Technical Note:
I sat down to write this story two years ago. I had just enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces at the time. Some of the quotes and feelings in this story are taken from my experiences as a soldier, (although an automotive accident forced me from the military sooner than I would have liked to leave.) During the battles in the story, a reader may find him/her self confused at times. This was done intentionally on my part, because battles are by nature very confusing things. I did my best to keep the weapons in this story limited to what was seen throughout the series, however poetic license was taken in order to keep the battles from becoming nothing more than ranged engagements. Most combat deaths are caused by indirect fire, and artillery. These are weapons that spawn little glory on a battlefield, yet they are key to any offensive action. The individual rifleman plays a very small role, as it is usually the artillery, and the machinegun that makes a battle decisive. In all reality, an engagement of company scale (90-160 men) is almost undoubtedly decided by the support weapons. Full Metal Alchemist does little to compliment these tactics, so in order for the engagements to make sense in my eyes, I had to add them. You will find that mortars are used to a large extent early in the story. For those of you who don't know, a mortar is an infantry support weapon, which in many ways resembles a light artillery gun. It fires the projectile on an indirect trajectory into the air. It then falls straight down from the sky. Some mortars are fitted with a barometer capable of exploding the shell above the ground (airburst), which maximizes casualties, however airbursts do not play a role in this story. You will also come across the standard issue "Central City" rifle. I have given it a name, since none was provided in the story. I called it the SAR 14. SAR stands for Semi-Automatic Rifle, and 14 is the model number. I based it on the American M-14 rifle, because I felt that's what it most resembled (I felt it was too long to be an M1A1, M2, or M3 Carbine, despite the magazine size). The various machineguns were based on Maxim design. I have enclosed links to photographs of the real life counterparts. In chapter four, you will come across the 20mm cannon. All sides used 20mm cannons extensively during the Second World War. They were primarily an anti-aircraft gun, and many aircraft had these guns mounted on them both for attacking four engine bombers, and soft (wood buildings, light trains, jeeps, trucks, infantry) ground targets. The German military was forced to press them into ground use, and they proved devastating against infantry, because the shells, 1/3rd larger than .50 caliber shells exploded on impact. They fired quickly, and the sound they generated was extremely intimidating. The sub machineguns used in the story were present throughout the actual series, and no adjustments were made, and I found no need to name this weapon, as it isn't used extensively. The 152mm artillery pieces really have nothing special about them. For those who don't know, they are large field guns, with extremely long range (maximum effective range is generally around 18 kilometers, although this number varies a great deal). Below, as stated are some pictures. Should you need anything else cleared up, please let me know.
82mm Mortar:
http/ (SAR-14)
http/static.justgamers.de/1/1861/gui/images/content/waffen/m14.jpg
Maxim Machinegun:
http/198.144.2.125/MG42/FULL/Maxim20MG.jpg
20mm Cannon:
http/www.quarry. http/ mount, as in the story)
152mm Gun:
http/