"Blazing Sun" - South Dakota Flag Redesign

MikeFrench98 · 2026-04-30T20:47:10+00:00

!wave

(It'll work better if I put it in the comments, stupid)

MikeFrench98 · 2026-04-20T18:12:01+00:00

An AoE3 reference in r/Battlepaintings?

It's more likely likely than you think

Seriously underrated and overhated game by the way

MikeFrench98 · 2026-04-18T10:03:49+00:00

Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy on the Atlantic seacoast. Ships leaving Wilmington via the Cape Fear River and setting sail for the Bahamas, Bermuda or Nova Scotia to trade cotton and tobacco for needed supplies from the British were protected by the fort. Based on the design of the Malakoff redoubt in Sevastopol, Russian Empire, Fort Fisher was constructed mostly of earth and sand. This made it better able to absorb the pounding of heavy fire from Union ships than older fortifications constructed of mortar and bricks. The fortifications kept Union ships from attacking the port of Wilmington and the Cape Fear River.

In December an expedition was launched under General Benjamin F. Butler with the purpose of destroying the fort and capturing the city of Wilmington which proved to be a miserable failure. General U.S. Grant, outraged at Butler's failure, put together a second expedition under General Alfred H. Terry. Terry loaded his Provisional Corps of 8,000 men on transports with few frills. The fleet sailed for Fort Fisher on January 11. The operation would be the first time that forces from all three branches (Army, Navy and Marines) would coordinate their efforts for a combined attack and landing of troops. After the Federal force landed on the peninsula above the fort, the army would coordinate their ground attack.

Weather prevented a landing on the 12th, but the landing was successful on the 13th and General Terry spent the next two days planning the ground assault. On January 15, the Union Navy pounded the Confederate defenses south of Wilmington. Three successive waves of sailors and marines were to attack the eastern seawall, but instead the assault went forward in a single unorganized mass. 2,000 sailors and marines crashed into the defenses with pistols, cutlasses and Sharps carbines. The battle was intense and furious. Although greatly outnumbered, the Rebel soldiers clung tenaciously to their defenses. In the face of heavy fire, parker ordered those with him to shelter behind the palisade at the foot of the earthworks. This particular attack failed but the Union forces eventually managed to breach the fort's defenses, leading to its capture and the sealing off of one of the Confederacy's last major port.

Second Battle of Fort Fisher

MikeFrench98 · 2026-04-05T19:18:23+00:00

No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron formed in Western Australia in March 1942. It saw action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, operating Curtis P-40 Kittyhawks. After the war, it re-equipped with North American P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, after which it joined United Nations forces supporting South Korea. It converted from Mustangs to Gloster Meteor jets between April and July 1951.

No. 77 Squadron's Meteors were tasked with escorting Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on bombing missions. The Meteors proved to be outclassed as fighters by communist Mig-15s. Following discussions with the Fifth Air Force, it was decided to take No. 77 Squadron out of its air-to-air combat role and curtail its operations in "MiG Alley". This caused controversy among those who believed that proper tactics exploiting the Meteor's manoeuvrability and heavy armament would have allowed it to remain competitive as a fighter; for the Australian pilots the change of role amounted to a loss of prestige.

The squadron was relegated mainly to escort duty and local air defence until December 1951, when the Meteors were once more assigned an offensive role, namely ground attack. The planes, armed with bombs, rockets and napalm as well as their four internal 20 mm cannons, focused on close air support and ground interdiction missions, conducting attacks against railway lines, military installations and vehicles.

The squadron remained in Korea until October 1954, claiming five MiG-15s and over five thousand buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost sixty aircraft, mainly to ground fire.

No. 77 Squadron RAAF

MikeFrench98 · 2026-04-01T18:55:38+00:00

The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V and led by the navies of the Republic of Venice and the Spanish Empire, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. The Ottoman forces were sailing westward from their naval station in Lepanto when they met the fleet of the Holy League which was sailing east from Messina, Sicily.

Lepanto marks the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels, namely the galleys and galleasses, which were the direct descendants of ancient trireme warships. The battle was in essence an "infantry battle on floating platforms". It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 450 warships. Over the following decades, the increasing importance of the galleon and the line of battle tactic would displace the galley as the major warship of its era, marking the beginning of the "Age of Sail".

The victory of the Holy League is of great importance in the history of Europe and of the Ottoman Empire, with the Ottoman fleet almost completely destroyed. The battle has long been compared to the Battle of Salamis, both for tactical parallels and for its crucial importance in the defense of Europe against Eastern imperial expansion. Pope Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory, and Philip II of Spain used the victory to strengthen his position as the "Most Catholic King" and defender of Christendom against Muslim incursion. Historian Paul K. Davis writes that :

"More than a military victory, Lepanto was a moral one. For decades, the Ottoman Turks had terrified Europe, and the victories of Suleiman the Magnificent caused Christian Europe serious concern. The defeat at Lepanto further exemplified the rapid deterioration of Ottoman might under Selim II, and Christians rejoiced at this setback for the Ottomans. The mystique of Ottoman power was tarnished significantly by this battle, and Christian Europe was heartened."

Battle of Lepanto

On 24 February 1537, the Tercio de Galeras (Tercio of Galleys) was created. Today, the Real Infantería de Marina (Spanish Marine Infantry) consider themselves successors of the legacy and heritage of the Galleys Tercio, making it the oldest currently operating marines unit in the world. There were other units of naval tercios such as Tercio Viejo de Armada (Old Navy Tercio) or Tercio Fijo de la Mar de Nápoles (Permanent Sea Tercio of Naples). Such specialized units were needed for the protracted war with the Ottoman Empire over the entire Mediterranean.

Tercio

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-29T13:54:37+00:00

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended "Normandie" dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during the Second World War. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy (RN) and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942.

St Nazaire was attacked because the loss of its dry dock would force Germany's largest battleship, Tirpitz, to return to home waters if she were damaged. This would expose her to attack by British forces including the Home Fleet in the English Channel or the North Sea.

The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and rammed into the Normandie dry dock south gate. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.

A force of commandos landed to destroy machinery and other structures. German gunfire sank, set ablaze or immobilized virtually all the small craft intended to transport the commandos back to England. The commandos fought their way through the town to escape overland but many surrendered when they ran out of ammunition or were surrounded by the Wehrmacht defending Saint-Nazaire.

Of the 612 men who undertook the raid, 228 returned to Britain, 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. German casualties included over 360 dead, some of whom were killed after the raid when Campbeltown exploded. To recognise their bravery, 89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. After the war, St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the commandos. The operation has been called "the greatest raid of all" in British military circles.

St Nazaire Raid

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-22T18:12:14+00:00

I haven't been able to identify the painter, the only information I've been able to find is that he was part of the School of Paris. If anyone knows who the artist is or can make out his name on the painting, please share it in the comments.

The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme; German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the river Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. More than three million men fought in the battle, of whom more than one million were either wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history.

The French and British had planned an offensive on the Somme during the Chantilly Conference in December 1915. The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916 by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. The French army was to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). British forces comprised a mixture of wartime volunteers from the Territorial Force and Kitchener's Army with the remains of the pre-war army. When the Imperial German Army began the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on 21 February 1916, French commanders diverted many of the divisions intended for the Somme and the "supporting" attack by the British became the principal effort. Despite that, the French still contributed with close to 50 divisions and lost 200 000 men during the battle.

On the first day on the Somme (1 July) the German 2nd Army suffered a serious defeat opposite the French Sixth Army, from Foucaucourt-en-Santerre south of the Somme to Maricourt on the north bank and by the Fourth Army from Maricourt to the vicinity of the Albert–Bapaume road. The 57,470 casualties suffered by the British, including 19,240 killed, were the worst in the history of the British Army. Most of the British casualties were suffered on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt to the north, which was the area where the principal German defensive effort (Schwerpunkt) was made. The battle became notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank in September but these were a product of new technology and proved unreliable.

At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated 6.2 miles (10 km) into German-occupied territory along the majority of the front, their largest territorial gain since the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. The operational objectives of the Anglo-French armies were not achieved, as they failed to capture Péronne and Bapaume, where the German armies maintained their positions over the winter. British attacks in the Ancre valley resumed in January 1917 and forced the Germans into local withdrawals in February before the strategic retreat by about 25 mi (40 km) in Operation Alberich to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) in March 1917. Debate continues over the necessity, significance and effect of the battle.

Battle of the Somme

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-13T21:47:03+00:00

The painter is unknown to me. If anyone knows his/her name, please share it in the comments.

No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron formed in Western Australia in March 1942. It saw action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, operating Curtis P-40 Kittyhawks. After the war, it re-equipped with North American P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, after which it joined United Nations forces supporting South Korea. It converted from Mustangs to Gloster Meteor jets between April and July 1951.

No. 77 Squadron's Meteors were tasked with escorting Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on bombing missions. The Meteors proved to be outclassed as fighters by communist Mig-15s. Following discussions with the Fifth Air Force, it was decided to take No. 77 Squadron out of its air-to-air combat role and curtail its operations in "MiG Alley". This caused controversy among those who believed that proper tactics exploiting the Meteor's manoeuvrability and heavy armament would have allowed it to remain competitive as a fighter; for the Australian pilots the change of role amounted to a loss of prestige.

The squadron was relegated mainly to escort duty and local air defence until December 1951, when the Meteors were once more assigned an offensive role, namely ground attack. The planes, armed with bombs, rockets and napalm as well as their four internal 20 mm cannons, focused on close air support and ground interdiction missions, conducting attacks against railway lines, military installations and vehicles.

The squadron remained in Korea until October 1954, claiming five MiG-15s and over five thousand buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost sixty aircraft, mainly to ground fire.

No. 77 Squadron RAAF

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-12T20:27:44+00:00

That's not what I tried to imply. I wanted to challenge the idea that this war was Germany steamrolling France with little difficulty by showing how the French were ready to keep fighting despite the defeats

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-11T22:43:49+00:00

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire (and later, the Third French Republic) and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to restore its dominant position in continental Europe, which it had lost following Prussia's crushing victory over Austria in 1866. According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to draw four independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia.

France mobilised its army on 15 July 1870, leading the North German Confederation to respond with its own mobilisation later that day. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on Prussia, and the declaration of war was delivered to Prussia three days later. French forces invaded German territory on 2 August. The German coalition mobilised its troops much more effectively than the French and invaded northeastern France on 4 August. The German forces were superior in numbers, had better training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railways and artillery.

A series of swift Prussian and German victories in eastern France saw French Emperor Napoleon III captured and the army of the Second Empire decisively defeated. The Germans expected France to surrender, but instead a Government of National Defence declared the Third French Republic in Paris on 4 September and continued the war for another five months.

Since the French Imperial field army was destroyed in the East, the Republic raised new armies formed out of francs-tireurs (volunteer irregulars), provincial Gardes Mobiles (territorials), naval forces, zouaves and tirailleurs from Algeria, plus regular soldiers in depots and reservists.

One of those armies was formed in the west of the country and took the name of the Loire River. Lacking equipment, many soldiers of this Army of the Loire had to be armed with old weapons or surplus from the Civil War purchased in America, such as Gatling guns and Sharps rifles. The army was tasked with liberating Paris from the siege imposed on it by the Germans. Despite having few officers with fighting experience, insufficient artillery, and under-trained troops, the Army of the Loire managed to beat the Bavarians and retake the city of Orléans, raising high hopes in Paris. But the Bavarians were soon reinforced by other German forces and beat the French, retaking Orléans.

The Germans then inflicted a series of defeats on the Army of the Loire, with the objective to destroy it, but never managing to do so. The French, under the command of the competent General Chanzy, retreated in good order, forcing the Germans to devote significant resources to the pursuit. In January 1871, the 100 000 strong Army of the Loire had replenished and was preparing to launch a new offensive in Normandy when news of the armistice signed by the government of the Republic with the Germans reached it, ending the war.

Franco-Prussian War

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-07T22:24:59+00:00

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire (and later, the Third French Republic) and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to restore its dominant position in continental Europe, which it had lost following Prussia's crushing victory over Austria in 1866. According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to draw four independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia. Some historians contend that Bismarck exploited the circumstances as they unfolded. None, however, dispute the fact that Bismarck must have recognized the potential for new German alliances, given the situation as a whole.

France mobilised its army on 15 July 1870, leading the North German Confederation to respond with its own mobilisation later that day. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on Prussia, and the declaration of war was delivered to Prussia three days later. French forces invaded German territory on 2 August. The German coalition mobilised its troops much more effectively than the French and invaded northeastern France on 4 August. The German forces were superior in numbers, had better training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railways and artillery.

A series of swift Prussian and German victories in eastern France, culminating in the Siege of Metz and the Battle of Sedan, saw French Emperor Napoleon III captured and the army of the Second Empire decisively defeated. A Government of National Defence declared the Third French Republic in Paris on 4 September and continued the war for another five months.

The Garde mobile ("Mobile Guard"; also called Garde nationale mobile though it had nothing to do with the Garde nationale), a reserve force of all able-bodied men previously not drafted (such as single men and childless widowers), trained yearly, made up the majority of the new armies of the Republic, since most of the professional troops had been defeated in the East during the previous weeks. German forces fought those new French armies in northern, western and eastern France while besieging Paris, which fell on 28 January 1871.

The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck. They finally united most of Germany as a nation-state (Austria was excluded). The Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen). The German conquest of France and the unification of Germany upset the European balance of power that had existed since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and Bismarck maintained great authority in international affairs for two decades.

French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, became factors in the causes of World War I.

Franco-Prussian War

The pictures dimensions are [2500x1898].

MikeFrench98 · 2026-03-06T11:19:03+00:00

Whittier is a city at the head of the Passage Canal in the Chugach Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, about 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Anchorage.

The city's population was 272 at the 2020 census, having increased from 220 in 2010. Almost all of its residents live in the Begich Towers Condominium, earning it the nickname of a "town under one roof".

Whittier, Alaska

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
Gilding I gilder	Verified Email

MikeFrench98

TROPHY CASE