See also

Posted by BORTAMAN on Thursday, July 30, 2009
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Similar Japanese swords

  • Tachi/Nodachi/Ōdachi, often called by the pseudo-Japanese term daikatana and mistakenly labeled as a katana.
  • Kodachi, often called by the pseudo-Japanese term chisakatana or kogatana and mistakenly labeled as a katana.
  • Wakizashi, the short blade usually worn along with the katana.

Myths and Fiction

Due to their long history and mystique, Katanas are often depicted as weapons of unparalleled power, often bordering on the physically impossible. Katanas are often depicted as being inherently "superior" to all other weapons possessing such qualities as being impossibly light, nigh-unbreakable and able to cut through nearly anything. By contrast, traditional European weapons are often depicted as clumsy, crude and unweildly by comparison despite all historical and modern evidence to the contrary.

Main article: Japanese swords in fiction

Further reading

References

Posted by BORTAMAN
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  1. ^ Nagayama, p. 341.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ a b Nagayama, p. 28.
  4. ^ 鉄と生活研究会編　『鉄の本(Book of iron)』 　ISBN 9784526060120
  5. ^ NOVA | Secrets of the Samurai Sword
  6. ^ Sword Forum International
  7. ^ Warner, Gordon; Draeger, Donn F. (2005). Japanese Swordsmanship: Technique and Practice. Boston, Massachusetts: Weatherhill. pp. 110–131. ISBN 0-8348-0236-9.
  8. ^ The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons)(Amendment) Order 2008
  9. ^ Samurai Swords to be Banned in UK
  10. ^ [2]

Sources

  • Nagayama, Kokan; trans. Kenji Mishina (1997). The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords. Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha International Ltd.. ISBN 4-7700-2071-6.

Light machine gun

Posted by BORTAMAN on Friday, July 24, 2009
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The FN Minimi, one of the most popular modern 5.56 mm light machine guns among NATO countries.
Heckler & Koch MG4 of the German Army.
Bren light machine gun.
.30-.06 BAR Model 1918

A light machine gun or LMG is a machine gun designed to be carried and fired by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, and used in a front-line infantry support role. LMGs are often used as squad automatic weapons.

A light machine gun may be identified either by the weapon or by its tactical role. It is used to fire in short bursts, usually from a bipod: a sustained-fire mount such as a tripod is a characteristic of a medium machine gun. Some machine guns - notably General purpose machine guns - may be deployed as either a light machine gun or a medium machine gun. As a general rule, if a machine gun is deployed with a bipod it is a light machine gun; if deployed on a tripod it is a medium machine gun - unless it has a caliber of about 10mm or larger, making it a heavy machine gun. Modern light machine guns often fire smaller-caliber cartridges than medium machine guns, and are usually lighter and more compact.

Light machine guns, such as the British Lewis, were first introduced in World War One to boost the firepower of the infantry. By the end of World War II, light machine guns were usually being issued on a scale of one per section or squad, and the modern infantry squad had emerged with tactics that were built around the use of LMGs.

It is possible to fire a light machine gun from the hip or on the move, but this is seldom accurate. They are usually fired from a prone position using a bipod. Many light machine guns (such as the Bren gun or the BAR) were magazine-fed. Others, such as the MG 34, could be fed either from a belt or a magazine. Modern light machine guns are designed to fire more rounds of a smaller caliber and as such tend to be belt-fed. Some LMGs, such as the Russian RPK, are modifications of existing assault rifle designs. Adaptations generally include a larger magazine, a heavier barrel to resist overheating, a more robust mechanism to support sustained fire and a bipod. Other modern light machine guns, such as the FN Minimi, are capable of firing from