This beautiful AR-15 by Guns & Gardens looks like the stars of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic just barfed all over it. So it’s just right for the little girl or Brony in your life. The rifle comes with a handy chainsaw bayonet for any undead issues that s/he may encounter while walking around the neighborhood.

Video Link and Official Website -via Geekosystem

Florence Green was only 17 years old when she signed up for the Women’s Royal Air Force in 1918. She worked at the military airfields in Norfolk.

Mrs Green spent her war days working ”all hours” serving officers breakfast, lunch and dinner and would often spend time wandering the base simply ”admiring the pilots”.

Before her death she said: ”I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company.

”I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways I had the time of my life.

”I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates. I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying.

”It was a lovely experience and I’m very proud.”

Mrs. Green was a couple weeks short of 111 years old. Link -via reddit

As if combat isn’t scary enough, imagine a future where bullets zip around, homing in on laser guided targets and doing a deadly dance in the air, curving and rolling until they hit home.

Well, this future battlefield phenomenon isn’t that far off, because Sandia National Laboratories have created a prototype for a self guided bullet that can hit a laser designated target from over a mile away. Here’s how it works:

While in flight, the guided bullet collects information with an optical sensor and relays it to an eight bit central processing unit that controls electromagnetic actuators. You may think it’d be tough to load all this equipment onto a bullet, but the researchers say that the bullet’s diminutive size has actually made things easier. With a rocket, course adjustment is a slow, meticulous process. With the bullet, adjustments are so responsive that the guidance system can compensate for over-correction pretty easily, which gives everything a little extra wiggle room.

I hope someone creates bullet proof armor with laser targeting jammers before these suckers start flying!

Link

Although it might seem odd to see the crossed keys of St. Peter on a gun (well, maybe not), the Popes commanded armies, off and on, until the collapse of the Papal States in 1870. This model, popularly known as the Pontifico, was a variant of the M1867 Remington.

Link -via View from the Porch | Photo: Keith Doyon

Think you're tough? Probably not as tough as these Chinese soldiers, who played a lethal game of Hot Potato ... with live bombs!

During an exhibition drill in Hong Kong, last month, an elite garrison of 6,000 PLA troops staged a series of impressive exercises for the visit of the island’s chief executive, Sir Donald Tsang. Snipers shot tiny glasses, soldiers carried heavy logs and jumped through rings of fire, but nothing as incredible as a group of men playing a game of pass-the-bomb.

The lethal game is played by six soldiers standing in a circle with a dug whole in the middle. They pass an explosive satchel from one two another, counting down until it detonates. Just before it explodes, one of the soldiers throws it in the hole and they all leap away as the ground trembles and dirt starts flying from the pit. Any miscalculation could mean the end for all six players, but they don’t seem very intimidated by that. They just calmly pass the live satchel as if it were a simple bag.

Link

Man, with all the innovative ways people have come up with to destroy zombies, humanity should be well prepared if we ever end up in neck deep in the walking dead!

The latest innovation comes in the form of the Doublestar Zombie X Chainsaw rail attachment-just attach it to your favorite assault rifle and get to chopping if the rotten buggers start to close in on you! Perfect for channeling your inner Gear or Space Marine, badass suit of armor not included.

Link  –via Geekosystem

You’ve probably seen the ad for this underground missile base in New York state that’s been on the market for some time. Now you have a chance to take a virtual tour! Scout from Scouting New York went to the site and the owners were gracious enough to let him look around and take plenty of pictures. There’s a nice house on top, and part of the underground has been renovated for use as a modern living area. Then there are parts that recall the facility’s original use during the Cold War. Link -via the Presurfer

Legolas is alive, and he’s a Russian woman named Iza Privezenceva. Watch her send arrows downrange about once a second and, as you can see at the end of the video, hitting her target most of the time.

-via Blame It on the Voices

“The most difficult part is something that the movie refers to: overcoming the negative beliefs about blacks that we couldn’t do certain things. Our training was relatively fair; however, once we went into combat, initially they didn’t want us to be in the high-responsibility positions escorting the bombers. Once they realized they were losing so many bombers, they wanted as many people as possible to escort them; we were given that mission, and we did it extremely well. Then, once people began to hear about us, they said, ‘We want those guys, they’re really good!’ We were probably as good as many of the white pilots, but many of the white pilots would leave the bombers and shoot down planes to become heroes; our commander insisted that we stay with the bombers, which is why the bombers would like seeing our Red Tails flying over them.

Brown also talks about how he came to be a pilot, some close calls, and the indignities the Airmen endured in the military. Link

Denmark is responsible for the defense of Greenland. To serve this role over such a vast and harsh land, the Royal Danish Navy maintains Sirius, the only special forces unit in the world that travels primarily by dogsled. Photographer Fritz Hoffman joined one team on its patrol into the frozen wilderness, snapping pictures of the amazing men and dogs who keep the peace there. You can view several more at the link.

Link -via Marilyn Terrell | Fritz Hoffman’s Website

Is it inappropriate or genius? Or maybe it's both. David S. Palmer used a torch to create portraits of people killed by a bullet, on a canvas of bullet shells casings.

David wrote:

The materials I have chosen to use serve my purpose because of the blatant and emotionally charged response they evoke. These mediums already have a strong mental imagery that is attached to them. Around the world they are still used to either help build dreams or destroy the dreamers. My hope is that you will feel the agony and then see the miracles that can arise from choosing to create rather than destroy.

His painting of John Lennon shown above, called "Walking in the Light," used 8,000 spent shell casings. David has also drawn Tupac Shakur, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy - all killed by gunfire.

Oddity Central has the gallery: Link | David's official website

Usually video game themed weapons look like shiny plastic, perfect for cosplay but not likely to put fear in the hearts of all who oppose you. But these arm blades, inspired by the video game Bloodrayne, look like they can do some serious damage.

From their stainless steel construction, to the rubber pistol grip handle that ensures you don’t lose your grip when the red stuff starts flowing by the gallon, this is the perfect backup weapon when you’re surrounded by Nazi zombies and need to make a big hole real fast.

(note: you should read the hilarious review left for this item on Amazon, which has been included in the Super Punch article)

Link  –via Super Punch

"Guns don't kill people, bullets do" or so the saying goes, but 59-year-old Verlin Q. Alsept was a bit unclear of the concept that you still need that gun:

Rather the fellow who entered a Family Dollar Store in Dayton on Tuesday threatened the cashier with a bullet — a single .38 caliber round he pulled from his pocket.

The 59-year-old man asked the cashier for all the money in the cash register. Unfazed by the threatening bullet, she declined, and he left the store empty-handed. A nearby private security guard at the Westown Shopping Center — alerted by the cashier — quickly ran the man to ground as bystanders called police.

Link - via News of the Weird

Krystopher Sapp takes antique gun parts and reassembles them into fanciful sculptures. This is “The Privateer,” and it looks the part. It’s made from the remains of a Savage, a M1 Garand, an ’03 Springfield, an AR-16 and a M-16. His exhibit, “When a Good Man Goes to War,” is on display at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles until January 29.

Link -via My Modern Met

For a year and a half, the 401st Air Expeditionary Group of the United States Army Air Force wreaked havoc on Nazi Germany. You may know that these brave men often decorated the noses of their bombers with cartoonish or saucy images. But they also personalized their jackets with similar works of art, often marking down individual bombing runs. You can find a gallery of pictures of these jackets at the link. Content warning: some NSFW images.

Link -via American Digest

To make sure they were rarely seen from above, these planes were painted to fly just under cloud cover. Although the planes were ideally meant to fly at sunset and sunrise, when the clouds took on a pinkish hue and made the plane completely invisible against them, they were also useful during the day. Clouds are pinker than we give them credit for. We perceive them as white against the sky because the particles in the sky scatter blue light, sending some of it down towards us and letting us see the sky as blue. Clouds scatter every kind of light, and against the intense blue sky look whitish gray. But their color depends on what kind of light gets to them, and what they are floating next to.

Although we see the sky as a radiant blue, the particles are actually filtering out a lot of the blue light that gets down to the earth’s surface. When the blue light is scattered, a good deal of it goes right back up into space, which is why the atmosphere of earth glows blue in some pictures. This filters out a good deal of the blue that gets to the clouds. The clouds scatter what they have, which is a spectrum of light with at least some of the blue filtered out, shifting the overall light ever so slightly towards red. Add to that the fact that the water droplets in clouds can diffract light at different angles, and the clouds are often rife with pastel shades of pink, orange, and green. They look white compared to a glowing blue sky, and a quick glance leaves people with the impression that they are white, but a long look should reveal this shifting, if minor, shades. A light pink plane is safer against them than anyone would expect.

There’s a video at the link that demonstrates the effectiveness of this camouflage scheme.

Link | Photo: Airshow 1

My favorite section details how the British responded when it turned out they had a drastic shortage of binoculars, which at that time were very important for fighting the war. They turned to the world’s leading manufacturer of “precision optics,” namely Germany. The German War Office immediately supplied 8,000 to 10,000 binoculars to Britain, directly intended and designed for military use. Further orders consisted of many thousands more and the Germans told the British to examine the equipment they had been capturing, to figure out which orders they wished to place.

The Germans in turn demanded rubber from the British, which was needed for their war effort. It was delivered to Germany at the Swiss border.

Cowen offers a few possible explanations for this transaction at the link.

Link | Amazon Link | Photo: Imperial War Museum

Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more drones! Thankfully, the US Navy has developed the Cicada Mark III disposable drone. Technicians have equipped the Tempest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with two of them. They’re about a foot long, but can fly up to eleven miles and land within fifteen feet of their targets.

Link -via Geekosystem | Photos: US Navy

You can buy a pen like this, but the more ambitious tinkerers among you may try to make their own. Instructables user Mrballeng shows you how to make a reliable click ballpoint pen with two .30-06 cases. Find photos, written instructions and a lengthy video at the link.

Link -via Make | Maker’s Website

The greatest problem with using a puncture-based weapon against zombies is that it may become lodged in the skull of your undead foe. That’s a problem that Jörge Sprave, maker of the sawblade-firing slingshot, the pump-action slingshot, and the Gatling-gun slingshot has now solved. His weapon includes a standard slingshot on one end, and a mace on the other that’s paired with a heavy spike. If your spike gets stuck in a skull, pull the lever to push it out.

-via Make

What is this odd helmet-like object? It’s an armored car built by Venezuela. Machinists at Puerto Cabello Naval Arsenal constructed the Tortuga (turtle) over a Ford 6×4 commercial truck chassis and usually armed it with a Vickers 7mm machine gun. They built only twelve because the Tortuga was hard to steer, poorly ventilated, and offered limited visibility to crewmen. This is one of twelve weird tanks and armored vehicles highlighted at Oobject. Check out the rest at the link.

Link -via Gizmodo | Photo: William A. Kirk

Batman would have been proud. In 1942, California’s state defense force experimented with bat-like wingsuits for soldiers. The ultimate goal, as explained by the magazine Mechanix Illustrated, was to create an airborne unit that could be deployed with them.

Link -via io9

This is the Kiev, currently anchored in the Chinese port of Tianjin. Once she was the flagship of the mighty Soviet navy’s Pacific fleet. Now she’s available for business retreats, intimate getaways or simple relaxation.

That’s because the Chinese have bought the aircraft carrier and transformed her into a floating luxury hotel.

The Kiev will stay permanently docked. Much as a Soviet-era sailor might resent the indignity, Kiev won’t go back out to sea. She’ll entertain guests and clients at anchor, a bizarre museum to a different country’s naval power.

View a slideshow of the hotel’s fancy interiors at the link.

Slideshow and News Story -via DVICE | Photo: Xinhua

Built in the 1950s, this bunker in Wiltshire could house and feed 4,000 people for three months. The United Kingdom designed it to house the government if the worst happened during the Cold War. Watch this video tour of its facilities and make an offer. It’s up for sale.

Link -via Boing Boing

In the 1970s, during the heights of the Cold War, more than 1,000 engineers
worked on a project
so secret that they couldn’t tell their wives and children decades
after it was over.

In September 2011, the project – a series of spy satellites so advanced
that it could see objects about 2 feet wide from space (mind you, this
was in the 1970s before the ubiquity of computers so the satellites were
built with slide rules), was declassified and with it, the stories of
the men who kept their secret for 45 years:

"Ah, Hexagon," Ed Newton says, gleefully exhaling the
word that stills feels almost treasonous to utter in public.

It was dubbed "Big Bird" and it was considered the most
successful space spy satellite program of the Cold War era. From 1971
to 1986 a total of 20 satellites were launched, each containing 60 miles
of film and sophisticated cameras that orbited the earth snapping vast,
panoramic photographs of the Soviet Union, China and other potential
foes. The film was shot back through the earth’s atmosphere in buckets
that parachuted over the Pacific Ocean, where C-130 Air Force planes
snagged them with grappling hooks.

The scale, ambition and sheer ingenuity of Hexagon KH-9 was breathtaking.
The fact that 19 out of 20 launches were successful (the final mission
blew up because the booster rockets failed) is astonishing.

So too is the human tale of the 45-year-old secret that many took
to their graves.

Helen O’Neill of the AP has the fascinating story: Link – via Boing Boing | More at SPACE.com

What happens when a top-secret government project is canceled? The details are not quite clear, but it’s hard to keep a secret when prototype parts are sold for scrap and end up on eBay.

Anyone interested in top secret aircraft will know of the A-12 Avenger II, which was cancelled in 1991 and remains at the centre of ongoing litigation to this day.  The stealth attack aircraft, developed by General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, was terminated before the first airframe had been assembled.  But the latest twist in this still-shadowy tale comes in the form of an A-12 canopy appearing on eBay – and it looks like the real thing.

See more pictures at Urban Ghosts Media. Link

Man, Christmas seems to come and go faster each year! These ads harken back to a simpler time, a time when cowboys were all the rage, and gun ads were allowed to appeal to kids during the holidays.

It’s a nice bit of nostalgia, and a few of the pics in this gallery are definitely chuckle worthy. Just don’t shoot your eye out!

Link –via BoingBoing

Well, of course. Did you think that he was going to use an alphorn? Those things take up too much room in a sleigh.

The tune becomes more recognizable about halfway through the video.

-via View from North Central Idaho

The President of Paraguay, Francisco Solano Lopez, was a huge admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. He fancied himself a skilled tactician and excellent commander, but lacked one thing, a war. So to solve this problem, in 1864 he declared war on Paraguay’s three surrounding neighbors, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The outcome of the war? Paraguay was very nearly annihilated. It is estimated that 90% of its male population died during the war of disease, starvation, and battles with enemy armies. This was perhaps one of the most needless wars in history since Lopez had almost no reason to declare war on his more powerful neighbors.

Read about ten of these obscure and bizarre conflicts ay Listverse. Link -via The Daily What

YouTube user Hickok45, who we’ve seen previously seen carving a jack-o’-lantern with a Glock, knows how to use tools in unorthodox ways. He starts out trying to chop down a small Christmas tree with a heavy knife but then adds a unique “attachment” that gets the job done.

-via Everyday, No Days Off

There are thousands of tiny soldiers locked in eternal combat in Valencia, Spain, housed in the Museo de los Soldaditos de Plomo (museum of the little lead soldiers).

What started as a small collection belonging to Museum Director Alejandro Noguera’s father has become a collection of over one million, with 85,000 on display in diorama scenes straight out of history. You can see more of Derek Workman’s beautiful photos of the historical tableaus at the link below.

Link –via BoingBoing –image credit:Derek Workman for Smithsonian Magazine

Image: Sir EDW/Flickr

Protecting Santa is a tough job, so Santa's Defense Forces need heavy-duty weapons like this candy cane small arm that is standard issue on the North Pole:

The core of the system is the Candy Cane Carbine (C3), a modular candy cane small arm that can be tailored to a variety of applications. For more serious threats to Santa, especially those hardened against small arms fire, there is the weapon of last resort, the Mark 12 Tenenbaum Launcher.

Link - via Laughing Squid

This amazing custom rifle, more of a hand cannon really, fires modified .50 caliber rounds and looks badass punching giant holes in targets. Here’s how this rifle puts the WTF in firearms:

The cartridge, named the .700 WTF (“What The F…”) and is made by fire forming a .50 BMG brass case, trimming it to 3″ in length and then sizing it. The round is loaded with a 1132 grain paper patched .700 lead cast bullet.

The rifle, with just a 16.25″ barrel, can push the 1132 grain of lead up to 2300 fps. Thats 13,000 ft/lbs of energy, right up there with the .50 BMG and far exceeding the .700 Nitro Express. The cast lead bullet has enough energy to pass clean through a 1/4″ steel plate.

It’s a must-have when you come face-to-face with an angry dinosaur, or Godzilla on the rampage. Hit the link to check out a video of this bad boy in action.

Link –via Geekologie

According to the company, these vents reduce friction by allowing gas to lubricate the bullet as it passes through the barrel and then act as a muzzle brake as the bullet exits the barrel. They apparently also reduce smoke, increase velocity (a rocket effect as they leave the barrel) and reduce muzzle flash. In other words, they are miracle bullets. [...]

As for the muzzle brake and “rocket” effect claim, the physics is beyond me. I cannot work out how gas venting out of the bullet for a brief moment in time would have any effect on recoil. Surely because the bullet is not fixed to the gun any muzzle brake effect would slow down the bullet not the recoil of the gun?

Do you think they would work?

Link | Company Website

The Scottsdale (Arizona) Gun Club invites you to have your picture taken with Santa Claus ..and his machine guns. Other firearms are available for your photo shoot, and you can even try out the machine guns! Link to story. Link to website. -via Arbroath

(YouTube Link)

This guy is known for making some serious head choppers. Artisans like Korehira Watanabe are fading into history, as their creations are no longer in demand and the inherent secrecy of their craft makes passing on the legacy virtually impossible. Watch this master in action and see the skills that may someday be lost to antiquity.

–via BuzzFeed

(YouTube Link)

Everyone joined in the war effort during World War II, helping out however possible stateside. Disney artists decided to join the cause by creating various forms of propaganda, like this surreal animated short, meant to show how food will help the Allies win the war. Using morbidly obese Americans to “black out all of Berlin” never seemed like a valid wartime strategy until this short came out!

Link

Want to take your pillow fights to the next level? These pillow weapons were designed with you in mind! Guaranteed to cause less bodily harm than a real scimitar, or lightsaber for that matter, they will make you fee like you’re armed with a real weapon when the pillows start flying. Now go forth and plush the heck out of each other!

Link

The system would work by loading up projectiles with materials that advertise the presence of explosives — sort of like a litmus test for bombs — and firing them at the suspected bombs. Picture paintballing, but with a target that might really kill you. [...]

The paintball idea is comparatively low-tech. The Army notes that the technology to detect explosives with paints and powders is already a commercial reality. They point to Raptor Detection Technology’s SAFE-T Spray, which turns orange on contact with certain explosives, as an example.

Link -via GearFuse | Photo: Flickr user VisitLakeland

Wake immediately went to work for the French resistance, hiding and smuggling men out of France and ferrying contraband supplies and falsified documents. She was once captured and interrogated for days, but gave no secrets away. With the Nazis in hot pursuit, Wake managed to escape to Britain in 1943, and joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British intelligence agency. After training with weapons and parachutes, she was airdropped back into France -as an official spy and warrior. Wake had no trouble shooting Nazis or blowing up buildings with the French guerrilla fighters known as maquis in the service of the resistance. She once killed an SS sentry with her bare hands.

Read what happened to Wake and ten others in this list of eleven at mental_floss. Link

Colonel Doolittle (second from left) and his flight crew.

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.

After Japanese air power struck a stunning tactical blow to the U.S. military forces at Pearl Harbor, a retaliatory strike against the Japanese was a priority for president Frankin D. Roosevelt, who challenged his general staff to devise a way to attack the heart of Japan.

PAYBACK PLANS

By mid-January 1942, a carrier-based air strike against Japan was accepted as the most plausible solution to FDR’s request. When Admiral Ernest J. King, chief of Naval Operations, was asked to evaluate the possibilities, he passed the idea to General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, who then asked Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to work out the details with the Navy. In the days immediately after Pearl Harbor, service rivalries took a back seat to striking a blow against the enemy.

B-25s specially modified for this mission are ready to go.

After preliminary test flights, the North American B-25 Mitchell bomber was selected for the mission. Eighteen B-25s flew from their Oregon home base to Indiana for modifications. The range of the unmodified Mitchell was only 1,300 miles on a favorable day, so additional internal tanks were added to allow for more fuel. At the last second, 10 five-gallon cans of gas were stowed in the radio operator’s seat. The heavy guns were removed, along with the highly secret Norden bombsight, whose classified technology couldn’t fall into Japanese hands. In the planned scenario, the Norden bombsight wouldn’t have been very accurate at the low altitude that would be flown anyway, so it was replaced with a simple metal aiming sight. Aircraft radios were also removed, since the mission would be executed under strict radio silence. These changes allowed each aircraft to carry just over 1,100 gallons of usable fuel, which under typical flight conditions would allow for a range of 2,400 miles. After all of these radical modifications, four 500-pound bombs barely fit into the bomb bay.

The Army and Navy finally agreed on a near-dusk takeoff and night raid on Tokyo as the plan that stood the best chance of achieving complete surprise. he plan depended on a fast carrier run-in at night to get as close to the mainland as possible just prior to launch. After the planes were away, the fleet would make an immediate turn back toward Hawaii and run for waters beyond the range of Japanese land-based aircraft to preserve the limited fleet that remained in the Pacific. On April 13, Naval Task Force 16 gathered near Hawaii and proceeded toward the Japanese mainland with 16 ships, including Vice Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey’s flagship, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

THE BEST-LAID PLANS

Doolittle’s plan was to lead 16 planes with five-man crews ahead of the rest of the aircraft, to attack Tokyo with incendiary bombs, and to set fires that the others could follow to the city. But the B-25 crews were forced to launch early when the nighttime attack plan was disrupted by Japanese picket boats that spotted Task Force 16 early on the morning of the 18th. There were no other acceptable options; the mission had to launch immediately.

Owing to the added distance at the takeoff point, there was no plan for how or where to land these aircraft when Doolittle took off at 8:20AM. Doolittle recognized that the mission was already in jeopardy and might end with a parachute bailout at sea. Halsey and Doolittle shared the responsibility for the launch decision, with the clear intention of completing the mission.

OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER

A B-25 just before the raid.

The USS Hornet steered into the wind while the deck pitched in heavy seas. Engines roared to life and Doolittle taxied his plane forward a few feet onto three cork pads that provide enough friction for the tires to hold the B-25 s the engines were pushed to full throttle. Minimum-distance takeoff procedures practiced on dry land in Florida worked as advertised on the deck of the ship.

After traveling more than 700 miles, miniscule errors in heading control were amplified, putting the pilots many miles off course. Several of the B-25 crews were totally lost when they finally made landfall around noon. Doolittle himself flew well north of his planned route, but quick work by his navigator steered him back on course. Those following him were much relieved at the rapid course correction. The sun was shining brightly about half past noon when Doolittle became the first pilot to bomb the Japanese homeland in fulfillment of FDR’s orders.

DOOMED FROM THE START

Unknown to Doolittle’s Raiders, the aircraft carrying the homing radio beacons for the landing fields in China had crashed, and with it any chance of finding the strips at night and in bad weather. Fortunately, the original targets planned for night recognition and attack were large industrial zones, so hitting at least part of the complex would be much easier in broad daylight.

The attack was not intended to do maximum damage; rather, it was intended to make a spectacle. The attack was designed do that the Japanese people would clearly know that a foreign enemy had bombed Tokyo. In the original plan, Doolittle had hoped to set fires to serve not only as beacons to the following 15 B-25s, but also to dramatically -and undeniably- announce that the capital city had been bombed. An order forbidding the bombardment of the radio towers near Tokyo indicated that immediate dissemination of the news by Japanese radio was desired and expected.

TRIUMPH FROM TRAGEDY

Taking off for Tokyo.

In almost every case, primary targets were bombed. The damage done far exceeded expectation largely as a result of highly inflammable Japanese construction, the low-altitude attack, the clear weather over Tokyo, and the careful target studies that the crew had done. All 16 planes had descended to extremely low altitudes, attacked, and egressed the target area at high speed. All 16 crews began to calculate how much fuel they had left and how far they could fly. Initial calculations were not encouraging. Navigator Lieutenant Eugene F. McGurl halfheartedly joked, “Hey, I don’ t think we’re gonna have to swim more than one hundred miles.”

Doolittle’s Raiders got another lucky break that evening. A stiff tailwind had developed between japan and China and, much to the surprise of the navigators, several of the planes appeared to be getting pretty good gas mileage and making good time. Only one bomber had insufficient fuel to make the Chinese mainland and diverted to Russia instead. That plane’s five crewmen were interned in Russia until they managed to escape into Iran in May 1943.

Once the raiders made landfall over China, luck ran out. The Chinese, fearing air raids by the Japanese and not knowing of the timing of Doolittle’s raid on the Japanese capital, extinguished all ground lights when the B-25 engines were heard. In addition, bad weather over the China coast made safe landings impossible and all of the planes either landed in the water near the coast or the crews parachuted out. Four were killed during bailout or ditching and eight were captured by the Japanese. Four of those who were captured survived until they were freed by U.S. troops in 1945.

Doolittle's Raiders in China.

FIRST TIME’S THE CHARM

The Tokyo raid was the first, and at that time, the only combat mission flown by these 80 men. In the weeks following the raid, American morale soared. For the planning, execution, and leadership during the raid, Doolittle received the nation’s highest military award. On May 19, 1942, President Frankin D. Roosevelt, the man who had ordered the mission, personally decorated the newly-promoted Brigadier General James H. Doolittle with the Medal of Honor in a private White House ceremony.

__________

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

A pack rifle is one that is carried by backpackers for self-defense and emergency hunting. They need to be sturdy, compact, and above all lightweight. This .22-caliber single shot design by a firm called Mountain View Machine & Welding weighs under a pound.

It doubles as a fishing rod. See what the man’s left hand is covering? That’s where the extending rod comes out. Attach the reel to the grip. Now you’re ready to catch supper a different way.

Link -via Say Uncle | Photos: Pack Rifle

You’ve got to protect your kids from all harm, but that’s not why this stroller has a rifle and a shotgun attached. Competitive practical shooters, particularly those in 3-gun competitions (rifle, shotgun, and handgun) have to transport a lot of gear around. Some have found that it’s easier if they modify jogging strollers to carry their equipment. You can see more examples at the link.

Link -via Say Uncle | Photo: Yar

This clip, recorded in the 1930s, features Confederate Army veterans demonstrating the “rebel yell.” It is part of the Library of Congress’ collection of rare footage of Civil War veterans committed to film before they passed on. Smithsonian describes some of the films that still exist, and how they give us a glimpse into not only the Civil War era, but also how it was remembered for decades afterward. Link

John Foster of Accidental Mysteries blog came across this piece that crystallizes the words "swords into plowshares" into a real life object:

I purchased this from my friend Joshua Lowenfels, who found it at a flea market in NYC. He purchased it from an old German fellow who was parting with a few things from his life. The handle is only about two feet long, so it appears to have been used as a sort of ladle for scooping and pouring wet concrete. I got weak-kneed when I saw it. If this isn’t the most perfect statement on the whole failed Nazi experiment, and of war in general, I don’t know of one.

Link

Why don’t you apply? You’re not getting paid for that office clerk internship anyway.

Nidar Singh of Wolverhampton, UK, may be the last living master of the Sikh martial art shastar vidya, which means the “science of weapons”. He himself was taught by an octogenarian in Punjab who thought that he was the last serious practitioner. Singh remembered the first day of his training:

On his first day of training, the frail old man handed him a stick and instructed Mr Singh to hit him. When he tried, the master threw him around like a rag doll.

“He was a frail old man chucking me about and I couldn’t touch him,” he says. “That definitely impressed me.”

Link -via Geekosystem | Photo: Beyond Exposure Photography

Did Occupy Wall Street cause gun crimes to jump higher in New York City? That's what the NYPD is sayin':

Four high-ranking cops point the finger at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying their rallies pull special crime-fighting units away from the hot zones where they’re needed.

Since Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the NYPD has relied heavily on its borough task forces, the department’s go-to teams for rowdy crowds.

But such protest duty takes the special units away from their regular jobs -- patrolling public housing and problem spots and staking out nightclubs plagued by violence, supervisors said.

“Normally, the task force is used in high-crime neighborhoods where you have a lot of shootings and robberies,” said one source.

“They are always used when there are spikes in crime as a quick fix. But instead of being sent to Jamaica, Brownsville and the South Bronx, they are in Wall Street.”

Link (Photo: David Shankbone/Wikipedia)

While searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, US Forces found some pretty interesting things in the desert, like this MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. It was hidden underground with its wings removed. Military personnel dug it up by hand in 2003 and transported the jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for examination. Eventually, it will go on display to the public. Read the story of this reclamation project, and see more pictures at Urban Ghosts. Link

In the movie Predator, Jesse Ventura’s character carries a M134 minigun, which he fed with a huge box strapped to his back. US soldiers with the 133rd Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan saw the movie and thought that such a box, while ridiculous for a minigun, might solve one of their own ammunition transportation problems. The Mk 48 machine gun is heavy and gunners have to carry their own ammunition. So Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski decided to build a back-mounted rig that would feed smoothly into his rifle:

So Winkowski grabbed an old ALICE (all-purpose lightweight individual carrying equipment) frame, welded two ammunition cans together — one atop the other after cutting the bottom out of the top can — and strapped the fused cans to the frame. To that he added a MOLLE (modular, lightweight load-carrying equipment) pouch to carry other equipment.

“We wondered why there wasn’t some type of dismounted (Common Remote Operating Weapons Station) that fed our machine guns instead of a mini-gun as portrayed in the movie,” Winkowski said. “So, I decided to try it using the feed chute assembly off of the vehicle CROWS. We glued a piece of wood from an ammo crate inside the ammo cans to create the decreased space necessary so the rounds would not fall in on each other.

Link -via TechCrunch | Image: Fox, 133rd Infantry Regiment

(Video Link)

We’ve featured slingshots by German CEO Jorg Sprave before, but this amazing pump-action slingshot was just too awesome to ignore. True, it might not fire machetes, circular blades or any of the other horrendously deadly ammo he has used in other machines, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be hit by one of these shots.

Via Geekosystem