lessons learned from the WS-199 project.


Charles Deslondes

Charles Deslondes ( – January 11, 1811) was one of the slave leaders of the 1811 German Coast Uprising, a slave revolt that began on January 8, 1811, in the Territory of Orleans. He led more than 200 rebels against the plantations along the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. White planters formed militias and ended up hunting down the rebels. The slave insurgents killed one Free Man of Color, the "commandant" "overseer" or "slave driver" on the Andre plantation which started the revolt and one white man during their retreat from the outskirts of New Orleans. The militia and the Army killed 95 slaves which included the battle, which took place on Bernard Bernoudy's plantation, some gratuitous "accidental" killings of innocent slaves by the Army on its march from New Orleans and the executions which followed the Tribunals after the revolt was put down.
Early life.
Charles Deslondes was born on the plantation of Jacques Deslondes about the year of 1789. Deslandes plantation succession records have Charles described as being a "Creole mulatto slave” by the name of Charles, “about 16 years old”, listed as a “field laborer.” Contrary to many published articles, we do not know if Jacques Deslondes ever brought Charles over from Saint Domingue after the revolt there, there is no record of Jacques ever having lived in Saint Domingue, there is no record of Jacques buying Charles before he died in 1793 and he has a continual documented presence in Louisiana from the time he was 17 years old until his death in 1793.
Charles Deslondes worked as a "driver," or overseer of slaves, on the plantation of Col. Manuel Andre or Andry (this plantation was later called Woodland and no longer exists), who owned a total of 86 slaves. In a letter printed in the Philadelphia "Political and Commercial Advertiser" on February 19 that year, Deslondes was mistakenly described as a free person of color.
The revolt.
Deslondes had organized slaves and maroons for revolt in what is now St. John the Baptist Parish, part of the German Coast (of the Mississippi River) because it had been settled by many German immigrants in the 1720s, long before cultivation of sugar cane in the area. Deslondes's forces recruited other slaves from plantations along the way southeast into St. Charles Parish before turning back shortly before encountering militia sent from New Orleans. Accounts of the number of insurgents vary, from 200 to 500 men. The men killed two whites near the beginning of their march, and burned down three plantation houses and some crops. They fought primarily with cane knife, and captured a limited number of weapons, although they had planned on more.
On January 11, a planter militia led by Col. Manuel Andry attacked the main body of insurgents at the back of Bernard Bernoudy's plantation west of New Orleans. Andry and his overseer, a free man of color by the name of "Petit" Baptiste Thomassin had been the first targets of the insurrection. Mr. Thomassin discovered the rebels who then killed him and then attacked Manuel Andry and seriously wounded him with an ax. There have many articles which stated the younger Andry had been killed as well. This is completely false. The "younger Andry", Gilbert Andry, died on January the 2nd and was buried on January the 3rd, five days prior to the start of the revolt. Gilbert was married to the daughter of Jacques Deslondes, Marie Marcelline Deslondes. The militia killed about forty slaves in the battle, from which many slaves fled into the swamps. Shortly afterward, militia killed fourteen more slaves in other skirmishes and captured many more, although as many as 100 may have escaped permanently. After they interrogated the captives, they quickly tried and executed eighteen slaves at the Destrehan plantation. They tried and executed eleven slaves in New Orleans. A total of ninety-five insurgents were killed in the aftermath of rebellion.
Deslondes was among the first captured by dogs after the battle. The militia did not hold him for trial or interrogation. Samuel Hambleton described Deslonde's fate: "Charles [Deslondes] had his hands chopped off then shot in one thigh & then the other, until they were both broken — then shot in the body and before he had expired was put into a bundle of straw and roasted!" His dying cries sent a message to the other escaped slaves in the marshes.
Further reading.
Harper/HarperCollins Publishers.


Franklin J. W. Schmidt

Franklin James White Schmidt (July 25, 1901, in Lake Forest, Illinois – August 7, 1935, in Stanley, Wisconsin) was an American naturalist, noted as one of the first practitioners of the field of "wildlife management". Hired by Wisconsin, Schmidt's main work was on the prairie grouse, and its habits in the central marshes of Wisconsin. He published one paper on feeding habits of the grouse. At the time of his death in a house fire at his home, he planned to start a consulting service to assist other Midwestern states in managing the prairie grouse, which would have also allowed him to continue to collect even more information on the species. Seven other papers in preparation on the prairie grouse were destroyed in the fire that killed Schmidt and his mother. Also consumed by the flames were many other field samples.
Regarding rodents and reptiles, Schmidt published five papers. In the 1920s Schmidt worked for Chicago's Field Museum, and he participated in their expeditions to South America and Guatemala. His painted turtle paper with Bishop established the modern view of that genus as a single species with multiple subspecies. Schmidt's brother, Karl Patterson Schmidt, who lived thirty years longer, was a noted herpetologist, who died by snakebite.


Artillery sound ranging

In land warfare, artillery sound ranging is a method of determining the coordinates of a hostile battery using data derived from the sound of its guns (or mortar or rockets) firing. The same methods can also be used to direct artillery fire at a position with known coordinates.
It is an application of sound (or acoustic) location, which is location of the source of sounds that may originate in the air, on the ground or on or below the water's surface. Sound ranging was one of three methods of locating hostile artillery that rapidly developed in World War I. The others were aerial reconnaissance (visual and photographic) and flash spotting.
A sound ranger used aural and stop-watch methods which first emerged before World War I. Stop-watch methods involved spotting a gun firing, measuring the bearing to it and the length of time it took the sound to arrive. Aural methods typically involved a person listening to a pair of microphones a few kilometres apart and measuring the time between the sound arriving at the microphones. This method appears to have been used by the Germans throughout that war, but was quickly discarded as ineffective by the western allies, who developed scientific methods of sound ranging whose descendants are still used.
The basis of scientific sound ranging is to use pairs of microphones to produce a bearing to the source of the sound. The intersection of these bearings gives the location of the battery. The bearings are derived from the differences in the time of arrival at the microphones.
Background.
Basic equipment setup.
A scientific method of sound ranging system requires the following equipment.
The basic method is to use microphones in pairs and measure the difference in the time of arrival of a sound wave at each microphone in the pair (inner microphones are members of two pairs). From this a bearing to the origin of the sound can be found from the point midway between the two microphones. The intersection of at least three bearings will be the location of the sound source.
Figure 1 illustrates the basic system.
These constraints would be imposed to simplify the calculation of the artillery position and are not a characteristic of the general approach.
The microphones also may be designed to pick up only the sound of the gun firing. There are three types of sounds that can be picked up by the microphone.
During World War I it was discovered that the gun firing makes a low rumbling sound that is best picked up with a microphone that is sensitive to low frequencies and rejects high frequencies.
Example.
Figure 2 shows an example of an artillery location problem. Assume that we position three microphones with the following relative positions (all measurements made relative to Microphone 3).
These values would be established during an initial survey of the microphone layout.
Figure 2: Example of An Artillery Location Problem.
Assume that two time delays are measured (assume speed of sound formula_3330 meters per second).
There are a number of ways to determine the range to the artillery piece. One way is to apply the law of cosines twice.
This is a system of two equations with two unknowns (formula_10, formula_11). This system of equations, while nonlinear, can be solved using numerical methods to give a solution for r1 of 1621 meters.
While this approach would be usable today with computers, it would have been a problem in World War I and II. During these conflicts, the solutions were developed using one of the following methods.
Advantages and disadvantages.
Sound ranging has a number of advantages over other methods:
Sound ranging also has a number of disadvantages:
Military forces have found various ways to mitigate these problems, but nonetheless they do create additional work and reduce the accuracy of the method and the speed of its deployment.
History.
World War I.
World War I saw the birth of scientific sound ranging. It brought together the necessary sensors, measurement technology, and analysis capabilities required to do effective sound ranging. Like many technology concepts, the idea of using sound to locate enemy artillery pieces came to a number of people at about the same time.
World War I provided the ideal environment for the development of sound ranging because:
While the British were not the first to attempt the sound ranging of artillery, it was the British during World War I who actually fielded the first effective operational system. British sound ranging during that war began with crews that used both sound and flash detection. The sound ranging operators used equipment that augmented human hearing. Using the gun flash, the flash crew would determine a bearing to the gun using a theodolite or transit. The sound detection crew would determine the difference in time between the gun flash and the sound of the gun, which was used to determine the range of the gun. This provided the range and bearing data needed for counter battery fire. These methods were not very successful.
In mid-1915 the British assigned the Australian scientist and Nobel Laureate Sir William Lawrence Bragg to the problem. Bragg was a Territorial officer of the Royal Horse Artillery in the British Army. When Bragg came onto the scene, sound ranging was slow, unreliable, and inaccurate. His first task was to investigate what was available, in particular looking at French efforts.
The French had made an important development. They had taken the string galvanometer and adapted it to record signals from microphones onto photographic film. This work had been done by Lucien Bull and Charles Nordmann (an astronomer at the Paris observatory). Processing the film took some minutes but this was not a significant drawback because artillery batteries did not move very frequently. However, the apparatus could not run continuously because of the expenditure of film. This meant that it had to be switched on when enemy guns fired, which necessitated the deployment of Advanced Posts (AP) in front of the microphones which could switch on the recording apparatus remotely via field cable. These Advanced Posts were connected back to a centrally located Flash Board, and this device enabled the observers to be sure they were all observing the same muzzle flash. When this had been established they could switch on the recording apparatus.
Bragg also found out that the nature of gun sounds was not well understood and that care needed to be taken to separate the sonic boom of the shell from the actual sound of the firing. This problem was solved in mid-1916 when one of Bragg's detachment, Lance Corporal William Sansome Tucker, formerly of the Physics Department, London University, invented the low-frequency microphone. This separated the low frequency sound made by the firing of the gun from the sonic boom of the shell. It used a heated platinum wire that was cooled by the sound wave of a gun firing.
Later in 1916 Tucker formed an experimental sound ranging section in UK and the following year techniques were developed to correct the sound data to compensate for meteorological conditions. Other matters were researched including the optimum layout and positioning of a 'sound ranging base' - the array of microphones. It was found that a shallow curve and relatively short length base was best. With these improvements, enemy artillery could be located accurately to within 25 to 50 meters under normal circumstances.
The program was very well developed by the end of World War I. In fact, the method was expanded to determine the gun location, caliber, and the intended target. The British deployed many sound ranging sections on the Western Front and sections also operated in Italy, the Balkans and Palestine. When the US entered the war in 1917 they adopted the British equipment.
The German aural method was used by the Central Powers. This used an early warning listening post (LP) and a main LP in the centre with two secondary LPs 500–1000 metres slightly to the rear on either side. Stop watches were switched on when the sound reached the main LP, the secondary LP times were converted to a distance (via speed of sound) and circles plotted, another circle was then derived that touched these two circles and the main LP, the centre of this circle was the source of the sound. Corrections were made for conditions affecting the speed of sound. However, late in the war Germany introduced 'objective devices' - directional galvanometers, oscillographs and modified seismographs, with results directly transferred onto paper or photographic film.
Between the World Wars.
British research continued between the wars as it did in other nations. It appears that in Britain this led to better microphones and recording apparatus using heat sensitive paper instead of photographic film. Radio link was also developed, although this could only connect the microphones to the recording apparatus, it did not enable the APs to switch on the recorder. Another innovation in the late 1930s was development of the comparator, a mechanical computer that calculated first order differential equations. It provided a fast means of comparing the coordinates of the fall of shot located by sound ranging with the coordinates of the target and hence deduction of a correction to the fall of shot.
World War II.
During World War II, sound ranging was a mature technology and widely used, particularly by the British (in corps level artillery survey regiments) and Germans (in Beobachtungsabteilungen). Development continued and better equipment was introduced, particularly for locating mortars. At the end of the war the British also introduced multiplexing, which enabled microphones to share a common field cable to the recording apparatus.
In 1944 it was found that radar could be used to locate mortars, but not guns or rockets. Although the radar should 'see' the shells their elliptic trajectories could not be solved.
The US Marines included sound ranging units as standard parts of their defense battalions. These sound ranging units were active in the Marines both before and during World War II. The US Army also used sound locators. US Army sound ranging units took part in nearly all battles in which the army participated after November 1942. By the end of the war there were 25 observation battalions with 13,000 men. During the Okinawa campaign, the US Army used its sound ranging sets to provide effective counter battery fire. The Japanese tried to counter this effective counter-battery fire with the tactic of "shoot and scoot," which means shooting a small number of rounds and leaving the firing position before the counter-battery fire could arrive. While an effective tactic against counter-battery fire, this approach tends to reduce the effectiveness of artillery fire.
During World War II, the British made extensive use of sound ranging. There are a number of excellent memoirs that address their use of sound ranging for artillery spotting available on the web, including "The 4th Durham Survey Regiment: Sounds like the Enemy" and "Communications for Artillery Location". A "Communications for Artillery Location" article describes the electronic equipment involved with these operations.
A very comprehensive account of British sound ranging units including their positions is Massimo Mangilli-Climpson's 2007 account.
Korean War.
Sound ranging of artillery was done in Korea, but mainly was supplanted by counter-mortar radar and aircraft-based artillery observers. Since anti-radar countermeasures were limited at this time and the UN had air superiority throughout the war, these approaches were simpler and more accurate.
Vietnam.
Most counter battery work in Vietnam was with artillery spotting done using radar or aircraft. Australia deployed a sound ranging detachment from 1967 to 1970 in Vietnam, which operated a cross-base to provide all-round observation.
Also, during this period the British deployed ad hoc "Cracker" batteries, with sound ranging and mortar locating radars, to Borneo and Oman.
In the early 1970s an effective VHF radio link was introduced that enabled the APs to switch-on the recording apparatus. Soon after, advances in electronics meant that the manual plotting of bearings and some other calculations were replaced by electronic calculators.
Present-day.
Although effective gun-locating radars finally supplemented the counter-mortar radars from the late 1970s onwards, sound ranging is undergoing a renaissance, because some armies have retained it in spite of its drawbacks. It appears that some also recognised its potential to operate as an automatic advanced post (AP) for the radars.
The British led the way in a new approach, developed by Roke Manor Research Limited, then Plessey, which had developed VHF radio-link sound ranging. This replaced the traditional sound-ranging base with an array of microphone clusters. Each comprised three microphones a few metres apart, a meteorological sensor and processing. Each unmanned cluster listened continuously for sound, calculated the bearing to the source and recorded other characteristics. These were automatically sent to a control post where they were automatically collated and the location of the sound source calculated. Prototypes of the new system, HALO (Hostile Artillery LOcating) were used in Sarajevo in 1995. The production system, ASP (Advanced Sound Ranging Project), entered British service in about 2001. Reportedly, it located hostile artillery at 50 km distance in Iraq in 2003. It is now being adopted by several other armies, including the United States Marines. A similar system has also been developed in Germany and in Ukraine ( RAZK artillery sound ranging complex ).
Boomerang is a gunfire location system developed by the United States Department of Defense that uses sound to locate and identify small arms fire.
Audio-sensing technology has been deployed to alert law enforcement to gunshots in about 90 cities in the United States and other countries. Within 45 seconds the technology can provide police a detailed location for the origin of gunfire. This can significantly shorten police response times and increase the probability of criminal arrests.


Stang shooting

Stangskyting, literally Stang-Shooting named after Colonel Georg Stang (1858-1907), is a practical rifle competition popular in Norway where the shooter has two periods of 25 seconds to get as many hits as possible on a target at an unknown distance, with an unlimited number of rounds. Competitions in Norway are arranged by Det frivillige Skyttervesen.
Procedure.
The shooting position is prone with the rifle loaded, safety catch applied and the butt of the stock touching the ground. At the command "Ready!" the rifle is put to the shoulder and the safety catch disengaged. Five seconds later the "Fire!" command is given. The targets used is Småen placed somewhere between 125-175 meters, and a 1/4 target ("quarter torso") placed somewhere between 200-250 meters.
Approved rifles.
Used by civilian shooters:
Used by military personnel:
Danish variant.
A Danish variant very similar to stangskyting called "hurtigskydning" (literally Speed Shooting) is arranged by Danske Gymnastik- & Idrætsforeninger (DGI). 10-ring bullseye targets at 200 m must be engaged with as many rounds as possible during 25 seconds, only scoring hits in the black area.


Canon lourd de 8 Gribeauval

The Canon lourd de 8 Gribeauval (Gribeauval heavy 8-pounder cannon) was a French canon and part of the Gribeauval system developed by Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval. It was part of the siege artillery.
The canon lourd de 8 Gribeauval was used extensively during the wars following the French Revolution, as well as the Napoleonic wars.
Some of the earlier Gribeauval siege guns kept the baroque "dolphin" design for the handles.


Fire forming

The term fire forming in firearms refers to the process of thermomechanically reshaping a metallic cartridge case to optimally fit a new chamber by firing it within that chamber. This might expand a cartridge to a new size, such as a wildcat cartridge, or just to the chamber of a specific gun.
Fire forming a wildcat differs from the normal manufacturing process; in that it relies on firing a loaded cartridge of differing dimensions than the chamber which it is being fired in. After fire forming, the spent case will take on the new dimensions of the firearm's chamber. Fire forming is the final process in creating a wildcat or an improved cartridge.
There are two methods of fire forming. One method is to cold form a parent case using forming dies, creating some form of headspace, load the case and fire the cold formed cartridge in the chamber of the firearm. This first method is the most common and will create a wildcat cartridge. The second method is to fire form a factory cartridge by using its factory headspace to headspace on. The factory cartridge is then fired in the chamber of the firearm. This second method will create an improved cartridge.


Tonfa

The tonfa (Okinawan: , lit. "old man's staff" / "crutch"), also spelled as tongfa or tuifa, also known as T-baton is a melee weapon best known for its role in the armed component of Okinawan martial arts. It consists of a stick with a perpendicular handle attached a third of the way down the length of the stick, and is about long. It was traditionally made from red or white oak and wielded in pairs. The tonfa is believed to have originated in either China or Southeast Asia where it is used in the respective fighting styles. A similar weapon called the mai sok san is used in Krabi-krabong and tomoi.
History.
Although the tonfa is most commonly associated with the Okinawan martial arts, its origin is heavily debated. One of the most commonly cited origins is China, although origins from Indonesia to Thailand are also possible. Although modern martial artists often cite that the tonfa derives from a millstone handle used by peasants, martial arts in Okinawa were historically practised by the upper classes who imported martial arts from China and elsewhere, and it is likely that the weapon was imported from outside Okinawa. The Chinese and Malay words for the weapon ("guai" and "topang" respectively) literally mean "crutch", which may suggest the weapon originating from such device. In Cambodia and Thailand a similar weapon is used consisting of a pair of short clubs tied onto the forearms, known in Thai as "mai sok" and in Khmer as "staupe". In Thailand and Malaysia the mai sok often has a similar design to the tonfa, with a perpendicular handle rather than being tied on. This weapon might be the original version of the tonfa.
Usage.
The tonfa measures about three centimeters past the elbow when gripped. There are three grips, "honte-mochi" (natural), "gyakute-mochi" (reverse) and "tokushu-mochi" (special). The natural grip places the handle in the hand with the long arm resting along the bottom of the forearm. This grip provides protection or brace along one's forearms, and also provides reinforcement for backfist, elbow strikes, and punches. In use, the tonfa can swing out to the "gyakute" grip for a strike or thrust. Martial artists may also flip the tonfa and grab it by the shaft, called "tokushu-mochi". This allows use of the handle as a hook in combat, similar to the kama (sickle). This grip is uncommon but is used in the kata Yaraguwa.
Many modern law enforcement departments use side-handle batons, a weapon derived from the tonfa, to augment the less-lethal tools of an officer.


Canon de 105 modèle 1925/27 Schneider

The Canon de 105 modèle 1925/27 Schneider was a heavy field gun used by Greece during World War II. It was bought at the same time as the Canon de 85 modèle 1927 Schneider The Germans allotted this gun the designation of 10.5 cm Kanone 340(g), but it is unknown if they actually used them themselves.


Kastane

Kastane is a short traditional ceremonial/decorative single-edged Sri Lankan sword.
Kastanes often have elaborate hilts, especially shaped and described as a rich mythical style inherited from Buddhism in blending a variety of Icons including, Lions, Kirtimukha Serapendiya, Nagas, crocodile/human monsters and other dragon and gargoyle like effigies. Some appear seemingly emitted onto the hand guard and cross guard with Vajra style pseudo-quillons whose finials are also decorated by minor monsters and a rain-guard decorated by the Makara or Serapendiya peacock tail or fish scales which occasionally flows over and onto the blade at the throat. The scabbard is occasionally seen with a miniature beasts head at the chape also emitting an icon or cloud pattern. Sometimes a small human face decorates the hand-guard which is a half human/half crocodile monster.
The main aspect of Kastane Hilts shows the central monster accompanied by supporting minor iconic forms and the peculiar guard arrangement incorporating Buddhist style Vajra quillons. The National Museum of Colombo displays the oldest surviving makara-guard adorning a pre-kastane sword from the early Kotte kingdom. The cross and hand guards are further embellished with lavish decoration often spilling over onto the blades throat. In approaching a description authors should observe each Kastane separately since no two are identical and the main Hilt theme thus could be either of the variant Icons; Lion, Makara, Serapendiya or hybrid etc. and since artist and artisan may well have applied a broad ranging interpretation of the form.
The Sendai City Museum displays the oldest surviving kastane 'Lion' hilt which belonged to "daimyō" Hasekura Tsunenaga dating from circa 1600 AD, albeit on a hybrid blade. A depiction of the same blade with a different hilt in the hand of a Sinhala chief thought to be Kuruvita Rala or Rathnayake Mudiyanse, is displayed on a Portuguese stone slab near the Maha Saman devalaya, Ratnapura.
The oldest depiction of a kastane with a 'Makara' hilt dating from the same period is displayed at the Royal Armouries Museum on a painting of Colonel Alexander Popham, Commander of a Dragoon regiment in the English Civil War.
In 1807 it is recorded that the sword was an indicator of official rank so that the more senior persons in what could be described as a native headmen would wear a more lavishly adorned weapon and that this was also the intent though perhaps to a lesser degree in the Portuguese and Dutch periods. It is likely that this is a home grown weapon though perhaps inspired by European swords brought by the Portuguese period in Ceylon or in fact imported by Muslim sea traders. The basic form being lavishly adorned so much so that it is almost impossible to designate a base pattern, though, North Italian or Venetian seems plausible. A 16th century South Indian dagger hilt depicts what may be the basic hilt form. The blade comes in a variety of sizes and it can be either straight or slightly curved. They are usually single-edged though sharpened on both sides from the point back about 8 inches and from the Dutch period are most frequently made in Europe(Solingen).The break in local blade production being the result of colonial presence and cheaper, imported foreign steel. None of the blades bear either Portuguese marks or English East India Company trademarks (EIC), however, there are many examples of Dutch influence with blades marked VOC usually with the Amsterdam initial 'A'. The single part of the sword that shares the similar characteristics is the hilt. It has two or four quillons. In the 4-quillon version the smaller two quillons are swept downwards toward the tip of the blade. In fact it is arguable if these are Quillons since they are mirror images of the Vajra projections on the Buddhist religious axe and perhaps serve no defensive purpose. The pommel and the quillons are very beautiful as each of them ends with a carved Iconic finial. The hilts are often encrusted with gemstones as in the eyes of Ruby stones and inlaid with silver or made entirely of silver or gold. The scabbards of the Kastane swords are made of wood or Rhino horn and are decorated with brass, silver and/or gold. It is a testament to the skill of the traditional craftsmen operating in Sri Lankas ancient Royal Sword Workshops.
At present, Kastane swords are issued to general officers of the rank of Major General and above of the Sri Lanka Army, while the 1897 pattern British infantry officer's sword is the basis for the sword general purpose issued in the Army.


Randal McCloy


.50-70 Government

The .50-70 Government (also called the .50-70 Musket and .50 Government) is a black powder cartridge adopted in 1866 for the Springfield Model 1866 Trapdoor rifle.
Description.
Derived from the .50-60-400 Joslyn, the cartridge was developed after the unsatisfactory results of the .58 rimfire cartridge for the Springfield Model 1865 Trapdoor rifle.
The .50-70 Government cartridge became the official cartridge of the US military until replaced by the .45-70 Government in 1873. The .50-70 cartridge had a pressure limit of 22,500 PSI.
The official designation of this cartridge at the time of introduction was "US center-fire metallic cartridge", and the commercial designation ".50-70-450", standing for :
Reloaders have experimented with a variety of bullet weights from 425 to . Additionally, the US Navy contracted with Remington to produce several thousand Rolling Block carbines chambered for a reduced load version of this cartridge which was officially produced for use only in carbines. This reduced load cartridge used a shortened .50-70 with a bullet and of black powder.
The US Navy purchased Remington Rolling Block rifles chambered for the full size .50-70 cartridge. The US Army also ordered both Rolling Block rifles and carbines in caliber .50-70 and made some Rolling Blocks at their Springfield Armory facility in this caliber. The US Army also had a large supply of percussion-fired Sharps carbines at the close of the Civil War and had the Sharps Rifle Company convert about 31,000 of those to caliber .50-70 for cavalry use. Meanwhile, the army, which had exited the Civil War with an inventory of almost a million percussion-fired muzzle loaders converted Springfield Model 1863 and Model 1864 muskets to metallic cartridge ammunition using the Allin conversion (trapdoor) method, as well as cadet rifles. The first of the .50-70 conversions was the Springfield Model 1866. Newer improved versions were made and used by the army through 1873. After 1873, with the advent of the 45-70 cartridge, the army declared the .50-70 to be surplus and while some rifles in .50-70 were issued to Indian scouts, the bulk were simply sold off as surplus. In the US Navy however, the 50-70 cartridge and the guns associated with it remained in use until the late 1880s.
Buffalo Bill Cody used a Springfield Model 1866 in caliber .50-70 while hunting buffalo to feed the track workers of the Kansas Pacific Railroad (later Union Pacific Eastern Division). General G. A. Custer was known to have had and used a sporterized Rolling Block in caliber .50-70 and was believed to have had it with him at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
As army general Sheridan had embarked on a plan to eliminate the bison during the course of the American Indian Wars, the .50-70 rifles were also issued, or purchased, by buffalo hunters for use in eliminating the vast bison herds. Sharps began manufacturing sporterized rifles in .50-70 (and later .50-90, .50-110, etc.) and with improved sights for longer range shots for use by the buffalo hunters.
In 1867 the .50-70 cartridge in US Army Model of 1866 Springfield rifles played a pivotal role in holding off an attacking force of 300-1000 Lakota Sioux Indians during the Wagon Box Fight.
Modern-made functional replicas of caliber .50-70 historical rifles have been imported into the US by such firms as Davide Pedersoli and A. Uberti, Srl. (a Beretta subsidiary). The caliber of .50-70 still enjoys some use and popularity with sportsmen and cowboy action shooters.


USS Juneau (CL-52)

The first USS "Juneau" (CL-52) was a United States Navy light cruiser sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 13 November 1942. In total, 687 men, including the five Sullivan brothers, were killed in action as a result of her sinking.
She was laid down by Federal Shipbuilding Company, Kearny, New Jersey, on 27 May 1940, launched on 25 October 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Harry I. Lucas, wife of the mayor of the city of Juneau, Alaska, and commissioned on 14 February 1942, Captain Lyman K. Swenson in command. She was torpedoed and sank on November 13, 1942; killing all 5 of the Sullivan brothers, and most of the crew, leaving only 10 survivors, after 8 days in the water. Subsequent to the loss, the Navy launched ships and , honoring that.
On 17 March 2018, the wreck of "Juneau" was located by Paul Allen's research crew on board at a depth of about off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
Service history.
After a hurried shakedown cruise along the Atlantic Coast in the spring of 1942, "Juneau" assumed blockade patrol in early May off Martinique and Guadeloupe Islands to prevent the escape of Vichy French naval units. She returned to New York to complete alterations and operated in the North Atlantic and Caribbean from 1 June to 12 August on patrol and escort duties. The cruiser departed for the Pacific Theater on 22 August.
Pacific theater.
After stopping briefly at the Tonga Islands and New Caledonia, she rendezvoused on 10 September with Task Force 18 (TF 18) under the command of Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, flying his flag on . The following day, TF 17, which included , combined with Admiral Noyes' unit to form TF 61, whose mission was to ferry fighter aircraft to Guadalcanal. On 15 September, "Wasp" took three torpedo hits from the Japanese submarine , and, with fires raging out of control, was sunk at 2100 by . "Juneau" and screen destroyers rescued 1,910 survivors of "Wasp" and returned them to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, on 16 September. The next day, the fast cruiser rejoined TF 17. Operating with the "Hornet" group, she supported three actions that repelled enemy thrusts at Guadalcanal: the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid; the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands; and the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (Third Savo).
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
The ship's first major action was the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October. On 24 October, 's task force had combined with 's group to reform TF 61 under the command of Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid. This force positioned itself north of the Santa Cruz Islands to intercept enemy units that might attempt to close Guadalcanal. Meanwhile, on Guadalcanal, the Japanese achieved a breakthrough during the Battle for Henderson Field on the night of 25 October. That success evidently was a signal for Japanese ships to approach the island.
Early on the morning of 26 October, U.S. carrier planes spotted the Japanese force and immediately attacked it, damaging two carriers (CVL and CV ), one heavy cruiser (CA ) and two destroyers, but while American aircraft were locating and engaging the enemy, American ships were also under fire. Shortly after 10:00, some 27 enemy aircraft attacked "Hornet". Though "Juneau" and other screen ships threw up an effective anti-aircraft (AA) barrage which shot down about 20 of the attackers, "Hornet" was badly damaged and sank the next day. Just before noon, "Juneau" left "Hornet"s escort for the beleaguered "Enterprise" group several miles away. "Juneau" helped repel four Japanee attacks that lost 18 planes.
That evening, the American forces retired to the southeast. Although the battle had been costly, it had, combined with the Marine victory on Guadalcanal, turned back the attempted Japanese parry in the Solomons. Furthermore, the damaging of two Japanese carriers sharply reduced their air power in the subsequent battle of Guadalcanal.
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
On 8 November, "Juneau" departed Nouméa, New Caledonia, as a unit of TF 67 under the command of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner to escort reinforcements to Guadalcanal. The force arrived there early morning on 12 November, and "Juneau" took up her station in the protective screen around the transports and cargo vessels. Unloading proceeded unmolested until 14:05, when 30 Japanese planes attacked the alerted United States group. The AA fire was effective, and "Juneau" alone accounted for six enemy torpedo bombers shot down. The few remaining Japanese planes were, in turn, attacked by American fighters; only one bomber escaped. Later in the day, an American attack group of cruisers and destroyers cleared Guadalcanal on reports that a large enemy surface force was headed for the island. At 01:48 on 13 November, Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan's relatively small landing support group engaged the enemy. The Japanese force consisted of two battleships, one light cruiser, and nine destroyers.
Because of bad weather and confused communications, the battle occurred in near-pitch darkness and at almost point-blank range, as the ships of the two sides became intermingled. During the melee, "Juneau" was struck on the port side by a torpedo launched by , causing a severe list, and necessitating withdrawal. Before noon on 13 November, "Juneau", along with two other cruisers damaged in the battle— and —headed toward Espiritu Santo for repairs. "Juneau" was steaming on one screw, keeping station 800 yd (730 m) off the starboard quarter of the likewise severely damaged "San Francisco". She was down by the bow, but able to maintain 13 kn (15 mph, 24 km/h).
A few minutes after 11:00, two torpedoes were launched from . These were intended for "San Francisco", but both passed ahead of her. One struck "Juneau" in the same place that had been hit during the battle. There was a great explosion; "Juneau" broke in two and disappeared in just 20 seconds. Fearing more attacks from "I-26", and wrongly assuming from the massive explosion that there were no survivors, "Helena" and "San Francisco" departed without attempting to rescue any survivors. In fact, more than 100 sailors had survived the sinking of "Juneau". They were left to fend for themselves in the open ocean for eight days before rescue aircraft belatedly arrived. While awaiting rescue, all but 10 died from the elements and shark attacks. Among those lost were the five Sullivan brothers. Two of the brothers apparently survived the sinking, only to die in the water; two presumably went down with the ship. Some reports indicate the fifth brother also survived the sinking, but disappeared during the first night when he left a raft and got into the water. On 20 November 1942, recovered two of the ten survivors. Five more in a raft were rescued by a PBY Seaplane away. Three others, including a badly wounded officer, made it to San Cristobal (now Makira) Island, about away from the sinking. One of the survivors recovered by "Ballard" said he had been with one of the Sullivan brothers for several days after the sinking.
Wreck.
The wreck of "Juneau" was located on 17 March 2018 by Paul Allen's research crew on board RV" Petrel". The cruiser rests below the surface off the Solomon Islands in several large pieces.
Awards.
"Juneau" received four battle stars for her service in World War II.


Wadding

Wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile (a bullet or ball), or to separate the propellant from loosely packed shots.
Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it is being fired is wasted. A harder or more carefully designed item which serves this purpose is often called a sabot. Wadding for muzzleloaders is typically a small piece of cloth, or paper wrapping from the cartridge.
Shotguns.
In shotgun shells, the wadding is actually a semi-flexible cup-shaped sabot designed to hold numerous much smaller-diameter sub-projectiles (i.e. shots), and is launched out together as one payload-carrying projectile. This minimizes chaotic collisions of the shots with the bore wall and with each other, allowing the internal ballistics to be more consistent. After leaving the muzzle, the wadding loosens and opens up in flight, allowing the much denser shots to be inertially released and scattered. The same function is served when shooting slugs.
Model rockets.
Wadding is used in model rockets to protect the parachute when it ejects. Without the recovery wadding, the parachute would melt because the ejection is by a small solid-fuel engine, which gets so hot that it melts the glue almost immediately.
Effects.
Burning wadding may have ignited the fire that led to the explosion that destroyed the "Orient" at the Battle of the Nile ("q.v."). The father of Robert Morris, "Financier of the American Revolution," died as the result of being wounded by flying wadding from a ship's gun that was fired in his honor.


Weapon Masters

Weapon Masters is a television show that premiered on the Discovery Channel on December 31, 2007 and on the Military Channel.
Hosts Chad Houseknecht and Mike Loades, a weapons historian, choose a different historical weapon each week. While Loades explores its history—often traveling to the country from which it comes to interview modern practitioners—Houseknecht capers about, gibbering and gurning, while attempting to improve on it using modern technology (for example, a pneumatic device was added to a blowgun in one episode). At the end of each episode a challenge test of the new version is held.


Range table

A range table was a list of angles of elevation a particular artillery gun barrel needed to be set to, to strike a target at a particular distance with a projectile of a particular weight using a propellant cartridge of a particular weight. They were used for several centuries by field and naval gunners of all countries until gradually replaced by computerised fire-control systems beginning in World War II (1939–1945).
Range table for US 3-inch field gun, models 1902-1905.
This gun used a standard "fixed" cartridge with 15-pound shell, hence a single set of tables applied to all its ammunition.
Range table for British 3 inch Stokes Mortar, 1917.
Different propellant charges were used to achieve required range, angle of descent and flight time. This is typical of mortars and howitzers.
(Provisional) Range Table For 3-Inch Stokes Mortar, Printed in September 1917.

Cartridge : 95 grains ballistite, reinforced with Charges : 5 grains, guncotton yarn

Rings : 110 grains, .3 mm flake cordite

Projectile : Bomb, 10 lb. 11 oz


Buck and ball

Buck and ball was a common load for muzzle-loading muskets, and was frequently used in the American Revolutionary War and into the early days of the American Civil War. The load usually consisted of a .50 to .75 caliber round lead musket ball that was combined with three to six buckshot pellets.
Construction.
Buck and ball was issued in paper cartridges that combined the projectiles with the black powder propellant charge to facilitate rapid loading of the weapon. Like any other paper cartridge, the rear of the cartridge would be torn open to expose the powder, which would be loaded, and the remaining paper, ball, and buckshot would be rammed down on top.
Purpose.
The intent of the buck and ball load was to combine the devastating impact of a .50 to .75 caliber ball with the spreading pattern of a shotgun. The combination served to greatly improve the hit probability of the smoothbore musket. In combat, especially at closer ranges, the buckshot would retain significant energy. When used against closely packed troops, the spread of the buckshot would be advantageous.
Claud E. Fuller, in his book "The Rifled Musket", shows tests of a rifled musket firing Minié ball, and a smoothbore musket firing round ball and buck rounds at various ranges against a target. The firers consisted of several men in line shooting in volley. At ranges of and under, the buck and ball from the smoothbore musket, while less accurate than the rifled musket, produces a greater number of hits due to the greater number of projectiles. At , 50 shots by smoothbore buck and ball against the 10 x 10 target result in 79 buckshot hits and 37 ball strikes, as opposed to 48 Minié ball hits in 50 shots. At 200 yards, 37 of 50 Minié bullets struck the target, vs. 18 of 50 smoothbore balls and 31 of 50 buckshot, for a total of 49 hits in 50 shots.
Beyond this range, the buckshot will have lost too much energy to be effective due to its lower ballistic coefficient.
Use.
Perhaps the most famous proponent of the buck and ball loading was George Washington, who encouraged his troops to load their muskets with buck and ball loads during the American Revolution.
The buck and ball load was standard issue throughout the Seminole Wars of 1815–45.
With the advent of general issue rifled muskets in the American Civil War, and longer engagement ranges during the later stages of the war, the buck and ball loading began to fade from use.
Buck and ball did see action in the remaining inventory of smoothbore muskets at Gettysburg and later actions.
The Union Irish Brigade retained their smoothbore muskets until late so they could fire buck and ball during the relatively close range battles, perhaps most famously, and to good effect, against Pickett's Charge. In addition, the 12th New Jersey Infantry preferred to use buck and ball, which they did to deadly effect at Gettysburg, and so continued carrying smoothbore muskets.
For the modern combat shotgun the buck and ball load has been replaced in current military inventories by standard buckshot loadings.
Modern resurgence.
Modern ammunition manufacturers have recently re-discovered Buck and Ball type shotgun loads, and have been manufacturing defensive shotgun ammunition which largely duplicates the properties of the historical loads. As an example Winchester's PDX1 12 gauge load features three 00-buck copper plated pellets over a one-ounce slug. Similar ammunition is produced by Centurion, called "Multi Defense Buckshot."


Bayerisches Armeemuseum

The Bayerisches Armeemuseum is the Military History Museum of Bavaria. It was founded in 1879 in Munich and is located in Ingolstadt since 1972. The main collection is housed in the New Castle, the permanent exhibition about the First World War in "Reduit Tilly" opened in 1994 and the Armeemuseum incorporated the "Bayerisches Polizeimuseum" (Bavarian Police Museum) in the "Turm Triva" in 2012. Today, part of the former Munich Museum building is the central building of the new "Bayerische Staatskanzlei" (Bavarian State Chancellery).
History.
Museum in Munich.
The museum was founded in 1879 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria at the suggestion of General Friedrich von Bothmers and the Minister of War Joseph Maximilian von Maillinger. It was to bring together the collections that were scattered throughout Bavaria. First director was Josef Würdinger (1822-1889). Until 1905, it was located in Munich in the arsenal of the Bavarian army and then moved after five years of construction, into a new monumental building at the Hofgarten in Munich; where the "Hofgartenkaserne" (court garden barracks) had previously stood, and was based on the plans by Ludwig von Mellinger.
During the Second World War, the building was partially destroyed. The preserved dome of the old museum building in Munich is the central building of the newly established "Bayerische Staatskanzlei" (state chancellery) today. From 1946 to 1969, the Armeemuseum was housed in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich.
Museum in Ingolstadt.
Director Peter Jaeckel (1972-1979).
The collection on military history arrived in the New Castle in Ingolstadt, in 1969. The city had been the seat of the Dukes of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and as a former Bavarian mainland fortress, possessed a rich military tradition and numerous references to the Bavarian army. In 1972 the museum was opened under the direction of director Peter Jaeckel. The permanent exhibition designed and furnished at that time remained unchanged until 2014.
Director Ernst Aichner (1979-2010).
In 1979, Ernst Aichner became museum director and expanded the museum's collections significantly. He paid particular attention to the First World War and the Bavarian military paintings, such as those by artists like Anton Hoffmann or Louis Braun. Even more from unknown artists, who have immortalized the events of Bavarian and European military history through their paintings, were collected by Aichner and represent an important asset of the museum today.
Other acquisitions, such as a raffle of 6,000 Nazi propaganda art works seized by the United States at the end of Second world War in 1986, were never processed, even though the United States had made it a condition for the sale that they be processed in a museum. Aichner sent about 700 of the war paintings to the "Deutsches Historisches Museum" (German Historical Museum) in Berlin and to the Bundeswehr Military History Museum (Military History Museum of the German Armed Forces) in Dresden. The processing of the remaining objects in Ingolstadt waited until he had set up the planned department for Second World War.
In the same year, they also set up a Starfighter in the museum court yard, to which other military historians noted that a reference of the exhibit on the history of the 1683 established and 1918/19 disbanded Bavarian army was difficult to recognize.
In 1988, the Bavarian state parliament decided that a museum education concept should be created for the museum.
In connection with the Bavarian State Garden Show in Ingolstadt in 1992, Aichner developed ambitious expansion plans for his museum. Therefore, in addition to the previous, not yet fully used headquarters in the New Castle, all historic military buildings on the southern bank of the Danube in Ingolstadt's old town were to be used for expansion. Making the Armeemuseum the third largest military history museum in Europe. Ingolstadt lawyers, doctors, teachers and artists feared for Ingolstadt's reputation as a cultural city and founded with the local SPD member of Parliament Manfred Schuhmann, the initiative "culture instead of cannon", the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi was also concerned about the image of its headquarters.
In March 1993, a tin soldier with SS attributes was offered for sale at the souvenir stall of the museum treasury, which led to investigations in the Armeemuseum for use of markings of unconstitutional organizations. Minister of Culture, Hans Zehetmair, said at a parliamentary questioning by the Alliance 90/The Greens Chairman, Manfred Fleischer, that he waits for the outcome of the investigation, but regardless of the decision, he believes that the exhibition of objects that had nothing to do with the history of the Bavarian Army and which were considered as "overzealous", were nothing of the such. An employee of Aichner received a fine on the matter, and the case against Aichner was discontinued by the prosecution.
While the 700,000 DM, which was collected by the circle of friends of the museum was being spent on new acquisitions, which were mostly stored in the extensive museum depots, the exhibition for the First World War opened only in the Summer of 1994, more than two years after the scheduled date all because of missing 20,000 DM for educational information boards. For this exhibition, the parliamentary decision on the museum educational concept was also implemented, whereas for the main exhibition only came into effect with the reorganization after the national exhibition of 2015. The "Reduit Tilly" has become one of the few special museums of the First World War in recent years, and not only because the war reality is made physically tangible there was it universally recognized. The 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war not only increased public interest, but also the lending of exhibits to other museums increased significantly.
In addition, in 2007, the police history collection of the Bavarian State Police from Bamberg was transferred to the Armeemuseum. It contains historical information about the "Königlich Bayerisches Gendarmeriekorps" (Bavarian Gendarmerie), the Bavarian police during the National Socialist era and, in general, the development of the municipal and city police as well as the state, water protection, border and riot police. Under the organizational roof of the Armeemuseum, the collection was opened as its own "Bayerisches Polizeimuseum" (Bavarian Police Museum) only after several years of delay, on 19 December 2011, with a concept developed under the new director, Ansgar Reiß. The police museum is housed in the "Turm Triva" in the immediate vicinity of the "Reduit Tilly".
Aichner pursued his expansion plans until his retirement at the end of January 2010: His last major act was the opening of an exhibition on the history of the "Deutsche Gebirgstruppe" (German mountain troops) from 1915 to today, in which the foundation "Deutsche Gebirgstruppe" was founded. The controversial surrounding the group because of its relationship to war crimes of the German "Wehrmacht" "Kameradenkreis" (circle of comrades), became the basis for the contribution of all of the mountain troops exhibits and documents to the foundation. Under Aichner's successor, the museum critically took on a special exhibition on the beginnings of the German mountain troops (17 September 2014 to 27 September 2015). Further special exhibitions on this topic are in preparation.
Director Ansgar Reiß (since 2010).
On February 1, 2010, Ansgar Reiß took up the post as the new museum director. After an exhibition on African American US soldiers during the occupation, the traveling exhibition hosted the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on the theme of Nazi military justice in 2011.
It was followed by exhibitions on topics such as the "Die Polizei im NS-Staat" (police in the Nazi state), "König Ludwig II", "Militärischer Widerstand gegen Hitler und das NS-Regime" (military resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime), "Fotografien aus dem Afghanistan Einsatz der Bundeswehr" (photographs from the Afghanistan mission of the "Bundeswehr") or "Krankenpflege im Ersten Weltkrieg" (nursing in the First World War).
In 2014, the museum put a focus on the commemoration of the "100 Jahre Erster Weltkrieg" (100 years of First World War). A large number of special exhibitions, events and publications filled up this special year and brought the museum a large increase in visitors.
Today, the museum sees its task in the "critical and historically accurate reflection of military and military violence in history and its effects on man, society and the state". Through the publication of an annual report for the years 2010 to 2014, they stated that the museum and the public are accountable for themselves.
From 30 April to 31 October 2015, the Bavarian State Exhibition "Napoleon und Bayern" took place in the New Castle, which was very successful with almost 150,000 visitors. For this exhibition, the previous permanent exhibition was removed, and the museum was renovated to become barrier-free. After the end of the national exhibition, the Armeemuseum will relocate gradually starting in 2018 to the same premises with a newly designed exhibition. Through which, objects are to be placed on display that have hardly or never before been presented in an exhibition at the Armeemuseum. A modern concept should better explain the exhibits to the visitor and place them in a clearer historical context than what was previously the case.
A first step towards the renewal of the permanent exhibition is the special exhibition "Nord gegen Süd. Der Deutsche Krieg 1866" (North vs. South. The German War 1866) exhibition, which was opened in July 2016. It represents, for the first time, the comprehensive holdings of the museum on this topic and is accompanied with an extensive catalog of collections.
At the end of 2017, the museum presented a collection catalog on the museums old collection, which has received much attention by specialists in the field, with the volume "The Bavarian Army Museum: A Selection of Baroque and Renaissance Arms and Armor."
Facilities and events.
Permanent exhibitions.
The museum today consists of three houses:
In addition, the museum keeps an extensive collection of paintings, graphics, musical instruments, vehicles, models, toys, pewter figures, photo albums, diaries, archives and much more in its depots, which are also provided for scientific research.
Bavarian Army Library.
The holdings of the, 1822 as main conservatory of the Army in Munich built "Bayerische Armeebibliothek" (Bavarian army library), were seized at the end of the Second World War, largely by the US Armed Forces and returned in 1962. Until 1984/85, they were administered by the "Bundeswehr", then the "Bayerische Armeebibliothek" was re-established as part of the Armeemuseum and moved into rooms in the former army bakery in the city center of Ingolstadt.
Special exhibitions.
Selection from 2010:
Scientific Staff.
Researchers of the museum are:
In the 1970's, Rotraud Werde was a designated expert on uniforms at the museum. From 1979 to 2011, Jürgen Kraus was curator and main conservator at the museum.
Friendship circle.
The fortunes of the museum have been accompanied for decades by the "Verein der Freunde des Bayerischen Armeemuseums" (Association of Friends of the Bavarian Armeemuseum) based in Munich. In addition to various representatives of Bavarian aristocracy and officer corps, counted in 1967, museum director Ernst Aichner was also a student among the founding members. Chairman, from 1989 to 2016, was the former CSU member of parliament and long-time head of external relations of Eurocopter, Manfred Dumann. After the Bavarian Ministry of Science, which has been under FDP leadership since 2009, chose a successor without Aichner friendship circle, leading members of the friendship such as Ingolstadt's Second Mayor Albert Wittmann (CSU) were initially irritated and did not want to rule out an FDP plot against Horst Seehofer. After the contact between Dumann and the new museum director had normalized, the special exhibition on the Nazi military justice and its victims caused a low point of the relationship. Relying on his status as the son of a fallen "Wehrmacht" soldier, Dumann criticized a "blanket defamation" of lawyers and "bias" on the part of exhibition organizers, prompting Reiß to conclude that the museum was "not a sanatorium for offended "Wehrmacht" souls". By changing the articles of association, the foundations of further cooperation between the museum and the circle of friends were redefined and the responsibilities clearly defined. A new board of trustees was appointed for the association under the direction of Prince Wolfgang von Bayern.
In August 2016, Dumann resigned from the chair due to his age. The new chairman was Ernst Aichner, former director of the Armeemuseum. The board includes, among others, mayor Albert Wittmann and the deputies Robert Brannekämper and Reinhard Brandl (each CSU).
On 7 October 2017, an article was published in the "Donaukurier" referring to revisionist and legal texts on the website of the Association of Friends. Museum director Reiß pointed out on demand by the newspaper that he had already informed Aichner by letter in July on this "obvious maladministration" and asked the association to delete the texts. When this did not happen, the museum director "publicly distanced himself from the association" and criticized "the publication of these" right-wing texts "violently". All links to the association have been removed from the museums homepage. Aichner stated that he had instructed the administrator of the association website after the notice by Reiß, that the texts which incidentally had not been approved by him, to be remove from the internet. He then assumed that the matter had been settled. In actual fact, only the links to the texts had been removed, but direct access was still possible. According to Aichner, the administrator has since been deprived of access to the association's website.


Ishk Ishk Ishk

Ishk Ishk Ishk () is a Hindi film produced, directed by and starring Dev Anand along with Zeenat Aman, Kabir Bedi, and Shabana Azmi.
Plot.
Dhun (Dev Anand) comes from a wealthy and talented family. His desire is to see the world on his own, and he sets upon this travel. He comes upon an Inn called Six Sisters Inn, run by Pahar (Premnath). He decides to stay there for a while. He meets the sisters, and falls in love with the one named Pooja (Zeenat Aman). Pooja also reciprocates his love, and both hope to marry soon. Pahar does raise objections, but they soon are overcome. Just when the marriage is being planned, the family come to know that both Pooja and Dhun are related, and the relationship is that Dhun is Pooja's maternal uncle.
Reception.
Despite the famous tracks, which were composed by no other than R. D. Burman and the expensive budget for the film, the film was received as the "biggest disaster" for Dev Saab and his crew.