19 July 1940 - the battle of Cape Spada The first major surface unit of the Regia Marina, light cruiser Batrtolomeo Colleoni, is lost in a dusk engagement with HMAS Sydney just off the north-western corner of Crete. @karljames1945.bsky.social

It has only taken 15 years (I am ashamed to admit I actually forgot I had not completed it), but here is the second part of the story of the CVB(Battle) class of US Navy aircraft carriers - the culmination of the "armour or not to armour" flight decks debate. www.armouredcarriers.com/uss-midway-d...

Ahead of England v Norway in the World Cup, enjoy this classic from my old pal Patrick Kidd in The Times

This thread is long overdue. There's an article in my field, one of the only published in a peer-reviewed journal in fact, that is so astonishingly bad and commonly cited that I need to warn people about it. I don't blame unassuming scholars for citing it. Expertise on Japanese aviation is rare.

Looks like a Mosquito, right? But, it's a De Havilland Hornet. (#OTD in 1945. #WW2 #HISTORY

And people say the Gettysburg Address was a masterpiece of concision.

A typical common sailor’s wooden plate from the age of sail. This gave rise to the saying “three square meals a day.” #NavalHistory

The Polish president Raczkiewicz visiting the ORP Błyskawica in wartime Pathe footage. Błyskawica served with the Royal Navy from September 1939 until the cessation of hostilities. She served in pretty much every European theatre and covered many miles. #history #navalhistory #ww2

Reminded - by a brill presentation by a colleague - of this piece of film. Shot by a Royal Air Force cameraman at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1945, it captures a majestic fly past and landing by a Sunderland flying boat #filmcataloguing Film: IWM ABY 139 / www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

The "London Illustrated News" ink style works better for me, I think. It captures the era, while not pretending to be photo-realistic.

Stuffing around with ChatGTP to see if it has potential in illustrating combat narratives. (This scene never happened). I can verify that it is very hard to stop AI imposing its hallucinations on even composite photographic images (It wants to keep giving the Seafire an Me109 nose!)

No thoughts, just 1,000-year-old Viking-age treasure on loop. 🫠✨ Standard museum behaviour, honestly. 🏛️ Wow! 📍 Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard ⚓️ Open daily | 10am - 4pm www.sea.museum/galloway-hoard Presented by @nationalmuseumsscotland #GallowayHoard #MuseumTok #

This is exactly it. The work is the point.

The same as they always did. Just closer to home: youtu.be/o-kHn2rR8SQ?...

This week’s feature article answers the question - what were the Beaufighers of Coastal Command doing on #dday? jerijerod14.substack.com/p/beaufighte...

Right about now (BDST) W/C L.E. Healy, the AAEAF armaments officer, received a call from the Air Ministry reminding him that the 1000 lb bomb had not been cleared for use on the Hawker Typhoon. Healy replied with one of the finest memos of WW2. RCAF Typhoons had dropped 48 of them that morning.

#Leeds #NavalHistory Free ticket.

Oh, and where publishers do this, they tend to require you to sign over copyright - which means you can't claim secondary royalties from the ALCS. The publisher hoovers that up too

It's rubbish - much sympathy.

Muhammad Al-Idrisi's world map from 1154 is one of the most advanced of its time, drawn for the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II. To ensure its accuracy, 15 years were spent examining existing maps and interviewing travellers. Note that south is at the top of the map.

Babylon 5 (1993-1998): Mk2 SA-23E Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfury, art by Steve Burg

#OTD 24/5/1944 #BattleOfAtlantic -U921 is attacked by 2 Sunderland aircraft from @RCAF_ARC 422 Sqn & 423 Sqn, 1st a/c is shot down by U-boat -killing all 12 aircrew. Second a/c inflicts heavy damage on the sub, killing 3 submariners & forcing it to return to Norway.

4/4 And let's face it the autonomous/alternately crewed missile vessels of the future will be at least the size of small corvettes.

73 years ago today, Squadron Commander Christopher Draper DSC flew under 15 of London’s 18 bridges, prompting ‘Mad Major’ headlines – a nickname he’d earned by trying the same stunt 23 years earlier. He was 61, basically got away with it, and didn’t lose his pilot’s licence for another 11 years 🧵

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (unproduced ABC show, canceled circa 1982) "From the onset, it war clear the executives didn't quite understand the subject matter. For instance, they questioned why the Vogons spoke in poetry. They wanted to instead change them to sing Frank Sinatra songs."

Interesting article on how hard it was to serve aboard US destroyer off Okinawa in 1945. Yes, in 1945 US naval might was overwhelming. But this article shows, that just few months from Allied victory over Japan service aboard US ships at the from line was far from easy.

My post is flagged for nudity. What do I most need to know about this world when the possibility of nudity is more closely monitored than any fascist content?

Nice review of my Beaufighter vs Flak Ship book. I appreciate it when a reviewer appreciates my unhealthy obsession for technical detail aeroscale.net/news/beaufig...

This is an interesting read. I don't have any insights I want to share on the contemporary U.S. side of it, but for those interested I'll add some thoughts on the historical side. The author relies heavily on H.P. Willmott's _Empires in the Balance_. I think that's a reasonable choice for the job.

Desperate times, desperate measures. (#OTD in 1945. A pilotable V1. #WW2 #HISTORY)

'Zeichnet die Sechste Kriegsanleihe' [Subscribe to the Sixth War Loan] Austria-Hungary, 1917 IWM PST 0223 / www.iwm.org.uk/collections/... #StGeorgesDayIWM

BRITAIN NEEDS YOU AT ONCE A 1915 poster by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee. IWM PST 0408 / www.iwm.org.uk/collections/... #StGeorgesDayIWM

SOMEONE commission an essay on this (ideally by me)

News! Christopher Franke has just released a ton of Babylon 5 soundtracks on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora and others: six large volumes and smaller, six episodic soundtracks. Available yea unto this very moment.

4 years anniversary of the sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the cruiser Moskva

I've never smashed the repost button faster.

This is an amazing image. Another amazing thing is how many Corsairs the British had; the number will blow your mind

It has been a huge team effort over many years, but the Australian War Memorial's new Anzac Hall is open. This includes "Kandahar Workhorse". It was a great privilege to meet many Chinook veterans & family members, & share their untold stories of bravery & loss, professionalism & humour.

Monday. IWM A6441, Lt Parnall

if you don’t like the process of writing then don’t be a fucking writer, it’s not that complicated

If y'all want to get your sci-fi groove on without having to buy into a streaming service... cordcuttersnews.com/babylon-5-is...

This week’s podcast is about keeping the Straits open and how naval bombardment alone is not sufficient to defeat an entrenched enemy. The Dardanelles run up Jan-Mar 1915 (with some reference to Hormuz) #history #ww1 #navalhistory #iran open.spotify.com/episode/03qJ...

The Jetsons lied to us

Here’s a list of my nonfic publications if anyone likes this sort of thing and wants to support me (the Osprey and MMP ones don’t pay royalties fwiw so that doesn’t benefit me directly) and reviews are always welcome navalairhistory.com/about/596-2/

From @navalairhistory.com I have these. Recommend them all.

#otd 1915 the Chatham built HMS Irresistible is one of three Allied battleships lost in an attempt to smash through the Narrows at Gallipoli. #history #ww1 #navalhistory open.substack.com/pub/jerijero...

Love this cold open. Sal, you beautiful man, you’ve done it again. Bab-el Mandeb! 🍻 @mercoglianos.bsky.social

Today's favourite #warart Details in ALT @navalairhistory.com @ima-naval-history.bsky.social @marcusfaulkner.bsky.social @rjhammond215.bsky.social @axe99.bsky.social #maritimehistory #navalhistory