Medieval Armor | Ancient Roman Weapons

Roman Weapons

The Romans conquered many nations with their well designed weapons. They always started the battle with long ranged fire, to weaken the enemy. Long ranged weapons were also used to aid foot soldiers, while in combat. When the general of the Roman army thought the enemy had been weakened by this attack, the charge signal was given. Long ranged roman weapons were the pilum, the scorpion, bows and slings. The foot soldier would then charge in with their close range weapons. Their siege weapons were rams, ballista, towers, onager and catapults. The soldiers used a gladius and a dagger for close combat.
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Medieval shields

The Medieval Shields designs will be diversified about the middle of the 12th Century, when the triangular shield was introduced. The new form was obtained by reducing the arched top of the kite to an almost straight line. This variety of Medieval Shields was also bowed or flat. And, though the earliest examples were as tall as the kite-shields of the 11th Century, the triangular target soon became much reduced in its height.

The round shield is of more rare appearance. It appears that it was in frequent use among the foot troops.

Medieval Shields-Triangular Bowed Shield
Triangular Bowed Shield-13th Century
The kite and triangular shields were provided with straps for attachment to the arm and for suspension round the neck.

Once we enter the 13th Century, the ordinary Medieval Shields designs were based on the triangular shield. Notably, the dimensions of the triangular shield of this century are decreasing as the century advanced. It was also bowed or flat.

Other formats of the period were the kite-shaped, the heart-shaped, the round, and the quadrangular. The boss is still retained in some of the shields of this century. The materials of the shields were "wood, leather, and painting
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World War 2 Weapons

World War Two Weapons required a massive outpouring of manufacturing capabilities, giving rise to one of the world's largest industrial producers in the United States of America. The war and it's global reach challenged many a nation to rise up and fight back imperialistic and fascist incursion. With its roots in the First World War, it was not a surprise to see the fusion of man and machine to the extent that was witnessed in the Second World War. It was a war of heroes and villains, tyranny and democracy, meekness and strength. In the end, it would be a war of wars, setting the stage for the conflicts now witnessed in the 21st Century - most notable in the Middle East. Below you will find a listing of aircraft, infantry weapons and tanks used throughout World War 2 by the major players and world powers. This listing is updated periodically when additions are made to the main Military Factory database. Eventually this should become an informative and comprehensive listing of military equipment used throughout World War 2.
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Civil War Rifles

No war can be won by any army without good ammunition. In the American Civil War, the story was not too different. Warring South and North factions soon realized how good quality firepower was so important to winning the war. During the course of this war, a lot of advancements in weaponry came through and one of them was in the rifles domain.

Before the civil war, rather outdated rifles were used. These rifles were primarily used for firing round, iron balls at enemies. But as things panned out, the evolution of the Springfield 1861 model and the Enfield model proved too much for the enemies!

Talk of Springfield 1861, this is a rifle that needs some explanation, as it went on to become one of the favorite guns of the North armies.

Springfield 1861 – The gun that changed the face of the war

Very early into the war, it was clear that the South Army had only one objective – To stretch the war as far and as long as possible. They had a lot of guts and steely resolve, and led by the legendary Robert Lee, they were clearly determined to launch surprise attacks on the North armies, which clearly was the mode of operation for the rebelling army. Guns and rifles used earlier could not do justice to the thought, which led to the inception of Springfield 1861, a gun that went on to change the face of the war, and possibly, its outcome as well.

Soon enough, soldiers took a liking to the muzzle-loading feature and the flat projectile features of this rifle. This rifle went on to become the first rifle through which the 0.58 Caliber Minie ball could be shot.

Confederate Forces on their part to be fully equipped with the latest weapons started importing the weapons from the British Government. For a long time, Civil War Rifles and their numbers were evenly matched on both the sides, until the British Government stopped importing Civil War Rifles to the Confederate forces.
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Samurai sword

The first samurai swords we're actually straight bladed, single edged weapons imported from Korea and China known as chokuto, which were later replaced with the curved blade variety at the end of the 8th Century. The name of the curved blade swords which replaced them was Tachi. The reason for this transformation was samurai found that a curved sword could be drawn from the scabbard more swiftly and provided a far more effective cutting angle.

The point of a samurai sword is called a Kissaki. This is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge and to hand create a quality one would require an extremely skilful artisan. The value of a sword is determined largely by the quality of the point.

Samurai would use wooden swords (Bokken) for practice for safety reasons as well as for preserving their real swords from unnecessary damage.

The samurai would give names to their swords as they believe in the sword lived their warrior spirit.
As part of the samurai sword making process a sword tester took the new blade and cut through the bodies of corpses or condemned criminals. They started by cutting through the small bones of the body and moved up to the large bones. Test results were often recorded on the nakago (the metal piece attaching the sword blade to the handle).
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Medieval shield

Shields were very important to the medieval shield way of life. Knights used coats of arms to identify themselves and the enemy in battle. Few people could read or write, so pictorial symbols were very important.

How do you decide what goes on who's shield? Well, that becomes complicated. Only the oldest son would inherit his father's coat of arms unchanged. All of the other sons would add a symbol to their father's coat of arms to show who they were. More often than not, the addition was a small picture in the middle of the shield. Unmarried women didn't carry a shield. Married women, especially those without brothers, would add her families shield to that of her new husband. As to what designs go on the original family shield or are added--that is pretty much up to the designer.
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Roman Shields

As with roman shields , the Romans readily used the improvements in armor and shields (called "scutum") of other populations. Although the shield of legionaries was essentially the large rectangular shield (shown in the lower left hand side of the picture to the right) other types of shield were also used, for example cavalry would use rounded shields.

The exact shape of the shield of standard legionaries varied through time but essentially retained its underlying shape, construction and function. It was large and curved so that the impact of incoming blows would be partially deflected and hence reduced. A metal semi-sphere in the centre of the shield allowed it to be used offensively in a similar manner to the crowd control techniques of modern police forces.

The shield is believed to have been constructed very much like modern plywood curved over steam. The cross-grain of successive sheets adds strength whilst keeping overall weight to a minimum. There are no existing examples to prove this though.
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