On This Day…January 29th
Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX’s of No. 241 Squadron RAF return to their base at Madna, south-east of Campomarino, Italy, after a weather reconnaissance sortie over the Anzio beachhead, 29 January 1944.
No. 241 Squadron was formed in August 1918, disbanding between wars and reformed in 1940 flying Westland Lysanders. To this were added some Blackburn dive bombers and Curtiss Tomahawks.
In April 1942, the squadron moved to North Africa with Hurricanes where it flew reconnaissance and ground attack during the Tunisian campaign. The Hurricanes were replaced with Spitfires in December 1943 and 241 operaterated reconnaissance and ground attack duties in Italy until the end of the war. The squadron was disbanded on 14 August 1945. Below is a nice photo of 241 squadron carrying out maintenance on a Mk. IX.
29th January 1942, England, Members of an RAF Bomber command ground crew, man-handle a Stirling into a hangar. This photo really shows the scale of these heavy bombers.
January 29, 1944 - the Iconic and much loved USS Missouri (BB-63) is launched at Brooklyn Navy Yard, christened by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, then the United States senator for Missouri.
USS Missouri (BB-63), also known as the ‘Mighty Mo’ or ‘Big Mo’ was the third ship of the U.S Navy to be named after the state of Missouri and she was the last battleship commissioned by the United States. The ship was probably best known for her role as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, ending World War II.
At full compliment she boasted an incredible 1,851 officers and enlisted men, her motto; "Strength for Freedom" being very appropriate.
In the Pacific Theater of Operations she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and repeatedly shelled the Japanese home islands. The Mighty Mo also fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 but reactivated and modernized in the 1980’ s as part of John Lehman and Ronal Reagan’s (not quite) ‘ 600-Ship Navy plan’ in response to Russia tooling up their military hardware.
The Missouri has been modelled several times on iModeler, the most recent by @Olli-Pekka being a favourite as it shows her in the Gulf War configuration...
USS Missouri in San Francisco for recommissioning 1986...
Missouri received 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, now berthed permenently at Pearl as museum ship.
On January 29th of 2016, Iran flew an unarmed drone over US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and took "precise" photographs during a naval drill in the Gulf, according to Iranian state broadcasters. Images showing an (at the time) “unnamed” US warship were shown on state television, with Iran's navy commander praising the operation for getting so close to a warship "to get such accurate footage of the combat units of foreign forces".
USS Pensacola (CA 24) In process of removal removal of 8" turret (No. 3) at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 29 January 1943. The turret was damaged during the Battle of Tassafaronga, near Guadalcanal nine weeks earlier.
Wreck of B-24 Liberator, ‘Our Baby’ which crashed on landing on Morotai after a mission over Borneo on 29th January 1945.
Nice, as usual!
Thanks, Manuel. Very much appreciated.
Those Iowa class ships are awesome , took a tour of the Iowa when she visited NYC in the eighties, it was supposed to be home ported in a base on Staten Island, that fell through ,being replaced by the cruiser Normandy.
Informative,relevant and cool as always. One thing I noticed from the Spitfire photos are the addition of slipper tanks. Having been prejudiced by building models for too long...the vast majority of kit manufactures don't include the tanks. Until Eduard came out with them. Yes its esoteric and the comment borders on trivia a photo does speak a thousand words.
Hadn´t the 1/48 ICM Spitfire Mk.IX those tanks, too?
Hello David,
As mentioned above. Always informative. The problem is that you get used to these daily items from such a high quality. Thanks for all the effort.
Regards, Dirk
Thank you, Dirk. I really appreciate your confidence in the ‘quality’ - I do cross reference all the entries across platforms and data sources. The editorial robustness of iModelers do the rest. They’re a knowledgable bunch of people.
Ummm... that 241 Squadron "Spitfire" is actually a Tomahawk. 🙂
Tom, the caption above the aircraft actually confirms 241 were flying Tomahawks, the photo is of a squadron 250 Tomahawk IIb (being examined by Italian troops) in RAF colours, just to show the type of planes 241 were using, the photo BELOW is the Spit (an actual 241 mount).
If I didn’t know the difference between a Spit and a Kitty I’d get run out of town here...
Quite rightly, too, my dear man!