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GULF OF OMAN (Feb. 2010): An F/A-18C Hornet piloted by Cmdr. Benjamin Hewlett, prospective commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 131, launches from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) prior to the squadron's change of command ceremony. VFA 131 is embarked aboard Dwight D. Eisenhower for six-month deployment as a part of the on-going rotation of forward-deployed forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Chad R. Erdmann) DOWNLOAD HIGH RESOLUTION
GULF OF OMAN (Feb. 2010): Cmdr. Thomas Bush, commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 131, executes a high-speed fly-by in an F/A-18C Hornet over the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) during a change of command ceremony. Bush was relieved by Cmdr. Benjamin Hewlett. Dwight D. Eisenhower is conducting a scheduled six-month deployment as a part of the on-going rotation of forward-deployed forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Chad R. Erdmann) DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- An exhibit opened in Russia on Thursday on the life of an American veteran believed to be one the few soldiers to fight for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in World War II.
The Russian Museum exhibit, titled "Joseph R. Beyrle - A Hero of Two Nations," presents 260 artifacts from Beyrle's life and military career, including a collection of his medals, uniform and photographs....
The highly decorated Staff Sgt. Beyrle parachuted into Normandy on D-Day with the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and was captured by the Germans. He escaped and joined a Soviet tank battalion before he was wounded near Berlin and sent home through Moscow. He died in 2004.
The Muskegon, Michigan, native said he raised his hands and shouted the only two words of Russian he knew when he met Soviet troops after his escape from a German POW camp in January 1945. "Amerikansky tovarishch," he called, American comrade.
Beyrle joined Soviet troops and was wounded as his unit approached Berlin. He was treated in a field hospital before being sent back to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Erich von Manstein
Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) via Wikimedia, Bild 101I-090-3912-05A, Foto Etzhold
New WWII 1/6th scale action figure from Dragon. The grenadier carries a Kar 98k rifle, two Panzerfausts, and five rounds of ammunition for the Rakettenpanzerbüchse (Panzerschreck).
Panzerwrecks 1: German Armour 1944-45
An F-15D Eagle, P-51 Mustangs, and an A-10 Thunderbolt II team up during an air show at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. (U.S. Air Force photo by Julie Ray, www.AF.mil)
Source: WikipediaThe flight, born from the ingenuity of Airmen through their experiences in World War I, lasted from Jan. 1-7, 1929; a total of 150 hours and 40 minutes. The crew flew a 110-mile racetrack from Santa Monica, Calif., to San Diego, Calif.... During the flight, they made 43 contacts with the tanker aircraft. Each contact lasted about seven and a half minutes, with the two aircraft about 15 to 20 feet apart. Day-time contacts took place at an altitude between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, and the 10 night-time contacts took place between 5,000 and 7,000 feet.
Air refueling... had humble beginnings. The first attempts were in 1921 with the employment of five-gallon gas cans when a U.S. Navy lieutenant, in the back of a Huff-Daland HD-4, used a grappling hook to snag a gas can from a float in the Potomac River. In another attempt, a wing walker with a gas can strapped to his back, climbed from an airborne Lincoln Standard to a Curtiss JN-4 to pour gas into the aircraft's tank.
While these two publicity stunts deserve mention, the first air-to-air refueling using a gravity-flow hose occurred in 1923. Earlier that year, the Army Air Service had equipped two de Haviland DH-4Bs with in-flight hoses. After installation, testing and preparation, the Army Air Service was ready to put it to use. On June 27, one of the DH-4s flew a six-hour-and-38-minute flight that included two air refuelings.
The Vikings (Osprey Elite No. 3)
OVER VIRGINIA -- An A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-86 Sabre, P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang fly in a heritage flight formation during the air show at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The formation displays four generations of Air Force fighters. (U.S. Air Force Photo.)
Now, on what would have been his 82nd birthday, Reginald Earnshaw's sad place in history has finally been acknowledged.
On Friday, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission officially recognized him as the youngest known British service casualty in World War II.
The lad lived just 14 years and 152 days. He died when German planes attacked the SS Devon, the ship he was on, off the east coast of England on July 6, 1941. He had only served for several months.
Officials had been slow to recognize his status because they did not have official proof of his date of birth, making it impossible to prove he was actually younger than Raymond Steed, who died at 14 years and 207 days.
Earnshaw was serving as a Merchant Navy cabin boy when he died. He had told authorities he was 15, the minimum allowable age, after leaving school to help with the war effort....
He had laid in an unmarked grave in Edinburgh for decades, and little was known about his case until a surviving shipmate, machine gunner Alf Tubb, spent several years trying to find out what had happened to the young man he served with.
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