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Mix-Ansicht- OT: Made in UdSSR in 1947: Wochenend-Beitrag (nicht weihnachtlich!) - Emerald, 16.12.2006, 07:22
- Re: OT: Made in UdSSR in 1947: Wochenend-Beitrag (nicht weihnachtlich!) - Hyperion, 16.12.2006, 11:13
OT: Made in UdSSR in 1947: Wochenend-Beitrag (nicht weihnachtlich!)
-->The weapon that changed the world. It was in the town of Brysansk in Russia during World War II that an unknown tank commander named Mikhail Kalashnikov suffered a bad shoulder wound. Lying in a hospital, Kalashnikov decided that Russia needed a special weapon. It would be a weapon so simple yet so lethal that armed with it, Russia would never again have to go through anything like the agonies and horrendous number of deaths that it suffered in World War II. Kalashnikov in his hospital bed was obsessed with designing a weapon that could drive the Germans from his homeland if the need ever came up again. He sketched out we he thought was the simplest and most effective automatic weapon possible. He later worked on the weapon in his machine shop. In 1947 Kalashnikov finally finished his dream weapon, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, soon referred to as the AK-47. The weapon was approved by the Soviet authorities in the fateful year 1947.
The AK-47 was so revolutionary that it literally changed the way wars are fought. The AK-47 has become the most prolific and effective combat weapon. the world had ever seen. The AK is cheap to make, and so simply designed that up to recently is could be bought in many countries for under a hundred dollars. The AK is waved overhead by combatants in almost ever nation. It's the weapon of choice for at least 50 standing armies along with countless guerillas and rebels everywhere. The AK blew away old battlefield calculations of military superiority, of tactics and strategy, of who could be an effective soldier and who would be triumphant on the battlefield. For all the billions that Washington has spent on high-tech weapons, the AK-47 remains the most devastating weapon on the face of the earth.
Although the AK came into production too late to be used in World War II, the Soviets knew that they had the most important single weapon of the modern era. The first test of the AK occurred in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising. Khrushchev sent the Red Army into Budapest. This was the Soviet's first mass use of the up-to-then secret AK-47. The weapon proved effective beyond anything the Soviets had dreamed of. The protests ended with upwards of 50,000 Hungarians killed compared with the death of 7,000 Soviet soldiers.
The Americans had the M-1 of WW 11 and later the M-14. But the AK proved to be far superior to anything the US possessed. The AK was rugged, it didn't jam in the dirt, it just was better than the M-14 in every way. In Vietnam the US first came against the AK. The US soon discovered that the AK usually meant the difference between winning and losing in close jungle warfare. Later, after much wrangling, the US introduced the M-16. It was a beautiful weapon, but sadly it couldn't stand up to the AK. M-16s were jamming in combat. Later it was discovered that the ammo for the M-16 didn't work correctly. But the Vietnam war had done its job and solidified the superiority of the AK. The AK-47 was accepted everywhere on the planet as the weapon of choice.
In the late 1950s the Soviets began using the AK to spread communism throughout the world. The Soviets gave free license to manufacture the AK to nation that they thought were either communist or behind the communist cause -- these included Bulgaria, China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, North Korea and Yugoslavia. The AK became the"revolutionaries weapon," the deadly"anti-capitalist" weapon.
The AK is now seen in almost ever small war, in every skirmish, anywhere on the planet. Even drug gangs enlist the AK, favored for its deadly spray of bullets and the ease in which it can be folded an hidden. In Iraq the AK as seen everywhere, immediately identified by its banana-shaped magazine.
The price of an AK tells us a lot about the progress of a war. For instance, in 2003 an AK in Iraq cost $75 to $150. Now the price of an AK has risen to $210 to $650, depending on its condition. An AK made in a former Soviet factory is far preferred to one made in China, North Korea or Iraq. An article in the Dec. 10 New York Times notes that the price of an AK-47 has been rising steadily over recent months.
It is estimated that the AK is used in the killing of a quarter of a million people every year. Now age 85, feeble and nearly deaf, Mikhail Kalashnikov is often haunted by the killing machine that he bestowed upon the world."I wish I had invented a lawnmower," he told the Guardian in 2002.
Operating cycle
To fire, the operator inserts a loaded magazine, moves the selector lever to the lowest position, pulls back and releases the charging handle, and then pulls the trigger. In this setting, the gun fires only once (semi-automatic), requiring the trigger to be released and depressed again for the next shot. With the selector in the middle position (full-automatic), the rifle continues to fire, automatically cycling fresh rounds into the chamber, until the magazine is exhausted or pressure is released from the trigger. As each bullet travels through the barrel, a portion of the gases expanding behind them are diverted into the gas tube above the barrel, where they impact the gas piston. This in turn is driven backward, pushing the bolt carrier, which causes the bolt to move backwards, ejecting the spent round, and chambering a new round when the recoil spring pushes it back.
PS:
Preissteigerung seit 2003 nicht unähnlich zum Goldkurs: Leider ohne Chart!
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