Showing posts sorted by date for query blimp. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query blimp. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

"It's Exciting To Feel The Excitement"

The banality of evil.Bring on the blimp!!
I'll settle for a superspreader event & a few thousand rich people clogging up the ICUs before they die.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Minecraft, Pacific Fleet Est'd.

SUN 15 OCT 1944
Pacific
Command designated Minecraft, Pacific Fleet (Rear Admiral Alexander Sharp) is established; Rear Admiral Sharp breaks his flag in minelayer Terror (CM-5).

TG 30.3 (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose) is formed to cover the retirement of the crippled heavy cruiser Canberra (CA-70) and light cruiser Houston (CL-81); an augmented TG 38.1 (Vice Admiral John S. McCain) provides cover while TG 38.2 (Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan) and TG 38.3 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) take up position to waylay Japanese fleet units that might try to attack the damaged ships. TG 38.4 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison), meanwhile, attacks Japanese installations near Manila, drawing an enemy aerial response that damages carrier Franklin (CV-13), 16°29'N, 123°57'E.

Sweep Unit (Captain Robley W. Clark) arrives off Ngulu Atoll, Western Carolines. Light minelayer Montgomery (DM-17) destroys Japanese radio and weather station, and, accompanied by five motor minesweepers (YMS), enters the lagoon to begin minesweeping operations which will continue daily until 23 October.

Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue in Southwest Pacific as four TDRs are launched against Matupi Bridge, as part of coördinated attack by other Green Island-based PBJs (VMB 423), F4Us (VMF 218 and VMF 222) and SBDs (VMSB 244 and VMSB 341) against Simpson Harbor Rabaul. Poor picture reception and pilot error results in none of the TDRs hitting their targets.

USAAF P-38 sinks Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel No.5 Yamato Maru off Bochi archipelago, 01°10'N, 128°21'E.

Dutch submarine Zwaardvisch sinks Japanese oceanographic research vessel No.2 Kaiyo Maru off Surabaya, Java, 06°30'S, 111°35'E.

Mediterranean
Minesweeping test is conducted in Bay de Ciotat, France, using blimp; the blimp proved very satisfactory, using loud hailer, VHF radio, and smoke flares to direct attention to mines.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Traffic Flow

Following the blimp to the Lakers-Celtics game last Sat.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

WWII Hallowe'en Blimp

SUN 31 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Rasher (SS-269) sinks Japanese oiler Koryu Maru, 00°25'N, 119°45'E.

Atlantic
U.S. airship K 94, en route from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, catches fire and crashes 35 miles north of Cape Borinquen, Puerto Rico.
Aircraft (VC 9) from escort carrier Card (CVE-11) sink German submarine U-584 about 580 miles north of Flores Island, Azores, 49°14'N, 31°55'W. Other VC 9 aircraft attack U-91 at the same rendezvous point, but she escapes unharmed.

Destroyer Borie (DD-215) damages German submarine U-256 north of the Azores.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Sub Sinks Blimp, Lighter Lost

SUN 18 JUL 1943
Pacific
SBDs and TBFs, and USAAF B-24s, attack Japanese shipping in the Buin-Kahili area, Bougainville, Solomons, and damage destroyer Mochizuki.

Tank landing ship LST-342 is sunk by Japanese submarine RO 106, Solomons, 09°03'S, 158°11'E.

Atlantic
Airship K 74 is shot down by German submarine U-134 in the Florida Straits (only naval airship lost to enemy action during World War II), but U-134 is also damaged in the encounter.
[Detailed description. Grim detail: "Aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class Isadore Stessel drowned after being attacked by a shark, just minutes before rescue, and became the only United States Navy airshipman to die as a result of enemy action."]

Covered lighter YF-487 is lost in Caribbean Sea.

Mediterranean
Submarine chaser PC-562 is damaged by mine off Port Empedocle, Sicily, 37°10'N, 12°35'E.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Elihu B. Washburne Gets It

SAT 3 JUL 1943
Pacific
Submarine Scorpion (SS-278) attacks Japanese convoy in the Yellow Sea and sinks merchant cargo ships Anzan Maru and Kokuryu Maru, 38°20'N, 124°25'E.

Atlantic
U.S. freighter Elihu B. Washburne is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-513 off the coast of Brazil at 24°05'S, 45°25'W; all hands survive the attack (see 4 July 1943).

Submarine chaser SC-1048 rescues survivors (previously sighted by Navy blimp) from tanker Bloody Marsh, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-66 the previous day.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

75 Yrs. Ago In Gun Safety; A Blimp; Tunisian Surrender Ends Resistance

THU 13 MAY 1943
Pacific
TF 18 (Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth) bombards Munda and Vila airfields, Solomons, while minelayers (TG 36.5) sow mines across northwestern approaches to Kula Gulf. Light cruiser Nashville (CL-43) is damaged by turret explosion, Solomons, 08°28'S, 158°49'E, and destroyers Chevalier (DD-805) and Nicholas (DD-449) are damaged by gun mount explosions, 08°30'S, 158°01'E.
Battleship Idaho (BB 42) and destroyer Phelps (DD-360) silence enemy batteries on Attu, permitting U.S. Army artillery units to move up at Holtz Bay.

Atlantic
German submarine U-176 attacks convoy DM 69 in the Greater Antilles, sinking U.S. tanker Nickeliner and Cuban-registry tanker Mambi, 21°25'N, 76°40'W, and eludes destroyer escort Brennan (DE-13), eight submarine chasers, and a blimp. There are no casualties on board Nickeliner (23 merchant sailors, seven Armed Guards and one passenger), whose survivors are rescued by a Cuban submarine chaser.

Mediterranean
USAAF aircraft sink Italian submarine Mocenigo at Cagliari, Sardinia.

Enemy resistance in North Africa ends with surrender of German and Italian forces in Tunisia.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Airship Mystery

August 16, Sun.
Pacific
Submarine S-39 (SS-144), irreparably damaged by striking reef off Rossel Island, on 14 August, is abandoned.
Airship L-8 (ZP-32) is damaged upon return from patrol off California coast, landing at Dale [sic] City, California.
The airship, however, is unmanned; the fate of its two-man crew remains a mystery.
The blimp finally came to rest atop Richard Johnston's freshly waxed car in Daly City, Calif.,
just South of San Francisco. (National Archives)
[Complete mystery to your humble editor as well. Indeed, I'd never heard of it.]

Atlantic
Surviving 38 merchant seamen and the 13-man Armed Guard of U.S. freighter Cripple Creek, sunk by German submarine U-171 on 13 August, are rescued by British armed trawler HMS St. Wistan and transported to Sierra Leone. [Told you. No damn Nazi U-Boat can be off Sierra Leone & in the Gulf Of Mexico on the same day!]
Obligatory:

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - "The Blimp"

How blimps are built, at (3:00), preceded by the build up for Guadalcanal, as if that were news. Also segregated, honky-commanded "grim, determined" Pinoy regiment (6:05).

Thursday, March 23, 2017

75 Yrs. Ago Today In Friendly Fire

MON 3 MAR 1942
Pacific
Submarine Gato (SS-212) is damaged when accidentally bombed by nonrigid airship (blimp) TC 13
off the entrance to San Francisco Bay, California.

Indian Ocean
Japanese occupy Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Your Tax Dollars KEEPING US SAFE: The Blimp!

An "aerostat", technically.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Today In Paranoia Cont'd.

You may remember a blimp was waiting for me last Weds. The rest of the story is that w/in ten mins., when I'd walked about five blks. it had made a 180 & came right back over me.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

1,000 Ft.? Really?

BLIMP FACTS: FLIGHT
Most flights are at or near 1,000 to 1,500 feet. Goodyear prefers to keep the airship at this altitude so that people can see it more easily.

Today In Paranoia

No sooner do I step out of someone's bldg. (Skeptics note well: 10 miles [16 klicks] & more as the crow/blimp flies from our usual zone of operation.) than this thing is coming at me from over the hill & literally out of the sun at 200-250 ft. [60-75 metres, approx., for those in the sensible world.] First shot possible w/o sun damage to the camera:
Are there no lawsaviation regulations?

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Pretty

Here are two gratuitous & innocuous images of clouds framed by trees (no humans involved) taken while shooting the blimp, offered here to cleanse the palate & so we can get that folder off the hard drive now we've used everything good in it.
And now that your palate is clean, say good night & go brush your teeth.

Enough OSCARS(™³²®©-A.M.P.A.S.) Already!

Déjà effin vu all over again: While we were typing the previous (not as lengthy) epic we heard a slow & loud aircraft, no rotor sound, & realized Goodyear was buzzing the bunker again.
This time we remembered the soul-stealer makes things move too.
Now going southeast, away from the OSCARS(™³²®©-A.M.P.A.S.), which are apparently dull enough to bore a blimp. Unless there is hockey or hoops at Staples & the blimp is needed for the all important shot of the fucking roof of Staples.
Bonus thing, w/ which we had nothing to do:
Photo: Oscar Statue With Heroin Needle In Arm
Appears In Hollywood
laist did the workassembly, now you click, it's artsy fun!!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Again, The Blimp

We were going to ignore it for once, but it kept getting closer.
True Southern Californian, that blimp; sixth or seventh innning & it's already left the stadium.