Picture of the day

The Hellmuth Walter* Hydrogen Peroxide turbine powered and designed V-80, the seed of the Type XXI hi under
water speed subs.

V-80, 23 knots submerged.
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Type XXI, 17 knots underwater.

*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellmuth_Walter
 
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Very cool, Diopter. Those cunning Germans... :)

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Men of the RAF Regiment assist an RAF intelligence officer to salvage important parts from a Messerschmitt Me 410 photographic reconnaissance aircraft, shot down on the banks of the Sangro River, Italy. The Me 410 A-3 from 2(F)./122 (Wk.Nr. 10253, F6+QK) was shot down by fighters and belly landed in the Sangro River while on a reconnaissance mission over the front lines in the Foggia-Bari-Termoli area on 26 November 1943. The crew, Ofw. Arthur Kammberger and Uffz. Vitus Mirlbach was captured.
 
That's a neat bit of engineering. All the force is applied straight vertically down the tracks. Couldn't do that with a Sherman.

The bottom two Churchills are actually Funnies, the Churchill ARK variant, essentially a self-propelled bridge:

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Fair number of pics of these floating around. They got quite creative with how they were used in the field.
 
The Brits were real innovators when it came to developing tactical bridging which could be quickly emplaced. One of their unsung developments in WW2 was the Bailey Bridge which was used extensively during the war and afterwards. I regularly use two of them, one spanning the Kettle River and the other the Similkameen river in southern BC.
 
Got a link for that? Was trying to explain to a friend why another country would have to be crazy to invade Canada, in spite of our small military. My reasoning is "Canada is huge, we have a lot of guns in private hands. Look how much trouble the US Military had trying to control a relatively small piece of desert."

He contended that Canadians are soft and would just roll over and take it.

My counter is that with 30 million people, if even 5% fought back, that's 1.5 million people roaming this vast land to try and round up and control, and I don't think there's an army in the world up to the task.

Many years ago, national survival in the event of a nuclear war or emergency was a big thing. People built fallout shelters, practised emergency drills and otherwise worried about radiation. That 'duck and cover' mentality suffers from nonbelievers deriding any sense of self-preservation as a movement of national will.

Around that time, all Militia units were ordered to survey their catchment areas and compile lists of resources available, for example on how to feed evacuees or whether the town fairgrounds and sheds could be repurposed for temporary housing. A big concern for many units was the proximity of the US border and the likelihood of their evacuees and refugees flooding into Canada. One old soldier tells how his plan included summoning all the WW2 veterans and their .303s to mount barricades on the roads into vulnerable communities. The theory being those men were still fit and knew how to take orders. His comment was they'd only have to shoot a few before the others get the message and move along. So it wouldn't take many armed citizens to protect a little real estate I the event of a crisis.
 
Problem with that these days is that they would be much better armed than we, and have numerical superiority. :)

Plus social engineering has created a high proportion of "castrati" among the male population. Get them off the pavement, take away the cell phones and fast foods, and deny them a warm place to sleep and $hit, stress them a little and we're done.
 
Plus social engineering has created a high proportion of "castrati" among the male population. Get them off the pavement, take away the cell phones and fast foods, and deny them a warm place to sleep and $hit, stress them a little and we're done.


OOOOO John. Be careful there, the truth hurts when it runs so deep.
 
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USS New Jersey (BB-62). 7 September 1943.

The New Jersey was stationed in the Med during the Lebanese Civil War 1983-84 and was engaged in shelling various targets in Lebanon in the aftermath of the USMC barracks bombing in Beirut. I was stationed in one of the major US Joint HQs at the time and it was pretty interesting to read the SITREPs from the New Jersey.
 
One of the things I have read is that the projectile engagement bands were machined larger as the number of rounds down the tubes increased. This was done through mathematical calculations of bore wear before hand of course and I guess it makes sense when hundreds of pounds of propellant are used and generate huge amounts of burning gasses along with pressures.

I have never been able to verify this rumor. I would like someone in the know, rather than just a speculator to put some insight into this. I know the Germans did exactly the same thing with the projectiles for the Paris Gun. I also know that many friendly fire casualties during WWI came about because of worn barrels on cannon and short firing because of the wear.
 
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Early attempts during the First World War by the Germans to develop V weapons never really took off till Pt2 rolled around in 1939/45
 
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Image No: NA-3730-1
Title: Dog Child and wife, Blackfoot.
Date: [ca. 1890s]
Photographer/Illustrator: Trueman and Caple, Vancouver, British Columbia
Remarks: Dog Child, North West Mounted Police scout, standing in front of tipi; wife holding horse. Also known as "Winnipeg Jack". Note Japanese sword. Trueman and Caple photograph number 115.
Subject(s): Blackfoot - Personalities / Blackfoot - Government relations / Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Scouts and scouting / Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Personalities

Now how did he get a Japanese Katana in the 1890's?
 
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Plus social engineering has created a high proportion of "castrati" among the male population. Get them off the pavement, take away the cell phones and fast foods, and deny them a warm place to sleep and $hit, stress them a little and we're done.

They'd make a hell of choir though!;)
 
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