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Did he back that up with any primary evidence? I have come across countless mentions of this but never any sources other than articles sourcing other articles sourcing "it happened, honestly". Othias from C&Rsenal is a pretty dedicated researcher and he couldn't even find any solid evidence that...

Not sure about the "anti-material" terminology in this timeframe, and given that these rounds were intended for use in perfectly ordinary MMGs. Apparently one of the motivators for the Swedish project was increased effectiveness beyond 2.4km range (within this range they reckoned the...

And no power interruptions allowed or there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth!!!!! Riding a unicycle blindfolded while juggling chainsaws doesn’t even come close.... Whereas in the good old days people were relatively forgiving of the odd power cut and the utility companies had much...

Yes, the drafting issue was bad enough with a nuclear weapon which are forgiving of small aiming errors but it would have played havoc with conventional ordnance accuracy. Fortunately the bomb colon never worked reliably anyway so a non-issue! Underwing ordnance on a total of four stations as...

Because the A5 was a complex and expensive strategic nuclear strike penetrator designed round the idea of squirting a nuke out the back end of a tube-shaped bomb bay wedge in between the engines, and had pretty much zero prospect of being a conventional bomber without a complete redesign? It...

8mm Breda, 7.92x61 Norwegian and 8x63 Swedish are pretty much brothers from another mother, as far as I can tell. 4000J off about 13-14g ~8mm in a big old cartridge case. Apparently the Swedish cartridge came off a long-gestating project initially prompted by the Russo-Japanese war, which I seem...

Partly because in those days the guys specifying the project could actually knew roughly what the work entailed and what was possible, and the people signing off on it took their word for it. These days all large projects are based on: - paying a company to pay other companies to pay other...

I think pretty much everyone OTL interpreted WW1 lessons exactly the opposite way you have. Several nations adopted new or modified cartridges before WW2 which were MORE powerful than their existing cartridges, often with machine guns as a primary consideration. Italy, Japan (x2), Norway...

A number of websites claim that the world is flat, others that vaccines give you cancer. Unfortunately these days something being extensively documented on the internet does not mean it’s true. Particularly “oh wow so cool” stuff like WW1 proto-assault rifles. It’s certainly possible, and I can...

This is the only one I can see happening. Trabant is never being sold in any country with emission or safety rules. Third world countries without such rules can build Beetles, or whatever other old ‘real’ car they can buy the tooling for cheaply. Only a real pariah country would be so desperate...

I have to assume that machine guns dominate the “small arms” number. I think it’s worth noting how many countries focused on getting newer better machine guns in the interwar period and went into WW2 with basically the same rifles they had in 1918.

I may be misunderstanding the question, but a key outcome for a lot of countries is that child mortality rates dip and life expectancy starts to rise a few decades before birth rates fall. That gives a big demographic bulge and a rise in the working age population, who eventually age out and...

There seems to be no clear consensus on what exactly are all the necessary requirements for the industrial revolution but one factor usually cited is the increasing exploitation of fossil fuels. Coal gives so much more energy produced versus energy expended that it is really a tough ask to do...

That’s why the Winchester 1910 has a bolt assembly which weighs as much as a loaded Colt 1911. I can only imagine the hilarity that would generate in an open-bolt subgun.

I’m horribly ignorant of Chinese history so I have to rely on Wikipedia, but Liu Bang seems to have been an ambitious upwardly mobile member of the imperial administration from a humble background but with rich and influential contacts, just the sort you would expect to lead a successful...

Wasn’t there also a perceived need to establish a settler population in Australia to block other powers from colonising and build up an economy to support the RN etc in the region? People were voluntarily moving to Canada but virtually no-one would go to Australia and ever fewer would...

More likely the successor design to the 16tonner (based on considerable experience building, maintaining and training with it) replaces the Matilda II, or maybe even the successor to the successor. I can’t help but think that would be a huge benefit since while the Matilda II seems to be a...

My understanding is that the radars are good by OPV standards but not by actual warship standards, they have only basic rock-dodging sonar and I’m not sure if it has an actual Combat Management System to integrate radar+guns+missiles. But mainly I was making a WAG that a ship with no missiles...

Clearly we need a Ruralia country profile, complete with demographics, economic analysis, outline biographies of key personnel, lyrics of national anthem, and a list of popular national recipes. But yes, if they have established factories capable of manufacturing motor vehicles then a burp gun...

In 2018 dollars the proposed service life extension of the B-52 fleet was something like 22bn, mainly for new engines etc. In 2003 re-engining was estimated at 4-5Bn. The B1 program cost what, 30bn in eighties dollars? So likely 10% of that would have got new engines and saved billions upon...