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Zhukov’s Roar
Yesterday was “Defender of the Fatherland Day” (Den Zaschitnika Otechestva) in Russia. The date celebrates the founding of the Red Army in 1918 and used to be known as Red Army Day. The Ministry of...
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Hand salute to Woody
One of the most popular weapons used to root out the Japanese on Iwo Jima, 75 years ago this week, was the M2 flamethrower, and with good reason. Defending the fortress was Lt. Gen. Tadamichi...
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Warship Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020: The Everlasting Albrecht Marsch
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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PIATing around Holland with the lads, 75 Years ago today
An eight-man fighting patrol of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI), Elst, Gelderland, 2 March 1945. Photograph B 15008 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. They are well-armed...
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Perishable skills, or the Navy is actually running Atlantic Convoy Ex again
The best tactic to beat the vile threat of U-boats in the Great War was the convoy, be it coastal, trans-oceanic, or whatever. July 1917: A photograph taken from the ersatz gunboat USS Rambler (SP-211)...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, USNR
After a two year effort by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and his assistant, a young New Yorker named Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Navy Reserves were officially established 3 March 1915, as the...
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Warship Wednesday, March 4, 2020: The Saipan Jug Carrier
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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The 14th Tallest ‘Building’ in the Yellowhammer State
Here we see have what the locals’ term “Big Grey AL,” the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), just outside of downtown Mobile near the Austal shipyard at the park she has called home since 1964. Note her...
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“Greyhound” is finally here
I’ve known about this for a couple years, and been on the periphery of it as it was filmed, in part, on local museum ships such as the USS Kidd and USS Orleck in Louisiana. Further, some of my friends...
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Welcome aboard, Woody
Named for MoH recipient Cpl. Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, the U.S. Navy commissioned its newest expeditionary sea base– USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams (ESB 4) in Norfolk, Virginia over the weekend....
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78 Years Ago: Ivan’s Field Expedient Stock Repair
A Finnish alikersantti looks quizzically at his new trophy rifle, a Soviet M91/30 Mosin whose rifle stock has been replaced by two pieces of plywood nailed together on a wooden block, 10 March 1942,...
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Possible Wolfpack Stuart pops up in the PI
The municipality of Medellin Cebu, in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines, recently had an M5A1 Stuart light tank pulled from the muck of the Dagusungan river by troops of the 53rd Engineer...
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Russians dig up an old Torpedo Boat, type in dispute
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation last week posted a series of images from the Black Sea Fleet of salvage divers recovering a WWII (Great Patriotic War)-era duralumin-hulled motor...
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Happy Pi-Day
In my own naval-heavy military history salute to Pi-Day (3/14), we take a look at the peculiar exhibition that was U.S. Navy pie eating contests. Apparently, these were a regular occurrence at “steel...
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Fjord-nance
During a recent mine warfare exercise by Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1), the flotilla identified 170 curious underwater objects along the seabed of Norway’s Oslofjord. After...
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Recognizing the WWII Rangers, Merchant Mariners
U.S. Army Rangers show off the ladders they used to storm the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, which they assaulted in support of Omaha Beach landings on D-Day M1 Garand BAR 80-G-45716 Between June 1942 and...
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Final WWII Royal Navy destroyer skipper joins the big fleet
John Errol Manners was the youngest son of RADM Sir Errol Manners, KBE, so it was natural that young John at age 17 became a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1932. After all, his two brothers had...
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The Little Black Devils in the Woods, 75 years ago today
Rifleman F.C.S. Lloyd of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles standing beside the regiment’s sign, “The Little Black Devils in the Woods,” in the dark forest of the Klever Reichswald, 19 March 1945. Library and...
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The Forgotten Iwo Jima Joes
While everyone remembers Iwo Jima as being a Navy-Marine Team win– the Marine’s monument at Arlington includes the iconic flag-raising on Mt. Suribachi as its centerpiece– there were also some Army...
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A 15-year old with an 88mm Flak Gun, is not your average 15-year-old
A U.S Soldier of the 94th Infantry Division (“Patton’s Golden Nugget”) searches a pair of young Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunners who surrendered in the leveled Rhineland city of Frankenthal, 23 March...
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