On this day:

[BarnBuster]

​

On Sunday, May 12, 1985, police began going around a West Philadelphia neighborhood and telling residents to evacuate within 12 hours.

Police erected barricades around a four-block area and established a command post. At midnight, police went door to door, asking residents still in their homes to evacuate quickly. At 12:15 a.m. Monday, a radical group known as MOVE warned police using its public-address system. The message was, “You’re going to see something you’ve never seen before.”

At 5:27 p.m. on May 13 police dropped a "percussion" bomb (this is a misnomer, it was actually 2 one pound sticks of Du Pont Tovex TR-2 [an explosive gel used mainly in mining and quarry applications], similar to dynamite placed in a satchel and dropped from a helicopter onto MOVE’s roof. It was also purported but never definitely proven that the military explosive C-4 was used in it's place or as a kicker. )bb. on the MOVE rowhouse on Osage Avenue that left six adults and five children dead and 60 homes destroyed.

The mystery of the C-4 explosive remains unsolved | 1986

Thirty 1 1/4-pound blocks of C-4 definitely is not a small amount. So, why did the agent do it?

www.inquirer.com

What happened that night actually started years before. The origins, according to a United Press International story published on May 14, 1985, “traces its origins to the waning days of the 1960s counter-culture era. MOVE was founded in 1972 by Vincent Leaphart, a Black third-grade dropout, and Donald Glassey, a white college teacher with a master’s degree in social work. In 1973, the pair moved into a twin, Victorian home in Philadelphia’s Powelton Village section, near the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. They began to write a book containing the beliefs of Leaphart, who had changed his name to John Africa.

Early on, the group was known as the Community Action Movement but the name was later shortened to MOVE. The group was, and still is, predominantly Black. All its members use the surname Africa. Under John Africa’s direction, MOVE espoused a back-to-nature philosophy, eschewing modern convenience such as electricity. It opposed the killing of any animals, including the rats seen scurrying around the run-down house in Powelton Village, situated about three miles from the scene of yesterday’s action in West Philadelphia.

MOVE members refused to use soap or to cut their hair, worn in a braided style known as dreadlocks. Believing that food should be recycled into the earth, they routinely threw garbage on the ground around the house. Neighbors began complaining about the health hazards posed by MOVE’s lifestyle.”

In the late 1970s, according to the report, MOVE had run-ins with city officials and the police including a nine-hour confrontation in May 1977. Eleven MOVE members were charged with weapons offenses as a result. “In March 1978, police, in a tactic approved by the state Supreme Court, sealed off a four-block area around the house and prevented the group from obtaining food and water. The blockade was designed to force the 11 to surrender.

The 50-day siege ended on May 3, 1978, when MOVE members agreed to lay down their arms and surrender. But, as time passed, they refused to adhere to the agreement. A judge ordered the arrest of 21 of them on contempt charges. On the morning of Aug. 8, 1978, several hundred police and firefighters converged on the house to enforce the judge’s order. Gunshots erupted from the house and Officer James Ramp, 52, was shot to death. Police returned fire.

Before the shooting ended, four other officers, four firefighters and one MOVE member were wounded. The same day, the city bulldozed the MOVE house. ‘We demonstrated patience and tolerance for their abuses against our community for and beyond what civilized people have a right to expect,’ said then-Mayor Frank Rizzo. ‘There is no question that MOVE fired the first shot.’

On Dec. 10, 1979, nine MOVE members went on trial in Ramp’s death. They were convicted five months later and sentenced to serve 30 to 300 days in jail. Three police officers were acquitted of charges they beat a MOVE member, Delbert Orr Africa, after the shoot-out. On May 13, 1981, after three years of being a fugitive, John Africa was arrested on federal charges of bomb making and rioting in Rochester, N.Y. He was later acquitted.

MOVE members began moving into their present home in 1981.” On May 14, 1985, United Press International reported, “A police helicopter dropped a percussion bomb on a filthy inner-city row house yesterday to flush out members of the radical group MOVE, injuring two occupants and engulfing as many as 16 buildings in flames, authorities said.”

The news source reported that that the MOVE house “burst into flames, its roof collapsed and thick brown smoke billowed out of the building and five adjoining houses.” The report said the MOVE house was “filthy and rat-infested.” After the bomb was dropped, UPI reported that it was more than a hour before firefighters began using their hoses on the flames.

Mayor W. Wilson Goode, when asked why police would drop a bomb when they knew children were in the house, said, “There’s no way you could avoid it. I don’t believe there is any way to extradite them without an armed confrontation.” Goode previously had said that he was convinced MOVE wanted a violent confrontation and was not interested in negotiations. “Whenever you are engaged in a difficult attack of this kind, you always have the worst case scenario. What you see here is the worst that could happen – loss of property. I said last week [it was] a very explosive situation.”

A report issued in 1986 determined police “used grossly negligent” tactics and “committed an unconscionable act by dropping a bomb on an occupied row house.” MOVE survivors later sued the city and police and in 1996 were awarded a $1.5 million settlement.

Philadelphia earned the reputation as “the city that bombed itself.

Remains Of Black Children Killed In MOVE Bombing Cannot Be Located

Six adults and five children lost their lives during the 1985 attack on Philadelphia's MOVE compound. And now two Ivy League universities can't confirm the whereabouts of the remains of two children.

www.npr.org

Remains of children killed in MOVE bombing sat in a box at Penn Museum for decades

Where are they now, and who is responsible for them? No one seems to know.

billypenn.com

 

[BarnBuster]

​

"At 8:32 a.m. PDT, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.

Called Louwala-Clough, or “the Smoking Mountain,” by Native Americans, Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and stood 9,680 feet before its eruption. The volcano has erupted periodically during the last 4,500 years, and the last active period was between 1831 and 1857. On March 20, 1980, noticeable volcanic activity began again with a series of earth tremors centered on the ground just beneath the north flank of the mountain. These earthquakes escalated, and on March 27 a minor eruption occurred, and Mount St. Helens began emitting steam and ash through its crater and vents.

Small eruptions continued daily, and in April people familiar with the mountain noticed changes to the structure of its north face. A scientific study confirmed that a bulge more than a mile in diameter was moving upward and outward over the high north slope by as much as six feet per day. The bulge was caused by an intrusion of magma below the surface, and authorities began evacuating hundreds of people from the sparsely settled area near the mountain. A few people refused to leave.

On the morning of May 18, Mount St. Helens was shaken by an earthquake of about 5.0 magnitude, and the entire north side of the summit began to slide down the mountain. The giant landslide of rock and ice, one of the largest recorded in history, was followed and overtaken by an enormous explosion of steam and volcanic gases, which surged northward along the ground at high speed. The lateral blast stripped trees from most hill slopes within six miles of the volcano and leveled nearly all vegetation for as far as 12 miles away. Approximately 10 million trees were felled by the blast.

The landslide debris, liquefied by the violent explosion, surged down the mountain at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. The avalanche flooded Spirit Lake and roared down the valley of the Toutle River for a distance of 13 miles, burying the river to an average depth of 150 feet. Mudflows, pyroclastic flows, and floods added to the destruction, destroying roads, bridges, parks, and thousands more acres of forest. Simultaneous with the avalanche, a vertical eruption of gas and ash formed a mushrooming column over the volcano more than 12 miles high. Ash from the eruption fell on Northwest cities and towns like snow and drifted around the globe within two weeks. Fifty-seven people, thousands of animals, and millions of fish were killed by the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

By late in the afternoon of May 18, the eruption subsided, and by early the next day it had essentially ceased. Mount St. Helens’ volcanic cone was completely blasted away and replaced by a horseshoe-shaped crater–the mountain lost 1,700 feet from the eruption. The volcano produced five smaller explosive eruptions during the summer and fall of 1980 and remains active today. In 1982, Congress made Mount St. Helens a protected research area.

Mount St. Helens became active again in 2004. On March 8, 2005, a 36,000-foot plume of steam and ash was expelled from the mountain, accompanied by a minor earthquake. Another minor eruption took place in 2008. Though a new dome has been growing steadily near the top of the peak and small earthquakes are frequent, scientists do not expect a repeat of the 1980 catastrophe anytime soon."

 

[BarnBuster]

​

May 21, 1881 – In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her tireless dedication. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900. Barton headed the organization into her 80s and died in 1912.

 

[injinji]

View attachment 4905732​

May 21, 1881 – In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her tireless dedication. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900. Barton headed the organization into her 80s and died in 1912.

I've had more than the normal exposure to disaster relief. (I'm just lucky that way) My workplace was a DAC center (don't ask me what that means) for the response to a major flood 20-25 years ago. (FEMA was in charge, but there were at least 8-10 other organizations represented) I got to see the Red Cross behind the scenes. Crazy setup where two people are doing the same job. One is drawing a big paycheck, the other is an unpaid volunteer. And there is a lot of waste. At least in the emergency responses that I was a part of. From my experience, Habitat is the best of the bunch.

I do have a soft spot for the red cross blankets though. I got one after Hurricane Micheal as well as a couple of the normal wool disaster blankets.

 

[raratt]

I've had more than the normal exposure to disaster relief. (I'm just lucky that way) My workplace was a DAC center (don't ask me what that means) for the response to a major flood 20-25 years ago. (FEMA was in charge, but there were at least 8-10 other organizations represented) I got to see the Red Cross behind the scenes. Crazy setup where two people are doing the same job. One is drawing a big paycheck, the other is an unpaid volunteer. And there is a lot of waste. At least in the emergency responses that I was a part of. From my experience, Habitat is the best of the bunch.

I do have a soft spot for the red cross blankets though. I got one after Hurricane Micheal as well as a couple of the normal wool disaster blankets.

Red cross can kiss my ass, I won't give them anything. I borrowed money to send my wife home to bury her brother when I was an Airman. They kept after me like a loan shark, I was making a pittance and paying what I could yet they were insistent I paid in full ASAP.

 

[GreatwhiteNorth]

Joplin Missouri Tornado 2011







Tornado, Joplin, Missouri, 2011
The May 22, 2011, Joplin tornado, rated EF–5 on the Enhanced Fujita tornado intensity scale, caused 161 fatalities and more than 1,000 injuries, making it the deadliest single tornado on record in the U.S. since official records were begun in 1950. The damage to the built environment made this the costliest tornado on record as well, with losses approaching $3 billion. The Joplin tornado damaged 553 business structures and nearly 7,500 residential structures; over 3,000 of those residences were heavily damaged or completely destroyed.
NIST sent four engineers to Joplin from May 25-28, to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance of building performance and emergency communications during the tornado. Based on the analysis of the data collected and other criteria required by regulation, NIST Director Pat Gallagher established a research team to proceed with a more comprehensive study of the impacts of the disaster.
Based on its findings, the NIST technical study team developed 16 recommendations for improving how buildings and shelters are designed, constructed, and maintained in tornado-prone regions and for improving emergency communications.
Specifically, the NIST report calls for 1) developing national performance-based standards for tornado-resistant design of buildings and infrastructure, as well as design methods to achieve those standards, and require that critical facilities such as hospitals, be designed to remain operational in the event of a tornado; 2) installing tornado shelters in new and existing multi-family residential, commercial, and other larger buildings (hospitals, schools, large retail stores, and other commercial spaces that accommodate 200 to 300 people at a time) and as part of this effort, develop and implement uniform national guidelines to help communities site, design, install, and operate those shelters; and 3) create national codes and standards for clear, consistent and accurate emergency communications and then ensure that emergency managers, the National Weather Service, and the news media in local communities have a joint plan for delivering those messages quickly and persuasively during tornados.

 

[BarnBuster]

​

Just moments after Ariana Grande finished the final song of her May 22, 2017 concert at Manchester Arena, a suicide bomber detonated an explosion on the premises, killing 22 concertgoers and injuring 116 more. ISIS claimed responsibility for what was the deadliest act of terrorism in Britain since the 2005 London metro bombings.

A scene of youthful fun turned to panic and violence as shrapnel and fire tore through the crowd pouring out of the Arena’s busiest exit. Witnesses said they heard an explosion and saw a flash of light. Some were knocked down by the blast, while others scrambled for safety in the chaos.

Frantic parents, family members and friends began what would be an hours-long search for their children, and those from whom they had been separated when the rush to safety began. Others took to social media with photos of their loved ones, using #manchesterarena to ask if any of them had been seen alive after the explosion. More than 240 emergency calls were made; 60 ambulances and 400 police officers helped in the search. The youngest victim was 8-year-old Lancashire native Saffie Roussos.

The attacker was later revealed to be 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a Manchester native of Libyan descent whom investigators believe was radicalized after spending time in Libya in 2011. Although he was known to British security services, he was not part of any active terrorist investigation at the time of the bombing. Evidence shows that others, including Abedi’s brother, were aware of his plans, and may have helped to carry them out. In March 2020, the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder in relation to the attack. The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said that sentencing rules prevented him from imposing a whole life order as Abedi had been 20 years old at the time of the offence. The minimum age for a whole life order is 21 years old. Abedi's sentence of 55 years is the longest minimum term ever given by a British court

Just after the attack, Grande tweeted: “from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words.” Eleven days later, she returned to Manchester, visiting wounded fans and victims’ families.

 

[BarnBuster]

​

On May 23, 1960, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces to the world that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured and will stand trial in Israel. Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who organized Adolf Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question,” was seized by Israeli agents in Argentina on May 11 and smuggled to Israel nine days later.

Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1906. In November 1932, he joined the Nazi’s elite SS (Schutzstaffel) organization, whose members came to have broad responsibilities in Nazi Germany, including policing, intelligence, and the enforcement of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies. Eichmann steadily rose in the SS hierarchy, and with the German annexation of Austria in 1938, he was sent to Vienna with the mission of ridding the city of Jews. He set up an efficient Jewish deportment center and in 1939 was sent to Prague on a similar mission. That year, Eichmann was appointed to the Jewish section of the SS central security office in Berlin.

In January 1942, Eichmann met with top Nazi officials at the Wannsee Conference near Berlin for the purpose of planning a “final solution of the Jewish question,” as Nazi leader Hermann Goring put it. The Nazis decided to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population. Eichmann was appointed to coordinate the identification, assembly, and transportation of millions of Jews from occupied Europe to the Nazi death camps, where Jews were gassed or worked to death. He carried this duty out with horrifying efficiency, and between three to four million Jews perished in the extermination camps before the end of World War II. Close to 2 million were executed elsewhere.

Following the war, Eichmann was captured by U.S. troops, but he escaped the prison camp in 1946 before having to face the Nuremberg International War Crimes Tribunal. Eichmann traveled under an assumed identity between Europe and the Middle East and in 1950 arrived in Argentina, which maintained lax immigration policies and was a safe haven for many Nazi war criminals. In 1957, a German prosecutor secretly informed Israel that Eichmann was living in Argentina. Agents from Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, were deployed to Argentina, and in early 1960 they finally located Eichmann. He was living in the San Fernando section of Buenos Aires, under the name Ricardo Klement.

In May 1960, Argentina was celebrating the 150th anniversary of its revolution against Spain, and many tourists were traveling to Argentina from abroad to attend the festivities. The Mossad used the opportunity to smuggle more agents into the country. Israel, knowing that Argentina might never extradite Eichmann for trial, had decided to abduct him and take him to Israel illegally. On May 11, Mossad operatives descended on Garibaldi Street in San Fernando and snatched Eichmann away as he was walking from the bus to his home. His family called local hospitals but not the police, and Argentina knew nothing of the operation. On May 20, a drugged Eichmann was flown out of Argentina disguised as an Israeli airline worker who had suffered head trauma in an accident. Three days later, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion announced that Eichmann was in Israeli custody.

Argentina demanded Eichmann’s return, but Israel argued that his status as an international war criminal gave it the right to proceed with a trial. On April 11, 1961, Eichmann’s trial began in Jerusalem. It was the first trial to be televised in history. Eichmann faced 15 charges, including crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and war crimes. He claimed he was just following orders, but the judges disagreed, finding him guilty on all counts on December 15 and sentencing him to die. On May 31, 1962, he was hanged near Tel Aviv. His body was subsequently cremated and his ashes thrown into the sea.

 

[BarnBuster]

​

"The sinking of H.M.S. Hood on Empire Day, 24th May 1941, resulted in the single largest loss of life for the Royal Navy during World War II: 1,415 were lost. There were no tangible traces of any crewmen, living or dead, save the three survivors, Ted Briggs, William Dundas and Bob Tilburn.

There are four main factors that likely contributed to such an overwhelming loss of life. These are presented in chronological order (in as much as that is possible) below:

The Battle with Prinz Eugen and Bismarck
Hood was struck early in the engagement: High explosive shells fired by Prinz Eugen struck Hood's shelter deck (aka "boat deck") somewhere near the main mast. This salvo started a fire which soon spread. As it did so, it fed on notable quantities of cordite propellant found in the "ready use" ammunition. Note: "Ready use" ammunition was extra ammunition for the various antiaircraft and duel purpose weapons located about Hood's shelter deck. This ammunition (bullets, shells and rockets) enabled crews to quickly load the weapons and be prepared for action. Ammunition would then be re-supplied from below deck. Unfortunately, the ready use lockers were numerous and very lightly protected. A number of men assigned to these exposed action stations may have been killed by the detonation of Prinz Eugen's shell(s). A number more may have been injured or killed when Hood's own antiaircraft ammunition and rockets began sporadically detonating in the fire. Still more men may have been injured or killed later in the battle when a 15" shells from Bismarck may have passed through the Spotting Top and lower bridge structure (these hits are unconfirmed).

The Fatal Explosion
One fact in Hood's sinking is certain: something ultimately caused her aft 15" magazines to rapidly burn or detonate, causing the area of the ship between "Y" turret and just aft of the second funnel to be violently devastated. The fire was so intense that it likely caused the instant deaths of the majority of the crew in the affected areas of the hull and at upper/aft action stations. After the main explosion aft, there are indications that the ship's interior may have been swept by fire followed by a second exploiosn forward. This possibility is based upon the findings from the 2001 expedition to the wreck site. This alone would account for the majority of casualties.

The Collapse/Splitting of the Ship and the Subsequent Rapid Sinking
Hood initially split/twisted and/or collapsed into at least two main sections following the explosion. Though the very end of the stern was intact, its structure from the aft turrets forward was a mass of blasted-out plating and twisted framework. This damage caused the stern to tilt upward and sink almost immediately- so quickly in fact, that anyone in that area who had survived the conflagration and catastrophic explosion (which was highly unlikely) would have had no time to escape. The forward section held out a bit longer- perhaps as much as 3 minutes. Between the damage caused by the main explosion, ensuing internal fires/secondary explosion, power failures, splitting/collapse of the ship, vertigo and the rapidity of the sinking, there was very little time to react, let alone escape the hull. It was a terrible end for those who survived the conflgration and were trapped in the dark, inverting, rapidly sinking ship.

Suction & The Improper Use of Life Saving Gear
Based on testimony from the survivors, Hood generated a substantial amount of suction as she sank. This suction was a likely factor in the deaths of a number of men from the forward part of the ship. It is believed that a number of men may have made it outside, but as they did so, the sea overtook them. They were then trapped under deck heads or pinned to the twisting and rapidly sinking ship by the suction. Some may have been trapped as the ship continued to tear apart. As for life saving gear, survivor Ted Briggs said that he wore his life vest under his heavy Burberry cold weather gear. If he did this, it is likely that others in the crew did the same. By having heavy coats and sweaters (not to mention anti-flash gear and gas masks) over life vests, the buoyancy of the swimming men would have been drastically reduced. This lack of buoyancy could have been a contributing factor as to why people could not escape the suction while submerged.

Conclusion
The real question is not why did so many die, but how did anyone survive? The fact that just three men survived is purely due to chance: they were propelled to the surface by some release of air far below the surface, perhaps from an exploding boiler or from air being forced from the rapidly imploding hull. They were indeed fortunate- had they been only a few feet from their respective positions, perhaps the air bubbles would not have reached them at all. They could have been trapped in the sinking wreckage. Their luck held after reaching the surface in that each made it to 3 foot square Denton rafts that had broken free from the sinking ship- this kept them out of the freezing water (although being thoroughly wet in the first place, the wind chill must have been excruciating- nearly as bad as the cold water itself). They were also very fortunate that they were rescued before freezing to death- destroyer Electra arrived just as at least two of them were starting to pass out from the effects of hypothermia."

HMS Hood wreck found

An expedition has found the wreck of the HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, which was sunk in one of the greatest naval battles of the second world war.

www.theguardian.com

.

H.M.S. Hood Association-Battle Cruiser Hood

www.hmshood.com

19 rare photos of HMS Hood - the Royal Navy's final battlecruiser

First launched more than 100 years ago, HMS Hood was one of the greatest warships ever built by the Royal Navy.

www.portsmouth.co.uk

 

[dannyboy602]

Philadelphia earned the reputation as “the city that bombed itself.

Remains Of Black Children Killed In MOVE Bombing Cannot Be Located

Six adults and five children lost their lives during the 1985 attack on Philadelphia's MOVE compound. And now two Ivy League universities can't confirm the whereabouts of the remains of two children.

www.npr.org

Remains of children killed in MOVE bombing sat in a box at Penn Museum for decades

Where are they now, and who is responsible for them? No one seems to know.

billypenn.com

I'll never forget that awful day. And to hear the dead move members bones were used like that is just disrespectful. But I'm not even a little surprised. Philly has that kind of reputation.

 

[BarnBuster]

I'll never forget that awful day. And to hear the dead move members bones were used like that is just disrespectful. But I'm not even a little surprised. Philly has that kind of reputation.

Are you from Philadelphia? My mom's brothers and sisters all lived in Bridesburg starting in the 30's. Worked at Plumb, Frankford Arsenal and Penn railroad. Really was a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else. And most everyone's last name ended in ..ski.

 

[injinji]

Are you from Philadelphia? My mom's brothers and sisters all lived in Bridesburg starting in the 30's. Worked at Plumb, Frankford Arsenal and Penn railroad. Really was a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else. And most everyone's last name ended in ..ski.

So. . . . . . BarnBusterski

 

[BarnBuster]

So. . . . . . BarnBusterski

That's
Stodoła
Busterowski to you, fella

 

[GreatwhiteNorth]

View attachment 4908105​

"The sinking of H.M.S. Hood on Empire Day, 24th May 1941, resulted in the single largest loss of life for the Royal Navy during World War II: 1,415 were lost. There were no tangible traces of any crewmen, living or dead, save the three survivors, Ted Briggs, William Dundas and Bob Tilburn.

There are four main factors that likely contributed to such an overwhelming loss of life. These are presented in chronological order (in as much as that is possible) below:

The Battle with Prinz Eugen and Bismarck
Hood was struck early in the engagement: High explosive shells fired by Prinz Eugen struck Hood's shelter deck (aka "boat deck") somewhere near the main mast. This salvo started a fire which soon spread. As it did so, it fed on notable quantities of cordite propellant found in the "ready use" ammunition. Note: "Ready use" ammunition was extra ammunition for the various antiaircraft and duel purpose weapons located about Hood's shelter deck. This ammunition (bullets, shells and rockets) enabled crews to quickly load the weapons and be prepared for action. Ammunition would then be re-supplied from below deck. Unfortunately, the ready use lockers were numerous and very lightly protected. A number of men assigned to these exposed action stations may have been killed by the detonation of Prinz Eugen's shell(s). A number more may have been injured or killed when Hood's own antiaircraft ammunition and rockets began sporadically detonating in the fire. Still more men may have been injured or killed later in the battle when a 15" shells from Bismarck may have passed through the Spotting Top and lower bridge structure (these hits are unconfirmed).

The Fatal Explosion
One fact in Hood's sinking is certain: something ultimately caused her aft 15" magazines to rapidly burn or detonate, causing the area of the ship between "Y" turret and just aft of the second funnel to be violently devastated. The fire was so intense that it likely caused the instant deaths of the majority of the crew in the affected areas of the hull and at upper/aft action stations. After the main explosion aft, there are indications that the ship's interior may have been swept by fire followed by a second exploiosn forward. This possibility is based upon the findings from the 2001 expedition to the wreck site. This alone would account for the majority of casualties.

The Collapse/Splitting of the Ship and the Subsequent Rapid Sinking
Hood initially split/twisted and/or collapsed into at least two main sections following the explosion. Though the very end of the stern was intact, its structure from the aft turrets forward was a mass of blasted-out plating and twisted framework. This damage caused the stern to tilt upward and sink almost immediately- so quickly in fact, that anyone in that area who had survived the conflagration and catastrophic explosion (which was highly unlikely) would have had no time to escape. The forward section held out a bit longer- perhaps as much as 3 minutes. Between the damage caused by the main explosion, ensuing internal fires/secondary explosion, power failures, splitting/collapse of the ship, vertigo and the rapidity of the sinking, there was very little time to react, let alone escape the hull. It was a terrible end for those who survived the conflgration and were trapped in the dark, inverting, rapidly sinking ship.

Suction & The Improper Use of Life Saving Gear
Based on testimony from the survivors, Hood generated a substantial amount of suction as she sank. This suction was a likely factor in the deaths of a number of men from the forward part of the ship. It is believed that a number of men may have made it outside, but as they did so, the sea overtook them. They were then trapped under deck heads or pinned to the twisting and rapidly sinking ship by the suction. Some may have been trapped as the ship continued to tear apart. As for life saving gear, survivor Ted Briggs said that he wore his life vest under his heavy Burberry cold weather gear. If he did this, it is likely that others in the crew did the same. By having heavy coats and sweaters (not to mention anti-flash gear and gas masks) over life vests, the buoyancy of the swimming men would have been drastically reduced. This lack of buoyancy could have been a contributing factor as to why people could not escape the suction while submerged.

Conclusion
The real question is not why did so many die, but how did anyone survive? The fact that just three men survived is purely due to chance: they were propelled to the surface by some release of air far below the surface, perhaps from an exploding boiler or from air being forced from the rapidly imploding hull. They were indeed fortunate- had they been only a few feet from their respective positions, perhaps the air bubbles would not have reached them at all. They could have been trapped in the sinking wreckage. Their luck held after reaching the surface in that each made it to 3 foot square Denton rafts that had broken free from the sinking ship- this kept them out of the freezing water (although being thoroughly wet in the first place, the wind chill must have been excruciating- nearly as bad as the cold water itself). They were also very fortunate that they were rescued before freezing to death- destroyer Electra arrived just as at least two of them were starting to pass out from the effects of hypothermia."

HMS Hood wreck found

An expedition has found the wreck of the HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, which was sunk in one of the greatest naval battles of the second world war.

www.theguardian.com

.

H.M.S. Hood Association-Battle Cruiser Hood

www.hmshood.com

19 rare photos of HMS Hood - the Royal Navy's final battlecruiser

First launched more than 100 years ago, HMS Hood was one of the greatest warships ever built by the Royal Navy.

www.portsmouth.co.uk

This is a tough read.

 

[cannabineer]

This is a tough read.

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again:

thank you for serving.

 

[GreatwhiteNorth]

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again:

thank you for serving.

Thanks man, I honestly appreciate that.
+

 

[BarnBuster]

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A boat carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution is turned away from Havana, Cuba, on May 27, 1939. Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the United States and Canada for entry are denied, the rest are forced to sail back to Europe, where they’re distributed among several countries including Great Britain and France.

On May 13, the S.S. St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba. Most of the passengers—many of them children—were German Jews escaping increasing persecution under the Third Reich. Six months earlier, 91 people were killed and Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were destroyed in what became known as the Kristallnacht pogrom. It was becoming increasing clear the Nazis were accelerating their efforts to exterminate Jews by arresting them and placing them in concentration camps. World War II and the formal implementation of The Final Solution were just months from beginning.

The refugees had applied for U.S. visas, and planned to stay in Cuba until they could enter the United States legally. Even before they set sail, their impending arrival was greeted with hostility in Cuba. On May 8, there was a massive anti-Semitic demonstration in Havana. Right-wing newspapers claimed that the incoming immigrants were Communists.

The St. Louis arrived in Havana on May 27. Roughly 28 people onboard had valid visas or travel documents and were allowed to disembark. The Cuban government refused to admit the nearly 900 others. For seven days, the ship’s captain attempted to negotiate with Cuban officials, but they refused to comply.

The ship sailed closer to Florida, hoping to disembark there, but it was not permitted to dock. Some passengers attempted to cable President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for refuge, but he never responded. A State Department telegram stated that the asylum-seekers must “await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas before they may be admissible into the United States.”

The New York Times wrote on June 8:​

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'No plague ship ever received a sorrier welcome. Yet those aboard her had sailed with high hopes….Yet out of Havana Harbor the St. Louis had to go, trailing pitiful cries of “Auf Wiedersehen.” Off our shores she was attended by a helpful Coast Guard vessel alert to pick up any passengers plunged overboard and thrust him back on the St. Louis again. It is useless now to discuss what might have been done. The case is disposed of. Germany with all the hospitality of its concentration camps will welcome these unfortunates home…. there seems to be no help for them now. The St. Louis will soon be home with her cargo of despair.'​

As a last resort, the St. Louis continued north to Canada, but it was rejected there, too. “No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere,” Frederick Blair, Canada’s director of immigration, said at the time.

Faced with no other options, the ship returned to Europe. It docked in Antwerp, Belgium on June 17. By then, several Jewish organizations had secured entry visas for the refugees in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The majority who had traveled on the ship survived the Holocaust; 254 later died as the Nazis swept through the continent.

In 2012, the United States Department of State formally apologized to the survivors of the ship, and in 2018, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau followed suit. But the memory of those who died is still a painful reminder of what a refusal to adjust immigration policies in light of persecution and migration crises can mean. “We were not wanted,” St. Louis survivor Susan Schleger told a Miami Herald reporter in 1989. “Abandoned by the world.”

 

[BarnBuster]

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On May 28, 1936, Alan Turing submitted his ground breaking paper, “On Computable Numbers.” Just 24 years old at the time of publication, Turing both identified the characteristics of a “computable” number and described a simple method for carrying out those computations. He essentially conceived of the modern computer on paper using mathematics before the technology existed to actually build the computer.

Called the Turing Machine, it formed the theoretical foundation for modern computer science.

Alan Turing Publishes "On Computable Numbers," Describing What Came to be Called the "Turing Machine" : History of Information

Alan Turing Publishes

historyofinformation.com

 

[BarnBuster]

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At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. The two, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future.

Mount Everest sits on the crest of the Great Himalayas in Asia, lying on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Called Chomo-Lungma, or “Mother Goddess of the Land,” by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, a 19th-century British surveyor of South Asia. The summit of Everest reaches two-thirds of the way through the air of the earth’s atmosphere—at about the cruising altitude of jet airliners—and oxygen levels there are very low, temperatures are extremely cold, and weather is unpredictable and dangerous.

The first recorded attempt to climb Everest was made in 1921 by a British expedition that trekked 400 difficult miles across the Tibetan plateau to the foot of the great mountain. A raging storm forced them to abort their ascent, but the mountaineers, among them George Leigh Mallory, had seen what appeared to be a feasible route up the peak. It was Mallory who quipped when later asked by a journalist why he wanted to climb Everest, “Because it’s there.”

A second British expedition, featuring Mallory, returned in 1922, and climbers George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce reached an impressive height of more than 27,000 feet. In another attempt made by Mallory that year, seven Sherpa porters were killed in an avalanche. (The Sherpas, native to the Khumbu region, have long played an essential support role in Himalayan climbs and treks because of their strength and ability to endure the high altitudes.) In 1924, a third Everest expedition was launched by the British, and climber Edward Norton reached an elevation of 28,128 feet, 900 vertical feet short of the summit, without using artificial oxygen. Four days later, Mallory and Andrew Irvine launched a summit assault and were never seen alive again. In 1999, Mallory’s largely preserved body was found high on Everest—he had suffered numerous broken bones in a fall. Whether or not he or Irvine reached the summit remains a mystery.

Several more unsuccessful summit attempts were made via Tibet’s Northeast Ridge route, and after World War II Tibet was closed to foreigners. In 1949, Nepal opened its door to the outside world, and in 1950 and 1951 British expeditions made exploratory climbs up the Southeast Ridge route. In 1952, a Swiss expedition navigated the treacherous Khumbu Icefall in the first real summit attempt. Two climbers, Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay, reached 28,210 feet, just below the South Summit, but had to turn back for want of supplies.

Shocked by the near-success of the Swiss expedition, a large British expedition was organized for 1953 under the command of Colonel John Hunt. In addition to the best British climbers and such highly experienced Sherpas as Tenzing Norgay, the expedition enlisted talent from the British Commonwealth, such as New Zealanders George Lowe and Edmund Hillary, the latter of whom worked as a beekeeper when not climbing mountains. Members of the expedition were equipped with specially insulated boots and clothing, portable radio equipment, and open- and closed-circuit oxygen systems.

Setting up a series of camps, the expedition pushed its way up the mountain in April and May 1953. A new passage was forged through the Khumbu Icefall, and the climbers made their way up the Western Cwm, across the Lhotse Face, and to the South Col, at about 26,000 feet. On May 26, Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon launched the first assault on the summit and came within 300 feet of the top of Everest before having to turn back because one of their oxygen sets was malfunctioning.

On May 28, Tenzing and Hillary set out, setting up high camp at 27,900 feet. After a freezing, sleepless night, the pair plodded on, reaching the South Summit by 9 a.m. and a steep rocky step, some 40 feet high, about an hour later. Wedging himself in a crack in the face, Hillary inched himself up what was thereafter known as the Hillary Step. Hillary threw down a rope, and Norgay followed. At about 11:30 a.m., the climbers arrived at the top of the world.

News of the success was rushed by runner from the expedition’s base camp to the radio post at Namche Bazar, and then sent by coded message to London, where Queen Elizabeth II learned of the achievement on June 1, the eve of her coronation. The next day, the news broke around the world. Later that year, Hillary and Hunt were knighted by the queen. Norgay, because he was not a citizen of a Commonwealth nation, received the lesser British Empire Medal.

Since Hillary and Norgay’s historic climb, numerous expeditions have made their way up to Everest’s summit. In 1960, a Chinese expedition was the first to conquer the mountain from the Tibetan side, and in 1963 James Whittaker became the first American to top Everest. In 1975, Tabei Junko of Japan became the first woman to reach the summit. Three years later, Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria achieved what had been previously thought impossible: climbing to the Everest summit without oxygen. More than 300 climbers have died attempting to summit the mountain.

The Conquest of Everest / Hunt, John; With a Chapter on the Final Assault by Edmund Hillary, 1954

 

[injinji]

A Hillary we can all get behind. Or below, as the case may be. My sandhill is only 28,900 or so feet lower. And I climb it everyday.