Heavy Metal

German battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger being broken up in 1946 still inverted after having been scuttled in June 1919

1736127586026.png
 
A ship engine rusting away on a beach on Iwo Jima.

View attachment 700811
This is on Iwo Jima as noted, but what's the context?

Aside: a tragic, heroic WW II battle and setting for this iconic pic on Mount Siribachi when Marines took the island after two months of brutal fighting:

markup_1000002453.png


There is SO much out there about this particular battle, from both America's and Japan's perspective, during WW II. Iwo Jima was as terrifying/costly as any battle in human history before or since.

The following link puts the story if how this derelict engine got there in context. About 30 minutes of reading it you have interest/time.

The Concrete Ships of Iwo Jima

Cliff Notes.

After US captured Iwo Jima in 1945, they had to hold it of course and establish a base there. This link will put the whole battle for "Why Iwo Jima Anyway?" in context.

A whole infrastructure had to be built on the island and that task fell on the "Seabees", the Navy's construction/engineering battalions.

LSS, it was a very difficult job. And had to done fast (at the start, they didnt know about the Manhattan Project that would end the war earlier than planned).

In the grand construction plan, the first effort was to build a harbor to unload copious amounts of men and materiel necessary to do the job. There was NO infrastructure there to do that. Rough seas, weather, etc , were unforgiving too.

They wound up "scuttling" a lot of the specialized construction & supply ships to create "breakwaters" (artificial reefs). Literally tons of many of vessels -- what remains 80 years later at least -- are rusted-out hulks but still there.

This Japanese diesel engine among them.
Screenshot_20250106-090224.png
 
A heavy metall staple.

Many of these engines are here in this thread in one or more posts, but this vid distinguishes itself with its focus on SOUND. let alone, many of these designs are between 80 -100+ years old. Who thought of this stuff?

At your leisure/interest level. Longish at 25 mins, more fun if you can play it loud!

Aside: the 10 year-old kid STILL in me does NOT want to stand anywhere near some of these behemoths, let alone drive/ride in a vehicle (car or truck) with one IN it.

 
Last edited:
Anyone ever heard of "aircraft carriers" USS Wolverine and USS Sable? Before today, I hadn't.

The Sable was a side-wheel paddle boat no less.

They never saw combat duty.

They were "flat-tops", built 1942 from existing passenger ships, to train WW II naval aviators to take off from/land on the real thing.

Spent their war service lives in Lake Michigan near Chicago. Scrapped right after the war ended.

Stories at the links.

USS_Wolverine

After
USS_Wolverine_(IX-64)_underway_in_Chicago_harbor_(USA),_22_August_1943.jpg


Before
SeeandBee.jpg




USS_Sable

After
USS_Sable_(IX-81)_underway_on_Lake_Michigan_(USA)_in_1944-45_(NNAM.2003.220.003).jpg


Before
Steamship_Greater_Buffalo.jpg

 
Last edited:

1736825587410.png

1736825348500.png
 
January 17th, 1991 – An UNARMED USAF EF-111 A Raven, crewed by Captain James A. Denton and Captain Brent D. Brandon most amazingly scored a kill against an enemy Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1EQ.

The EF-111 Raven, completely lacking any weaponry, managed to maneuver the hostile enemy fighter straight into the ground, making it the one and only F-111 to achieve the impressive distinction of an air-to-air victory over an enemy aircraft.
www.Sierrahotel.net

IMG_4398.jpeg
 
Martin M-130 Flying Boat

Circa.1935. The Pan Am "China Clipper" was one.
One more note for historical context.

1737122478777.jpeg

Above photo at this link too. With the world (figuratively) watching, the pilot improvised and got this historic shot for the ages to mark the occasion.

It marked (in 2015) the 80th anniversary if the first commercial flight across the Pacific. This year will be 90th anniversary of course.


Excerpt from link:

"On Nov. 22, 1935, the China Clipper took off from Alameda for Manila. The journey would take 59 hours, and by the time the plane landed, a new era of air flight had begun.

The China Clipper was the first commercial flight across the Pacific, and the fanfare around it was incredible. O
ver 25,000 people came to watch its departure for the Philippines, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt bid the crew good luck on a radio broadcast.

Fully loaded with fuel, over 110,000 pieces of airmail, and its seven-man crew, the China Clipper struggled to clear the Bay Bridge on its inaugural transpacific flight on Nov. 22, 1935. At the last moment Capt. Edwin C. Musick, veered under the bridge cable and threaded through the tension wires.

By the time they reached the Golden Gate Bridge, also under construction (about 10 miles as the crow flies), the China Clipper had gained enough altitude to clear the south tower. The Martin M-130 made four overnight stops, Honolulu, Midway, then-Wake Island and Guam, before landing in Manila on Nov. 29.

A journey that normally took 15 days each way by steam ship now could be done in less than half the time.

The China Clipper became synonymous for glamour the next year, when the flight started taking on passengers.
Only the elite could afford a ticket, which cost $950 and included hotel accommodations at Pan Am hotels in Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island and Guam.

That's about $16,600 in today's (2015) money ... and it only covered the fare one-way."
 
One more note for historical context.

View attachment 702255
Above photo at this link too. With the world (figuratively) watching, the pilot improvised and got this historic shot for the ages to mark the occasion.

It marked (in 2015) the 80th anniversary if the first commercial flight across the Pacific. This year will be 90th anniversary of course.


Excerpt from link:

"On Nov. 22, 1935, the China Clipper took off from Alameda for Manila. The journey would take 59 hours, and by the time the plane landed, a new era of air flight had begun.

The China Clipper was the first commercial flight across the Pacific, and the fanfare around it was incredible. O
ver 25,000 people came to watch its departure for the Philippines, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt bid the crew good luck on a radio broadcast.

Fully loaded with fuel, over 110,000 pieces of airmail, and its seven-man crew, the China Clipper struggled to clear the Bay Bridge on its inaugural transpacific flight on Nov. 22, 1935. At the last moment Capt. Edwin C. Musick, veered under the bridge cable and threaded through the tension wires.

By the time they reached the Golden Gate Bridge, also under construction (about 10 miles as the crow flies), the China Clipper had gained enough altitude to clear the south tower. The Martin M-130 made four overnight stops, Honolulu, Midway, then-Wake Island and Guam, before landing in Manila on Nov. 29.

A journey that normally took 15 days each way by steam ship now could be done in less than half the time.

The China Clipper became synonymous for glamour the next year, when the flight started taking on passengers.
Only the elite could afford a ticket, which cost $950 and included hotel accommodations at Pan Am hotels in Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island and Guam.

That's about $16,600 in today's (2015) money ... and it only covered the fare one-way."
Philippine Mars, the last flying Martin Mars flying boat had an engine failure and has returned to base.
It’s robbing 2 engines from the Hawaiian Mars (nearby) to finish flying to Arizona (Pima Air Museum is its destination).

MSN
 
Always more to the story.

Not to be outdone, three years after the M-130, Boeing launched the Boeing 314 Clipper. Never heard of it til today.



NERD ALERT. Like the evolution of locomotives from steam to diesel electrics, a business strategy (folks taking new technologies to make money and obliterate an old technology at the same time), Pan Am was doing it in aviation.

The airplane, just 30 years after Kitty Hawk, was exploding across the world. Pan Am, and the various US airplane makers (e.g., Boeing, Douglas, Martin, etc) were looking at domestic routes, leaving ocean routes on the back burner til technology improved.

Slow boats and zeppelins dominated those ocean routes (but their days were numbered -- Hindenburg notwithstanding). The nascent aircraft industry didnt yet have a competing product. Clearly faster, they didnt yet have size/range/reliability/safety to be profitable on oceanic routes.


After sponsoring design competitions between the major manufacturers, Pan Am's eyes were firmly fixed on the lucrative trans-Atlantic routes. The British/Europeans were stonewalling a bit -- they didnt have the planes -- fearing American monopoly. They were dominant in the old and slow -- steam ships and blimps.

Martin leaped to the front with the M-130. Boeing showed up three years later with 314 .. a flying boat that at the time was biggest, fastest, longest range airplane in the world.

More at the links if one wants to nerd out.

Pan Am's China Clipper and the End of the Airship
The Boeing B-314 Flying Boat - World Airline Historical Society

1737208768677.png

1737209636366.png
1737210594328.png
1737208998182.png
 
Last edited:
Back
Top