Picture of the day

[fingers284]

Yes ... but you can see trench foot which is why regular 'foot inspections' are beaten into every junior officers head:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=tr...content/postgradmedj/95/1127/507/F1.large.jpg


But you cant see PTSD. One of the reasons why the second 'Principle of War' is 'Maintenance of Morale'.

Maintenance of morale is also why junior officers and sr nco's MUST be in excellent physical condition if you are employed in the combat arms. A person who is barely able to keep up physically simply cannot be effective in maintaining morale and leading troops.

Yes, true in the regular sense but it was used as an expediently easy way out of the trenches by troops that had reached the limit. My Grandfather on mother's side was a first war vet His son and my mom claimed he often reffered to the "trench foot boys" as soldiers that would use the malady as an easy, almost continual method of staying out of the trenches. He claimed they would get sent back to a trench from an aid station and find a puddle of rancid water to purposefully soak their feet for two days and then back to the aid station for a couple weeks. I never personally got to talk to him about it as he died in early fifties from coughing his lungs up due to a mustard gas exposure.

 

[bearhunter]

Trench Foot can be a very nasty issue for a troopie.

In some instances, the repercussions from the mange can only be partially healed/reversed.

The fungus can cause all sorts of issues with circulation to the toes and deforming toenails, causing a form of Peripheral Neuropathy or leading to Peripheral Edema.

There are several circumstances where Trench Foot/Crotch Rot can and do occur.

Usually it happens in fixed emplacements, such as waterless camps, trenches, dug out and just a lack of good hygene.

The US military lost a lot of their troops in their camp environment in Viet Nam. Lack of excercise, because of conditions in such places led to all sorts of issues with personal hygene, such as being able to change out socks, constant dampness, jungle funguses, etc.

I know a fellow that lost a testicle to ''crotch blight'' and half the hair on his head to a similar fungus.

Fungal diseases are no idle matter for a troopie.

Today, I believe there are all sorts of surface ointments that are issued for extended field deployments and it isn't as much of a factor, as long as the troopie is trained in their application and their leaders make sure they're doing it.

 

[Snider shooter]

I have WW1 documentaries and one shows a case of trench foot where the flesh is rotted away with the toe bones sticking out. It looked pretty nasty in black and white, I can only imagine how it looked in color.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Be thankful you weren't there to smell it, brother.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Blohm & Voss organization came up with the damnedest things during the war. They seem to have been some seriously out-of-the-box thinkers over there.

One of their prettier efforts was the HA139 floatplane, here in prewar mail service:

That inverted gullwing is great, and keeps the legs of the floats short while also keeping the props up out of the water.

Three built, none remaining.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Portugal bought 16 Beaufighters in mid-'45 and operated them for a bit over a year.

Makes sense they'd run kickass naval interdiction aircraft. Turns out England sold some to the Turks as well:

...and the Israelis:

...and the Yanks, of all people.

 

[Donny Fenn1]

Be thankful you weren't there to smell it, brother.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Blohm & Voss organization came up with the damnedest things during the war. They seem to have been some seriously out-of-the-box thinkers over there.

One of their prettier efforts was the HA139 floatplane, here in prewar mail service:

That inverted gullwing is great, and keeps the legs of the floats short while also keeping the props up out of the water.

Three built, none remaining.

In the first pic is that meant to be launched off that like the Hurricats and other ship based search planes?

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Load her up with several hundred pounds of mail, get the engines up to full honk, and fling 'er westward. Saved the fuel you'd burn taking off from zero speed on the water.

 

[Ed Smurf]

In the first pic is that meant to be launched off that like the Hurricats and other ship based search planes?

Diesel engines I believe...

 

[Rob]

Be thankful you weren't there to smell it, brother.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Blohm & Voss organization came up with the damnedest things during the war. They seem to have been some seriously out-of-the-box thinkers over there.

One of their prettier efforts was the HA139 floatplane, here in prewar mail service:

Is "Nordmeer" (North Sea) the name of the plane? ...or a ship? There was a German ship "Nordmeer" that sank near Thunder Bay in the 60's. But it was made in the 50's.

 

[CV32]

Is "Nordmeer" (North Sea) the name of the plane?

Yes. That particular example.

 

[HuskyDude]

 

[bearhunter]

There were rumors that some types of Allied aircraft were sold/given? to the Axis designers to study by Switzerland during WWII.

We all know what ''rumors'' can be, but there was a definite pro Nazi segment entrenched in the Swiss government, so it's possible that's where that late model, dive brake equipped, P38 Lightning came from.

 

[HuskyDude]

Found another great pic of the HA139.

And just as beautiful looking was the Dornier Do 26 Seeadler.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

My, that IS pretty. Dornier had a good eye.

As for the captured P38, here's the story:

While serving with the 354th Air Services Squadron, this particular aircraft (s/n 44-23725) was stolen on Oct 13 1944 by USSAF pilot Martin James Monti (Italian-Swiss father and German mother) when he defected to the Axis side. Monti hitched a flight aboard a C-46 from his base in Pakistan, to Cairo, and then to Italy via Tripoli. He stole the plane from the 354th Air Service Squadron at Pomigliano Airfield, near Naples, Italy, and landed this Lightning near Milan. The Italians took possession of the aircraft and handed it over to the Germans. The Lightning was overall bare metal but the Luftwaffe painted the entire underside bright yellow from mid-fuselage down with T9+MK Luftwaffe serials.

The aircraft was recaptured by US troops at Schwangau during May 1945.

No Swiss duplicity involved. Mr. Monti's Wiki page is quite the story.

Martin James Monti (October 24, 1921 – September 11, 2000) was a United States Army Air Forces pilot who defected to Nazi Germany in October 1944 and worked as a propagandist and writer. After the end of World War II, he was tried and sentenced for desertion; he was then pardoned but subsequently tried for treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

 

[Donny Fenn1]

Check out Kampfgeschwader 200.

Plus there is a pretty good book called KG200 that fictionalizes the unit and what they did during WWII.

 

[bearhunter]

My, that IS pretty. Dornier had a good eye.

As for the captured P38, here's the story:



No Swiss duplicity involved. Mr. Monti's Wiki page is quite the story.

Thanx for that, but with the Swiss/Italian mother father influence there is just a wee bit of a back door influence. Still, I agree

That plane was completely intact in your original picture, that only happens under unusual circumstances.

 

[grelmar]

A-26K

The stories that plane could tell... From WWII B-26, to Korea, to rebuild for "totally not flown by the CIA over the Bay of Pigs" B-26k. To still "totally not flown by Americans" in African COIN ops, to "It's not a Bomber, see, we re-named it the A-26K, it's an attack aircraft" still totally not flown by American CIA out of Thailand, who wouldn't allow for bombers to be flown off their airstrips, especially American bombers, to attack Laos, where America "definitely, certainly, completely, not involved" - see, there's no white star anywhere painted on this, erm, "Attack" aircraft, not a bomber, you see.

Definitely not an American bomber flown by American crews, fighting in a war that America most certainly wasn't involved in.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[XRCD011]

My, that IS pretty. Dornier had a good eye.

As for the captured P38, here's the story:



No Swiss duplicity involved. Mr. Monti's Wiki page is quite the story.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Got a hankering for an A-26 of your very own? There's a former Airspray unit in Australia for sale: https://www.hangar67.com/aircraft/1944-douglas-a26-invader/19092

She's a long way from Red Deer, huh? Note the concerns regarding corrosion in the rear spar and the lack of props and hubs in the sale price. Gotta think resparring won't be cheap, and props are becoming unobtanium.

Back in her working days, summer of '06:

This aircraft was about to be sold to Randal McFarlane in Australia as a warbird. It departed Red Deer four months later, on 5 Oct 2006, and arrived at Archerfield, QLD, Australia on 24 Oct 2006. In Jan 2008 it became VH-VNI.

If she's been parked in Australia for sixteen years, she'll want some work. You'll at least want to get the snakes and spiders out of her.

 

[grelmar]

Sleek, fast, aircraft. The company that the USAF contracted to update the B-26 to the A-26K had previously been converting B-26's into executive aircraft for the civilian market, until the execu-jets took over that market.

My "I won the lotto, and now have more money than brains" trophy plane is, was, and always will be the greatest aircraft ever made - the DC-3. There's just something about the lines of a DC-3/Dakota that has always appealed to me.