James Doohan, AKA Scotty from Star Trek, when he was young, with his granny, 1940s.
Doohan enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939, joining the Royal Canadian Artillery.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
On right of this pic you seen Melitta Schiller-Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (born 1903) one of III Reich Germany's few women test pilots. Her borther-in- law was Claus von Stauffenberg.
Flugkapitänin Melitta flew over 2,500 hours in dive bombers and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and the Gold Front Flying Clasp for Bombers with diamonds. Melitta died on April 8, 1945 after being shot down while flying a Bücker Bü 181 near Strasskirchen, close to Straubing, Germany.
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I'm surprised that she survived guilt by association with her brother-in-law's assassination attempt on Hitler.
The Romanov family was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. They first came to power in 1613, and over the next three centuries, 18 Romanovs took the Russian throne, including Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I and Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries toppled the monarchy, ending the Romanov dynasty. Czar Nicholas II and his entire family—including his young children—were later executed by Bolshevik troops.
American nuclear submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to complete an undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole.
Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska and travelled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
The 63-Year-Old Schoolteacher Who Went Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel
In 1901, widowed and running short of money, retired schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor devised a retirement plan that was equal parts ingenious and insane: become the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive—then cash in on the fame.
Taylor designed a custom barrel made from Kentucky oak and reinforced with iron hoops. It was about 4½ feet tall and weighed 160 pounds. Inside were cushions, pillows and a safety harness, along with a tube through which air could be pumped after the lid was sealed.
Before risking her own life, Taylor tested the barrel by sending a cat over Horseshoe Falls in it. The cat survived, which apparently counted as adequate engineering certification in 1901.
On October 24, 1901—her 63rd birthday—Taylor climbed inside with a lucky heart-shaped pillow. Her assistants screwed down the lid, pumped in air with a bicycle pump, sealed the opening and towed the barrel into the Niagara River. They cut it loose, and the current carried her toward the 167-foot Horseshoe Falls.
The barrel vanished into the mist, plunged over the edge and eventually resurfaced below. Rescuers dragged it ashore and opened it to find Taylor alive, suffering only cuts and bruises. She had become the first person ever to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive.
Afterward, Taylor warned that she would rather stand in front of a firing cannon than attempt the trip again.
Unfortunately, the fame never produced the fortune she expected. Her manager stole her barrel, her lecture appearances fizzled, and she eventually earned a meager living selling postcards and souvenirs near the falls. She died impoverished in 1921 at age 82 and was buried in Niagara Falls’ appropriately named “Stunters’ Rest.”
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." — Vegetius "Do not hurry to the sound of the guns without knowing why they are firing." — British maxim "In war, the simplest things are difficult." — Clausewitz "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." — Moltke "The side that can most quickly exploit success is the side that will win." — Guderian Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail. 🪖🎲 Looking for a game? Challenge me here:
Russia's rapidly vanishing fleet of long range strategic bombers' claim to fame is not only their resemblance to flying sardine cans, but in boasting so proudly of having more toilets than much of the Russian population that they placed them directly in the cockpit.
Here a Tu-95.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
When archaeologists study the skeletons of medieval English longbowmen, they find clear evidence of how a person's lifestyle permanently alters their bones. Because these archers started training intensively from childhood, their bodies adapted directly to the immense physical strain of drawing heavy warbows.
Scientific analysis shows that pulling a warbow with a draw weight of over 100 pounds required extraordinary upper-body strength. To cope with this repetitive stress, the bones on the left side of the body, particularly the shoulders and arms, underwent a process called bone hypertrophy, growing significantly thicker and denser than the right side to support the massive muscle growth. This skeletal asymmetry offers a unique window into history, proving that the rigorous demands of medieval warfare physically reshaped human anatomy. It leaves behind a lasting biological record of a soldier's life written directly into the skeleton.
Analysis of skeletons recovered from Henry VIII's sunken warship, the Mary Rose, reveals that longbowmen frequently suffered from severe osteoarthritis and spinal damage, particularly in the left shoulder, collarbone, and lower vertebrae, due to the lifelong, punishing mechanical strain of their training.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
The legendary Citroen CX Safari, utilized by the BBC for filming horse racing due to its exceptional hydropneumatic suspension that ensured the car's stability.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
A white Rhodesian family walks along the streets of Salisbury (present-day Harare). The mother carries an Uzi submachine gun slung across her shoulder for self-defense. The image was taken in the mid-1960s, following the outbreak of the civil war in Rhodesia—today Zimbabwe.
They probably weren't serving anything like this... 🤣
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
Mikhail Kalashnikov [1919–2013], lead designer of the AK-47, and Eugene Stoner [1922–1997], creator of the M-16, pose smiling with their respective assault rifles during a media event.
Fort Drum, nicknamed the "Concrete Battleship," was a heavily fortified island base run by the USA in the Philippines for many years. Built from reinforced concrete between 1909 and 1914, it stood as a powerful defensive stronghold. Located in Manila Bay, it sits about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) west of Cavite City’s coast.
A little story...
After the Spanish-American War, America needed to beef up their defenses around many of their newly acquired territories such as Manila Bay. To this end, it was decided that instead of stationing precious naval forces in the harbor, a permanent defense platform would be established on the tiny rock known as El Fraile Island. The island was leveled out and built back up almost from scratch with reinforced concrete, and cast in the basic shape of a massive battleship. To complete the look, two enormous gun batteries were installed on the island. There was even a wooden barracks built on the new island, but this was removed to give the swiveling guns a fuller range of motion. The faux-ship was highly defensible and struck an imposing silhouette to enemies.
Unfortunately the base was taken by Japanese forces during World War II and was held until 1945 when American troops moved to retake Manila. After securing the troops outside the fort, the Americans simply poured oil and gasoline into the base and set it alight, obliterating the remaining enemy troops and starting a fire which burned inside the base for days.
After retaking Manila, the war torn Fort Drum was simply abandoned, leaving the burnt out base and its towering guns to slowly rust away like an immovable ghost ship.
This is the E. Rommel's driver, Helmut von Leipzig. Helmut von Leipzig appears with a Horch Staff car in the background of the kind issued to Field Marshalls and other top generals; this is Rommel's car in Africa. Born in Namibia in 1921, Hellmut von Leipzig joined the Afrika Korps and became Field Marshal Rommel's personal driver at age 20. He earned this trusted position after skillfully navigating a minefield under British artillery fire near Tobruk. Commissioned as a lieutenant, he later fought with the elite Brandenburg Div before enduring ten years of Soviet captivity. Released in 1955, he permanently returned to Namibia, establishing a farm and founding the German Cultural Association of Namibia. He remained a dedicated community leader in his homeland until his passing on Oct 24, 2016, at the age of 95.
