POTD: Danish Loebnitz M1841 Pair – Breechloading Underhammers

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a pair of rare Danish military Loebnitz Patent Model 1841 breech loading underhammer percussion pistols, serial numbers just eight apart. Nicolaj Johan Loebnitz of Copenhagen patented the breech loading system in 1833 with the underhammer syst...

By Sam.S •

Fate of the “Unsinkable” Japanese Battleship Yamato

During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato was feared due to its immense size and power. She was the most heavily armed battleship ever built, with nine 18.1-inch (460mm) main guns, the largest ever mounted on a warship. Each shell weighed nearly 1.5 tons and had a range i...

By Peter Suciu •

Paradox of the German Tiger II Tank

The Tiger II tank, officially designated as Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B and introduced in 1944, was Germany’s most advanced heavy tank of World War II. Known as the Königstiger (King Tiger) by the Germans and often referred to as the Royal Tiger by Allied forces, it was designed to dominate...

By Eugene Nielsen •

Kingfisher vs. Zero: Shocking Victory Over Iwo Jima

A wide range of really well-known aircraft types were used in World War II, by both sides. But for every Mustang, British Spitfire, Bf109, Zero, Flying Fortress, Corsair or Mitchell bomber, there were many other hard-working planes that received little to no attention. Quite often their operation...

By Tom Laemlein •

POTD: German Enigma Machine jla/44 – 150 Quintillion Settings

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a 1944 Heimsoeth & Rinke Enigma machine marked “18499/jla/44”, one of an estimated 250-350 surviving examples from approximately 37,000 manufactured for the Wehrmacht during WWII. Arthur Scherbius designed the Enigma in 1918 as...

By Sam.S •

Brewster F2A Buffalo: WWII’s Forgotten Fighter

The air war during World War II saw the transition from the last of the biplane fighters to the beginning of the jet age. A myriad of aircraft were in action around the globe; some have become enduring icons while others faded into obscurity. The Brewster F2A Buffalo can legitimately claim member...

By Tom Laemlein •

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15: First Soviet Swept-Wing Fighter

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 entered the Cold War as a swept-wing jet fighter that stunned Western planners and demonstrated its lethality in the skies over Korea. In this article, Peter Suciu examines how its advanced aerodynamics, heavy cannon armament, and combat performance against American ai...

By Peter Suciu •

M1 Garand vs. M1941 Johnson Rifle Debate

Even positive changes can be hard to accept. Long before the M1 Garand rifle was in widespread service in the US military, it had its share of detractors. A number of these objectors simply disagreed with the Army’s decision to adopt a semi-automatic rifle at all. They argued that the...

By Tom Laemlein •
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