I can ID ETO equipment pretty well but I still have trouble telling an Oscar from a Zero if I haven't looked at them for a while.
Not an entirely modern phenomena, but I am starting to think that there's a new 'knowledge base' being constructed on foundations that are only as deep as the first results page of an internet search. Print works can sometimes include mistitled photos or entirely transposed ones. I recall one in a fairly cheap and cheerful book on the history of the tank that showed a photo of a NATO era Leopard I in the WW2 section, and a Panzer IV in the Cold War section. Certainly the above is particularly egregious and it would be interesting to know who published it. I've been reminded myself lately of the joys of proofreading, fact checking and sourcing references. Gary
Nailed it. The ones in post #2 are from a very recent book by a pretty well-known chap. Was genuinely surprised as you assume there is proof-reading. No idea if he'll respond on Twatter now as a few shouters have got going, but it'd be interesting to hear his perspective.
I very much doubt there will be a response but the paperback will be interesting to have a flick through to the corresponding pages when it is published.
It is amazing how the identical content can appear in so many different places on the web. The cut and paste generation proliferates at will. As Mark Twain is reputed to have said, A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
I would have noticed the tracks just learnt something new so now wont miss identify the next time I bump into some armour/armor British M3 Grant (left) and Lee (right) at El Alamein (Egypt), in the Sahara Desert, 1942, showing differences between the British turret and the original design. M3 Lee - Wikipedia
Good thing the Swordfish were too slow for the antiaircraft sights on the Bismarck to track.. If only they could have stopped and been completely motionless they would have been absolutely impossible to hit.
You jest but a cousin of mine served for many years on these RCAF beauties, out over the Atlantic. He very seriously made the claim that their slow speed made them a difficult target for jet fighters. I advised him to drink a little less Kool-Aid. Before they replaced the Argus with the Aurora, the air frames wouldn't allow more than half throttle.
Have any of you ever heard of a 1944 US fighter called the "P-48 Lightwing"? It was mentioned in a book I am reading at present. There have been some other egregious mistakes, such as referring to a German "M42" machine gun as a being water-cooled.
Watching Dr Stangelove and noticed that one of the base security men's grease gun turned into an MP 40 in one scene.