Paradox of the German Tiger II Tank

The Tiger II tank, officially designated as Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B and introduced in 1944, was Germany’s most advanced heavy tank of World War II. Known as the Königstiger (King Tiger) by the Germans and often referred to as the Royal Tiger by Allied forces, it was designed to dominate...

By Eugene Nielsen

Curious Relics #128: Nagant 1895 Part I – Belgian Design Russian Hands

Welcome, if you are a newcomer to this fun bi-weekly segment of AllOutdoor.com! The last time around we closed out our four-part run covering the M1 Carbine. Today we are kicking off something completely different and heading back across the Atlantic. Ladies and gentlemen, today we are starting c...

By Sam.S

Arado Ar 234 Blitz: Germany’s Jet-Powered Bomber

Despite around-the-clock bombing by British and American heavy bombers, the Germans during World War II produced an ever-increasing volume of advanced military materiel right up until the end of the war. Even though they had terribly limited resources and were being squeezed on all sides, they st...

By Will Dabbs, MD

Brewster F2A Buffalo: WWII’s Forgotten Fighter

The air war during World War II saw the transition from the last of the biplane fighters to the beginning of the jet age. A myriad of aircraft were in action around the globe; some have become enduring icons while others faded into obscurity. The Brewster F2A Buffalo can legitimately claim member...

By Tom Laemlein

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15: First Soviet Swept-Wing Fighter

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 entered the Cold War as a swept-wing jet fighter that stunned Western planners and demonstrated its lethality in the skies over Korea. In this article, Peter Suciu examines how its advanced aerodynamics, heavy cannon armament, and combat performance against American ai...

By Peter Suciu

The Soviet “Silent” AKS-74UB

The AKS-74UB is one of the rarer Kalashnikov variants, a suppressed short carbine designed for missions requiring minimal noise and visual signature. Derived from the AKS-74U developed by Mikhail T. Kalashnikov in the 1970s, the AKS-74UB was created by a team of engineers at the Research Institut...

By Lynndon Schooler

M1 Garand vs. M1941 Johnson Rifle Debate

Even positive changes can be hard to accept. Long before the M1 Garand rifle was in widespread service in the US military, it had its share of detractors. A number of these objectors simply disagreed with the Army’s decision to adopt a semi-automatic rifle at all. They argued that the...

By Tom Laemlein

M65 Atomic Cannon — America’s Atomic Annie

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union raced to develop weapons that could tip the balance of power. Among the most audacious creations of this era was the M65 Atomic Cannon, an enormous artillery piece capable of firing a nuclear shell. Nicknamed “Atomic Annie,” this wea...

By Eugene Nielsen