Picture of the day

Buckmastr said:
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The latest in camouflage ? :redface:

Grizz
 
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Skydiver. A great picture by Fernando Melim

A comment on this Photo.
Carlos Pereira Forte
Fernando Melim was from my squad in Angola 2nd of the 2nd company, I have lots of photos taken by him. To my friend Melim sends a big hug and wishes of a Merry Christmas wherever he is.
 
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GREEN BEAMS UP TO THE SKY
Paratroop Sergeant Roque, a great instructor of war dogs, left today.
(photo by Serrano Rosa)
Peter Chestnut
 
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Ordance man inserting a fuse into a 500 lb. demolition bomb in the bomb bay of B-29 Superfortress.
China, June 1944.
Source: Life Magazine Photo: Bernard Hoffman

Peter Smith
Fuses are inserted before loading. He is most likely removing the fuse safety wire which prevented the arming propeller spinning. You wouldn't want to do that on the ground in any kind of wind...... The bombs were not armed in the aircraft. They needed to fall a distance for the fuse to arm for safety.
 
Absolutely gutting, that accident. Damn shame about the loss of both the people and the aircraft. Someone out for a fun afternoon and next thing they know, they're dead. Had the P-39 pilot lived for any longer than he did, he would have felt so terrible about it.

These old ladies are inherently dangerous objects. They're primitive, fast, complicated, and move in three dimensions. They inevitably answer to gravity. There's a school of thought that says flying them is too risky, and they should all be parked, but I can't abide that. I love aviation museums, but they all feel kinda like "airplane mausoleums" to me. Too quiet. Those incredible machines, silent forever, converted into statuary, miles and years away from their intended use. There's something very sad about that.

Life, properly lived, is risky. One mitigates the risk however one can. They don't let just any chimp with a license fly these things. But now and again someone makes a mistake or two and we lose people and aircraft, both irreplaceable, and that is just so Goddamned sad. But it's also the price of a life lived properly.

And sometimes, folks just plain fvck it up:

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Dark Alley Dan said:
Absolutely gutting, that accident. Damn shame about the loss of both the people and the aircraft. Someone out for a fun afternoon and next thing they know, they're dead. Had the P-39 pilot lived for any longer than he did, he would have felt so terrible about it.

These old ladies are inherently dangerous objects. They're primitive, fast, complicated, and move in three dimensions. They inevitably answer to gravity. There's a school of thought that says flying them is too risky, and they should all be parked, but I can't abide that. I love aviation museums, but they all feel kinda like "airplane mausoleums" to me. Too quiet. Those incredible machines, silent forever, converted into statuary, miles and years away from their intended use. There's something very sad about that.

Life, properly lived, is risky. One mitigates the risk however one can. They don't let just any chimp with a license fly these things. But now and again someone makes a mistake or two and we lose people and aircraft, both irreplaceable, and that is just so Goddamned sad. But it's also the price of a life lived properly.

And sometimes, folks just plain fvck it up:

Can't totally agree with you. A lot of the pilots flying these warbirds are getting up in age and it is possible that a severe medical emergency caused the crash.
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True enough, mate. Pretty hard to tell what happened here, but in a population where Kermit Weeks is the "kid" of the bunch, pilots having jammers seems inevitable.

That being said, if I owned something irreplaceable like an original ME-109, I'd want to see all kinds of paperwork on whoever I hired to fly it. License, recent medical, resume, references, run around the block and then come back here and read this page back to me...
 
R005t3r said:
Went and visited Muenster for the Christmas Markets. It was mulled wine and bratwurst everywhere. Surrounded by my peeps and memories of past visitors.

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Here is a couple more 'past visitors' to Muenster. Bishop Count Von Galen on the right and an RCR officer on the left. To give you an idea of how big a man Von Galen was ... the officer stood over 5'11' in his socks .. add the boots. Not long after this photo Von Galen was made a Cardinal in Feb 1946 and soon after died.

Bishop Count Von Galen the Bishop of Muenster was an interesting man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clemens_August_Graf_von_Galen. Pro German and anti Nazi.
 

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This months legion magazine has a small picture of a soldier kneeling behind a pile of rubble with what appears to be a P14 Enfield based in the front sight. The photo is captioned " 1 February 1944 A Canadian Corps operates on the front line, in Italy, for the first time since the Great War". I tried to find a copy of the photo and had no luck (perhaps someone who gets the digital magazine can copy and post it).

While searching for it, I came across this one - same soldier and rifle, identified as being from the Perth Regiment, sniping at enemy troops, Italy, 1944.

6cMSjbC.jpg


I was very surprised that at that stage of the war, troops would have still been using that rifle and whatever sight it is, rather than a Lee Enfield #4T. Thoughts??
 
Chas said:
This months legion magazine has a small picture of a soldier kneeling behind a pile of rubble with what appears to be a P14 Enfield based in the front sight. The photo is captioned " 1 February 1944 A Canadian Corps operates on the front line, in Italy, for the first time since the Great War". I tried to find a copy of the photo and had no luck (perhaps someone who gets the digital magazine can copy and post it).

While searching for it, I came across this one - same soldier and rifle, identified as being from the Perth Regiment, sniping at enemy troops, Italy, 1944.

6cMSjbC.jpg


I was very surprised that at that stage of the war, troops would have still been using that rifle and whatever sight it is, rather than a Lee Enfield #4T. Thoughts??
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The scope is a Warner Swasey Model of 1909 0r 1913 musket sight. These were known to be mounted on 1903 Springfield and Ross Mk III rifles. This picture presents us with a little know variant.
 
Chas said:
This months legion magazine has a small picture of a soldier kneeling behind a pile of rubble with what appears to be a P14 Enfield based in the front sight. The photo is captioned " 1 February 1944 A Canadian Corps operates on the front line, in Italy, for the first time since the Great War". I tried to find a copy of the photo and had no luck (perhaps someone who gets the digital magazine can copy and post it).

While searching for it, I came across this one - same soldier and rifle, identified as being from the Perth Regiment, sniping at enemy troops, Italy, 1944.

6cMSjbC.jpg


I was very surprised that at that stage of the war, troops would have still been using that rifle and whatever sight it is, rather than a Lee Enfield #4T. Thoughts??
Click to expand...

It's a legit WW1 setup - Warne and Swasey scope.

But yes, odd it was still in front line service in 1944 - possibly a posed photo for propaganda?
 
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