Art & Image Thread

[Rocket J Squrriel]

Was she riding light? It appears that she's got a hell of a roll (30 degrees?) and at that roll, it looks like a chunk of her bottom would be out of the water on the far side.

Or do I not understand hydrodynamics with respect to ships roll?

Belushi TD

They had a shallow, round bottom on the stern that made them rock and roll! The bow shipped water like a tsunami and flooded the navigation bridge 75 feet up. I bet the crew would've welcomed a torpedo when caught in a North Atlantic storm.

[Matt Wiser]

East Germany, 1988: the only U.S. Army unit to fight in the Eastern European Campaign, the 14th ACR. One of their IPM1 tanks sits on a road east of the Helmstedt-Marienborn Checkpoint after British Armor bullied their way through...

[Matt Wiser]

7 Sep 1985: an M-60A3 of an unidentified squadron from 3rd ACR mans a rearguard position in Southern New Mexico

[Lordroel]

Photo: Korean People's Navy Najin class frigate No. 531 enters Vladivostok, 1988. Due the due the Kamchatka Raids from 1986 to 1989 and the ongoing operations in the Pacific, the Soviet Pacific Fleet was forced to use the Korean People's Navy to support them in operations.

[Matryoshka]

Photo: Korean People's Navy Najin class frigate No. 531 enters Vladivostok, 1988. Due the due the Kamchatka Raids from 1986 to 1989 and the ongoing operations in the Pacific, the Soviet Pacific Fleet was forced to use the Korean People's Navy to support them in operations.

It’s a nice picture, to be sure, but the date must be a typo; ISTR that 531 sailed into Puget Sound in 1986 as part of Ivan’s little amphibious brainwave and wound up becoming a permanent resident — as a diving attraction. There’s some dispute about exactly whose weapons put her on the bottom, partly because the Battle of Puget Sound rivals the Naval Battle(s) of Guadalcanal for chaos, confusion, and sheer “WTF?” factor, and record-keepers are still trying to resolve the multiple overlapping reports of who sank what, where, and when, but I do know for a fact that one of the claimants was an RNZAF Skyhawk operating out of NAS Whidbey Island.

From a submission to the old board [OOC: slightly edited to match updates to canon]:

The biggest surprise for me, however, was that 16 Squadron, which was deployed to Canada, took part in the Battle of Puget Sound. They dropped LGBs on some Soviet ships and were also the only RAF unit other than the Lossiemouth wing to use the Sea Eagle missile in action, managing to fire off every one of the small number of the missiles they had been issued with.

I think there’s a mention of that in Kia Kaha. During Puget Sound, ‘487 Squadron’ was flying sorties out of Whidbey Island that basically consisted of “take off, retract gear, drop ordnance, lower gear, land”*, and IIRC, one of the accounts mentions a near-collision with a Bucc during the period when things were getting really wild. I thought it was a sea-story — as far as I knew, all the RAF Buccaneers spent the war in the UK.

* One of which apparently netted [Squadron Leader Jonathan] ‘Kermit’ Robertson his VC — a NorK Najin corvette was trying its hand at shore-bombardment to close the airbase, and Kermit made two passes at wave-hopping altitude to nail the bastard with a Maverick and Zuni rockets. His citation on Wikipedia says his Scooter took something like forty-plus hits from 14.5mm and 25mm AAA during those runs, and he took splinters in his leg and face.

That said, it’s entirely possible that the KPN built and operated multiple Najins with the same hull-number as a maskirovka measure, or re-numbered a sister ship and tried to pretend the loss never happened. Lord knows there was a lot of that going around in the ComBloc, especially after the Puget Sound disaster....

[OOC: Kia Kaha: World War Three Through New Zealand Eyes is a book published in the 1990s of the RD+20 universe, a compilation of first-hand accounts from members of the RNZN, RNZAF, and NZ Army who served in WWIII. My own character declined to be interviewed, partly from PTSD and related substance-abuse issues. Honestly, I need to go over my notes and repost that thread, considering the original version seems to have died with the old board and my saved copy dates back to 2013(!).]

[Lordroel]

Photo: Korean People's Navy Najin class frigate No. 531 enters Vladivostok, 1988. Due the due the Kamchatka Raids from 1986 to 1989 and the ongoing operations in the Pacific, the Soviet Pacific Fleet was forced to use the Korean People's Navy to support them in operations.

It’s a nice picture, to be sure, but the date must be a typo; ISTR that 531 sailed into Puget Sound in 1986 as part of Ivan’s little amphibious brainwave and wound up becoming a permanent resident — as a diving attraction. There’s some dispute about exactly whose weapons put her on the bottom, partly because the Battle of Puget Sound rivals the Naval Battle(s) of Guadalcanal for chaos, confusion, and sheer “WTF?” factor, and record-keepers are still trying to resolve the multiple overlapping reports of who sank what, where, and when, but I do know for a fact that one of the claimants was an RNZAF Skyhawk operating out of NAS Whidbey Island.

From a submission to the old board [OOC: slightly edited to match updates to canon]:

The biggest surprise for me, however, was that 16 Squadron, which was deployed to Canada, took part in the Battle of Puget Sound. They dropped LGBs on some Soviet ships and were also the only RAF unit other than the Lossiemouth wing to use the Sea Eagle missile in action, managing to fire off every one of the small number of the missiles they had been issued with.

I think there’s a mention of that in Kia Kaha. During Puget Sound, ‘487 Squadron’ was flying sorties out of Whidbey Island that basically consisted of “take off, retract gear, drop ordnance, lower gear, land”*, and IIRC, one of the accounts mentions a near-collision with a Bucc during the period when things were getting really wild. I thought it was a sea-story — as far as I knew, all the RAF Buccaneers spent the war in the UK.

* One of which apparently netted [Squadron Leader Jonathan] ‘Kermit’ Robertson his VC — a NorK Najin corvette was trying its hand at shore-bombardment to close the airbase, and Kermit made two passes at wave-hopping altitude to nail the bastard with a Maverick and Zuni rockets. His citation on Wikipedia says his Scooter took something like forty-plus hits from 12.7mm and 23mm AAA during those runs, and he took splinters in his leg and face.

That said, it’s entirely possible that the KPN built and operated multiple Najins with the same hull-number as a maskirovka measure, or re-numbered a sister ship and tried to pretend the loss never happened. Lord knows there was a lot of that going around in the ComBloc, especially after the Puget Sound disaster....

[OOC: Kia Kaha: World War Three Through New Zealand Eyes is a book published in the 1990s of the RD+20 universe, a compilation of first-hand accounts from members of the RNZN, RNZAF, and NZ Army who served in WWIII. My own character declined to be interviewed, partly from PTSD and related substance-abuse issues. Honestly, I need to go over my notes and repost that thread, considering the original version seems to have died with the old board and my saved copy dates back to 2013(!).]

Okay, if that is canon i will alter the date.

[Lordroel]

Photo: a US Army, Downed Aircraft Recovery Team (DART), a specialized military unit—primarily utilized in U.S. Army Aviation—tasked with assessing, repairing, or extracting damaged aircraft from austere or hostile environments secures a Bell AH-1 Cobra somewhere in liberated Texas, 1989.

[Lordroel]

Photo: captured Soviet Union MiG-23MLD flying with an United States Air Force F-15 during comprehensive test program at the Tonopah Test Range, NV, 1990.

[Wolfman]

Photo: captured Soviet Union MiG-23MLD flying with an United States Air Force F-15 during comprehensive test program at the Tonopah Test Range, NV, 1990.

I do hope that’s a declassified photo…

[jemhouston]

Photo: captured Soviet Union MiG-23MLD flying with an United States Air Force F-15 during comprehensive test program at the Tonopah Test Range, NV, 1990.

I do hope that’s a declassified photo…

I just hope the Mig pilot made it back in one piece.

[Lordroel]

Photo: captured Soviet Union MiG-23MLD flying with an United States Air Force F-15 during comprehensive test program at the Tonopah Test Range, NV, 1990.

I do hope that’s a declassified photo…

It is, the MiG-23MLD in question is now in the March Field Air Museum (Riverside, CA) alongside a captured MiG-21F-13.

(OOC: they in real life have a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 that was a former Czechoslovak Air Force operated one).

[Lordroel]

Photo: HMS Blake (C99) with her full helicopter complement behind her, photo most likely taken after here participation in the Liberation of Iceland.

[Lordroel]

Photo: a Project 671RTM/RTMK Shchuka (Victor III) is detected by a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 operated by No. 201 Squadron RAF, No. 18 Group RAF in the North Sea, the Victor III was spotted from long range and was attacked and sunk, 1986.

[Wolfman]

Photo: a Project 671RTM/RTMK Shchuka (Victor III) is detected by a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 operated by No. 201 Squadron RAF, No. 18 Group RAF in the North Sea, the Victor III was spotted from long range and was attacked and sunk, 1986.

Good riddance…

[Lordroel]

Photo: Churchill-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine HMS Conqueror (S48) firing a RNSH (Royal Navy Sub Harpoon) against a Soviet Surface target, 1986. HMS Conqueror (S48) remains the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged enemy ships during two wars.

[Lordroel]

Photo: A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23M "Flogger-B" shot down by a US Air Force fighter somewhere over Free United States and that crashed into a shed, 1986,

[Lordroel]

Photo: The Canadian operational support ship HMCS Provider (AOR 508) approaches the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) during a anti-shipping sweep along the Mexican Pacific Coast, 1988.