February 8, 2011
Blog ArchivesWikimedia Featured Picture: Underground Galleries at Fort de Roppe
This stunning capture of the underground galleries at Fort de Roppe near Belfort, France, has featured as one of Wikimedia Commons’ pictures of the day. The underground galleries were built during the First World War to connect the fort to the troop shelter.
Abandoned Control Tower: RAF Coleby Grange, UK
(Image: Richard Croft, cc-sa-2.0) Situated somewhat oddly in a farmer’s field, this abandoned control tower is one of the few remaining buildings at RAF Coleby Grange near Lincoln, England. Opened in 1939 and operated as a fighter and night fighter base during World War Two, Coleby Grange was at various times home to British, Polish, … Continue Reading
30 Abandoned Tanks and Armoured Vehicles
The 20th Century was the most violent in human history, and a decade into the 21st century things look ominously similar. So it’s little wonder that abandoned tanks, planes and armoured vehicles litter the streets and deserts of the more wartorn regions of the world.
Deep Blue Sea: Aircraft & Aircraft Carriers Lost Beneath the Waves
Seabeds are a treasure trove of history, where the natural world mingles relatively undisturbed with man-made artifacts lost through the ages. Shipwrecks naturally spring to mind when we ponder such places, but a complete aircraft is always a coveted find for divers. Here are four of them, and one of the awesome ships that they once called home…
Stalin’s “Railway of Bones”
It was doomed to be an unfinished project that would claim almost 15,000 lives. Today the remains of Stalin’s vast railway, which was set to run within the Arctic Circle from Salekhard to Igarka, can be found rusting in the icy tundra. History would later remember it as the “railway of bones”.
World War Two Meets Science Fiction: Pirate Radio and Micronations
These bizarre fortified towers look more like a cross between the Imperial Walkers from Star Wars and the Martians from War of the Worlds. In the context of the time they were built – the Second World War – they must have looked impossibly futuristic. Today, their rusting shells seem like an invading hoard of mechanical monsters – the opposite, in fact, of what they actually are.
The Road to Bagram
The road to Bagram Airfield in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan is littered with the spoils of war, most of it now completely destroyed. The desert floor abounds with the wreckage of Soviet era military equipment, including tanks and other armoured vehicles.