All Articles (2,018)

First part of our journey through extreme armoured warmachines projects by soviet citizens was a success, as I see it, so we continue our path through the marvels gathered by Yuri Pasholok in the depths of Defence Ministry Central Archives.

Brutal Zorbing

November 27th,1942 

This one rolled-in from the Kanash town. The basic ideas are:

A big sphere made of thick armour, with a…

During their visit to France in 1938, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth proceeded from Calais to Paris in Pullman car hauled by a streamline locomotive:

The loco chosen for the Royal train was the SNCF 231C78, the one and only C-class Super Pacific fitted with streamline shrouding. Initially designated Nord 3.1280, it belonged to the third batch of the 231C…

September 27, 1929. The day when an an aircraft well ahead of its time made its maiden flight.

"The Fokker F-32 was truly the "Jumbo" of the 1930s era. " - wrote Ed Coates, a celebrated collector of aircraft images & data. -…

This small streamline sedan was built by Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG.

This German company was producing passenger cars (including the famous rear-engine Kommissbrot) as early as the 1920s but they struggled financially through that decade. In 1931, Hanomag had 25% of the small-car market in Germany,…

Meet Oberleutnant Max (Maximilian Karl) Hesse.

Here he is, holding a dog, with Leutnant Rudolf Stanger. Hesse was not an ace but he had an illustrious war career, crash-landing in the enemy territory in 1914 and being the pilot of the first plane in history which corrected artillery fire through wireless messages (Jan. 12, 1915). Promoted to Hauptmann, he was…

From flare pistol, to grenade launcher, during World War II an innovative effort to turn a less-than-lethal weapon into something more deadly was understaken by German small arms designers.

Simple flare guns, common to all the armies…

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!

Since hitting the airwaves in August 1930 as part of the "Detective Story" radio show, The Shadow has become one of the most beloved heroes in pulp history.  On Two-Fisted Tuesdays, we'll follow the adventures of The Shadow as he battles a rogues gallery of crooks and villains from around the world.

Click on the link below to download…

As usual, and I don't know how— someone has been downloading my stuff before I even make the announcement that the new program is up. Being suitably flattered by this, I give you (drum roll, please), the link:

http://pilsnerspicks.blogspot.com/

If none of this music is romantic and sentimental enough, I'll have to try again next year. 

Foreword

I begin a series of articles on the projects, that were proposed by people throughout Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War as their efforts to maximize the power of Red Army in order to defeat Nazi invaders. Most of these are stored in the Russian Ministry of Defence Central Archives, so my creativity will be limited by authentic information. Many thanks and credits go to Yuri Pasholok,…

This shot was taken more than two decades ago:

The trainsets don't look outdated even today. But they were built before WWII. In the 1930s the Italian state railways, Ferrovie dello Stato, electrified the main line Milan-Bologna-Florence-Rome-Naples and needed a fast train to use on it and on other newly-electrified lines. The ETR 200 project was…

In 1939, many European powers could boast a fighter plane equal or even superior to the German Bf 109. And Belgium was no exception.

Alas, the superiority was achieved mostly on paper. In fact, "wonderfighters" designed in Poland and Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Netherlands were either unfledged, or produced in insufficient numbers, or both. And Belgium, again, was no…

Ladies and gentlemen! Omnibuses, coaches and lorries from Glasgow, Scotland!

Albion Motors, founded in 1899, were amongst the great survivors of the British vehicle industry and, especially, of the indigenous Scottish motor industry - many early companies failed and it was only in the 1960s that there was a vain attempt to re-introduce mass vehicle production…

In 1919 America was gripped by a Communist scare and Boston was no different. Coupled with the rampant paranoia of a vast infiltration of the United States by Red agents, the City of Boston was facing a peril from within, a strike of its entire police force.

Boston raised the United States'…

The above video is an omnibus collection containing several episodes of this classic cartoon. Featured in this collection are these episodes: "The Arctic Giant", "Billion Dollar Limited", "The Bulleteers", "Destruction Inc.", "Japoteurs", "Jungle Drums", "The Magnetic Telescope", "The Mechanical Monsters", "Volcano", and "Secret Agent"

The following films were…

If you look at Ian Fleming purely through the fictional lens of his seminal creation Cdr. James Bond, you might scoff at his comprehension of skullduggery and gadgetry especially watching the 007 movies of the 1960s and 70s. You may also doubt how immersed Fleming was in the world that is said to have…

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!

Since hitting the airwaves in August 1930 as part of the "Detective Story" radio show, The Shadow has become one of the most beloved heroes in pulp history.  On Two-Fisted Tuesdays, we'll follow the adventures of The Shadow as he battles a rogues gallery of crooks and villains from around the world.

Click on the link below to download…

I'm sure the building looks familiar to a lot of our friends, especially in Europe. But I've just found a good reason to show it here.

After an obligatory night shot (by christoph_bellin @ Flickr), a bit of info.…

Some more examples of Canadian war propaganda brought to us by Mr. Malon in his fabulous photostream:

(Anonymous illustrator)

We already ran two batches of Canadian war art - Posters and…

Hello, folks! A small disclaimer on this review: English isn't my native language, and since I really don't have much opportunities to keep up with it, it may get a little rusty or plain weird -- although, talking about Dieselpunk, "rusty" and plain "weird" may fit...

I have just finished reading Dieselpunk - Arquivos confidenciais de uma bela época (Dieselpunk – Confidential files from a belle epoque), by Draco press, 2011. It's a tales selection on the…

Memphis, Tennessee!  It's the jewel of the Mississippi, a musical crossroads where the rural sounds reach an urban audience.  Here the Blues found a forum, Rockabilly a stage.  And tonight, we celebrate this musical city with a triple-feature of music, exploring the lineage of Delta music from one of he last great Jug bands and two of the first great Blues musicians!  And a drink, of course.…