Giving You Ultra Cute Tiny Little Creatures.

What a striking, yet tiny little creature. I presume it is some kind of rodent and I'm guessing it is in the Americas. I could be wrong, but it is a very quaint little thing indeed. I'm looking at my own finger nails to gauge just how tiny this little shrew-type mammal is. Its snout has long fine whiskers growing out in all directions and I imagine it spends lots of time beneath the ground. It makes me wonder how complex and wonderful nature and our Earth really is. This tiny little thing has evolved from some all knowing, all seeing biological programme or divine essence. Something created this fine little living entity and there it is. Hardly bigger then a finger nail with eyes drinking in the camera and person before it. A huge creation in a tiny bundle of cuteness. 

Giving You Japan's Super Aircraft Carrier Submarine of WWII

I-400 Japanese Super Sub

During World War II Japan desperately sought ways to bring her war effort to the American coastline. She wanted to bomb the United States and hoped it would make the USA more weary of engaging the Japanese Empire deep in the Pacific.

Japan needed to employ stealth to penetrate the US Navy with substantial forces to attack the mainland. The nation's scientific engineers came up with a remarkable plan to build giant submarines capable of carrying aircraft. The many obstacles that the huge designs had to overcome were immense because the vessel needed to carry three planes plus bomb loads under the sea before surfacing off of the west coast of the USA and launching air strikes upon major US cities. 

For such an audacious plan the Japanese wanted 18 giant submarines. Admiral Isoroko Yamamoto wanted more but due to raw materials required for such he venture, he could only commission 18. As the building work went on, Japan was losing the race against time as US forces battled their way across the Pacific invading one island after another getting ever closer to Japan.

At first the Japanese planned to attack the west coast then go around the Cape Horn and cruise up to the east coast of USA to attack Washington, Miami and New York. This ambition became less likely as the US began to edge closer to Japan. Again the amount of giant Subs for commission diminished as did the goals of Japan's war effort against the USA.

A new agenda was thought up with just two of the giant aircraft carrier subs. An attack on the Panama Canal. However, even this plan was abandoned as the US forces attacked Okinawa. With two giant subs - the I - 400 and the I - 401 the grand vessels decided upon an attack of the American fleet staging area at sea, where the US Navy was waiting to attack the next parts of Japan's mainland.

The giant subs set out upon their mission in the summer of 1945. Before they could get to their destination and launch the six meagre aircraft upon the American fleet, Japan had been attacked with atomic bombs. The order to cease hostilities came over the radio. The final mission was aborted and upon return back to Japan both giant subs fell into US hands. 

Both these giant subs were destroyed in spring of 1946 off of Pearl Harbour. The USA wished to sink the giant subs with her secrets to evade inspection from the Soviet Union. The Cold War was beginning and thus ended the brief wonder of the giant aircraft carrier submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Below is a great YouTube documentary of the giant aircraft carrier subs.

Giving You Colonel Durnford of Isandlwana 1879

Colonel Anthony William Durnford's final moments.



Colonel Anthony William Durnford was born in Ireland in 1830. He was a brave man who would earn his celebrity in the final moments of his life, fighting bravely, as a valiant soldier, in a battle that was one of the biggest disasters in British military history.

As a 12 year old boy he left Ireland to grow up with his uncle in Dusseldorf Germany, but as a young man he came to England and enlisted in the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, London. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1848.

He was stationed overseas in Ceylon, but tried to get transferred away during the start of the war in Crimea against imperial Russia. He wanted to see action. He was not accepted for this and was disappointed to miss the campaign. While in Ceylon he also got married. 

He was then sent to Malta for a few years and had three children by his wife. Sadly, the first - a boy, died in infancy. The second - a daughter survived, but the third - another daughter, also died in infancy. This was a traumatic time for Anthony William Durnford and his wife. They separated after this and, for a while, he was stationed in Gibraltar, before returning to England.

He was then sent to South Africa in 1872 and stationed at a place called Pietermartizburg. He was now 42 and may have thought his army career had been uneventful on the action side of things.

In South Africa his first chance came and he took part in his first action when he was caught in a skirmish with  an African tribe called the Hlubis at Bushman's River. He fought bravely and took two stab wounds during the fight. He managed to kill two assailants with his pistol but one of his wounds left his lower left arm paralysed from the elbow down. He had no use of his left hand after this and would ride with his native horsemen (The Natal Native Horse) keeping his redundant hand inside his jacket similar to the way Napoleon sometimes did.

Colonel Durnford was very popular among his fellow horse contingents and was regarded affectionately as a larger then life character - a commanding Irishman with a confident presence. He moulded his Natal Native Horseman in to fine riders and very competent men.

In 1879, Colonel Durnford and his men were used in Lord Chelmsford's invasion of the Zulu's land when Britain declared war upon the Zulu King Cetshwayo. The mission was to be a disaster. A large force of the British army encountered the Zulu warriors at a place called Isandlwana. A huge battle took place between over 23,000 Zulus against 858 British troops and 471 native soldiers. All but 55 of the Britain's troops were wiped out during this battle.

During the desperate struggle, Colonel Durnford and his men rode out and tried to hold the left horn of the flanking Zulu army and put up a very fierce resistance faltering the enemy until his men ran out of cartridges. They then had to remount and return to the main camp where the Redcoat British foot soldiers were being over run by the Zulu forces.

Colonel Durnford and his last remaining men put up a last stand as they ran headlong into the Zulus. They were overcome and killed - falling alongside the other soldiers of the British army. Of the 55 soldiers who did manage to escape across the Buffalo river; a few were NNH soldiers.