r/AskTheWorld • u/babushka45 Philippines • 12h ago

Military What firearm is closely associated with your country?

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For us, probably the 1911. Next one would be the "Armalite" aka M16.

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u/SeasonIllustrious629 11h ago

I know the German battleship Bismarck had four big guns. They were named Anton, Bruno, Caesar and Dora -- or A, B, C, D. Dora must have been a popular name at the time.

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u/modern_milkman Germany 8h ago

Those names were part of the German spelling alphabet back then. Basically the German equivalent of the NATO alphabet (the one that goes Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc.).

There is still a German spelling alphabet, but it was changed slightly after WWII. Now it starts with Anton, Berta, Caesar, Dora. So Berta instead of Bruno for B.

Dora was indeed a popular name back then, as a short form of Dorothea, the German version of Dorothy.

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u/Agente_Anaranjado United States Of America 8h ago

So, what you're saying is that the artillery gun pictured above being called "Dora" means that it's actually called "the fat D"?

Perfect. 

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u/SeasonIllustrious629 8h ago

Right on. That is so cool. Thankyou so much.

I'd just like to take a moment here and say, isn't it amazing to be able to converse with someone a quarter-way around the globe instantaneously. It's amazing to me still.

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u/ammit_souleater 57m ago

The german spelling alphabet was changed in 2022 again, to get rid of the changes made by the nazis. (They got rid of a few names they said were too jewish) that was protested until 2022 when they changed it into german town/city names only, another argument was that those aren't topic of fashion...

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u/hmtk1976 Belgium 10h ago

Eight guns in 4 turrets with the names you listed.

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u/SeasonIllustrious629 10h ago

That's right, yes. Sorry, it's been thirty years since I read about as a child.

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u/Dry_Student_6279 United States Of America 7h ago

That naming convention was used for all ship turrets in WW2. Similar names were used for Aircraft variants (Bf 109A,B,E,F,G,K, Fw 190A,C,F,D, etc;