Picture of the Day

[Torenico]

The Bristol Beaufighter Mk IC X7887 of No 252 Squadron RAF landed by mistake during a flight from Malta on Augusta airfield, Sicily, 6 January 1942, and immediately captured by Italians. The aircraft, in the photo already with the Regia Aeronautica’s insignias, was tested by the Guidonia’s Flight Test Center and afterwards assigned to 253rd Squadriglia deployed on Northern Italy. The Italian Beaufighter was destroyed on take-off from Venegono airfield on 23 January 1943 because a pilot’s mistake with the hand throttle (at this time over the Italian aircraft the hand throttle’s position were inverted respect the German and Allies planes)

[Rawhide]

[Mayhemic.MAD]

Flak used in a ground attack role during an assault.

I read "Flakartillerie greift an"  a few days ago and it had this interesting statistics on the last page.

Destroyed by Flakartillery (everything from light 20mm AA to the 88) from 1. September 1939 to the 31. October 1941:
5381 Airplanes
1253 Bunkers
34 Armored Forts
1930 Tanks
279 Battery positions (artillery?)
2901 Cannons, Antitank guns, Mortars
5361 MG positions
5024 Trucks
119 columns (infantry?)
55 Transport trains
4 Destroyers
19 Warships
16 Transport ships
1 citadel
32 Ammunition depots

Even if the numbers might be too high (it´s from a 1941 propaganda book) the relation shows that the AA guns played a very important role in Poland, Fall gelb and the battle of france to enable the fast advances during that time.

[THeTA0123]

AA guns have always played an important role and even the past decades showed again that they are Very important.

a SAM missile might reach further then a cannon

But it cant shred houses infantry and everything else like a ZSU-23 shilka can (They used Shilkas in urban combat with VERY high effective in soviet invasion of afghanistan


Take the M15 MGMC for example. They used it for everything. In aachen these armoured box AA guns used there 37mm AA guns and dual watercooled .50CALS to great effect

Its a shame it issent in FH2. They only made a few hundred less then the M16 GMC. It was very common in italy, normandy and beyond that

[Torenico]

Japanese "Haguro" Heavy Cruiser. Sank in May 16, 1945.

[Rawhide]

[MvB_1988]

Waffen SS soldiers waiting to advance during Unternehmen Sonnenwende, 1945. Great picture showing the flat terrain in Pomerania and a rare in action image of a Sd.Kfz 251/21 and Sd.Kfz 251/22.

Anyone know what unit these soldiers/vehicles belong to?

[IrishReloaded]

you wont be able to identify them as you dont see any troop indication either on helmets nor on apcs.
But in this operation the 11. SS-Panzerarmee was fighting.

[VonMudra]

Dat Ersatz pressed cardboard shovel carrier. :3

[Dukat]

Look! It's the Ku Klux Klan off skiing.

No, seriuosly: Kinda amazing how all men stack behind the strongest weapon (tank). Its like they deeply believe the closer they get the more pretection they have. Like sheep. The picture is from Demyansk Pocket btw.


picture (hopefully no repost):

[TASSER]

No, seriuosly: Kinda amazing how all men stack behind the strongest weapon (tank). Its like they deeply believe the closer they get the more pretection they have. Like sheep. The picture is from Demyansk Pocket btw.

I think it was more they would rather walk through the tracks left by the tank than through the snow haha.

[Wasntmenl]

Haruna at her moorings near Kure, Japan, under attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft, 28 July 1945[/qoute]

[TASSER]

Pretty awesome picture of a Typhoon just off the tail of a Lancaster (I believe?).

[LuckyOne]

Are those bigass explosions from the attackers or are they are trying to defend from low level attack by shooting the sea in front of the planes?

[th_battleaxe]

my guess would be the bombs, 1000 lb bombs can pack quite a punch