Official BIG PICTURE thread.....(from US Naval Archive)

[MKSheppard]

On 14 June, a PBY spotted a small boat hundreds of miles
away from Midway. It was seen again on the 19th, and
the seaplane tender USS Ballard (AVD-10) was directed to
the area. There she found thirty-five Japanese navymen,
members of carrier Hiryu's engineering force who were left
for dead when she was abandoned before dawn on 5 June.
They had made their way topsides, found a boat as their ship
sank and had been sailing for two weeks trying to reach a
friendly territory.





http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg11.htm
Is the Main Page!

[MKSheppard]

Artwork by F. Muller, circa 1919, depicting the definitive design
for these ships, whose construction was cancelled under
the Washington Naval Limitations Treaty of 1922.

[MKSheppard]

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-u ... n/bb55.htm

USS North Carolina, lead ship of a class of
35,000-ton battleships, was built at the New York
Navy Yard. When commissioned in April 1941, she
was the first new battleship to join the fleet in
nearly two decades.



Photographed during her shakedown cruise, May 1941.

The battleship is framed by an escorting destroyer's deck,
5"/ 38 gun barrel and a crewman.



View looking aft from the battleship's bow, showing her
forward superstructure and 16"/45 guns. Photographed
during her maiden voyage, circa May 1941.

Note Measure 1 camouflage paint, CXAM-1 radar antenna,
anchor chains and deck planking.



Fires her after 16"/45 guns in June 1941, during her
shakedown cruise.

[von Murrin]

HMAS Hobart

Steaming in the Coral Sea, west of Espiritu Santo, about two hours before she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, 20 July 1943.
Photographed from USS Nicholas (DD-449).


View taken at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, on 23 July 1943, showing damage inflicted when she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 20 July.
Photographed from off the port side, showing the ship's badly distorted stern, after 6-inch gun turrets, anti-splinter mats on the after superstructure and surface search radar (probably Type 271) at left.


Photographed from off the port side, showing the ship's badly distorted stern and after 6-inch guns. Deck planking has been removed by the ship's crew.
Note: the size of the torpedo hole; Jacob's ladder at left; and draft markings at right.


Photographed on the quarterdeck, looking forward from about 207 frame port side, showing the ship's badly distorted after deck and the after 6-inch gun turrets.


Photographed looking aft from the center line of the Ward Room from about 179 station, after clearing away the majority of the wreckage.
Note foundation for the after gun turret at left and inwardly displaced plating around the torpedo hole, at right.

[von Murrin]

Japanese Navy Type 1 land attack planes (later nicknamed "Betty") fly low through anti-aircraft gunfire during a torpedo attack on U.S. Navy ships maneuvering between Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the morning of 8 August 1942.
Note that these planes are being flown without bomb-bay doors.


Edit: Some interesting pics of some of the crashed Bettys from this raid.

[Lex Morton]

Wow! These Japper Betty pilots are really flying their crates to the max! That is SERIOUSLY low level!

Lex Morton

[screamer]

and that A6m2 is screwed that wildcat is gonna get him, and yes those betties are flying LOW

[AlvinS]

Excellent Pictures. Makes you appreciate the length of time it takes to repair damaged ships.

The props of those Betty's should be skimming the water as low as they are.

[brisd]

What the Japanese player is hoping to see:



another dramatic photo, check out that sharp turn she just made:



finally a color photo showing an AP ending up wrecked on a lonely jungle coast during the UV campaign:

[von Murrin]

I just noticed something. See that big white splotch on Shokaku's hurricane deck? That's a really BIG fire!