Picture of the day

[Grizzly Adams]

WWI French "Aerial Torpedo" launched from a Trench Mortar.

View attachment 197155

I'm not 100% sure of the mechanics of how this worked, but I'm pretty sure the operators would have been "Volun-Told."

Spigot mortar. Got a pic somewhere of guys welding the fins on , primitive technology in those days.

 

[Sharps '74]

Looks like a low wing Beaver.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Spigot mortar technology evolved quite a bit int he twenty years between big European wars. Here's the Churchill AVRE:

She carried a 240mm spigot mortar whose happy job in life was reducing enemy strongpoints to deep holes.

Pretty effective, apparently:

[youtube]Bd1_YJgKtic[/youtube]

 

[Ganderite]

D-Day Normandy in Colour.

Probably ASA 10 Kodachrome

 

[purple]

Spigot mortar technology evolved quite a bit int he twenty years between big European wars. Here's the Churchill AVRE:

She carried a 240mm spigot mortar whose happy job in life was reducing enemy strongpoints to deep holes.

Pretty effective, apparently:

[youtube]Bd1_YJgKtic[/youtube]

I wonder what the internal ammo load was for those spigots? The crew would also need to get out of the tank to load the gun from the muzzle which is somewhat dicey.

 

[fat tony]

Not sure if it is a spigot mortar. A rifle grenade spigot - the grenade tail fits over the outside of the spigot. The French mortar has a rod so the reverse. Rod mortar I guess.

Hey dad, two of your image links are not working.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Not sure if it is a spigot mortar. A rifle grenade spigot - the grenade tail fits over the outside of the spigot. The French mortar has a rod so the reverse. Rod mortar I guess.

Hey dad, two of your image links are not working.

Looking good from here, mate - which one are you seeing?

 

[fat tony]

the stamp (last one)

the first part of links one and two show:

https://4.bp.########.com

 

[fat tony]

Regarding the development of early single engined all metal low wing monoplane airliners. The US legal decision appeared to be an important watershed. The airlines paid big $ for these aircraft. The airlines recovered their losses by selling them to legitimate business men or countries overseas. The similar Vultee V1 was purchased by Republican forces & converted to light bombers for use in the Spanish Civil War. Loyalist forces captured these in battle or confiscated these & similar aircraft being smuggled into Spain on ships. These former airliners were the first generation of light bombers. Aircraft such as the Vickers Wellesley do not seem so illogical in light of this info.

Although it was intended that the Delta would be sold in both airliner and executive transport (initially named "Victoria") versions,[4]#a change to the regulations governing commercial air transport in the United States in October 1934, prohibiting the use of single-engined aircraft to carry passengers at night or over rough terrain which would prevent a forced landing, stopped the market for single-engined airliners in the United States, and only three aircraft, all ordered before the passing of this regulation, were built as airliners.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Vultee also created the lovely P-66 Vanguard. Here, one of the prototypes:

That ###y close fitting cowling meant cooling problems, and so the prototype was modified to a more conventional setup.

Damn shame. I think it looked zoomy as hell. Fifty operated by the USAAF, then England, and finally China, where they didn't do very well at all.

 

[GarandStanding]

I wonder what came first the Zero or the Vultee. More than a few similarities..

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

I went to Doetinchem with my Dad in 2005 (while he was still serving as was I), with his three brothers, many cousins, and most importantly, my Grandfather. He was a trooper in Headquarters Sqn of the Fort Garry's and landed on D+1, fighting across north west Europe and eventually ending up there at the end of the war. He was a driver and radioman, driving a Crusader MkIV, AA tank. He and his crew were billeted with a family who had a young daughter named Corry. When we were visiting, it was a Sunday and nothing was open, but my Dad was able to discuss with a local policeman that my Grandfather was trying to reconnect with Corry. After a few weeks, he was able to track her down and put her in contact with my Dad and Grandfather and one of his friends. Corry came to Canada three or four times over the next few years. My Grandfather died 3.5 years ago at 92. He talked fondly of getting to meet Corry again, but never, ever spoke of the War.

The AA Troop was part of the establishment at the time of the landings and through to late summer 1944. By that time, the Luftwaffe air threat was negligible and those crews would have been desperately needed as replacements in the Sherman and Firefly squadrons. The regiments were organized in HQ, A, B, C sqns and Recce Troop in the F echelon, and as many men and vehicles in the A and B echelons. The CO fought the squadrons and the DCO ran the machine that cycled beans, bullets, benzene and bodies forward every night. (Black out driving is a skill but a necessity to protect forward forces.) After major combat in Normandy the tank regiments would need to replace half their tanks, most of their junior officers, and replace ill and injured crews. The burden of losses would have been irresistible to leave whole subunits out of the fight for long periods.

 

[diopter]

Some oddities:
(T-A34) Boeing B-17F Turbo "Flying Fortress" (Sn 42-6107) (N1340N ) Aero Flite Inc, Air Tanker - Crashed During Retardent Drop, Dubois, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, 18 August, 1970 - Two Fatalities

A B-17 takes a direct hit over Budapest. Five men were able to bail out before the plane hit the ground. You can bet that the pilot and co-pilot were not among them.

And new to me.

Short Sturgeon TT2 in many variations.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Short_Sturgeon

B29 Sinking after ditching off Guam.

And a proposed bomber design that was too unbearable, The Douglas Model 1211-J

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/the-do-everything-bomber-8806548/

 

[donor]

There were number of reasons P-66 Vanguard didn't fare well.Poor workmanship was mentioned but bigger one was the way planes were disassembled and crated for shipping.They were send to their destination without manuals,tools and with missing parts.Same issue was well known with shipments of Curtis Hawk and bell Aircobra. While Aircobras ended up in very capable hands Hawks and Vanguards didn't and many weren't even uncrated.

Notice that Vultee Aircraft existed only few years 1939-43.Even after merger with Consolidated they didn't do all that well.I think company had major issues with leadership.It would be interesting to see if US government ever did any investigation of their business practices.

 

[donor]

Siebel Si-204 under new management.Design was so good it was produced after war by France and Czechoslovakia until supply of engine and its parts run out.Number of captured examples were used by UK,Poland,Soviets,Romania and I think Yugoslavia.

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[fat tony]

The warplanes available for the early WWII campaigns are often ridiculed in revisionist thought. People were for various reasons poorly prepared. A more balanced view is that you cannot compare 1937 state of the art to 1944 state of the art. The Junkers Ju87 is 1930s tech for example. There were a number of Allied dive bomber makes & models which had parity with the Ju87 or which were superior.Things were developing at a breakneck rate pushed along by the mother of all motivating factors.

There was a light bomber developed from the Northrop Gamma which was ordered in some numbers for various contracts, including apparently a sizeable contract for France. It was too late. A number of them ended up in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as advanced trainers - "hacks?"

The focus for these early warplanes developed from airliners seemed to be what was termed army cooperation, such as the Australians & CAC Boomerang(dedicated 2nd gen).


I found another tragedy like Delta 673.

RCAF Nomad 3521 crashed inLake Muskoka, Ontario December 13, 1940. The wreck was found in July 2010 and both aircraft and the crew's remains were recovered by the RCAF.The recovered aircraft will be put on display at theNational Air Force Museum of Canada,Trenton, Ontario.

 

[fat tony]

http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/dc-tc/bc-bc-eng.asp

Canadian Forces press release, RCAF Nomad 3521.

The difference between the Nomad & Delta incident is that RCAF authorities are said to have thought that Delta 673 was lost over the seas surrounding New Brunswick. The RCAF on the other hand, always knew Nomad 3521 was somewhere beneath Lake Muskoka. A large number of Canadian aircrew of WWII remain unaccounted for.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

A "sister ship":

Recovery of 3521:
[youtube]WnkETaQyYGY[/youtube]

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The warplanes available for the early WWII campaigns are often ridiculed in revisionist thought. People were for various reasons poorly prepared. A more balanced view is that you cannot compare 1937 state of the art to 1944 state of the art. The Junkers Ju87 is 1930s tech for example. There were a number of Allied dive bomber makes & models which had parity with the Ju87 or which were superior.Things were developing at a breakneck rate pushed along by the mother of all motivating factors.

Very true. Look at the difference a very few years made in the product from one designer, Sydney Camm:

Hawker Hurricane - 1935:

Fabric from the cockpit frame back and midwing to tip. Top speed 340 MPH.

Sea Fury - 1944 (a mere nine years later):

All metal. Top speed 460 MPH.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

....

Sea Fury - 1944 (a mere nine years later):

All metal. Top speed 460 MPH.

The Sea Fury and the Bearcat are two of the finest looking warbirds IMHO. Both carrier fighters with huge engines. No wonder Rare Bear worked up the piston air speed record of 528.33 mph.