It was after World War I that King adopted his signature manner of wearing his uniform with a breast-pocket handkerchief under his ribbons (see image, top right). Officers serving alongside the Royal Navy did this in emulation of Admiral David Beatty. King was the last to continue this tradition.[8] Ernest King - Wikipedia
I'm not a trained or a card carry fashionista by no stretch of the description, but that hanky tucked into the breast pocket and covering up part of the ribbon rack looks a bit tacky (and unprofessional) in my opinion. At a glance it looks like the wearer stuffed a note into the pocket rather quickly and failed to fully insert it causing part of it to be exposed. Tuck it in all the way!
Although Germany had been busy developing Oerlikon guns since the Becker gun of 1913, the numerous clones were overwhelmingly used by almost all other belligerent nations while other systems were preferred on the German side (Apart from the "elephant guns" that Rheinmetall-Borsig had developed for anti-bomber purposes late in the war)
Yes, many of us know about the Ustaše. I have friends who fled from the bastards. Compare the flags of the Nazi NDH and modern Croatia. Do you see a difference ? I don't.
Composite rations were first used in the 1940 Norway campaign. These were a 12-man pack assembled from available tinned goods, unlike the later 14-man pack that used a wider mix of tin sizes and menus. It looks like the 12-man pack also included solidified meths tablets and possibly even a stove.
I recently learned (about an hour ago) that the Chicago Tribune newspaper editorial on this day in 1941, dismissed the possibility of a Japanese naval attack on the US mainland and even bases in Hawaii as being beyond the effective striking power of their fleet. A military impossibility they said. I wonder how long after December 7, 1941 that the contributor of that article remained on the payroll.
Today I learned of the Trolley Missions ; sightseeing tours of Germany at the end of the war. Trolley Mission some of it is on youtube :
I have a few Bomber Command logbooks that record these "Cooks Tours" I believe ground crew etc were taken as passengers to see the job they had helped do - just checked and it comes up on a previous thread Flying Log interpretation - The Cooks Tour? | WW2Talk
I recently learnt, thanks to Ancestry, that several close-ish relatives were killed during the Blitz, and an uncle-in-law was taken prisoner during the Normandy campaign. Someone had uploaded parts of his service record, and based off the dates I presume during the Battle for Caen and potentially Operation Charnwood. For the former, I found it odd that no one ever mentioned them. Off hand remarks would be made about other members of the family, who had served (although no one actually knows the details).
I just read that the RAF used B-17s obtained from the USAAF in early 1940. I didn't think that anyone else flew them but the USAAF. The RAF flew the B-17C model and called them Fortress 1's. Apparently the RAF weren't terrible impressed with their performance and transferred them to the Coastal Command. The early model B-17s needed upgrading and the learning curve for that came from combat usage. The RAF had the only game in town at the time, and lessons learned benefited the B-17s development. The RAF Fortress 1. This is a USAAF B-17C, Hickam Field Hawaii, 7 Dec 41. A bad day for US....
I have a pair of log books to a FAA Pilot who flew in the Normandy campaign directing US Navy gunfire
The USN also used Spitfires for this purpose on D Day. It must have been a great joy for their pilots who normally flew OS2U Kingfishers.