Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
French pre-dreadnought battleships in color. These are not modern colorizations, but original autochrome period photos. Timeframe is 1907 to 1914.
Look at that fully rigged collimator (or "percuteur marqueur") in the fourth photo, used to bore-sight the guns and to get all the mechanical components in the turrets and mountings into alignment. In the Marine Nationale they were often used for gunnery instruction
Wonder if Jules Verne came by to visit? No, He died in 1905.
Look at that fully rigged collimator (or "percuteur marqueur") in the fourth photo, used to bore-sight the guns and to get all the mechanical components in the turrets and mountings into alignment. In the Marine Nationale they were often used for gunnery instruction
Wonder if Jules Verne came by to visit? No, He died in 1905.
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Sanctuary Wood:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sanctuary-wood-museum
There’s a barn there set up as a museum and they have an set up where you can view slides of WW1 pictures. These were pictures that I had never seen in books, really incredible stuff and most not at all pretty. These were the most “realistic” photos of the Great War and its true carnage that I’ve ever seen.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sanctuary-wood-museum
There’s a barn there set up as a museum and they have an set up where you can view slides of WW1 pictures. These were pictures that I had never seen in books, really incredible stuff and most not at all pretty. These were the most “realistic” photos of the Great War and its true carnage that I’ve ever seen.
fat tony
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
A pic of a Debange 1877 howitzer, 90mm calibre. This is the same type of gun the SS Mont Blanc had for self defence. Of course the pic shows the very old style of non recoiling gun carriage.
The Mont Blanc guns had a new naval mounting which incorporated a traverse & elevation mechanism (I'm fairly certain anyways), & a recoil mechanism. I have not found a pic of the type in a naval/coastal defence mounting.
From various sources it implies that the French made their own naval mounts for guns designated for ship board /coastal defence use.
Another source said the UK made 300 naval mounts to go with 300 of the guns they bought from France. Then a source went on to say Two hundred of the Elswick Arsenal naval mounts for the guns were sold to France as they pressed a lot of these 90mm guns into service due to gun shortages of more modern stuff.
Although long in the tooth the guns were considered reliable and accurate & good enough for early WWI use against the Huns.
The remains of one of Mont Blanc's 90mm guns has kicked around Dartmouth since the Dec. 6 1917 explosion as a memorial. It is currently on display in a small park on Dartmouth's Albro Lake Road.
It is an interesting artifact in that it bears the scars of untold violence. One can only imagine the level of force required to so severely distort something one usually thinks of as incredibly sturdy.
It is clear the trunnion ring was sheared off in the blast which makes sense.
The method of construction of the barrel is clearly on display with four rings sweated on forming the breech reinforcement. The old ways just like how the Armstrong guns were made.
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PinkyPlinker
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Kenora, ON
Pearl Harbor Attack - Sunday 7, December 1941
Panoramic view of Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese raid, with anti-aircraft shell bursts overhead. The photograph looks southwesterly from the hills behind the harbor. Large column of smoke in lower right center is from the burning USS Arizona (BB-39). Smoke somewhat further to the left is from the destroyers Shaw (DD-373), Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375), in dry-docks at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard.
Observers quote, "This must be the second wave, because of all the flak that's up. Apparently one of the reasons that there wasn't a third wave was that American antiaircraft fire had greatly improved in effectiveness on the second wave, and that's when most of the 29 Japanese aircraft were shot down."
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-32792
Color by Facundo Filipe
Attachments
Humbling place to visit. Made the little boat ride to the Arizona, oil is still rising to the surface.
