Picture of the day

[Dark Alley Dan]

On July 10, 1926, lightning struck a tree at the Lake Denmark Naval Munitions Depot at Pickatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The burning tree overhung a building full of artillery shells, and over the next few days, much of Pickatinny Arsenal blew up.

Before:

After:

$487,000,000 in damage, 187 of 200 buildings destroyed, and 21 people killed. A bad day for all involved.

 

[fat tony]

They never collapsed

When the Stari Most fell into the river in Mostar it turned the river red for days. The cement that held the bridge together had a red dye in it. But, legend states that if the bridge fell Bosnia would fall as well.

You could hear a thunder like sound even through the old vhs audio when it came down. If a bridge like say the Macdonald Bridge came down it would be quite a spectacle. Probably would not see anything but dust clouds.

It would probably look something like this:

A bridge demolition of a modern suspension variety in a war would probably be a lot messier. I suspect due to the time constraints and fudge factor needing to be bigger (bigger charges). But I don't know for sure.

edited out

 

[Ganderite]

Ah yes the old try not to look important the enemy might be low on ammunition ploy

I think there was a major Allied victory in the desert where the tanks were moved to the attack point, but disguised as trucks, so the Germans air recon did not see tanks.

I recall a good book, something like "A Magician goes to War". he worked on spoofs like that.

 

[Donny Fenn1]

http://www.rickpisaturo.com.au/the-story/



My dad bought some cattle from this gentleman in the 70s. Captured in Libya, sent to Australia, stayed made a bunch of money etc.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

On July 10, 1926, lightning struck a tree at the Lake Denmark Naval Munitions Depot at Pickatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The burning tree overhung a building full of artillery shells, and over the next few days, much of Pickatinny Arsenal blew up.

Before:

After:

$487,000,000 in damage, 187 of 200 buildings destroyed, and 21 people killed. A bad day for all involved.

Hatcher does a detailed examination of the disaster in his book, Hatcher's Notebook. Guess he was fairly close when it happened and experienced it first hand. First I heard of it.

Grizz

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

After WW1, there was very little money available to the RAF. The treasury people had other priorities, and everyone was good and sick of war. So what's a fledgling force to do if it's to stay relevant? How about policing Iraq from the air?

In the same airspace later occupied by the F15, A10 and Tornado, WW1-vintage aircraft once flew missions to punish religiously-motivated people and bring them to heel.

Find a camp, drop a few bombs, machine gun a few tents, make your presence known and your strength understood.

(A Vickers Vernon over Bagdad. What a blunt suppository of a design.)

Results were mixed, but the British did stay there right through to WW2.

 

[Sharps '74]

The Sykes-Picot Agreement set the stage post WWI for sectarian violence amongst "religiously motivated people" that persists to this day.

 

[CV32]

This week Navy divers have begun operations to recover unexploded torpedoes and 4.7 inch shells from the wrecks of four iron ore carriers that were torpedoed and sunk in Conception Bay nearly 77 years ago, within sight of where I am sitting.

On 5 September 1942, the Type XIC U-boat U-513 (under the command of KrvKpt. Rolf Rüggeberg) attacked the Saganaga and the Lord Strathcona as they lay at anchor, sinking the Saganaga (5,454 tons) at 16:15 hours and the Lord Strathcona (7,335 tons) at 16:46 hours. Both ships were hit with two torpedoes each. 27 men aboard the Saganaga were lost.

Just after 07:00 hours on 2 November 1942, the Type XIC U-boat U-518 (under the command of Kptlt. Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann) fired three torpedoes at ships waiting to join convoy WB-9. Two torpedoes hit and sank the Rose Castle (7,803 tons) and one torpedo sank the P.L.M. 27 (5,633 tons). Seven crew from P.L.M. 27 were lost.

(On 20 October 1942, the Rose Castle had been hit by a dud torpedo from Type VIIC U-boat U-69, just south of Newfoundland. It was the U-boat's last remaining torpedo and bad weather prevented use of the deck gun.)

 

[woodchopper]

After WW1, there was very little money available to the RAF. The treasury people had other priorities, and everyone was good and sick of war. So what's a fledgling force to do if it's to stay relevant? How about policing Iraq from the air?

interesting individual markings on the aircraft, the one in the front has a 'star of david' identifier while the one furthest away has a 'swastika' identifier

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Aircraft of two different "flights" perhaps? Not a squadron marking, I should think.

When the RAF went to Iraq, they took with them a number of Rolls Royce Armoured Cars, and an elegant airfield security solution they were.

 

[woodchopper]

interesting armoured cars.

again I notice that the tire configurations are different. The last picture seems to have an older car with dualies in the back, the other 2 pictures have a more modern tires, much better for the sandy environment and if you look at the first picture match with the vehicle behind it.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

According to that august academic journal Wikipedia, Rolls had the initial skinny-tired 1914, with modifications made to the Pattern 1920 (addition of a cupola, like the second pic) and the Model 1924 (a bit more armour and an open-topped turret, like so:

The Irish still exhibit one:

[youtube]pPI1IBlnnpU[/youtube]

Plus the H.G. Wells-looking Indian Pattern model:

 

[cyclone]

....
I recall a good book, something like "A Magician goes to War". he worked on spoofs like that.

Maskelyne's Magic: Top Secret?...

 

[donor]

That book it's titled The War Magician and it was written by David Fisher.It old enough to be in public domain so here is text:

https://epdf.pub/david-fisher-the-war-magiciana759b38caa149ec6bdaad58357d30ac925975.html

Amazon.ca has it in new shiny print and book was published so often it should be easy to find.I have my old paperback somewhere found in good old Salvation Army store.

 

[zupermann]

Those Rolls Royce armoured cars on the previous page look like they are wearing berets !

 

[gerard488]

Some Long Branch pics here:
https://www.pbase.com/mrclark/long_...uvnd0FP8Ax3nb1Q8uYNo40Csl8BCtKJLJ1yVqw7CNwrb8

 

[john@]

Her Majesty's Armored Car

 

[XRCD011]

Some Long Branch pics here:
https://www.pbase.com/mrclark/long_...uvnd0FP8Ax3nb1Q8uYNo40Csl8BCtKJLJ1yVqw7CNwrb8

Great collection of pics, thanks for posting.

 

[Cottage Hill Bill]

I think the bottom pictures predates the others. That is the style of wheels used on the cars built in the 1920s. Here's a multi-page thread on RR armoured cars with lots of pictures.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/97850-rolls-royce-armoured-cars/

 

[Ganderite]

Maskelyne's Magic: Top Secret?...

Yes, that was the author. But I don't think that is the title I read.