Baloo E. Shum

The worst battleship of WW2 might be Japan's Fuso. A ship so badly designed that its own navy kept it out of the fight for almost the entire war, and then sent it to die in the last battleship duel in history. When Fuso was completed in 1915, she was briefly one of the most powerful battleships in the world. Twelve 14-inch guns. Japan's first true super-dreadnought. But the designers made a fatal choice. They spread those twelve guns across six turrets, running almost the whole length of the ship. Two at the front, two in the middle, two at the back. That meant six separate ammunition magazines scattered along the hull. Huge stretches of the ship had to be armored to protect explosives. The armor couldn't cover all of it well. And when the middle turrets fired, the blast interfered with the rest of the ship. Then in the 1930s, Japan modernized her. They gave her new engines, more armor, and a towering "pagoda" mast. It rose so high above the deck it looked like it might tip her over. It became one of the strangest silhouettes of any warship ever built. By WW2, Fuso was old, slow, and fragile. The Japanese Navy knew it. So when the war started, she mostly sat in home waters. She trained crews. She escorted. She waited. During the biggest naval battles of 1942 and 1943, she barely saw action. Japan even considered cutting off her rear turrets and turning her into a half-carrier, then dropped the idea. Then came October 1944. Leyte Gulf. Japan was throwing everything it had at the American landings in the Philippines. Fuso and her near-sister Yamashiro were assigned to Admiral Shoji Nishimura's Southern Force. Their job was to push through Surigao Strait at night and hit the landing beaches. The Americans were waiting. At the far end of the strait sat six US battleships, plus cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. Five of those six battleships had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Some had been sunk in the mud that day, raised, and rebuilt. They had come back for revenge. Early on October 25, 1944, American destroyers charged down the strait in the dark and fired torpedoes. At least one slammed into Fuso around 3 a.m. Fires spread. She fell out of line. For decades, the story was that Fuso blew up and broke in two, with both burning halves drifting in the strait while the battle raged around them. It's in countless books. But when her wreck was finally found and surveyed in 2017, it raised real doubts about that story. The truth of her last minutes is still being argued. What isn't in doubt is how it ended. Fuso went down with nearly her entire crew. Over 1,500 men. Only a handful are believed to have survived. Minutes later, Yamashiro steamed straight into the American battle line. The US battleships crossed her T and opened fire. Yamashiro was torn apart and sank with Admiral Nishimura aboard. It was the last time in history that battleships fought battleships. Fuso spent almost the whole war being kept away from combat because her navy knew what she was. When they finally sent her in, she didn't survive the night.

Black Five 45061 and Jubilee 45593 'Kolhapur' seen at #Leeds Holbeck shed. 📆 Unknown. 📷 Photo by Gavin Morrison. #steamlocomotives #Yorkshire #BritishRailways

Apparently the original letter--misplaced--and now found by Met Police doesn't match the one Meghan recently provided to them.🤣🤣🤣 That fucking Megaliar is cooked. She just got caught faking evidence for the police.

MIllwall win the Ballon d'Or! Great to hear the late Kenny Jackett, his manager when at Miillwall in 2012, get a shout in Kane's acceptance speech last evening. The game of football is all over the place and run in general by clowns, but they got that right last night. Congrats H

HMS Exmouth Duncan-class pre-dreadnought (1901) Built to counter the Russian Peresvet-class battleships, Exmouth spent most of her pre-war career as the flagship for the Mediterranean, Channel and Atlantic Fleets. Active at the start of the war, she served in the 3rd Battle Squadron (where she attempted to rescue HMS Audacious) then the 6th Squadron in November 1914, at which point she participated in the bombardment of Zeebrugge. Transferred to the Mediterranean in 1915, she took part in the Dardanelles Campaign and activities off Greece before being packed off to the East Indies Station in 1917. Returning to Britian in August 1917, she was paid off so that her crew could be transferred to anti-submarine vessels. Scrapped in 1920.

Congratulations to @HKane on winning the Ballon d'Or 2026! ⚽️ From Millwall fans and all at the Millwall Supporters' Club 🦁🥳🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #madeatmillwall #loanedtothelions #harrykane

Le premier croiseur cuirassé au monde est lancé à Brest le 27 octobre 1890. Nommé DUPUY DE LÔME, il a été conçu par l'ingénieur Ernest HUIN. Il sera doté d'un blindage de 10 cm pour résister au calibre maximal de l'artillerie à tir rapide de l'époque (14 cm).

#6024 arrives into Wansford from Yarwell, now loco facing forward, picking up more passengers wanting to travel to Peterborough. 11th October 2026.

The Battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Revenge in the Grand Harbour at Valletta, Malta (c.1930s)