Post cool photo's of WW2 Machines/Engineering

[Callan.T89]

Hey All, First Thread in the Pie & Piston. I've been enjoying the Cool Photo's of Planes and other stuff threads and thought I would start one.

I'm always inspired by the engineering scale/ingenuity/progress that took place during WW2 and also find the photo's quite moving and thought provoking.

Anyway here are a few:


Junkers JU-87 aka the Stuka Dive Bomber


T34 - Engineering at it's most simplest and effective.


Sherman w/ Calliope rocket launcher


Tiger Tank - one of the most menacing profiles ever made.


D-Day landing craft - a whole new concept at the time.


German U-Boat

Anywho I'm sure others have much better pics, add as you will.

[Steamer]

actually a little bit prior to WW2, the sound mirrors situated on the south coast.

[TheEnd]

Hope the pics work!

[Negative Creep]

Republic P47 Thunderbolt - the muscle car of the fighter world. Built around the biggest engine possible and sacrificing grace and manoeuvrability for sheer speed and power


Bristol Beaufighter - the first plane that could carry radar with not drop in performance. Carried 6 machine guns and 4 cannons and was a deadly night fighter, torpedo bomber and strike fighter


Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Completely different to anything in the skys, the twin boom, twin engine, single seat fighter proved a surprisingly good dogfighter. It was not, despite the popular legend, know to the Luftwaffe as 'the fork tailed devil though' (it was a remark overheard from a captured German infantryman)


Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet - rocket powered point defence fighter that was quite literally explosive. Radical idea that in the end proved more dangerous to its pilots than Allied flyers


Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwable - revolutionary jet fighter whose swept wing design was well ahead of its time. Was too little too late to have any effect on the war though

[TheEnd]

http://www.track-link.net/gallery/119

"When the designers complained to Stalin that the insistence on three turrets made the vehicle too long to have an acceptable turning radius, Stalin's answer was: "It doesn't need to turn, it will drive straight to Berlin."

[FourWheelDrift]

The V2, ancestor of space exploration and the moon landings. Pretty important if not very welcome at the time.

[WestYorkie]

The best known weapon of the 20th Century was born of WWII.

[coanda]

geek-mode/

Not got any pics of an mp-44 then? Thats where the AK-47 started - as did all modern assault rifles!

/geek-mode

[HAB]

Type XXI Uboat. First submarine capable of operating entirely submerged, and the revolutionary design was the influence for all modern submarines.

Edited by HAB on Wednesday 31st December 01:42

[coanda]

One of the most important things to come out of WW2.....RADAR....

Wurzeburg...

A random file I found via google images....

Edited by coanda on Wednesday 31st December 01:50

[Callan.T89]

WestYorkie said:

The best known weapon of the 20th Century was born of WWII.

Of course it came from this:


The AK was mechanically quite different but based on the principal and study of the STG 44.


The Russian KV "Big Turret", apparently the inspiration for the Daleks


The SturmTiger - 380mm anti submarine Mortar attached to a tiger chassis


The JagdTiger or "Hunting Tiger" - the most insane piece of engineering I have ever seen, you have to see it in the flesh at Bovington to believe the size of it.




Another couple of Stuka Pics - my favourite plane ever, some real interesting and futuristic design ideas went into this plane and was the basis for the American A10 tank buster.

[ZR1cliff]

The Ball turret's got to be up there with good engineering feats of WW2.

I would only get in one if I had side pipes on the two nearest engines

[WestYorkie]

coanda said:

geek-mode/

Not got any pics of an mp-44 then? Thats where the AK-47 started - as did all modern assault rifles!

/geek-mode

No I didn't but thanks for the link between the two.
It does seem like the Kalashnikov took the market for a cheap useable/repairable Sturmgewehr over the StG44.
But then "To the Victor go the spoils" I suppose.


Radar over the English Channel.

[coanda]

Indeed Yorkie. I had a little look around google and there were well over 400k of those mp44/stg44 rifles made. As with many things german, technically excellent but probably a bit too delicate to take a real hammering (unlike the AK - which is why its soo damned popular...).

Now, on the subject of luftwaffe aircraft...its got to be the Fw-190D9 for me. Possibly my fave. Griffon bubble-top spitfires fall in just behind!

Edited by coanda on Wednesday 31st December 02:05

[ZR1cliff]

Propellor Hub-firing machine guns.

[ZR1cliff]

One ingenious way of involving new ideas to adapt to a situation and making sure you inflict maximum damage was the Japanese Kamikaze pilot.



Youngest Kamikaze pilot was 17.



School girls wave Kamikaze pilots off.



Mission completed.

[svm]

Part of a Mulberry Pier -



An aerial shot of Mulberry B -

[Shuvi]

It's a joke

[ZR1cliff]

Japanese Kaiten suicide subs.





A sub suicide attack the USS Mississinewa burning after being hit by a Kaiten Kamikaze torpedo in Ulithi Harbor, November 20, 1944

Edited by ZR1cliff on Wednesday 31st December 03:03

[reaper668]

Two things that really changed the world.


Little Boy

Monday, August 6, 1945




8,818 lbs and a height of 9 feet





Fat Man

Thursday, August 9, 1945


10,200 lbs, and a height of 10.6 feet




The exact moment of detonation at Nagasaki is captured in this remarkable photograph. Notice the three people in the foreground, as yet unaware that anything has happened. The destruction of Nagasaki followed that of Hiroshima by three days and compelled Japan to surrender, ending World War II.