Photos Military Art

[diman]

Letters...

 

[morris]

Illustration from a medical atlas. Typical battle wounds observed by Renaissance surgeons.

It hurts even to look at this.

 

[BravoZulu]

Imperial Japan:
Akagi & Hiryo ablaze at Battle of Midway 1942. Painting by Takeshi Yuki.

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Ramillies at Capo Spartivento (Teulada) - art by Paul Wright

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS's Vindictive, Daffodil, and Iris II raiding the Zeebrugge mole during WWI. Water colour by Charles Dixon

 

[diman]

I'll be back

 

[BravoZulu]

The Spanish 74-gun Infante don Pelayo goes to rescue the crippled 112-gun Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad from the British at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 14th February 1797

 

[BravoZulu]

"Sole Survivor". Painting by RG Smith.
Ensign George Gay's TBD Devastator on his attack run

This painting depicts the lone attack of Ensign George Gay's hopelessly obsolete Douglas TBD Devastator as it made it's attack run on the Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū. His attack would fail and his plane would be shot down. Gay would watch the remainder of the battle hiding under a seat cushion, watching the pride of the Kidō Butai be destroyed in minutes by Douglas Dauntless SBDs from USS Yorktown and Enterprise. Of the 30 pilots and crew of Gay's squadron he was the only survivor.

 

[BravoZulu]

'The surrendered Italian fleet with HMS 'King George V' and 'Howe', 1943' Oil painting by Rowland John Robb Langmaid

 

[BravoZulu]

The raid on Souda Bay, 26 March 1941: HMS York is struck by two MT assault boats - painting by Rudolf Claudus

The raid was one by Decima MAS operators (whose commander was Tenente di Vascello Luigi Faggioni) who, after being brought close to the bay by two destroyers, managed to get past the two lines of obstructions without raising the alarm and, starting at 0530 h, attacked with six Motoscafi da Turismo. Three missed, but three struck home, causing devastating damage to the heavy cruiser HMS York (for details on that, check what /u/NAmofton said about it here) and a Norwegian tanker. The former would be finished off by German aircrafts during the invasion of Crete. All the operators survived and were captured as POWs; Faggioni, despite missing his own target (the old cruiser HMS Coventry), would be awarded the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare for leading the successful raid.

 

[BravoZulu]

"H.M. Ships COSSACK and COMET Landing Troops at Santander, 23 June 1808" by Mark Myers

 

[Chazman]

'Breaking the Line', 71 AD - the Roman army campaigns against the Celtic Brigantes in northern England.

 

[BravoZulu]

"Into Harm's Way" by Jack Fellows.
USS Johnston (DD-557) charges the IJN's Centre Force during the Battle off Samar, October 25th, 1944.

 

[morris]

Albuhera on 16th May 1811

This oil painting “The Fog of War” hangs in the Officers’ Mess of the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. By Second Lieutenant Anson.

 

[morris]

Despatch Rider, Gallipoli.

 

[Chazman]

"Into Harm's Way" by Jack Fellows.
USS Johnston (DD-557) charges the IJN's Centre Force during the Battle off Samar, October 25th, 1944.
View attachment 293428

An excellent read on the USS Johnston and the Battle of Samar. This is how wars are won.

Fullbore Friday

They've found her; USS Johnson (DD-557); A team of ocean explorers has found the wreck of World War II Fletcher-class destroyer USS Johnston...

cdrsalamander.blogspot.com

Steaming straight for "Taffy 3" were four battleships (including the Yamato), eight cruisers (two light and six heavy), and eleven destroyers. Lieutenant Robert C. Hagen, Johnston's gunnery officer, later reported, "We felt like little David without a slingshot." In less than a minute, Johnston was zigzagging between the six escort carriers and the Japanese fleet and putting out a smoke screen over a 2,500-yard (2,300 m) front to conceal the carriers from the enemy gunners: "Even as we began laying smoke, the Japanese started lobbing shells at us and Johnston had to zigzag between the splashes.... We were the first destroyer to make smoke, the first to start firing, the first to launch a torpedo attack...."
For the first 20 minutes, Johnston could not return fire as the enemy cruisers and battleships' heavy guns outranged Johnston's 5-inch (127 mm) guns. Not waiting for orders, Commander Evans broke formation and went on the offensive by ordering Johnston to speed directly toward the enemy—first a line of seven destroyers, next one light and three heavy cruisers, then the four battleships. To the east appeared three other cruisers and several destroyers.
As soon as range closed to within ten miles (16 km), Johnston fired on the heavy cruiser Kumano—the nearest ship—and scored several damaging hits. During her five-minute sprint into torpedo range, Johnston fired over 200 rounds at the enemy, then under the direction of torpedo officer Lieutenant Jack K. Bechdel, made her torpedo attack. She got off all 10 torpedoes, and turned to retire behind a heavy smoke screen. When she came out of the smoke a minute later, the Kumano could be seen burning furiously from a torpedo hit. Her bow had been blown completely off, and she was forced to withdraw. Around this time, Johnston took three 14 in (356 mm) shell hits from Kongō, followed closely by three 6 in (152 mm) shells—either from a light cruiser or Yamato—which hit the bridge. The shells resulted in the loss of all power to the steering engine and all power to the three 5 in (127 mm) guns in the aft of the ship, and rendered the gyrocompass useless. A low-lying squall came up, and Johnston "ducked into it" for a few minutes of rapid repairs and salvage work.[1] The bridge was abandoned and Commander Evans, who had lost two fingers on his left hand, went to the aft steering column to conn the ship.
At 07:50, Admiral Sprague ordered destroyers to make a torpedo attack: "small boys attack". Johnston, unable to keep position with her damaged engine, and with her torpedoes already expended, nonetheless moved to provide fire support for the other destroyers. As she emerged from a smoke screen, she nearly collided with the destroyer Heermann. At 08:20, Johnston sighted a Kongō-class battleship—only 7,000 yards (6,400 m) away—emerging through the smoke. The destroyer opened fire, scoring multiple hits on the superstructure of the much larger ship. The return fire from the battleship missed clearly.
Johnston soon observed Gambier Bay under fire from an enemy cruiser, and engaged the cruiser in an effort to draw her fire away from the carrier. Johnston scored four hits on the heavy cruiser, then broke off as the Japanese destroyer squadron was seen closing rapidly on the American escort carriers. The Johnston engaged the lead ship until it quit, then the second until the remaining enemy units broke off to get out of effective gun range before launching torpedoes, all of which missed.
Then, Johnston's luck ran out; she came under heavy fire from multiple enemy ships, and right when it was most needed, the damaged remaining engine quit, leaving her dead in the water.
Some time into the battle, a Japanese battleship, Kongō, fired two rounds from her main cannons. One round punched through the thin side armor of Johnston and cut a hole through the engine room. Her speed was cut in half. The enemy ships closed in for an easy kill, pouring fire into the crippled destroyer.
Johnston took a hit that knocked out one forward gun and damaged another, and her bridge was rendered untenable by fires and explosions resulting from a hit in her 40 mm (2 in) ready ammunition locker. Evans, who had shifted his command to Johnston's fantail, was yelling orders through an open hatch to men turning her rudder by hand. At one of her batteries, a crewman kept calling "More shells! More shells!" Still the destroyer battled to keep the Japanese destroyers and cruisers from reaching the five surviving American carriers. "We were now in a position where all the gallantry and guts in the world couldn't save us, but we figured that help for the carrier must be on the way, and every minute's delay might count.... By 9:30 we were going dead in the water; even the Japanese couldn't miss us. They made a sort of running semicircle around our ship, shooting at us like a bunch of Indians attacking a prairie schooner. Our lone engine and fire room was knocked out; we lost all power, and even the indomitable skipper knew we were finished. At 9:45 he gave the saddest order a captain can give: 'Abandon Ship.'... At 10:10 Johnston rolled over and began to sink. The Japanese destroyer Yukikaze came up to 1,000 yards (910 m) and pumped a final shot into her to make sure she went down. A survivor saw the Japanese captain salute her as she went down, considering her an honorable enemy. That was the end of Johnston.
Crewmen from the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts spotted Evans at the fantail, asking "isn't that their captain", waving to them with what they did not realize was his only good hand.
From Johnston's complement of 327 officers and men, only 141 were saved. Of the 186 men lost, about 50 were killed by enemy action, 45 died later on rafts from wounds, and 92 men—including Cmdr. Evans—got off before she sank, but were never seen again.

A ship of legend, a superb Skipper, and a crew of unimpeachable honor.

If you have not read James D. Hornfischer's The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, you need to.

 

[BravoZulu]

The Cannon Shot (Het Kanonschot) by Willem van de Velde the Younger. 1680

 

[BravoZulu]

HMS Benbow (centre), HMS Essex (right) and SS Zeppelin (left) at Devonport, 1919. Painting by Frank Watson Wood.

HMS Benbow was an Iron Duke-class superdreadnought, HMS Essex was a Monmouth-class protected cruiser (likely in service as a training ship at this time) and SS Zeppelin was a recent war reparation from Germany. It would soon be transferred to the United States Navy and, as USS Zeppelin, make two voyage back and forth across the Atlantic bringing home nearly 16,000 soldiers.

 

[BravoZulu]

Visit HMS Victory at Portsmouth! Poster created circa 1937 by Kenneth Shoesmith for Southern Railway.

 

[BravoZulu]

USS Hornet (CV-8) sending the fliers in the air one at a time on their way to Tokyo, 18 April 1942. Digital art by Julien Lepelletier (commissioned for Task Force Admiral)