Picture of the day

fat tony said:
im Schlamm Schwimmen

961fed9d38c616aefa8c66ccd22301f7.jpg


"Sergeant Karen Hermeston, CFPU, 1945"

http://canadianfilmandphotounit.ca/2012/11/11/meet-sgt-karen-hermeston/

^Such a mystery. Shameful really. :(

http://3.bp.########.com/_wSPANO5qmhk/S6syeoDjseI/AAAAAAAAI8o/hA9kXE1yng8/s1600/frenchclass.jpg

^another mystery.
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I'll bet the photo of the "french" lessons on the beach certainly didnt buck up morale amongst the Canadian ladies working in shipyards and armaments factories :) ! Probably a few LB No. 4's got out of the factory with bent barrels after that photo hit the press! Is the dolly on the left wearing a swim suit or her underwear? Either way she looks pretty good.
 
^ Fat Tony, I respectfully suggest this women did as the overwhelming majority did of that great generation. She saw a need and answered the call to serve in uniform, did her part then returned to civilian life and got on with it.
 
I believe the dubious honor of worst survival rate goes to the submariners, actually.

grelmar said:
When I was growing up, I dreamed of being a tank commander. That was "the thing" that I wanted to do. All that steel rumbling across the battlefield, cutting loose with a giant cannon. Struck me as the modern day knight in shining armour.

I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but I was declined service for medical. So be it, life goes on.

But my interests stuck with me, and I read up and collect. Later on, I remember reading about survival rates for the various combat arms, both historical, and projected for future modern combat.

Bomber crews and Tankers topped the list as about the worst combat arms, if you wanted to survive a conflict. Sure, both pack a whallop. But because of that, they're the things that the other side focus their firepower on.

In spite of massive casualties during specific operations, infantry actually fairs quite well. It's a numbers game. There's just so much infantry in any given military, the overall survival rate is far better than you might expect.

Tanks and Bombers... Limited in number, used constantly. Everyone and everything that can, shoots at them.
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Claven I think you're right - especially if you were a German submariner in WWII.

According to Herbert Werner - a German submariner who survived WWII and ended it in command of his own boat (and wrote the book Iron Coffins) - some 93% of German submariners were lost in the Battle of the Atlantic.

That's one hell of a casualty rate.
 
XRCD011 said:
^ Fat Tony, I respectfully suggest this women did as the overwhelming majority did of that great generation. She saw a need and answered the call to serve in uniform, did her part then returned to civilian life and got on with it.
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You are undoubtedly right. :) She certainly strikes a magnificent pose though, doesn't she? I wonder who took her pic? :)
 
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Sgt. Hermeston, but the very first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that pic was Klaus Nomi:

klaus-nomi-aids.jpg


The difference is that she makes it look good.

Anyhow, u-boat-related pic:

pmr77-147.jpg


Surprised it's not pink. How much makeup would you have to sell to earn THAT?
 
But look at their track record for tonnage sunk. The U-boot blockade damn near starved out the Brits and made convoys to Murmansk less that a pleasure trip. Their efforts undoubtedly prolonged the war.

shredder said:
Claven I think you're right - especially if you were a German submariner in WWII.

According to Herbert Werner - a German submariner who survived WWII and ended it in command of his own boat (and wrote the book Iron Coffins) - some 93% of German submariners were lost in the Battle of the Atlantic.

That's one hell of a casualty rate.
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Dark Alley Dan said:
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Sgt. Hermeston, but the very first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that pic was Klaus Nomi:

klaus-nomi-aids.jpg


The difference is that she makes it look good.

Anyhow, u-boat-related pic:

pmr77-147.jpg


Surprised it's not pink. How much makeup would you have to sell to earn THAT?
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Mary K, Hornell's Canso. Any idea where this was taken? Maybe Scotland?
 
Sharps '63 said:
But look at their track record for tonnage sunk. The U-boot blockade damn near starved out the Brits and made convoys to Murmansk less that a pleasure trip. Their efforts undoubtedly prolonged the war.
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True that - UNTIL May 1943. That's when the Allied navies (especially the RN and USN) were able to turn the tables on the U-boats, sinking 41 in May alone. New weapons and tactics, combined with the (relatively) decent weather as compared to winter in the North Atlantic, enabled the Allies to gain the upper hand.

Murmansk convoys had to deal with brutal weather as well as German U-boats and E-boats (German version of PT boats). Those trips had as much danger from the weather as the enemy!
 
wonderful .. after 155 years they have finally managed to merge the Merrimac and the Monitor! Who says the Navy isn't progressive?


h65702.jpg
 
The sloped sides are stealth technology. It works. When the CSS Virginia came out to engage the USN in 1862 not one of the US ships detected it on radar.
 
green said:
The sloped sides are stealth technology. It works. When the CSS Virginia came out to engage the USN in 1862 not one of the US ships detected it on radar.
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:) LOL.....while the Monitor is sporting the highly regarded Columbian cartel smugglers look...also virtually invisible to Confederate radar! I am actually a little surprised that the Zummwalt doesn't have a full set of transparent kevlar sails so she can 'run silent' when required!
 
shredder said:
True that - UNTIL May 1943. That's when the Allied navies (especially the RN and USN) were able to turn the tables on the U-boats, sinking 41 in May alone. New weapons and tactics, combined with the (relatively) decent weather as compared to winter in the North Atlantic, enabled the Allies to gain the upper hand.

Murmansk convoys had to deal with brutal weather as well as German U-boats and E-boats (German version of PT boats). Those trips had as much danger from the weather as the enemy!
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My father was part of that. May 1943 marked the introduction of new very short wave radars for aircraft. Radar is a transmitter, and the outbound pulse can be detected a long way away. Far farther than the aircraft would see a return. The U boats had radar detector receivers. But they were made for the old, longer wave radars, so they never saw the planes coming.

Aircraft could find the U boats on the surface at night, and in the daytime when the plane was out of sight, above the clouds.

These radar units did not have the rotating line on a scope we see in the movies. The scope had a vertical line on it. The bottom of the line was close range, the top of the line was max range. If there was a signal, it would show as a fuzzy bulge on the line.

Dad's plane (RCAF Hudson) attacked 3 subs in three weeks as soon as they got the radar. By June the Uboat war was over.

In this picture, they had tracked the sub by radar and dropped down through light cloud to discover they had been tracking the snorkel, and as luck would have it, as they got there, the sub was surfacing. In the original picture you can see the conning tower crew looking up in surprise as they were about to receive a perfect straddle attack. The sub had two deck guns, an unusual feature, so it was not difficult to identify. Picture was taken with a hand held K20 camera, with a yellow filter.

sub%20detail.jpg
 
The Canso was a terrific Uboat hunter because it could stay up a long time. But it was big and slow. The Uboats had a pair of twin 20s.

In the military gravesite at Gander there is a Canso crew that died in a crash on take off. They were experimenting with an extra large fuel load. I don't know what happened, but my guess is they lost an engine.
 
Ganderite said:
My father was part of that. May 1943 marked the introduction of new very short wave radars for aircraft. Radar is a transmitter, and the outbound pulse can be detected a long way away. Far farther than the aircraft would see a return. The U boats had radar detector receivers. But they were made for the old, longer wave radars, so they never saw the planes coming.

Aircraft could find the U boats on the surface at night, and in the daytime when the plane was out of sight, above the clouds.

These radar units did not have the rotating line on a scope we see in the movies. The scope had a vertical line on it. The bottom of the line was close range, the top of the line was max range. If there was a signal, it would show as a fuzzy bulge on the line.

Dad's plane (RCAF Hudson) attacked 3 subs in three weeks as soon as they got the radar. By June the Uboat war was over.

In this picture, they had tracked the sub by radar and dropped down through light cloud to discover they had been tracking the snorkel, and as luck would have it, as they got there, the sub was surfacing. In the original picture you can see the conning tower crew looking up in surprise as they were about to receive a perfect straddle attack. The sub had two deck guns, an unusual feature, so it was not difficult to identify. Picture was taken with a hand held K20 camera, with a yellow filter.

sub%20detail.jpg
Click to expand...

That must have given them a sinking feeling.
 
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