Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
Favorite WWII Ship
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@Captain:
The Japanese superbattleship YAMATO…most powerful surface warship ever put to sea before the introduction of the Nimitz class aircraft carriers…
Not a fan of the Yamoto personally as it was not the right weapon for that war. Japan would have been much better putting all those resources into a fleet carrier or two.
Very true Captain…but the Japanese really didnt know that yet when the war was just starting…but i do agree with that they could have built a two Shokaku class carriers for the price of one Yamato…but the Yamato was the most beautifull ship i have ever seen in ww2. A floating battlefortress…
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Total respect for the USS Arizona and it’s crew. Will never forget. USS NEW JERSEY My dad was on it in Vietnam.
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The iowa and its sister ship were the biggest bship of ww2 and in history but i love the enterprise though as well
Actually the Yamato and her sister ship the Mushashi were the biggest battleship of WWII weighing in at approx 71000 tons or more.
The Iowa class were big battleships but only came in at about 58000 tons, i bleieve they were the biggest US battleships to see operation however.
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I believe the Iowa class BB width was limited by the Panama Canal, you can see the difference on how narrow it is compared to the Yamato. The Montana class BB added a fourth turret but was equally as narrow, again to accomodate the canal. Even though the Yamato had a 18.1" dia. shell compared to the 16" of the Iowa class, the 16" shell had a farther range. I agree, the Yamato class BB was a pretty ship!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_class_battleship (Iowa class- 108ft beam)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_class_battleship (Montana - 121 ft beam)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_class_battleship (Yamato - 127 ft. beam)
I just read where the locks are only 110 ft wide, so the Montana class would not fit!
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@coachofmany:
I believe the Iowa class BB width was limited by the Panama Canal, you can see the difference on how narrow it is compared to the Yamato. The Montana class BB added a fourth turret but was equally as narrow, again to accomodate the canal. Even though the Yamato had a 18.1" dia. shell compared to the 16" of the Iowa class, the 16" shell had a farther range. I agree, the Yamato class BB was a pretty ship!
I just read where the locks are only 110 ft wide, so the Montana class would not fit!
One thing to note though is that the Montana was never built, planned but never actually built
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I believe the hull was actually started on the first two Montana clas BB’s.
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Got to vote for the USS ENTERPISE. No other ship comes close to accomplishing what the big E did and survived the war to boot.
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The Bismarck:
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@Brain:
The Bismarck:
I saw this documentary on the Bismark were they found the ship wreck and had the three remaining German sailors that are still alive explain their side of the story and what happened as well as some of the British sailors and their side of the story. That was a very interesting show.
The Bismark was at the top and was almost unsinkable. It had some of the largest guns to date on a battleship and it had an inner wall that when a torpedo hit and penetrated the outer hull, huge flow pumps would kick in and fill the “cavity” between the outer and inner walls with sea water so fast that the torpedo would be “stopped” by the water and not allowed to actually detonate on the inner wall and therefore becoming a “dud”. The only reason it was actually sunk was due to a one in a million shot from a topedo plane that actually caught the rudder and jammed it forcing the Bismark into a circle pattern as they could not unjam it. The British fleet moved in and shelled it steady for several hours and it would not sink. The Germans said they actually scuttlled (sunk) their own ship so as to not fall into enemy hands.
Recommend it.
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Total respect for the USS Arizona and it’s crew. Will never forget. USS NEW JERSEY My dad was on it in Vietnam.
My brother’s Cub Scout den had a couple of camp outs on the USS New Jersey.
Also, read Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. The New Jersey has a prominent place in the story.
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The Battleship/Aircraft Carrier hybrid, Ise. Though, I am a fan of most IJN designs.
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The Battleship/Aircraft Carrier hybrid, Ise. Though, I am a fan of most IJN designs.
Was this actually built or simply a concept that they were thinking about?
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It was built, Panzer Leader.
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