Military Pics & Videos

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F2H Banshee Fighters Over Korea. 1953

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1 hour ago, Schmidt Meister said:

On 15 August 1961, 19-year-old Hans Conrad Schumann, an East German soldier, was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Strasse and Bernauer Strasse to guard the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. At that time and place, the wall was only a single coil of concertina wire. From the other side, West Germans shouted to him, "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"), and a police car pulled up to wait for him.

Schumann jumped over the barbed wire while dropping his PPSh-41 submachine gun and was promptly driven away from the scene by the West Berlin police. West German photographer Peter Leibing photographed Schumann's escape. This photograph, entitled "Leap into Freedom," has since become an iconic image of the Cold War era and featured at the beginning of the 1982 Disney film Night Crossing. The scene, including Schumann's preparations, was also filmed on 16-mm film from the same perspective by camera man Dieter Hoffmann.

Schumann went from West Berlin into West Germany, where he settled in Bavaria  In 1962, he met and married Kunigunde Gunda in Günzburg. They had a son the next year. He took up a new job at a winery and eventually at the Audi car assembly factory in Ingolstadt, where he worked for nearly 30 years.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall Schumann said, "Only since 9 November 1989 [the date of the fall] have I felt truly free." Even so, he continued to feel more at home in Bavaria than in his birthplace, citing old frictions with his former colleagues, and was even hesitant to visit his parents and siblings in Saxony.

On 20 June 1998, suffering from depression, he committed suicide, hanging himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg in Upper Bavaria. His body was found by his wife a few hours later.

In May 2011, the photograph of Schumann's "leap into freedom" was inducted into the UNESCO Memory of the World programme as part of a collection of documents on the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A sculpture called Mauerspringer ("Walljumper") by Florian and Michael Brauer and Edward Anders can be seen close to the site of the defection, but has since been moved to the side of a building on Brunnenstraße, several meters south of Bernauer Straße.

I ran across that picture today actually, or one similar to it.  I actually remember seeing that on the news, watchin with my parents in 61 believe it or not.  As soon as he cleared the barbed wire, he dropped his gun.  Damn I feel old...

[Schmidt Meister]

I had looked for another picture. The photographer has almost been cut off in this one but you can see him on the very left. I was 11 when this happened so I don't know if I would have been paying attention, but I don't remember it. I was in Berlin in 1982 with the 101st and the wall was still standing. I have pictures I took of the crosses that the West Germans would put up for those that were killed trying to cross. This picture had a real connection to what I saw when I was there.

[Swampfox762]

Your'e only 3 1/2 years younger than me.  we both remember the same things. YOU were there though.

[Schmidt Meister]

FA-18 Super Hornet, F-16 Falcon's with the Royal Jordanian AF and a Mirage 2000 with the Pakistani AF over Wadi Rum in Jordan - 10.26-2010 - 2010 Falcon Air Meet held at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

[Schmidt Meister]

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of the first prototype Airborne High Energy Laser, or AHEL, which is set to be flight tested on one of its AC-130J Ghostrider gunships next year. The service hopes to demonstrate the feasibility of adding this directed-energy weapon to the AC-130J’s already very diverse arsenal, which could give these aircraft a unique capability to engage ground targets silently and stealthily.

Lockheed Martin announced on October 7 it delivered the first Airborne High Energy Laser (AHEL) system to the US Air Force for testing on an AC-130J aircraft.

The company said it completed factory acceptance testing for the AHEL ahead of its preparation for US military ground and flight testing.

“Completion of this milestone is a tremendous accomplishment for our customer,” said Rick Cordaro, vice president, Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions. “These mission success milestones are a testament of our partnership with the US Air Force in rapidly achieving important advances in laser weapon system development.”

Lockheed Martin delivered the AHEL subsystem for integration with other systems in preparation for ground testing and, ultimately, flight testing aboard the AC-130J aircraft.

In January 2019, Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract for integration, test and demonstration on the AC-130J aircraft and is on schedule to continue testing this capability.

The US Special Operations Command, the operator of the AC-130J for which the laser was developed, began critical design review of the AHEL system in August 2020, while flight demonstrations on an actual aircraft in late fiscal year 2022.

In July 2021, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division awarded Lockheed Martin a $12 million cost-plus-fixed fee, indefinite-delivery, five-year contract award for technical services, integration, test, and demonstration for the AHEL system.

In addition to laser systems, the company is also working on similar program with the navy, and has already delivered the HELIOS laser for installation aboard an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. It has also been tasked with developing a laser mission module for the littoral combat ships.

(Picture provided is simulated, not laser in use)

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German prisoners being marched along the Autobahn near Giese with their Allied captors in vehicles. May 4, 1945.

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The Panzerkampfwagen V Panther was a Medium Tank used by the German Wehrmacht during World War 2. It entered service during 1943 and served through til the end of the war. Around 6000 were produced in all varients during it's service period. It was armed with a 75mm KwK42 L/70 gun, a formidable armament, and was protected by armour of varying thicknesses and angles, with the front hull being 80mm sloped at 55 degrees and the turret ranging from 100-110mm. It was powered by a Maybach HL 230 P30 V12 water cooled 600hp petrol engine which gave it a top road speed of 46kmh or about 29mph. It had a crew of 5 operating it. The vehicle shown within this video currently resides at The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

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F-117 Nighthawk and F-22 Raptor.

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XM170 Jeep with 8 wheel for better traction and flotation in wet terrain.

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YF-23 Black Widows in 1994.

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One of three X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft being carried aloft under its B-52 mothership, escorted by T38A Talon chase aircraft. The X-15 was air launched from the B-52 so the rocket plane would have enough fuel to reach its high speed and altitude test points.

The X-15s made a total of 199 flights over a period of nearly 10 years and set world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 miles per hour (Mach 6.7) and 354,200 feet. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo manned spaceflight programs and also the Space Shuttle program.

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White Phosphorus Incendiary bombs dropped by a USAF B-25 Mitchell Bomber, burst over Japanese G4M Bombers and a A6M Zero Fighter on Lakunai Airfield near Rabaul, New Britain Island - 1943

[Schmidt Meister]

Towards the end of World War II Germany was on the losing side, so desperate times called for desperate measures. This allowed some of Germany’s greatest minds to create innovative technology in an attempt to drive back the Allied Forces. Among those innovative weapons was the V1 Flying Bomb, (German Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") which was deadly but Royal Air Force pilots found a way around it.

The V1 Rocket was designed by Robert Lussier who would later go on to work for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory program. But during WWII, he lent his scientific genius in jet technology to creating weapons to fight against the Allied Forces. The V1 bombs were designed with an internal gyroscope allowing these rockets to fly from Germany all the way to London to blast targets. They weren’t exactly the most precise weapons and they did have a weakness that Royal Air Force pilots began to exploit.

When a V1 Flying Bomb was detected, Spitfire pilots would move to intercept. However, they wouldn’t bother wasting ammunition they would use another method. Spitfire would simply move closer to the V1s, tap on its wings and throw its gyroscope out of line although because of damage to wing tips they later developed a tactic of disrupting the airflow by placing their wing very close to the V1's wing, causing it to topple. Flying bombs were never the most effective weapon for Nazi Germany, but they used everything they could.

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