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Churchill Crocodile
The Churchill Crocodile was a British flame-throwing tank of late Second World War. It was a variant of the Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill Mark VII, although the Churchill Mark IV was initially chosen to be the base vehicle. The Crocodile was introduced as one of the specialised armoured vehicles developed under Major-General Percy Hobart, informally known as "Hobart's Funnies". It was produced from October 1943, in time for the Normandy invasion. Design and development From early in the war, there had been experiments with mounting flamethrowers on British vehicles, leading to vehicles such as the Cockatrice, Basilisk and the Wasp (the latter being a flamethrower on a Universal Carrier). The Churchill Oke, a flamethrower carrying Churchill Mark II developed by a Royal Tank Regiment officer, was tested operationally on the Dieppe Raid. Parallel development work was carried out by the Petroleum Warfare Department, AEC and the Ministry of Supply (MoS) on Valentine tanks. ...
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Hobart's Funnies
Hobart's Funnies is the nickname given to a number of specialist armoured fighting vehicles derived from tanks operated during the Second World War by units of the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army or by specialists from the Royal Engineers. They were designed in light of problems that more standard tanks experienced during the amphibious Dieppe Raid, so that the new models would be able to overcome the problems of the planned invasion of Normandy. These tanks played a major part on the Commonwealth beaches during the landings. They were forerunners of the modern combat engineering vehicle and took their nickname from the 79th Division's commander, Major General Percy Hobart. The vehicles converted were chiefly Churchill tanks, and American-supplied M4 Sherman tanks. History Plans to invade continental Europe were completely revised after the failure of the raid on Dieppe in 1942. Allied units in Normandy would need to overcome terrain, obstacles and coastal fortific ...
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Infantry Tank
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily vehicle armour, armoured to allow them to operate in close concert with infantry even under heavy fire. The extra armour came at the expense of speed, which was not an issue when supporting relatively slow-moving foot soldiers. Once an attack supported by infantry tanks had broken through heavily defended areas in the enemy lines, faster tanks such as cruiser tank, cruiser or light tanks were expected to use their higher speed and longer range to operate far behind the front and cut Line of communication, lines of supply and communications. The infantry tank was superseded by the "Universal Tank" concept which could adequately perform the roles of both infantry and cruiser tank, as represented by the Centurion tank, Centurion which replaced both the ...
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Associated Equipment Company
Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was a British vehicle manufacturer that built buses, motorcoaches and trucks from 1912 until 1979. The name Associated Equipment Company was hardly ever used; instead it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands. During World War One, AEC was the most prolific British lorry manufacturer; after building London's buses before the great war. History Inception The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. The company began producing motor omnibuses for its own use in 1909 with the X-type designed by its chief motor engineer, Frank Searle, at works in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow. The X-type was followed by Searle's B-type design, considered to be one of the first mass-produced commercial vehicles. In 1912, LGOC was taken over by the Underground Group of companies, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, and extensive tram oper ...
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AEC Matador
The AEC Matador was a heavy 4×4 truck and medium artillery tractor built by the Associated Equipment Company for British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. AEC had already built a 4×2 lorry, also known as the Matador (all AEC lorries received 'M' names). Description The Matador was distinctive with its flat fronted cab with gently curved roof, wheels at the corners and a flat load carrying area covered by a canvas or tarpaulin tilt. As an artillery tractor, rather than a cargo vehicle, the wooden sides were fixed in place without folding down, but did have a narrow crew door on each side. Two transverse bench seats were provided for the gun crew, accessed through the side doors, at the 1st side bay on the left and the 2nd on the right. The cab was framed in ash and clad in steel. It was equipped with a winch (7-ton load in its case) like all artillery tractors. The O853 provided the basis for the 'Dorchester' armoured command vehicle. AEC also produced a larger 6×6 ...
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Yaw, Pitch, And Roll
An aircraft in flight is free to rotate in three dimensions: '' yaw'', nose left or right about an axis running up and down; ''pitch'', nose up or down about an axis running from wing to wing; and ''roll'', rotation about an axis running from nose to tail. The axes are alternatively designated as ''vertical'', ''lateral'' (or ''transverse''), and ''longitudinal'' respectively. These axes move with the vehicle and rotate relative to the Earth along with the craft. These definitions were analogously applied to spacecraft when the first manned spacecraft were designed in the late 1950s. These rotations are produced by torques (or moments) about the principal axes. On an aircraft, these are intentionally produced by means of moving control surfaces, which vary the distribution of the net aerodynamic force about the vehicle's center of gravity. Elevators (moving flaps on the horizontal tail) produce pitch, a rudder on the vertical tail produces yaw, and ailerons (flaps on the wings ...
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M1 Flamethrower
The M1 and M1A1 were portable flamethrowers developed by the United States during World War II. The M1 weighed 72 lb, had a range of 15 meters, and had a fuel tank capacity of five gallons. The improved M1A1 weighed less, at 65 lb, had a much longer range of 45 meters, had the same fuel tank capacity, and fired thickened fuel (napalm). Development of the weapon began in July 1940. The first prototype had the designation of E1. The prototype was further refined into the E1R1 model, which resulted in the adopted M1 model in August 1941. These man-portable weapons saw little use in Europe. They were more common in the Pacific, where they were used extensively when attacking pillboxes and fortifications. The M1's unreliability and lack of developed tactics resulted in the failure of the first flamethrower attack on a Japanese fortification in December 1942. The M1 was gradually replaced by the M1A1 in 1943. The M1A1 was replaced by the M2 flamethrower later during the war. C ...
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Drum (container)
A drum (also called a barrel) is a cylindrical shipping container used for shipping bulk cargo. Drums can be made of steel, dense paperboard (commonly called a fiber drum), or plastic, and are generally used for the transportation and storage of liquids and powders. Drums are often stackable, and have dimensions designed for efficient warehouse and logistics use. This type of packaging is frequently certified for transporting dangerous goods. Proper shipment requires the drum to comply with all applicable regulations. Background It is common to hear a drum referred to as a barrel and the two terms are used nearly interchangeably. Many drums nominally measure just under tall with a diameter just under , and have a common nominal volume of whereas the barrel volume of crude oil is . In the United States, drums are also in common use and have the same height. This allows easy stacking of mixed pallets. Barrels can be constructed of plastic, laminated paperboard or steel. Th ...
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Ordnance QF 95 Mm Howitzer
The Ordnance QF 95-mm howitzer was a British howitzer built in two versions during the Second World War. The tank howitzer version was accepted for service use, but the infantry version was not. Design and development The Ordnance QF 95-mm tank howitzer was designed to be fitted to some later British tanks so they could lay smoke screens or fire Explosive weapon, HE or High-explosive anti-tank warhead, HEAT/Hollow Charge shell against concrete targets like Pillbox (military), pillboxes in the "close support" of infantry. A High-explosive squash head, HESH round may have been issued after World War II. The 95mm howitzer used fixed ammunition with a projectile, rather than separate charge and round common for artillery howitzers. The tank howitzer was used to arm the Churchill tank, Churchill Mark V and VIII, the Cromwell tank, Cromwell VI & VIII and the Cromwell_tank#Cromwell_and_Centaur_differences, Centaur IV tanks. The howitzer was built up from a section of a QF 3.7 inch AA g ...
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Royal Electrical And Mechanical Engineers
The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's formation, maintenance was the responsibility of several different corps: * Royal Army Ordnance Corps—weapons and armoured vehicles * Royal Engineers—engineering plant and machinery, and RE motor transport * Royal Corps of Signals—communications equipment * Royal Army Service Corps—other motor transport * Royal Artillery—heavy weapons artificers During World War II, the increase in quantity and complexity of equipment exposed the flaws in this system. Pursuant to the recommendation of a Committee on Skilled Men in the Services chaired by William Beveridge, the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers was formed on 1 October 1942. Phase I Such a major re-organisation was too complex to be carried out quickly and completely ...
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Alec Richardson
Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat *Alec Acton (1938–1994), English footballer *Alec Albiston (1917–1998), Australian rules footballer *Alec Alston (1937–2009), English footballer * Alec and Peter Graham (1881–1957), New Zealand mountaineers, guides, and hotel operators *Alec Anderson (1894–1953), American NFL player *Alec Asher (born 1991), American MLB player * Alec Ashworth (1939–1995), English professional footballer * Alec Astle (born 1949), New Zealand former cricketer * Alec Atkinson (1919–2015), British Royal Air Force officer and civil servant * Alec B. Francis (1867–1934), English silent-film actor * Alec Bagot (1893–1968), South Australian adventurer, polemicist, and politician *Alec Baillie (died 2020), American bassist *Alec Baldwin (born 1958), American actor *Al ...
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Royal Armoured Corps
The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance Vehicle. It includes most of the Army's armoured regiments, both the Royal Tank Regiment and those converted from old horse cavalry regiments.Forty p. 63. Today it comprises twelve regiments, eight regular and four reserve. Although the Household Cavalry Regiment (the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals) provide an armoured regiment, they are not part of the RAC. History The RAC was created on 4 April 1939, just before World War II started, by combining regiments from the cavalry of the line which had mechanised with the Royal Tank Corps (renamed Royal Tank Regiment). As the war went on and other regular cavalry and Territorial Army Yeomanry units became mechanised, the corps was enlarged. A significant number of infantry battalions also converted to the armoured r ...
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