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War
Modern Mechanix
Issue: Nov, 1932
Posted in: History, Other Animals, War
Posted: 07/12/2006
1 Comment on Why Modern Armies Still Cling to the Cavalry (Nov, 1932)
Why Modern Armies Still Cling to the Cavalry (Nov, 1932)

Entertaining article that explains why the core of any military force will always be made up of men and horses.
“Machines of war can only be adjuncts to their superior flexibility.”

Do we still have any mounted cavalry? I’ve seen pictures of those Special Forces guys in Afghanistan, but that’s about it.

Why Modern Armies Still Cling to the Cavalry

by M. W. MEIER

The tank is a powerful weapon, but the faithful horse can still outfight it in many situations encountered on modern battlefields.
Here is told the cavalry’s side of the story.

YOU may not know it but Uncle Sam has the finest cavalry on earth—pitifully small though it is.

It may lack the swank, color and picturesqueness of that of other nations but what it may lack in fancy-drilling ability it more than makes up for in equipment, firing-power and maneuverability—the things that really count in war.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Oct, 1932
Posted in: War
Posted: 07/10/2006
No Comments on Sham Tanks Fight Sham Battles (Oct, 1932)
Sham Tanks Fight Sham Battles (Oct, 1932)

That just looks humiliating. If someone made you carry half a fake tank around and make “boom, boom” sounds, wouldn’t you invade Poland too?

Sham Tanks Fight Sham Battles
SINCE the termination of the World war and the signing of the Versailles Treaty, Germany has been forbidden to build any tanks for war purposes. Laboring under these restrictions, German military and mechanical ingenuity combined to remedy the situation and the result was the introduction of the demountable tanks shown in the photo above. While they wouldn’t stand much punishment on the battlefield, yet they do prove highly effective for mock maneuvers and sham battles. The tank really amounts to a bit of clever camouflage, it being no more than an auto chassis with imitation treads and turret.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Jul, 1932
Posted in: Impractical, War
Posted: 07/10/2006
10 Comments on Flying Tanks that Shed Their Wings (Jul, 1932)
Flying Tanks that Shed Their Wings (Jul, 1932)

I guess this miiight work, if your tank didn’t have any armor. But then it wouldn’t exactly be a tank would it?

Flying Tanks that Shed Their Wings

by Lew Hold

Imagine those two formidable weapons of modern warfare, the airplane and the armored tank, combined into one terrible machine of destruction! Fantastic as the idea sounds, it is fast taking physical shape as a reality for Uncle Sam’s army. The whole amazing story is presented to you in this important article.

IS WAR, already made terrible to contemplate by the invention of too-efficient methods of destruction, on the verge of being banished forever by an amazing new weapon so horrible in its possibilities that nations of the world will not dare to risk its fury?

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National Geographic
Issue: Apr, 1918
Posted in: Advertisements, General, Scary, Sign of the Times, War
Posted: 07/04/2006
3 Comments on Little Uncle Sams (Apr, 1918)
Little Uncle Sams (Apr, 1918)

This scares me.

If You Have Not Already Enlisted in the Great Army of U. S. Savers, TODAY is the Best Time to Begin

What Your W. S. Stamps Do for Uncle Sam
A single Thrift Stamp (25 cents) will pay for a soldier’s identification tag, which may save him from an unknown grave. Two (50 cents) will buy a trench-digging tool which may save his life. One War Savings Stamp ($4.16) enables U. S. to buy a pair of shoes or a flannel shirt or a steel helmet which may save a soldier’s life. One War Savings Stamp ($4.16) will feed a soldier or sailor for a week or buy the gasoline for an hour’s flight of an airplane. Three stamps pay for an overcoat or a gas mask. One War Certificate filled with 20 stamps ($83.20) will feed the entire crew of one of our torpedo-boat destroyers on the day they catch a submarine.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Sep, 1933
Posted in: Sign of the Times, War
Posted: 06/27/2006
2 Comments on World’s Deadliest Weapons Will Wage Next War (Sep, 1933)
World’s Deadliest Weapons Will Wage Next War (Sep, 1933)

World’s Deadliest Weapons Will Wage Next War

While peace parleys convene, only to end in failure and increased hatreds, military inventors smile to themselves and go on perfecting their engines of death. This article sets forth advanced data on these new weapons and tells how they will add deadliness to combat when they appear at the Front in next war.

by RUSSELL J. MORT

FROM the bow of a submarine lurking submerged in the offing shoots a torpedo bound on a mission of destruction. Leaving a streaked wake as it cleaves the water, it speeds straight for the hull of an unwary destroyer cruising across the horizon.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Feb, 1936
Posted in: Cool, War
Posted: 06/17/2006
1 Comment on Artillery Spotter Has Vertical Lift (Feb, 1936)
Artillery Spotter Has Vertical Lift (Feb, 1936)

This thing looks like it would make a really cool unit in a Real Time Strategy game.

Artillery Spotter Has Vertical Lift

Pulsating through the skies in much the same manner as employed by the jellyfish in propelling itself through water, a weird parachute artillery spotter is expected by its inventor, John A. Domenjoz of New York City, to supersede the ordinary kite-balloon in observation work during war.

Greater maneuverability with resultant greater safety for the pilot, economy, and the elimination of ground crews are among the advantages claimed for this type of craft.

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Popular Mechanics
Issue: Feb, 1941
Posted in: War
Posted: 06/07/2006
1 Comment on War the Destroyer (Feb, 1941)
War the Destroyer (Feb, 1941)

War the Destroyer

Mighty machines of destruction are razing homes, churches, schools, factories and other buildings of Europe’s warring nations, converting the struggle into a contest of civilian stamina, rather than a meeting of armed forces. Air armadas, heavily laden with bombs, attack the enemy’s principal cities, sometimes in raids lasting virtually around the clock, and leave horrible trails of desolation; yet the civilian population rises from the ruins and begins a never-ending task of clearing away the debris and repairing the damage even before the roar of departing raiding planes vanishes. And so the battle for air supremacy goes on. Above, a home “somewhere in England’9 with bathroom caved in by bomb explosion. An air-raid officer removes articles from the home and hands them to the girls standing on debris. Right, wheeling up a torpedo to be fixed in rack beneath a British bombing plane that will take off to strike in retaliation at some German city. Below, concussion from a bursting bomb hurled this huge bus against a building in London. Its occupants had time to seek shelter before the bus was upset. Here air-raid workers are lowering the vehicle to the street. Scenes like this have been common in raided cities

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Aug, 1935
Posted in: War
Posted: 06/07/2006
4 Comments on Electro-Tank Shoots Lightning Rays (Aug, 1935)
Electro-Tank Shoots Lightning Rays (Aug, 1935)

Electro-Tank Shoots Lightning Rays
LIGHTNING, enemy of man for countless centuries, may become his deadliest weapon of war. Combining the Van deGraff lightning generator with the newest high speed war tank, a design has been suggested for an electro-ray tank which promises to revolutionize offensive warfare.

The gunner of this lightning-generating tank, seated at the control desk inside the massive metal sphere, can direct at enemy troops a small but extremely powerful stream of water, as the screw-driven vehicle rumbles forward at high speed. Along this conducting stream artificial lightning from the hundred-million volt charged sphere would crackle ominously, delivering instant death to all living creatures sprayed by the water.

Inside the heavily armored tank other men would supervise the gigantic crank-less Diesel which drives the power generator to supply current for electric motors.

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Popular Science
Issue: Dec, 1946
Posted in: Automotive, War
Posted: 06/06/2006
No Comments on NEW TRICKS for FIDO (Dec, 1946)
NEW TRICKS for FIDO (Dec, 1946)

FIDO stands for (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operations) and seems to consist of using giant flame throwers to burn away the fog…

NEW TRICKS for FIDO

Gliding out of a fog and into fair visibility, a C-47 prepares to land at the Navy’s Landing Aids Experiment Station, Areata, Calif. The flames burning off the mist are part of a new fog-dispersion system called ELMER—a refinement of Britain’s wartime FIDO.

At a central control board, an operator turns on lights and fog-chasing burners at Areata. ELMER has cut the costs of landing a plane in a fog to $150 as compared with the $4,000 average expense of using FIDO.

ELMER, in full glory below, is a line of tri-nozzle heads that atomize Diesel oil under high pressure and shoot curtains of flame into the air on both sides of the runway to vaporize the fog. A hot-wire setup provides instantaneous ignition of the oil.

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Science And Mechanics
Issue: Feb, 1935
Posted in: Aviation, Impractical, War
Posted: 06/04/2006
2 Comments on Fort More Than Mile High? (Feb, 1935)
Fort More Than Mile High? (Feb, 1935)

Fort More Than Mile High?

NEARLY fifty years ago, Gustave Eiffel erected his wonder of the world in Paris—a tower of iron framework 987 feet high. A generation was to pass before this was exceeded in height by a number of the skyscrap-ing office buildings of New York.

Now another French engineer, Henri Lossier, proposes a jump in construction to 6,560 feet, nearly a mile and a quarter high, in the form of a concrete tower, to be part of the defences of Paris. From its cone-shaped hangars, some over a mile above the ground, airplanes could be launched on a minute’s notice; while firmly-mounted anti-aircraft guns at this great elevation would reach invading planes more readily. The recoil of a hundred four-inch guns at once would vibrate it four inches. The details are shown in the illustrations, as also a comparison with a well-known New England mountain. In times of peace, such a structure could be devoted to many purposes; its great height furnishing advantages not otherwise obtainable, such as pure, thin air, and sunshine.

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