Tinian Island, Pacific Ocean
It’s a small island, less than 40 square miles, a flat green dot in the vastness of Pacific blue. Fly over it and you notice a slash across its north end of uninhabited bush, a long thin line that looks like an overgrown dirt runway. If you didn’t know what it was, you wouldn’t give it a second glance out your airplane window. Continue reading “Runway Able” »
Submitted By Perry Downan
The word “battleship” came into being in the late 1700s. In naval warfare during the Age of Sail, the
“line of battle” was a tactic in which the ships of the fleet formed a line, end-to-end. The ships would
sail past a point of attack with each ship firing a broadside. This maneuver allowed for a systematic
concentration of fire on the target.
Naturally, to defend against this tactic the other fleet also formed a “line of battle”. These are the scenes
we see in some of the famous sea battle paintings – two fleets sailing past each other or on opposite tack
blazing away. A ship powerful enough to stand in the line of battle came to be known as a “ship of the
line” or a “line of battle” ship which was shortened to “battleship”. Continue reading “Famous WW2 Battleships” »
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