Loved your post col cool.
Thanx.
For further reading there’s a super great online article with all about the Norwegian M1894 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle (weapon of the month) at cruffler.com. With good pictures.
http://www.cruffler.com/historic-october01.html
Wiki on the battle of Hegra Fortress:
Loved your post col cool.
Thanx.
For further reading there’s a super great online article with all about the Norwegian M1894 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle (weapon of the month) at cruffler.com. With good pictures.
http://www.cruffler.com/historic-october01.html
Wiki on the battle of Hegra Fortress:
I’ll to go with ABWorsham here
My problem with this poll is that the option that seems to be the winner is rather self-reflective or at least not well defined. Think about it for a second. What is the definition of winning the airwar? Isn’t it quite simply to win the war? Why did the allies win the airwar? Because they won the war!
So “impact on the war”? yes sir
In my opinion there was no such thing as an “airwar” (there was a war) and the “Battle of Britain” was just Göring’s and Churchill’s propaganda and media-battle about a little dogfighting in the airspace over Kent and Essex.
Cheers
Right in front of my house is a 24-hour cocktailbar. Next to it is a punkrock venue, a michelin-star restaurant and a neo-dadaistic dance theatre. To the left there’s a reggae nightclub and the Royal Opera. To the right is a marihuana-supermarked and the National Museum of Art. Crossing the street is a sado-masochistic live-sex show and an irish pup.
That’s Copenhagen.
Yes, the P-39 is an american design, however it was the Eastern Front where the majority of P-39 saw combat. The Russians loved the P-39. The P-39 impact on the war was with the Soviets.
If my poll does not meet your standards then make your own.
Interestingly if not surprisingly the P-39 seems to be loosing the poll (together with the Wildcat). So far we can thus conclude that overall, US seems to be the loser of the poll with the highest amount of unpopular planes with zero votes of any nation.
With the ME 262 seemingly winning the poll, eyebrows should be raised at the fact that the ME 262’s closest rival in it’s own catagory, the Gloster Meteor was unfairly banned from the poll.
I voted for “other”. 8-)
And if we are lucky Mr. Worsham will modify “other” to “Krag-Jorgensen”, which really deserves to be qualified for this poll, since the “Krag” is a superp smooth action rifle, and unlike the Springfield M1903 and the Lee-Enfield, is a completely different design from the Mauser k98.
The Krag-Jorgensen was developed as a military rifle by the Danish Army from 1886 and adopted 1889. At that time the Krag-Jorgensen was by far the best rifle in the world. When this was clearly demonstrated in USA in 1892 it send shockwaves through the US military and industry.
The US military needed a modern bolt-action rifle and a competition were held in 1892 with trials at Governors Island, New York, were rifle designs from Krag, Lee, Mannlicher, Mauser, Schmidt-Rubin, and about 40 other military and civilian designs were compared.
Protests from US arms manufacturers and even a law-suit from US weapon designers, could not prevent the inevitable. Krag won the contract, and the United States formally adopted the rifle in 1892 to replace the single shot Springfield. From 1894–1904 around 500,000 ‘Krags’ were produced at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts (a high number in those days), and the Krag was the U.S. military’s standard rifle from 1894 to 1903 when it was replaced by the M1903 Springfield rifle.
The Krag was the main US rifle during the Philippine-American War, as documented in a song popular with U.S. troops featuring the verse:
Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos!
Cut throat khakiac ladrones!
Underneath the starry flag,
Civilize them with a Krag,
And return us to our beloved home.
The Krag-Jorgensen continued to be developed and improved in the Danish and Norwegian armies and was still a main rifle during Operation Weserübung April 9, 1940. The Danish Krags were used in the decisive local Danish victory at the Battle of Amalienborg that very same morning (the Germans never made it through to the royal residence) and the Norwegian krags were in the following weeks used extensively by the Norwegians and many times to great effect.
Most notable is the battle of Hegra Fortress which went on from April 15 to May 5, 1940. Hegra Rifle Association has since 13 May 1962 held an annual shooting competition at the fortress. Commemorating the 1940 battle and of World War II in general, the competition is held on the Sunday closest to 8 May (VE Day).
Bring ya guns, ya’ll! :-)
The wandering prize is the casing of a shell fired at the fortress in 1940.
The Krag-Jorgensen was also used by the Germans during WWII. After the Norwegian capitulation, the Wehrmacht paid great attention to the Krag, and subsequently the German forces forced Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk to produce weapons for the German armed forces and placed large orders for 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, Kongsberg-Colt pistols and the Krag-Jorgensen, but due to sabotage and deliberately slow work by the employees, production was limited and out of the total of 13,450 rifles ordered by the Germans, only between 3,350 and 3,800 were actually delivered.
Post-war rebarreled and re-stocked Krag-Jørgensen rifles were the standard Norwegian target rifle together with the Kongsberg-Mauser M59 and M67. The Krag was preferred for shooting on covered ranges and in fair weather, and dominated on the speed-shooting exercises due to its smooth action.
Today the Krag-Jorgensen is very popular among rifle collectors and can fetch huge prices for rare sub-types. It is also highly valued by shooters for its smooth action, and by enthusiasts in home-production of ammunition.
Original Danish Krag-Jørgensen 1889:
Calibre: 8x58R (7.87 mm)
Muzzle velocity: 580 m/s (early rounds) / 823 m/s (late rounds)
Barrel length: 83.2 cm
Original Norwegian Krag-Jørgensen M1894:
Calibre: 6.5x55 mm
Muzzle velocity: 700 m/s (early rounds) / 870 m/s (late rounds)
Barrel length: 76 cm
I voted for the Tiger-destroyer Hawker Typhoon, which is one of the most scary looking fighters of WWII. Actually Hawker Tempest V is better looking but they are closely related.
Then I voted for KI-43, but could just as well have chosen the Mosquito, P-38, ME 262, LAGG 3, FW 190 or the good old Hurricane.
I chose not to include Italian fighters in the poll because the Italian Air Force was a failure.
That is, I’m afraid, what in the tradition of philosophy is labelled a “catagory error”, since we were not invited to name our favorite air force or to rate or rank the Regia. It’s like judging a Ferrari upon how Mr. Berlusconi is driving it. It also doesn’t make much sense in the light of the fact that the head of the luftwaffe commission for fighters in 1943 declared that the Fiat g.55 Centauro was “the best fighter in the axis.” (note)
I consider the Italian’s best fighter, the macchi mc.202 folgore, a copy of the me 109.
What you consider is in no way true: The Macchi mc.202 Folgore was an entirely different (and in many ways arguebly better) design, developed from the earlier Macchi mc.200 Saetta, to fit a inline Alfa-Romeo built DB601a. Look to the tailwing nicely mounted on the fuselage or to the wide inward retracting landing gear, and compare with ME 109. The frames of ME 109 and MC:202 are completely different from each other.
I believe Japan is also well represented in my poll. Both the Japanese Army’s Ki-43 Oscar and Navy’s A6M Zero are on this list.
It must be fair to point out the imbalance of challenging American late-war designs (P-47 and P-51 etc.) with early japanese designs rather than their true rivals, the late-war Japanese designs such as the inline Ki-61 and the radial Ki-84.
The Soviets also have three fighters on the list, the Lag-3, Yak-9 and P-39. The MiG 3 did not see long service life and could not be listed.
The MIG-3 was the standard high-altitude fighter of VVS during the critical years of 1941-42, and the first allied fighter capable of shooting down the Junkers Ju 86 high-altitude reconnaissance. Many russian aces flew the type which was build in relatively high numbers. More than 1200 had already been delivered at the start of operation Barberossa. (note) The P-39 on the other hand was an american fighter designed by Bell.
In making a poll you must realize that very few people want to read a list of 50 different choices.
I think most educated people want to choose for them self rather than having other people doing it for them. The answer to your problem would be to trim the criterias, fx. to “Favorite American single-seat monoplan fighter of wwII” if it’s important to get below 50 choices.
Nevertheless, even my favorite American fighter of WWII in that catagory was not in the poll. The Vultee P-66 Vanguard.
note:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_G.55
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mig-3
“Could Germany have beaten Russia if it was ONLY fighting Russia?”
Then the Germans would have to find a fancy way around neutral Poland.
Favorite WW2 Bomber?
How about SAAB 18? That bomber will easily give you a penalty of 3 ipc if you dare to invade neutral Sweden.
