Hong Kong WWII Veteran's Memorial Unveiled

 

Given the war ended 64 years ago, it took them a rather shameful amount of time to get this done. Nonetheless, a monument honouring 2000 who went to reinforce Hong Kong and who fought fiercly against the Japanese, resulting in nearly 300 dead and nearly 500 wounded. Then there was the long ordeal in Japanese prisons, where 300 more died.

Hong Kong Memorial

Hats off to those boys - they were thrown into the breach, ill-equiped and barely acclimated, and they fought hard despite that, showing their own great sense of duty and honour. They were and are a credit to Canada.

 
 

Turing Bombe lives again, rebuilt by enthusiasts!

For anyone who has heard of the German Enigma cryptographic machine and Bletchley Park, the home of the British code breakers, this will be a piece of history come to life. For those that haven't, you've missed a pretty key part of how the allies put the boots to Uncle Adolph and his delusions of world dominion.

Enthusiasts recreate a Turing Bombe

This is a recreation of one of over 100 computers of this sort that decoded thousands of German Enigma-encoded messages every day. Much like radar (another secret accompanied by the wonderful misdirection campaign that carrots make you see better at night), the computers of Bletchley Park and the work of the code-breakers helped the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Greatest Generation save civilization.

Vintage Warbirds

Some excellent photos of vintage warbirds (lots of them) and a ground-forces re-enactment with some working vehicles. Planes include Spitfire, Corsair, Mustang, Liberator, Flying Fortress, Zero, Val, Hellcat, Helldiver, Sea Fury, Sabre, Mig-15, F-16, Bearcat and others. Ground forces include 101 Airborne, Germans of sundry sorts, working vehicles including Hetzer, Sdkfz 251, Sdkfz 251/17 with 20mm cannon, M4 Sherman, M3, and others. Some good shots in here, very picture heavy link.

Planes of Fame air-ground show