title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: She was cast with Ashley Bell, Dominic Monaghan and Shawn Ashmore in the indie thriller "The Day", which follows a group of people fighting to stay alive in a post-apocalyptic future. The picture premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and later received a theatrical release in a limited run in August 2012. It received generally mixed or average reviews; while "The Los Angeles Times" and "The New York Daily News" praised the cast, "Blu-Ray.com" and "Paste" magazine criticized Sossamon for "weaving in and out" of her character's southern accent. On January 15, 2012, "The Cyclist", a short film starring Sossamon, premiered; it was screened later that year at the Las Vegas Film Festival.


title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: She appeared in the indie romantic drama "The End of Love" as Lydia, a single mother and the love interest of Mark Webber's character. The movie debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and opened theatrically in a limited run in March 2013. Reviews for the film were largely positive, with Sossamon earning top notices. "Chicago Sun-Times" critic Charlie Schmidlin concluded that the actress "radiates warmth" and noted that her part in the movie "is the most natural and welcome performance I've seen from her". "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Time Out" found Sossamon "captivating" and "enormously appealing", respectively.


title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: Sossamon then appeared in "Desire", another short feature and a collaboration between Jaguar and Ridley Scott Associates, to help kick off the 2014 Jaguar F-Type. The 13-minute video, directed by Adam Smith and co-starring Damian Lewis, is about a car delivery man who gets caught up in a dangerous chase involving a woman in trouble (who is played by Sossamon). It had initially a debut at the 2013 Sundance London Film and Music Festival and was then posted on YouTube. On June 30, 2013, she debuted as Alex in the ABC drama "Mistresses". Her character had a "multi-episode arc" during the first season of the series, with her last airdate being September 2 (episode "When One Door Closes..."). Sossamon accepted the role as it was a "softer character" for her to play, given she had been in a career hiatus due to her second pregnancy. At the time, it was announced that Sossamon was cast to play one of the main parts in M. Night Shyamalan's limited series for FOX, "Wayward Pines". Her role was Theresa Burke, the wife of Matt Dillon's character, and the show premiered on May 14, 2015. "Wayward Pines" received mostly favorable reviews from critics and after a debut described as "soft" by "Deadline Hollywood", viewership for the series grew in subsequent episodes.


title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: She provided her voice for a character named Lorna during an episode of "Over the Garden Wall", which aired on November 6, 2014 ("Chapter 7: The Ringing of the Bell") She next had a starring role in the supernatural horror sequel "Sinister 2", where she played a mother whose sons are tormented by ghostly children. The movie was released worldwide on August 21, 2015, generating overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. However, it has grossed over US$48 million on a budget of US$10 million. Sossamon played Pandora in the third season of FOX's "Sleepy Hollow", in which she was a series regular.


title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: Besides acting, Sossamon continues to study music and dance. After the birth of her first child, she started to learn how to play the guitar, with lessons about four days a week, as she wanted to create a band with her sister Jenny Lee Lindberg, who knew how to play the bass. Shortly afterwards, they formed Warpaint, an indie rock and psychedelic band formed in Los Angeles. As all the members were playing the guitar at the beginning, she became the drummer of the group: "When we all started the band together, no one was playing drums, it was like all of us on guitars, and we needed a drummer. We tried out a pool of drummers and then one day I just decided to sit on the drum kit and it really worked and I had so much fun".


title: Shannyn Sossamon

text: When asked about her interest in pursuing a musical career as a solo artist following her work with the band Warpaint, Sossamon responded that although she writes a lot of songs by herself, "music requires focus and discipline in a way that I need to have for other things right now". Despite her musical work, So has clarified she rarely calls herself a musician, as she does not "practice or play nearly as much as the great ones do. Most of my days and thoughts are taken up by stories, feelings, and pictures. Music is present in them, too, but always having to do with a picture."


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 American spy thriller film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Tom Clancy's 1991 novel of the same name. The film, which is set in the "Jack Ryan" film series, is a reboot taking place in 2002. Jack Ryan is portrayed as a younger character by Ben Affleck, in comparison with the previous films: "The Hunt for Red October" (1990) starring Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan and the sequels, "Patriot Games" (1992) and "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), both starring Harrison Ford in the role.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: An Austrian Neo-Nazi plans to trigger a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, so that he can establish a fascist superstate in Europe. After the Neo-Nazi's scientists build a secret nuclear weapon that destroys Baltimore, and a rogue Russian officer paid off by the Neo-Nazi attacks a U.S. aircraft carrier, the world's superpowers are pushed close to the brink of war. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Affleck) is the only person who realizes that the Baltimore bomb was a black market weapon, not a Russian one. With the clock ticking, Ryan has to find a way to stop the impending nuclear war.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, MFP Munich Film Partners, and S.O.A.F. Productions. On June 4, 2002, the original motion picture soundtrack was released by the Elektra Records music label. The soundtrack was composed and orchestrated by musician Jerry Goldsmith. The movie premiered in theaters in the United States on May 31, 2002.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: "The Sum of All Fears" received generally mixed reviews from critics. It is considered a major financial success, having a worldwide theatrical run of $193.9 million compared to its production budget of $68 million and related marketing costs.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, an Israeli warplane carrying a nuclear bomb is shot down, falling into the Golan Heights, where the bomb gets buried in the desert. In 2002, a Syrian scrap collector uncovers the bomb buried in a field in the Golan Heights. He sells it to a South African black market arms trafficker named Olson, who recognizes it as a nuclear bomb. He then sells it to a neo-Nazi group led by Austrian billionaire Richard Dressler, whose aim is to start a war between the United States and Russia that will devastate them both, and leave a united fascist Europe to rule the world.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Just prior to this, in the United States, President Robert Fowler and his national security team, including CIA Director William Cabot, stage a war game scenario where Russian President Zorkin is overthrown in a coup and rogue generals launch a nuclear attack on the Americans. Shortly after the drill, Zorkin dies of a heart attack and is rapidly replaced by a seeming hardliner supported by the military, Alexander Nemerov.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who has studied Nemerov and believes him to be a reformer who merely talks like a hardliner to gain their support, is summoned by Cabot to accompany him to Moscow to inspect the top Russian nuclear weapons facility, in compliance with the START treaty. At the Kremlin, they meet Nemerov and his personal aide, former KGB agent Anatoly Grushkov. Nemerov requests they deliver a personal message to Fowler, asking him and the US to remain out of Russia's war in Chechnya and let Nemerov stabilize Russia in his own way. During their investigation of the weapons facility, Ryan notices the absence of three scientists listed on the facility's roster; Grushkov assures them the scientists are merely unavailable. After receiving reliable intelligence from a confidential secure informant (codenamed "Spinnaker“) inside the Kremlin disputing Grushkov's assessment, Cabot sends operative John Clark to Russia to investigate.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Tensions between the United States and Russia increase when a chemical attack on Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, is reported during the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Ryan tries to defend Nemerov by indicating that rogue military commanders could have ordered the attack instead, but his theory is disproved when Nemerov delivers a speech to the State Duma taking responsibility for the attack. In response, Fowler deploys peacekeepers to Chechnya. In Russia, Grushkov informs Nemerov that disgruntled Communist officers ordered the attack on Grozny, and Nemerov orders them removed from command, choosing to take the blame for Grozny rather than risk alienating more figures of his military.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Clark tracks the missing scientists to a former Soviet military facility in Ukraine, where Cabot suspects they are building a secret nuclear weapon that Russia could use without any method to trace it back to them. Ryan and his colleagues discern that a crate from the facility in Ukraine was flown to the Canary Islands, then sent to Baltimore on a cargo ship. Ryan warns Cabot, who is attending a football game in the city with Fowler, about a bomb threat. Thanks to Ryan's warning, Cabot evacuates the president fast enough to get him out of the stadium before the detonation, but not fast enough for the motorcade to escape the bomb's shock wave. The stadium is destroyed, though Fowler is evacuated by the Marines; Cabot is mortally wounded and left behind. Gathering his national security team aboard a Boeing E-4, they conduct a real-life situation similar to the film's beginning but with far more confusion and heightened emotions from all those involved.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: In Russia, President Nemerov desperately tries to defuse the situation over the hotline, but must face American assurance of Russian culpability and his own generals' desire to attack the US.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Immediately thereafter, a corrupt Russian Air Force general who has been bribed by Dressler sends warplanes to successfully attack a U.S. aircraft carrier, heavily damaging it; this further exacerbates tensions between Russia and the United States. On the scene of the blast in Baltimore, Ryan learns from a radiation assessment team that the isotopic signature from the nuclear blast indicates it was manufactured in the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, evidence which apparently exonerates Russia. Ryan finds the injured Cabot, who before dying tells him to contact Spinnaker, his source in the Russian government. Using Cabot's recovered phone, Ryan contacts Spinnaker, who informs Ryan that the uranium was produced in an American facility and was stolen by the CIA in order to be secretly given to Israel (who subsequently lost it during the Yom Kippur War). Ryan tries to get a warning to President Fowler by phone, but is blocked by one of the President's team. In Syria, Clark tracks down Ghazi, one of the men who found the bomb, now dying of radiation exposure. He tells Clark that he sold the bomb to Olson, who lives in Damascus. Ryan's colleagues at Langley infiltrate Olson's computer and download files that implicate Dressler as the person who bought the plutonium and who is behind the nuclear attack.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Ryan is able to reach the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon using Cabot's ID, and manages to get a message to Nemerov, using the personal rapport they had developed when they had met in Moscow and saying that he knows that Russia was not behind the attack. He asks Nemerov to stand down his forces as a show of good faith. Nemerov agrees to do so and Fowler follows suit. As Nemerov and Fowler sign an agreement to counter nuclear proliferation at the Kremlin, the participants in the conspiracy are tracked and assassinated: Clark sneaks into Olson's home in Damascus and slits his throat with a K-Bar knife. Russian agents chase the corrupt Russian general through snow covered woods and gun him down. Dressler, knowing he is being targeted as well, forces his aide to start his car. The car starts normally, to Dressler's relief. However, Grushkov knew Dressler liked to smoke in his car and had wired the car bomb to be detonated by the car's cigarette lighter as opposed to the ignition. As a result, Dressler is blown up when he presses the cigarette lighter button.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Later, Fowler and Nemerov deliver joint speeches about their new initiatives and honoring the dead at the White House, as Ryan and his now fiancée Dr. Catherine Muller listen in. Grushkov, revealing himself to be Spinnaker, arrives and offers to continue the arrangement he had with Cabot with Ryan, to ensure the back channels between Russia and the United States always remain open. He also gives Catherine a present for their engagement, which they notably had not yet announced to anyone. When Ryan asks him how he could have known, Grushkov merely shrugs, smiles and walks away.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: In 1991, Paramount Pictures negotiated with Tom Clancy for the rights to adapt "The Sum of All Fears," but the talks stalled after he became reluctant to concede film rights to further works due to his dissatisfaction with the adaptation of "Patriot Games". Clancy ultimately agreed after he reached a large cash settlement with the studio president Brandon Tartikoff. However, producer Mace Neufeld was not enthusiastic to adapt the book after the release of "Clear and Present Danger" in 1994 due to its similarities with the story of "Black Sunday" and concerns over depicting controversial subjects such as terrorism and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. A year was spent developing Tom Clancy's "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" before the material was deemed too difficult to adapt. An adaptation of "Debt of Honor" or a new screenplay unrelated to any of Clancy's books was also considered.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: In October 1999, Harrison Ford announced that the next Jack Ryan novel being scripted into a film would indeed be "The Sum of All Fears" and that "hopefully we'll get that to a place where we can make a movie." During this time, writer Akiva Goldsman wrote multiple drafts of the script. However, on June 8, 2000, it was announced that Ford had dropped out of the film after he and director Phillip Noyce were unable to work out script problems. It was later announced that Ben Affleck would take on the role in a $10 million deal that would see the series rebooted with Jack Ryan portrayed at an earlier stage in life. "The day I received the offer to play Jack Ryan, I was filming a "Pearl Harbor" scene with Alec Baldwin. He was very sweet and said I should do it," said Affleck. "I wouldn't have done the movie without talking to Harrison Ford first. He gave me his blessing. That's what I needed to hear." Months after Affleck became attached to the project, director Phil Alden Robinson was brought on to lead the project.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: While the basic plot is the same in the movie as in the book, there were significant changes. Noting these substantial changes, in the commentary track on the DVD release, Tom Clancy jokingly introduced himself as "the author of the book that he [director Phil Alden Robinson, who is present with Clancy] ignored" and spending most of the commentary poking fun at the film's factual inaccuracies and differences from the source material. Perhaps the largest change were the original terrorists. In the novel, they were Arab nationalists, but in the film, they were changed to neo-Nazis. A common misconception is that this was done as a reaction to the September 11, 2001, attacks, but the movie finished filming in June 2001.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: On the "making-of" DVD extra, director Alden Robinson said that the change was purely for elements relating to the plot, because Arab terrorists would not be able to plausibly accomplish all that was necessary for the story to work. In addition, the terrorists in the book received significant aid from elements in East Germany, a country which had ceased to exist before the novel was even published. The group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) did mount a two-year lobbying campaign that ended on January 26, 2001, against using "Muslim villains", as the original book version did.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Screenwriter Dan Pyne claimed that the decision to not use Arab terrorists was "possibly because that has become a cliché. At the time that I started writing "The Sum of All Fears", Jörg Haider was just starting to come into play in Austria. And simultaneous with that, I think, there was some neo-nationalist activity in Holland, and there was stuff going on in Spain and in Italy. So it seemed like a logical and lasting idea that would be universal." It has also been noted that a larger percent of profits stems from international audiences, and American filmmakers work to avoid alienating large segments of this customer base.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Principal photography for "The Sum of All Fears" began on February 12, 2001, in Montreal, Quebec. A majority of the film was shot in Montreal, including the sequences at the football game that were shot in the city's Olympic Stadium. Additional filming was done at the Diefenbunker in Ottawa, Ontario. Production finished in June 2001. The interior scene of the aircraft carrier "USS John C. Stennis" was filmed on a set used in the television series "JAG".


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: The musical score to "The Sum of All Fears" is composed by Jerry Goldsmith. A soundtrack album was released on June 4, 2002, by Elektra Records. In addition to Goldsmith's score, the soundtrack also includes source music such as "If We Get Through This" by Tabitha Fair and "Nessun dorma" by Giacomo Puccini. There are also two tracks from the album ("If We Could Remember" and "The Mission") that are vocal interpretations of Goldsmith's primary theme co-written by singer-songwriter Paul Williams. On March 12, 2014, an expanded edition was released by La-La Land Records.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: While the film was speculated to be released in late 2001, "The Sum of All Fears" was theatrically released on May 31, 2002. Many media outlets characterized this apparent change in release date to be a delay due to the September 11 attacks. Addressing the release date, director Phil Alden Robinson said, "When I came on board in August of 2000, they said, 'This is a Summer-of-2002 picture.'" As the first film released since September 11 to deal so vividly with terrorism, critics believed it to be too alarming to be released nine months after the attacks.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: "The Sum of All Fears" received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 60% of critics gave the film positive reviews and that the average rating was 5.95/10 based on a total of 176 reviews counted. The consensus was that the film was "A slick and well-made thriller that takes on new weight due to the current political climate." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, "The Sum of All Fears" received a score of 45 based on 35 reviews.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Peter Travers criticized Affleck's performance, saying it "merely creates an outline for a role he still needs to grow into, a role that Harrison Ford effortlessly filled with authority." Richard Roeper felt the film "is almost impossible to follow – and there's something cringe-inducing about seeing an American football stadium nuked as pop entertainment." Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" called it "an implausible apocalypse without depth or resonance", while Peter Rainer of "New York" magazine felt the "movie has been upstaged by the sum of our fears."


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: A few positive reviews came from "The Argus", who praised Freeman for giving "the William Cabot character such validity." Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5 out of 4, stars and felt that "the use of the neo-Nazis is politically correct: Best to invent villains who won't offend any audiences." He also said that "Jack Ryan's one-man actions in post-bomb Baltimore are unlikely and way too well-timed." Ebert was not alone in disparaging the recasting of the novel's Arab terrorist villains as Neo-Nazis.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: In "", author Matthew Alford observed that the American political characters in the film act benevolently, declaring "When the President and his advisers do apply force it is with heavy hearts and purely as a way of demonstrating 'deterrence' in the hope that this will encourage the Russians to back down. They never apply excessive violence and are ultimately with Ryan’s in avoiding nuclear warfare." Furthermore, he argued that "the film celebrates and makes light of the enormous covert powers of a globally operating US national security state and its allies."


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: Ed Gonzalez of "Slant" magazine took issue with the film's violent content, especially as it was released not long after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: "The Sum of All Fears" made $31.1 million during its opening weekend, ranking in first place at the box office, beating "". According to Box Office Mojo, the film made U.S. $118,907,036 and $75,014,336 in foreign totals, easily recovering its $68 million production costs.


title: The Sum of All Fears (film)

text: The film won a Visual Effects Society Award for "Best Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture." The recipients were Glenn Neufeld, Derek Spears, Dan Malvin, and Al DiSarro.


title: Mons pubis

text: In human anatomy, and in mammals in general, the mons pubis or pubic mound (also known simply as the mons, and known specifically in females as the mons Venus or mons veneris) is a rounded mass of fatty tissue found over the pubic symphysis of the pubic bones.


title: Mons pubis

text: For females, the "mons pubis" forms the anterior portion of the vulva. It divides into the labia majora (literally "larger lips"), on either side of the furrow known as the pudendal cleft, that surrounds the labia minora, clitoris, urethra, vaginal opening, and other structures of the vulval vestibule.


title: Mons pubis

text: Although present in both men and women, the "mons pubis" tends to be larger in women. Its fatty tissue is sensitive to estrogen, causing a distinct mound to form with the onset of female puberty. This pushes the forward portion of the labia majora out and away from the pubic bone. The mound also becomes covered with pubic hair. It often becomes less prominent with the decrease in bodily estrogen experienced during menopause.


title: Mons pubis

text: The term "mons pubis" is derived from Latin for "pubic mound". The more specifically female "mons Venus" or "mons veneris" is derived from Latin for "mound of Venus".


title: Mons pubis

text: Although not part of external genitalia itself, the pubic mound can be regarded as an erogenous zone and is highly eroticized in many cultures. Throughout history, the complete or partial removal of pubic hair has been common in many societies, and more recently it has become widespread in the Western world. The full removal of pubic hair by use of wax, sugar or shaving, known as ″Brazilian wax″, has become common practice in recent years.


title: Mons pubis

text: In some circumstances, the mons veneris is subjected to aesthetic ideals beyond hair removal. Correspondingly, plastic surgery is offered which alters the shape of the mons to a desired ideal. Desired ideals may be influenced by personal preferences, current cultural norms, or societal pressures.


title: Mons pubis

text: Permanent forms of decoration to enhance the aesthetic appeal of this area are "hanabira", the application of cosmetic scars, or piercings such as the Christina piercing or the Nefertiti piercing. Vajazzling refers to the non-permanent decoration of the "mons pubis" with crystal ornaments.


title: Rahul Kohli

text: Rahul Kohli (born 13 November 1985) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti in "iZombie" (2015–19), Owen Sharma in "The Haunting of Bly Manor" (2020), and Sheriff Hassan in "Midnight Mass" (2021).


title: Rahul Kohli

text: Kohli was born in London on 13 November 1985, the son of Indian Hindu immigrant parents. His mother was raised in Thailand, while his father spent his early years in Kenya. Two of his grandparents were born in the future Pakistani part of British India.


title: Rahul Kohli

text: Kohli was cast in a lead role in the television series "iZombie" (2015–19) as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti. He appeared in all 71 episodes of the show. Other notable credits include the 2018 film "Happy Anniversary", the TV series "Supergirl" (2017–19), and the animated series "Harley Quinn" (2019–20). Kohli starred as Owen Sharma in "The Haunting of Bly Manor", a Netflix horror drama series by Mike Flanagan released in October 2020. He went on to star in "Midnight Mass", a supernatural horror miniseries also created by Flanagan, in the role of Sheriff Hassan Shabazz. The series was released in September 2021.


title: Rahul Kohli

text: Outside of acting, Kohli is known for his heavy use of Twitter, his support for football team Liverpool FC, and being an avid gamer.


title: Rahul Kohli

text: Kohli uses both he/him and they/them pronouns, which he began doing after reading a guide from GLAAD about how to be an ally to transgender people. He has clarified that he does this despite being cisgender and not non-binary because he wants to "normalise 'they/them' pronouns in general".


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: John David Hannah (born 23 April 1962) is a Scottish film and television actor. He came to prominence in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Matthew. His other film appearances include "Sliding Doors" (1998) and "The Mummy" trilogy (1999–2008). His television roles include: Dr Iain McCallum in "McCallum" (1995–1998); D.I. John Rebus in "Rebus" (2000–2001); Jack Roper in "New Street Law" (2006–2007); Jake Osbourne in "Cold Blood" (2007–2008), Quintus Lentulus Batiatus in "Spartacus" (2010–2011), Jack Cloth in "A Touch of Cloth" (2012–14), Jason's father (Aeson) in the BBC series "Atlantis" (2013–15), Dr Holden Radcliffe in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (2016–2017), Colin in "Overboard" (2018), and Archie Wilson in the BBC series "Trust Me".


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: Hannah was born in East Kilbride in Lanarkshire, the youngest of three children; he has two older sisters. His mother, Susan, was a cleaner at Marks & Spencer, and his father, John, a toolmaker. He attended Heathery Knowe Primary School then Claremont High School in East Kilbride and went on to an apprenticeship as an electrician. In East Kilbride, he participated in the East Kilbride Rep Theatre Club. At the suggestion of a colleague, after completing his apprenticeship he then attended the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: After graduation, Hannah had parts in theatre productions, films and television, which included leading roles. He broke into the "big-time" with his appearance as Matthew in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). Since this breakthrough role, he has played a psychopathic killer alongside Helen Baxendale in "Truth or Dare" and a mystery-solving pathologist in "McCallum". He was a karaoke-mad dead-beat dad in "The James Gang", the alcoholic, pilfering but endearing, lovable comic-relief brother of the female lead in "The Mummy" (1999), "The Mummy Returns" (2001) and "" (2008) and a Monty Python-quoting romantic comedy love interest in "Sliding Doors" (1998). Hannah also starred in the axed U.S. series "MDs" (2002), as well as making guest appearances in "Alias" (2001), "Carnivàle" (2002) and "Frasier" (2003). In 2006 he starred in the drama series "New Street Law". In 2007–08, he played a starring role in the ITV crime drama "Cold Blood".


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: On 24 December 1997, Hannah and Scottish Films producer Murray Ferguson established a production company called Clerkenwell Films. Clerkenwell's first big production was the "Rebus" series, including "Black And Blue" and "The Hanging Garden". However, "Rebus" was later taken in-house by STV Productions, and Hannah was replaced in the leading role in the series by Ken Stott.


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: He is the voice of the Co-operative Group adverts in Europe. He played the part of Quintus Lentulus Batiatus, the owner of a gladiator training house, in "" and the prequel "".


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: Hannah played the recurring role of scientist Holden Radcliffe on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in a recurring role during season three and got promoted to series regular during season four.


title: John Hannah (actor)

text: Hannah married actress Joanna Roth on 20 January 1996. The pair met several years before during a studio production of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure". In many of his interviews, he mentions stories from their relationship, such as their visit to London's 'Sri Siam' restaurant where he proposed to her in writing on the tablecloth. They live in Richmond, London with their two children.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 (shortened from German: "Maschinengewehr 42", or "machine gun 42") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. Entering production in 1942, it was intended to supplement and replace the earlier MG 34, which was more expensive and took much longer to produce, but both weapons were produced until the end of World War II.


title: MG 42

text: Designed to use the standard German 7.92×57mm Mauser rifle round, be low-cost and easier to mass-produce, the MG 42 proved to be highly reliable and easy to operate. It is most notable for its very high cyclic rate for a gun using full-power service cartridges, averaging about 1,200 rounds per minute compared to around 850 for the MG 34, and 450 to 600 for other common machine guns like the M1919 Browning, FM 24/29 or Bren gun. This ability made it extremely effective in providing suppressive fire, and its unique sound led to it being nicknamed "Hitler's buzzsaw".


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 was adopted by several armed organizations after the war, and was both copied and built under licence. The MG 42's lineage continued past Nazi Germany's defeat, forming the basis for the nearly identical "MG1" (MG 42/59), chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO, which subsequently evolved into the MG1A3, and later the Bundeswehr's MG 3, Italian and Austrian MG 74. It also spawned the Yugoslav unlicensed nearly identical Zastava M53.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 lent many design elements to the Swiss MG 51 and SIG MG 710-3, French AA-52, American M60 and Belgian MAG general-purpose machine guns and the Spanish 5.56×45mm NATO Ameli light machine gun.


title: MG 42

text: Even before World War I, the German military was already looking forward to replacing the heavy machine guns which proved to be such a success in that war. The MG13 was one of the first developments toward a goal of producing a weapon that could perform multiple roles, rather than just one. The MG13 was the result of reengineering the Dreyse Water-cooled machine gun to fit the new requirement. The twin-barreled Gast gun was developed with the goal of providing a high cyclic rate of fire weapon for anti-aircraft use which was reported to have reached cyclic rates of fire as high as 1,600 rounds per minute.


title: MG 42

text: This eventually led to the "Einheitsmaschinengewehr" (Universal machine gun) introducing an entirely new concept in automatic firepower. By changing its mount, sights and feed mechanism, the operator could radically transform an "Einheitsmaschinengewehr" for several purposes.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 34 is considered to be the first modern general-purpose machine gun or "Einheitsmaschinengewehr". It was developed to use the standard German 7.92×57mm Mauser full-power rifle round. It was envisaged and well developed to provide portable light and medium machine gun infantry cover, low level anti-aircraft coverage, and even sniping ability. Equipped with a quick-change barrel and fed either with non-disintegrating metallic-link belts, or from a 50-round "Gurttrommel" (belt drum) or a 75-round spring-loaded saddle-drum "Patronentrommel 34" magazines (with a simple change of the feed cover for a Trommelhalter magazine holder), the MG 34 could sustain fire for much longer periods of time than other portable squad-level weapons such as the American M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), Soviet Degtyaryov machine gun (DP-27) and the British Bren gun, which were fed by magazines, while also being much lighter and more portable than crew-served weapons like the Browning M1919, SG-43 Goryunov or Vickers machine guns (which also lacked quick-change barrels). The MG 34 was also quite versatile; not only was it able to be fed from belted ammunition or a saddle drum magazine, it could also be fired from a bipod, an innovative "Lafette 34" tripod or various pintle mounts for armored vehicles. Switching between a bipod and a tripod required no special tools, as the mounting latch was spring-loaded. As the MG 34 "Panzerlauf", it was used throughout the war as secondary armament on panzers and other vehicles.


title: MG 42

text: However, the MG 34 did have fundamental drawbacks, such as sensitivity to extreme weather conditions, dirt and mud, and comparatively complex and expensive production. Attempts to incrementally improve the basic MG 34 design failed.


title: MG 42

text: During the period between 1934 and the adoption of the final MG 34 production version the "Waffenamt" (German Army Weapons Agency) realized the MG 34 "Einheitsmaschinengewehr" was too complex and expensive to mass-produce and started looking for ways to simplify and rationalize the technical concept.


title: MG 42

text: In order to address these issues, a draft specification was made and a contest was held for an MG 34 replacement. Three companies were asked in February 1937 to submit designs: Metall und Lackierwarenfabrik Johannes Großfuß AG of Döbeln, Rheinmetall-Borsig AG of Sömmerda, and Stübgen AG of Erfurt. The design and mock-up gun proposals were submitted in October 1937. Großfuß AG's entry proved to be the best design by far, employing a unique recoil-operated roller locking mechanism whereas the two competing entries used a gas-actuated system. The Großfuß company had no earlier experience in weapons manufacture, specializing in pressed and stamped steel components (the company's staple product was sheet metal lanterns). Dr.-Ing. Werner Gruner, one of the leading design engineers with Großfuß, knew nothing about machine guns when he was given the task of being involved with the project, although he specialized in the technology of mass production. would attend an army machine gunner's course to familiarize himself with the utility and characteristics of such a weapon, also seeking input from soldiers. He then recycled an existing Mauser-developed operating system and incorporated features from his experiences with army machine gunners and lessons learned during the early stages of the war. Being made largely out of pressed and stamped appropriately hardened carbon steel metal, only the most important parts were elaborately milled from solid steel, and using spot welding and riveting to connect parts the new design required considerably less machining and fewer high grade steel alloys containing metals that became scarce in Germany during World War II. It was much simpler to build than other machine guns — it took 75 man hours to complete the new gun as opposed to 150 man hours for the MG 34 (a 50% reduction), of raw materials as opposed to for the MG 34 (a 44% reduction) — and cost 250 RM as opposed to 327 RM (a 24% reduction).


title: MG 42

text: The initial trials of the Großfuß functional model presented in April 1938 gave rise to improvement requests by the machine gun contest board. The resulting Großfuß MG 39 prototype gun presented in February 1939 remained similar to the earlier MG 34 overall, a deliberate decision made to maintain familiarity and capability to use the various mounts and other accessories developed for the MG 34 to adapt the gun to different roles. The only major changes from the gunner's perspective were dropping of the saddle-drum-magazine feed option, leaving the weapon to fire belted ammunition, or from a single 50-round drum-shaped "Gurttrommel" belt container fitted to the gun's receiver, and simplifying the weapon's open sights for aiming purposes. All these changes were intended to increase, maintain, or accommodate the gun's high cyclic rate of fire and dispersion. Although made of relatively inexpensive and simple parts, the prototypes proved to be considerably more rugged and resistant to jamming than the precisely machined and somewhat temperamental MG 34. Further trials resulted in selecting the Großfuß MG 39 prototype gun for final production development. A limited run of about 1,500 of further improved MG 39/41 pre mass-production model guns, was completed in 1941 and by the end of 1941 tested in combat trials.


title: MG 42

text: In early 1942 the final model of the weapon was officially accepted, and manufacturing of the mass-production model began, as the MG 42, contracts going to , Mauser-Werke, Gustloff-Werke, Steyr and others. The MG 42 was first deployed in May 1942 by the "Deutsches Afrikakorps" (German Africa Corps expeditionary force in Africa) and introduced by mid-1942 on all fronts. Production during the war amounted to over 400,000 units (17,915 units in 1942, 116,725 in 1943, 211,806 in 1944, and 61,877 in 1945).


title: MG 42

text: In 1943, MG 42 production surpassed MG 34 production and continued to do so until the end of the war. The Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s in parallel until the end of the war.


title: MG 42

text: The distinctive sound caused by the high cyclic firing rate gave rise to a variety of nicknames. The Germans called it the "Hitlersäge" (Hitler’s Saw), "Schnellespritze" (Fast Sprayer), "Knochensäge" (Bone Saw), "Tripperspritze" (Gonorrhoea Syringe) and "elektrisches MG" (Electric MG). The Soviets called it the "Linoleum Ripper", and British and American troops called it "Hitler's Buzzsaw", or "Hitler's Zipper". Like the MG 34, British troops sometimes called it a "Spandau", a traditional generic term for all German machine guns, left over from the famous Allied nickname for the MG 08 Maxim-derivative used by German forces during World War I and derived from its manufacturer's plates noting the city of Spandau where some were produced. Brazilian expeditionary soldiers fighting in Italy used to refer to the MG 42 as "Lourdinha"; this nickname is due to the fact that the bride of one of the soldiers, named Maria de Lourdes, was a seamstress and the sound of MG 42 was similar to the sound of her sewing machine ("Lourdinha" is a common nickname in Brazil for women called Maria de Lourdes).


title: MG 42

text: The German tactical infantry doctrine of the era based a (10-man "Gruppe") squad's firepower on the general-purpose machine gun in the light machine gun role so that the role of the rifleman was largely to carry ammunition and provide covering fire for the machine gunners. The advantage of the general purpose machine gun concept was that it added greatly to the overall volume of fire that could be put out by a squad-sized unit.


title: MG 42

text: It was possible for operating crews to lay down a non-stop barrage of fire, pausing only when the barrel had to be replaced. This allowed the MG 42 to tie up significantly larger numbers of enemy troops than was otherwise possible. The Americans and the British trained their troops to take cover from the fire of an MG 42, and assault the position during the sub 10 seconds time window of barrel replacement.


title: MG 42

text: The Allied nations' infantry doctrines of World War II based a squad's/rifle section's firepower centered on the rifleman and/or a magazine fed light machine gun (BAR, Bren, DP-27/DPM, FM 24/29), and they utilised weapons with cyclic fire rates of typically 450–600 rounds per minute. The (slower) rapid firing rate used in emergency/final defensive line situations of the MG 42 was up to 500 rounds per minute. The Allied nations had machine guns with similar rates of fire, but mounted them almost exclusively in aircraft, where the fleeting opportunities for firing made such high rates necessary. The Allies did have similar weapons, such as the M1919 Browning machine gun and the Vickers K machine gun, but these were issued more sparsely than the MG 42, with the Vickers K being an aircraft machine gun, only issued to infantry in specialized circumstances.


title: MG 42

text: A German infantry "Gruppe" (squad) at the start of the war consisted of ten men; a non-commissioned officer or "Unteroffizier" squad leader, deputy squad leader, a three-man machine gun team (machine gunner, assistant gunner/loader and ammunition carrier) and five riflemen. As personal small arms, the squad leader was issued a rifle, or as of around 1941 a submachine gun, the machine gunner and his assistant were issued pistols and the deputy squad leader, ammunition carrier and the riflemen were issued rifles. The riflemen carried additional ammunition, hand grenades, explosive charges or a machine gun tripod as required and provided security and covering fire for the machine gun team. Two of the standard issue bolt-action Karabiner 98k rifles in the squad could be replaced with semi-automatic Gewehr 43 rifles and occasionally, StG 44 assault rifles could be used to re-arm the whole squad, besides the machine gun. A full "Gruppe" (squad) carried 1,800 rounds of ammunition for the machine gun between them.


title: MG 42

text: In the German heavy machine gun (HMG) platoons, each platoon served four MG 34/MG 42 machine guns, used in the sustained fire mode mounted on tripods. In 1944, this was altered to six machine guns in three sections with two seven-man heavy machine gun squads per section as follows:


title: MG 42

text: The optimum operating crew of an MG 42 in its medium machine gun role was six men: the squad leader, the machine gunner who carried and fired the gun, the assistant gunner/loader who carried the tripod, and three riflemen who carried 1,800 rounds of ammunition between them, spare barrels, entrenching tools, and other items.


title: MG 42

text: To enable the machine gun for its long-range direct fire and indirect fire support roles, optical sights could be added to a "Zielfernrohrhalter" (optical sight mounting bracket) on the tripod, allowing operating crews to continue using advanced planned and unplanned firing methods developed during World War I, though plunging fire or indirect fire methods were not as commonly used by machine gunners during World War II as they were during World War I.


title: MG 42

text: One of the "Einheitsmaschinengewehr" (Universal machine gun) roles was to provide low-level anti-aircraft coverage. A high cyclic rate of fire is advantageous for use against targets that are exposed to a general-purpose machine gun for a limited time span, like aircraft or targets that minimize their exposure time by quickly moving from cover to cover. For targets that can be fired on by a general-purpose machine gun for longer periods than just a few seconds, the cyclic firing rate becomes less important. As a consequence, one of the MG 42's most notable features was its high cyclic rate of fire of about 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute, twice the rate of the Vickers and Browning machine guns, which fired at a rate of about 600 rounds per minute. The ear could not easily discern the sound of individual shots being fired, hearing a sound described as like "ripping cloth" or a buzzsaw.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42's high cyclic rate of fire sometimes proved a liability mainly in that, while the weapon could be used to devastating effect, it could quickly exhaust its ammunition supply. For this reason, it was not uncommon for all soldiers operating near an MG 42 to carry extra ammunition, thus providing the MG 42 with a backup source when its main supply was exhausted. Another disadvantage of the MG 42 was that the high cyclic rate of fire led to the barrel overheating quickly during rapid fire. After around 150 rounds of rapid fire, the gun operator would open a side hatch (leading to the barrel) and replace the hot barrel with a new cooler one. Non-observance of this technical limitation renders the barrel prematurely unusable. The machine gun crew member responsible for a hot barrel change was issued protective asbestos mitts to prevent burns to the hands.


title: MG 42

text: The German military instructed that sustained fire must be avoided at all costs. They ruled that the results of sustained fire were disappointing and that the expenditure of ammunition involved was "intolerable." In the bipod-mounted light machine gun role, MG 42 users were trained to fire short bursts of 3 to 7 rounds and strive to optimize their aim between bursts fired in succession. According to comparative tests by the US military under battle conditions, 5 to 7 rounds bursts with 22 bursts in a minute were most effective. For its medium machine gun role, the MG 42 was matched to the newly developed "Lafette 42" tripod. In the tripod-mounted medium machine gun role, MG 42 users were trained to fire short bursts and bursts of 20 to 50 rounds and strive to optimize their aim between bursts fired in succession. As a consequence of factors like the time spent reloading, aiming, changing hot barrels if necessary to allow for cooling, the MG 42's practical effective rate of fire was 154 rounds per minute, versus 150 rounds per minute for the MG 34.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 is a 7.92×57mm Mauser, air-cooled, belt fed, open bolt, recoil-operated machine gun with a quick change barrel.


title: MG 42

text: Its parts are attached to a thick stamped sheet metal housing that functions as the receiver and barrel sleeve.


title: MG 42

text: It weighed 11.57 kg in the light machine gun role with the bipod, lighter than the MG 34 and easily portable. The bipod, the same one used on the MG 34, could be mounted to the front or the center of the gun depending on how and where it was being used.


title: MG 42

text: The shoulder stock is designed to permit gripping with the left hand to hold it secure against the shoulder.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 incorporated lessons hard-won on the Eastern Front. Both the cocking handle and the catch for the top cover to the working parts were designed so that the gunner could operate them wearing arctic mittens or with a stick or rod. This was vital for winter conditions where contact by bare flesh on cold metal could cause severe injury, such as instant frostbite. The MG 42 also functioned well in other climates; dust and dirt in North Africa and Italy was less likely to jam the MG 42 than the more temperamental MG 34.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 is capable only of fully automatic fire. Single shots are difficult, even for experienced operators, due to the weapon's high cyclic rate of fire and the ability to fire a short burst of no more than three rounds was usually accepted as the training standard. The weapon features a recoil booster at the muzzle which adds extra rearwards force to augment that caused by recoil, thereby improving functional reliability and rate of fire. Besides amplifying recoil and managing and timing rearwards force exerted by propellant gas generated pressure, the recoil booster assembly ends in a muzzle shroud and also functions as a guide sleeve for the barrel and a muzzle flash arrester.


title: MG 42

text: The method of barrel change made the MG 42 unsuitable for internal secondary or co-axial armament on World War II era German tanks or other armored vehicles with the exception of the Jagdpanzer IV. Early versions of the Jagdpanzer IV carried two standard (no modification made) MG 42s on both sides of the main gun mantlet/glacis, firing through a firing port which was protected by an armored cover plate (with the MG 42 retracted) when not in use. Later version Jagdpanzer IVs carried only one MG 42 as internal secondary armament.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 belt-feed mechanism inspired the design used in the M60 machine gun. The trigger mechanism of the FN MAG or MAG-58 is a virtual copy of the MG 42's and the FN MAG's belt-feed mechanism is also very similar.


title: MG 42

text: The roller-locked bolt assembly consists of a bolt head, two rollers, a striker sleeve featuring a wedge-shaped front, bolt body, and a large multi strands around a central coil return spring, which is responsible for pushing the bolt assembly into battery (the locked position) and returning it there when it is unlocked and pushed backwards by the recoil of firing or by the charging handle. As the striker sleeve is movable back and forth within the bolt assembly, the return spring is also responsible for pushing the striker sleeve forward during locking (described below). The bolt assembly locks with the barrel's breech (the end the cartridge is loaded into) via a prong type barrel extension behind the breech. As it is recoil-operated and fired from an open bolt, the weapon must be manually charged with the side-mounted charging handle.


title: MG 42

text: The roller-locked recoil operation functions as follows: two cylindrical rollers, positioned in tracks on the bolt head, are pushed outwards into matching tracks in the barrel extension by the striker sleeve and lock the bolt in place against the breech. In the locked position during firing the rollers rest on parallel surfaces relative to the bore axis on the bolt head ensuring a full lockup. Upon firing, rearward force from the recoil of the cartridge ignition combined with the additional rearward force generated by the muzzle booster start to move the barrel and bolt assembly rearwards for a total distance of . These two parts start the unlocking sequence after the barrel and bolt assembly have moved rearwards when the parts have moved far back enough that the rollers start the rest on angled/oblique surfaces and allow the rollers to move inwards, controlled by the wedge-shaped front of the striker sleeve, back to their previous position, unlocking the bolt head and allowing the bolt assembly to further recoil rearwards, extracting the spent cartridge case and ejecting it downwards through an ejection port normally covered by a spring-loaded dust cover at the bottom of the receiver, just in front of the trigger group. The spring-loaded dust cover automatically opens when the gun is fired, but the user has to close it after firing to prevent dirt entering the receiver through the open port. Simultaneously the barrel is pushed forward by a recuperator spring to its starting position. The three-wire braided return spring then pushes the bolt assembly forwards again, pushing a new cartridge out of the belt into the breech. The sequence repeats as long as the trigger is depressed.


title: MG 42

text: The original MG 42 roller-locked action had an undesirable tendency to exhibit bolt-bounce. It was possible to unintentionally have high pressure gas moving backwards in the MG 42 towards the operator(s) when the action was not fully locked. This causes unacceptable dangerous conditions and out of battery ignitions can result in catastrophic gun failures. Enough guns were damaged and put out of action for repair or lost to warrant finding the cause and a solution. After investigation using high-speed photography the rollers in the bolt were found to "bounce" back and forth or oscillate up to when lock up is proceeding and then they settle into full lock up. Once the problem was identified, the temporary solution was to design and manufacture extra sturdy ammunition with primers with a slightly slower ignition time which allowed the rollers to settle into lockup and issue that ammunition specifically for MG 42 use. A more practical solution to control the harmonics problem in the roller/wedge system and make the MG 42 less ammunition ignition timing sensitive was needed. The roller-locking system inherent problem was solved after World War II by developing and adding bolt-bounce preventing bolt catches to the action. These can also be retrofitted to MG 42 bolts.


title: MG 42

text: The cyclic firing rate of the MG 42 can be altered by installing different bolts and return springs. A heavier bolt uses more recoil energy to overcome inertia, thus slowing the cyclic rate of the machine gun. Heavy bolts also were used along with stiffer return springs. The standard MG 42 bolt weight for a 1,500 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire is .


title: MG 42

text: The open-type iron sighting line has a relatively short radius and consists of a "∧-type" height adjustable front sight on a folding post and a leaf rear sight with an open V-notch sliding on a ramp, graduated from in increments. An auxiliary anti-aircraft "spider web" ring sight is kept in the maintenance kit, that can be fitted on the barrel jacket to be used in conjunction with a folding anti-aircraft rear peep sight that is attached by a hinge to the rear sight element base.


title: MG 42

text: An active infrared device, intended primarily for night use, and consisting of a specialized mount, active infrared spotlight and accompanying infrared image converter was developed that could be used with the MG 42 and MG 34. In the later stages of World War II the bulky "Fahr- und Zielgerät FG 1250" (driving and aiming device FG 1250) active infrared unit was paired on Sd.Kfz. 251/1 "Falke" half-track armored personnel carriers to some MG 42 and MG 34 machine guns.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42 could use non-disintegrating metallic-link belts, which have links that wrap around the cartridge case and are linked by a coiling wire on each side. The belts are intended for multiple reuse. As in the MG 34, operation through the feed block is by a feed arm housed in the feed cover. The feeding system was based on the direct push-through of the cartridge out of the belt link into the gun's chamber. Accordingly, the link had to be of the half-open type to enable the motion of the bolt through the link. New in the MG 42 was that two belt feed pawls are linked to the front end of the feed arm by an intermediate link, in such a way that when one pawl is feeding, the other pawl is riding over the next round in the belt. Because of that, feed is performed in two steps, on both the opening and closing movement of the bolt, instead of one step as in the earlier MG 34. This enhances the smoothness of the feeding process by improved ammunition belt retention for more precise indexing with the feedway and reduces mechanical stress put on the feed unit and belt links. According to Infantry Journal in 1947, the operating momentum driven MG 42 feed system will not function reliably under a cyclic firing rate of 850 rounds per minute.


title: MG 42

text: During World War II the "Gurt 34/41"-belt family was introduced. "Gurt 34/41" belt links and wire spirals were made of thinner material — the "Gurt 34" links were made of and "Gurt 34/41" links of thick stamped steel sheet metal — that saved ⅓ of metal and counterintuitively yielded improved performance. Belts were supplied in a fixed length of 50 rounds, but could be linked up to make longer belts for sustained firing. Ammunition boxes contained 250 rounds in five 50-round belts. A 250-round "Patronengurt 33" belt was also issued to machine guns installed in fixed emplacements such as bunkers. "Patronenkasten 34" and "Patronenkasten 41" ammunition boxes could hold up to 300 belted rounds and were used in more static non-highly mobile situations. The "Patronenkasten" could contain an "Einführstück" belt starter-segment.


title: MG 42

text: The "Gurttrommel" assault drum was an alternative feed option and designed to be clipped to the left side of the gun. It was not a true magazine but held a coiled 50-round belt and corresponding "Einführstück" starter-segment preventing it from snagging, twisting and getting stuck during mobile assaults. The "Gurttrommel" belt container was commonly used until the end of World War II, with the MG 42 and the earlier MG 34.


title: MG 42

text: The long barrel and its prong type barrel extension used for lock up, made up the barrel unit of the MG 42. It could be quickly changed by the machine gun crew and weighed including the locking piece. The barrels could have traditional rifling or polygonal rifling. Polygonal rifling was an outgrowth of a cold-hammer forging process developed by German engineers before World War II. The process addressed the need to produce more durable machine gun barrels in less time than those produced with traditional methods. Later produced barrel bores featured hard-chrome plating to make them more durable. The different versions meant that the service life of an MG 42 barrel varied between 3,500 and 8,000 rounds assuming the barrel was used according to the regulations, which prohibited rapid fire beyond 150 rounds. Excessive overheating caused by rapid firing about 500 rounds through a barrel resulted in unacceptable wear of the bore rendering the barrel useless.


title: MG 42

text: For carrying and protecting spare barrel units, consisting of a barrel and its locking piece, the "Laufschützer 42" (barrel protector) was used as a field accessory. When closed the "Laufschützer 42" looked like a tubular container with mountings at its ends to attached a carrying/shoulder strap. During a barrel change a cool MG 42 barrel unit coming out of the "Laufschützer 42" can be inserted in the machine gun and the replaced hot barrel unit can be placed in or on the opened "Laufschützer 42" to cool down. The "Laufschützer 42" was derived from the "Laufschützer 34" that served the same purpose for MG 34 barrel units. Later in the war the universal "Laufschützer 43" was introduced that could be used with MG 43 and MG 42 barrel units.


title: MG 42

text: For the medium machine gun role a large tripod, the "Lafette 42", was available that included a number of features, such as recoil absorbing buffer springs, a "Zielfernrohrhalter" (optical sight mounting bracket) for mounting an MG Z 34 or MG Z 40 periscope-type 4× power telescopic sight containing special sighting equipment for indirect fire, or the late World War II MG Z 44, designed for direct fire only. Fitting such an optical sight enabled the machine gun to deliver direct fire out to . An accessory to lengthen these sights' periscope was available to use these sights behind cover. The "Lafette" could be set up in a prone, kneeling or high position. The "Lafette 42" weighed on its own and was a simplified version of the "Lafette 34" used for the MG 34, as the MG 42 could be operated more easily from a "Lafette" and featured no semi-automatic firing mode. The legs could be extended with a "Lafetteaufsatzstück" to allow it to be used in the low level anti-aircraft role, and when lowered, it could be placed to allow the gun to be fired "remotely" while it swept an arc in front of the mounting with fire. Mounted to the Lafette and aimed through the MG Z 34 or MG Z 40 telescopic sight, the effective range of the MG 42 could be extended out to when fired indirectly. The indirect firing method exploits the "s.S. Patrone" useful maximum range, that is defined by the maximum range of a small-arms projectile while still maintaining the minimum kinetic energy required to put unprotected personnel out of action, which is generally believed to be 15 kilogram-meters (147 J / 108 ft⋅lbf). The "Lafette 42" tripod also had a bolt box to store a (spare) bolt and return spring.


title: MG 42

text: Another unique feature of German World War II machine guns was the "Tiefenfeuerautomat" feature on the "Lafette 42" and "Lafette 34" tripods. It lengthened the beaten zone by walking the fire in wave-like motions up and down the range in a predefined area. The length of the beaten zone could be set on the "Tiefenfeuerautomat". E.g., being unsure whether the real distance was , the gunner could make the mount do an automatic sweep between the elevations for and back. This sweeping of a selected beaten zone continued as long as the gun fired. The "Lafette 42" had a "Richt- und Überschießtafel" (Overhead firing table) riveted to the rear body of the searchfire mechanism from the very start of production until the very end of it. In the later stages of World War II ballistic correction directions were added for overshooting friendly forces with S.m.E. - "Spitzgeschoß mit Eisenkern" (spitzer with iron core) ammunition of which the external ballistic behaviour started to significantly deviate from upwards compared to the "s.S. Patrone" (s.S. ball cartridge). A trigger handle, which enabled the operator to fire the gun without affecting the aim, was attached to the "Tiefenfeuerautomat" searchfire unit.


title: MG 42

text: There were numerous other specialist mounts for the MG 42. The "Dreibein 34", for example, was a simple high-standing tripod for mounting the gun in anti-aircraft mode. There were also mounts for various vehicles, motorcycle sidecars, and fortress positions. MG 42s were mounted in multiple-gun arrangements, particularly for low level anti-aircraft defence.


title: MG 42

text: Finland acquired 5 MG 42s in July 1943 for evaluation. Three were tested with front units. Finland decided to produce 4,000 MG 42s modified to fire 7.62×54mmR cartridges but only one modified prototype was ever made.


title: MG 42

text: In 1944, the material shortages in Nazi Germany led to the development of a newer version, the MG 45 (or MG 42V), which had a different operating mechanism that used roller-delayed blowback as opposed to roller locking. For this reason, the MG 45 is considered a different type of firearm, as the mechanisms of these two guns are different. It used steel of lesser quality, which reduced weight to , while retaining the horizontal cocking handle. First tests were undertaken in June 1944, but development dragged on and eventually only ten were built. The tested MG 45/42V fired 120,000 rounds in succession at a cyclic rate of fire around 1,350 to 1,800 rounds per minute.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42V had some influence in the post-war development of roller-delayed blowback system, as employed in issued CETME, SIG and Heckler & Koch small arms.


title: MG 42

text: The T24 machine gun was a prototype reverse engineered copy of the German MG 42 general-purpose machine gun developed during World War II as a possible replacement for the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and M1919A4 for infantry squads. The T24 was chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge.


title: MG 42

text: By February 1943, US ordnance authorities published the first report on the MG 42, following testing of a captured gun. The quick barrel changing and belt feed systems were considered some of the best design features. The US Army wanted to be able to manufacture this general-purpose gun because it was technically advanced and much easier to make than the World War II US light and medium machine guns and it was decided to convert several MG 42s to fire .30-06 Springfield M2 ball ammunition.


title: MG 42

text: Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General Motors received a contract to construct two working converted MG 42 prototypes designated as the T24 machine gun. It could also be used on an M2 Tripod. The gun was made as an almost exact copy of the MG 42 which was chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser. Some engineering changes were to use a barrel chambered for the .30-06 Springfield service round and an extremely increased weight bolt and stiffer return spring in an effort to reduce the cyclic rate consistent with US rate requirements. Saginaw Steering Gear did not adjust the prototypes for the longer .30-06 Springfield (7.62×63mm) cartridge case.


title: MG 42

text: When one of the two T24 machine gun prototypes was fired at Aberdeen Proving Ground, it fired only one shot and failed to eject the cartridge. A second attempt had the same result. The other prototype was plagued with excessive ejection failures and to a lesser extent failures to feed. The average cyclic rate of fire of the tested weapon was 614 rounds per minute. During January to February 1944, testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground were unsatisfactory. Firings were discontinued in February 1944 after 51 malfunctions and firing a total of 1,583 rounds by authorization of Major C. Balleisen, O.C.O. In March 1944 the US military concluded that functioning of the T24 machine gun prototype was unsatisfactory and recommended that further development was required before this weapon be subjected to the lengthy and severe standard light machine gun test.


title: MG 42

text: However, the realization that the .30-06 Springfield cartridge was too long for the prototype gun's mechanism to easily and reliably work with resulted in the discarding of the project. Saginaw Steering Gear did not get the opportunity to correct the flaws that caused the inability to obtain reliable uninterrupted automatic functioning and further optimize and ready the weapon for mass production before World War II ended.


title: MG 42

text: The Swiss MG 51 or "7.5 mm Maschinengewehr 1951" was based on the design of the MG 42 chambered for 7.5×55mm Swiss GP 11. The final design, which appeared in 1950, was in most respects still similar to the MG 42, although many components were produced by machining instead of stamping, which increased the weight, the stability and the production costs of the machine gun. To prevent short shots Waffenfabrik Bern changed the locking system from roller to flapper locking. These locking methods are similar in concept. The resulting weapon had a cyclic rate of fire of 1,000 rounds per minute, was in the light machine gun role heavier than the German MG 42, and much more finely made and finished.


title: MG 42

text: In Yugoslavia this MG 42 variant was built at the state-owned Zavodi Crvena Zastava company as the "Zastava M53" using original German machinery, retaining the 7.92×57mm Mauser chambering. By doing so, the Yugoslavs retained the original weapon's design features, making the M53 a near exact copy of the German MG 42. The only major differences were a slower 950 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire and no anti-aircraft sight mount. The aiming range of the M53 is , and the terminal range of the bullet is , the same as the MG 42. MG 42s captured in Yugoslavia at the end of World War II were put into reserve of Yugoslav People's Army as M53/42s. The last military use of M53s in Yugoslavia was in 1999. Some quantities of M53s were exported to Iraq in the 1980s and saw extensive action during both Gulf wars. The M53 was known under the nickname Шарац ("Šarac").


title: MG 42

text: At the end of World War II the original technical drawings and data for the MG 42 were captured by the Soviets. These would eventually find their way to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The MG3 (originally the MG 1 launched in 1958) is the MG 42 design rechambered to 7.62×51mm NATO. It remains a primary general-purpose machine gun of the modern German armed forces ("Bundeswehr") until being replaced by the Heckler & Koch MG5 during the 2020s. The MG3 has been used by more than 40 countries around the world, and it remains in widespread service today.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 3 and its preceding variants all share a high level of parts interchangeability with the original MG 42. Like the MG 42, the MG3 cyclic rates of fire can be altered by exchanging the standard weight (about ) bolt used for the standard 1,100–1,300 rounds per minute rate of fire for an extra weight (about ) bolt for a reduced 800–950 rounds per minute rate of fire. Those bolts also are used along with different recoil springs.


title: MG 42

text: The Italian licensed MG 3 variant produced by Beretta, Whitehead Motofides and Franchi since 1959, features an extremely heavy bolt which reduces the cyclic rate of fire to around 800 rounds per minute.


title: MG 42

text: The final variant to date is the MG 74, developed by Austria and since 1974 it is the standard machine gun of the Austrian Armed Forces.


title: MG 42

text: After its founding in 1955, the Austrian army was equipped with old guns temporarily out of U.S. stocks. Starting in 1959 these Browning M1919s were largely replaced by the MG 42 with modified barrel and bolt for the new 7.62×51mm NATO. But to introduce a modern weapon of its own production the Office of Defence Technology, in cooperation with Steyr Mannlicher and Beretta developed a gun specifically for the Austrian Army. The German MG 42/59 that was introduced in 1959 with the Bundeswehr to replace the U.S. machine guns, served as the basis, which was similar to the Austrian 7.62 mm MG 42. Targets were to reduce, among other things, the cyclic rate of fire and weight and have more versatile sights and mount. The development of the weapon was completed in 1974. It replaced from this year the MG 42 as the MG 74 of the Austrian Federal Army.


title: MG 42

text: The modifications to the basic MG 42 design include an extra heavy bolt ( vs. the MG 3 bolt) which reduces the cyclic rate of fire to around 850 rounds per minute. The rate of fire can be varied up to cyclic rate of fire of around 1,150 rounds per minute, if necessary, by changing the bolt and return spring. In addition, a select fire trigger group was added to allow semi-automatic fire (single shot) compared to the traditional fully automatic only fire capability of the original MG 42 design. The MG 74 also has a modern polymer stock and handgrips (usually colored green) to save weight, adjustable rear sight (35° horizontal, vertical 15°) and additional anti-aircraft sight or (low light) optical sights can be mounted optional.


title: MG 42

text: The Swiss SIG MG 710-3 general-purpose machine gun was based on the design of the MG42V/MG45 using a slight modification of the roller-delayed action and chambered for 7.62×51mm NATO. Its cyclic rate of fire is 900 rounds per minute. The first version looks very much like the MG42.


title: MG 42

text: The MG 42's belt-feed mechanism was copied and used in the design of the M60 machine gun. The trigger mechanism of the FN MAG or MAG-58 is a virtual copy of the MG 42's and its belt-feed is also very similar.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Punic Wars were a series of wars between 264 and 146BC fought between Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War broke out on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in 264BC as a result of Rome's expansionary attitude combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. At the start of the war Carthage was the dominant power of the western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was a rapidly expanding power in Italy, with a strong army but no navy. The fighting took place primarily on Sicily and its surrounding waters, as well as in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia. It lasted 23 years, until 241BC, when after immense materiel and human losses on both sides the Carthaginians were defeated. By the terms of the peace treaty Carthage paid large reparations and Sicily was annexed as a Roman province. The end of the war sparked a major but eventually unsuccessful revolt within Carthaginian territory known as the Mercenary War.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Second Punic War began in 218BC and witnessed the Carthaginian general Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and invasion of mainland Italy. This expedition enjoyed considerable early success and campaigned in Italy for 14 years before the survivors withdrew. There was also extensive fighting in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa. The successful Roman invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in Africa in 204BC led to Hannibal's recall. He was defeated in the battle of Zama in 202 BC and Carthage sued for peace. A treaty was agreed in 201BC which stripped Carthage of its overseas territories and some of its African ones; imposed a large indemnity; severely restricted the size of its armed forces; and prohibited Carthage from waging war without Rome's express permission. This caused Carthage to cease to be a military threat.


title: Punic Wars

text: Rome contrived a justification to declare war on Carthage again in 149BC, starting the Third Punic War. This conflict was fought entirely on Carthage's territories in what is now Tunisia and was centred on the siege of Carthage. In 146BC the Romans stormed the city of Carthage, sacked it, slaughtered most of its population and completely demolished it. The Carthaginian territories were taken over as the Roman province of Africa. The ruins of the city lie east of modern Tunis on the North African coast.


title: Punic Wars

text: The most reliable source for Punic Wars is the historian Polybius ( – ), a Greek sent to Rome in 167BC as a hostage. He is best known for "The Histories", written sometime after 146BC. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible interviewed participants, from both sides, in the events he wrote about. Modern historians consider Polybius to have treated the relatives of Scipio Aemilianus, his patron and friend, unduly favourably but the consensus is to accept his account largely at face value. The modern historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable"; Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". The details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account.


title: Punic Wars

text: The account of the Roman historian Livy is commonly used by modern historians where Polybius's account is not extant. Livy relied heavily on Polybius, but wrote in a more structured way, with more details about Roman politics; he was also openly pro-Roman. His accounts of military encounters are often demonstrably inaccurate; the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy says Livy's "reliability is often suspect", and the historian Phillip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance".


title: Punic Wars

text: Other, later, ancient histories of the wars exist, although often in fragmentary or summary form. Modern historians usually take into account the writings of various Roman annalists, some contemporary; the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus; the later Roman historians Plutarch, Appian and Dio Cassius. Goldsworthy writes "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts". Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions, such as the trireme "Olympias".


title: Punic Wars

text: The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century before the First Punic War. It had conquered peninsular Italy south of the Arno River by 270BC, when the Greek cities of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) submitted after the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War. During this period of Roman expansion Carthage, with its capital in what is now Tunisia, had come to dominate southern Iberia, much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and the western half of Sicily in a thalassocracy.


title: Punic Wars

text: Beginning in 480BC, Carthage had fought a series of inconclusive wars against the Greek city-states of Sicily, led by Syracuse. By 264BC Carthage was the dominant external power on the island, and Carthage and Rome were the preeminent powers in the western Mediterranean. Relationships were good and the two states had several times declared their mutual friendship via formal alliances: in 509BC, 348BC and around 279BC. There were strong commercial links. During the Pyrrhic War of 280–275BC, against a king of Epirus who alternately fought Rome in Italy and Carthage on Sicily, Carthage provided materiel to the Romans and on at least one occasion used its navy to ferry a Roman force. According to the classicist Richard Miles Rome had an expansionary attitude after southern Italy came under its control, while Carthage had a proprietary approach to Sicily. The interaction of these conflicting policies caused the two powers to stumble into war more by accident than design. The immediate cause of the war was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city state of Messana (modern Messina). In 264BC Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War.


title: Punic Wars

text: Most male Roman citizens were eligible for military service and would serve as infantry, with a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise two legions, each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. Approximately 1,200 of the infantry, poorer or younger men unable to afford the armour and equipment of a standard legionary, served as javelin-armed skirmishers, known as velites. They carried several javelins, which would be thrown from a distance, a short sword and a shield. The balance were equipped as heavy infantry, with body armour, a large shield and short thrusting swords. They were divided into three ranks, of which the front rank also carried two javelins, while the second and third ranks had a thrusting spear instead. Both legionary sub-units and individual legionaries fought in relatively open order. It was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year as senior magistrates, known as consuls, who at time of war would each lead an army. An army was usually formed by combining a Roman legion with a similarly sized and equipped legion provided by their Latin allies; allied legions usually had a larger attached complement of cavalry than Roman ones.


title: Punic Wars

text: Carthaginian citizens only served in their army if there was a direct threat to the city of Carthage. When they did they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many were from North Africa and these were frequently referred to as "Libyans". The region provided several types of fighters, including: close order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close order shock cavalry (also known as "heavy cavalry") carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat. (The latter were usually Numidians.) The close order African infantry and the citizen-militia both fought in a tightly-packed formation known as a phalanx. On occasion some of the infantry would wear captured Roman armour, especially among the troops of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. In addition both Iberia and Gaul provided many experienced infantry and cavalry. The infantry from these areas were unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. The Gallic cavalry, and possibly some of the Iberians, wore armour and fought as close order troops; most or all of the mounted Iberians were light cavalry. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands. The Carthaginians also employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time.


title: Punic Wars

text: Garrison duty and land blockades were the most common operations. When armies were campaigning, surprise attacks, ambushes and stratagems were common. More formal battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping apart for days or weeks; sometimes both forming up in battle order each day. If either commander felt at a disadvantage, they might march off without engaging. In such circumstances it was difficult to force a battle if the other commander was unwilling to fight. Forming up in battle order was a complicated and premeditated affair, which took several hours. Infantry were usually positioned in the centre of the battle line, with light infantry skirmishers to their front and cavalry on each flank. Many battles were decided when one side's infantry force was attacked in the flank or rear and they were partially or wholly enveloped.


title: Punic Wars

text: Quinqueremes, meaning "five-oarsmen", provided the workhorses of the Roman and Carthaginian fleets throughout the Punic Wars. So ubiquitous was the type that Polybius uses it as a shorthand for "warship" in general. A quinquereme carried a crew of 300: 280 oarsmen and 20 deck crew and officers. It would also normally carry a complement of 40 marines; if battle was thought to be imminent this would be increased to as many as 120. In 260BC Romans set out to construct a fleet and used a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a blueprint for their own.


title: Punic Wars

text: As novice shipwrights, the Romans built copies that were heavier than the Carthaginian vessels; thus they were slower and less manoeuvrable. Getting the oarsmen to row as a unit, let alone to execute more complex battle manoeuvres, required long and arduous training. At least half of the oarsmen would need to have had some experience if the ship was to be handled effectively. As a result, the Romans were initially at a disadvantage against the more experienced Carthaginians. To counter this, the Romans introduced the "corvus", a bridge wide and long, with a heavy spike on the underside, which was designed to pierce and anchor into an enemy ship's deck. This allowed Roman legionaries acting as marines to board enemy ships and capture them, rather than employing the previously traditional tactic of ramming.


title: Punic Wars

text: All warships were equipped with rams, a triple set of bronze blades weighing up to positioned at the waterline. In the century prior to the Punic Wars, boarding had become increasingly common and ramming had declined, as the larger and heavier vessels adopted in this period increasingly lacked the speed and manoeuvrability necessary to ram effectively, while their sturdier construction reduced a ram's effect on them even in case of a successful attack. The Roman adaptation of the was a continuation of this trend and compensated for their initial disadvantage in ship-manoeuvring skills. The added weight in the prow compromised both the ship's manoeuvrability and its seaworthiness, and in rough sea conditions the became useless; part way through the First Punic War the Romans ceased using it.


title: Punic Wars

text: Much of the First Punic War was fought on, or in the waters near, Sicily. Away from the coasts its hilly and rugged terrain made manoeuvring large forces difficult and favoured the defence over the offence. Land operations were largely confined to raids, sieges and interdiction; in 23 years of war on Sicily there were only two full-scale pitched battles.


title: Punic Wars

text: The war began with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina). They then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas on the south coast. A Carthaginian army of 50,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 60 elephants attempted to lift the siege in 262BC, but was heavily defeated at the battle of Akragas. That night the Carthaginian garrison escaped and the Romans seized the city and its inhabitants, selling 25,000 of them into slavery.


title: Punic Wars

text: After this the land war on Sicily reached a stalemate as the Carthaginians focused on defending their well-fortified towns and cities; these were mostly on the coast and so could be supplied and reinforced without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere. The focus of the war shifted to the sea, where the Romans had little experience; on the few occasions they had previously felt the need for a naval presence they had usually relied on small squadrons provided by their Latin or Greek allies. The Romans built a navy to challenge Carthage's, and using the inflicted a major defeat at the battle of Mylae in 260BC. A Carthaginian base on Corsica was seized, but an attack on Sardinia was repulsed; the base on Corsica the Romans had seized was then lost. In 258BC a Roman fleet heavily defeated a smaller Carthaginian fleet at the battle of Sulci off the western coast of Sardinia.


title: Punic Wars

text: Taking advantage of their naval victories the Romans launched an invasion of North Africa in 256BC, which the Carthaginians intercepted at the battle of Cape Ecnomus off the southern coast of Sicily. The Carthaginians superior seamanship was not as effective as they had hoped, while the Romans' gave them an edge as the battle degenerated into a shapeless brawl. The Carthaginians were again beaten; this was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. The invasion initially went well and in 255BC the Carthaginians sued for peace; the proposed terms were so harsh they fought on. At the battle of Tunis in spring 255BC a combined force of infantry, cavalry and war elephants under the command of the Spartan mercenary Xanthippus crushed the Romans. The Romans sent a fleet to evacuate their survivors and the Carthaginians opposed it at the battle of Cape Hermaeum (modern Cape Bon); the Carthaginians were again heavily defeated. The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, losing most of its ships and more than 100,000 men. It is possible that the presence of the corvus, making the Roman ships unusually unseaworthy, contributed to this disaster; there is no record of them being used again.


title: Punic Wars

text: The war continued, with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. The Carthaginians attacked and recaptured Akragas in 255BC, but not believing they could hold the city, they razed and abandoned it. The Romans rapidly rebuilt their fleet, adding 220 new ships, and captured Panormus (modern Palermo) in 254BC. The next year they lost another 150 ships to a storm. On Sicily the Romans avoided battle in 252 and 251BC, according to Polybius because they feared the war elephants which the Carthaginians had shipped to the island. In 250BC the Carthaginians advanced on Panormus, but in a battle outside the walls the Romans drove off the Carthaginian elephants with javelin fire. The elephants routed through the Carthaginian infantry, who were then charged by the Roman infantry to complete their defeat.


title: Punic Wars

text: Slowly the Romans had occupied most of Sicily; in 250BC they besieged the last two Carthaginian strongholdsLilybaeum and Drepana in the extreme west. Repeated attempts to storm Lilybaeum's strong walls failed, as did attempts to block access to its harbour, and the Romans settled down to a siege which was to last nine years. They launched a surprise attack on the Carthaginian fleet, but were defeated at the battle of Drepana; Carthage's greatest naval victory of the war. Carthage turned to the maritime offensive, inflicting another heavy naval defeat at the battle of Phintias and all but swept the Romans from the sea. It was to be seven years before Rome again attempted to field a substantial fleet, while Carthage put most of its ships into reserve to save money and free up manpower.


title: Punic Wars

text: After more than 20 years of war, both states were financially and demographically exhausted. Evidence of Carthage's financial situation includes their request for a 2,000-talent loan from Ptolemaic Egypt, which was refused. Rome was also close to bankruptcy and the number of adult male citizens, who provided the manpower for the navy and the legions, had declined by 17 per cent since the start of the war. Goldsworthy describes Roman manpower losses as "appalling".


title: Punic Wars

text: The Romans rebuilt their fleet again in 243BC after the Senate approached Rome's wealthiest citizens for loans to finance the construction of one ship each, repayable from the reparations to be imposed on Carthage once the war was won. This new fleet effectively blockaded the Carthaginian garrisons. Carthage assembled a fleet which attempted to relieve them, but it was destroyed at the battle of the Aegates Islands in 241BC, forcing the cut-off Carthaginian troops on Sicily to negotiate for peace.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Treaty of Lutatius was agreed. By its terms Carthage paid 3,200 talents of silver in reparations and Sicily was annexed as a Roman province. Polybius regarded the war as "the longest, most continuous and most severely contested war known to us in history". Henceforth Rome considered itself the leading military power in the western Mediterranean and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. The immense effort of repeatedly building large fleets of galleys during the war laid the foundation for Rome's maritime dominance, which was to last 600 years.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Mercenary, or Truceless, War began in 241BC as a dispute over the payment of wages owed to 20,000 foreign soldiers who had fought for Carthage on Sicily during the First Punic War. This erupted into full-scale mutiny under the leadership of Spendius and Matho; 70,000 Africans from Carthage's oppressed dependant territories flocked to join the mutineers, bringing supplies and finance. War-weary Carthage fared poorly in the initial engagements, especially under the generalship of Hanno. Hamilcar Barca, a veteran of the campaigns in Sicily, was given joint command of the army in 240BC and supreme command in 239BC. He campaigned successfully, initially demonstrating leniency in an attempt to woo the rebels over. To prevent this, in 240BC Spendius tortured 700 Carthaginian prisoners to death and henceforth the war was pursued with great brutality.


title: Punic Wars

text: By early 237BC, after numerous setbacks, the rebels were defeated and their cities brought back under Carthaginian rule. An expedition was prepared to reoccupy Sardinia, where mutinous soldiers had slaughtered all Carthaginians. The Roman Senate stated they considered the preparation of this force an act of war and demanded Carthage cede Sardinia and Corsica and pay an additional 1,200-talent indemnity. Weakened by 30 years of war, Carthage agreed rather than again enter into conflict with Rome. Polybius considered this "contrary to all justice" and modern historians have variously described the Romans' behaviour as "unprovoked aggression and treaty-breaking", "shamelessly opportunistic" and an "unscrupulous act". These events fuelled resentment of Rome in Carthage, which was not reconciled to Rome's perception of its situation. This breach of the recently signed treaty is considered by modern historians to be the single greatest cause of war with Carthage breaking out again in 218BC in the Second Punic War.


title: Punic Wars

text: With the suppression of the rebellion, Hamilcar understood that Carthage needed to strengthen its economic and military base if it were to again confront Rome. After the First Punic War, Carthaginian possessions in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) were limited to a handful of prosperous coastal cities in the south. Hamilcar took the army which he had led in the Mercenary War to Iberia in 237BC and carved out a quasi-monarchial, autonomous state in its south east. This gave Carthage the silver mines, agricultural wealth, manpower, military facilities such as shipyards, and territorial depth to stand up to future Roman demands with confidence. Hamilcar ruled as a viceroy and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, in the early 220sBC and then his son, Hannibal, in 221BC. In 226BC the Ebro Treaty was agreed with Rome, specifying the Ebro River as the northern boundary of the Carthaginian sphere of influence. At some time during the next six years Rome made a separate agreement with the city of Saguntum, which was situated well south of the Ebro.


title: Punic Wars

text: In 219BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked Saguntum and in spring 218BC Rome declared war on Carthage. There were three main military theatres in the war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success until moving into Italy; and Africa, where the war was decided.


title: Punic Wars

text: In 218BC there was some naval skirmishing in the waters around Sicily; the Romans beat off a Carthaginian attack and captured the island of Malta. In Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy), the major Gallic tribes attacked the Roman colonies there, causing the Roman settlers to flee to their previously-established colony of Mutina (modern Modena), where they were besieged. A Roman relief force broke through the siege, but was then ambushed and besieged itself. An army had previously been created by the Romans to campaign in Iberia, but the Roman Senate detached one Roman and one allied legion from it to send to north Italy. Raising fresh troops to replace these delayed the army's departure for Iberia until September.


title: Punic Wars

text: Meanwhile, Hannibal assembled a Carthaginian army in New Carthage (modern Cartagena) in Iberia and led it northwards along the coast in May or June. It entered Gaul and took an inland route, to avoid the Roman allies to the south. At the battle of the Rhone Crossing Hannibal defeated a force of local Gauls which sought to bar his way. A Roman fleet carrying the Iberian-bound army landed at Rome's ally Massalia (modern Marseille) at the mouth of the Rhone, but Hannibal evaded the Romans and they continued to Iberia. The Carthaginians reached the foot of the Alps by late autumn and crossed them in 15 days, surmounting the difficulties of climate, terrain and the guerrilla tactics of the native tribes. Hannibal arrived with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and an unknown number of elephantsthe survivors of the 37 with which he left Iberiain what is now Piedmont, northern Italy in early November; the Romans were still in their winter quarters. His surprise entry into the Italian peninsula led to the cancellation of Rome's planned campaign for the year: an invasion of Africa.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Carthaginians captured the chief city of the hostile Taurini (in the area of modern Turin) and seized its food stocks. In late November the Carthaginian cavalry routed the cavalry and light infantry of the Romans at the battle of Ticinus. As a result, most of the Gallic tribes declared for the Carthaginian cause and Hannibal's army grew to 37,000 men. A large Roman army was lured into combat by Hannibal at the battle of the Trebia, encircled and destroyed. Only 10,000 Romans out of 42,000 were able to cut their way to safety. Gauls now joined Hannibal's army in large numbers. The Romans stationed an army at Arretium and one on the Adriatic coast to block Hannibal's advance into central Italy.


title: Punic Wars

text: In early spring 217BC, the Carthaginians crossed the Apennines unopposed, taking a difficult but unguarded route. Hannibal attempted to draw the main Roman army under Gaius Flaminius into a pitched battle by devastating the area they had been sent to protect, provoking Flaminius into a hasty pursuit without proper reconnaissance. Hannibal set an ambush and in the battle of Lake Trasimene completely defeated the Roman army, killing 15,000 Romans, including Flaminius, and taking 15,000 prisoners. A cavalry force of 4,000 from the other Roman army was also engaged and wiped out. The prisoners were badly treated if they were Romans, but released if they were from one of Rome's Latin allies. Hannibal hoped some of these allies could be persuaded to defect and marched south hoping to win over Roman allies among the ethnic Greek and Italic states.


title: Punic Wars

text: The Romans, panicked by these heavy defeats, appointed Quintus Fabius as dictator, with sole charge of the war effort. Fabius introduced the Fabian strategy of avoiding open battle with his opponent, but constantly skirmishing with small detachments of the enemy. This was not popular with parts of the Roman army, public and senate, since he avoided battle while Italy was being devastated by the enemy. Hannibal marched through the richest and most fertile provinces of Italy, hoping the devastation would draw Fabius into battle, but Fabius refused.


title: Punic Wars

text: In the 216BC elections Gaius Varro and Lucius Paullus were elected as consuls; both were more aggressive-minded than Fabius. The Roman Senate authorised the raising of a force of 86,000 men, the largest in Roman history to that point. Paullus and Varro marched southward to confront Hannibal, who accepted battle on the open plain near Cannae. In the battle of Cannae the Roman legions forced their way through Hannibal's deliberately weak centre, but Libyan heavy infantry on the wings swung around their advance, menacing their flanks. Hasdrubal led the Carthaginian cavalry on the left wing and routed the Roman cavalry opposite, then swept around the rear of the Romans to attack the cavalry on the other wing. He then charged into the legions from behind. As a result, the Roman infantry was surrounded with no means of escape. At least 67,500 Romans were killed or captured.