Picture of the day

The Honest John was actually a viable weapon system which we deployed in NATO along with our CF 104s in the tactical nuclear strike role. We used to exercise the use of the HJ in connection with schemes of maneuver which would see troops quickly break contact to avoid collateral damage. Our biggest limitations were probably the lack of decontamination capabilities and collective protection of troops from radioactive contamination.

The sorry truth was that NATO would have had to initiate tactical nuclear release to compensate for the unwillingness of NATO nations to field enough forces to stop the Soviets with conventional weapons.

Nukes were actually an economy of force. The sad thing is that so-called pacifists like Trudeau 1 actually lowered the nuclear threshold by cutting back on conventional forces.:sok2
 
shredder said:
The F-111 was originally intended to be flown from USN carriers as well as USAF runways, hence the tail hook . Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense in the early-mid 60's) was a huge proponent of standardization, especially when it came to combat aircraft for the USN, USMC, and USAF. Of course, the best known (and AFAIK the only one) plane that served across all three services is the F-4 Phantom II.
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Nope. If the tail hook were a hold over from the TFX program, there were plenty of opportunities to remove it in USAF service. Instead, as I said in post #15786 above, the tail hook is standard equipment among many USAF warplanes, including the F-15 and F-16. Even the F-22 retains a tail hook for emergency use.
 
purple said:
The Honest John was actually a viable weapon system which we deployed in NATO along with our CF 104s in the tactical nuclear strike role.
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Viable, you say. Yeah, if you could handle being in the nuke radiation cloud from your own weapon. I was one of those who was smack in the middle of that potential killing zone, along with my family. It was total insanity of the level in 'Dr. Strangelove'. Our NBCW suits did not permit you to drink, eat or defecate. We were told that if we were dusted, we'd have to surrender our vehicles and water so they could be redeployed.

Our reply - ''Come and take them!''
 
Sharps '74 said:
Viable, you say. Yeah, if you could handle being in the nuke radiation cloud from your own weapon. I was one of those who was smack in the middle of that potential killing zone, along with my family. It was total insanity of the level in 'Dr. Strangelove'. Our NBCW suits did not permit you to drink, eat or defecate. We were told that if we were dusted, we'd have to surrender our vehicles and water so they could be redeployed. Our reply - ''Come and take them!''
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The instant effects of nuclear weapons tend to be somewhat overstated at times. Fired at maximum range (just under 50 km), the 1 kiloton warhead for the MGR-1B Honest John deployed with Canadian troops had a maximum blast radius of under 1.2 km. The damage radius for harmful thermal radiation and acute radiation dose would have been even less.
 
Sharps '74 said:
Viable, you say. Yeah, if you could handle being in the nuke radiation cloud from your own weapon. I was one of those who was smack in the middle of that potential killing zone, along with my family. It was total insanity of the level in 'Dr. Strangelove'. Our NBCW suits did not permit you to drink, eat or defecate. We were told that if we were dusted, we'd have to surrender our vehicles and water so they could be redeployed.

Our reply - ''Come and take them!''
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Realistically, what were our options? Some liked the idea of a quick dodge to Switzerland, but most could have been relied on to follow orders and do what they were asked.

Nuclear target planning was done to limit our own side's exposure. Soviet nuclear retaliation would have been massive, but so would have a US second strike. That was the price of NATO's unwillingness to pay the price necessary to stop them with conventional weapons. Canadian troops would have been like a dead leaf in the flood. Let's face it; once the first nuke was popped all bets were off and any victories would have been pyrrhic.

Thankfully the US bankrupted the Soviets in the arms race, incl deployment of theatre nuclear weapons, while Communism collapsed from its own contradictions.
 
I saw the Davy Crockett on display at the Aberdeen proving Ground museum. Well worth the visit.

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We should call the temporary lapse in the cold war : "Republican Ronald Reagan's Radiation Reprieve".

Really seems like we are heading back into those dark times with Chinese and Russian Hyper sonic anti-aircraft carrier missiles.
U.S.A ordering the still on drawing board Hyper sonic Skunk Works SR 72.
 
diopter said:
We should call the temporary lapse in the cold war : "Republican Ronald Reagan's Radiation Reprieve".

Really seems like we are heading back into those dark times with Chinese and Russian Hyper sonic anti-aircraft carrier missiles.
U.S.A ordering the still on drawing board Hyper sonic Skunk Works SR 72.
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And we're being lead by a selfie stick wielding nitwit and his merry band of millennial wishful thinkers.

Meanwhile Russia is waltzing around Eastern Europe like they own the place again, and China is buying up Africa and South America.

On a happier note... Women tougher than the "men" who lead us now:

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We've worked hard to breed out the warrior qualities in favor of wussy soy boys and self-absorbed metrosexuals who are programmed to seek a safe space when in doubt. Other than that, I have no strong feelings about the future of Canadian manhood.:rolleyes: The men of Vimy Ridge and Juno Beach would not smile on this.:rey2
 
Way to keep politics and angry-old-dude bitterness from creeping into a thread, boys. Great stuff. Thanks for that. Really appreciated.

Anyway, pictures - Here's the USS Vesuvius, the only US naval vessel to be equipped with "dynamite guns":

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This from the website where I snatched the pic:

Commissioned in 1890, USS Vesuvius was the first and only U.S. ship to be outfitted with dynamite guns.

Vesuvius’ three pneumatic guns could fire 550-lbs high explosive shells at targets up to a mile away and were used during the Spanish-American War in 1898 to bombard enemy emplacements in Cuba.

Since the guns quietly propelled shells with compressed air, it was reported that the enemy became unnerved because of their inability to hear any boom preceding incoming fire. Their success as a terror weapon aside, dynamite guns quickly fell out of favor due to their lack of accuracy and high maintenance needs.

Vesuvius’ dynamite guns were removed and replaced with torpedo tubes. The ship later suffered the indignity of almost sinking itself when one it its torpedoes circled back and slammed into the hull.
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This is an after action report on a U-boat attacked off our east coast. My father took some excellent pictures of the sub on each of the two passes. I am having difficulty in finding them.

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Found the picture. With a glass I can clearly see 2 deck guns, and a face looking up from the conning tower. I can't lip read German... Picture taken with a K20 hand held camera with a K2 yellow filter and TriX:

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The USAF wanted to use the Tracker for night strike missions in S.E.A. but the USN told them to f off & get their own Trackers. One USN Tracker was jumped in the Gulf of Tonkin.This might be the only time one was lost in hostile action anywhere.

Sharps '74 said:
On a whale watching tour out of Ucluelet, our boat was buzzed by a flight of Trackers at wave top height. One aircraft actually clipped wave tops with it's wing tip. This was just at the time before they were decommissioned, very much a joy ride. We could see the smiling faces of the aircrew quite well.

Quite a thrilling display. Made you think about what it must have been like to be attacked by such aircraft sporting 20 mm cannons, rockets and bombs .....
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diopter said:
http://www.war

IMHO, it seems they are getting ready for a fire mission or target practice.
Note the berm behind the vehicles and no rock/chocks behind the tires, only in front.
Guns fire, vehicles recoil/move up the berm a bit then gravity moves them forward and are stopped by the rocks back into their original firing position.[/QUOTE]

Or just something that unit did "because". That car is not going to roll around and the guns recoil system would absorb the recoil so the gunner and CC is watching the fall of shot and getting set to call corrections.
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Ganderite said:
This is an after action report on a U-boat attacked off our east coast. My father took some excellent pictures of the sub on each of the two passes. I am having difficulty in finding them.

SNYKDEx.png


Found the picture. With a glass I can clearly see 2 deck guns, and a face looking up from the conning tower. I can't lip read German... Picture taken with a K20 hand held camera with a K2 yellow filter and TriX:

w3pPqy9.jpg
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WOW! Thank you for posting, that's an incredible keepsake from your Dad's military service! I had an uncle in U boat service who didn't come back. No clue what boat he served on, but I do have his badge. He decided to leave it at home before the last trip for 'safe keeping'..

Funny how it all works out in the end. Here we are, the both of us coming from opposite sides in the past, sharing in the same thread today on common ground.

Brookwood
 
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