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Never more beautiful
Some 90 years ago today, we see the brand spanking new New Orleans-class heavy cruiser USS Astoria (CA-34) entering Honolulu harbor during her shakedown cruise, on 9 July 1934. Photographed by Tai...
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Mighty Miss
80 Years Ago Today: New Mexico-class super dreadnaught by Great War standards (or slow battleship by WWII standards) USS Mississippi (BB-41), underway in Puget Sound, Washington, July 13th, 1944, at 3...
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Canadian Mosquitos in Full Color
How about this great original Kodachrome of Type G class torpedo boats of the 29th Canadian Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla. The lead boat, MTB-460, was lost to a German mine off the coast of Normandy on...
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Roses and Beantown
Some 80 years ago this week, a great view of the brand-new U.S. Navy Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Pasadena (CL-65) snapped from a Squadron ZP-11 blimp while underway off Boston at 1400 hrs on 21...
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Casques Bleus
20 July 1918 – Corre (Haute-Saône), African-American U.S. Soldiers under French command undergo training in the infirmary, working with a field stretcher. Gustave Alaux/ECPAD/Defense Ref.: SPA 42 IS...
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Lions and Aardvarks living together!
Some 40 years ago this month, July 1984: Massive U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighters of Fighter Squadron VF-114 “Aardvarks” and VF-213 “Black Lions” nestled snugly aboard the one-of-a-kind...
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Warship Wednesday, July 24, 2024: To the Sea, to the World
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Big Rick off Sumatra
Some 80 years ago today, the curious shot of the mighty (Free) French battleship Richelieu, sailing as part of the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean, slewing her pointing her over-bored 380...
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Not Your Daddy’s Minesweeper
Back in the 1970s, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands all needed replacement minesweepers to phase out WWII-era vessels. The answer was to band together to jointly develop a class known to naval...
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Omaha’s Trip Home
For your approval, a scenic peacetime view some 90 years ago this month, showing the class-leading baby cruiser USS Omaha (CL-4) at anchor in Commencement Bay in Puget Sound at the end of July 1924....
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Johnny and Sally
How about this great original color image, shot 80 years ago this week, 31 July 1944. The RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot flying in northwest Europe, Wing Commander James Edgar “Johnny” Johnson, is...
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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) Aug. 1, 2024: Going Dutch on a (Baby) Flat-top
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday to look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Smokey’s Lucky Witch
Twenty-year-old Ens. Darrell C. “Smoke” Bennett, USNR, stands beside “Smokey’s Lucky Witch”, his FM-2 Wildcat, onboard the ill-fated Casablanca class escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), August...
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Task Force Spaghetti, RIMPAC Adjacent
While Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) ’24 off Hawaii — the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise– just wrapped up its 29th outing since it was established in 1971, one that...
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Mighty Mo, Stretching Her Sea Legs
If you have followed this blog for more than five minutes, you know I am a sucker for period Kodachromes and classic warships, so this superb 80-year-old photo essay of the brand new Iowa-class...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024: Oft Overlooked Essex
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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A Pipe & a Novel
A bearded crewman sitting benignly on some Mark VII depth charges, smoking his pipe and reading a novel on board the K-class destroyer HMS Kelvin (F37) during WWII. As each ash can carries 700 pounds...
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The Many Faces of the Kreuzer Augsburg
Commissioned in 1908, the SMS Augsburg, one of four Kolberg-class light cruisers in the Kaiserliche Marine, had been detailed to train torpedo and gun crews for the High Seas Fleet. Meanwhile, her...
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Pride of the Admiralty on Review
How about this excellent shot of the one-off battlecruiser HMS Hood, with (VADM) Sir Frederick Laurence Field, KCB, CMG, embarked, as she rests on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Note the Chateau...
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Super BB vs America’s Largest Cruiser
This great overhead shot at Norfolk Naval Base’s piers, on 20 August 1944, gives a good comparison of two of the Navy’s newest surface combatants at the time. The newly commissioned Iowa-class...
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