Until late 1943, the Norden bombsight was always protected by exceptionally heavy security. Sights were normally stored in air-conditioned, dustproof vaults that were patrolled by armed guards. During training, USAAF bombardiers had to swear a solemn oath to guard the secret weapon with their lives, and they were responsible for destroying it in the event […]
The Soviets were latecomers to machine-gun development generally. Prior to World War I, the czarist army bought machine guns from other countries and manufactured some under license. For this reason, Russian machine-gun development and production had to start virtually from scratch after the Russian Revolution. A top priority was the development of a light machine […]
The Operations of the ‘Great Army’ in Britain (865–79) The term ‘great army’, employed by several contemporary sources to describe this unusually large assemblage of Norse raiders, implies a huge horde of perhaps tens of thousands, but it most probably was not. Although no precise figures are given, it is highly doubtful that it numbered […]
The Anglo-Saxons commonly called them ‘Danes’ or ‘heathens’. To the Franks, they were simply ‘the Northmen’. But history knows them as the Vikings, possibly derived from the West Norse word vikingr, meaning ‘one who fights at sea’ or viking, ‘warfare at sea’. Perhaps it was merely because many of the original Norse raiders of the […]
