THE GREATEST WEAPONS EVER (part-1)

This series of posts is exclusively dedicated to some of the greatest weapons the face of earth has even seen.The weapons which have changed the course of history and the fortunes of civillizations.This will be a three part series and the weapons will be divided according to the era of thier maximum use and affect.The three groups are medival age weapons,blackpowder and early 20th century weapons and lastly modern firearms.
The Medival Period Weapons
The medival age warfare was restricted to castle and fighting in masses.We start our story from around 900A.D and will move on till the dawn of 17th century.The first weapon in consideration here is KATANA.
KATANA (no.4)
Katana first appeared around 900A.D.In the hands of samurai it was a symbol of warrior mindset.As we all know samurai's followed a tough code of conduct known as bushido .The high standards needed in order to fufill thier tasks made it neccesary for them to possess a weapon of highest standard.Katana fits the bill.Katana is a single edged sword with a slightly curved shape which facitillates it spending more time in the cut.This is extremely neccesary as the longer the sword spends in the cut the deeper it cuts.These swords are capable of cutting a human from his neck right down to his groin with a single blow.The anatomy of katana starts and ends with its blade.The genius of Japnese blacksmiths lie in creating a blade which is both hard and flexible.This is acheived by coating the finished blade with clay and controlling its rotar coolling.This means that katana will be both sharp and shatter proof.In hands of samurai its a very potent tool.The tactics involved with the use of katana were of deception rather then swinging swords like baseball bats.The average katana fight only lasted for a few seconds.Though in comparison to any other sword this 5 foot centre-piece of samurai beats hands down but its limited to its use geographically and never could affect this world in a big way.

THE WAR BOOMERANG (no.3)
It sounds funny these days if i state that the boomerang was a potent weapon at a time but the relevance of the boomerang cannot be undone as it had an equivalent in all the civilizations.The Egyptian hunting stick was one such weapon which had some aerodynamic properties.Lets travel 40,000 years into the mists of time and see what events are taking place in the smallest continent of our times Australia.The Aborigenes are a peaceful lot of people but at that time they did have thier own set of troubles.The Australian boomerang is a weapon with which we can easily relate us to.Most of us have formed a picture of boomerang in our minds and the picture is of boomerang.The technology behind the boomerang is one of aerofoils.Intresting as it sounds the returning australian boomerang had small aerofoils on its curved surface.A commendable feat as they discovered the principle of aerofoils by pure trial and error.Though this is were the story of boomerang ends as it lacks the difinitive punch to hurt people bigger then a size of koala.

THE PIKE (no.2)
The pike is from way back to Alexander The Great's era.Tha roman phalanx was the most dreaded formation of his times.The pike follows the axiom "Simple Is Better".The good thing about pike is its impact when used in mass ranks.In medival period a group of peasants could be trained in very few minutes to weild this weapon and truly there is no such weapon which falls in this category.It is a long wooden shaft with an iron spear attached to its end.The real use of pike was in the start of 13th century when stirruped cavalary was blasting into way into prominence.The horsemen will get "Kababed" by the pikes or else the horses will themselves stop short of the pikes because they know you get hurt that way!!.All the modern millitary drills have their bases in the pike drill.The Swiss gaurds are a pike force looking after the security of pope for more then 500 years now.the drawback of pike is in one on one combats.It proves to be highly ineffective if the ranks are broken and so it only can get to no.2.

THE LONGBOW (no.1)
If a person enquries that which is the best weapon for you then only one reply can suffice "The weapon which changes the course of history,the one which builds the fortunes of people".For once reality is more then matched by fantasy.The Longbow was the most deadly weapon of its time.Used by the English Kings its tactical use led them to conquer whereever they went.In essence a longbow is a very very simple thing.It is a bent stick and therefore the best wood to make it from is "Yu" wood.This piece of timber is chosen for its strength,its density and its bendibility.There are kills in the ranges of 300 yards.The history of longbow begins with a ruthless king named Edward the longshanks-2.He banned all the spots except archery on sundays and all the peasants were to be trained in archery.A arrow shot out from the right bow could penetrate a breast plate.The longbow terrified The French..it terrified Europe.The French Knights had no idea what had hit them the way it penetrated their armour who were hitherto invunreable to such strikes.As far as statistics go then the speed of released arrow was 193 feet per second and they used to fire 6 or 7 arrows a minute.So it was the machine gun of its day.The only thing which led to the downfall of this wonderfully acurate and effective weapon was blackpower.But as winston churchill pointed out..the speed of shooting ,the acuracy and the use of longbow was not overthrown until the rifle barrel of the American Civil War ..which is an incredible thing to think.
With this ends the first part of greates weapons ever.Part -2 will be posted soon.Till then enjoy!!!!!!!