MiniArt 1/35th British Bantam Staff Car

MiniArt Models has announced a new 1/35th scale plastic kit of the British Bantam Scout Car. The kit includes three figures.

Youngest Known British Service Casualty in World War II

The British government has confirmed the identity of the youngest British service casualty of WWII. Fourteen-year-old Reginald Earnshaw lied about his age and joined the Merchant Navy in 1941. He was killed in 1941 by a German attack on his ship the SS North Devon.

From the Washington Post:

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.

 

M10 Tank Destroyer "Commercial"

A U.S. WWII propaganda film about the M10 tank destroyer, produced in the style of a car commercial. "Sudden death to the Tiger..."



"Every man in a TD is a happy man!"

Tank Sounds II

Close-up video of various tanks and AFVs of all eras from Bovington Tank Museum's Tankfest 2008:



And a second Tankfest video of the Matilda, Crusader, Cromwell, Comet, Crusader, Chieftain, Firefly, Challenger and more...

New Figures from Evolution Miniatures

Evolution Miniatures has introduced two new 1/35 scale figures. Both are resin kits.

::::: Soviet Guerrilla WW2 :::::

::::: German Gebirgsjager 1944 :::::

 

SAC Command Post

The Pulsing Heart of Strategic Air Command

There is only world peace where there is power to preserve order among nations...

Reel 1

Reel 2
Reel 3

"SAC Command Post"
U.S. Air Force Special Film Project 1236
Produced by Air Force Audio Visual Service (Military Airlift Command), 1365th Photo Squadron
Source: National Archives, Motion Pictures Unit, Record Group 342

For more information, see The National Security Archive

 

B-52 Stratofortress Units in Combat

B-52 Stratofortress Units in Combat 1955-73 (Osprey Combat Aircraft No. 43)
Author(s): Jon Lake
Illustrator(s): Mark Styling
ISBN: 9781841766072
Format: Paperback, 96 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing, 2004

Publisher's Description -- Designed to form the backbone of Strategic Air Command’s nuclear deterrent, the B-52 force was brought to higher states of readiness whenever crisis threatened the USA, most notably when Kennedy and Khruschev went eyeball-to-eyeball over Cuba. Soon afterwards, B-52s formed the backbone of the USAF’s bombing campaign in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This book follows the story of the B-52 from its genesis to its first combat missions in June 1965 and through to the brief Linebacker II offensive in late 1972. Even after the withdrawal of US forces in 1973, B-52s remained in-theatre, flying training missions mainly from Guam.

Contents -- Genesis of the B-52 • Atom Bomber – Cold War to Cuba • South Bay to Sun Bath • Big Belly B-52D Joins Arc Light • Arc Light Continues • Freedom Train and Linebacker • Linebacker II • An Uneasy Peace