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Photos of WWII kamikaze strikes

Environmental Graffiti has posted an amazing series of photos showing terrifying kamikaze strikes during WW2.

Kamikaze attack (top left) on USS Missouri (BB-63), 11 April 1945

The kamikaze strikes spiked from April to June 1945, becoming a central and highly organised part of the last gasp Japanese defence. Waves of planes were sent in – some 1,500 all told – as the Americans landed. The US Navy suffered heavy losses including at least 30 warships sunk or disabled – but there were also near misses. On April 11, a low-flying kamikaze crashed into the side of battleship USS Missouri, its spinning wing causing a fire but only minor damage.

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Rare colour photos of World War I

Environmental Graffiti has posted a set of fascinating colour photographs from WWI.

On this day, ninety-one years ago, the guns that raged over the battlefields of Europe for more than four years fell silent. Never before had slaughter on such an industrial scale been conceived of, and never again would the lives of those who survived, or the collective consciousness of the nations who suffered, be the same again. Environmental Graffiti has compiled a collection of rare colour photographs, illuminating in grim detail the horrors of a war that set a precedent for bloody conflict in the twentieth century.

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Wreckage from British WWII-era warship found in Corfu Channel

Pieces of a British warship that was damaged by Albanian mines in 1946 have been found in the Corfu Channel.

The wreckage was found 50 yards (meters) under water in the Corfu Channel between the Albanian mainland and the Greek island of Corfu. It is believed to be a section of the bow of the British destroyer HMS Volage, the researchers said.

Forty-four sailors died in the mine explosions that damaged the Volage and another British Navy destroyer, the HMS Saumarez. Both ships suffered extensive damage but reached Corfu for repairs.

The incident halted talks between Communist Albania and Britain on restoring diplomatic ties that were broken earlier that year. The two countries only formally re-established ties in 1991.

“While largely obscured by mud, the remains show steel frames, electrical wiring, ammunition, stacks of ceramic plates, a British canteen and the remains of boots or shoes,” said James Delgado, president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, who was part of the international team of experts. The institute is nonprofit research body affiliated with Texas A&M University.

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12-year-old was youngest WWI British soldier

A 12-year-old boy who fought at the Battle of the Somme is youngest known British soldier to have served in the First World War.

Mr Maher had told a recruiting officer that he was 18 to enable him to join the 2nd King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in 1917. But his true age was revealed when he broke down in tears under shellfire and was hauled before an unsympathetic officer.

Mr Maher, who died aged 96 in 1999, remembered: “I was locked up on a train under guard, one of five under-age boys caught serving on the front being sent back to England.

“The youngest was 12 years old. A little nuggety bloke he was, too. We joked that the other soldiers would have had to have lifted him up to see over the trenches.”

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How 67 sailors survived German sinking in WWII

A British seaman’s war-time log has been discovered that discloses how 67 sailors survived 20 days and 1,200 miles adrift at sea after their ship was sunk by a German U-boat.

The men were stranded in four lifeboats and survived on water biscuits, raisins and the odd raw fish caught by hand.

They drank salty rain-water and tins of condensed milk they salvaged from the wreckage.

The newly discovered log tells of how the men were often drenched by heavy rain storms, leaving them cold and wet for days afterwards.

Three men died from hypothermia and exposure and had to be buried at sea during the ordeal in the middle of the Atlantic in February 1943.

Despite their plight, they managed to navigate their way using the stars and eventually found land at Antigua.

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