Military Pics & Videos

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1934 British Morris 30-cwt (1.5 T) 8X8 Experimental Light Lorry

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M67 Flamethrower Tank: Vietnam and the Zippo.
The M67 flamethrower tank is one of the iconic American weapon systems from the Vietnam War. Nicknamed the “Zippo,” these flame tanks gave soldiers and Marines a tactical advantage against fortified enemy units.

Since March 7, 1994, the United States Department of Defense has prohibited smoking worldwide in all workplaces and vehicles owned by the Pentagon. Moreover, smoking is even prohibited during basic training. Yet, there was a time when smoking and the U.S. military went hand in hand. During the Second World War, Zippo ceased production of lighters for the consumer market and dedicated all production to the U.S. military. Even today, Zippo produces a line of military-themed commemorative lighters.
However, the lighters aren’t the only connection between Zippo and the U.S. military.

One of the most effective flamethrower tanks in the U.S. military’s arsenal was the “Flame Thrower Tank M67” — more commonly known as the M67 “Zippo.” It saw service with the United States Army, and later by the United States Marine Corps during the war in Vietnam. Though it was the last flamethrower tank used by the U.S. military, it wasn’t actually the first.
A Brief Service History of Flamethrower Tanks
Modern flamethrowers saw their horrific entrance on the battlefield during World War I. German flammenwerfer units experienced moderate successes, prompting the other powers to explore the use of the weapons also. World War I also introduced the tank to the battlefield.
It isn’t any significant surprise to find that the world’s armed forces might want to combine the two. The Soviet Union experimented with flamethrower tanks in the interwar era and adopted several models, including the KhT-27 and the KhT-26 among others.
During the Second World War, the Axis nations of Germany, Italy, and Japan also produced a number of tanks that could shoot flames to varying degrees of success.
The first U.S. flamethrower tank was actually the ominously-named “Satan,” a modified conversion of the M3 Stuart light tank. In place of its main gun, it was fitted with a “Ronson” flamethrower. The M3 Satan was used alongside M4 Sherman tanks that were also fitted with bow-mounted E4-5 flamethrowers to great effect against the heavily entrenched Japanese forces in the Pacific.

United States Marines experienced firsthand the capabilities of flame tanks in the Pacific, as it primarily used tanks in a close infantry support role due to the fact that the type of island hopping campaigns meant there were no significant tank battles — at least not on the scale of those in the European Theater.
During the Korean War, the U.S.M.C. sought a more effective platform to replace the aging M4 Sherman. That led to a request to the development of a M67, which was based on the M48 Patton with its 90mm gun.
Enter the M67
Production of the M67 began in 1952 and continued until 1954. The tank was, however, too late for the war in Korea. Nevertheless, the Marine Corps leadership apparently liked what they saw in the newly designed flame tank. A total of 109 were produced, and while the Army also adopted it briefly, only the Marines actually headed into combat with the flame thrower tank.

What is also notable is that there were actually three versions produced including an M67 on the M48A1 chassis, the M67A1 on the M48A2 chassis, and the M67A2 on the M48A3 chassis. The only difference was in said chassis, as the flamethrower was identical on all models. Each tank weighed around 48 metric tons, a bit heavier than the M48 Patton — due to the flamethrower system and internal fuel tank.
Externally there were a few differences from the basic M48 Patton medium tank.
The M67 was fitted with a flame tube that was actually disguised to resemble a 90mm main gun, albeit the shroud was noticeably wider in diameter and a bit shorter. In hindsight, it was actually somewhat ironic that efforts were made to conceal the flamethrower as it proved to be a terrifying weapon, and one genuinely feared. However, the mock-up gun was fitted to the M67 to disguise it while on the move.

The flame tube was also heavier than the 90mm T54 gun, and though it shared many of the elevation and traverse components that were employed on the M48, the M6 Flame Gun required a complicated shroud, which made the muzzle heavy. This required that a hydraulic equilibrator device be introduced so as to balance the weapon.
Instead of a crew of four that was employed on the M48 Patton, the M67 actually had a crew of three — as it required no loader. Instead, a huge fuel tank was placed in the loader’s position within the turret. This meant that the gunner was charged with operating both the flame gun as well as the coaxial .30 caliber Browning M1919 air-cooled machine gun. It wasn’t an ideal setup, but there weren’t really any other options available.
All tanks can be described as cramped, and the M67 even more so.
Within the turret was a large 398-gallon central “tank,” which held “thickened gasoline,” more commonly known as napalm, which was put under pressure, and ignited by a 24,000-volt electric spark. The total burn time in operation was around a minute, depending on the size of the nozzle employed. Nozzles of 19 mm (.75-inches) and 22 mm (.88-inches) were the most common. The flame tube had an approximate range of 280 yards (256 meters).
Due to the fact that the M67 didn’t need to carry standard ordnance, the ammunition racks for the 90mm ammunition to the left and right of the driver were removed and replaced by stowage bays. This allowed for tools, spare parts for the equipment, and ammunition for the machine gun to be stored.
Baby, Won’t You Light My Fire
In what can only be described as perhaps one of the most bizarre coincidences in modern military history, in January 1967 the American rock band The Doors released their hit single “Light My Fire.” The song would go on to spend three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart later that same year, and while not as potent of an anti-war song as the group’s “The Unknown Soldier,” it has come to be associated with the Vietnam War.

It was, of course, in that conflict where the M67 Zippo saw its only actions.
Details are sparse on how many of the flamethrower tanks were actually sent to Southeast Asia, but it was first employed in combat in August 1965 during Operation Starlite, the Battle of Van Tuong. It was the U.S. military’s first major action in the war, and during the battle, a number of M67s were ambushed and destroyed.
It wasn’t an ominous baptism of fire, yet the M67 did prove to be well-suited to the guerilla nature of the Vietnam War, and it was often employed to incinerate patches of jungle that may have concealed an enemy position. Such attacks took on the name “Rods of Flame,” and the Zippo was widely feared by the Viet Cong forces.
Urban Combat with the Zippo
It wasn’t just in the jungles where the M67 saw success.
During Operation Dozer, and the Battle of Hue, a pair of M67 Zippos accompanied by a number of M48 Patton tanks led the armored strike into the ancient Vietnamese city. The M67 proved even better suited to the urban combat in Hue than it did in the jungles. However, throughout its service, the M67 needed to be accompanied by a pair of 2 1/2 ton trucks that carried the equipment and supplies for the flamethrower. In most cases, one truck would carry the Napalm supply, while another would be employed to recharge the compressed air system. The need for such support restricted the type of operations where the tank could be used, while it also meant that efforts needed to be made to protect those trucks.
Another issue that limited the success of the M67 was that the flamethrower was noisy — even by tank standards. When the flamethrower was in use, the level of the internal noise within the vehicle was so loud that the commander and gunner would barely hear each other over the intercom. There are reports of tank commanders putting their heads out of the turret so as to direct the gunner. In a firefight that was also far from ideal.
Legacy of the M67
The M67 wasn’t actually the only armored flamethrower to see service in the war. The other was the Self-Propelled Flame Thrower M132, a modified M113 armored personnel carrier (APC), which was fitted with much of the same equipment. It was employed in a limited role by the United States Army. However, the Army never had the same faith or success with the M132 as the Marines did with the M67.

Soon after the U.S. withdrew its forces from Southeast Asia, the Zippo was essentially snuffed out. The M67 was officially retired from service in 1974 without a replacement. It was the last flamethrower tank to be employed by the U.S. military.
Of the 109 that were produced, it is an actual mystery as to how many actually survive. According to Tanks-Encyclopedia.com, one was on display at the now-closed U.S. Army Ordnance Museum at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. All of the vehicles have been relocated to Fort Benning, Georgia — but as of press time, the M67 Zippo isn’t believed to be on display. Another can now be found outside the Engineering School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
These serve as the final reminders of the M67 Zippo.

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USS Alabama, March 1945. Despite being in the thick of the fight during much of the Pacific War,

she holds the rare distinction of not losing a single crewman due to enemy action.

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In 1942, General Douglas MacArthur ordered this Packard Clipper Eight sedan with virtually every option including air conditioning, overdrive and radio.

The $1,341 base price nearly doubled to $2,600. The factory returned his check and delivered the car to his station in Australia as a gift.

The car was MacArthur's until 1948, when he gave it to his driver who had served the general.

The car sat forgotten in a barn in Texas for 30 years. MacArthur made arrangements through a Navy friend to ship the car on the aircraft carrier Princeton to San Diego.

Then on a military flatbed it shipped to Fort Sam Houston, Texas. It was released to the driver in his home city of Dallas. He made arrangements to have military hardware removed and painted a bright post war color. However, he had to wait as they were busy.

Before he could get it done he parked the car in his small, dirt floor garage. He died in his sleep and it remained there untouched for years. The car still had MacArthur's old army helmet and corncob pipe in the back seat. It may be in Golden, Colorado now.

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The Battle Of Athens, Tennessee

On August 1, 1946, a group of Southern World War Two veterans in Athens, Tennessee, fought and won the only successful armed insurrection in the United States since the War of Independence. These brave men embodied that irrepressible Southern spirit, that martial valor and moral sublimity that suffused the souls of Dixie and her children for generations upon generations, stretching backwards in time through the annals of Indo-European civilization, that constitution which we fervently hope has not drained from our blood forevermore. The Battle of Athens stands, then, as a monumental event in the history of Southern, and thus Western, civilization, the fulfillment of an ancestral promise; so, too, does the Battle of Athens represent a call echoing through the ages to fall on modern ears that must not remain deaf, a call to actualize the destiny that our forefathers spilt so much blood, both their own and their enemies’, to leave to us.

Major Carl Anderson, one of the heroes of the Battle of Athens, distills our lesson in its purest form: “Before you go, I want to say that I hope that our country, especially those places that are as boss ridden as we were, will take hope from what we have accomplished here. I think we have shown how to clean out those dirty nests. Anyway, we’ve done it.” These Southern heroes, Dixie incarnate, took back their town. Let us now take back our nation.

Much, much more of the story at the link:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/the-battle-of-athens-tennessee/

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The USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67) at her outfitting pier at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The photo was taken in July 1968, the week before her initial sea trials.

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RIP

Anthony Dominick Benedetto, United States Army
63rd Infantry Division
August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023

Tony Bennett was an American singer. Bennett amassed many accolades throughout his career, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree, and was the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. Bennett sold more than 50 million records worldwide.

Like many people and many families, the Benedettos' lives were forever changed by World War II.

Bennett turned 18 in 1944 and was drafted into the U.S. Army.

By March 1945, the young soldier was deploying to Europe with the 63rd Infantry Division, replacing casualties lost in the Battle of the Bulge. In his 1998 autobiography "The Good Life," he called the war a "front row seat in hell."

As the German Army was pushed back, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them.

At the end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers; during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River, and by the end of the month reached the Danube.

At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of the Kaufering concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau, near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held. He later wrote in his autobiography that "I saw things no human being should ever have to see."
 

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Two incidences where military aircraft have actually shot themselves down or caused damage severe enough to have to land the aircraft.

The Netherlands’ Defense Safety Inspection Agency (Inspectie Veiligheid Defensie) is investigating an incident during a January military exercise in which a Dutch Air Force F-16 was damaged by live fire from a 20-millimeter cannon, It’s OWN 20-millimeter cannon. At least one round fired from the aircraft’s M61A1 Vulcan Gatling gun struck the aircraft as it fired at targets on the Dutch military’s Vliehors range on the island of Vlieland, according to a report from the Netherlands’ NOS news service.
Two F-16s were conducting firing exercises on January 21, 2019. It appears that the damaged aircraft actually caught up with the 20mm rounds it fired as it pulled out of its firing run. At least one of them struck the side of the F-16’s fuselage, and parts of a round were ingested by the aircraft’s engine. The F-16’s pilot managed to land the aircraft safely at Leeuwarden Air Base.
The incident reflects why guns on a high-performance jet are perhaps a less than ideal weapon. The Vulcan M61A1 six-barrel Gatling gun and its linkless ammunition feed system is capable of firing over 6,000 shots per minute, but its magazine carries only 511 rounds, just enough for five seconds of fury. The rounds have a muzzle velocity of 3,450 feet per second (1050 meters per second). That is speed boosted initially by the aircraft itself, but atmospheric drag slows the shells down eventually. And if a pilot accelerates and maneuvers in the wrong way after firing the cannon, the aircraft could be unexpectedly reunited with its recently departed rounds.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/04/dutch-f-16-takes-cannon-fire-from-itself/

 

During flight testing on September 21, 1956, a U.S Navy Grumman F-11 Tiger flying from Grumman’s test facility in Riverhead, New York fired a burst from four Colt Mk. 12 20mm cannons, entered a steep dive, kicked in the jet’s afterburners, and went supersonic, when suddenly the windshield blew in and mortally wounded the engine. The F-11 Tiger, like all Grumman aircraft, was named after a cat. Fast and nimble, the F-11 was only the second supersonic fighter in the Navy's inventory, capable of 843 miles per hour (Mach 1.1).
The plane was actually Grumman's first supersonic fighter, and the company's inexperience with the consequences of supersonic flight, as well as the fighter's amazing speed, would be one test Tiger's undoing. A Grumman test pilot flying a Tiger off the coast of Long Island dropped his nose 20 degrees and pointed it at an empty spot of ocean. He fired a brief, four second burst from his four Colt Mk.12 20-millimeter cannons, entered a steeper descent, and hit the afterburners.
A minute later, his windshield suddenly caved in and his engine started making funny noises, eventually conking out as the pilot attempted to return to Grumman's Long Island airfield.
The test pilot had assumed he had been the victim of a bird strike, but the accident investigation revealed another cause: In his fast descent, the pilot had actually flown into his own stream of 20-millimeter cannon rounds.
Although the rounds had a head start (the air speed of the aircraft, plus the muzzle velocity of the rounds) they slowed quickly due to drag passing through the surrounding air. The rounds decelerated, the Tiger accelerated, and the two reunited in the sky, with fatal (for the aircraft) consequences.
The Tiger was totaled during the crash and the pilot, while severely injured, was able to return to flight status less than six months later. The Navy only purchased 200 Tigers, and withdrew them from service once faster, better planes like the F-8 Crusader and F-4 Phantom II entered the fray.
The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team flew the F-11 Tiger until 1969.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a27967/the-fighter-plane-that-shot-itself-down/

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An Arabian Fox USV, USCGC Charles Moulthrope, USNS Amelia Earheart,

and USS Thomas Hudner as they transit the Strait of Hormuz

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YF-118G - Boeing Bird Of Prey - McDonnell Douglas Phantom Works - 1992 - 1999

Development of the Bird of Prey began in 1992 by McDonnell Douglas's Phantom Works division for special projects, at Area 51. The aircraft's name is a reference to the Klingon Bird of Prey warship from the Star Trek television series. Phantom Works later became part of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems after the Boeing–McDonnell Douglas merger in 1997.
The first flight was in 1996, and 39 more flights were performed through the program's conclusion in 1999. The Bird of Prey was designed to prevent shadows and is believed to have been used to test active camouflage, which would involve its surfaces changing color or luminosity to match the surroundings.
Because it was a demonstration aircraft, the Bird of Prey used a commercial off-the-shelf turbofan engine and manual hydraulic controls rather than fly-by-wire. This shortened the development time and greatly reduced its cost. (A production aircraft would have computerized controls.)
The shape is aerodynamically stable enough to be flown without computer correction. Its aerodynamic stability is in part due to lift provided by the chines, as used in other aircraft including the SR-71 Blackbird. This provided lift for the nose in flight. This configuration, which can be stable without a horizontal tailplane and a conventional vertical rudder, is now a standard in later stealth unmanned aerial vehicles such as the X-45 and X-47, tailless aircraft which use drag rudders (asymmetrically-used wingtip airbrakes) for yaw control.
The aircraft, which had given the designation "YF-118G" as a cover, was made public on October 18, 2002.
The Bird of Prey was put on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio on July 16, 2003. It is now on display at the Museum's Modern Flight Gallery above their F-22 Raptor.

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