Picture of the day

[diopter]

Close-up of the wing of the De Havilland DH 108 Swallow tailless experimental aircraft (1945). Torpedo-shaped objects placed on the tips of the wings are anti-crash parachute containers.
Three prototypes have been built but they will all be destroyed in fatal crashes including one of its victims Geoffrey de Havilland Jr.
It is of note that test pilot Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, who escaped a crash aboard his boat in 1949, described the DH 108 as "a killer".
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[Dark Alley Dan]

Brown would know. I believe he still holds the record for most number of aircraft types flown by anyone. This from Wikipedia:

Brown flew aircraft from Britain, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, Italy and Japan and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for flying the greatest number of different aircraft. The official record is 487, but includes only basic types. For example, Brown flew 14 versions of the Spitfire and Seafire and although these versions are very different they appear only once in the list. This list includes only aircraft flown by Brown as "Captain in Command".

Because of the special circumstances involved, Brown didn't think that this record would ever be topped.

He also held the world record for the most carrier landings, 2,407, partly compiled in testing the arrestor wires on more than 20 aircraft carriers during World War II.

The man knew more about aircraft than just about any other human ever born. He deserveds remembering.

Brown's favourite prop job, the DH Hornet:

Potentially a bit of a handful:

(CVR transcript: "FVCK FVCK FVCK FVCK FVCK....")

Brown on the Sea Hornet:

“Circumstances had conspired against the Sea Hornet in obtaining the recognition that it justly deserved as a truly outstanding warplane…in my book the Sea Hornet ranks second to none for harmony of control, performance characteristics and, perhaps most important, in inspiring confidence in its pilot. For sheer exhilarating flying enjoyment, no aircraft has ever made a deeper impression on me than did this outstanding filly from the de Havilland stable.”

There was one on the Canadian civil register:

Just one Sea Hornet made it into civilian hands. This was F.20 TT193, which the Air Ministry sent to the RCAF Winter Weather Experimental Establishment in Edmonton, Alberta for cold weather trials in December, 1948. Following testing, the aircraft was surplus to requirements, and sold off to save the cost of shipping it home. Pilot William ‘Bill’ Ferderber registered the Sea Hornet as CF-GUO in April 1951, before selling it to aerial survey firm Spartan Air Services of Ottawa two months later. Ferderber flew it on a handful of high-altitude photographic missions for Spartan. However Spartan, presumably realizing they couldn’t easily get spare parts or additional examples, ended up trading the exotic aircraft to Kenting Aviation Ltd. for a pair of P-38 Lightnings soon after. These Lightnings were actually F-5Gs 44-26761/CF-GKE and 44-53184/CF-GKH. While ‘GKE was airworthy (and now with Kermit Weeks in Florida), ‘GKH took a year to fix corrosion issues before flying again, only to crash in the Yukon at the end of July, 1953.

Left to rot on a farm in Acme, AB:

Now in preliminary stages of restoration in New Zealand. The ol' girl sure has travelled: https://pioneeraero.co.nz/project/sea-hornet-tt193/

 

[HuskyDude]

Really Good Vid to watch...

 

[*lawrence]

A Ukr soldier examines a Mosin...

 

[bearhunter]

A Ukr soldier examines a Mosin...

That's going to hurt if he doesn't learn how to hold/shoot it properly

Notice the electrical tape holding the stock onto the action

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Left to rot on a farm in Acme, AB:

Sadly the end for a lot of aircraft after the war. Farmers used to buy them, saw the wings off and tow them home for all the handy bits .

Grizz

 

[green]

Ricardo Borges
From the making of some gifts, I think it points to clearly Portuguese India. However, I did not know that Kropatschek were still distributed in the 40/50s. In Timor I know so. Macau also still had them (stored in pail) until 1943 (they were handed over to the Japanese in exchange for gender unlocking to the province during WWII).
Should be interesting. Anyone disagree that they are Kropatschek or think it's another rifle pattern? I know in detail what was in Macau and a lot of weaponry wasn't of the same standard as that of the Metropolis.

Yes Kropatschek.
In an article in "Gunsport" April 1973 "Kropatschek Model 1886 A Piece of History" Capt Luciano da Conceicao Cosaca, Portugese Army, writes that the M86 was last used by Sepoys in 1961.

 

[marshall]

Left to rot on a farm in Acme, AB:

Sadly the end for a lot of aircraft after the war. Farmers used to buy them, saw the wings off and tow them home for all the handy bits .

Grizz

Dad had one , The kids still have the seat on a go kart I made about 40 yrs ago, It may have thousands of miles on it by now

 

[bearhunter]

Yes Kropatschek.
In an article in "Gunsport" April 1973 "Kropatschek Model 1886 A Piece of History" Capt Luciano da Conceicao Cosaca, Portugese Army, writes that the M86 was last used by Sepoys in 1961.

He was off by about a decade in Angola, I saw indigenous troops armed with Kropatscheks, guarding bridges and road gates in 1969 and again in 73. Regular troops had modern weapons.

I have a bit of a like relationship with Kropatschek rifles and own three of them. Only missing the carbine version. All are in VG+ condition, with excellent bores and matching numbers.

With good ammunition, they are incredibly accurate and the fit/finish on them, from their Swiss manufacturers is something to behold.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Left to rot on a farm in Acme, AB:

Sadly the end for a lot of aircraft after the war. Farmers used to buy them, saw the wings off and tow them home for all the handy bits .

Grizz

The fuel in the tanks, the wires, the plexi, etc. Damned handy bit of scrap. But it kills me to think of a Lanc being nibbled at by someone for the comfort of their poultry.

An interesting article here: https://www.vintagewings.ca/stories/circle-of-sorrow - Anson remnants used for memorial art, perhaps one of the better uses for those poor sad old girls.

 

[dogone]

My dad bought an Oxford after the war. They were twin engine radio operator training planes. Sat in our yard for years. 25 years ago parts of it were used to assemble a non flyer. It was rebuilt at the western development museum in Moose Jaw.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The Airspeed Oxford:

Not un-handsome.

Another common BCATP classic, the Avro Anson:

There were hundreds and hundreds of these surplused after the war.

 

[CV32]

 

[Rod B]

Good movie & a talented actor.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Good movie & a talented actor.

Sadly, the only actors we ever hear about are American and the odd Canadian.

Grizz

 

[collector67]

Awesome movie, I watched it multiple times!

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

That sequence was one of many in that movie that are very memorable indeed.

While the Unterseeboot crew live in their own stink and dodge annihilation in several nasty forms, the lads in the Surface Fleet eat off of china and linen and shower regularly.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

U-boat flotilla insignia and some individual boat markings. If you like design, there's some damned sharp work here.

The "Laughing Sawfish" insignia of Flotilla 9 was brought to popular attention by Das Boot.

Crew of German U-boat, U-664, prepare to go over side of ship during attack by two Avenger aircraft from USS Card (CVE-11), August 9, 1943. Note, the laughing sawfish insignia on the conning tower of the 9th U-boat Flotilla. Incident #3992. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. (2015/8/18

U-96. Lothar-Günther Buchheim sailed on her on the seventh patrol. He would later write the book based on the experience that would later be adapted into the screenplay of Das Boot.

The seventh patrol of U-96:

On 27 October, U-96 left for her seventh patrol with journalist Lothar-Günther Buchheim aboard and joined group Stoßtrupp three days later. The next day, 31 October, the group made contact with convoy OS 10. U-96 launched four torpedoes at a long range, one of which struck the Dutch SS Bennekom. The ship went down half an hour after being hit, taking nine of her crew of 56 with her. Following the attack, the sloop HMS Lulworth arrived on the scene and forced U-96 under water with gun fire. The U-boat escaped the barrage of 27 depth charges unscathed. The next day, U-96 encountered two more of the escorts, HMS Gorleston and Verbena, but managed to escape again.

(HMS Lulworth, if you're curious, started life as USCGC Chelan. After a successful war with the Royal Navy, she was transferred back to the US Coast Guard and subsequently sold in 1948.)

The U-boat spent November patrolling the North Atlantic as part of groups Störtebecker and Benecke, until secretly entering the neutral port of Vigo, Spain, and being resupplied by the interned German MV Bessel on 27 November. After leaving Vigo, U-96 made for the Straits of Gibraltar, with orders to enter the Mediterranean. However, late on 30 November the U-boat was spotted by a Fairey Swordfish of 812 Naval Air Squadron and heavily damaged by two bombs dropped by the aircraft. Unable to reach her destination, U-96 made for the port of Saint Nazaire. On the way she encountered the Spanish SS Cabo de Hornos, which returned from South America, after delivering a group of Jewish refugees to the Dutch colony of Curaçao, when Brazil denied them entry. When U-96's torpedo missed, the ship was stopped and her papers checked. On 6 December 1941, after 41 days at sea, U-96 returned to Saint Nazaire, having sunk one ship of 5,998 GRT.

She made eleven operational patrols, and sank 181,206 GRT of shipping. Post February '43, she was used as a training vessel, finally being decommissioned in February of '45. She was sunk by the US 8th Air Force the month after.

 

[steamy teabag]

Read the book a few times and have the original uncut version on DV, 4 hours long. Also a TV series.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I always get a kick out of this one, since we still see it in grocery stores, the emblem of U 69. The laughing cow.


https://uboat.net/special/emblems/emblem260.html


Grizz