re: History in Pictures is a great twitter feed. Here is one just posted.

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Ice, ice baby.



Go on....

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Oh now I see.. an ice carrier?

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Oh now I see.. an ice carrier?

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yes. Sort of. It was actually to be a British aircraft carrier made of a mixture of ice and sawdust called pykrete . This substance is long lansting and is incredably strong. The project was named Project Habakkuk. The purpose of the project was to close the mi-Atlantic gap where the German U-Boats could hunt Allied convoys without having to worry about Allied air power.

As for how the high ranking American almost killed by the project, it was none less than Admiral Ernest King! Here's what happened....

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According to some accounts, at the Quebec Conference of 1943 Lord Mountbatten brought a block of pykrete along to demonstrate its potential to the bevy of admirals and generals who had come along with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mountbatten entered the project meeting with two blocks and placed them on the ground. One was a normal ice block and the other was pykrete. He then drew his service pistol and shot at the first block. It shattered and splintered. Next, he fired at the pykrete to give an idea of the resistance of that kind of ice to projectiles. The bullet ricocheted off the block, grazing the trouser leg of Admiral Ernest King and ended up in the wall.

Sir Alan Brooke's diaries[11] support this account, telling how Mountbatten brought two blocks, one of ice and one of pykrete. After first shooting at the ice, with a warning to beware of splinters, Mountbatten said "I shall fire at the block on the right to show you the difference". Brooke reports, "the bullet rebounded out of the block and buzzed round our legs like an angry bee." The meeting in question was a high-level summit with a US delegation in the Château Frontenac in Quebec.

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I think that's what was called the "coffee mill" gun from the Civil War era. It had an official name but I can't remember what it was. It was an early attempt for a rapid fire gun.

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Correct sir. I will one day find something that will stump you.

It's that time again. Catch ya'll later.

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That's a New Mexico class battleship

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Correct

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Mississippi was at Surigao Straight, the last battleship v battleship encounter in history, but I can't positively say that ship is the Mississippi.

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Correct Again. That is the USS Mississippi. She holds the distinction for being the last battleship in history to fire a salvo at another heavy ship.

BTW. The Battle of Surigao Straight was also the last time something else happened... What was it?

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Crossed the battle line for the last time. Long live Nelson

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Bingo. The maneuver is called "Crossing the T" an every battleship commander had wet dreams of pulling it off.

And they said he didn't get any...

The father of one of my college roommates served on the Mississippi in WWII.

Not many of them left anymore. They hold a reunion each year in Branson, MO.

LC

Let's get this rolling. Here is one for the air guys.

Who is this individual? What is he known for? Correctly name his plane. Bonus: What was known as?