Benjamin B Hotchkiss was an American engineer. He was born in 1830 and died in 1885. He was considered at the time of his death the first artillery engineer in the world. He invented among others, a machine gun and a magazine rifle. Research Benjamin Hotchkiss
Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an Anglo-American inventor. He was born in 1840 at Sangerville, Maine and died in 1916. He invented the automatic quick-firing gun (machine gun). Research Hiram Maxim
In 1940 in Western Australia, Lt-Colonel Anketell was directed to form a Machine Gun Battalion. The men he assembled came to be known as the
2nd 4th Machine Gun Battalion. They fought bravely in the defence of Singapore. On the 15th of February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese and the Battalion shared the horrors of three and a half years as prisoners of war of the Japanese. Research 2nd 4th Machine Gun Battalion
The BRDM-2 is a Soviet armoured scout car used for reconnaissance and command roles. It carries a crew of two and has room for up to four passengers. The BRDM-2 has a top speed of 62 mph and is armed with a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun and a coaxial 7.62 mm machine-gun and carries three Snapper or six Sagger anti-tank guided missiles. Research BRDM-2
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was a .30 inch calibre gas operated automatic rifle, or light machine-gun, designed by John Browning in 1917 for the purpose of providing covering fire to troops crossing no-mans-land against machine gun fire, and manufactured by Winchester, Colt and other companies from 1918 onwards. The BAR took a 20-round box magazine and had a cyclic rate of 350 or 600 rounds per minute, a muzzle velocity of 855 meters per second and an effective range of 600 meters. It had either a 610 mm long barrel or in the M1922 model a 457 mm long barrel and was fitted with a blade foresight and a tangent leaf with aperture rearsight and a bipod. Research Browning Automatic Rifle
In modern warfare, the term cannon is applied to a shell-firing gun of a heavier calibre than a machine gun. They have a lower rate of fire, but are more destructive than machine guns. Before the Great War, all big guns which we would now refer to as howitzers and anti-tank guns etc were called cannons, irrespective of whether they were muzzle or breech loaded.
In older warfare, the term cannon was applied to a big gun or piece of ordnance. The precise period at which engines for projecting missiles by mechanical force (catapults, etc) were supplanted by those utilizing explosive materials is a matter of controversy, the invention of cannon being attributed to the Chinese, from whom the Saracens may have acquired the knowledge. A doubtful authority asserts their use at the siege of Belgrade in 1073; but they were certainly brought into use in France as early as 1338. At first they were made of wood, well secured by iron hoops, the earliest shape being somewhat conical, with wide muzzles, and afterwards cylindrical. They were then made of iron bars firmly bound together with iron hoops like casks, Mons Meg at Edinburgh being a good example.
The first cannons used in Britain appeared around 1335. Edward III used cannons at the Battle of Cressy. In the reign of Elizabeth I, the British cannon was a muzzle-loading gun with an 8-inch bore that fired a 60 lb projectile. Bronze was used in the second half of the 14th century, towards the close of which and during the 15th century cast-iron ordnance came into use. A form of breech-loading cannon was introduced in the 16th century.
Cannon formerly received the following distinctive names: cannon royal, or carthoun, carrying 48 pounds; culverin, 18; demi-culverin, 9; falcon, 6; basilisk, 48; siren, 60; etc. They were afterwards named from the weight of the balls which they carried: 6-pounders, 12-pounders, etc; but by 1900 were often, especially the large ones, designated by their weight, as a 25-ton gun, a 67-ton gun, an 80-ton gun, etc. Their calibre or diameter of bore was also used in designating them: a 6-inch gun, a 12-inch gun, etc.
Around the 19th century the classification of cannons into muzzle-loading and breech-loading came into use though all the guns of the improved types of the 19th century were breech-loading. Quick-firing guns and machine-guns were classes of introduced late in the 19th century.
Great improvements and changes in the manufacture of cannon were introduced in the late 19th century. Not long before they were all made of iron, brass, or gun-metal (a variety of bronze) by casting. The introduction of rifled small-arms led the way to that of rifled cannon, and the adoption of heavy armour for ships of war rendered guns of enormous power and magnitude necessary in order to penetrate their sides. For round balls projectiles of considerable length were substituted in the rifled ordnance; and the increased weight and inertia of the projectiles and their rapid rotation in these rifled guns try the piece so severely that cast-iron and bronze were superseded, and the old methods of making guns given up. Guns built up in different ways are now in general use, and the construction and connected mechanism is now somewhat complicated, so that to turn out a large gun of modern type is a long and expensive process. In Englandsteel and wrought-iron guns came in for all heavy artillery by 1900, and they were manufactured for foreign powers on a large scale, especially by the Elswick Ordnance Company.
The former heavy guns of the British service, made on the 'Woolwich' system, had a steel tube to form the bore, over which were shrunk coils of wrought-iron, increasing in thickness about the breech, This method of manufacture was first introduced by Sir William Armstrong about 1858. Such guns present the hard steel to meet the wear and tear on the bore of the gun, while great support is given by shrinking on the wrought-iron hoops, which contract with a tight grip upon the steel. Hoops of steel were later preferred to those of wrought-iron; and later still the guns were strengthened by flat steel wire or a narrow ribbon of steel coiled round it.
Steel guns of very high quality were long made by Krupp of Essen, and Sir J. Whitworth's guns also gained a high name. The Whitworth guns were made of mild steel of a special quality, massive hoops being forced over a central tube, and over one another, by shrinkage or by hydraulic pressure. These guns had comparatively small hexagonal bores, with a very rapid twist, and fire long projectiles, made to fit mechanically, with remarkable accuracy to a great range.
The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment was raised in 1689 on the Roodee, Chester for service under William III. It next served in its home county in 1988. During the intervening 300 years, it has spent much time on garrison duty in the Empire. It has a tradition of having had a detachment at Dettingen. There it won the distinction of wearing the oak leaf whilst parading for Royalty and also on certain Regimental days. The story is that the 22nd protected the king, who was commanding the field, from being taken prisoner by the French. The king picked a sprig of oak from a nearby tree and presented it to them. The Regiment itself at the time was in the Mediterranean, however. The taking of Louisburg in Nova Scotia was its most famous 18th-century event; the Grenadier Company going on with Wolfe to Quebec. A 22nd Grenadier appears to have been present at the death of Wolfe along with Ensign Browne. The regiment proceeded after the Seven Years War to the West Indies and yellow fever, finally taking its place in New York for the American War.
A spell in India led to the 22nd being the only English Regiment in Sir Charles Napier's force to conquer the Scinde. The great battle at Meeanee on 17 February 1843 is celebrated as the Regimental Day. The Regiment spent most of the 19th century in the Indian sub-continent or its dependencies. A 2nd Battalion was raised in 1814 for a short while and re-raised in 1858. It fought in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900. This battalion was amalgamated with the 1st at the end of the Second World War. In the Great War 38 battalions were raised by the Cheshire Regiment. At the outset of the war in 1914 the 1st Battalion was exposed to the brunt of two German Army Corps at the village of Audregnies near Mons. Their heroic stand saved the British Expeditionary Force from a disaster and is celebrated as a second Regimental Day on 24 August. This Battalion was in every major action in France throughout the war and won 35 Battle Honours.
The Territorial and New (Kitchener's) Army Battalions fought in France, Gallipoli, Sinai, Palestine, Salonika and Mesopotamia. The 12th Battalion won the French Croix de Guerre. Over 8,000 officers and men gave their lives. Between the wars the two regular battalions served in India, Sudan, Palestine and Malta and became noted for their sport and athletic prowess. Just prior to the Second World War the Regiment was armed with the Vickers Machine Gun and became a Support Regiment for the duration of the war. At the outbreak of war the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Battalions TA were re-established. A 30th Battalion (Home Defence) and 39 Home Guard battalions made up the Regimental roll. The 2nd Battalion was at Dunkirk, North Africa and Italy before returning to be part of the initial landing at Normandy. The 1st Battalion was in North Africa and Malta during the siege and finally in NWEurope. The 6th and 7th Battalions fought in Italy. Since the war the 1st Battalion has served in numerous operational areas: Malaya, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and recently in Bosnia under the United Nations. The Regiment now consists of a
1st Battalion and 3rd Battalion (Volunteer). This latter unit is once more a support battalion as history repeats itself. Research Cheshire Regiment
The FN P90 is a Belgian Personal Defence Weapon (PDW) - a selective fully automatic cross between a sub-machine gun and an assaultrifle, compact enough to be carried by support troops such as signals troops, drivers, engineers and the like, but with effective firepower. The FN P90 is chambered for the 5.7 x 28 mm cartridge and is fed by a 50-round box magazine with a rate of fire of 900 rounds-per-minute. Research FN P90
The Gatling gun was a non-automatic revolving machine-gun, invented by Richard Gatling in the 19th century, with a cluster of six barrels and a charging breech at which the cartridges were loaded into the barrels and fired in succession by means of a crank operated by the operator. The Gatling gun was adopted by the British army and navy in 1871 but were soon after the South African War superseded by automatic machine guns of the Maxim and other types which gave a quicker rate of fire and were worked with less difficulty. Later the term Gatling gun was applied to any multi-barrel machine gun. Research Gatling Gun
The Heckler and Koch HK21A1 is a German delayed blowback selective fire light machine-gun developed from the Heckler and Koch HK21, and designed as a replacement for the HK21 to be a one-man light-machine gun to provide increased squad fire power without imposing an additional logistical burden upon the squad. The HK21A1 is chambered for the 7.62 mm NATOcartridge and can be converted to 5.56 mm very easily. It has a cyclic rate of fire of 900 rounds-per-minute and a muzzle velocity of 800 meters per second and an effective range of 1200 meters. Research Heckler and Koch HK21A1
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Benjamin Hotchkiss
