Show your Americana / Non-Sports Memorabilia

[Ladder7]

Inspiring Patriots.

[ramram]

Here's some diary entries from an observer/gunner on a WWI bomber. In the first entry he is flying in a British made Handley Page bomber. In the second entry he is flying in an Italian made Caproni bomber.

Aug. 10, 1918 – “During the morning I took some pictures of the drome and around camp and in afternoon took a walk out to the wireless station. I was on orders to go over the lines tonight in 4581 [a Handley Page - he was flying as an understudy with the British at this point] with Lieut. Nichols pilot and Lieut. Bowen observer and raid the patrol boat shelters at Blankenberg. The front was very quiet tonight but the A.A. barrage at Ostend, Bruges and Zeebrugge was very intense and nearly twice as many search lights were operating in anticipation of our big 1660 pound bomb raid. The visibility was not very good and we had to glide in from the sea at 10,000 ft. to 4,000 ft. The lights did not get us and the shells burst over us and we saw no enemy scouts. I dropped two large rocks for I was in the rear cockpit and I had no bombs. Must give em something.”

Diary Aug 10-13 smaller.jpg

In a later entry he writes:

Aug. 22 & 23, 1918 – “This morning we were very sorry to learn that Lieut. Fletcher had been killed when shot down off Ostend while acting as observer in the H.P. machine which Lieut. Hetherington piloting and Kennedy U.S. was gunner. During the day I was busy chasing around the drome getting my end of the Caproni ready for tonight and I had a hard job getting two English deflector bags. We stood by till eleven o’clock for the weather to clear and then pushed off on what was to be the last trip for B5 machine and Ensign Fahy and I for a time. Cheer-eo we made a good get away. We continued on our way to Zeebrugge and during the first half hour of this morning engine was so bad when we reached the lines that we made for Mardyck beach to land. Ensign Fahy told me to remain in the [gunner’s] cage, fortunately. We failed to straighten out in time and crashed on the beach. The noise of the crumbling machine is all I remember until I found myself staggering around on the beach and I caught a glimpse of the ruined machine out of my right eye, the left was completely closed up and the darkness and silence around the machine gave me fear that Taber and Fahy were badly injured until I heard Taber call to me and learned that Fahy was not seriously injured and Taber was o.k. We were carried to Queen Alexandera Hospital and as soon as I saw Sister Evans well cheer-eo.”

Caproni bomber:
Caproni.jpg

[ramram]

Another interesting but sad piece from a WWII B-17 pilot:

Sept. 30th “….We all felt mighty low tonight because something entirely unnecessary happened, and as a consequence two crews and a navigator on another are no longer with us.. Now I’m sure the grace of God is with me because Treece went down without a chance and had I flown in his place [the diarist was supposed to be on this flight]…. Here’s the story…Over the target Love (leading the high element) didn’t fan out far enough so that LaFlance (flying his left wing) was clear of Treece who was leading the low (#4)…As a result, LaFlance dropped all 10 of their 500# bombs right down poor Treece’s back. They never had a chance because they blew up right away. The explosion was so great that LaFlance went down in pieces.. a piece of Treece’s ship tore thru the nose of Love’s ship, hitting poor Hughes right in the groin (he died before they landed)..Shelinski’s ship was a wreck (he brought it home tho) and all in all, practically every ship in the whole squadron suffered battle damage (old 310 had a hit in the induction of #4 & the main wing spar)…Gosh, but things are getting rough over here. All our buddies are getting it! Treece had only one more mission to go too! Whatta break…”

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[3and2]

Andy Warhol a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.

Original Photo...

[Ladder7]

USS Maine (BB-2), Havana Harbor Nov 1898. 260 Sailors and Marines killed. 9x7;


Ghost image;

photo credit USN archives

[GrayGhost]

Thanks Ladder for re opening this thread.

[mcgwirecom]

from the UPI ticker