Vote for creativity Challenge #6 ('Google Earth')

NeuralDream · **NeuralDream**

Deadline to vote: Sunday, 28 June 2009. 23.59 Pacific Time.

The_lucky_Y
The remains of the western bridgehead of the Railway bridge across the Rhine near Remagen named after the WW1 general Erich Ludendorff.

Planned for the Schlieffen strategie with two similar bridges across the river Rhine near Rüdesheim and Koblenz to connect the strategic railroads that are needed to supply the German army that operate against France. Only the Rüdesheim bridge construction are started in peacetime 1913 and was named after the famous field marshal Hindenburg,the others are started in 1916.
As the bridges are finished the world war one was already over and saw only a lot defeated German troops that retreat from the western front.
In the inter war times all bridges saw nearly no public traffic on them combined with a few freight trains.
World war two give them the traffic that they are planned for.
Captured by the spearhead of the 9th Tank Division at march 7th 1945 the Ludendorff Bridge collapses itself at march 17th due to heavy combat damage and partial self destruction charge blast damage.
28 US soldiers die through the collapse and 95 are injured. 18 of the dead men are never found after that accident.
Seizing that bridge let the US Army establish the urgently needed bridgehead of the eastern bank of the Rhine river and lead into the Ruhr encircling a few months later.

Only the bridge near Koblenz was rebuild after the war

Several movies made the Remagen bridge as core of their story.

The western bridgehead in the early 1950´s

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NeuralDream
An Amphibious Type 2 Ka-Mi tank on Palau (from the battle of Peleliu).
When the Shermans landed it was only a matter of minutes for all Japanese tanks to be destroyed. The island is a goldmine for WW2 archaeologists.

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Richter Von Manthofen
GRAF SPEE - I mean the place where she sunk, but was not able to make it visibly Sad

http://wikimapia.org/2239690/Wreck-of-Admiral-Graf-Spee

Street View

The Admiral Graf Spee was one of the most famous German naval warships of World War II, along with the Bismarck. Her size was limited to that of a cruiser by the Treaty of Versailles, but she was as heavily armed as a small battleship due to innovative weight-saving techniques employed in her construction.

She was sent to the Atlantic Ocean as a commerce raider in 1939, where she sank nine Allied merchant ships. Numerous British hunting groups were assigned to find her, with three British ships finally tracking her down in December 1939. The Battle of the River Plate ensued, during which the Graf Spee was damaged. She docked for repairs in the neutral port of Montevideo, but was forced by international law to leave within 72 hours. Faced with what he believed to be overwhelming odds, the captain scuttled his ship rather than risk the lives of his crew.

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Von Pickles
Prinz Eugen

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Toxic_Rat

The USS Arizona memorial is seen in the top left of the photo. The top of barbette #2 can be seen just to the side of the memorial. On 7 December 1941, the USS Arizona was among the first ships sunk by Japanese forces.

On 2 September 2945, the USS Missouri was the site of the official Japanese surrender. Representatives from the U.S., China, U.K., Australia, and other allies were present to witness the end of the Second World War.

The USS Missouri now stands watch over her fallen sister at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. If you're ever in Hawaii, I highly recommend taking the tour of the ship.

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grimreaper1066
June 6th 1944 second front opens and The Western allies have the task of getting as much men and material into the theatre of operation as quickly as possible. To disembark all this war material they needed to capture a harbour...or did they....
Solution -make your own Harbours from massive floating concrete blocks, drag them to Normandy and sink them to form an artifical Mulberry Harbour. Complete with road ways and 2 level off loading of deep water transports.
By 9 June, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry 'A' and 'B' were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm on 19 June destroyed the American harbour at Omaha, leaving only the British harbour which came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches. While the harbour at Omaha was destroyed sooner than expected (due to it not being securely anchored to the sea bed), Port Winston saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only 3 months. In the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.
Google earth image

Birds eye image June 9th+?

Ground level remains of casement block present day

Sea level image of pontoon road leading to a casement from 1944

Present day photos are from near the British Gold beach at Arromanches.

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Rengokuy
Dirt Bismarck

A Target of the battleship Bismarck, made out of dirt and wood, central new mexico.

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Duke_Striker

HMS Belfast – Cruiser. Flagship of 10th cruiser squadron. Part of squadron that sank Scharnhorst (with Norfolk, Sheffield, Suffolk and HMS Prince of Wales). Escorted carriers on raid on Tirpitz. Bombarded Juno and Gold beaches on D-Day. Currently a museum ship in London, England. 51°30'23.39"N 0° 4'52.99"W

More history at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hms_belfast

Being a Canadian, I was tempted to go for the HMCS Haida - it's an actual WAS mini, and the lone representative of the Canadian Navy. Unfortunately, the Google Earth picture of it in Hamilton harbour really doesn't do it justice. That image doesn't let you see the ladder they used to climb up when they had to pour in the blackpowder and tamp in the cannon balls on the 4.7" guns ! (The Dutch have a Cruiser, and we're getting a 900 tonne Corvette in a future set ? The Americans get another Battleship - the Arizona doesn't even have 900 tonnes ABOVE WATER - but I'm not bitter...) Sad

The shadows on the Belfast make it look like its ready for action - Belfast also gets bonus points for helping sink 2 other minis...

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Greyh Seer
TBF Avenger and T6 Texan over North Carolina

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RedBaron

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NjCo

The Battle for Guadalcanal

This campaign was fought between August 7th 1942 and Feb. 9th 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands mainly over the Japanese constructed airbase on Gudalcanal that the Marines captured. This combined air, sea and land campaign marked the first major combined arms victory over the Japanese in the war and was a major turning point in the battle for the Pacific. So many ships and planes were lost in the waters north of the island over the course of five battles that the region is referred to as Iron Bottom Sound.

The battle on land was no less fierce. Japanese tanks can still be seen on the beaches of the island and weapons, shells and other artifacts litter the island. Tens of thousands of men lost their lives over the course of the 7 month campaign in some of the most brutal fighting yet seen in the war. There were 14 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from all branches of service that saw action at Guadalcanal (Army, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Navy).

This is a Google Earth tour of some of the major engagements that occurred in and around the island:

Initial Marine Corps Landings (August 7th 1942)

The initial landing at Red Beach by the 5th Marines was unopposed and went off largely without a hitch. The following day the Marines moved to occupy the poorly manned airfield that was under construction. The Japanese essentially ran away and left all their equipment and supplies in perfect condition.

The Battle of Savo Island (August 9th 1942)

Big victory for the Japanese navy which entered the battle with five cruisers, two light cruisers and a destroyer and left the battle with two damaged cruisers. The US forces had six cruisers, three light cruisers and eight destroyers in the area. The limped away after having four of their cruisers sunk (including the HMAS Canberra) and one damaged in addition to two damaged destroyers.

The Battle of Tenaru (August 21st 1942)

The first major engagement of the campaign was a night attack by the Japanese across the Tanaru River just east of the Marine perimeter around Henderson Field. The Marines were in defensive positions along the western shore of the river. The Japanese attacked across the river from the east but were encircled. The Japanese severely underestimated the number of Marines that had landed and the battle ended after 16 hours of fighting with a complete route of the Japanese forces. Almost the entire Japanese unit of about 900 was killed with only 15 men captured. The Marines suffered only 34 men killed.

The Battle of the Ridge (Sept. 12th-14th 1942)

Also called Bloddy Ridge or Edson’s Ridge this was one of the most dramatic moments of the campaign. This ridge was only about a mile away from the airfield and held a commanding view of the area immediately around the airstrip. It as along the southern most section of the defensive perimeter set up around the air base. Colonel M. Edson commanded hastily organized battalion consisting of elements from the 1st Raider battalion and the 1st Parachute battalion of the 5th Marines totaling about 840 men. They were positioned along this ridge in defensive positions. The determined attacks by a force of almost 3000 Japanese men would force the Marines back along the ridge over the next several days but the line held and the Japanese force was driven off with about 850 soldiers killed compared the Marines 104 dead.

The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (nights of November 13th and 15th 1942)

Fought over the course of three days this battle saw a large number of ships engaged including many in the two sets of Axis & Allies naval minis release so far. The Battleship USS Washington played a pivotal role sinking a battleship and a destroyer. The US did not escape unscathed however. Eight ships were sunk including the USS San Francisco, the USS Atlanta and the USS Laffey in addition to almost as many ships sustaining heavy damage, including the USS San Francisco. The battle was still seen as a US victory since the Japanese forces were unable to bombard Henderson Field nor provide crucial supply and reinforcements to the Japanese forces on the island.

The Battle of Tassafaronga (November 30th 1942)

By this time in the campaign the Japanese navy had very little left to throw at the US naval forces. The decision had already been made to abandon the island to the US forces. All that was left to do was get all the remaining land forces off the island. They still required supply since the majority of Japanese land units would not be evacuated for more than two months. The supply effort was the responsibility of the Japanese navy and that meant the Japanese destroyers. The famed Tokyo Express had run supplies down “the Slot” for several months and would continue to do so for several more. The Battle of Tassafaronga was an encounter between eight Japanese destroyers and a greatly superior US force of four cruisers, a light cruiser and six destroyers. The Japanese fled the area as soon as they detected the US ships so it was by no means a dazzling victory for them but it was still a victory none the less. The US managed to sink one destroyer but as the remaining destroyers fled the area they all fired their Long Lance torpedoes. Within minutes four US cruisers were out of action with the Northampton sunk and the Minneapolis, New Orleans and Pensacola heavily damaged.

The above picture shows the USS New Orleans missing the front fifth of the ship including her forward turret after being hit by a torpedo.

The above photo shows the USS Minneapolis after taking two torpedo hits. The bow of the ship is missing.

Present Day Ironbottom Sound

Due to the large number of wrecks located in the waters off Guadalcanal the area is a popular scuba diving destination. Most of the wrecks are located in water far to deep for standard diving but a good half dozen are in waters shallow enough to be enjoyed by divers including several right along the shore of the island.

This one is a gun turret on a B-17
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My new blog, specialised in the military equipment of Greece (1821-today).

Leader DarkAura_17 · **Leader DarkAura_17**

my vote goes to neuraldream for finding a rectangular dot and thr giht picture.
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GTL:
Gleemax: AH_A&A Member: +4
ForuMINI: +1

Aquarius · **Aquarius**

I voted for Greyh Seer. Finding a pic of an Avenger in the air is just incredible.
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I have to make a new sig because my old one is too wide for this new look...

chesty · **chesty**

Great job by everyone involved. Very Happy

The tour was nice, but the Dirt Bismarck got my vote.

NeuralDream · **NeuralDream**

Richter von Manthofen · **Richter von Manthofen**

Voted for the Avenger+Texan - Love it
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[img.]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Animated_gun_turret.gif[/img]

Lieber eine flotte Rote als die rote Flotte!

Leader DarkAura_17 · **Leader DarkAura_17**

NeuralDream · **NeuralDream**

Final scores for the 6th creatitivy challenge:

1. Rengokuy 10 pts
2. NjCo 8 pts
3. NeuralDream 7 pts
4. Greyh Seer 6 pts
-. Red Baron 6 pts
-. Von Pickles 6 pts
7. The_lucky_Y 2 pts
-. grimreaper1066 2 pts
-. Duke_Striker 2 pts
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My new blog, specialised in the military equipment of Greece (1821-today).