(via Lowghen)

The Agaimbo swamp is located in one of the most remote regions of Papua New Guinea. It is infested by malaria–carrying mosquitoes and huge crocodiles. The vegetation is dense and the intense heat is overpowering. ** In fact, it is the last place in the world you would expect to find a Second World War bomber plane. That, however, is exactly what was discovered there in 1972 by members of the Australian Air Force. The bomber was a B-17E Flying Fortress, a four-engine heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It was originally piloted by Captain Fred Eaton and took part in one of the first air attacks by the United States Army Air Force during the Second World War. ** The bomber was intercepted by Japanese Fighters after a raid on ships at Japanese-occupied New Britain. The airplane suffered numerous hits and eventually crash-landed in Papua New Guinea – not because of the damage to the airplane, but because it ran out of fuel. ** Eaton and his men were on their way back to base at Long Reach in Queensland, Australia, but they crashed into Agaimbo Swamp on February 23, 1942. They survived six weeks of struggling on foot, fighting malaria and terrible heat. When the crew was reunited with American troops, these heroic individuals were immediately assigned to another aircraft and were flying again within a week. ** Source : WarHistoryOnline.com

Beautiful tributes to THE LORD OF THE RINGS by artist Matt Ferguson.

Royal Air Force mechanics add ballast to a Hawker Hurricane while either its pilot or another mechanic test runs its engine.

It was common, for instance, for a fitter to sit on the tail plane when a Spitfire was taxiing on rough terrain as the aircraft was tail-light and nose-heavy. To prevent the tail bouncing up and the propeller striking the ground, fitters often rode the tailplane all the way to the takeoff point.

This practice had a freak outcome on one occasion when a pilot took off without first allowing his female fitter, Margaret Horton to get off. As strange as it may seem, Horton rode this way, clinging to the vertical stabilizer all the way through a circuit after the pilot suddenly realized what he had done but was too high to land straight ahead.

The story on the BBC People’s War website, written by Mary Blood:

“Involved a W.A.A.F. flight mechanic, ACW Margaret Horton, and a veteran Spitfire. When an aircraft engine had been serviced, the practice was for the training instructors to run the engine and do a particular test. Margaret had finished work on the Spitfire, when the pilot began this test. It was necessary, if it was windy, for a mechanic to sit on the tail of the aircraft while it taxied to the end of the runway ready for takeoff. The mechanics were given the order, ‘Tails’. Having got to the runway, the aircraft would pause for the mechanic to drop off. This time the pilot did not pause. Whether he was unaware that the order to ‘tail’ had been given, nobody knows. He just carried on with Margaret Horton hanging on for grim death, and him unaware that he had a ‘passenger’ on the tail. ‘I thought the aircraft was tail-heavy’, he said later. The Spitfire had risen to 800 feet or more when the strange shape of the tailplane was noticed from the ground. The emergency services were called out and the pilot talked back in without being told what had happened. The aircraft landed safely with Margaret Horton still in one piece. Just how daft the [bureaucratic] machinery of the R.A.F. could be was shown when she was reprimanded for her unofficial flight and charged for the loss of her beret! She was posted later to West Raynham and, despite her ordeal, survived into her eighties.”

This particular 17 Squadron Hurricane (P3482) was lost during the Battle of Britain when it crash landed. Its pilot survived

From Sol invictur on Facebook Vlakimir Formin

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So far Rome got me feelin like

Ship Battle - by Dimitrije Miljus

“The sailor takes the ship, and the ship in turn is got

By the kraken coming up below, the spoils it has brought,

But before that beast can gorge itself on soul and keg and sail,

A bigger fish has found its lunch: the ancient godly whale.”

—Vagabird