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So long, Forceful
The 121-foot coal-fired steam tug Forceful (288 tons) was built in Govan, Scotland in 1925 for the Queensland Tug Company and spent most of her working life working out of Brisbane. She also had...
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Cruising around Italy with the wind on your face
80 years ago today: Despatch rider Private Harry McDowell, B/73826, of the 48th Highlanders (Canada) delivering a message to the battalion’s advanced headquarters, Regalbuto, Italy, 4 August 1943....
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First of her Breed Headed to the Fight
Here we see, 80 years ago today, the class-leading fleet carrier USS Essex (CV-9) docked at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, on 8 August 1943. National Archives 80-G-K-551 And another photo from the same day...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023: The Lost Desert Wind
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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The ‘Fighting I’ at 80
The 4th U.S. Navy warship to carry the name USS Intrepid was a fleet carrier (CV-11) of the short-hulled Essex class rushed into service in World War II. Only the third Essex completed, she...
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Dragoon Jeep Carriers IN COLOR!
Check out this beautiful original Kodachrome. Official caption: “Southern France Invasion, August 1944. USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) seen through signal flags of USS Tulagi (CVE-72), on ‘D-Day’ off...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023: Copenhagen’s Finest
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Rare Back Bay Dolphin
The Harrison County (Mississippi) Library System’s Local History and Genealogy Department recently posted this great snapshot from the Joe Scholtes Collection, showing the old U.S. Coast Guard Air...
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Boresighting a Browning, and looking Cool While you Do it
80 years ago today. Official caption: “Aviation Free Gunnery Unit, Barber’s Point, Hawaii. Shown: Bore Sighting Stand, August 18, 1943.” Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the...
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100K Brens & Hi-Powers for points East and West (and counting)
80 years ago this week: A plant celebration for the 100,000th Bren gun built at the John Inglis and Co. factory, Toronto, Canada, 20 August 1943. Photographer: Alexandra Studio. August 20, 1943. City...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023: The Last Violet
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Death of a U-boat, Williams vs Maus
Some 80 years ago this week, in the North Atlantic west of the Canary Islands, the German Type IXC/40 U-boat, U-185 (Kptlt. August Maus), with 31 waterlogged survivors of the lost U-604 aboard, met...
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LTJG Bob Barker, Corsair Jock
The late Robert William “Bob” Barker, who was the brightest part of staying home sick as a kid, also did his bit as part of the Greatest Generation. Bob enlisted in the Navy Reserve Aviation Cadet...
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Last stand of the Danish Army
In a sort of follow-up to the one-day 9 April 1940 invasion that saw an overwhelming German force steamroll the country by lunch, on 29 August 1943– some 80 years ago today– while we covered the...
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The King’s Bicentennial Smith, Liberator Action & Gen. Fuller’s NorK Mosin
I had my eye on Rock Island Auction Company’s premier auction over the weekend and almost pulled the trigger on one item of interest. Some of the more newsworthy and curious pieces were as follows....
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Batfish evicted?
The Balao-class submarine USS Batfish (SS/AGSS-310), is a famed “sub-buster,” credited with sinking no less than three Imperial Japanese Navy submarines– RO 55, RO 112, and RO 113— in only four days...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023: Weaving the Falls
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Faking it with MTBRon 13
The campaign to evict the Japanese from the Aleutians saw one of the most motley assemblages of troops and vessels ever put together. This was because everything even remotely “top shelf” was needed...
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CMP Opens Round 4 of 1911 Orders, Changes Limits
Starting in 2018, the Civilian Marksmanship Program kicked off a milsurp M1911 pistol program. This came as a result of a literal act of Congress signed by President Obama (not kidding) that allowed...
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Cheeseburger N48550 and N43320
Just prior to his death, the late flip-flop-clad crooner Jimmy Buffett– a Pascagoula boy like myself– passed on a pair of his treasured aircraft to live on in posterity to the USS Alabama museum in...
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