The 586th Fighter Regiment was one of three Soviet aviation units that operated in World War II with female pilots. The regiments in question, among them the famous Night Witches regiment, were formed following a proposal by Marina Raskova (first Soviet navigator) to Stalin. The 586th Fighter Reg
Regarded as one of the most iconic aircraft of all time, it saw action on most fronts of WWII from western Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Soviet Union, to the Far East and the South Pacific, and his name became inextricably linked with the Allied victory against Nazism. It was the o
At the beginning of October 1915 the young lieutenant Erwin Rommel was transferred to the newly formed Württemberg Mountain Hunter Battalion. The battalion of Mountain Hunters had a completely different composition compared to the battalions of the common infantry. It had six companies, instead of t
The US Air Force, in the 1970s, was looking for a flexible air system, with global reach and supersonic performance, which would be capable, within 24 hours, of striking targets around the globe. Based on these specifications, Boeing proposed the use of their huge passenger, the famous Boeing 747 Ju
During the Seven Years War, the Prussian Army fielded 49 line infantry regiments of each type (musketeers and fusiliers). The numbering of the constitutions was derived from the order of their seniority. Some of them had been formed and joined service in other armies. Thus, their order of seniority
In 1968, General Giap, the glorious victor of the battle of Dien Bien Phu against the French, was now the Minister of Defense in the Hanoi government. Not without reason, his opinion was of great importance at the end of decisions related to the development of military operations. Giap devised a hig
Captain Henryk Dobrzanski was born in 1897 in the Austrian-occupied part of Polish Poland. He came from a noble family and had a developed patriotic feeling. From the age of 15 he joined a patriotic Polish organization that sought the independence of their country which was then under the triple occ
Operation Winter Storm, known as the Battle of Garfagnana to the Italians, was the Axis Christmas Offensive on the Italian Front of World War II, but at the same time it became the greatest humiliation suffered by the mighty American military of the few Italians still fighting for Mussolini. After h
Sweden remained neutral in World War II. Its only involvement was in sending aircraft, pilots and volunteers to Finland when that country was attacked unprovoked by the Soviet Union and when it trained Norwegian and Danish volunteers against the Germans, but also allowed the passage through the terr
William (Billy) Edward Singh was of Chinese descent. He was born in Australia in 1886 and early on he showed that he was an amazing shooter by overcoming the racist stereotypes of the time and achieving great victories in shooting competitions. On 24 October 1914 he was commissioned into the 5th Aus
John Churchill, known as Mad Jack, was a distinctive figure of World War II who marched into battle with a bagpipe, a Scotch sword and a longbow, a characteristic weapon, the latter, of English archers in the Middle Ages. But was what was said about him true or a legend created by the British to rai
As German troops invaded Poland in September 1939, a Polish captain 60 km behind the front line knew the time had come for the all-out fight. Captain Vladislav Raginis commanded a reinforced battalion-level force in the Vizna region. Raginis came from a family of landowners and was of Latvian descen
On June 22, 1944, the largest Soviet attack on the Eastern Front took place (Operation Bagration). The following day the 1st Belorussian Front (formation equivalent to Army Group in the Western armies), under Rokosovsky, began its attack against the German 9th Army, which covered the front of Army G
On September 1, 1939, the German Army breached the Polish border. World War II was already a fact. Against Poland and its western allies (Britain, France), the German Army had neither numerical nor qualitative superiority, despite the opinions to the contrary circulating. The Germans were superior o
The Puckle gun could be the first functional machine gun in history. It was designed in 1717 by the British inventor, jurist and author James Packle. Pakls machine gun, as it was officially called, was a weapon between a revolver and a light gun. It had a single barrel, but also a rotating breech wi
The Großkampfwagen or K-Wagen was the first German super-heavy tank that, if it had entered service before, might have changed the course of World War I. In June 1917, before the first German battle tank, the A7V, was even completed, the German army requested the construction of an assault super-tan
Nakajimas Japanese ki-43 was a light fighter by Western standards. Equipped with just two 7.7mm machine guns. initially and of 12.7 mm. in its best version, with a maximum speed of 500-530 k.a.h. depending on the version, with no armor for the pilot or his fuel tanks, he seemed an easy opponent inde
The FFVS J22 was one of the first modern Swedish fighter aircraft. It was a necessity solution developed due to the lack of modern aircraft and the inability to buy from abroad due to the Second World War. The J22 first flew in 1942 and entered service in record time in 1943. It remained in produ
BAR, BREN, Type 11, MG42, four famous WWII submachine guns and machine guns used respectively by the US Army, British and Allied Armies, Japanese and German and Allied Armies of the army The interesting video compares the old fighters of the Second World War, of which all four were used even afte
The infamous, euphemistically, concentration camp of Jasenovac has left behind indelible memories and is still a monument of hatred between Serbs and Croats. The camp was created in August 1941 near the village of the same name in Slovenia which then belonged to the Croatian state. Not by chance
Ludmila Pavlichenko was born on July 12, 1916. She was Ukrainian and everything seemed to lead a life like all girls her age. But fate had decided otherwise for her. She was to become the leading Soviet female sniper with 309 hits. Pavlichenko had learned to aim from an early age, being a member
Titus Flavius Josephus, whose birth name was Yosef ben Matityahu, was a Jewish-Roman historian from Jerusalem who fought against Rome as head of the Galilee forces until its surrender in 67 AD. Vespasian gave him Roman citizenship and used him as a translator and advisor. In his work Jewish Anti
March 25, 1957 the representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC ). A key symbolic episode in European construction, this treaty is the result of efforts already mad
Type Assault RifleAmmunition 5.6mm Swiss (Swiss Militia)5.56mm NATO (export version)Manufacturer Swiss ArmsPeriod of use mid 80s - presentWeights and dimensions Mass (unloaded) 4.100 kgLength(s) 1000 mm (stock unfolded)772 mm (stock folded)Barrel length 528mm Technical characteristics Mode of acti