Picture of the day

[Dark Alley Dan]

Not all of Willi's designs were triumphs, but there was the ME209 V1:

World's fastest piston-powered prop driven aircraft until Rare Bear took the crown many, many years later. The fuselage still exists, in Krakow:

 

[Sharps '74]

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Looks like a lot of BC again this year. Hardly a portion of the province that hasn't been devastated by wildfires the last couple of years. Billions spent fighting the fires and loss to the economy.

 

[diopter]

Libs going to charge Mother Nature the carton tax?

 

[purple]

Libs going to charge Mother Nature the carton tax?

One way or another they will find a way. Fortunately we won't have to pay for any of the sputum from active volcanoes though. When Mt Pinatubo let go in the Philippines in the early '90s the ash and smoke lowered global temps by one degree for a year, which is a hell of a lot more than Trudeau's carbon tax ever will.

 

[Rod B]

One way or another they will find a way. Fortunately we won't have to pay for any of the sputum from active volcanoes though. When Mt Pinatubo let go in the Philippines in the early '90s the ash and smoke lowered global temps by one degree for a year, which is a hell of a lot more than Trudeau's carbon tax ever will.

There's a message in that. Perhaps we should sacrifice the Turd to the volcano Gods.

 

[AP]

There's a message in that. Perhaps we should sacrifice the Turd to the volcano Gods.

. now finally thats a global climate change science initiative I can really get behind!!

 

[purple]

There's a message in that. Perhaps we should sacrifice the Turd to the volcano Gods.

Ancient religions and cultures had various weather gods incl gods of sun and rain. They made various sacrifices to them, incl human offerings, to placate these forces which they couldn't understand or control. Nowadays we've cut back on tossing virgins into pits to appease the climate gods; now we just throw money.

 

[Old Ranger]

I spent 37 yrs with MNR Aviation and Fire. I too used to make a few notes on the back of my hand. Usually radio frequencies and grid coordinates. Those look like names and Helitack numbers. MNR assigns numbers to Air Tankers and Helicopters as call signs. Has been a busy year in NE Ontario. Some major highway closures as of yesterday- 69/400 at French River and 17 South of Mattawa . Been retired 12 years but I try to keep up with what's going on. Keep safe out there ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Gentlemen, I present to you the first of the fifteen-thousand plus posts that make up this thread:

Hey guys! Was wondering if I put up a military picture a day (WW2 for the most part) we could discuss what we see, and think what the picture means. I am just a young pup to most, but am really interested in anything military. I know a lot of you guys know a lot more then me! and I am all about learning new things.

Cheers
Joe

I fear we have wandered a bit afield with discussions of human sacrifice via volcanos, helitac, and the usual angry old fart ranting about politics. In an effort to get us back on track, I would offer this:

The wondrous M29 Weasel from the Great Minds at Studebaker.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Wow sadness is right. I have no clue why they would scrap those jet fighters so soon after they arrived in Canada. It makes no sense to throw those away.

Many reasons come to mind, put yourself in the 1945-46 head of a returned service member or a family member. First - whatever the enemy used to kill a nation's youth would be seen as contemptible. Likewise, they lost the war, so what could we possibly learn from them? Secondly, the nation was in a hurry to demobilize its standing forces and get people back to work. Reminders of the war (the bad parts at least), were to be discouraged. Everyone had it tough, and who's to know if your tepid war stories weren't half as hairraising as the man next to you? Third, who is going to put time, money and effort into saving the enemy's "stuff" when our own memorabilia needs time, money and effort to be preserved? And finally, OK so it arrived in bad condition. Do you expect the museum people to put it back together? With what, why, and how?

In my day job I sit on a large archives collection of documents and materials. The current stuff is the hardest to acquire. 'Why bother keeping that old crap'?', is a very familiar refrain and it becomes a teachable moment.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Gunshield art on Canadian corvettes:

HMCS Drumheller:

HMCS Calgary:

HMCS Wetaskiwin:

HMCS Cobalt:

HMCS Moose Jaw:

HMCS Shawinigan:

HMCS Napanee:

HMCS Arrowhead:

HMCS Buctouche:

HMCS Bittersweet:

Apparently, the tradition has been carried forward to more recent times.

HMCS Ottawa:

HMCS Regina:

HMCS Winnipeg:

And in a more traditional style, HMCS Toronto:

I find it interesting how the style of the art has changed. The wartime paintings are pretty amateur, and to my eye charmingly so. They're very much of their time, The modern stuff looks profoundly professional. Not sure what that says about who's in the Navy these days as opposed to who was in back in the day, or levels of education, or dominant art styles in the society of the time, but it's interesting to me anyhow...

 

[bogusiii]

HMCS Wetaskiwin:

.

"Wet Ass Queen"

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

A clearer pic of Her Royal Dampness:

After the war she was sold to Venezuela, who renamed her FNV Victoria. They scrapped her in the 1960's, by which time I image she was well used up.

 

[bush1]

My good friend (RIP Bev) was on Corvettes during the war and he mentioned how bad the conditions were onboard. The North Atlantic can get very nasty and these machines were extremely rough riding in big weather. I wish he was still around to ask more questions about his experiences.

He was a retired paperboard mill engineer and well into retirement he was asked to come to Thailand and help get a new mill up and running. A former apprentice of his got the nod for the project and he wanted some expertise to help him.

When the Trenton Airforce Museum got the Halifax Bomber as a restoration project, he jumped in as a volunteer worker. There were a few other wartime guys on the restoration crew and it was quite amazing to see their work habits. Monday to Friday was 8 to 4 and the guys got into coveralls at 7:45 for the 8am start and took the coveralls off after 4pm. Bev bought a metal lathe for the home workshop so he could practice at home and not waste quality museum time. These guys were definitely a different breed.

 

[bush1]

A few tidbits from guys that served on Corvettes:

Trask noted the short length and shallow draft made corvettes uncomfortable to live in even after they were modified. “A fortnight of rolling and pitching on North Atlantic convoy duty tended to exhaust all who sailed in them. Sleeping conditions for seamen were crowded, stuffy and quite often water-laden. The seamen’s messdeck was also full of smoke as most everyone in the mess was a smoker, so the only fresh air we got was when we were on watch in the open air.”

“There was discomfort in using the heads (toilets) at sea,” recalled Forbes. “While the ship rolled, one was likely to be flushed by a backlash of water which the toilet traps could not stop. Perhaps this is where my corvette Wetaskiwin got her nickname—the Wet Ass Queen.”

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

My good friend (RIP Bev) was on Corvettes during the war and he mentioned how bad the conditions were onboard. The North Atlantic can get very nasty and these machines were extremely rough riding in big weather. I wish he was still around to ask more questions about his experiences.


...

I finished the book "MOBILIZE!" by Larry Rose earlier this year. (https://books.google.ca/books?id=wJ...#v=onepage&q=mobilize book larry gray&f=false)

He paints an accurate picture of just how much Canada's defences had deteriorated due to an ambivalent and fiscally cautious public which showed in indifferent government policy. It is easy to blame the Depression for focussing government attention on current matters, but Canada was a poor country then, and was dependant on a few industries for national survival. Spending tens of millions of dollars on ships, machine guns, or ammunition was that much money not in circulation for other pressing business. Fishing, paper, lumbering, and agriculture were the cash generating exports. And, yes God bless the good men who went off to do their duty.

 

[Ed Smurf]

These photos are from 2005 Chibougamau Quebec...very close to town. I could never understand why The US would rather use repurposed aircaft rather than buy these. I guess politics plays a heavy hand. California regularly leases a few from Quebec...but that's about all.

 

[bogusiii]

A clearer pic of Her Royal Dampness:

After the war she was sold to Venezuela, who renamed her FNV Victoria. They scrapped her in the 1960's, by which time I image she was well used up.

These pics show typical modifications of Canada's Flowers. Pic 2 is as built. Pic 3 shows the bridge wings widened (and sporting a very nice white/pale blue camouflage scheme). Pic four is after a major rebuild that extended the fo'castle rearwards (more indoor space) and moved the main mast behind the bridge. They also added rockets to the sides of the guns and hedgehog depth charge throwers left and right of the bridge. HMCS Sackville in Halifax has all these modifications and is a must see.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Hawaii Mars before she went to work fighting fires:

And Philippine Mars in her original (now restored) paint:

 

[Sharps '74]

I've had a tour of the Mars at her home base on Vancouver Island years ago. The sponsons are larger than the fuselage of the Grumman Goose. A Goose was posed under the wing of the Mars for a photo op and it looked like a toy by comparison.