The Great War - Beginning | ULTRAWEEK DAY 1

The year is 1918. The world is in ruins. Every major city is burning, and the war doesn't stop. The conflict between Russian Empire, United Kingdom and France against Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary continues escalating with each country fighting in an arms race. After the first British tanks appeared on the Western Front, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee, under the auspices of its Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, Abteilung 7 Verkehrswesen, to investigate tank development. The project to design and build the first German tank was placed under the direction of Joseph Vollmer, one of Germany's foremost automobile designers. It was to weigh around 35 tons, be capable of crossing ditches up to 2 metres wide, have armament including a cannon at the front and rear as well as several machine-guns, and reach a top speed of at least 15 kilometres per hour. The running gear was based on the American Holt tractor, copied from examples loaned by the Austro-Hungarian Army. After initial plans were shared with the army in December 1916, the design was extended to be a universal chassis that could be used as a base for both a tank and unarmoured Überlandwagen ("over-land vehicle") cargo carriers. The first prototype was completed by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft at Berlin-Marienfelde and tested on 30 April 1917. A wooden mockup of a final version was completed in May 1917 and demonstrated in Mainz with 10 tons of ballast to simulate the weight of the armor. During final design, the rear-facing cannon was removed and the number of machine-guns was increased to six. The first pre-production A7V was produced in September 1917, followed by the first production model in October 1917. The tanks were given to Assault Tank Units 1 and 2, founded on 20 September 1917, each with five officers and 109 non-commissioned officers and soldiers. РБВЗ-С-20 (RBVZ-S-20) or simply called "Сикорский-С-20 (Sikorsky-S-20)" General characteristics: Length: 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) Wingspan: 8.6 m (28 ft 3 in) Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) Wing area: 17 m2 (180 sq ft) Empty weight: 395 kg (871 lb) Gross weight: 570 kg (1,257 lb) Powerplant: 1 × Le Rhône Type 9Jb 9-cylinder air-cooled rotary piston engine, 89 kW (120 hp) Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propeller 1 x 7.7 mm Lavrov machine gun Maximum speed: 180 km/h (110 mph, 97 kn) Range: 390 km (240 mi, 210 nmi) Service ceiling: 5,600 m (18,400 ft) Time to altitude: 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in 6 minutes 20 seconds Wing loading: 33.0 kg/m2 (6.8 lb/sq ft) Power/mass: 0.21 hp/kg Britain followed up with HMS Dreadnought, a power warship. The outbreak of World War I largely halted the dreadnought arms race as funds and technical resources were diverted to more pressing priorities. The foundries which produced battleship guns were dedicated instead to the production of land-based artillery, and shipyards were flooded with orders for small ships. The weaker naval powers engaged in the Great War—France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia—suspended their battleship programmes entirely. The United Kingdom and Germany continued building battleships and battlecruisers but at a reduced pace. In the United Kingdom, Fisher returned to his old post as First Sea Lord; he had been created 1st Baron Fisher in 1909, taking the motto Fear God and dread nought. This, combined with a government moratorium on battleship building, meant a renewed focus on the battlecruiser. Fisher resigned in 1915 following arguments about the Gallipoli Campaign with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. The final units of the Revenge and Queen Elizabeth classes were completed, though the last two battleships of the Revenge class were re-ordered as battlecruisers of the Renown class. Fisher followed these ships with the even more extreme Courageous class; very fast and heavily armed ships with minimal, 3-inch (76 mm) armour, called 'large light cruisers' to get around a Cabinet ruling against new capital ships. Fisher's mania for speed culminated in his suggestion for HMS Incomparable, a mammoth, lightly armoured battlecruiser. Italy's soldiers carry Carcano Moschetto M1891, also deploying FIAT-Revelli M1914 stationary rifles where needed. Cannone Da 149/35 A was a powerful flak cannon, although being hard to prepare and very slow firing (usually less then one shot per minute), it had a 16 km range.