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Keeping a 20mm Oerlikon combat-ready
In the past couple months, I have been corresponding back and forth with a chap in Ohio who owns a very operational and transferable WWII era 20mm Oerlikon. I featured his cannon in a couple different...
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You do know FitaFita, don’t you?
“Fita-Fita Guard. The native Samoan Naval Guard Force is brought to attention by BMI/c Suitonu, USN, a veteran of 15 years on the force, March 1943. Naval Station in Samoa.” Note the traditional...
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Behold, the Radom Nagant
I ran across this little gem during the 145th NRAAM in Louisville last week at the Radom VIS club’s booth. It’s not a Russian/Soviet Nagant M1895 with Polish markings but a Polish FB Radom-made Nagant...
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Hood’s bell rededicated 75 years after her sinking
Photographs by Christoper Ison, http://www.christopherison.com via Royal Navy “At mid-day precisely eight peels echoed around Victory Arena as Princess Anne rang the bell for the first time since May...
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HM SM P.311, reporting from patrol
The British completed 53 T-class (Triton) submarines in the 1930s and 40s and these 276-foot vessels took the war to the enemies of the crown and we have covered at least one of these boats, HMS...
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Hey, there is a tank sticking up out of the street
Starting in the 1944 Italian campaign, the Allies started to bump into German Panther turrets mounted on top of buried concrete bunkers, rather than atop tanks, for which they were increasingly...
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Warship Wednesday June 15, 2016: It’s you, you’re the rocket mail
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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Unternehmen Merkur
Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0864, Kreta, Landung von Fallschirmjägern German Fallschirmjägers gained an almost mythical standing in the first couple years of WWII. Sky soldiers of the 7th Flieger-Division...
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Ling being stripped as she awaits her fate
Named for the magnificent lemon fish (cobia) that haunt the reefs of the Gulf of Mexico, the submarine USS Ling (SS/AGSS/IXSS-297) was one of 128 Balao-class fleet boats commissioned to bring the war...
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Warship Wednesday June 22, 2016: A hard luck mini battlewagon
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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For so much, how shall we repay?
Lighting it up, 72 years ago on this day: (IWM Photo) Starboard 4-inch (102 mm) Mk XVI dual purpose guns of the Town-class light cruiser HMS BELFAST (C35) open fire on German positions around...
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To all Sailors, everywhere ye may be
While poking around locally, I found these two wartime shellback certificates from WWII in an area seafood restaurant. These time-honored “Crossing the line” certificates come when veteran Sons of...
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Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Geoffrey Muirhead Bone, of the...
Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers...
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Warship Wednesday July 6, 2016: Of British frogmen and Japanese holy mountains
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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Last days of the ‘Cadillac of the Sky’
wwiiafterwwii has a great and very detailed article about the P-51 Mustang and its use after VJ-Day. Whereas the Navy shed their F6F Hellcats and the Army Air Corps scrapped their P-38, 39, 40, 47 and...
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When fish are needed, call in the Kiwis
74 Years Ago Today: ‘Gone Fishing’New Zealand soldiers trout fishing using rifles near the Syrian and Turkish border during World War II, 9th July 1942.Photograph taken by M D Elias. ‘Been fishing…Got...
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The Flying Flea
To give scouts and dispatch riders among the British paras and glider troops in WWII a ride, the 130-pound (wet) Royal Enfield WD/RE motorbike was employed. Known as the “Flying Flea” the simple off...
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Volunteering to clean some of the largest guns in New England
The 16″/45cal guns on the USS Massachusetts were used to plaster enemy ships and troops during World War II but are in need of some attention to last another 75 years. Decommissioned in 1947, she has...
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Oh, STEN gun…
STEN Gun You wicked piece of vicious tin! Call you a gun? Don’t make me grin. You’re just a bloated piece of pipe. You couldn’t hit a hunk of tripe…..ode by By Gunner. S.N. Teed
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Warship Wednesday July 13, 2016: The tale of the pre-owned polar sub
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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