Jamie McTrusty
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jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
Jamie McTrusty
@jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
2.6K followers 51 following 4.6K posts
Posts on (mostly) Second World War aviation and naval history. See ALT text for picture credits and additional information!
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Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
alexchurchill.bsky.social
Today’s Substack features a guest piece from @boneyabroad.com achurchill.substack.com/p/guest-arti...
GUEST ARTICLE: The Halifax Disaster, 1917
I’ve wanted to put this story out there for a while, but sometimes, you just have to acknowledge that some people are better placed to do the job than you are.
achurchill.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
Coming out this Sunday for paid members is my article on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (out for general release on the 7th December).

The why, how and results of the raid.

open.substack.com/pub/jerijero...
November 28, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
andyaitch.bsky.social
We’ve tried to avoid him for 4 seasons but unfortunately we can’t dodge Arthur Askey any longer.

Join us for this and other news headlines on @newsofthewar.bsky.social 23 May 1942

linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar x.com/newsofthewar/s…
November 28, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
neonwilderness1.bsky.social
Pilots heading to their fully loaded Douglas A-1H Skyraiders aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) in the waters off Vietnam, 1 January 1965.

Photo by Bill Ray, Life Magazine.
#history #coldwar #vietnamwar #navy
November 28, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
dreadships.bsky.social
!!!
acetomatocompany.bsky.social The Ace Tomato Company @acetomatocompany.bsky.social · 1d
Aaaaaand that's enough aviation internet for the day.
November 28, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
theaviation.show
#OTD in 1957, six McDonnell RF-101C of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing flew "Operation Sun Run" where they set six new transcontinental speed records across the US.

RF-101C 56-0166 was one of the aircraft that set the records and now resides in the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.
RF-101C 56-0166 on display in the South-East Asia Gallery at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. 166 flew on Operation Sun Run before seeing service in the Vietnam War. A map of the USA showing the routes from LA to New York City and back and the records set.
November 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
27 Nov 1703 (O.S.) // The Great Storm of 1703 swept across southern England from the Bristol Channel to the Thames Estuary during the night of 26/27 November. Damage was widespread and many ships were lost, wrecked, and sunk, including the following 13 vessels of the #RoyalNavy. [1/9]
'The Great Storm Nov'ber 26 1703 Wherein Rear Admiral Beaumont was lost on the Goodwin Sands', National Maritime Museum, public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
November 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
The Westland Welkin (1942) was designed to counter sorties by high altitude Luftwaffe bombers over Britain. In the event, this threat was short-lived and existing fighters proved able to perform the same role. 67 aircraft were completed, but none saw operational use.
📷 militarymatters.online
🧵1/6
Overall grey camouflaged Westland Welkin banking to starboard in clear skies at altitude above a layer of overcast. It’s a rather graceful twin inline-engined aircraft, the nacelles extending beyond the trailing edge of the wing. The aircraft has a short nose, behind which sits the cockpit, mounted above the long-span wing. A slender fuselage tapers to a straight-cut tailplane.
November 27, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
danellin.bsky.social
#OTD 27 November 1944 the underground munitions store at RAF Fauld exploded, killing 70 people, creating a huge crater and destroying a reservoir. #History #WW2
BURTON-ON-TRENT, Tuesday. THE death-roll [sic] in the R.A.F. depot explosion near here yesterday is expected to exceed 160. Tonight more than 100 men were estimated to be buried in the ammunition store, from which 23 bodies have been recovered. Thirty-one bodies remain under the wreckage of a plaster works nearby. Rescue parties worked through last night and today, often in extreme difficulties. Many deaths were caused by gas and some of the rescuers could work only for two-minute spells, although equipped with respirators. The casualties include Service men, civilians and Italian collaborators. A village near the scene of the main explosion, and the open country above the depot, today looked as if it had been pattern-bombed. Great craters are everywhere, and the face of the countryside over an area of several square miles has been completely changed. Buried under mud. There were two explosions in different parts of the depot. The first was in a gallery which, with the administration buildings above it, was wrecked. The other was at a bomb dump 70ft. underground. Between 50 and 60 men were at work at the site of the first explosion, but some escaped by an air shaft. Mr. Charles Gibbs was one of those unhurt. Man after man he carried to safety on his back, and he gave in only when he collapsed through being gassed; he was himself carried home by R.A.F. men. Blast wrecked a reservoir and an avalanche of mud swept through and over the administration offices. Men are believed to be buried under the mud. At the bomb dump there were at least 75 men at work. Farm disappears. Two farms near the dump were among the wrecked buildings. One has practically disappeared into a crater 100 yards deep and 300 yards wide. There is no trace of a farmer and his wife and three farm hands. At intervals throughout today there have been minor explosions, attributed to the bursting of incendiary bombs... IBCC Digital Archive item 22086 Jean Smith was a WAAF at 27 OTU at RAF Lichfield. She remembers the explosion: ‘Fauld, the day the Dam went up, yes it was in 1944 and it was the Fauld explosion … and I’d gone upstairs and was typing away at this huge … long-carriage typewriter… and it was this funny rumble that went through my feet… we all stopped because it sounded like air raids and, we, it was only, must have been seconds… and suddenly this rumble got bigger and my typewriter … jammed, it went and I sort of sat back and I looked at the dirty, green wall in front of me and there was this little crack and it started to open and it came down in a big curve and I just, I just watched it… somebody said, oh, there must be a bad air raid somewhere, funny we haven’t heard the sirens.’ IBCC Digital Archive item 3488
November 27, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
This week’s free to read is on the sinking of U-100 and the death of Schepke using surface radar for the first time

jerijerod14.substack.com/p/ace-killing

#history #navalhistory #uboat #ww2
Ace killing
The Royal Navy's use of Radar and sinking of Schepke
jerijerod14.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
curatorian.bsky.social
Recently digitised - off the Burma coast, during amphibious operations against the Japanese, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Eskimo conducts a shore bombardment; March 1945. Shot by Lt Ferris. #navalhistory #ww2 #filmcataloguing

Full film: IWM JIN 27 / www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
November 27, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
navalairhistory.com
Apparently I’m on Wrecks that Changed the World (Episode 4) on PBS this evening, talking about HMS Prince of Wales, Pearl Harbor etc. I wasn’t even sure they’d ever made the programme (I did a day of interviews at FAAM between lockdowns and never heard any more from them)
November 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
#otd 1914 HMS Bulwark exploded at her moorings on the River Medway killing most of her crew.

open.substack.com/pub/jerijero...
The loss of Bulwark
On the 26th November 1914 a Midshipman on HMS Agamemnon, stationed in the Medway estuary, recorded in his diary:
open.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
crusaderproject.bsky.social
On 26 November 1941, the German navy issued a note showing which Axis merchants in the Med had been equipped with German AA guns.

@rjhammond215.bsky.social @marcusfaulkner.bsky.social

@ima-naval-history.bsky.social
German AA Armament of Axis Merchant Vessels – 26 Nov. 1941
Background The increasing threat from air attack of the merchants plying the North Africa route led to increased air defence measures, with permanent installations of quite substantial numbers of g…
rommelsriposte.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
26 Nov 1780 // 28-gun frigate HMS Sartine, part of Commodore Sir Edward Vernon's squadron off Calicut, India, was ordered to move inshore and attack warships of the Sultan of Mysore, which were in the shallows. Her captain, Robert Simonton, protested that this would cause him to run aground. [1/3]
November 26, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
tankarchives.bsky.social
Trials of a jumping T-26 tank began #OTD in 1937. The tank could get off the ground using an eccentric half-wheel, but the T-26 couldn't go fast enough to jump over any obstacles using this tool. #tanks #history
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
26 Nov 1794 // Sloop HMS Pylades, attempting to ride out a storm in the Shetland Islands, was wrecked off Haroldswick when her cables parted. No casualties. A local man bought the wreck, rebuilt her, and sold her back to the navy. She remained in service until 1815. #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
November 26, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
26 Nov 1798 // 50-gun HMS Medusa was driven ashore and wrecked, with no lives lost, at Rosia Bay, Gibraltar. Admiral Jervis, CinC Mediterranean, was shouting angry instructions to her captain through a speaking trumpet from the shore at the time, which probably didn't help. #RoyalNavy #NavalHistory
November 26, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
26 Nov 1914 // At around 7.50am battleship HMS Bulwark was destroyed off Sheerness by a catastrophic internal explosion. 741 men lost their lives and there were 12 survivors. The court of enquiry blamed the blast on cordite charges being temporarily stored where they were exposed to heat. [1/2]
HMS Bulwark at anchor. Imperial War Museum image: Q 21052B. Cloud of smoke and debris produced by HMS Bulwark exploding at Sheerness, 26 November 1914. Imperial War Museum image: SP 2912. The remains of HMS Bulwark photographed from a passing ship on 6 February 1915, Imperial War Museum image: Q 49414. Daily Mirror newspaper placard reporting news of the destruction of HMS Bulwark on 26 November 1914: text reads 'Bulwark blown up - 700 dead'. Imperial War Museum image: Art.IWM PST 12967.
November 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
This week’s podcast is out!

The story of one Polish destroyer’s defence of the Isle of Wight against a brutal low level Luftwaffe strike during #ww2

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...
Defending Cowes
Podcast Episode · Maritime History with Chris Sams (live and unplugged) · 26/11/2025 · 15m
podcasts.apple.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
curatorian.bsky.social
Today in 1944, at Roermond in the Netherlands, sound recordist Lt Peter Handford points his microphone at 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers, and captures their singing at an open air church service. 🔊 #history #ww2

Full recording: IWM 7697 www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
November 26, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
armouredcarriers.bsky.social
Here's what the pilots thought about it. I think I included some of that same footage ... #NavalHistory #WW2 #RoyalNavy
youtu.be/aygD9K8aJ_E
Fairey Firefly: The first multi-role naval strike fighter
YouTube video by Armoured Archivist
youtu.be
November 26, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
armouredcarriers.bsky.social
Wow. The things you stumble upon when looking for something completely different. This picture, taken during Operation Pedestal, shows HMS Nelson or Rodney using 16in guns with HE shells timed to explode in front of approaching torpedo bombers! IWM A11205 #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
November 26, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
usni.org
#OTD in 1961, USS Enterprise was commissioned, becoming the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. CVN-65 was the eighth U.S. naval vessel to bear the name Enterprise. The Gerald R. Ford-class carrier CVN-80 currently under construction will continue the tradition.
November 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
boneyabroad.com
We've done a thing! @alexchurchill.bsky.social and I chatted with @rooneyvision.bsky.social about his new book about Alcock and Brown, Harry Hawker and, of course, Harry's amazing wife Muriel.

Check us out wherever you get your pods or on YouTube.
15minutebook.club 15-Minute Book Club @15minutebook.club · 2d
We are delighted to share our launch episode with you, as @rooneyvision.bsky.social joins us to discuss the men who showed up in Newfoundland after the end of the Great War to attempt to fly the Atlantic. David, your 15 minutes begin now...

📺 youtu.be/OTIqIje5ixI
🎧 shows.acast.com/15-minute-bo...
Thumbnail image showing the 15 Minute Book Club logo and the cover of David Rooney's new book, The Big Hop, which has a stylised image of Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy biplane bomber over the Atlantic ocean.
November 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM