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Wednesday morning will present an unusual sight off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor: the uncoupling of the battleship Missouri from its mooring opposite the sunken Arizona in the pairing that symbolizes the beginning and end of World War 2. The 887-foot Missouri, the last battleship built by the U.S. and site of Japan's unconditional surrender ending the war, will be headed to drydock at about 7 a.m. if all goes as planned. Officials recommend that people go to the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center for public viewing of the historic -...

Nearly six and a half years in the making. 22 feet from bow to stern. Measuring a meter across at its widest point. 1/40th the scale of the real thing. Nearly a quarter-million individual LEGO pieces. And the whole thing weighs 330 pounds. Behold the achievement of Jumpei Mitsui, who has faithfully rendered the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato in LEGO...

A French battleship sunk in 1917 by a German submarine has been discovered in remarkable condition on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. The Danton, with many of its gun turrets still intact, is sitting upright in over 1,000m of water. It was found by the Fugro geosciences company during a survey for a gas pipeline between Algeria and Italy. The Danton, which sank with 296 sailors still onboard, lies 35km southwest of the island of Sardinia. Naval historians record that the Danton's Captain Delage stood on the bridge with his officers and made no attempt to leave the ship...

FORT MORGAN, Ala. – When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery — a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later. The wreck, about six miles from Fort Morgan, had already been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969. Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

It lurked in the wreck of an old battleship 160ft below the surface – a true monster of the deep. Diver Paul Worsley could hardly believe the size of the giant crab he found in Lyme Bay, off the Dorset coast. Careful to avoid its fearsome claws, he managed to get it into a bag and raise it to the surface. For his efforts, he can congratulate himself on capturing what experts believe is the biggest edible crab ever landed. It weighed 17lb and had a shell width of 12in while each of its massive claws was as big as...

When the battleship Barham was torpedoed by the Germans in November 1941, with the loss of over 800 lives, the Admiralty delayed announcing the news to maintain morale. But the secrecy was ended within a few days when medium Helen Duncan told a couple during a seance that their son, a sailor on the ship, had appeared from the spirit world to tell them it had sunk. Witch? Helen Duncan, pictured in a portrait from 1931, was jailed for nine months in 1944 under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 In one of the most bizarre acts of the Second World...

The man with the German SupermodelTuesday, September 25, 2007   This scale model of World War II German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is 9m (30ft) long and weighs 320kg (700lb). It took creator William Terra six years to build and cost £5,000. Made from wood strips and fibreglass, the Spee can reach speeds of 15mph, thanks to its 11.2Kw engine. It also plays music by German composer Richard Wagner through an in-built stereo, said former fire officer Mr Terra, 65, from Maine, US.

A Japanese museum has obtained a rare photo of Japan's World War Two battleship the Yamato shortly before it departed for the East China Sea, where it was sunk by US warplanes. The aerial photo was taken by a US reconnaissance plane on April 6, 1945, off Tokuyama in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan, five hours before the Yamato made its final sortie. The Yamato Museum in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, recently obtained a digital image of this photo, which is stored in the US National Archives in Washington. The Yamato, the world's largest-ever battleship, sank on its way to Okinawa...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

61 years ago today.

The Iowa is the battleship San Francisco just can't seem to sink. The Board of Supervisors flat out rejected a proposal last year to bring the World War II-era vessel to the city by the bay and turn it into a tourist attraction, declaring there's no room for a warship in anti-war San Francisco. But Iowa backers persisted and tried to win over support by offering to use a portion of the historic ship as a museum for the military's don't-ask-don't-tell policy on gays and lesbians. They pitched holding an annual peace conference on the ship. Even in San Francisco,...

Battleship film revives Japan's pride in wartime generation (Filed: 28/11/2005) Sixty years after the colossal battleship Yamato was sunk, the pride of Japan's wartime navy is once again an object of fascination. Almost 400,000 visitors have flocked to see a full-scale replica of the deck of the Yamato in Onomichi, western Japan. The ship was reconstructed for the shooting of a film, Men of the Yamato, which will be released next month. The £3million replica deck, made for the film Men of the Yamato, has attracted 400,000 Japanese visitors The Yamato, the largest battleship ever built, was considered indestructible by...

Sixty years ago today on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri, the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II. It was a triumphant moment. It was a humbling moment. It was a moment of relief after years of fighting, death and destruction. As Gen. Douglas MacArthur and military officials from Great Britain, Australia and Russia took the unconditional surrender, everyone knew that the world changed in a day and because of the fight that had just occurred. The end of World War II created a new world. The war brought technologies that helped build a world we know today. It...

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 20,12:24 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO - The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents. Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific. Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is...

"... the next-generation destroyer, DD(X), with its two fully automated 155mm guns capable of firing 10 Global Positioning System-guided rounds per minute up to 83 nautical miles from an expandable 920-round magazine..." Passionate advocates of returning our Nation's two battleships to service maintain that these two ships could be brought back into service quickly, safely and economically to meet Marine Corps requirements for long-range, precise firepower ashore...we should not confuse our fondness for those ships with an assumption of their appropriateness for the task at hand. ...If reactivated, the battleships would not be able to fire munitions "as far as...

West Virginia University's Random Acts of Kindness Week urges students to be friendly to people of all different races, religions and backgrounds - including people from other states. Many New Jersey residents attend WVU, which may result in certain stereotypes. "West Virginia students sometimes claim that students from New Jersey are rude and patronizing," said Dr. Neil Berch, WVU political science professor and former New Jersey resident. For some, this may be the case. "I do find the majority of people from Jersey are louder and rude," said Jenny Baker, Bunker Hill, W.Va., resident. Not all students feel negatively toward...

HONOLULU (AP) - Sixty-three years after the sneak attack that plunged the United States into World War II, hundreds of men who died aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma are finally getting their own special tribute. A new exhibit of photos, artifacts and oral histories was being unveiled Monday to honor the 429 men from the Oklahoma who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack. That is the second-highest number of Pearl Harbor casualties behind the USS Arizona, where most of its 1,177 killed crewmen remain entombed. The anniversary also will be marked with simultaneous ceremonies Tuesday aboard the Arizona Memorial...

Argentine warship hits Brazil ship From correspondents in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil December 1, 2004 AN Argentine warship inadvertently fired on a Brazilian frigate during joint naval exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, injuring five people, officials said. Four Brazilian sailors and an Argentine officer were hurt during live-fire training late on Monday night off the coast of Brazil near Cabo Frio, 125km north-east of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Navy said. The accident happened when an Argentine warship fired a shot from one its canons, hitting the Brazilian frigate Rademaker. The five men were taken to a naval hospital in...

Building Tomorrow's Space Battleships with Today's Tech By Robert Peterson special to space.com posted: 06:02 pm ET 21 January 2000 In the movies, X-wings and TIE fighters dart and weave in dogfights out of a WWII epic. But what if we had to build a maneuverable spaceship that could potentially take evasive actions -- and we had to do it today? In fact, let's say aliens decided to invade Earth tomorrow. While their gigantic command ship camps in high orbit, their attack fighters cruise above the maximum altitude of our jets, dropping bombs on us. What do we do? Earth-shattering...