5th Cakeday, here's some of my favourite pictures of the last centuries

dayofmone

128633

2057

Arizona Female Scout, 1886
Photo taken by A. Frank Randall.

WW1, Easter in the trenches
The sign says "Happy Easter from the far East 1917."

"SAAF Beaufighters of 19 Sqn (Balkan Air Force) attacking German-occupied buildings in Zuzemberk, Yugoslavia in Spring 1945"

USS Iowa firing a broadside during the Korean War

Ocean liner RMS Aquitania under construction, 1911.

The cathedral of Amiens, France during World War II

HMS Barham magazine detonation, 25. November 1941
She was hit by 3 torpedos from U 331, her rear magazine detonated while capsizing.

Billy the Kid.

80 cm (31.5") ammunition for German Railway Guns "Dora" and "Schwerer Gustav"

Tail gunner of a RAF Lancaster bomber
Some websites state it's a B-17 Superfortress, however the presence of 4 ammunition feeds indicates it's indeed a Lancaster as the B-17 only had 2 guns in the turret.

Anti Aircraft cannons tracer streaks

Chicago and North Western Railway’s Class E-2

"The last commercial sailing ship, Pamir, to round Cape Horn in 1949."

German soldier on the Eastern Front, WW2

USS Missouri's 16" (406mm) main battery shells caught mid air

Anti Aircraft fire screen from US ships against Japanese attack aircrafts

USS Enterprise (CV-6) under attack by dive bombers during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands on 26. October 1942

Steam Ship of the Line HMS Duke of Wellington, March 1854

Bomb penetration on the deck of an Aircraft Carrier

And one that didn't pass through the deck armor

Fusō after her second modernisation in 1937 - 41, now with improved pagoda to enhance spotting capabilities and compensate for her being outclassed by other nations battleships with larger calibre guns at the beginning of World War II.

The flagship of the Mediterranean fleet HMS Marlborough at anchor in the Grand Harbour of Valletta, Malta, sometime between 1858 and 1864.

Elements of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet depart the Firth of Forth, 1914. Based at Rosyth, Scotland, the Grand Fleet maintained a ceaseless blockade of German trade throughout World War I.

Sunset over a British North Sea patrol, April 1915.

A major matter of "nope"

Damaged USS Yorktown (CV-5) with USS Astoria (CA-34) at Midway 1942

Arctic Convoys, HMS Sheffield

Artic Convoys

HMS Nelson

The first German Battleship, SMS Nassau

USS John Hood (DD-655) being refueled in heavy seas, 1962

USS Vermont in storm, December 1913

USS Connecticut

USS Iowa during construcion

HMS Rodney main guns

USS Omaha, 1950-1952

Gunpowder shipment

USS New York in a storm

German Submarine surfacting

HMS Agincourt

US Convoy in the Atlantic

Heavy Cruiser Deutschland receiving a main battery gun

And armor plating

Damage on German Battlecruiser Derfflinger after the Battle of Jutland

Torpedo damage.

Tirpitz

Kamikaze attacking a US Carrier

USS Alabama

Iowa Class Battleship

Powdermonkey on an old ship

Cat tax brought to you by Captain A.J. Hailey

Kitten tax

HoriOri

#3 I can instantly tell it's WWI because the bayonet is fuck-huge

8 years ago |

NuiNiuhiNui

Love to see ships of war.

Withoutagod

Im from Iowa, and i approve this. Only because i see iowa on imgur every 5 years. May it be a ship killing people.

candl2023

#1 Tugboats and U.S. Navy warships pictured in the Hudson River http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/history-up-close/navy-day/

poopball

So you have a thing for ships huh

Malz42

OP, you included a Cat Tax which you didn't have a picture of Unsinkable Sam. Disappointing.

ThatsFantastic

Awesome sauce. Please let me know if you do mooorree.

REVENGE488

The first photos is fleet day in New York harbor, can’t remember the year though.

AtillatheGun

if i could give multiple +1s, i would. you've got photos from the new york, the texas, and of a GWF ship. It's really a shame about the 1/?

Texas. She's the only surviving dreadnought era battleship in the US, and she's falling apart. and nobody has the funds to fix her.

WoTLert

The Fusou pic is a notorious photoshop.

shintaou

Fusō one is fake. Great post anyways! Original: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Fuso-2.jpg

Thunderchief1

This was a good and interesting dump. Thank you!

Artebudz

Nice photos. I have a photo with around 500 men of the RAMC that was taken in 1917. Just need to find a way to digitise it.

imgonnaralph

The gunner in the Lancaster is my favorite.

iHansi

Whats the point of all the sandbags in the cathedral?

sowasvonsowas

During WW 2 many cathedrals removed stained glass windows & sandbagged the walls (sometimes inside & outside) to protect from bomb damage.

oddball21

I thought Rodney was british?

How did I fuck that up... Fixed it, thank you!

puddleofaids

#8 horrible seeing those poor blokes trying to get off the ship.

funeralpyre

OMG... I did not notice them until you pointed them out!

johnnygoodrich

Very impressive post. Just watched Dunkirk last night. Cool to see this following the movie.

rosesintheair

I just watched dunkirk recently as well and that definitely fueled my interest in this photoset. ty @op!

SuddenRandomFinnishGuy

Does that USS Iowa change position after firing?

She does not move at all, the guns don't have enough recoil to move 57000 tons plus the water pushing up against it. See response for link.

TheWarHymn

A few feet if all 9 guns are fired at once. Why these ships need to be as big as they are. Several thousand tons of recoil force.

Damn

They do not move at all, see my link above for more information. The ships are as big as they are to be able to mount the main guns

and all auxiliary equipment.

Niobe68

the Fusõ look like it was draw by a mangaka

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Fuso-2.jpg?uselang=fr

SnickerDONTle

I have a sneaking suspicion that OP is a naval history fan

History in general but I do love ships very much.

chopper35

#1 is that smaller carrier the Enterprise? that wider carrier looks like an Essex class.

Bachofbach

Yeah the Fusō picture is total bullshit. The pagodas half the length of the picture

lurkeylurkeychickenturkey

5 cakedays and you only have 1000 upvotes? Gosh...

I am that kind of person who does little other than hit -> and +

Xorism

Reporting for duty (1300 in 4 years)

I’ve been fortunate, I almost envy you? I think? An attitude that I cannot explain with a comment

Is okay. I haven't tried too hard to get points I mostly just muck around.

HorseonaBike

#24 wtf?

ProfessorMatt

When they said, "Give me a tall ship and a star to steer her by"...

criggie

Comment on post says its manipulated. Notice the crane boom repeated - no point in having a boom that high. Also gun battery up high? No.

hetriedtokillmewithaforklift

It's like those guns 4chan built.

Japanese battleship Yamashiro or "Mountain Castle", for those to lazy to google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamashiro

ComicallyLongUsername

Photoshop poking fun at Pagoda superstructures. The real thing is about half the height. Still looks daft though.

Skokinhelicopter

I said the same here, there is no way would be real. Can it?

holgerdk

No, far to unstable and thats a main battery turret a little more than halfway up.

Meltemi

Nah, OP says that one's a joke. The real Fuso had a rather tall pagoda, but not that tall.

EvillBob

Seems ligit.

147

AlexZuelke

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Fuso_Trial_Heading_Left.jpg/1199px-Fuso_Trial_Heading_Left.jpg

Oxycodont

LOL

48tonruckkus5o

Argh, beat me to it! Most obviously photoshopped image of 2018 so far

ReallyGoodBee

There was a Popeye cartoon about that ship. He's sailing and fishing somewhere, and being harassed by some Japanese whalers.

He goes to give them a piece of his mind, they all run into the lower deck of their little fishing ship which turns out to be

the lookout post for a gigantic submarine/battleship thing that's like fifty-feet tall and completely covered in guns.

TheChurchOfUpvote

I ain't saying it's top heavy but like, it's top heavy

DamaskCustoms

A battleship the internet truly deserves.

comc909

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Fus%C5%8D Apparently it was legit.

HomelingRazor

The ship itself is real, but this photo is definitely not.

NordicusMaximus

Fake as fuck, clearly photoshopped. The Wiki page pagoda is half that size, and NO TURRET. A turret would snap it in half on first firing.

Somebody named Sturmvogel 66 edited all of the Jap ship pages 6 days ago..... a lot of them show weird photos that are edited.

Bystandr

Yeah if you look closely it seems to be a spliced photo, with some of the pagoda layers repeating. Also that mast turret - lol

DogPeppers

Photo shop has come a long way since the 40s

HippoIoqqiH

The Gatorade, consume it

Blackershaman

So has that Gatorade bottle. Its been a long time coming.

DixonHillPrivateEye

That explosion is incredible! Are those people running off the bow of the ship?

happytreeleaf

Yeah. It’s pretty chilling to see.

Toolbone

Yes it is.

450 Survivors. I assume most of the people in the water died while those still on the hull survived.

Holy shit I just looked it up on wiki. 862 fatalities. That is inconceivable.

SoberAndBored

The scale of casualties in minor actions when tier-one countries fight each other. Next time it happens...

DeadDoggy

Theres the HMS Hood that sank with 1400 something men and only 3 survived

CountVorkosigan

You see all those people coating the bottom of the ship before 2/3 of it suddenly isn't there anymore?

You deserve FP for this post. Thanks

Thank you :)

arsetechnica

The unfortunate thing is that isn't an unusual casualty count. When a big battleship goes usually so do a lot of the crew.

FBKatB3TAdotcom

HAS HOOD, 3 survivor's out of a crew of 1418 men.

ReasonableConservative

Bout to say that. Bismark got her in it's first naval engagement. (It's why they had to sink her.)

pfshfine

HMS*. Don't you hate autocorrect sometimes?

Looked it up. Horrifying.

Schmuck4hire

What's really humbling is that that huge explosion happened so fast that none of them probably knew it.

I just keep thinking of how it felt to be in the water and looking back to see that. Or would you just be knocked unconscious

I can't fathom how anyone could remain conscious after being right up besides a noise like that.

Megarith

Water can't compress, so the explosion would instantly compress your lungs into mush. Not sure about the rest of a human body. Probably bad.

Thought i'd include a photo of one of the most beautiful ships to exist.

onlyhalfghost

That's a funny-looking Kirishima.

Because the Hood isn't a Lion Class Battlecruiser with extra japanese shit thrown on it.

I'm aware. "That's a funny way to spell/draw X" is an old joke suggesting X is the writer's preference.

EvilToska

^ HMS Hood. I still like this one better: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Bilder/SchwKreuzer/PrinzEugen-2.jpg

The Hipper Class was a fantastic looking cruiser. Though my Grandpa's memories of the Eugen were probably not so fond of it.

As a kid I had the Hood as a Revell kit and for quite some time it was my revered treasure, having a place of honor in my room.

I actually bought my Dad an HMS Hood kit a few years ago for his birthday. When I was younger we use to make loads of Airfix models.

What ship was your grandpa on, if I may ask? Mine was a grunt in the 263. Infantry Division from 39 to the capitulation in Kurland pocket.

My other Grandparent was RAF.

The HMS Worcester at the time. During the Battle of Brest it was blown to pieces (without sinking) by the Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gnisenhau.

I've read about that. HMS Worcester was quite a resilient DD that went through a lot.

Yeah, I can imagine. My grandpa certainly would have enjoyed British hospitality more than the Russian one, though.

Ouch. My Grandfather who was RAF, would have said the same about German hospitality over the Japanese.

Oh dear, I can easily imagine that!

USS Omaha, 1950-1952

Comments (168)