Tanks: During World War I, in order to break through the defensive positions composed of trenches, barbed wire, and machine gun fire points, and break the deadlock in positional warfare, the two warring parties urgently needed to develop a vehicle with three components: firepower, mobility, and protection. A new type of weapon that is organically combined. The Englishman E.D. Swinton accidentally discovered that if an artillery or machine gun was installed on a tractor, wouldn't it be invincible? In 1915, the British government adopted E.D. Swinton's suggestion and used automobile, tractor, gun manufacturing and metallurgical technology to trial-produce a prototype tank. The "Mark" I tank was produced in 1916. On September 15, 1916, 60 "Mark" I tanks were put into action in the Battle of the Somme for the first time. In order to keep it secret at that time, the British described this new weapon as a "water tank" (English "tank") that delivers water to the front line. As a result, this name is still used today, and "tank" is the transliteration of this word.
Airplanes are generally believed to have been invented by the Americans, the Wright brothers, while some people believe that it was invented by Clement Adel or Alberto Santos Dumont. In 1903, the aircraft designed and manufactured by the Wright brothers in the United States successfully flew. This was the first time in the world that a heavier-than-air aircraft achieved powered and controllable flight. In World War I, aircraft were used in combat. At that time, the speed of the aircraft reached 180 to 220 kilometers per hour, the ceiling was 6,000 to 7,000 meters, the range was 400 to 450 kilometers, and the bomber load was 1,000 to 2,000 kilograms. In World War II, the speed of aircraft reached 750 kilometers/hour, and the bomb load of bombers could reach about 10 tons. After the mid-1940s, the engine developed from piston to jet, and the flight performance of the aircraft was significantly improved; in the 1980s, the ceiling of the aircraft exceeded 30,000 meters, the maximum speed exceeded 3 times the speed of sound, the range exceeded 20,000 kilometers, and the maximum load capacity More than 100 tons. Of course, the role of aircraft in modern warfare is even more amazing. Not only can it be used for reconnaissance and bombing, but it is also excellent in early warning, anti-submarine, and mine clearance. In the Gulf War that broke out in the early 1990s, the tremendous power of aircraft was witnessed. Of course, the military application of aircraft has also brought heavy disasters to mankind and caused devastating damage to human civilization. But the peaceful use of airplanes is the original intention of mankind to invent airplanes.
The machine gun invented by H.S. Maxim. Maxim conducted a principle test in 1883 and obtained a patent in 1884. The Maxim machine gun was the world's first truly successful automatic weapon powered by gunpowder gas. Its caliber is 11.43 mm and the gun weighs 27.2 kg. It adopts a short-recoil (19 mm) automatic barrel and a water-cooled barrel. It uses a 6.4-meter-long canvas belt with an ammunition capacity of 333 rounds. The belt can be connected. The theoretical rate of fire is 600 rounds/min, which can be fired in single or continuous rounds; it can also be adjusted to a slow rate of 100 rounds/min through the rate of fire adjuster. The Maxim machine gun has a complex structure. The water-cooled barrel is relatively bulky, and the canvas belt becomes less reliable when it gets wet. However, it has been widely used in modern wars. The battle that made the Maxim machine gun famous in one fell swoop was the Battle of the Somme. In July 1916, in order to avenge the Battle of Verdun, the Allied forces launched the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. Relying on the strength of their numbers, the British and French allied forces jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the German positions like a tide. What they received was the response of hundreds of German Maxim machine guns. The British troops fell one by one, and a full 6 people died in one day. Thousands of people. By the end of the battle, 615,000 British and French troops had been killed, and 650,000 German troops had been killed. Most of them fell under the flames of Maxim machine guns. It can be said that an entire generation in Europe was killed by machine guns. After the Battle of the Somme, the majesty of heavy machine guns represented by the Maxim machine gun lasted for 40 years. Many myths were spread about the power of the Maxim machine gun. One of them is that not a single enemy in front of the Maxim machine gun position was alive. Go back.
Chemical weapons are a general term for various weapons and equipment that use the poisonous effects of poisons to kill active forces. They are a type of weapon of mass destruction.
Chemical weapons gradually formed standard weapons with important military significance during the First World War. The large-scale use of chemical weapons began in the First World War (Wwⅰ) from 1914 to 1918. More than 40 kinds of poisons were used, including chlorine, phosgene, diphosgene, chloropicrin, diphenylchloroarsine, hydrocyanic acid, mustard gas, etc. The amount of poisons used reached 120,000 tons, and the number of casualties was about 1.3 million, accounting for 10% of the war casualties. 4.6% of the total population. During World War II (wwⅱ), on the European battlefield, both warring parties strengthened preparations for chemical warfare, and chemical weapons reserves reached a very high level. Regarding the development of chemical weapons neutralizers, nerve agents have made substantial progress; in the Asian battlefield, Japan has repeatedly used chemical weapons against my country, causing a large number of casualties. From the end of WWII to the present, local wars and large-scale armed conflicts have continued to occur in the world. Among them, the use of chemical weapons has been accused and proven, including the US invasion of North Korea, the US invasion of Vietnam, and the former Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In the Iran-Iraq War that began in the early 1980s, Iraq's use of chemical weapons at the critical moment when the offensive failed and the initiative was lost played an important role in reversing the passive situation and ultimately achieving a ceasefire. Chemical weapons are unconventional weapons prohibited by international conventions. Such as the two Hague Conferences in 1899 and 1907, the 1925 Geneva Protocol, and the Convention on the Comprehensive Prohibition and Total Destruction of Chemical Weapons adopted by the UN General Assembly not long ago (1993). Our government and people have always advocated the prohibition of the use of weapons of mass destruction, strictly abide by the Convention, and have made significant contributions to maintaining world peace.