Weird Historical Amour and Weapons
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xZEUS99x said:
'Murica
I first discovered the use of such armors in WWI with italian classic movie "Many Wars Ago" (Uomini Contro). There is this scene in which wire cutters in cuirass are all killed by machine guns.
I guess the director, Rosi, wanted to make the scene as grotesque as he could, because I was pretty amazed to discover that the movie uses the american "Brewster" cuirasses and not italian "Farina", probably to enhance the absurdity of the situation. Our cuirasses were as useless (they could resist italian 6mm standard bullet, but not the german 7, 62), but they surely looked less ridiculous.
That scene is so magnificently grotesque and absurd, it's impossible to forget.
Captured Joe said:
You should check out the full feature, then, if there's a way to see it with subtitles
It has a pretty different, more rethoric, more Paths of Glory/antiwar tone than its source (Emilio Lussu's classic novel, "A Year of the Plateau" (Un Anno sull'Altipiano), but it's still great nevertheless and sadly historically accurate. Back in 1970 it was boycotted by the army and the director was penally denounced for insulting the army. It was still to early for us to look at WWI like the horrible thing that was and not as a nationalistic myth.
Sorry all for OT.
F.F.C._fritz said:Sorry all for OT.
Not at all, it's interesting reading stuff like this. Especially for me who only has a basic scatterbraimed knowledge of WW1.
Swissky
Even if it would stop one bullet, the enemy would have the chance to bolt his rifle and fire another one before you awkwardly held your rifle slightly angled or in front of you, I doubt you can lay down precise shots with that clunky thing.
Sidenote : Is it just me, or does it appear as the man in the armour is holding a percussion cap rifle?
Sidenote : Is it just me, or does it appear as the man in the armour is holding a percussion cap rifle?
Well, on WWI armor behalf, I'd say that they were used by assault troops as well, but their main reason to be was to protect soldiers with wire cutters or in close combat in the trenches together with morning stars look alike. It's a pretty creepy to think that in the first full industrial world scale war than most often warfare would have often returned back to middle ages - or at least something resembling it. Anyway, less talk, more WWI armor insanity.
Man, the next one looks like one of those sci-fi, steam-punk stuff it seems to be so loved nowadays. Or something out of a Wolfenstein game.
Extra
(Original link -> http://flashbak.com/world-war-1-body-armor-1914-1918-32670/)
Man, the next one looks like one of those sci-fi, steam-punk stuff it seems to be so loved nowadays. Or something out of a Wolfenstein game.
Extra
(Original link -> http://flashbak.com/world-war-1-body-armor-1914-1918-32670/)
F.F.C._fritz said:Man, the next one looks like one of those sci-fi, steam-punk stuff it seems to be so loved nowadays. Or something out of a Wolfenstein game.
This makes so much sense. Plate went out of style because of bullets punching right through it, so obviously now that bullets are so much more advanced the obvious way to protect soldiers it to dress them up in....plate armor.
It's really interesting looking at all these armors, I never really knew this stuff about WWI...it's a bit sad actually.
I also found some helmets that look like they were pulled straight from the middle ages:
Mix these with the plate armor from that other picture, get some horses, and you've got some knights ready to get gunned down by machine guns and blown apart by mortars!
xZEUS99x said:
A large number of casualties in the opening phases of WW1 were caused by shrapnel which is why metal helmets were developed. I think the same logic eventually spurned the development of trench armour, rather than a desire to protect from direct gunfire.
Even then, the guns that made cuirasses cost-ineffective probably had a much higher calibre than the early machine guns of WW1 and were able to impart more force. Not sure if that's exactly how ballistics work, but people'wps wounds from musket and arquebus rounds were pretty horrific compared to more modern weapons.
A narrow (and pointed), jacketed, high velocity round will always penetrate better than a slow, broad, naked, lead sphere. That's why the wounds are "cleaner", they have a greater chance of leaving the body in the same condition they entered it with minimal deformation of the bullet and much of its kinetic energy retained. Exit wounds tend to be wider than entrance wounds due to the fact the bullet is pushing outward rather than inward, but a musket ball hits a broader surface area on contact, often slows to a complete stop in the body, and flattens itself or fragments into multiple pieces which diverge inside the victim.
As far as metal on metal goes, the 20th century cartridges will out-penetrate any muzzle loader, rifled or not. If a matchlock can reliably defeat your plate at a given distance, you should go nowhere near an MG 08/15.
As far as metal on metal goes, the 20th century cartridges will out-penetrate any muzzle loader, rifled or not. If a matchlock can reliably defeat your plate at a given distance, you should go nowhere near an MG 08/15.
jousting visors representing Turks and Moors!
Kunsthistorisches Museum http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=373597
Owner: Archduke Ferdinand II son of Ferdinand I of Habsburg Austria, ruler of Tirol 1529 - 1595
Artist: Prager Hofplattnerei
After the Turkish campaign of 1556, Archduke Ferdinand II held a tournament in 1557 Prague from where a group was dressed as Christian knights and Hungarians, while the members of the other party acted as Turks and Moors. The Ambras Collection includes twelve Mohren- Turks and masks, the Vienna collection of seven pieces, which were made for Husarische tournaments of this kind.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=373597Owner: Archduke Ferdinand II son of Ferdinand I of Habsburg Austria, ruler of Tirol 1529 - 1595
Artist: Prager Hofplattnerei
After the Turkish campaign of 1556, Archduke Ferdinand II held a tournament in 1557 Prague from where a group was dressed as Christian knights and Hungarians, while the members of the other party acted as Turks and Moors. The Ambras Collection includes twelve Mohren- Turks and masks, the Vienna collection of seven pieces, which were made for Husarische tournaments of this kind.
