Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
I bet his nickname was “ Tiny”. (Sven Hassel)
Smoky was found in a foxhole in New Guinea in Feb 1944. The American thought she must have been a Japanese soldier's dog, but when he took her to a POW camp, they found out she didn't understand commands in Japanese or English. The soldier sold Smoky to Cpl. William Wynne of Cleveland OH for 2 dollars Australian.
Over the next two years Wynne carried Smoky in his backpack, fought in the jungles of Rock Island and New Guinea, flew 12 air/sea rescue, She survived 150 air raids on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa, made a combat jump in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in a parachute made for her. She would warn G.I's of incoming artillery and was dubbed the "angel from a foxhole."
Early in retaking the Philippines combat engineers were setting up a telegraph line to an airfield. The joints collapsed filling them in with sand. Cpl. Wynne knew that Smoky could climb through the pipe with a new line and that is what she did. Smoky's work saved approximately 250 ground crewmen from having to move around and keep operational 40 fighters and reconnaissance planes, while a construction detail dug up the taxiway, placing the men and the planes in danger from enemy bombings. What would have been a dangerous three-day digging task to place the wire was instead completed in minutes.
In her down time she preformed tricks with the Special Services to improve the moral of the troops and visited hospitals in Australia and Korea. Visiting with the sick and wounded, she became the first recorded "therapy dog".
After the war she became a sensation back int the states, had a live TV show, and often visited Veterans hospitals. Smoky's work as a therapy dog continued for 12 years. Wynne had Smokey 14 years before she passed away. He buried her in a 30 caliber ammo box in Rocky River Reservation, Ohio.
Smoky, the smallest war hero weighing in at 4 lbs even and standing 7 inches tall.
Over the next two years Wynne carried Smoky in his backpack, fought in the jungles of Rock Island and New Guinea, flew 12 air/sea rescue, She survived 150 air raids on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa, made a combat jump in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in a parachute made for her. She would warn G.I's of incoming artillery and was dubbed the "angel from a foxhole."
Early in retaking the Philippines combat engineers were setting up a telegraph line to an airfield. The joints collapsed filling them in with sand. Cpl. Wynne knew that Smoky could climb through the pipe with a new line and that is what she did. Smoky's work saved approximately 250 ground crewmen from having to move around and keep operational 40 fighters and reconnaissance planes, while a construction detail dug up the taxiway, placing the men and the planes in danger from enemy bombings. What would have been a dangerous three-day digging task to place the wire was instead completed in minutes.
In her down time she preformed tricks with the Special Services to improve the moral of the troops and visited hospitals in Australia and Korea. Visiting with the sick and wounded, she became the first recorded "therapy dog".
After the war she became a sensation back int the states, had a live TV show, and often visited Veterans hospitals. Smoky's work as a therapy dog continued for 12 years. Wynne had Smokey 14 years before she passed away. He buried her in a 30 caliber ammo box in Rocky River Reservation, Ohio.
Smoky, the smallest war hero weighing in at 4 lbs even and standing 7 inches tall.
On November 10, 2004, Private First Class Christopher Adlesperger and the Marines of Kilo 3/5 swept the Jolan District of Fallujah. His squad entered the courtyard of a house and came under immediate machine gun fire. The point man was instantly killed, and the next two Marines severely wounded. Adlesperger and the remainder of the squad fought back as grenades and sniper bullets added to the machine gun fire less than 20 yards away. Adlesperger moved to a stairwell on an adjacent house. He cleared the stairs and rooftop, then helped the wounded move to the roof for medical treatment and evacuation. Looking down now at the enemy stronghold, Adlesperger saw an insurgent attempting to steal the rifle from the Marine still in the courtyard. Adlesperger dropped him with a single shot. He blasted holes through the side of the house with his M203 grenade launcher, exposing more enemy positions, and killed four more in the courtyard as they attempted to run.
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When the wounded were prepared for evacuation and the Marine KIA had been recovered, Adlesperger returned to the street. Demanding to take point, he prepared to enter the house and finally destroy the machine gun that killed his friend. An AAV drove through the wall and Adlesperger rushed into the courtyard once more, closed the distance, and killed the insurgent manning the gun.
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When the battle concluded, the unit determined Adlesperger killed at least 11 insurgents. His face bled from the shrapnel, and his blouse had bullet holes in the sleeve and collar. For his inspiring bravery and fearless courage, Adlesperger was nominated for the Medal of Honor. The nomination was eventually downgraded to a Navy Cross and awarded in 2007.
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Tragically, Adlesperger received the award posthumously. One month after the house in Fallujah, he took point entering another house in the city. Machine gun bullets stuck his vest, spinning him around and entering the side of his body. A round passed through his heart, killing him instantly.
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When the wounded were prepared for evacuation and the Marine KIA had been recovered, Adlesperger returned to the street. Demanding to take point, he prepared to enter the house and finally destroy the machine gun that killed his friend. An AAV drove through the wall and Adlesperger rushed into the courtyard once more, closed the distance, and killed the insurgent manning the gun.
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When the battle concluded, the unit determined Adlesperger killed at least 11 insurgents. His face bled from the shrapnel, and his blouse had bullet holes in the sleeve and collar. For his inspiring bravery and fearless courage, Adlesperger was nominated for the Medal of Honor. The nomination was eventually downgraded to a Navy Cross and awarded in 2007.
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Tragically, Adlesperger received the award posthumously. One month after the house in Fallujah, he took point entering another house in the city. Machine gun bullets stuck his vest, spinning him around and entering the side of his body. A round passed through his heart, killing him instantly.
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Think he might suffer from a mild case of Gigantism.
"Recognizing the signs of gigantism
If your child has gigantism, you may notice that they’re much larger than other children of the same age. Also, some parts of their body may be larger in proportion to other parts. Common symptoms include:
very large hands and feet
thick toes and fingers
a prominent jaw and forehead
coarse facial features"
Luftwaffe ace Heinrich Bär inspecting his 184th victim, 91st BG Boeing B-17F
Co-pilot and top turret gunner were KIA, the rest of the crew was captured.
The aircraft was the 184th aerial victory of Luftwaffe ace Heinrich Bär who was credited with 208 kills by war's end and was killed in a flying accident on April 28th 1957.
"On Ouachita’s final mission was Lt Spencer Osterberg’s crew’s fifth combat mission and first in this airplane. It was 21 February 1944 and their ship was one of eight 323rd BS planes enroute to bomb Luftwaffe airfields at Gutersloh and Achmer. There is some distension regarding this information; some sources state the date as 22 February, but the squadron’s daily report posted on the unit’s website gives the 21st. Roger Freeman’s Mighty Eighth War Diary lists Gutersloh as the primary target for that date."
"The weather was poor that day, and things went wrong from the start. The First Bombardment Wing had no pathfinder aircraft; the fighter escort failed to meet them at the rendezvous point, and just as the large formation came to a place deep inside enemy territory where they needed to make a turn they flew into a large cloud bank. When they finally broke into the clear, Miss Ouachita was separated from the rest of the formation by about a mile. As she attempted to rejoin the group, Fw 190s attacked at knocked out an engine, badly wounded the radio operator, killed the top turret gunner, shot away the rudder controls, and made many gun positions inoperable."
"Osterberg reduced his altitude, salvoed his bombs, and turned for home. A second engine failed and the pilot gave the bail out order. Two men jumped, but one engine was restarted and the remaining crew decided to stay with the plane in hope of getting home safely. Flying over Germany at treetop level for more than an hour, they had the additional bad luck to fly right across a Luftwaffe fighter base. This time they came under attack by Bär. A shell exploded inside the cockpit wounding Osterberg and killing his copilot. The wounded Osterberg successfully bellied her into an open field at Bexten, Germany, near Salzburg. The surviving crew members spent the remainder of the war in German prisoner of war camps."
"The following day Bär visited the crash site, an event filmed for propaganda purposes. It is from this film and still photos taken at the same time that Miss Ouachita’s place in history was secured. Luftwaffe salvage experts considered the aircraft to be repairable to flight status, but she was sighted by Allied fighters very quickly thereafter and completely destroyed while still laying in the open field."
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
When you fly stuff for a living, cars - any cars - are comparatively boring. But sometimes two-dimensional high performance meets the three-dimensional sort, and the results can be interesting.
The U2 is flown by a guy in a space suit, and as a result, rubbernecking around at landing to check your distance from Terra Very Fvcking Firma is a non-starter. You need a spotter, someone who can pace you at 160 MPH and say, "twenty feet, fifteen, good, keep coming, five, five, down a titch, three..." That guy needs a ride that can accelerate onto the runway and keep a useful speed for long enough to talk the pilot down.
Ford had a solution.
And at work:
I like the look. A purposeful tool. And the first time since the 1975 retirement of Cavalier P51 conversion 68-15796 that the USAF operated a Mustang of any dimensional capability.
The U2 is flown by a guy in a space suit, and as a result, rubbernecking around at landing to check your distance from Terra Very Fvcking Firma is a non-starter. You need a spotter, someone who can pace you at 160 MPH and say, "twenty feet, fifteen, good, keep coming, five, five, down a titch, three..." That guy needs a ride that can accelerate onto the runway and keep a useful speed for long enough to talk the pilot down.
Ford had a solution.
And at work:
I like the look. A purposeful tool. And the first time since the 1975 retirement of Cavalier P51 conversion 68-15796 that the USAF operated a Mustang of any dimensional capability.
