From: Nigel Hay -MILWEB (Nigel@milweb.net)
Date: Sun Apr 10 2005 - 11:54:27 PDT
Please dont overlook Gen Percy Hobart - who came up with some of the most
bizzarre military vehicle conversions ever..... known as Hobarts Funnies-
they had the last laugh and made a tangible differnce on D Day
And of course, all of you will recall the golden moment in "A Bridge Too
Far" when loucdmouth GI Elliot Gould says to Michael Caine ( playing Gen
Giles Vandeluer c/o of the Irish Guards) "Where can I find some of this
this Bailey Crap" Vandeleur replies "Are you referring to that marvellous
Brisih invention that is the envy of the civilised world? " and points to
the Bedford QLs carrying the Bailey Bridges....
But full praise must go to the learned inventors George Blair and Tony Bush
who were only recently on the threshold of discovering weapons of mass
destruction.......
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org]On
Behalf Of Mil-Veh Co.
Sent: 10 April 2005 19:34
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: [MV] Interesting tid bits about British military inventions
On the whole, I think the UK turned out the most
ingenious designs over the longest period than any
other country since the 1700's.
The British practically invented modern Naval warfare
tactics, remember Nelson and the ships of the line?
England's "HMS Dreadnought" made every other
battleship of the time obsolete due to her firepower,
armour and speed, that was around 1900.
Another first, the British introduce the breech
loading rifle, a Scot invented that one. Also first
to use the radio on ships, actually a English
professor from Liverpool was credited with the first
design for a radio although Marconi actually built the
first one.
Sir Hiram Maxim test fired the first belt fed machine
gun for the British Army in 1885. That changed a lot
of warfare theory.
British engineer named Lt. Col. Ernest Swinton
invented the first MBT, in WWI. And that single
invention also changed tactics!
The British S.E. 5a was considered overall probably
the best fighter of WWI, although I think the French
Spad S.XIII was so close in performance it was almost
a tie. The British Spitfire and Hurricane were
proably the best fighter of WWII in consideration of
how much they were actually used. Those two planes
laid the foundation for the best WWII fighter which
was obviously the Mustang, but only saw a fraction of
the combat the British fighters endured.
The Battleship King George, built around 1934 had a
pretty remarkable record throughout WWII and many of
it's design features was copied by several other
nations. The King George was credited with sinking
the German battleship Bismark.
Even the famous hovercraft we consider a "state of the
art" landing craft was invented by a British subject
around the late 1940s, that was Christopher Cokerell.
The Ferret Mark 1, 2, etc., were without a doubt the
best of the armoured scout cars for nearly 30 years.
Landy's are probably the world most
popular/practical/versitile military 4x4.
Backing up a bit to the American Civil War, did you
know that it was Capt. Charles Ambrose McEvoy, a Brit
who was the mastermind behind a lot of Confederate
naval inventions, most notably was the first practical
sea mine, torpedo and the first fuse for shells.
Recently Chobham armour is the state of the art and
that went onto the Abrams tank. Before that was
Brigandine armour and a stop gap sort of armour from
WWII was called plastique (sp?) it was a tar and
gravel mix with light plate steel, but effective up to
20 mm rounds.
I might mention just a few more inventions with a
military bent, like the telescope Isaac Newton, Steam
pump Thomas Savery, Steam engine Thomas Newcomen
Diving bell Edmund Halley, Marine chronometer John
Harrison, Steam engine (with separate condenser) James
Watt, Gas turbine John Barber, Hydraulic press Joseph
Bramah, Smallpox vaccination Edward Jenner,
solid-fuel rocket...but the point being is for a
little country (size really doesn't matter) Britain
had more than it's share of remarkable, history
making, warfare changing inventions.
On balance I should mention that the American's had
the Brewester Buffalo and petrol powered tanks they
called flaming coffins... and speaking of flaming, ok,
I'm ready have at it now. lol
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