the English steam locomotive that got revenge and killed the German fighter pilot that shot it

On the morning of 27 November 1942 Charles Gilbert in Tank Engine No.2365 was travelling towards Lydd at a sedate pace of 25mph when Heinz Bierwirth banked his aircraft and dived towards it.

Shells and bullets poured into the engine, steam shot into the footplate area, badly scalding the fireman. The pressure blew the locomotive boiler apart, it tore away the chimney, dome and safety valves.

A cannon shell from the �plane burst the D3�s boiler just at the precise moment the boiler exploded Heinz Bierman�s aircraft was passing overhead 20 feet above. The plane crashed, the pilot was killed whilst the train and driver survived! The explosion was so powerful the dome landed in a field 100 metres away and a portion of the top rim of the chimney almost a quarter of a mile.

Tank Engine No.2365 got it�s revenge on the Focke Wulf for the terrible damage it had suffered.

The dome landed in a field 100 metres away.  it propelled a portion of the top rim of the chimney almost a quarter of a mile.

An eyewitness saw the pilot, still in his seat, fall into a nearby field. Heinz Bierwirth was buried with military honours at Hawkinge Cemetery A local newspaper reported that it was the New Romney line�s most famous day when a train brought down an enemy fighter!

Found on http://ryesown.co.uk/german-bomber/

Hiroshima

Found on http://www.vintag.es/2014/11/hiroshima-and-nagasaki-black-and-white.html

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg team up for a 10 part tv series about WW2 bombers

the series is based on the 2006 novel by Donald L. Miller "Masters Of The Air" the story of the US Eighth Air Force�s crews, as well as the story from the ground or those being bombed in Britain, Germany and throughout Europe. fhttp://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/new-tv-series-masters-air-tell-story-world-war-two-bombers.html

The TV series, they say, will avoid using composite characters, focusing instead on the real stories of the actual figures who flew with Eighth Air Force, and in particular the "Bloody Hundredth" bomb group, one of the hardest hitting � and hardest hit.

 With a purported budget of $500 million (more than seven times that of Saving Private Ryan) the 10-part HBO miniseries Masters of the Air is poised to become the most expensive production in television history as Spielberg and Hanks endeavor to produce a visually stunning and at times viscerally heart-rending tribute to the brave aircrews. http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/masters-air-tribute-mighty-eighth

Joining an oeuvre that already includes 2001's Band of Brothers and 2010's The Pacific, the miniseries will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force. The miniseries are a significant financial commitment for HBO requiring the construction of large-scale sets, significant special effects and pyrotechnics and, because of the nature of the stories, big ensemble casts. Brothers cost $125 million to produce, and The Pacific was budgeted at $200 million; millions more were spent on promotion for both series. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbo-developing-third-wwii-miniseries-413632

Spielberg has directed with Hanks in a leading role, in Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, and Catch Me If You Can... and they have recently worked on the Cold War true story of the CIA attorney that was trying to get the release of the U2 spyplane Russia captured http://www.ew.com/article/2014/12/18/steven-spielberg-tom-hanks-cold-war-spy-mission

Jimmy Stewart served in the 8th

https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum is the source of the below images of crews from the 8th, and the image of Jimmy Stewart above

As you probably know already, World War II could not have been won without the Eighth Air Force's fearsome B-17 Flying Fortresses (the "Boeings," the Luftwaffe called them), which pounded Germany by day while the British bombed at night. As America's main strategic bomber command, the Mighty Eighth brought Nazi Germany to its knees with an unrelenting aerial assault from bases in eastern England involving tens of thousands of airplanes and hundreds of thousands of men. Never before in the history of warfare has such a fearsome force been unleashed on an enemy � nor is it likely in the post-nuclear era that the world will ever again witness such an awesome aerial display.

That's not to say that the young American men inside the bombers flew without fear. The Eighth Air Force's B-17s and B-24s launched on audaciously daring missions over heavily defended Europe to strike at the heart of Adolf Hitler's industrial war-�making capacity. Daylight strategic bombing on such a massive scale was an untested idea at the start of World War II, but military commanders including legendary American generals like Ira Eaker and Jimmy Doolittle knew that, while the plan was risky, it was also the surest way to inflict crippling damage on Hitler's ability to wage war.

The Mighty Eighth would eventually achieve its objectives through relentless bombing of German airplane factories, submarine pens, oil refineries, railway yards, ball bearing production facilities and other industrial targets deemed central to the Nazi war effort. In the beginning it would do it alone, without fighter escorts, another untested approach. But against the dug-in Nazis there seemed no other way. As President Franklin Roosevelt put it in 1943, "Hitler built walls around his �Fortress Europe' but he forgot to put a roof on it." http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/masters-air-tribute-mighty-eighth

the tv series even has a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Masters-of-the-Air/142322062593374

Bruce Bairnsfather, official cartoonist to the American forces in Europe

Image from https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum/

http://forum.armyairforces.com/Old-Bill-m93062.aspx

Bruce Bairnsfather congratulates crew of B-17 "Old Bill"

http://www.fold3.com/spotlight/2558/bruce_bairnsfather_congratulates_crew/

http://www.fold3.com/image/38257090/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355080751842031060/

Mary Churchill - daughter of Winston - gets ready to christen the "Stage Door Canteen" with a bottle of Coke as Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier watch

Image from https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum/

A couple of cool color WW2 photos

Both found on http://www.vintag.es/2015/01/27-rare-color-photographs-from-world.html

WW2's changes upon Detroit's normal day to day business

Scrap drives to destroy the cars and trucks and use the steel for making war materials

GM's body making company Fisher Body was making huge anti-aircraft guns, the U.S. Army�s new powerful Stratosphere guns

and on Sept 24th 1945 motorists were waiting for gas to be delivered to the station

All found on http://www.vintag.es/2015/01/25-amazing-black-white-photographs.html

during WW2, Baldwin was building both Sherman tanks and steam locomotives

In this 1943 company photograph, two different war product lines are shown, a brand new Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range �Yellowstone,� one of the largest steam engines produced, along with an M4 Sherman tank. This view is from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania�s collection

Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway?fref=nf

Panzers left on the Bulgarian border with Turkey since WW2

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/german-ww2-panzer-relics-in-bulgaria-video.html

tank warfare, WW2, account of a Sherman and Fireflys taking on 3 Tigers and a Tiger Royal

On 18 July 1944, near Cagny, Lieutenant John Gorman was in his Sherman tank when he was confronted by a far superior German Tiger tanks

"We had been warned of the existence of such a monster. Corporal Baron and I had discussed it. We had rather light-heartedly concluded that, if confronted by a Tiger Royal, there was only one thing to do and that was to use the naval tactic of ramming, which my Portora hero had demonstrated. Baron agreed that it would be right to use the Sherman�s speed to counteract the rather slow traverse of the Tiger Royal�s 88mm gun turret. We concluded that, mad as it seemed, the only hope in a 75mm Sherman was to ram. When the Tiger Royal came into view its turret was at 90o from us, with the gun towards the 2nd Battalion tanks..."

Read the whole account of ramming the Tiger Royal with a Sherman, and how they kept fighting, and survived, while doing heavy damage to the 4 Tigers at http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/crazy-irishman-rammed-a-tiger-ii-with-his-sherman-then-went-off-looking-for-a-firefly-to-make-sure-the-tiger-wouldnt-be-going-anywhere.html

Or in the book this was excerpted from "Always a Mick"
http://www.amazon.com/Sir-John-Gorman-Times-Life/dp/0850529069/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1425180003&sr=8-3&keywords=John+Gorman

After serving in the Irish Guards in NW Europe (where he won a legendary MC for ramming a King Tiger tank), John Gorman's career included being Head of Security with BOAC before entering politics and becoming Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

B 17 "Snake Hips" was shot to hell on the starboard side, but still made it home. Color video

So very stuck... and not likely to get that out easily

Found on http://www.shorpy.com/

they kept going til that heavy cannon was up to the hubs! 

I had not known P 47s had nose art too, here are some, and a tribute to George Rarey, a pilot, artist, and nose art specialist for the 379 Fighting Squadron's P 47s

all from http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/just-jugs-just-stunning-images-of-p-47s-enjoy.html/5

Dave just let me know about George, who went into the Air Corps and was flying P 47's over Europe

In 1942, George Rarey, a young cartoonist and commercial artist, was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He flew a P-47 before he drove a car. During his service he kept a cartoon journal of daily life in the 379th Fighter Squadron. A few weeks after D-Day, Rarey was killed in combat over France. http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/rarey_1.htm

Rarey's nose art appeared on all the aircraft of the 379th FS, as well as on many of the planes in the 377th and 378th. He even created insignias for non-pilot friends, such as Doc Finn, the group doctor; Don Marsden, the squadron weatherman; and Bill French, the group executive officer.

 He painted a watercolor of each insignia on 12 x 18 inch paper, each insignia accompanied by a portrait of the pilot. For a time these paintings hung in the Nissan hut ready room at Wormingford. The nose art and portraits below have been scanned from the originals

George Rarey, from Enid Oklahoma, was a commercial artist and cartoonist before he was drafted into the USAAC in 1942.

 Because, at 25, he was a few years older than many of his fellow airmen he earned the title of "Dad". Rarey, as he preferred to call himself, designed and painted most of the nose arts for the 379th Fighter Squadron in their early combat days. Despite the immense demands placed upon him as a fighter pilot, Rarey never stopped drawing and would spend every spare minute sketching the events and personalities which comprised the 362FG. That combination of fighter pilot and artist was a rarity.

His son put a book of all the sketches and photos, link at the end of this post, but you can see some of it at http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/rarey_2.htm

 http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/artist.php?artist=rarey#.VOujA_l4oy0

Rarey noted in his diary on 15th March that he had completed about half of the 379FS's planes. Each one was, in some way, a reflection of each pilot's character. Lt Shumway's fighter became "Slugger", Geyer's became "Stud", Larsen's "The Deacon", Thurman Morrison's was "Memphis Rebel". In all, Rarey is thought to have completed 28 nose art designs and as a consequence "Mogin's Maulers", as the group had now become known, was indeed a colourful sight.

Rarey was one of the best-loved pilots of the 362nd FG. Having worked as a commercial artist before the war, he designed and applied the nose art for no fewer than 28 aircraft, including his own. The plane started out as �Archy and Mehatibel,� a reference to characters in Don Marquis� poetry, but when Rarey�s son Damon was born the plane�s name changed.

Notice the silhouettes next to the shoe, a ship, tanks, trucks, and trains!

All from http://www.themodellingnews.com/2012/08/barracuda-studios-throw-jug-at-us-for.html

the book is still available on Amazon

if you can afford the least expensive 40 dollar method, and want to resell it to some nice blogger that let you know about this cool book, for 20 bucks, I can swing that. I can't pull off the 40 bucks though.  http://www.amazon.com/Laughter-Tears-Combat-Sketchbooks-Squadron/dp/1565500571/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424730018&sr=1-3