WW2 Unit Graphics

[fairline]

Nice one Pablo

Are you taking up Tech's offer and making a ToT version? If you need the scenario converting, I can help.

[cousarmy0001]

i dunno, i'm partial to the Prinz Eugen and her sister ships.

and i still bear a grudge against the government for dropping an H-bomb on it, then letting it sit at Kwajalein until it rusted through and sank.

[Pablostuka]

True, I wish the Prinz Eugen had been preserved as a museum ship

The Canarias, the last Washington-treaty (10,000 ton heavy cruisers) cruiser in service could have been preserved, when it was retired in 1975 after 39!! years in the navy. People protested against the decision to scrap it, but nothing could be done what a a pity

[Pablostuka]

Hopefully this looks like a Soviet BT-5 light tank

Credit goes to fairline and his T-26, T-34 and FT-17 which I used

[cousarmy0001]

sounds a bit like the first carrier Enterprise. the only major carrier battle it missed was Coral Sea, it was the only survivor of its class, and the Navy scrapped it, despite massive protests.

they also sank the Saratoga in the H-bomb tests, and tried to sink the Nevada (didn't work- they tried for a while to sink that one).

all three of those ships should've been saved. the Navy is a bunch of jerks when it comes to salvaging. a company i used to work for was a warbird broker, and i was always hearing stories about how the Navy would rather scrap a plane or leave it at the bottom of the ocean than let somebody restore it.

somebody found a Brewster Buffalo at the bottom of the Great Lakes. there's currently NONE flying, but last i heard, the Navy was fighting tooth and nail to keep it down there.

[curtsibling]

I wonder why the Navy has that attitude?

History should be preserved and retained.
They should see that restoration is very important.

.

[Pablostuka]

or the USS Cabot / Dédalo, the last WW2 Independence class light carrier in service...

from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cabot_%28CVL-28%29) :

"In 1967, after over twelve years in "mothballs" in the United States, Cabot was loaned to Spain. The loan was converted to a sale in 1972. Dedalo was stricken by the Spanish Navy in August 1989 and given to a private organization in the U.S. for use as a museum ship. However, that private organization was unable to pay its creditors, so, on 10 September 1999, the ship was auctioned off by the U.S. Marshal's Service to Sabe Marine Salvage. Scrapping of the hulk was completed in 2002 "

[cousarmy0001]

it's because the Navy is just as gay as its sailors.

but that's just my opinion, and I'm probably a little biased, since I'm in the Army.

there was another story I heard at my old job, about when the Navy was changing versions of the T-34 unarmed trainer from a recip engine to a turbine engine (I know the one they were getting rid of was the C model, I can't remember the new one).

anyhow, one base had over 100 of them, each of which could be sold from anywhere between $100,000-$200,000.

rather than sell them on the civilian market, they sold them to a scrap yard for less than $10,000 apiece.

there's also the matter of the hundreds of lend-lease Corsairs, Hellcats, and Seafires (naval version of the Spitfire), and thousands of crates of spare parts that were pushed off the backs of British and Australian carriers at the end of World War 2.

under the terms of lend-lease, the equipment lent or leased had to be paid for if it wasn't destroyed.

rather than pay for it all, they pushed 'em into the ocean off the coast of Australia.

people are trying to get salvage rights for the parts. the planes are pretty far gone by now and can't be salvaged, but the parts were still in sealed crates and packed in grease and such, so alot of those stand a good chance of still being in useable condition.

the Navy's fighting that one, too.

[curtsibling]

I recall the story of when naval bombers were tested by the
US Navy in the 1920s. Using de-militarised junked warships
of the German navy, they tried some bombing trials...

The US Navy heads were to a man ultra-against the idea of
naval bombing, thinking the battleship was the ultimate war
machine...They were wrong...After a few attacks, the battle-
wagons began to overturn and sink...

I read some of the admirals began to weep...
That tale showed how stuck in their ways these men were...

Now, there is no doubt that the US Navy is a high technology
machine these days, and at the forefront of modernism,
but the brass still have some outmoded ideas and philosophies...

[Harry Tuttle]

The man who pioneered the use of US naval aircraft in an attack role was Bill Mitchell. He was the one who showed off the use of the bombers against the mothballed ships. He is also the father of the American Air Force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/mitchell_tests/AP14.htm

The Admirals didn't weep, instead they just got really, really pissed off at Mitchell. Though, thankfully, there were a few in the US military that knew what they were doing and opened up the Bureau of Aeronautics in the same year.

[curtsibling]

Hmmm...
Perhaps Bill Gunston was being melodramatic in his description in the book I read...!

[Harry Tuttle]

I'm sure there were some old retired farts that shed a tear or two.

[Boco]

The Admirals didn't weep, instead they just got really, really pissed off at Mitchell. Though, thankfully, there were a few in the US military that knew what they were doing and opened up the Bureau of Aeronautics in the same year.

Yeah, they were ticked that Mitchell's demonstration was rigged against the targets, but the result was vindicated by history. Battleships had two achilles heels: planes and subs. Most navies didn't believe this until after a few painful lessons. To bring up another fallacy of that era, remember that air war theorists thought that nothing could stop an onslaught of unescorted bombers?

After serving 24/7 for months at a time in any ship, most crews become a tightknit family whose symbol is that ship. When you know someone who died to keep a ship afloat, it becomes hard to see it sink.

Btw, my grandfather was one of a handful in the USN to earn both Dolphins and Wings (i.e. served on a sub and flew a plane).

[curtsibling]

I guess it would be hard to watch a grand machine like a battleship sink...
Not to mention the potential loss of so many men in such a catastrophe...

[cousarmy0001]

yeah, but alot of the World War 1 battleships were ugly.

you get into the improved World War 1 battleships, though, such as the ones at Pearl Harbor, or later ones such as the Bismark/Tirpitz, or the Iowa classes, and they were imposing machines of a lethal grace and beauty.