Picture of the day

Such wee boats are adorable, but the Germans actually fielded something fair biggish: The BV-222 Wiking.

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SIX engines, the sort of thing that would have given Howard Hughes an erection he could build a garage with.

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Thirteen built. Three survived the war. One was scrapped by the British, one sunk by naval gunfire by the yanks, and a third was apparently scuttled in Trondheimfjord. She sits 213 feet down and there's talk of bringing her up for restoration. I like that idea very much. :)
 
Rob said:
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I think those last two are 'Dolf marveling at Speer's model of Berlin, capital of Germania. Fatboy wishes he had a train set that included that... :)

Just about the only existing structure associated with Hitler's plans for a magnificent capital was a technical exercise called the Schwerbelastungskörper.

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According to Wikipedia...

The Schwerbelastungskörper (German: "heavy load-bearing body"; a.k.a. Großbelastungskörper - GBK) is a hefty concrete cylinder in Berlin, Germany located at the intersection of Dudenstraße, General-Pape-Straße, and Loewenhardtdamm in the northwestern part of the borough of Tempelhof. It was erected in 1941–1942 by Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area's marshy, sandy ground, specifically a massive triumphal arch on a nearby plot. The arch, which would be in the style of the Nazi architectural movement, was to be about three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was one component of a plan to redesign the center of Berlin as an imposing, monumental capital reflecting the spirit of the Third Reich as envisioned by Hitler.

Built by Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG in 1941 at a cost of 400,000 Reichsmark, the Schwerbelastungskörper consists of a foundation with a diameter of 11 m (36 ft) that reaches 18.2 m (60 ft) into the ground and contains rooms which once housed instruments to measure ground subsidence caused by the weight of the cylinder, which was estimated as equivalent to the load calculated for one pillar of the intended arch. On this foundation a cylinder 14 m (46 ft) high and 21 m (69 ft) in diameter weighing 12,650 tonnes was erected at street level. The entire construction puts 1.24 MPa (180 psi) of pressure on an area of 100 m2 (1,100 sq ft). If it were to sink less than 6 cm (2.4 in), the soil would be deemed sound enough for further construction without additional stabilization. The cylinder itself was to be subsequently buried under an artificial hill upon which the triumphal arch was to be erected, enabling a panoramic view down a new wide north-south axis to a huge assembly hall to be constructed near, and dwarfing the Brandenburg Gate.

Work on the new capital was soon discontinued because of World War II and measurements at the cylinder ceased in June 1944. An analysis of the meticulous measurements only took place in 1948, revealing that the cylinder had sunk some 19 cm (7.5 in) after two and a half years. The arch as conceived by Speer could only have been built after considerable prior stabilization of the ground.

Removal of the cylinder was considered after the war to create new building sites, but because of its mass as well as nearby train tracks and apartment buildings the structure could not be safely demolished with explosives. Measurements of the subsidence were resumed and continued until 1977 under the auspices of the Technical University of Berlin as part of a project to compile data about the city's geologic foundation. Since 1995 the monumental cylinder has been protected as a historic monument. It is open to the public for viewing and guided tours.
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Grizzly Adams said:
Wonder where Hermann sourced his toys, given his art collecting penchant.

Grizz
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There was an article in Classic Toy Trains magazine a decade or so back that spotlighted a major elderly European collector. In the pre-war era, the man's father had amassed one of Europe's largest collection of electric trains. According to the article, the fellow (who was a teen at the time) remembered Hermann Goering being a frequent visitor to the private museum, despite the family being Jewish. When war came, the family fled Europe for the US, leaving the trains behind. The fellow in the article remarked that upon seeing pictures of the layout in Cairnhall, he 'firmly' believed that Hermann swooped in and 'confiscated' their collection.

On a side note, several years ago I was solicited to examine a model locomotive (currently in Manitoba) that allegedly belonged to Goering. The well documented and incontrovertible provenance supported it being 'liberated by a Canadian soldier in WW2, but unfortunately it was not consistent with what Herman 'played' with, nor could a connection to Cairnhall be established.
 
Speaking of electric trains in WW2, The Lionel Corporation got a contract from the Government to supply the Navy with various compasses and rudimentary telegraph equipment for the Army -

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BUT, they didn't want to loose the interest of the train buying public. They were prohibited from making metal toys since early 1942, so what to do?

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Well, paper was not under any restrictions, so....why not make a PAPER Lionel train set for the 1943 Christmas season?

Enter the legendary Lionel #50 Wartime freight set, made entirely of paper.

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Designed by a fellow who made his mark making those goofy premiums found in cereal boxes, it sold for $1.

What could possibly go wrong???

PLENTY!

Lionel didn't want it to appear incomplete by not packaging the set WITHOUT glue (which was strictly rationed), so the set was made to be tab and slot construction.

It was RIDICULOUSLY complicated. Parents waited until the last moment on Christmas eve to 'set up' the train and quickly discovered it would take hours to put to put together. Virtually all the kids who got one remember waking up to a partially assembled train set.

And when it was assembled....well....it was a nightmare. It just didn't stay together. No glue + tab 'n slot construction + rambunctious little boy = crap trainset in the garbage after Christmas dinner.

I bought a rare un-assembled model several decades back and built it. It's AWFUL. Most Lionel collectors refer to it as the time the Lion laid an egg.

73, Brookwood
 
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Brookwood said:
Speaking of electric trains in WW2, The Lionel Corporation got a contract from the Government to supply the Navy with various compasses and rudimentary telegraph equipment for the Army -

lionel-goes-to-sea.jpg


Lionel-J-38-Key.jpg


BUT, they didn't want to loose the interest of the train buying public. They were prohibited from making metal toys since early 1942, so what to do?

Well, paper was not under any restrictions, so....why not make a PAPER Lionel train set for the 1943 Christmas season?

Enter the legendary Lionel #50 Wartime freight set, made entirely of paper.

MT-0979332-5ae34b5c-52d5-11e1-a71a-e091f5975601-00.jpg


23273455-1-x.jpg


Designed by a fellow who made his mark making those goofy premiums found in cereal boxes, it sold for $1.

What could possibly go wrong???

PLENTY!

Lionel didn't want it to appear incomplete by not packaging the set WITHOUT glue (which was strictly rationed), so the set was made to be tab and slot construction.

It was RIDICULOUSLY complicated. Parents waited until the last moment on Christmas eve to 'set up' the train and quickly discovered it would take hours to put to put together. Virtually all the kids who got one remember waking up to a partially assembled train set.

And when it was assembled....well....it was a nightmare. It just didn't stay together. No glue + tab 'n slot construction + rambunctious little boy = crap trainset in the garbage after Christmas dinner.

I bought a rare un-assembled model several decades back and built it. It's AWFUL. Most Lionel collectors refer to it as the time the Lion laid an egg.

73, Brookwood
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Is that ever cool, both the train set and the commentary. Of course today's youngsters would stuff one of the wheels in their mouth, choke to death and Lionel would be sued out of existence.
 
Tracks to the Trenches
Canadian Railway Troops in the Great War (1914-1919)
by Guay, David R. P.


Armoured Trains
An Illustrated Encyclopedia 1825-2016
by Malmassari, P.
 
I posted a few pages back about the death of one of "The Few". It seems just yesterday Canada's last remaining Battle of Britain pilot passed, leaving just four surviving members of "the few".

John Hart DFC was 102 years old when he passed. He had quite an interesting career with the RAF serving in the BoB, as well as in India, Burma commanding No. 67 Squadron, Egypt as a gunnery instructor, and finally a posting to No. 112 Squadron eventually ending up as a Squadron Leader in Italy flying P-51 Mustangs.

https://nationalpost.com/news/squadron-leader-john-hart-battle-of-britains-last-surviving-canadian-pilot-dies-at-102

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