This is the way to travel! Austrian armored train, circa 1915, in all its rivet covered glory.
Armored Train
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Category Archives: Retro Bits
Ground Zero: Population Five
Five Air Force officer volunteers, and one cameraman who didn’t volunteer, stand 10,000 feet below the test firing of a nuclear air-to-air missile in July of 1957. The purpose of the film was to show how “safe” it was on the ground.
For more info, check this NPR article out.
Oh, and never volunteer.
Hero Land!
A poster, circa 1917, for the “Hero Land” fundraising event – the “greatest spectacle” that time has forgotten about. At least we have the artwork.
Watching For Aeroplanes
On the lookout for flyers.
Instead of the review of Wipers: A Soldiers Tale From the Great War that I wanted to post here today (but haven’t begun yet), I bring you seven German’s staring at the sky. Make that six. The guy on the left seems not to have eyeballs.
Don’t Touch That Dial
Another reason to listen to podcasts. Turn off your radios, or suffer the consequences!
Achtung!
Kaiser Wilhelm II (the last German Emperor) visits some troops in the field during World War I. He appears to be chastising one man for replacing his spiked helmet with a fruit bowl.
The pointed helmet is called a Pickelhaube (plural Pickelhauben; from the old German Pickel = “point” or “pickaxe”, and Haube = “bonnet”, a general word for headgear). They were originally made of boiled leather, but later thin sheet steel was used.
By 1916 the design was proven ineffective for trench warfare and abandoned. It was replaced with the Stahlhelm – the German helmet you think of when you think of Germen helmets.
The helmet with the flat top? I have no idea what that thing is, but it looks upside down.
A Boy And His Bomber
A young “cowboy”, the son of a member of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, looks over the Convair built YB-60 during its visit at Edwards from the Fort Worth, Texas, plant. 1953 (U.S. Air Force photo)
The YB-60 was a long-range bomber prototype built for the Air Force. It was in unofficial competition with the B-52 Stratofortress for an Air Force contract. As the B-52 is still in service, I guess we know who won the contract.
As for who won the showdown in the photo, my money is on the kid.
Busy As A (wartime) Beaver
Not much to add here, just something my Canadian friends might enjoy. It couldn’t be more opposite from the many dark, fear inducing images of other propaganda posters of the time.