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Welcome back, Awesome Aggie
Carrying the name of the legendary Greek king, the first HMS Agamemnon in the Royal Navy had earned a host of battle honors when in her prime. By 1805, she was an aging 64-gun third-rate that had seen...
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Indirect Fire Support, Direct from Anzio
How about this great series of period photos, all captured 80 years ago today by the same British Army shutterbug, showing 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Royal Tank Regiment tracks in use in the indirect...
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Happy Mother’s Day from Kwajalein
Here we see a group of hardy USAAF men clustered in front of B-24J-1-CO Liberator Come Closer (S/N 42-72973) of the 38th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 30th Bomb Group, 7th Air Force, sending Mother’s...
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Old Crow Flies Onward
The last American “Triple Ace,” Brig. Gen Clarence Emil “Bud” Anderson passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 102. Born in Oakland in 1922, he enlisted as an aviation cadet with the USAAF right...
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Just a ciggy break and a Schmeisser
80 Years Ago today. 24 May 1944. Here we see an S&W Victory .38 revolver-armed and cigarette-equipped LT W. Smith, along with platoon Sergeant F.G. White, armed with a captured German MP40 SMG–...
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Omaha Dog White
The hand-drawn map shows the exit path of the first troops, 0855 hrs, on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944. This sketch is illustration 19a from the 29th Infantry Division‘s combat narrative by 1Lt. John T....
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A Print Icon Returns…
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, my grandfather had lasting subscriptions to three preeminent periodicals that every southern gentleman of the day was familiar with: National Geographic, Playboy, and...
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Good Luck and Godspeed, Gen. Anders
Rest in peace, Maj. Gen. (ret.) William “Bill” Anders (USNA 1955), who passed away last Friday in San Juan Islands, Washington state, at the age of 90. Apollo 8 was the first manned Saturn V mission,...
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Just Good Times on the Smoking Deck
How about this great circa 1988 shot of an unidentified sailor in UDT shorts and a chocolate chip boonie firing from the hip at a target floating behind the wooden-decked Aggressive/Agile-class ocean...
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QOR on the Line
80 years ago today, on D+ 14 (20 June 1944) while in the recently liberated French town of Bretteville-Orgueilleuse, the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada had a war correspondent stop by and take a series...
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Son of the Regiment, T-34 edition
80 years ago today, 27 June 1944. Tankers of the 17th Guard Tank Brigade, 1st Guard Tank Corps, 1st Belarusian Front, on their T-34-85. On the photo from left to right: Senior Sergeant Boris Vorontsov...
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Mixed Bag
Lt. William Bolin King (355th FS, 354th FG, 9th AF), age 21, poses briefly sometime after 24 June 1944 at Cricqueville en Bessin Airfield (A-2) on the wing of his P-51B-10-NA (s/n 42-106434) “Atlanta...
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Warship Wednesday, July 3, 2024: Brace for Ramming
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Irony, Independence Day 1918
SMLE-armed Pvt. Harry Shelley, Co A, U.S. 132nd Infantry Regiment, 33rd “Prairie” Division receives the British Distinguished Conduct Medal from King George V, for his 4 July 1918 actions in the...
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Loading up Gabby’s Jug
From some 80 years ago this month comes this amazingly detailed and vibrant period Kodachrome. Original Caption: “Armament men must exercise extreme caution in loading .50 cal. machine guns of a...
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Last of ‘The Few’ Turns 105
Group Captain (ret’d) John Allman “Paddy” Hemingway, DFC, AE, just turned 105 years young on the 17th. Joining the RAF at 21, he flew No. 85 Squadron Mk I Hurricanes over the beaches at Dunkirk and in...
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Casques Bleus
20 July 1918 – Corre (Haute-Saône), African-American U.S. Soldiers under French command undergo training in the infirmary, working with a field stretcher. Gustave Alaux/ECPAD/Defense Ref.: SPA 42 IS...
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Johnny and Sally
How about this great original color image, shot 80 years ago this week, 31 July 1944. The RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot flying in northwest Europe, Wing Commander James Edgar “Johnny” Johnson, is...
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Smokey’s Lucky Witch
Twenty-year-old Ens. Darrell C. “Smoke” Bennett, USNR, stands beside “Smokey’s Lucky Witch”, his FM-2 Wildcat, onboard the ill-fated Casablanca class escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), August...
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Le samouraï, adieu
Did it ever really get any cooler than Alain Delon? An avid gun collector, Indochina vet, and movie tough guy who influenced generations of action filmmakers has passed away. Alain Delon was born in...
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