When the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, dubbed the 'Butcher Bird', first clawed its way into the skies over France during the Dieppe Raid in 1942, it marked a new chapter in aerial combat. The Luftwaffe's agile fighter swiftly wrested air superiority from the Royal Air Force, outclassing the then-dominant Spitfire Mk. V. With a rich combat…
Minutes after an attack left at least 52 people dead at a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Friday, Washington Post reporters saw near the scene the remains of a missile, with the words
Tallboy and Tirpitz
The Tirpitz was the second of the legendary Bismarck-class of battleships, assembled after her sister the Bismarck between 1936 and 1941.
These two ships were built in response to the French Richelieu-class battleships laid down in 1935, and would be the largest and heaviest ships built for the Kriegsmarine. The Tirpitz was 2000 tons heavier than the Bismarck due to later modifications, and is the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.
At the time, battleships built from nations who signed the Washington Naval Treaty were limited to a weight of 39,000 tons, but both the Bismarck and Tirpitz exceeded this limit in secret, eventually weighing well over 45,000 tons.