Thu, 18 Jan 2001
When Maguire was growing up in the 1960s, he was taught the history of country that had been second to none in military technology. That was totally true in the 19th Century and in the first fifth of the 20th Century. There were concurrent claims that was still true. It was not. Achievement had peaked in the late 1920s and then the music died. There was a brief revival in the 1950s and early 1960s, followed by decades of stasis tending towards decline. Walk with me through time.
In the late 18th Century General George Washington founded the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. Eli Whitney's formerly famous mass production system for flintlock rifles (since replaced by leaky oil cans as a school book example of historic technological achievement) was first implemented at Springfield Armory.
In the 19th Century American military design and construction excellence was routine whenever America choose to compete in a given field. The USS Constitution and her sisterships were the finest cruisers of their type, as arrogant Brit-ZOG naval officers discovered to their discomfiture. The 'fir-built frigates' didn't sink and instead sank them. American clipper ships of the same era were among the fastest in the world.
The Third System of seacoast harbor forts started after 1812 also set new standards of military fortification design excellence. The US Army engineer Joseph G. Totten, by careful cannon casemate design, reduced the gun openings to 20% of European forts' sizes. He capped this with his Totten Embrasure system of iron shutters designed to slam shut the moment the cannon recoiled, thus protecting forts' gun crews completely from shrapnel and sniper fire during loading and aiming. "Open-FIRE-slam!"
The US Army ordnance officers Thomas J. Rodman and Robert P. Parrott, working at the US Army's Watervliet Arsenal, also introduced major advances in artillery design. In the 1850s Rodman conducted the first scientific study and measurement of the development of barrel pressures during cannon firing. Based on this data and a derived system of cooling cast barrels from the inside out to stress them in the right direction (firing a Rodman reduces instead of increasing its barrel stresses), he developed the Rodman guns widely used in the Civil War. As a result practical gun bores went up to 15 inches, with one experimental gun of 20 inches diameter. Parrott developed the first practical rifled cannon, also widely used in the Civil War.
When the U.S.A. decided to modernize its seacoast defenses in the 1880s, Watervliet Arsenal, American engineers and workers responded again with world class armament. They produced a series of 8 inch, 10 inch, and 12 inch rifled breechloading cannons mounted on the best disappearing carriages yet seen. Do a web search on 'Endicott' and 'fort' and following the links.
American small arms excellence in design and use quickly became world famous. This started with the Pennsylvania German gunsmiths' rifles of colonial times. Following this were Eli Whitney's mass produced muskets. There were the Hawken muzzle loading rifles of Jeremiah Johnson fame, the Sharps repeating rifle from 1864, the Winchester '73 lever action rifle and many others.
In pistols also Americans led the way. Samuel Colt and his revolvers used to be famous but are less so all the time. He started with Colt .36 Navy, probably the most beautiful revolver ever made. Then came his Colt Dragoon revolver in .44, capped off with the Colt Single Action Army in .45 caliber cartridge, which is what most movie cowboys carry. Remington, Smith and Wesson are other famous names that commemorate that era of excellence.
The world's first usable machinegun also appeared in America in the 1860s. "Gatling!" immediately leaped into many ZOG soaked but not quite yet dead brains. That is indeed true. Following World War II the gatling was revived in an electrically driven form for aircraft armament. Post-war analysis indicated the need for a higher concentration of bullets than any combination of machineguns could provide. It continues to be the gun system for fighters and on the AC-130 gunship an anti-personnel weapon widely feared by guerrillas. A heavy 30mm version on the A-10 proved itself a fearsome anti-tank killer. What is less well known is that the first electrically driven gatling, firing 3,000 rounds per minute, appeared in the 1890s. That rate of fire was far beyond the ability of horse drawn wagons to supply, which is why it wasn't adopted then. Quick minds already realize there's no reason at all it couldn't have been mounted on WWII era ZOG planes. No one thought of it then, or if they did higher-ups refused to listen in the 1930s and early 1940s. As you will see, so it went and so it goes in the ZOG armies.
At the start of the 20th Century the U.S. Army and the USA were second to none in military technology, especially in small arms and artillery. America and Americans bowed to no one, including Germany, in excellence of weapons design. Even at the end of World War One the US Army small arms inventory was recognizably the best in the world. As we walk through the 20th Century looking at WHAT THE US ARMY HAS ACTUALLY DONE AND WHERE IT STANDS TODAY, we can even date the moment the music stopped playing. It was 1929-32. There was a brief wave of slower innovation starting in the 1950s and lasting through the early 1970s followed by decades of stasis. That brief revival however was no longer based on natives but foreigners' work.
American Arms in the 20th Century.
Rifles.
The Army's first 20th Century rifle was the M-1903 Springfield .30 caliber bolt action rifle. When it was introduced it was the best bolt action rifle in the world. Some say the Mauser was the best but having used pristine examples of both Maguire finds little to choose between them. The M-1903 Springfield is what great-grandpa carried to ZOG's First War To Kill White People (FWATKWIP).
In 1924 a Canadian born engineer at the US Army's Springfield Armory (founded by President Washington), John C. Garand, designed the famous M-1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. Here again the USA was still light years ahead of the rest of the world. After 11 years the US Army finally approved this weapon for mass production in 1935. This is what grandpa carried in the Second War to Kill White People (SWATKWIP) and his younger brothers carried in Korea. After Korea, in conjunction with the change to the 7.62mm NATO round, the Ordnance Corps bureaucracy redesigned the M-1 as the M-14 with a box magazine. The M-14 had a short service life.
At this same time a USMC veteran of SWATKWIP and Korea, Eugene Stoner, was developing his assault rifle ideas in his new Armalite Corporation. (The very first assault rifles were adopted by the Luftwaffe in 1942 and the Heer in 1943). Stoner's 1950s designs were eventually adopted as the XM-16, later type classified as the M-16. Stoner designed this rifle around a specific cartridge/powder combination and designed it to be self-cleaning. ZOG Army's Ordnance bureaucracy contribution was to demand a change in powder filling, which turned the rifle from self-cleaning to self-dirtying. The corrective step to cure this foot-shot was to introduce the 'bolt assist' to help force the bolt forward against the carbon build-up from the dirty powder formulation. It never resolved one jam for Maguire in 20 years of experience with this weapon.
And there ZOG-USA Army rifle development died. Thirty-six years after adoption, and 46 years after design, the M-16A2 remains standard issue with no replacement on the horizon. The M-4 Carbine, recently introduced for ZOG soldierettes and weak ZOG males, is based on the shortened weapon that SOG (Studies and Observation Group) special forces carried in Laos in 1967. ZOG doesn't tell its dupes this, pretending instead that the M-16A2 is a great leap forward and the M-4 is brand new. The still being developed Objective Infantry Combat Weapon (OICW) bases its 5.56mm part on Stoner's M-16 action. If this weapon is ever produced it means that Stoner's basic design will likely stay in service for a total of 80 years (1955-2035 or so). That will be an all-time record for the US Army.
During the last century US Army sniper rifles were based first on the '03 Springfield and later on the M-14. With both of these out of service the US Army did in the 1980s what Maguire did in 1977. It bought the Remington 700 BDL in .300 Winchester Magnum as the best off-the-shelf solution for long range shooting.
Pistols.
During the Philippines Insurrection the U.S. Army discovered that .38 caliber pistols didn't have enough stopping power against opium juiced oriental hordes. As a stop gap measure Colt .45 Single Action Army pistols of Hollywood fame were rushed out. Shortly afterwards the Army announced a design competition for a new self-loading pistol in .45 caliber. Among the entries was a Colt pistol designed by John Browning, along with a Luger in .45 caliber. The Army took all the entries to the pistol range for a shoot-off to destruction. None passed the Army's tests. The three most likely candidates, including Browning's design, were invited to resubmit. Colt/Browning won the subsequent shoot-off. This pistol was standardized as the M-1911, later modified as the M-1911A1.
In the late 1980s all the M-1911's were falling apart. In the following 80 years the Army had failed to design a better replacement and was unwilling or unable to choose a replacement from the American pistol market. Congress finally directed the Army in 1990 to purchase a 9mm pistol made by the Italian firm of Beretta. This is the M-9.
Machineguns.
The U.S. Army's first mass produced machinegun was the .30 caliber M-1917, designed by a man named John Browning in 1916. This weapon saw service in FWATKWIP, SWITKWIP and Korea. In 1918, with combat experience feedback, Browning redesigned this weapon as the M-1919A4. Lacking newer ideas, the US Army adopted this weapon 16 years later in the middle 1930s. The M-1919A4 served in SWITKWIP and Korea. In 1917 the same designer also created the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) for squad level firepower. The BAR reached France in late 1918 and stayed in service until after Korea. By the middle of the 20th Century ZOGlings were starting to complain about the weight of that particular weapon.
At higher calibers there is the Browning .50 caliber M2 machinegun, first adopted by the US Army in 1933. It was designed by John Browning in 1919. This weapon is still in service with ZOG-USA troops in 2001. A 1980s project to develop a better replacement failed on the 'better' part of the design effort. ZOG-USA is therefore remanufacturing the M2 Browning, which is now widely expected to see 100 years of service. With troops now too stupid to learn how to set headspace and timing, a project to backfit a fixed headspace bolt is a high priority to enable continued use of this weapon.
In the 1950s it was deemed necessary to update squad and platoon level .30 caliber machineguns. The new weapon, the M-60, is universally recognized as based on the German MG-42 design from the early 1940s. This weapon entered service in 1960 and replaced the John Browning designs from FWATKWIP (BAR, M-1917 and M-1919). In the 1980s the US Army partially replaced this 1940s German design with the 5.56mm M-246 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), a Belgian Fabrique Nationale design. The SAW does represent a step back in range and firepower but the lighter weight is an essential requirement given the diminished physiques and fitness of Third Millenium ZOG-USA troops. The remaining M-60s are now being replaced by the 7.62mm M-240G, another Belgian Fabrique Nationale design. The M-60s proved not to have the durability of earlier John Browning designed weapons.
Tanks.
The USA was a late entrant into the tank field, being a late entrant into FWATKWIP. But after less than a year it was starting to produce French designed Renaults, British designed Mothers and beginning to innovate. The innovation carried on through 1932. An American automotive designer, J. Walter Christie, received a series of development contracts from the US Army. His last US Army contract was awarded in 1932. The best overall tank of early SWATKWIP, the Soviet T-34, was based entirely on Christie's design ideas for suspension and sloped armor. The Soviet trading corporation, AMTORG, purchased 3 or 4 of Christie's last vehicles in the mid 1930s. The US combat vehicles of SWATKWIP are more known for their numbers than their design excellence, although they produced to higher quality standards than either British or Soviet vehicles.
Following SWATKWIP US armored vehicle design stayed competitive at best with the M-48 Patton and M-60 series. It was only with the M1 Abrams with its British designed Chobham armor and German designed 120mm Rheinmetall main gun that the US Army finally produced a recognizable world leading combat tank.
What trends can we see from the above?
1. Until the end of the 1920s the United States of America LED THE WORLD in military weapons technology and bowed to no one, Germany included.
2. Development ceased no later than the middle 1930s, the year of J. Walter Christie's last Army contract. What happened in that apparently decisive period? The first event, coming in 1932, was that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President. The second event was that General Douglas MacArthur, appointed by President Hoover, completed his term as U.S. Army Chief of Staff and retired. These two events, while not the complete cause, are symbolic markers of the end of the United States of America and the official start of ZOG-USA. FDR's subsequent command choices simply didn't measure up in terms of real ability for directing and nurturing R&D as measured by results.
3. The USA went into SWATKWIP with a small arms inventory the last weapon of which was developed in 1924. It's company mortar was a French design. It went into Korea with that same quarter century old small arms armaments suite. At the same moment the music died in the U.S.A. it was starting up in Germany. Politically incorrect and tactless though it be, Maguire is forced to observe that historically the USA government was becoming more Jewish at the same moment the German government was becoming Jew free.
4. The post-war U.S.A. modernization boomlet in the late 1950s -- early 1970s was largely based on German technology and concepts from the 1930s and 1940s, with a few choice items from pre-1930s America (electrical gatlings). Even when a genius appeared, he was nearly ignored, as with Eugene Stoner. The first AR-15 buy occurred at President Kennedy's direction. Eugene Stoner also developed his Stoner 63 weapons system of common part rifles, light and heavy machineguns, which was completely ignored.
5. How stands the situation today? ZOG-USA's principle infantry weapons, the M-16A2 and M-4, are now 45 years in design with no replacements in sight. Its .50 caliber machinegun design is 82 years old and counting. The 9mm pistol, with the death of previous .38 caliber experience memory, is Italian. Its newer machineguns are simply Belgian designed replacements for WWII German derived weapons that wore out. The main battle tank gun is German. The mortars are Finnish designs with an Israeli commission tacked on. The U.S. military's small arms technology has never been older than it is at this very moment.
"I once had a great nation..." It was already dying when I was growing up in the 1960s. It's long dead today. The putrefacting corpse merely awaits a deceit burial. I pray I might live to see my sons have great nation of their own.