On this day during W.W. 2

An early PzKpfw II Ausf. C rolls down a sandy road into Poland, September 1939
Although the German offensive was set to start at 4.45 am of September 1, at 4.34 am Oberleutnant Bruno Dilley, part of a flight of 3 Ju-87 Stuka from 3./StG1, pressed the release button and a stick of bombs fell from his black bird.
The target was the railroad bridge at Dirschau, in Polish territory south of Danzig. The objective: to destroy or damage the demolition charges set on the bridge by the Polish defenders. All 3 Stuka hit their target but with negative results.
Hitler’s war had started… 11 minutes ahead of schedule.
Original: Bundesarchiv
Color by: In Colore Veritas

@captainwalker nice pic. yea they changed the white crosses on the panzers pretty quickly.

Seems kinda wild it was 82 years ago.

Nasty Huns!

@barnee those white crosses gave the enemy something to aim at

@captainwalker yea nothing like painting a bullseye on yourself lol

Jap AC had the Red Circle on them to

@gen-manstein yea worked good at Midway

@gen-manstein @barnee

I was just arguing this same thing about rondels and the meatball the other day–watching gun-camera footage of P51s attacking planes in mainland japan in 1944-45. The red on white is extremely high visibility, especially near the ground. Other top paint schemes esp by UK are much more subdued early in the war, but painting an aircraft in contrast to the ground or sea in order to identify it as friendly seems a giant backfire when it becomes a target for the enemy.

On this day in history …
Brigadier General James “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, CO 82nd Airborne Division, checks his equipment before boarding a C-47 Skytrain plane for the airborne invasion of the Netherlands. (Operation Market Garden) from Cottesmore airfield, Rutland, England. 17 September 1944.
James Maurice Gavin (March 22, 1907 – February 23, 1990)
(Photo and Caption: National Archives and Records Administration Still Pictures Unit SC 232810)
(Colorized by Craig Kelsay from the USA)

@captainwalker said in On this day during W.W. 2:

(…) the airborne invasion of Holland (Operation Market Garden) (…)

Thanks for sharing this. However, Operation Market Garden didn’t happen in Holland, but in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Holland is in the west.

It’s a pet peeve of mine: ‘Holland’ is frequently, but inaccurately, used as a synonym for ‘the Netherlands’. Unfortunately, this happens so often that many people have come to believe that the two are actually the same. Even the Dutch government only recently stepped away from this habit.

@kaleu say it enough times and it becomes true lol

@captainwalker Awesome photo ! Looks like a kid !

Just looked him up and he was 37. I’m gonna learn more about him

@kaleu fixed it…thanks for enlightening me.

@barnee I read another article about him yesterday (can’t find it now) and it wasn’t very favorable towards him. Apparently some of his decisions in the operation caused more delays for XXX Corps…

@kaleu

Next you will have us referring to the warmongering nation to your west, Wallonia.

#OnThisDay in 1942, the B-17 “Aztec’s Curse” flew a mission over the Solomon Islands. Note the smoke rising in the background from the bombing run. This photo was widely reproduced in the American press at the time. (National Archives)

USS Augusta, USS Midway, USS Enterprise, USS Missouri, USS New York, USS Helena, and USS Macon in the Hudson River in New York, New York, United States for Navy Day celebrations, 27 October 1945.

@captainwalker that must have been a hell of a treat for the spectators.

It was 80 years ago today, that a Japanese carrier strike force, the “Kido Butai,” consisting of six aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku), assorted escorts, and five submarines with Type A midget submarines embarked, departed Hittokapu Bay on Kasatka (now Iterup) Island in the Kuril Islands. They were headed to a position northwest of Hawaii, intending to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor.

28 November 1941: the BIG E leaves Pearl Harbor
Today, 80 years ago…USS Enterprise (CV 6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to the island. A delay due to weather on her return trip, the “BIG E” would not be at Pearl Harbor as scheduled on 6 December leaving no carriers left during the Japanese attack on 7 December.
This luck would hinder the Japanese for the rest of the war as USS Enterprise would become the most decorated WW2 ship in United States Naval History and fight the Japanese in just about every major engagement in the Pacific.
On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname “The Grey Ghost”. By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more. She is the one and only BIG E.