Picture of the day

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U.S. Navy destroyers moored together at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, circa 1934. Ships present include (from left to right): USS Breckinridge (DD-148); two unidentified destroyers, one being in the DD-13- designation groupand the other being in the DD-14- designation group; USS Dorsey (DD-117); USS Lea (DD-118); USS Rathburne (DD-113); USS Talbot (DD-114); USS Waters (DD-115); USS Dent (DD-116); six unidentified destroyers, but all of them have the designation (DD-13-); and USS Hopkins (DD-249).
 
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"World War I’s problems included dealing with the fairly new and very potent threat of German gas attacks. Gas masks were the answer and the problem was their main component: activated carbon and its limited availability. Again, after some heady pondering and some serious head scratching, American and British scientists and engineers found the solution right under their noses. Fruit stones and nuts shells, burned slowing in a controlled fashion, were the perfect source for activated carbon. Now the problem was getting enough of these common everyday items together to do the job. After all, it took 200 peach pits or 2 pounds of nut shells to produce enough carbon to outfit one gas mask."


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Man, I bet the horses really loved wearing gas masks. Imagine standing in a field somewhere, guys hollering "Gas! Gas! Gas!" all around you, plenty of fear in the air, you're wearing a gas mask, and trying to cram a bag onto the face of a now thoroughly alerted and spooked horse.

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"Hold still, you stubborn son of a #####, this is for your own good..."

This guy didn't bother. Looks like something from nightmares:

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Those are probably all lined up like that in a marina in Greece now...When I was in Greece in the 80's there were hundreds of de-commissioned WW ll warships turned into personal yachts after extensive re-fits, The wifes uncle had access to a lot of them through his job as one of a very few mechanics that met qualifications. Those were the "lucky ones".

He also had access to the docks were the "unlucky" WW ll relics went for a "permanent de-commissioning" There was a huge guillotine sort of affair there that the big ships were towed into and the blade came down, cutting about a 6 ft long piece of the boat off at a time (manageable size pieces I guess)....kind of like watching "bubba" cut a war relic's barrel into handgun barrels...
 
Man, I bet the horses really loved wearing gas masks. Imagine standing in a field somewhere, guys hollering "Gas! Gas! Gas!" all around you, plenty of fear in the air, you're wearing a gas mask, and trying to cram a bag onto the face of a now thoroughly alerted and spooked horse.

article-2045816-0E3D50E300000578-190_634x431.jpg


"Hold still, you stubborn son of a #####, this is for your own good..."

This guy didn't bother. Looks like something from nightmares:

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In the movie " Legends of the Fall", a German WW1 cavalryman , or Uhlan is shown with a gasmask on the horse, as well as the cavalryman , in the scene, the cavalryman with his lance is charging "Brad Pitt", who interestingly enough is not wearing a gasmask,..soldier Brad fires his SMLE rifle at the charging rider, and suffers a stressful moment to say the least, when his SMLE appears to jam from the dreaded "rim lock", ..ie: making sure the .303 cartridges in your stripper clips are in correct order when you load your trusty SMLE .

The WW1 scenes for this movie were filmed near Morley, Alberta, and many of the extras for the battle scenes were soldiers from the Calgary Highlanders,..which interestingly are portraited in the movie as the "10th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, which today is perpetuated by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and Calgary Highlanders.

Also in the movie , a battle scene is shown, when the 10 th battalion is about to "go over the top", a Highlander kicks a football towards the German trenches,.and the men then charge...i believe it was the British unit who did this, not the Canadians,

Of historical inaccuracy, the Canadians are all seen with SMLE rifles,..as the movie was supposed to be France 1915, the Canadians would still be issued with Ross rifles
 
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That was a hell of a movie. One of the "guy movies" that it's OK for dudes to cry during. Kinda like Little Big Man.

Lancers are a horror to infantry, or at least were when they were widely employed. Being run down by a man with a long sharp spear, afraid to look behind you, afraid not to, just waiting for that feeling... Jesus. That's the sort of thing breaks lines and causes panic in the ranks.

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The Charge Of The Bengal Lancers At Neuve Chapelle by Derville Rowlandson
 
That was a hell of a movie. One of the "guy movies" that it's OK for dudes to cry during. Kinda like Little Big Man.

Lancers are a horror to infantry, or at least were when they were widely employed. Being run down by a man with a long sharp spear, afraid to look behind you, afraid not to, just waiting for that feeling... Jesus. That's the sort of thing breaks lines and causes panic in the ranks.

the-charge-of-the-bengal-lancers-at-neuve-chapelle-derville-rowlandson.jpg


The Charge Of The Bengal Lancers At Neuve Chapelle by Derville Rowlandson

terrific painting!
 
Also in the movie , a battle scene is shown, when the 10 th battalion is about to "go over the top", a Highlander kicks a football towards the German trenches,.and the men then charge...i believe it was the British unit who did this, not the Canadians,

Of historical inaccuracy, the Canadians are all seen with SMLE rifles,..as the movie was supposed to be France 1915, the Canadians would still be issued with Ross rifles

there is/was a football in the RCR museum with a newspaper clipping that describes the RCR kicking the ball over Vimy Ridge...however there are questions about the story etc.... I 'believe' several units may have used a football...certainly in one Regimental history during the advance on Mount Sorrel the artillery and small arms fire was so intense that individuals standing shoulder to shoulder couldn't hear each other despite yelling as loud a they could - under those circumstances...following the soccer ball would help maintain the 'integrity' of the advance! however it is also possible it was a fanciful 'Boy's Own' story intended to divert the publics attention from the absolute fxxking senseless horror of the War.
 
Some awful damn lies were told about those fellows, all in an effort to cover up procedural issues. A shameful thing for the Navy to do, and they still haven't apologized:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion

Just read the Wiki article: the usual careerist #######s covering up for each other and blaming the junior ranks for their f--kups. No wonder they call it "man-management" and not "leadership" These guys wouldn't know leadership if they tripped over it.
 
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