The Scharnhorst.

Arado Ar 196 shipboard reconnaissance floatplane, the standard aircraft of the Kriegsmarine during WWII.

Hidroavión embarcado de reconocimiento Arado Ar 196, la aeronave estándar de la Kriegsmarine durante la SGM.

DID YOU KNOW THAT...

Four of every five German soldiers killed in the war died on the Eastern Front

Only 20 percent of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived the war

Calvin Graham, 12 years, was the youngest soldier in the United States military

Only one out of every four men serving on U-boats survived

Adolf Hitler’s nephew, William Hitler, fought for the United States in the navy against his uncle

Adolf Hitler and Henry Ford had a good relationship, keeping a framed picture of each other on their desk

Mexico was Japan’s largest spy circle

Blurry picture - Japanese carriers Kaga and Zuikaku heading for Pearl Harbor.

December 7th 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, Japanese forces led a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, bringing with them hundreds of fighter planes.

It began with a first wave of 183 planes, followed by a second wave of 171 planes, all with varying targets. A third wave was initially considered, but later withdrawn.

Thousands of Americans died in the less than 90-minute assault, including civilians. Another thousand were wounded. 

Never Forget 🇺🇸

AV - 8B Harrier II

During the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet Union was forced to recall dozens of helicopter pilots from the Afghan front in order to help contain the radioactive contamination, in the form of dropping tons of lead, sand and boric acid into the exposed core of the burning reactor 4.

This mission fatally contaminated most of the involved air crews, as they were exposed directly to the torrent of hot radioactive air that ascended from the core, the very same air that created a radioactive cloud that covered most of Europe during the first month of the disaster, but their efforts contributed into controlling the fire that was eating through the radioactive material at an alarming rate, not to mention the reduction of the spelled particles that helped ground personnel approach the reactor and begin the clean up operation, the liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster.

It was a tragic tale for these pilots, pulled from a ugly war few understood and no one wanted, managing to survive the mujahidden onslaught of AA missiles courtesy of the CIA, only to be recalled to fight into an even uglier war even fewer understood, facing an invisible and unknown enemy that only let itself be “seen” when it started to eat their bodies away from the inside by destroying the very essence of life, the DNA of human cells, and all that done to contain an accident that could only be possible in a place like the Soviet Union, with the added slap in the face that since they didn’t die immediately after their mission, but years, months or even weeks later for the lucky ones, they weren’t counted as victims, and so their sacrifice remained unrecognized.

Such was the tragedy of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

Sittin’ Back

Beagle

Juliette’s Dark Falcon (MBAviationimages.com)

Belgian F-16 demo team leader, Vador

Chernobyl liquidators

The unsung heroes of the Chernobyl Disaster, the unknown saviors of humanity!

Chernobyl’s new containment building, the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, currently under construction and scheduled to be finished in 2017, build as the old building, the sarcophagus, was deemed irreparable in the late nineties. 

This one is designed to last 100 years, which then would have to be followed by another building, as it will take centuries for the radiation to dissipate. 

welp, I guess that marks the end of Chernobyl being a true sanctuary for animals.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will remain, as regardless of the status of the power plant, the surrounding areas are still heavily contaminated, and will remain so for thousands of years. 

So yeah, as long as the radiation remains, the accidental status of The Zone as an wildlife sanctuary will continue.

German heavy artillery in action, during the first stages of the siege of Sevastopol.

We can see the following pieces in use: Mörser Karl 600 mm self-propelled siege mortar, Krupp 28 cm (280 mm) Haubitze L/12 siege gun, 28 cm schwere Bruno Kanone (E) railway gun, 38 cm (380 mm) Siegfried K (E) railway gun, and the Krupp K5 283mm railway gun.

Cmdr. Tommy Locke, commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 125, pilots an F-35C Lightning II assigned to the Rough Raiders of VFA-125 above the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). 

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Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945. Showing Meliton Kantaria and Mikhail Yegorov raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the Reichstag building.

via reddit

The wreck of the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, accidentally sunk in December 1946 while in American service, following two underwater nuclear detonation test.

The capsized wreck still remains with her propellers above water, as the US Navy banned any salvage operation due to the heavy radioactive contamination the ship suffered from, for fear of introducing radiated steel into the market, although one of her screw propellers was retrieved and placed in the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.

Nevertheless, the wreck remains accesible to divers to this day, the last remaining German capital ship of World War II still visible from the surface.