Footage: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

The Messerschmitt 210 (1939) was intended to replace the Bf 110, but multiple issues and protracted development meant only a limited number saw service. It was superseded by the much-improved Me 410 (1942, pictured), though that type entered service as the Luftwaffe was in decline. 📷 Italeri 🧵1/10

The US Army Air Corp also tested the Highball (renamed Speedee bombs) but abandoned the project when one of the bombs bounced back off the water and sheared the rear fuselage off an A-26 Invader. youtu.be/PCGpzRzY7fY

Here's some first-person accounts from those involved in this bouncing bomb project (Project Highball): youtu.be/sioR6aXEzUM

The Japan and Germany four-engine bomber supercut video is out now. youtu.be/_Qf1DC3Z2JU?...

Bit late for this, and using 'Ships' page's work on Facepalm as I have not written this up myself. 23rd Dec 1941, the DEMS SS Shutien was torpedoed and sunk whilst carrying POWs by U-boat U-559. It was not yet the final naval tragedy in the Med of 1941. SS Shuntien pre conversion. Details in ALT

On 27 Dec Fliegerführer Afrika sent a strength return to Athens, where his CO was residing. This was intercepted and decoded by ULTRA. It enables us to see how the Luftwaffe in North Africa was doing after a campaign of about five/six weeks. @airpowerhistory.bsky.social @smoorebofb1940.bsky.social

From the early years of the 20th century into about the mid-1930s, airplanes shared the world’s skies with much larger aircraft—huge rigid airships commonly known as zeppelins. usni.org/magazines/n...

In late 1943 HMS Malaya was placed in reserve. She was used as a target ship at Loch Striven, Scotland for the experimental Highball bouncing bomb. As shown in the video, a Mosquito got a hit, tearing a large hole in the ship's forward hull ahead of the belt armor. #NavalHistory youtu.be/akoMiIouVdw

Boxing day blues? Nothing to listen to? Check out our month by month analysis of the German Occupation. You can listen online here or use the link in the thread to listen on your favourite podcast app. islandsatwar.buzzsprout.com

25 Dec 1689 (O.S.) // A violent storm which struck Plymouth on Christmas Day caused HM ships Centurion (50 guns) and Henrietta (60 guns) to be wrecked after breaking free from their moorings in Plymouth Sound. 150 died in the Centurion, and about 60 in the Henrietta. [1/3]

25 Dec 1941 // Destroyer HMS Thracian was captured by the Japanese after being scuttled in Hong Kong harbour in mid-December. She was salvaged and served in the Imperial Japanese Navy until scuttled again in 1945. The #RoyalNavy recovered her and she was scrapped in 1946. #WW2 #NavalHistory

A little late due to being dragged up a dune outside of Bordeaux, here is my family's connection to the Fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. Available to all supporters free and above. www.patreon.com/posts/nice-n...

Merry Christmas to all my pals on here… to all the 27 listeners of News of the War and especially Happy Christmas to 1939 Winston Churchill, who looks remarkably well… compared to 1945 Winston. 🎅🏼 🎄 linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar

My Xmas present to you all. The book cover that shows the most mistaken assumptions about the content of all time, I believe.

As is tradition on Christmas morning, I’ve managed to fill an entire recycling bin with wrapping paper and empty boxes already…

This week’s free to read jerijerod14.substack.com/p/christmas-... Also happy Christmas to everyone who follows me here, there or anywhere 😊

Merry Christmas from Armoured Carriers! Maintaining the theme, here's a quick look aboard HMS Victorious on Christmas Day, 1941: #NavalHistory #ww2 #history

24 Dec 1804 // Two 12-gun brigs, HMS Mallard and HMS Starling, sailed from the Downs to cruise between Calais and Boulogne. They became separated in poor weather and mist as they crossed the Channel, and before the end of the day both were wrecked on the French coast. [1/5]

24 Dec 1811 // 74-gun 3rd-rate HMS Defence and 98-gun 2nd-rate HMS St George, returning from the Baltic, were driven ashore in a storm and wrecked near Thorsminde, western Jutland. They broke up with great loss of life: about 1400 people in the two ships died, with just 17 reported survivors. [1/2]

24 Dec 1941 // Corvette HMS Salvia was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean by U-boat U.568. In addition to her 59 crew she was carrying men rescued from POW ship Shuntien, sunk west of Alexandria on 23 December. There were no survivors. (Image: IWM FL 18637) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory

PS: despite, or because of, me virtually begging for it in the alt text, this is of course the best Wikipedia photo caption edit ever...

This thread has been saved from the wastes of Twitter! Go on; have a read, it’s a lovely Christmas Eve tale.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all! (An aircrew officer and a guard on night duty listen to a choir, composed of the ground crew of No. 122 Wing, singing Christmas carols by a Hawker Tempest in a dispersal at Volkel airfield, Holland, conducted by the Padre, Sqn Ldr K J Morgan). 📷 IWM CL 1736

#OTD at 15:40 GMT in 1968, Apollo 8 was in lunar orbit. As they came around the dark side of the moon for the first time, Bill Anders took one of the greatest photographs ever taken. Now known as 'Earthrise', Anders' photo of our home has resonated ever since. 📸 NASA - more in ALT Text #space

This here, a proud and upsetting member of His Majesty's Royal Navy, is Pollyanna the reindeer. And for the avoidance of doubt, she's the one on the right of the photograph.

Here's a little thing I wrote a while back about Christmas in the 1970s and 1980s, in a small town in North East England. Hope this brings back some memories for some of you! www.justcuriousjane.com/seaham-part-...

This week’s podcast is on the Caroline affair of 1837 and how the US & Britain almost came to blows over the SS Caroline - also why it is still relevant today with the current US administration’s Caribbean mis-adventures. #navalhistory #podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

Well, as it’s Christmas, and you’ve been very good: Here’s a Fleet Air Arm GA.11, the most handsome Hunter of all

My own Willow Run aka the craft table has produced this latest #Cobi model, a B-24 Liberator Mark III - this particular one is from the RAF’s No. 1586 (Polish Special Duties) Flight dedicated to supporting partisan ops in E Europe.

23 Dec 1917 // Eight destroyers sent to meet a convoy from the Dutch coast ran into a large German minefield at the Maas light buoy, their rendezvous point, and three were sunk with 240 men lost: HMS Torrent, HMS Surprise and HMS Tornado. (Picture of HMS Torrent: Imperial War Museum Q 74137). [1/4]

Just time for a thread of airfield dogs before the big day, I think - starting with ‘Kim’, owned by an unidentified pilot who flew Spitfires on Met. flights. Apparently determined to fly with his owner, he would jump onto the aircraft and had to be told repeatedly to get off! 📷 IWM CH 9041 🧵1/13

On January 12, 1934, HMS Nelson grounds on Hamilton Bank while leaving Portsmouth. She was refloated on the next tide after fuel and shells were removed from the ship and having the crew jump up and down on the quarterdeck trying to free her. #NavalHistory youtu.be/urdNCLHHs4o

The fucking kitchen roll, man.... 😂😂

#OTD in 1974, the Rockwell B-1A Lancer made its first flight from Edwards Air Force Base. The B-1A programme would be cancelled in 1977 and renewed in 1981 as the slightly slower B-1B. Two B-1As survive, including 74-0160, which we looked at last year. 📺 youtu.be/Q8SI8z84Uu0 #avgeek #aviation

22 Dec 1810 // In bad weather, 74-gun 3rd-rate HMS Minotaur mistook her position and was wrecked on Haak Bank at the mouth of the Texel on the Dutch coast. About 140 men reached the shore and were taken prisoner by the Dutch, but between 400 and 500 died as the ship broke up. [1/2]

I missed #Caturday but this cat belongs on your timeline regardless of the day!

*small boats stuck klaxon*

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat evolved from a failure. usni.org/magazines/n...

As promised, a thread of nautical canines! Here’s ‘HMV’, rescued from floating wreckage in the Atlantic by the sloop HMS Freetown in 1944. His unusual name came from the way he was sitting when rescued, which resembled the dog used in the record company’s advertising. 📷 IWM A 21707 🧵1/15

On a trading ship bound for the high seas, there lived a cat. He had come aboard with the ship’s cook, and he lived well on fish-heads and scraps from the galley.

First-person history from the CIA effort to raise the Soviet submarine K-129 from the deep Pacific. usni.org/magazines/n...

Just finished writing Part 3.. I think there will be two more parts and that should cover the Naval campaign in the Dardanelles up to the decission to land troops. open.substack.com/pub/jerijero... #ww1 #navalhistory #history

Recently digitised - Op Dracula, May 1945; an amphibious landing against Rangoon in Burma. Troops and vehicles struggle with the muddy conditions, and engineers demolish an obstacle. Filmed by Mohammed Afzal Khan. #filmcataloguing #history #ww2 Full film: IWM JIN 50 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Since everything is awful and it’s nearly Christmas, who’d like some pictures of ship’s cats? Don’t worry dog lovers, a canine thread’s coming soon! Let’s start with Tiddles, sitting in his favourite spot on the carrier HMS Victorious in 1943 (he liked playing with the bell rope) 📷 IWM A 10646 🧵1/17

And what’s next after this #NewsoftheWar special? Great recommendations for you, from @silenceinpolish.bsky.social – check out General Maciek's memoirs, the Forgotten Few, and Ksawery Pruszynski too. Thanks Jenny!

🇵🇱 Gosh this was a lot of fun. 🇵🇱 Jenny is a genuine expert and very kindly schooled us two on how the newspapers recorded the Polish experience in wartime Britain. Check out the new episode here: linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar 🎥 IWM (CPD 105)

A HUMAN COST RECORDED Whilst the PRU were mainly tasked with identifying potential military targets, the aircrew also had the job of capturing intelligence on the impact of the allied bombing campaign. This aerial photograph of Ulm was taken 81 years ago today by 541 Sqn the