WWII weapon debates

Let's keep this going. This is so much fun man. ^. =. ^ White phosphorus is a material made from a common allotrope of the chemical element phosphorus that is used in smoke, tracer, illumination and incendiary munitions. Other common names include WP, and the slang term "Willie Pete," which is dated from its use in Vietnam, and is still sometimes used in military jargon. As an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus burns fiercely and can set cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles on fire, and cause serious burns or death. In addition to its offensive capabilities, white phosphorus is also a highly efficient smoke-producing agent, burning quickly and causing an instant bank of smoke. As a result, smoke-producing white phosphorus munitions are very common, particularly as smoke grenades for infantry, loaded in grenade launchers on tanks and other armored vehicles, or as part of the ammunition allotment for artillery or mortars. These create smoke screens to mask movement, position or the origin of fire from the enemy. White phosphorus is used in bombs, artillery, mortars, and short-range missiles which burst into burning flakes of phosphorus upon impact. The British Army introduced the first factory-built WP grenades in late 1916. During World War II, white phosphorus mortar bombs, shells, rockets and grenades were used extensively by American, Commonwealth, and, to a lesser extent, Japanese forces, in both smoke-generating and antipersonnel roles. The British military also used white phosphorus bombs against Kurdish villagers and Al-Habbaniyah in Al-Anbar province during the Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920. Air burst of a white phosphorus bomb over the USS Alabama during a test exercise conducted by General Billy Mitchell, September 1921. In the interwar years, the U. S. Army trained using white phosphorus, by artillery shell and air bombardment. In 1940, when the invasion of Britain seemed imminent, the phosphorus firm of Albright and Wilson suggested that the British government use a material similar to Fenian fire in several expedient incendiary weapons. The only one fielded was the Grenade, No. 76 or Special Incendiary Phosphorus grenade, which consisted of a glass bottle filled with a mixture similar to Fenian fire, plus some latex (see also Molotov cocktail, Greek fire). It came in two versions, one with a red cap intended to be thrown by hand, and a slightly stronger bottle with a green cap, intended to be launched from the Northover projector (a crude 2.5 inch blackpowder grenade launcher). These were improvised anti-tank weapons, hastily fielded in 1940 when the British were awaiting a German invasion after losing the bulk of their modern armaments in France in May 1940. Instructions on each crate of SIP grenades included the observations, among other things:Store bombs (preferably in cases) in cool places, under water if possible. Stringent precautions must be taken to avoid cracking bombs during handling. These weapons were generally regarded as presenting a danger to their own operators and were never deployed in combat. At the start of the Normandy campaign, 20% of American 81 mm mortar rounds were white phosphorus. At least five American Medal of Honor citations mention their recipients using white phosphorus grenades to clear enemy positions, and in the 1944 liberation of Cherbourg alone, a single U. S. mortar battalion, the 87th, fired 11,899 white phosphorus rounds into the city. The U. S. Army and Marines used white phosphorus shells in 107-mm (4.2 inch) mortars. White phosphorus was widely credited by Allied soldiers for breaking up German infantry attacks and creating havoc among enemy troop concentrations during the latter part of the war. Incendiary bombs were used extensively by the German, British and U. S. air forces against civilian populations and targets of military significance in civilian areas, including London, Hamburg, and Dresden. Late in the war, some of these bombs used white phosphorus (about 1–200 grams) in place of magnesium as the igniter for their flammable mixtures. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians was banned by signatory countries in the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III. The USA signed Protocols I and II on March 24, 1995 under the Clinton Administration (and the amended article II on May 24, 1999) and later Protocols III, IV, and V, on January 21, 2009 under the Obama Administration. A USAF Security Police Squadron member packs an 81 mm white phosphorus smoke-screen mortar round during weapons training, 1980. White phosporus munitions were used extensively in Korea, Vietnam and later by Russian forces in Chechnya. According to GlobalSecurity. org, during the December 1994 battle for Grozny in Chechnya, every fourth or fifth Russian artillery or mortar round fired was a smoke or white phosphorus round. In Iraq, the Saddam Hussein regime used white phosphorus, as well as chemical weapons that are scheduled in the Chemical Weapons Convention, in the Halabja poison gas attack during the Iran–Iraq War in 1988, according to the ANSA news agency. Another news report said "US intelligence" called WP a chemical weapon in a declassified Pentagon report from February 1991:"Iraqi forces loyal to President Saddam may have possibly used white phosphorus chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels and the populace in Erbil and Dohuk. The WP chemical was delivered by artillery rounds and helicopter gunships. " So in other words i believe your grenade has lost against mine. "Just because you can shoot faster doesnt mean you have will hit the target. As you know from your history lessons, The US M1 Garrand and M1A1 Carbine were the most heavyly used weapons of WWII. The Gewehr 43 was interduced to late to do any real fighting. " Yes my friend you are correct on that. Just because you can shoot faster doesn't necessarily mean faster kills. I want to clarify by stating that the Grerhr 43 fires at a higher rate. By 1940, it became apparent that some form of a semi-automatic rifle, with a higher rate of fire than existing bolt-action rifle models, was necessary to improve the infantry's combat efficiency. The army issued a specification to various manufacturers, and both Mauser and Walther submitted prototypes that were very similar. However, some restrictions were placed upon the design:no holes for tapping gas for the loading mechanism were to be bored into the barrel;the rifles were not to have any moving parts on the surface;and in case the autoloading mechanism failed, a bolt action was to be included. Both models therefore used a mechanism known as the "Bang" system (after its Danish designer Soren H. Bang). In this system, gases from the bullet were trapped near the muzzle in a ring-shaped cone, which in turn pulled on a long piston that opened the breech and re-loaded the gun. This system is in contrast to the more common type of gas-operated system, in which gasses are tapped off from the barrel, and push back on a piston to open the breech to the rear. Both also included 10-round magazines that were loaded using two of the stripper clips from the Karabiner 98k, utilizing the same German-standard 8x57mm IS rounds. The Mauser design, the G41(M), failed. Only 6,673 were produced before production was temporarily halted, and of these, 1,673 were returned as unusable. The Walther design, the G41(W), is in outward appearance not unlike the Gewehr 43. Most metal parts on this rifle were machined steel, and some rifles, especially later examples utilized the bakelite type plastic handguards. I'm losing space. "Its parts (excluding the barrel) could be produced by a relatively unskilled workforce with simple equipment available in an auto repair garage or tin shop, freeing up more skilled workers for other tasks. " To your PPsH-41 if it was in mass production. Doesn't that mean that it was very cheeply made as well as easily broken or damaged?