This Day in History

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'd say 9 of these is a force to be reckoned with.

[sexobon]

That's why the mantra is: Shoot, move, and communicate.

[Diaphone Jim]

I have heard references to these incidents leading up to D Day, never read about any in detail.
The size of the fuck up and the rank responsible determine the depth and duration of the cover up. This was a real champ.
Just reading about LST-531 stretches belief. It was commissioned January, 1944 and sunk April 28; no pictures apparently exist, but this is close: http://leaderbackup.weebly.com/uploa...484024_orig.jp
It was designed to carry and deliver tanks but had over 400 men on board. Almost all were lost, but I can find only 98 names. Apparently it was common to issue life jackets that were not combatable with the rucks worn. so they were strapped around the soldier or sailor's waist, turning them upside down in the water, insuring drowning.
Almost all responsible and survivors are now dead.

There are videos of what is probably 531 on the ocean floor, but show little.
Except that it capsized.

Important post, carruthers.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They had to cover it up so as not to tip off D-Day plans, then D-Day, Battle of the bulge, liberating Paris, concentration camps, and VE-Day took the spotlight. Then we had to concentrate of their war crimes, not our mistakes.

[Diaphone Jim]

Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a necessary secret and a cover-up.
Actually, German intelligence used the choice of location off Devon as a clue to the invasion at Normandy.

It is nice that there is only one E-Boat left.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-32396969

[xoxoxoBruce]

That link says 4 E-boats, while the link in Carruther's post says 9 E-boats. That's a big difference.

[Diaphone Jim]

From the link:

"Mr Casner, 88, from Summerville, South Carolina, added: "This is really big. If all the nine E-boats that were out that day hit us, I wouldn't be here talking about it."

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah, then at the other link reporter heard the Nazis had 9 total got mixed up. They had pickets watching the E-boat base to warn the troops of the boats coming out but these four were still out from the night before. That's just another thing the Allies overlooked in this clusterfuck.

[Gravdigr]

May 4, 1988



BIG bada boom!

PEPCON Disaster

4500 metric tons of Space Shuttle fuel burn and detonate in four separate explosions, the last of which was the equivalent of 1 kiloton of TNT.

[Carruthers]

I thought that the shock wave at about the 7 sec mark was frightening enough, but that accompanying the explosion at about the 55 sec point was terrifying.

Two fatalities is two too many but I'm surprised that there weren't more given that there were also 372 souls injured.

[Gravdigr]

[Undertoad]

100 years ago today the first plane crosses the Atlantic.

[Diaphone Jim]

I read about this a few weeks ago and don't think I had any idea.
On this day and a few days following in 1921, Tulsa Oklahoma experienced one of the horrendous manmade catastrophes in United States history.
It was called a race riot, but it was much more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

Read at least the summary.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah read about that a couple years ago and was at first how is this possible, how could this happen?
Then sickened to realize how quickly it could, and can happen.
It wasn't like the victims were low lifes, vagrants, or shanty town dwellers easily victimized. Scary.

[Carruthers]

There's plenty of coverage of D Day and the commemorative events elsewhere so I won't over egg the pudding, but the first news of Operation Overlord might be worth a listen.

John Snagge's delivery seems quite low key.



BTW, I'm informed by a usually reliable source that it was originally going to be called B Day, but the French objected for some reason.