Mil design bureau, led by Mikhail Leonteyevich Mil, was one of the leading soviet plants promoting combination of helicopters and firepower. Mil was personally involved in the development of pre-war A-7 autogyro equipped with machine gun for its own defence and two more for ground targets destroying. However, this type did not reach mass production. But Mil was since that time thinking about arming the rotorcraft, especially after his practise during design of several Bratukhin helicopters, of which some models were intended for artillery spotting and clearly showed that helicopter can play an important role in the army and can be a part of front lineunits. When the Mi-1 helicopter was test flown for the first time on 20th of September 1948, it was clear a very versatile type was born. It became the first mass produced soviet helicopter with vide variety of special variants both for civil and military applications. It has just entered the regular service with the Soviet Army, when US forces used their Bell OH-13s for attack missions in Korean War.

A collection of illustrated essays from the fourth edition of naval Archives. This issue contains highly detailed accounts of HMS Furious and the Italian heavy Cruiser Pola. With articles, archive photos, 3D illustrations, and drawings of the famous warships. Also includes 3D glasses to accompany a section displayed in 3D images.

North American P-51 Mustang, famed for its service in the US Army Air Force as a long-rage escort fighter over westernEurope, was no less successful in the other three major combat areas of World War Two: the Mediterranean, the China-Burma-India and the Pacific Theaters of Operations.

In the first part of the 30s in the 20th century, the new chapter of the German history has opened – of the Germany that was facing more than only an economical crisis. On 30th January 1933, the office of chancellor of the, at that time still, republic, was taken by the leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) – Adolf Hitler. In a short time the supporters of the superpower politics, braking with the resolutions imposed on the Berlin on the strength of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, seized both power and control of the country. The birth of the Third Reich was proclaimed, with Hitler acting as the Leader (Führer), at the head of the state. Any restriction, supervised by the international community, was rejected and turned down, what clearly and unambiguosly led Germany on the path towards a new war…

In July of 1934, the Waffenamt (Ordnance Department) ordered the development of an armored vehicle 10 tons in weight and armed with 20mm automatic cannon. In early 1935, number of manufacturers including Krupp AG, MAN (chassis only), Henschel und Sohn AG (chassis only) and Daimler-Benz AG provided their prototypes of Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper 100 (LaS 100) – agricultural tractor, for evaluation by the army. The new vehicle was also known as 2 cm MG Panzerwagen and as VK 622 (Versuchkraftfahrzeug 622). New light tank – Panzerkampfwagen II was to supplement new Panzerkampfwagen I light tank as a vehicle with heavier armament capable of firing armor-piercing and high explosive rounds.

The American battleship USS Iowa is one of the most famous warships of World War Two era. Built in 1943 at New York Naval Yard she was the lead ship of a series of four battleships of the class named after her and deemed some of the world’s largest and best. During the Second World War USS Iowa went into history as a ship aboard which the president of the USA Franklin Delano Roosevelt travelled to Tehran, where the infamous Tehran Conference, in which two other leaders: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet prime minister Joseph Stalin participated, was held. Later the ship was sent to serve in the Pacific, where she took part in almost all major operations against Japanese forces. After a short overhaul in San Francisco in early 1945 she continued operations against Japan, taking part among others in shelling of Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido islands, and on 27 August 1945 the ship’s crew accepted surrender of Yokosuka naval base. After the end of the war, in early 1946 Iowa was the flagship of the 5th Fleet, operating in Gulf of Tokio waters and after the return to the US her role was limited to that of a training ship.

Battleship Vittorio Veneto was one of the three Italian Littorio class battleships operating in the Second World War. She was one of the most modern and powerful battleships of her times. She was designed by General Umberto Pugliese and engineer Francesco Mazzullo. She was the first battleship to exceed the limit of 35,000 tons of displacement imposed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The keel of the Vittorio Veneto battleship was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder “Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico”, in Trieste, on 28th October 1934.She was launched on July 1937 and began her service in the Italian Fleet (Regia Marina) by August 1940. She was named in honour of the Italian victory at Vittorio Veneto in the First World War and she had three sisters ships: Littorio, Roma and Impero (the last one was never completed). She was armed with a main battery of nine 381 millimeters guns and three triple turrets. She was able to reach the speed of 30 knots (56 Km/h).

The contract for construction of the Panzerschiff E (Ersatz Hessen) was signed with the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel on January 25, 1934. The ship was laid down on February 14 of the same year, but the construction process was halted on July 5, 1934 and the slipway was cleared. In practice, the elements of the hull that had already been built were removed from the slipway. Important, however, was the fact that the contract for the construction of the ship remained valid and it was to be resumed as soon as the modified design had been approved. The most important decision concerning the addition of the third gun turret was made on June 27, 1934 and that was the reason to suspend the construction for some time. However, the 28 cm calibre of the main battery was retained. This decision was taken solely to avoid further delays and the design itself allowed for the subsequent re-armament of the battleship. During the design process, it was recommended that the barbettes were chosen in such a way as to allow for the installation of the larger calibre guns (330, 250 or 380 mm). It was estimated that the re-armament procedure would take approximately 12 to 15 months. The alteration of the number of the main battery guns affected the change of the previous classification from Panzerschiff (armoured ship) into Schlachtschiff (battleship). For the second time the ship was officially laid down on July 6, 1935. The hull was launched on December 8, 1936 and the christening ceremony speech was given by Colonel General Freiherr von Fritsch. The ship’s godmother was the widow of the late Julius Maerker – commander of the armoured cruiser Gneisenau. The launching ceremony did not go without a minor incident. Due to defective drag weights, the launched hull could not be completely stopped, so it hit the wall of the opposite Hindenburg Embankment. Luckily for the ship, the quay sustained more damage than the hull. Further fitting out work continued according to schedule and on May 21, 1938 the ship was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine. Captain Erich Förster, former commander of the light cruiser Karlsruhe, became her commanding officer.

The German battleship Scharnhorst was built at Wilhelmshaven shipyard. It was initially designed as a heavy cruiser, then battleship, matching up to French Dunkerque-class ship. The ship was laid down on 15 June 1935, launched on 3 October 1936 and commissioned on 7 January 1939; the name Scharnhorst was given by the widow of World War I cruiser Scharnhorst, Capt. Felix Schulz.During her service Scharnhorst underwent numerous rebuildings and modernizations, the most important were: bow reshaping, enlargement of aircraft hangar and relocation of the catapult to the roof of the hangar, removal of the mast from the funnel and construction of new tripod mast situated behind the hangar, installation of degaussing coils along the sides, replacement and strengthening of anti-aircraft armament, rebuild of radio compartments on the main rangefinder (conning tower), installation of FuMo 27 and FuMb 4 radars with antennas, expansion of admiral’s bridge.

“Pola” was a Zara-class heavy cruiser of the italian Regia Marina operating during the Second World War. She was the fourth of four ships in this class (Zara, Fiume e Gorizia were the other three), she was built in the Odero Terni Orlando shipyard in Livorno in 1930 and she entered in service in 1932. At the beginning of 1928, the Italian Regia Marina, not to be disadvantaged compared to the other Marines, needed to build new cruisers whose could be used with the ships Trento-class, waiting that economic resources of the Italian Estate allowed to get new battleships or to renovate the old ones like Cavour or Giulio Cesare. Since there was a standstill in the building and in the study of projects, the only existing one was what the Navy Ministry had prepared for a Trento-class cruiser in which the thickness of the armor was increased to 150 mm.

Scirè was an Italian Adua-class submarine, which served during World War II in the Regia Marina (the Italian Navy). She was named after the Ethiopian region, where there was a battle between the Italian and Abyssinian troops during the war in Ethiopia in 1936. She was laid down by the Italian shipbuilder “Odero-Terni-Orlando (OTO)”, in La Spezia, on January 30, 1937. She was launched on January 6, 1938 and was commissioned into “Regia Marina” on April 25, 1938. During the war, she was modified to carry three mini submarines (SLCs). Actually she is one of the most famous submarines in the world due to the missions to Gibraltar and Alexandria.

Laid down at Kure on 11 March 1912, launched 28 March 1914, joined the Navy on 8 November 1915. He was the second battleship bearing the name of the first "Fuso" was one of the first ships of the Imperial Navy,participated in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese war, and among the officers who took him to England, Admiral. The battleship Fuso enrolled in the 1st division of the linear ships of the First fleet. Japan at this time was involved in the first world war, but the ship was tested and the course of combat training in peacetime. The first long-range voyage of the new battleship became patrulirovanie Chinese waters April 1917.

Musashi battleship was the second ship of the Yamato class of Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. She and her sister, Yamato, were the heaviest and most powerful battleships ever constructed, displacing 72800 tons at full load and armed with nine 46 cm Type 94 main guns. Musashi was commissioned on August 1942 and assigned to the 1st Battleship Division. In early 1943 the ship was transferred to Truk, that was the Empire of Japan’s main base in the South Pacific. During this year she sortied several times with the fleet searching for American forces, without success. In 1944 she was used to transfer forces and equipment between Japan and various occupied islands. In early 1944 she was damaged by an American submarine attack and was forced to return to Japan for repairs. In this occasion she was strongly enhanced with anti-aircraft armament. She was present during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, but she didn’t engage in combat with the American forces. On 24 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, after several hours of fighting, Musashi was sunk by a large number of torpedos and bombs hit from the American carrier-based aircraft. The wreck was located in March 2015 by the team of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, to a depth of about 1350 meters (4430 feet).

Nagato, named for Nagato Province, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1910s. The lead ship of her class, she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. The ship was modernized in 1934–36 with improvements to her armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nagato briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor. She covered the withdrawal of the attacking ships and did not participate in the attack itself.

Yahagi, the second Japanese warship of that name, was the third of the four Agano-class vessels (the other three being Agano, Noshiro and Sakawa). Construction of the Agano-class cruisers was approved by the Japanese parliament (Diet) in March 1939 under the Fourth Naval Armaments Enhancement Program (Dai-Yon-Ji Kaigun Gunbi Jūjitsu Keikaku), also known as “Four-in-Circle” Program (Maru Yon Keikaku), or simply Maru 4. Under the terms of the program, the four light cruisers (kei jun’yōkan), also referred to as type B cruisers (otsu-gata jun’yōkan, or simply otsu jun) and officially classed as second-class cruisers (ni-tō jun’yōkan), were to fulfill the role of destroyer squadron flagships. At that time destroyer squadrons (DesRon), called literarily torpedo squadrons (suirai sentai), consisted of four four-ship destroyer divisions (DesDiv, or kuchiku-tai).

Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scale of de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito in the following variants.DH. Mosquito F./N.F. Mk II