In the late 19th century, in Germany, Austrian designer Georg Luger designed a handgun, which operated in a recoil mechanism using an internal hammer and a novel elbow mechanism. When fired, the barrel and the crank mechanism move backwards until they touch a camshaft linked to the elbow, pushing the cartridge out. Then a spring pushes the elbow to close and feed the next bullet into the barrel. The result is a handy sized pistol that holds up to 7 7.65mm Parabellum rounds in a removable cartridge. In 1904, this pistol was upgraded to accommodate the new 9x19mm cartridge, in 1908 it was used as the main gun of several German military units, officially known as P.08 or Luger. The Luger pistol has a beautiful design, smooth crank mechanism, and is a durable, quality gun, but the manufacturing process is complicated and time consuming. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no modern equipment to produce parts with detailed precision, so each part of each Luger was machined by hand. Small variations in size and finish require skilled people to assemble each finished gun, ensuring smooth and reliable operation. This is a laborious process and when completed, each part of the gun will be serialized. The gun was then disassembled, and the parts were water-stained with blue steel and hardened for durability. Once completed, the gun will be reassembled based on the serial number to ensure that the parts match. That’s why a genuine Luger has a serial number stamped on almost every part and each gun is a finished work of German precision technology. But the Luger gun is not perfect. The mechanism for linking the trigger to the internal hammer is quite long and complex. The trigger is weak and inaccurate despite being light. The rear sight is mounted on part of the elbow, so when firing the elbow rises, blocking the target’s view for a while. However, the Luger worked well, and the elbow mechanism absorbed a lot of the gun’s recoil, making it easy for the shooter to keep aiming. The Luger barrel is a detachable part, with three different barrel lengths: 100mm, 150mm and 200mm. Also at the end of the 19th century, in America John Moses Browning was also designing a self-loading pistol. His first design was completed in 1897, it had a slide that pushed back by gas and ejected the cartridge. A set of springs then pushes the slide forward to load the next round into the barrel. This .32 ACP pistol proved to be extremely reliable and easy to manufacture. In addition to the safety lock on the left side, Browning’s new gun also has a grip safety device, meaning it can only be fired when the rear portion of the handle is compressed. So the gun will not explode if dropped. During tests held in 1910, the new gun fired 5,000 rounds in a single batch, and when the gun overheated, simply dipped in a bucket of water to cool. In 1911, the gun was chosen as the main pistol of the US military, with the designation M-1911, using .45 ACP ammunition. Like the Luger, the early M-1911 pistols weren’t perfect. The rear aiming point is quite small and some people find the reach to the trigger too long. Furthermore, for the first time, shooters learned what a “smasher bite” is, a condition in which the skin between the thumb and forefinger can be painfully clamped between the hammer and the barrel when the cap slides. backward. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, two pistols faced each other in combat for the first time. The Luger may look like the ultimate weapon, a model of precision engineered advanced engineering. Compared to Luger, Colt looks a bit rough. Early M-1911s had a slide that didn’t fit into the body of the gun and could make a rattling noise if the gun was shaken. However, this also means that manufacturing tolerances are less stringent and the Colt can be manufactured cheaper and faster than the Luger. Luger does not perform well in sandy, dusty or muddy conditions. Small tolerances in the crank mechanism tend to jam the gun too easily. Worse still, if a Luger is damaged that cannot be repaired by taking parts from another Luger, it must be replaced with a brand new Luger. In contrast, the Colt M-1911 pistol can fire in all conditions. Its greater tolerance means it is less likely to jam, even after being dropped in the mud, the .45 ACP bullet has much stronger resistance than the 9mm Luger bullet. Parts are also interchangeable between Colts making field repairs much quicker. The relatively simple Colt proved superior to the complex, precision-built Luger. From 1938, the Luger was gradually replaced by the simpler Walther P.38. During World War II, only colonel officers were equipped with Lugers, due to limited numbers. However, the demand for pistols was growing at the time, causing production of the Luger P-08 to continue until 1944. The strength and raw simplicity of the Colt M-1911 allowed it to continue to serve long to date, while the Luger has long since become a historical relic. Image source: Pinterest. Close-up of the performance of the M1911 pistol. Source: Shwence.

Born in 1977, GAU-8 up to now basically has not had much difference compared to its inception. This cannon weighs 281 kg and has a total length of up to … 6.06 meters in which the barrel is 2.3 meters long. The GAU-8 over the A-10. The cannon used the caliber 30x173mm and had a total of 7 barrels. Due to the use of an electric reload mechanism, this cannon had a very small recoil and could even be considered non-recoil with the post escape mechanism. The maximum rate of fire of the cannon was up to 3900 rounds / min. At this rate of fire, no one could even hear every bullet coming out of the barrel of the GAU-8 cannon and only heard a very fast “crack” sound. With a barrel length of more than 2 meters, the barrel head speed of the bullet was pushed by GAU-8 at speeds of up to 1000 meters per second. This muzzle-tip is faster than the speed of sound and is essentially the target of the GAU-8 that will not hear anything before being hit by bullets. The effective range of this cannon was 1200m but its maximum range could be up to 3600m depending on combat conditions. Previously, the GAU-8 even changed the rate of fire from the lowest speed of 2100 rounds / min to the highest speed of 4200 rounds / min. However, later, the engineers of the US Air Force realized that not many pilots paid attention to the GAU-8’s variable rate of fire, so they removed this feature, greatly reducing electronic systems. like complex mechanics. The accuracy of the GAU-8 can be considered to be absolute, much better than its predecessor M61 Vulcan (still equipped on the more advanced F-15) that fought in Vietnam. At maximum distance, over 80% of the ammunition of the GAU-8 fired in the test was accurate. Although the ammunition is only 30mm, one thing for sure is that this cannon can defeat many main battle tanks. Even without penetrating the tank’s explosive armor, the GAU-8’s 30mm bullets are capable of severely damaging the tank’s electronic sensors, rendering it impotent. continue to fight. Reloading the GAU-8 is quite heavy and often requires the help of heavy machinery. On the attack A-10, for example, it can carry only 1,174 30mm bullets for the GAU-8 – meaning it can only shoot for about 20 seconds … clean bullets. But in addition to the amount of ammunition for the GAU-8, this fighter can also carry nearly all of the missiles and bombs in the US Air Force, making the A-10 a worthwhile air attack machine. afraid of all targets. The mechanism of action of the GAU-8 on the A-10

This strange tank history was born in the 1960s, when the Swedish army planned to develop a new line of main battle tanks to deal with the Soviet Union. Swedish engineers propose a unique idea when not to use turrets like conventional tanks. The main gun was fixed to the body of the vehicle, but did not have a rotating turret like normal tanks. The engineers argued that the cannon fixed to the hull made it more accurate to fire than the rotating turret. In addition, the use of a turret makes the overall height of the tank significantly reduced, harder to detect on the battlefield, and the low height also makes it harder for the tank to hit the enemy’s fire. Eventually a design was born, called Stridsvagn 103. Sweden wants to develop the Stridsvagn 103 into a high-speed assault and ambush armor vehicle, taking advantage of the superiority of precision firing to destroy, disrupting the enemy tanker formation. The Stridsvagn 103 is fitted with a 105 mm main gun, with an automatic reload system. Because there is no turret, the angle of lift and lowering of the gun is adjusted through a special suspension that can be lifted and lowered when necessary. However, the angle of elevation and lowering of the cannon is quite limited, Stridsvagn 103 cannot shoot from above. The crew must rotate the entire body to adjust the line of sight. Stridsvagn 103 tanks were produced to full scale from 1967 and lasted until 1971. In total, about 290 vehicles were produced and handed over to the Swedish army. In the 60s and 70s, Stridsvagn 103 was the core of the armored Swedish force. The car chain has small hooks to increase the grip of the road. The chassis has a blade that can be used to dig a camouflage tunnel for the vehicle. The Stridsvagn 103 tank can wade in about 20 minutes after the preparation time, the wading speed is about 6 km / h. In 1967, Norway compared this tank with the Leopard-1. When the lid is closed, the Stridsvagn 103 detects the target faster than the Leopard-1, the opposite result when opening the door. In 1975, two Stridsvagn 103 were shipped to the US for performance testing with the M60A1E3 version. The results showed that Stridsvagn 103 fired more accurately, but the average time per shot was 0.5 seconds slower. Stridsvagn 103’s superiority in accuracy was not enough to compensate for design flaws. This bizarre tank was quickly replaced by the Stridsvagn 122 (version of the Leopard-2) German made in Sweden in 1997.