Armour
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Armour (
A second use of the term armour describes
Etymology
The word "armour" began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of
Personal
Armour has been used throughout
Armour drove the development of many important technologies of the Ancient World, including wood
History
Significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper. At times the development of armour has paralleled the development of increasingly effective weaponry on the battlefield, with armourers seeking to create better protection without sacrificing mobility.
Well-known armour types in
Early
Cuirasses and helmets were manufactured in Japan as early as the 4th century.[3] Tankō, worn by foot soldiers and keikō, worn by horsemen were both pre-samurai types of early Japanese armour constructed from iron plates connected together by leather thongs. Japanese lamellar armour (keiko) passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century.[4] These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket, leggings and a helmet.[5]
Armour did not always cover all of the body; sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was generally protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs (13th to 15th century CE).[6]
In East Asia, many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures, including
Gradually, small additional plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces. The coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat.
13th to 18th century Europe
Early plate in Italy, and elsewhere in the 13th–15th century, were made of iron. Iron armour could be
The small skull cap evolved into a bigger true helmet, the bascinet, as it was lengthened downward to protect the back of the neck and the sides of the head. Additionally, several new forms of fully enclosed helmets were introduced in the late 14th century.
Probably the most recognised style of armour in the world became the plate armour associated with the knights of the European Late Middle Ages, but continuing to the early 17th century Age of Enlightenment in all European countries.
By 1400, the full harness of plate armour had been developed in armouries of Lombardy.[11] Heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield for centuries in part because of their armour.
In the early 15th century, advances in weaponry allowed infantry to defeat armoured knights on the battlefield. The quality of the metal used in armour deteriorated as armies became bigger and armour was made thicker, necessitating breeding of larger cavalry horses. If during the 14–15th centuries armour seldom weighed more than 15 kg, then by the late 16th century it weighed 25 kg.[12] The increasing weight and thickness of late 16th century armour therefore gave substantial resistance.
In the early years of low velocity firearms, full suits of armour, or breast plates actually stopped bullets fired from a modest distance. Crossbow bolts, if still in use, would seldom penetrate good plate, nor would any bullet unless fired from close range. In effect, rather than making plate armour obsolete, the use of firearms stimulated the development of plate armour into its later stages. For most of that period, it allowed horsemen to fight while being the targets of defending arquebusiers without being easily killed. Full suits of armour were actually worn by generals and princely commanders right up to the second decade of the 18th century. It was the only way they could be mounted and survey the overall battlefield with safety from distant musket fire.
The horse was afforded protection from lances and infantry weapons by steel plate barding. This gave the horse protection and enhanced the visual impression of a mounted knight. Late in the era, elaborate barding was used in parade armour.
Later
Gradually, starting in the mid-16th century, one plate element after another was discarded to save weight for foot soldiers.
Back and breast plates continued to be used throughout the entire period of the 18th century and through Napoleonic times, in many European heavy cavalry units, until the early 20th century. From their introduction, muskets could pierce plate armour, so cavalry had to be far more mindful of the fire. In Japan, armour continued to be used until the late 19th century, with the last major fighting in which armour was used, this occurred in 1868.[13] Samurai armour had one last short lived use in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion.[14]
Though the age of the knight was over, armour continued to be used in many capacities. Soldiers in the American Civil War bought iron and steel vests from peddlers (both sides had considered but rejected body armour for standard issue). The effectiveness of the vests varied widely, some successfully deflected bullets and saved lives, but others were poorly made and resulted in tragedy for the soldiers. In any case the vests were abandoned by many soldiers due to their increased weight on long marches, as well as the stigma they got for being cowards from their fellow troops.[15]
At the start of World War I, thousands of the French Cuirassiers rode out to engage the German Cavalry. By that period, the shiny metallic cuirass was covered in a dark paint and a canvas wrap covered their elaborate Napoleonic style helmets, to help mitigate the sunlight being reflected off the surfaces, thereby alerting the enemy of their location. Their armour was only meant for protection against edged weapons such as bayonets, sabres, and lances. Cavalry had to be wary of repeating rifles, machine guns, and artillery, unlike the foot soldiers, who at least had a trench to give them some protection.
Present
Today,
The US Army has adopted
The British Armed Forces also have their own armour, known as Osprey. It is rated to the same general equivalent standard as the US counterpart, the Improved Outer Tactical Vest, and now the Soldier Plate Carrier System and Modular Tactical Vest.
The Russian Armed Forces also have armour, known as the 6B43, all the way to 6B45, depending on variant. Their armour runs on the GOST system, which, due to regional conditions, has resulted in a technically higher protective level overall.
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Medieval German helmet.
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Early Modern horse armour on display at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York.
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Plate armour
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Riot police with body protection against physical impact. However, it does not provide very much protection against firearms.
Vehicle
The first modern production technology for armour plating was used by navies in the construction of the ironclad warship, reaching its pinnacle of development with the battleship. The first tanks were produced during World War I. Aerial armour has been used to protect pilots and aircraft systems since the First World War.
In modern ground forces' usage, the meaning of armour has expanded to include the role of troops in combat. After the evolution of
History
Ships
The first
Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defence ships, and long-range cruisers. The rapid evolution of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel which carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea),[citation needed] more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible.
The rapid pace of change in the ironclad period meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were complete, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the
Trains
Armoured trains saw use from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, including the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the First and Second Boer Wars (1880–81 and 1899–1902), the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921), the First (1914–1918) and Second World Wars (1939–1945) and the First Indochina War (1946–1954). The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920).
Armoured fighting vehicles
Ancient siege engines were usually protected by wooden armour, often covered with wet hides or thin metal to prevent being easily burned.
Medieval war wagons were horse-drawn wagons that were similarly armoured. These contained guns or crossbowmen that could fire through gun-slits.
The first modern armoured fighting vehicles were armoured cars, developed c. 1900. These started as ordinary wheeled motor-cars protected by iron shields, typically mounting a machine gun.[19]
During the First World War, the stalemate of
Aircraft
With the development of effective
Present
Tank armour has progressed from the Second World War armour forms, now incorporating not only harder composites, but also reactive armour designed to defeat shaped charges. As a result of this, the main battle tank (MBT) conceived in the Cold War era can survive multiple rocket-propelled grenade strikes with minimal effect on the crew or the operation of the vehicle. The light tanks that were the last descendants of the light cavalry during the Second World War have almost completely disappeared from the world's militaries due to increased lethality of the weapons available to the vehicle-mounted infantry.
The armoured personnel carrier (APC) was devised during the First World War. It allows the safe and rapid movement of infantry in a combat zone, minimising casualties and maximising mobility. APCs are fundamentally different from the previously used armoured half-tracks in that they offer a higher level of protection from artillery burst fragments, and greater mobility in more terrain types. The basic APC design was substantially expanded to an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) when properties of an APC and a light tank were combined in one vehicle.
Naval armour has fundamentally changed from the Second World War doctrine of thicker plating to defend against
Although the role of the ground attack aircraft significantly diminished after the
High-voltage transformer fire barriers are often required to defeat ballistics from small arms as well as projectiles from transformer bushings and lightning arresters, which form part of large electrical transformers, per NFPA 850. Such fire barriers may be designed to inherently function as armour, or may be passive fire protection materials augmented by armour, where care must be taken to ensure that the armour's reaction to fire does not cause issues with regards to the fire barrier being armoured to defeat explosions and projectiles in addition to fire, especially since both functions must be provided simultaneously, meaning they must be fire-tested together to provide realistic evidence of fitness for purpose.
Combat drones use little to no vehicular armour as they are not manned vessels, this results in them being lightweight and small in size.
Animal armour
Horse armour
During the late Middle Ages as armour protection for knights became more effective, their mounts became targets. This vulnerability was exploited by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in the 14th century, when horses were killed by the infantry, and for the English at the Battle of Crécy in the same century where longbowmen shot horses and the then dismounted French knights were killed by heavy infantry. Barding developed as a response to such events.
Examples of armour for horses could be found as far back as
Surviving period examples of barding are rare; however, complete sets are on display at the
Elephant armour
War elephants were first used in ancient times without armour,[24] but armour was introduced because elephants injured by enemy weapons would often flee the battlefield. Elephant armour was often made from hardened leather, which was fitted onto an individual elephant while moist, then dried to create a hardened shell.[25] Alternatively, metal armour pieces were sometimes sewn into heavy cloth.[26] Later lamellar armour (small overlapping metal plates) was introduced.[27] Full plate armour was not typically used due to its expense and the danger of the animal overheating.[28]
See also
- Battledress
- Bomb suit
- High-voltage transformer fire barriers
- Linothorax
- Powered exoskeleton
- Rolled homogeneous armour
Notes
- ^ "Definition of armour in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- ^ "armour | History, Types, Definition, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
- ^ Farris 1998, p. 75
- ^ Robinson 2002, p. 10
- ^ Robinson 2002, pp. 169–170
- ^ Fagan 2004,[page needed]
- ^ Gabriel 2007, p. 79
- ^ "Intriguojanti vieno šedevro istorija – Žygimanto Augusto vaikiškų šarvų paroda". Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 23 April 2023.
- ^ Williams 2003, pp. 740–41.
- ^ Williams 2003, p. 55
- ^ Williams 2003, p. 53.
- ^ Williams 2003, p. 916
- ^ Robinson 1951,[page needed]
- ^ Robinson 2002, p. 208
- ^ Stewart, pp. 74–75
- ^ ArmorUP
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 73–74
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 86.
- ISBN 0-85112-204-3.
- ISBN 9781588391506.
- ^ Nell, Grant S. (1995) The Savaran: The Original Knights. University of Oklahoma Press.
- ^ Horse Armor of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
- ^ Phyrr et al., 57–59
- ^ Kistler 2007, p. 9.
- ^ Kistler 2007, p. 13.
- ^ Kistler 2007, p. 22.
- ^ Kistler 2007, p. 211.
- ^ Kistler 2007, p. 21.
References
- "Ballistic Protection Levels." BulletproofME.com Body Armor. ArmorUP L.P., n.d. 19 October 2014
- DiNardo, R.L. (January 1986). "The First Modern Tank: Gunther Burstyn and His Motorgeschutz". The Journal of Military History. 50 (1): 12–15. OCLC 477932108.
- Fagan, Brian (2004). The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05130-6.
- Farris, William (1998). Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2030-5.
- Gabriel, Richard (2007). The Ancient World. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33348-4.
- Kistler, John M. (2007). War Elephants. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-6004-7.
- Regan, Geoffrey (1993). The Guinness Book of More Military Blunders. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 978-0-85112-728-6.
- Reid, Peter (2007). Medieval Warfare. New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7867-1859-7.
- Robinson, Basil William (1951). Arms and Armour of Old Japan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-11-290074-0.
- Robinson, Henry (2002). Oriental Armour. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-41818-6.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare 1815–1914. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21478-0.
- Stewart, Gail B. (2000). The Civil War: Weapons of War. San Diego: Lucent Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56006-626-2.
- Williams, Alan (2003). The Knight and the Blast Furnace: A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. Vol. 12. Leiden: Brill. )
- Willmott, H.P. (2003). First World War. New York: DK Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7894-9627-0.