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Limpet Mine
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver may attach the mine, which is usually designed with hollow compartments to give the mine just slight negative buoyancy, making it easier to handle underwater. Types of fuses Usually limpet mines are set off by a time fuse. They may also have an anti-handling device, making the mine explode if removed from the hull by enemy divers or by explosions. Sometimes limpet mines have been fitted with a small turbine which would detonate the mine after the ship had sailed a certain distance, so that it was likely to sink in navigable channels (to make access difficult for other ships) or deep water (out of reach of easy salvage) and making determination of the cause of the sinking more difficult. Development In December 1938, a new unit was cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any vessel or a particular vessel type, akin to anti-infantry vs. anti-vehicle mines. Naval mines can be used offensively, to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock vessels into a harbour; or defensively, to protect friendly vessels and create "safe" zones. Mines allow the minelaying force commander to concentrate warships or defensive assets in mine-free areas giving the adversary three choices: undertake an expensive and time-consuming minesweeping effort, accept the casualties of challenging the minefield, or use the unmined waters where the greatest concentration of enemy firepower will be encountered. Although international law requires signatory nations to declare mined areas, precise locations remain secret; and non-complying individ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caravan (magazine)
''Caravan'' magazine is a UK monthly consumer magazine for the touring caravan community. It was Britain’s first caravanning magazine, offering advice and tips on every aspect of the hobby. Every month the magazine features touring and travel articles for the UK and Europe, new gadgets and products with the Caravan Lottery giveaway, show and event news, reviews, and feedback with reader content. Written by caravanners for caravanners, the magazine publishes advice on owning a caravan, from buying a towcar to choosing the right towing mirrors, awnings, gas bottles, and barbecues. History ''Caravan'' magazine, originally called ''The Caravan and Trailer'', was founded in 1933 by F L M Harris and produced from offices in Colney Heath near St. Albans. It was the Caravan Club's official magazine in the 1930s, and by 1940, ''Caravan'' magazine, The National Caravan Council and the Caravan Club all shared the same large house in Purley, South London. By 1963, the first issue of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Jaywick
Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, 14 commandos and sailors from the Allied Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, sinking six ships. Background Special Operations Australia (SOA), a combined Allied military intelligence organisation, was established in March 1942. SOA operated under the cover name Inter-Allied Services Department (IASD). It contained several British SOE officers who had escaped from Japanese occupied Singapore, and they formed the nucleus of the IASD, which was based in Melbourne. In June 1942, a commando arm was organised as Z Special Unit (which was later commonly known as Z Force). It drew its personnel primarily from the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy. In 1943, a 28-year-old British officer, Captain (later Major) Ivan Lyon (of the Allied Intelligence Bureau and Gordon Highlanders), and a 61-year-old Australian civilian, Bill Reynolds, devised a plan to attack Japanese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IDA71 3 On Beach
The Soviet, later Russian IDA71 military and naval rebreather is an oxygen rebreather intended for use by naval and military divers including Russian commando frogmen. As supplied it is in a plain backpack harness with no buoyancy aid. The casing is pressed aluminium with a hinged cover. It has a small optional nitrox cylinder which can be clipped on its outside to convert it to nitrox mode. It contains one oxygen cylinder and two absorbent canisters. In the bottom of its casing is an empty space which is intended for an underwater communications set. Here, "up", "back", etc. refer to a man wearing the set standing on land. The casing is thinner towards the lower end, to reduce drag. On the front of the harness of the navy frogman version there is a projecting metal plate intended to carry a limpet mine. The front of the harness is a tough rubber "apron". The loop of each breathing tube can be strapped down to the shoulder to keep it under control to stop it from catching on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hafthohlladung
The ''Hafthohlladung'', also known as the "''Panzerknacker''" ("tank breaker", German connotation "safe cracker"), was a magnetically adhered, shaped charge anti-tank grenade used by German forces in World War II, and was sometimes described as a mine. Details The ''Hafthohlladung'' (lit. "adhesive hollow charge") was primarily used by ''Wehrmacht'' tank killer squads. Designed with three magnets at the base, each with a pair of poles creating a strong magnetic field across their gap, an infantryman could attach it to an enemy's tank no matter the angle of the surface. As the blast axis should be flush and perpendicular to the plane of the armour at the point of placement, and armed by pulling the igniter on the rear of the mine, the degree of a tank's sloped armour was irrelevant for the device's penetration. However, since this required direct placement on an enemy tank by an infantryman, using the device was very dangerous, since the deploying infantryman placing it on an en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zimmerit
''Zimmerit'' was a paste-like coating used on mid- and late-war German armored fighting vehicles during World War II. It was used to produce a hard layer covering the metal armor of the vehicle, providing enough separation that magnetically attached anti-tank mines would fail to stick to the vehicle, despite Germany being the only country to use magnetic anti-tank mines in numbers. ''Zimmerit'' was often left off late-war vehicles due to the unfounded concern that it could catch fire when hit. It was developed by the German company Chemische Werke Zimmer & Co (Berlin). Operation The coating was a barrier that prevented direct contact of magnetic mines with metal surfaces of vehicles. The magnetostatic field decreases very rapidly, with the cube of distance; the non-magnetic coating holds the magnet of the mine too far from the steel of the vehicle for it to adhere. The coating was normally ridged to increase the distance between the magnet and the armor even further, as the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Gubbins
Major-General Sir Colin McVean Gubbins (2 July 1896 – 11 February 1976) was the prime mover of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War. Gubbins was also responsible for setting up the secret Auxiliary Units, a commando force based around the Home Guard, to operate on the flanks and to the rear of German lines if the United Kingdom were invaded during Operation Sea Lion, Germany's planned invasion. Early life Gubbins was born in Japan on 2 July 1896, the younger son and third child of John Harington Gubbins (1852–1929), Oriental Secretary at the British Legation. In the 1901 census he is shown living with his grandparents, Colin Alexander McVean and four siblings at Killiemore House on the Isle of Mull. He was educated at Cheltenham College and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he graduated 56th out of 70 cadets. Military service First World War Gubbins was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1914. On the outbreak of war he w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the "Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office. SOE operated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultivator No
A cultivator is a piece of agricultural equipment used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with ''teeth'' (also called ''shanks'') that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it linearly. It also refers to machines that use rotary motion of disks or teeth to accomplish a similar result. The rotary tiller is a principal example. Cultivators stir and pulverize the soil, either before planting (to aerate the soil and prepare a smooth, loose seedbed) or after the crop has begun growing (to kill weeds—controlled disturbance of the topsoil close to the crop plants kills the surrounding weeds by uprooting them, burying their leaves to disrupt their photosynthesis, or a combination of both). Unlike a harrow, which disturbs the entire surface of the soil, cultivators are designed to disturb the soil in careful patterns, sparing the crop plants but disrupting the weeds. Cultivators of the toothed type are often similar in form to chisel plows, but th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Condom
A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of intercourse—women whose partners use male condoms experience a 2% per-year pregnancy rate. With typical use the rate of pregnancy is 18% per-year. Their use greatly decreases the risk of gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, hepatitis B, and HIV/AIDS. To a lesser extent, they also protect against genital herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV), and syphilis. The male condom is rolled onto an erect penis before intercourse and works by forming a physical barrier which blocks semen from entering the body of a sexual partner. Male condoms are typically made from latex and, less commonly, from polyurethane, polyisoprene, or lamb intestine. Male condoms have the advantages of ease of use, ease of access, and few side effects. Individuals with late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aniseed Ball
Aniseed balls are a comfit type of hard round sweet sold in the UK, Ireland, Malta, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. They are shiny and dark reddish brown, and hard like Gobstoppers, but generally only across. They are flavoured by aniseed oil, with a strong aniseed flavour, and last for a long time in the mouth before dissolving. In the centre of the ball is normally a whole rapeseed, which is used for forming layers of sugar around, although other nuclei are sometimes used, for example sugar crystals. Use as a timing device In the spring of 1939 a magnetically-attached limpet mine was constructed in Britain for underwater sabotage actions in the upcoming war. The mines exploded when a cocked spring hit a detonator. Between the striker and the detonator an aniseed ball was placed, as each had precisely the same spherical shape and consistently dissolved in water after 35 minutes, leaving the saboteur time to escape. The first of these mines were sent to Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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