The pair have been seen together frequently

Brittany Mahomes

Brittany Mahomes has been accused of using Taylor Swift‘s new presence at Kansas City Chiefs games in order to garner attention for herself.

It was perhaps inevitable that somebody would make this claim against Mahomes after her and Swift were seen cheering their partners on from the stands at a recent Chiefs game.

Taylor Swift’s secret handshake with Brittany MahomesParker Johnson

Brittany is the wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, whilst Swift is the new partner of tight end Travis Kelce, making the duo the center of attention right now.

Brittany and Taylor get the spotlight

The fact that Swift is watching games from the same part of the stadium as Brittany means that the pair are obviously going to be seen hanging out together, but Skip Bayless and Michael Irvin disagree over what is going on.

The two hosts from The Undisputed were not in agreement about the pleasant scenes in the stands as the Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-17.

Bayless said: “I don’t even know how Travis got it in the endzone. It was a dangerous play but the point was flash up to the box Taylor Swift and Mahomes’ wife had choreographed and obviously rehearsed a touchdown celebration.”

Irvin then responded to Bayless, saying: “People have already gotten on Patrick Mahomes’ wife because they thought she would like too much of the spotlight, and now she gets it – Brittany Mahomes really wants Taylor Swift as her bestie.”

Kelce and Swift have still not actually put a label on their relationship, but the pair have been seen together so many times that it is pretty clear what is going on to any outsider.

Mahomes’ physique took some by surprise

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes lifts the Vince Lombardi TrophyDAVE KAUPEFE

Being one of the star players in the NFL doesn’t automatically mean you have to be a super toned athlete, with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes proving to be the prime example.

On Wednesday, the Chiefs celebrated their second consecutive Super Bowl triumph with a parade in Kansas City and as tradition goes, Mahomes whipped off his shirt to bear his skin to the fans.

Patrick Mahomes surprises Brittany from behind with sensual moves at Chiefs’ parade

The 28-year-old has never been shy in showcasing his body for the world to see. Only a few weeks ago, a photo of Mahomes in the locker room went viral on social media with fans surprised about his body shape.

Mahomes hit back at some of the comments about his physique, writing on X: “Yoooo why they have to do me like that!?!?!?” before adding the hashtag ‘#DadBodSzn’.

Quoting his own post on the app, Mahomes added: “Like I got kids!!!” and tagged the official accounts for the Chiefs, the NFL, and Inside the NFL, claiming that the angle was unflattering for him.

So this time, Mahomes went out in front of the huge crowd on the streets of Kansas City and took off his top to show off his body on his own terms.

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Suffice to say, there was no discernible signs of a six-pack underneath his red and yellow Chiefs bomber jacket. But does Mahomes need shredded abdominal muscles and bustling biceps when he is arguably NFL’s most skilled passer now that Tom Brady has retired?

Patrick Mahomes’ biggest fan

Mahomes may not care too much what the wider world think about his body so long as he still adding more Super Bowl rings to his collection, which now stands at three. What’s more, his wife, Brittany, is always a passionate supporter of his efforts and clearly thinks the world of her husband.

In an emotional post, the mother-of-two praised her other half’s efforts in guiding the Chiefs to glory and paid tribute to how he is “as a person and as a football player”.

“This guy never stopped believing in his team…through the ups and downs and all the doubters, never once did he doubt this team,” Brittany wrote. “He is a true leader and a team player. He continued to ask himself what he could do better to lead this team to the Super Bowl.

“I saw so much behind the scenes that I will forever be in awe of you as a person and a football player! You my guy deserved this!!! I love you and am always and forever proud of you.”

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift arrives for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 4, 2024. (Photo by Robyn BECK / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Taylor Swift is donating $100,000 to a fundraising effort for the family of a woman who was tragically and senselessly gunned down during a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade.

The singer, who’s in a highly publicized relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was listed among the top donors on a GoFundMe page for Lisa Lopez-Galvan on Friday.

In a comment signed by Swift and posted on the GoFundMe page, the 34-year-old Grammy Award winner wrote, “Sending my deepest sympathies and condolences in the wake of your devastating loss.”

Taylor Swift made a $100k donation to the GoFundMe for Lisa Lopez-Galvan, who lost her life in the Super Bowl Parade shooting. https://t.co/uJNVFB667g pic.twitter.com/vR9EfBG1Et

— JPA (@jasrifootball) February 16, 2024

Elizabeth “Lisa” Lopez-Galvan, who was a wife and mother of two, was identified as the person who was killed in the shooting. The family told CNN’s Alaa Elassar three other family members, including Lopez-Galvan’s son, were injured in the shooting.

Shots were fired near the end of the rally that was held in downtown Kansas City to celebrate the Chiefs winning their second straight Super Bowl.

 

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said Thursday the shooting appeared to stem from a dispute among several people as three suspects were taken into custody, but one adult being released as it was determined he had nothing to do with the shooting.

Two juveniles remain in police custody. No charges have been filed as of yet.

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 03: A detailed view of helmets belonging to San Francisco 49ers players is seen sitting on the field prior to the start of the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium on October 03, 2022 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
A former star player for the San Francisco 49ers has passed away at the age of 70.

Fulton Kuykendall, who began his career with the Atlanta Falcons, has died this week following a battle with dementia. The Falcons confirmed as much in a statement via social media on Thursday night.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Grits Blitz member and Falcons Legend, Fulton Kuykendall,” it reads. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Grits Blitz member and Falcons Legend, Fulton Kuykendall ❤️

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family pic.twitter.com/nA2XEoZBry

— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) February 16, 2024

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution initially reported Kuykendall’s passing.
“After a long battle with dementia, Kuykendall died early Thursday morning at a memory-care facility in Canton. He was 70.

“According to his wife of 44 years, Kuykendall’s brain will be donated to Boston University as part of its ongoing study into traumatic brain injury among NFL players. The rest of his body will go to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine for use in medical school studies.”

 

The former linebacker was drafted in the sixth round in 1975 and was an important part of Atlanta’s defense until 1984. He was dubbed “Kaptain Krazy” for his hard-hitting style of play and featured in five games for the 1977 “Gritz Blitz” defense which allowed just 129 total points that year.

He would end his career with the Niners, spending one season in San Francisco before retiring.

A 10-year-old tweet from Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on none other than Taylor Swift has resurfaced.

Swift is in a relationship with Mahomes’ close friend and teammate, Travis Kelce. The Grammy Award-winning singer attended most of the Chiefs’ games this season, including each of their postseason games and the Super Bowl 58 triumph over the San Francisco 49es.

Incredibly, Mahomes sent out an old tweet from Nov. 24, 2013 that reads “Why does Taylor win everything.” The tweet was actually deleted by Mahomes at some point, but some heads-up fans screenshotted the tweet before it could be gone forever:

A high school aged Patrick Mahomes sent out this Tweet back in 2013 🤣 pic.twitter.com/2a0c81QcUK

— Starcade Media (@StarcadeMediaKC) February 13, 2024

Little did Mahomes, Swifties and the entire NFL world know just how well that tweet would age more than a decade later. The 14-time Grammy Award winner is among the most accomplished and beloved singers of all-time, and then she got to witness her boyfriend become a three-time Super Bowl champion in person.

After a slow first half in the big game, Kelce was practically unstoppable in the second half and overtime against the San Francisco 49es. The future Hall of Famer finished the day with nine receptions for 93 yards, helping set up Mecole Hardman’s game-winning touchdown in the extra frame.

 

With the victory, the Chiefs also became the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowl championships since the 2003 and ’04 New England Patriots.

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Apollo 8 crew stands in the doorway of a recovery helicopter after arriving aboard the carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, recovery vessel for the historic initial manned lunar orbital mission. In left foreground is astronaut Frank Borman, Mission Commander. Behind Borman is astronaut James A. Lovell Jr., Command Module pilot; and on the right is astronaut William A. Anders, Lunar Module pilot.

Apollo 8 splashed down at 10:51 a.m. (EST), December 27, 1968, in the central Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of Hawaii.

Apollo 8 – The Return

Halfway to the Moon, on Sunday, Dec. 22, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew glimpsed Earth outside their windows from a never-before-seen vantage point, slowly decreasing in size as they cut away through the deep black. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful view,” Frank Borman said to Mission Control as the spacecraft sped onward toward its destination.

Christmas morning of 1968, nine-and-a-half Moon orbits and 3 days, 17 hours and 17 seconds after launch, the Apollo 8 crew fired its service module engines to propel them out of lunar orbit and back to their families at home. Though the people on Earth were already celebrating an equally successful and trailblazing mission, NASA’s Mission Control in Houston refused to relax until its three ambassadors were safely back on the ground. Following a series of well-executed re-entry trajectory corrections, Apollo 8 tore through our atmosphere at higher speeds than humans had ever moved before, culminating in what Lovell called “a real fireball” in the re-entry audio recording.

Listen to the re-entry audio between Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell and Mission Control: MP3, NASA audio courtesy Kipp Teague.

Splashdown went as planned on the morning of Dec. 27. The crew, still confined to the Apollo capsule, awaited the Navy men aboard USS Yorktown, who were instructed to rendezvous with the battered spaceship rather than to return home for Christmas. As the astronauts waited to be lifted from the ill-tempered waters, Frank Borman made small talk with the helicopter crew. The sun began to diffuse the early morning darkness and the crew was pulled to safety, heralded on the Yorktown with cheers and cake and unimpeded patriotism. Back in Houston, cigars were lit, handshakes exchanged, and with unabashed enthusiasm a room stuffed with white button-downs and black ties exulted in the emotion of the moment, allowing themselves to take a breath and understand the gravity of their accomplishments.

S69-15737 (27 Dec. 1968) — The Apollo 8 crew stands in the doorway of a recovery helicopter after arriving aboard the carrier USS Yorktown, prime recovery ship for the historic Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission. Left to right, are astronauts Frank Borman, commander; James A. Lovell Jr., command module pilot; and William A. Anders, lunar module pilot. Apollo 8 splashed down at 10:51 a.m. (EST), Dec. 27, 1968, in the central Pacific approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of Hawaii.
NASA

Not long after the crew had returned to land, they received a call from President Lyndon B. Johnson (MP3, audio courtesy LBJ Presidential Library), congratulating their efforts and relaying a message from the Soviets, who were “very felicitous about the welfare of the astronauts.” Acknowledging the scale of teamwork that made such a feat possible, Johnson said, “Now we all know that you men were supported by an elaborate technical apparatus and by many brilliant and devoted men and women here on the ground, and we salute all of them as we salute you.” He went on to dignify the bravery of the astronauts, saying “You’ve seen what man has really never seen before. You’ve taken us, taken all of us all over the world, into a new era.”

Many of the most famous war films that come out of Hollywood focus, in one way or another, on America, and this makes sense, considering how frequently the US has been at war. However, when one looks beyond the American film industry, there are a number of great films which focus on wars in which the US had no official involvement, which can be engaging for those with less familiarity with these conflicts.

No matter what country they originate from, these films often feature powerful performances from their casts, and some are remarkably accurate in their depictions of armed conflict, immersing the viewer in the brutal and ugly world of war. As such, they are potent reminders of just how central war has been to the human experience. To take a break from the parade of movie about US-focused wars, check out these war films about wars that don’t feature the United States at all.

The Killing Fields

Photo: Warner Bros.

The 20th century was marked by a number of brutal conflicts, many of which were civil wars. Few have left as much of a scar as the Cambodian Civil War, which lasted from 1970 to 1975. The Cambodian National army fought against the Communist Party of Kampuchea, better known as the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge emerged victorious in 1975, leading a brutal regime which carried out the Cambodian Genocide, which involved the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people and had long-lasting impacts on the politics of Southeast Asia. The 1984 British film The Killing Fields, which shows some of that brutality through the eyes of journalists Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), is necessary viewing for anyone who wants to learn more about this horrendous conflict and its legacy. Though the technical achievement is stunning, the lead performances are the true heart of the film, which sheds light on the horrible toll of the genocide carried out in the Killing Fields.

The Winter War

Photo: National-Filmi

The Winter War (also called the Russo-Finnish War) may not be well known to those outside of Europe, but it was nevertheless an important conflict which erupted when the Soviet Union invaded neighboring Finland in 1939, shortly after the beginning of World War II. Although Finland’s army was tiny in comparison to that of the USSR, the Soviets found the conflict was more than they’d bargained for, and they suffered significant losses before finally attaining the victory which would see Finland ceding some of its territory to the Soviets. The aptly-titled The Winter War, from Finnish director Pekka Parikka, focuses on a Finnish regiment as they struggle to hold back the Soviet invasion, highlighting the extraordinary bravery as these soldiers their homes against the overwhelming odds in the final days of the war.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Photo: 20th Century Fox

Few films have captured the spirit of the epic war film quite as well as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. It is based on Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels, set during the Napoleonic Wars. Russell Crowe is perfectly cast as Jack Aubrey, who is a compelling leader as he directs his naval crew to intercept a French frigate. Paul Bettany is also pitch-perfect as the much more introspective ship surgeon, Stephen Maturin. The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts which unfolded over a 20-year period, as the various countries of Europe sought to defeat Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire and break his stranglehold on the continent.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Photo: Element Pictures

Like all great war films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley manages to situate its central story about two brothers against a wider, bitter conflict, in this case the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War. Both Pádraic Delaney and Cillian Murphy deliver stunning performances as Teddy and Damien O’Donovan. These two conflicts were key to the history of Ireland and, as the film so potently dramatizes, they often pitted members of a family against one another. The Irish War of Independence lasted from 1919-1921, while the Civil War lasted from 1922-1923. Ultimately, Ireland was divided, with six counties forming Northern Ireland (which stayed part of the United Kingdom) and the remainder ultimately forming the Republic of Ireland (formed in 1949).  Ken Loach’s 2006 drama earned international acclaim and became one of the most successful Irish independent films.

The Battle of Algiers

Photo: Allied Artists Pictures

Few films have packed as much of a punch as the 1966 Italian drama The Battle of Algiers, which was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and focused on the fight by the Algerians against the French colonial forces. The film doesn’t shy away from the ugly nature of the war – particularly highlighting the French and their efforts to regain their colonial possession – and its documentary-style realism is particularly impactful, as is its use of nonprofessional actors. The Algerian War became ever more violent in the years after World War II, and in 1956-1957 the Battle of Algiers erupted around the capital city. Algeria finally achieved independence in 1962. Despite some controversy among French audiences, Pontecorvo’s film was praised by many international critics and audiences, and continues to inspire filmmakers in the modern era – for example, Christopher Nolan, who lists The Battle of Algiers as a major influence on his war film, Dunkirk, for its sympathetic portrayal of the characters without meaningless spectacle.

City of Life and Death

Photo: Media Asia Distribution Group / China Film Group

The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor has been widely memorialized in film, but less attention has been paid to the conflict known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, which raged from 1937-1945 (when Japan was defeated in World War II). Though overshadowed by World War II as a whole for residents of other countries, this war was one of the deadliest in history, resulting in the deaths of over 20 million Chinese soldiers and civilians and almost half a million Japanese soldiers. City of Life and Death focuses in particular on the Battle of Nanjing, which took place in 1937 and led to an enormous massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese forces in the aftermath. Deftly moving between intimate and grand scales, director Lu Chuan weaves together various stories help bring to light one of the most brutal periods in Chinese history, a true testament to the power of cinema to help process the past.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Photo: New Yorker Films

German director Werner Herzog might be most famous for his various documentaries, but he also has a number of scripted successes, including his 1972 historical epic Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The film follows Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) during the colonization of South America in an attempt to discover the legendary golden city of El Dorado in the Amazon. Like so much of Herzog’s work, this film is a harsh depiction of the greed that drove conquistadors to invade South America, as Aguirre becomes more and more determined to find the mystical city and start his own dynasty, even as his companions die in the harsh conditions around him. Though this story is largely fictionalized, Aguirre was a real man who did indeed participate in the effort to find El Dorado; he was notoriously treacherous, leading rebellions against other conquistadors, and he may have even killed his own daughter.

Red Cliff

Photo: Chengtian Entertainment

John Woo has established a reputation as one of the finest action film directors working today, and his skills and talent are very much on display in the international production Red Cliff. As its title suggests, Red Cliff focuses on the Battle of Red Cliffs, one of the most important events to have occurred near the end of the rule of China’s Han Dynasty in the years 208-209 CE. The Han forces, with leadership from Zhou Yu (played here by Tony Leung) managed to defeat the invading forces of the warlord Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi). The film dramatizes this conflict in extraordinary detail, with the unabridged version (released in two parts) totaling over four hours in length. Woo manages to keep the action flowing while also not ignoring the historical consequences of the battle.

The Flowers of War

Photo: Wrekin Hall Entertainment

The Second Sino-Japanese War was one of the ugliest and most brutal conflicts in modern Chinese history. It finds full expression in The Flowers of War, which is set during the war’s early days in 1937. Set during and after the Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese forces killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians, as well as assaulting many women and girls, the story features a variety of characters finding sanctuary together in a church. Among them is John Miller (Christian Bale), an American mortician who attempts to look after a group of innocent schoolgirls. Though it milks the spectacle of war, and the choice to feature an American’s point of view so heavily may be questionable, The Flowers of War nevertheless deserves credit for highlighting the plight of innocent bystanders who were hurt by this devastating attack.

Land and Freedom

Photo: Artificial Eye

Even though the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was fought over who would control a single country – with conservative nationalists on one side and a coalition of communists, anarchists, and Republicans on the other – it nevertheless attracted many outside participants. In many ways, it was a proxy conflict, involving many of the powers who would come to play a significant role in the Second World War. Land and Freedom, released in 1995, explores the conflict from the perspective of David Carr (Ian Hart), a young British communist who goes to Spain to join the conflict on the side of the republicans. Shot in a style evocative of documentary, the film highlights the experience of the everyday soldier during a moment of extraordinary social and geopolitical unrest.

War Witch

Photo: Metropole Films

War is already troubling, but watching children thrust into combat is even more horrifying, which is precisely what makes the Canadian film War Witch such a difficult yet necessary film. Its story revolves around a 12-year-old girl named Komona (Rachel Mwanza), who is taken captive and forced to serve a bloodthirsty general named the Great Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga). As a child solder, she is made to commit atrocities, including killing her own parents, before the general comes to believe she is a witch and makes her his concubine. Though the war in the film is itself fictional, Komona’s experience as a child soldier is inspired by real-world events. Director Kim Nguyen’s willingness to explore this fraught issue, as well as the story’s verisimilitude, makes War Witch a film that shakes viewers to the core.

Photo: Metrodome Distribution

The best war films are of those which communicate the emotional experience of armed conflict to the viewer, and few have been as daring or as claustrophobic in that regard as Lebanon. Set during the 1982 Lebanon War, the 2009 film follows several Israeli soldiers as they contend with the ugly life of being inside a tank, with the only view of the outside world coming through the vehicle’s gunsight. Though the confined nature of the film may wear on viewers almost as it does on the soldiers, Lebanon highlights the physical realities of war – as well as the ethical dilemmas, such as when the team of soldiers are ordered to clear out Lebanese civilians using a type of phosphorus grenade that is forbidden by international treaties. The war lasted for several months in 1982, and began when Israel forces began an incursion into southern Lebanon in retaliation for Palestinian Liberation Organization attacks which had originated in the region. Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement to end the war in 1983, though it remains a controversial conflict to this day.

Pathfinder

Photo: 20th Century Fox

Pathfinder is one of those films which has slipped through the cracks, and this is a shame, as despite its pulpy trappings it nevertheless shines light on the largely-forgotten conflict between the Scandinavians and the Indigenous people of North America. The 2007 action film focuses on Ghost (Karl Urban), a Viking adopted by a Native American woman who subsequently fights alongside his people against a new incursion of Vikings. The film obviously takes many liberties with history but the Vikings did lead expeditions to parts of North America in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. It remains unclear why they did not settle permanently, but historians believe armed conflict with Native Americans might have been a contributing factor.

The HMS Rodney, commissioned in 1927, was a unique and innovative British battleship, known for her distinctive design featuring all main guns forward of her superstructure.

Serving crucial roles during World War II, her notable contributions included the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, escorting vital Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, and providing effective bombardment support during the D-Day invasion.

Although decommissioned and scrapped post-WWII, HMS Rodney’s legacy as a versatile, resilient battleship continues to hold a significant place in British naval history.

Design Of HMS Rodney

Following World War I, the global naval landscape was fraught with the risk of an escalating arms race, as nations sought to expand and enhance their maritime capabilities.

To mitigate this, the major naval powers of the time convened in Washington D.C in 1922 to negotiate the terms of what would become known as the Washington Naval Treaty.

The treaty placed significant limitations on the size and armament of capital ships and led to the cancellation of many ongoing shipbuilding programs.

However, the treaty also offered room for innovation and creativity.

The British Royal Navy seized this opportunity and initiated the construction of two battleships – the HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney. They were part of the new Nelson-class of battleships that were a direct response to the treaty’s constraints.

The Rodney was an impressive ship, stretching 710 feet in length with a beam of 106 feet and a draught of 33 feet.

Its displacement was approximately 33,950 tons in standard conditions and over 38,000 tons when fully loaded for combat. It had a total complement of about 1,361 officers and crew, reflecting the complexity and manpower required to operate such a large warship.

The armament configuration was arguably the most striking feature of HMS Rodney.

HMS Rodney underway after a refit in Liverpool.

All nine of its 16-inch guns, which were the main battery, were placed forward of the superstructure.

This configuration, featuring three turrets with three guns each, was a significant departure from the more conventional layout of having turrets both fore and aft. This arrangement was primarily to save weight and comply with the tonnage restrictions imposed by the treaty.

The main guns had a maximum range of over 36,000 yards and were capable of firing both armor-piercing and high-explosive shells.

In addition to the main battery, the Rodney was also equipped with a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch guns, six 4.7-inch anti-aircraft guns, and a variety of smaller caliber anti-aircraft weapons that were added throughout the ship’s life.

The protective measures incorporated into the design of the Rodney were also unique. It utilized an ‘all or nothing’ armor scheme, where critical areas of the ship, such as the magazine and machinery spaces, were heavily armored, while less vital areas were left relatively unprotected.

This approach aimed to ensure that the ship could remain operational even after taking significant damage in battle.

The Rodney’s belt armor, which protected the sides of the ship, was 14 inches thick, while the deck armor ranged from 3.25 to 6.25 inches.

The turrets and the conning tower were also heavily protected, with armor up to 16 inches thick.

Powering this massive ship were two Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines that generated 45,000 shaft horsepower, driving two propeller shafts.

The power plant could push the ship to a top speed of about 23 knots.

The Rodney had eight oil-fired boilers, which gave it a substantial range of approximately 7,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 16 knots.

Despite its innovative design, the Rodney was not without its flaws.

The placement of all the main guns forward led to issues with the living quarters, located behind the main battery, due to the concussion from firing.

Moreover, the ship had poor seakeeping characteristics, shipping large amounts of water over the bow in heavy seas.

Despite these drawbacks, the HMS Rodney’s design was groundbreaking and indicative of a new era in battleship design. While it was a product of restrictive treaty conditions, it demonstrated how innovation could work within such limitations to create a formidable and effective warship.

Pre-War Service and Modifications

After the HMS Rodney was commissioned into the Royal Navy in November 1927, she served in routine peacetime roles, joining the British Atlantic Fleet along with her sister ship, HMS Nelson. However, during the interwar period, the Rodney and other ships of the Royal Navy were subject to a series of modifications and enhancements.

These changes were made in response to emerging naval technologies and the ever-evolving nature of naval warfare.

Initially, Rodney performed standard peacetime duties such as exercises, maneuvers, and “showing the flag” missions around the globe. As a major warship in the Royal Navy’s fleet, she was a potent symbol of British naval power and was often called upon to represent Britain at major international events.

One such occasion was the Naval Review for King George V in 1937, where Rodney joined scores of other British and Commonwealth warships in a grand display of maritime power.

While the ship’s design was innovative for its time, new technologies and changes in naval warfare necessitated some improvements.

Recognizing the increasing threat of aerial warfare, the Rodney underwent a significant refit between 1929 and 1931. The modifications aimed to enhance the Rodney’s anti-aircraft capabilities, making her better equipped to defend herself against air attacks.

The refit involved the addition of eight QF 4-inch Mark V anti-aircraft guns and a single 2-pounder “pom-pom” gun, providing her with a formidable anti-aircraft armament.

HMS Rodney having new 16 inch guns fitted, 1942.

Also, two quadruple 0.5-inch Vickers anti-aircraft machine guns were installed for closer defense against aircraft. Rodney was also fitted with a catapult for launching and recovering reconnaissance seaplanes, further enhancing her scouting and spotting capabilities.

As a part of the refit, the Rodney also received upgrades to her armor.

Additional deck armor was installed to protect against plunging fire, which was becoming increasingly common as the ranges of naval artillery continued to increase. Also, the turret roofs, which initially had been somewhat lightly armored, were thickened to provide better protection against plunging shells and bomb strikes.

The interwar period was also marked by the regular maintenance and repairs necessary to keep the ship in fighting condition.

In particular, the Rodney suffered from recurring issues with her turbines and boilers, and much effort was expended in keeping them operational. Several significant repairs were undertaken to address these issues.

Early War Career

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the HMS Rodney transitioned from her peacetime roles to full combat readiness, playing crucial roles in several of the conflict’s major naval campaigns.

Rodney’s initial significant wartime engagement was the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, marking Nazi Germany’s first direct conflict with British forces.

The campaign’s primary purpose was control over the Norwegian port of Narvik, essential for iron ore shipment from Sweden to Germany. The Rodney, along with several other Royal Navy vessels, was dispatched to counter the German invasion.

HMS Rodney in the Firth of Forth, October 1940.

Despite the campaign ending in a tactical defeat for the Allies, the British Royal Navy’s role was crucial, disrupting German naval forces and supply lines.

In addition to specific engagements, Rodney conducted regular patrols in the North Atlantic.

These patrols were a critical component of Britain’s broader naval strategy, aimed at safeguarding vital supply lines from North America and countering any potential surface threats from the German Kriegsmarine.

During these patrols, Rodney was tasked with escorting convoys, seeking out and engaging enemy surface vessels, and providing a potent deterrent to any German naval activity.

While no significant confrontations occurred during most of these patrols, they were crucial in maintaining the flow of resources vital to the British war effort.

The Sinking Of The Bismarck

Perhaps the most well-known and celebrated episode in HMS Rodney’s service history was her significant role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941.

Bismarck, one of the two largest battleships ever built by Germany, set out on its maiden operation, codenamed Rheinübung.

The mission was to attack Allied shipping in the North Atlantic. After sinking HMS Hood, Britain’s pride and one of the world’s largest battleships, and damaging HMS Prince of Wales, the Bismarck became a significant threat that had to be dealt with immediately.

Following the sinking of the Hood, the Royal Navy mobilized a portion of its fleet to find and destroy the Bismarck.

This included the HMS Rodney, which was ordered to join the chase, detouring from a mission to America for a refit.

On May 27, 1941, Rodney, along with King George V and several other British ships, found and engaged the Bismarck. Rodney’s role in this battle was critical. Armed with nine 16-inch guns, she was one of the few ships in the world that could effectively penetrate Bismarck’s heavy armor.

During the battle, Rodney fired many of shells at the Bismarck, with several scoring direct hits.

One of Rodney’s salvoes is believed to have hit the Bismarck’s command area, potentially killing many of the German ship’s senior officers and effectively decapitating the enemy vessel.

Remarkably, during the engagement, Rodney also made naval history by becoming the only battleship to have successfully torpedoed another battleship.

Rodney launched two torpedoes from her port-side underwater torpedo tubes, one of which hit the Bismarck, causing further damage.

The battle ended with the sinking of the Bismarck, which marked a major victory for the Allies and boosted British morale.

For Rodney, this was undoubtedly the pinnacle of her service. Her firepower and armor were instrumental in neutralizing the Bismarck, one of the most significant threats to the Allied naval and merchant fleets.

Operation Pedestal

The Atlantic lifeline, the shipping route from North America, was a critical part of Britain’s war strategy. As German U-boats threatened this lifeline, large warships like Rodney were required to safeguard convoys. These duties were essential but risky, as it opened up the potential for attacks from enemy submarines and aircraft.

In August 1942, Rodney took part in one of the most fiercely contested convoy missions of the war – Operation Pedestal.

The objective was to supply the besieged island of Malta, a British colony in the Mediterranean and a strategic location for operations in North Africa and Southern Europe.

Rodney’s role in Operation Pedestal was to provide convoy protection as the ships made their way from Gibraltar to Malta.

She was part of Force Z, a group of capital ships assigned to provide distant cover for the convoy. Her massive guns were a potent deterrent to any potential surface attack from the Italian fleet.

The operation was a high-stakes gamble. Malta was on the brink of surrender due to shortages of food, fuel, and military supplies, and the convoy was its last hope.

The mission was fiercely opposed by German and Italian forces, leading to numerous losses for the convoy. However, thanks to the escorts’ determined efforts, enough of the convoy managed to reach Malta, allowing the island to hold out.

HMS Rodney On D-Day

As World War II reached its climax, HMS Rodney found herself at the forefront of the Allied invasion of Normandy, colloquially known as D-Day, on June 6, 1944.

In preparation for the invasion, the Rodney underwent further modifications. In addition to her already formidable armament, she was equipped with extra AA (Anti-Aircraft) weaponry to better defend against potential Luftwaffe attacks.

Furthermore, crews trained rigorously in shore bombardment tactics, an important task the Rodney was slated to perform.

On D-Day, the Rodney was tasked with supporting British and Canadian forces landing at Juno and Gold beaches. From the early morning hours, she used her 16-inch guns to fire on German coastal defenses, helping to neutralize these positions before the landings.

The sheer power of Rodney’s guns, some of the largest in the entire invasion fleet, proved instrumental in suppressing German fortifications and clearing the way for the invading Allied troops.

HMS Rodney firing her guns on D-Day.

Over the course of the invasion, the Rodney fired hundreds of shells, providing a constant barrage to disrupt German defenses.

The precision and volume of fire she was able to deliver greatly assisted the advancing Allied forces, underscoring the pivotal role of naval bombardment in supporting amphibious operations.

Following the successful invasion of Normandy, the Rodney continued her duties in European waters. She was primarily involved in patrolling the English Channel and North Sea, ensuring that these crucial waterways remained free from enemy activity.

As the war drew to a close, Rodney participated in Operation Mascot, an unsuccessful attempt to sink the German battleship Tirpitz, the sister ship of the Bismarck.

Decommissioning and Legacy

With the conclusion of World War II, the Royal Navy faced the task of demobilization and reassessing its fleet’s needs in a rapidly changing world. Battleships, once the backbone of naval power, were increasingly being eclipsed by the rising prominence of aircraft carriers and submarines.

HMS Rodney, a veteran of numerous crucial battles, was among the warships affected by these changes.

After her wartime service, HMS Rodney was briefly retained on active duty but was placed in reserve by 1946 due to a combination of factors.

Her age, the high cost of maintaining a battleship, and the changing nature of naval warfare all contributed to this decision.

In 1948, the Rodney was sold for scrap, marking the end of her over two decades of service to the Royal Navy.

Her dismantling was carried out by Thos W Ward at Inverkeithing, Scotland. The decommissioning and scrapping of such a storied battleship marked the end of an era for the Royal Navy.

Even after her decommissioning, Rodney continues to hold a special place in British naval history. Her name and legacy continue to inspire naval officers and history enthusiasts alike.

She is a testament to the resilience, determination, and technological prowess of the Royal Navy during some of the most challenging periods of the 20th century.

While HMS Rodney may no longer be afloat, her impact and legacy are undiminished. She stands as an enduring symbol of the crucial role battleships played in shaping world history during the first half of the 20th century.

William Dudley Pelley and his Silver Shirts were just one of many Nazi-sympathizers operating in the United States in the 1930s

William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirt leader, pictured as he appeared before Congress. Bettmann
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, an American named William Dudley Pelley believed the Führer’s rise was the fulfillment of a prophecy revealed to him by the spirit world in 1929. It was a sign, he thought, ushering in his own ascent to power, and he announced the creation of the Silver Legion, a Christian militia dedicated to the spiritual and political renewal of the United States. Jesus, Pelley reported, even dropped a line to say he approved of the plan.

That was the beginning of the group that a Congressional committee would later characterize as “probably the largest, best financed and best publicized” Nazi-copycats in the United States (Nazi Germany chose to keep Pelley and his spirits at arm’s length). A former novelist and Hollywood screenwriter who had begun publishing mystical and spiritual writings in the 1920s, Pelley dubbed himself “The Chief” of the group that became known as the Silver Shirts, due to the shimmery gray-and-blue uniforms with giant red “L”s embroidered over the heart that Pelley, a student of Hollywood pizzaz, designed himself.

Pelley’s goal was to eventually take power and implement a plan he called “Christian Economics in the United States,” a scheme he claimed was neither communist, fascist or capitalist, in which all property was owned by the state and where white citizens received “shares” based on their loyalty that guaranteed an income. African-Americans would be re-enslaved and Jews would be excluded from the nation. At the top would be “The Chief,” in emulation of Pelley’s idol Adolf Hitler.

While his ideas, steeped in spiritualism and racial theory, were never that popular—historians estimate the Silver Shirts maxed out at a membership of 15,000—Pelley wasn’t alone in admiring Hitler or the economic turnaround of 1930s Germany. The decade running up to the war found members of both the Democrats and Republicans arguing against involvement in the festering conflict in Europe. American isolationists feared a repeat of the mass casualties of World War I. Many in the business community sought to protect their investments in the European markets. And some Americans even spread German propaganda, actively spied for the Third Reich, and went so far as to advocate fascism and anti-Semitism in the United States.

Those Americans are the subject that Fresno State University historian Bradley W. Hart explores in his new book, Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States.

The Silver Shirts were just one organization that thought Nazism could translate to American politics. The German American Bund was the largest pro-Nazi organization, tallying about 30,000 members at one point. The group supported the Nazi regime and practiced its own version of American Nazism, including fielding paramilitary units armed with clubs and costuming its members in uniforms and swastika armbands. It was large enough to run several summer camps for American Nazi youth and even sent its best and brightest to Germany for indoctrination. In 1939, the organization held a 20,000-person rally at Madison Square Garden under a giant banner of George Washington flanked by swastikas, and roughed up a Jewish protestor who rushed the stage, manhandling him and ripping off his pants. Soon after, however, corruption scandals took down the Bund.

One of the most influential Nazi defenders didn’t start out as a champion of the Third Reich. When Father Charles Coughlin, a Canadian Catholic priest based in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oaks, began his local radio show in 1926, its focus was on religion and fighting the growing influence of the Ku Klux Klan. But over the course of the Great Depression, Coughlin grew more and more political—and popular, advocating economic and political schemes straight from Hitler’s playbook, including the boycott of Jewish businesses. He directly praised the Führer to millions of American listeners before church authorities shut him down. “There are few forces more powerful than religion, and [Coughlin and other right-wing preachers] used their authority to convert Americans to a prejudicial and hateful ideology,” Hart writes. “It is telling that the German government viewed these men as key propaganda assets in the United States and were reluctant to give them direct aid only because it might make them less effective in spreading pro-Nazi ideas.”

Hart details others who knowingly or unknowingly aided Hitler, including two isolationist senators (Ernest Lundeen of Minnesota and Burton Wheeler of Montana) who fell under the sway of a propagandist on the German payroll, an American businessman who made millions funneling oil from Mexico to the Germans, and American students groomed to spread pro-German ideas on college campuses.

While most pro-Nazi groups were on the fringes of public life, they created an atmosphere of uncertainty in a country where the Depression had called into question the virtues of capitalism and democracy. “Most Americans would have been aware of these groups simply because of the amount of newspaper reporting done on them,” Hart says. “Not a lot were joining these groups, but there was certainly a great deal of public debate about them and what we could or should do about them.”

None of these sympathizers, however, were quite as curious as Pelley’s Silver Shirts. Born in 1890 and the son of Methodist minister in Massachusetts, Pelley was a voracious reader and writer and began publishing his own journal at the age of 19, developing ideas about how Christianity would have to morph if it were to survive in the modern world. He went on to become a fiction writer and journalist, spending time in Siberia covering the Bolshevik revolution, where he developed strong opinions about Communists and Jews. In the 1920s, he enjoyed some success in Hollywood, working on two dozen movie scripts and saving a little money. At just 37, he retired from the film business, believing a Jewish conspiracy had targeted him.

The following year, he began having his mystical visions, in which he spoke with spirits and communicated with Jesus Christ. Pelley wrote books and journals about his experiences, and, by 1931, had enough of a following that he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, and opened his own college and publishing company. Hart says it’s difficult to tell how seriously Pelley took his own New Age ideas, but thousands of people did trust his visions.

After incorporating the Silver Shirts in 1933, he ran into trouble in North Carolina, where he was convicted of defrauding shareholders of his press the following year, landing himself on parole, a problem that would come to haunt him. His movement grew in popularity, especially in the Pacific Northwest, and in 1936, he ran for president. Though he was only successful on getting on the ballot in Washington state and drew just a handful of votes, he continued to attract followers. “He had this element of Hollywood theatricality. He was an incredibly striking figure, with the well-manicured graying goatee and the perfect Hollywood hair, smoking a pipe when he was on Capitol Hill,” says Hart. “This is a guy who knows how to cut a very powerful public image.”

In 1938, the Legion began a big membership push and started showing signs that it was moving towards violence. Pelley reportedly began traveling with 40 armed bodyguards, and members were advised to keep sawed-off shotguns and 2,000 rounds of ammunition in their homes to protect “white, Christian America.” His followers even began constructing a self-sustaining compound called Murphy Ranch in present day Will Rogers State Park outside Los Angeles that would serve as the base of pro-Nazi operations in the U.S.

“He’s a particularly scary figure for most Americans because he openly seems to be embracing violence,” Hart says. “In interviews, his followers are advising member to carry guns, and he walks around with armed bodyguards. Even if this guy is a lunatic he’s putting on the impression that he’s someone not to be messed with, which makes him uniquely resonant.”

The increasing prominence of the Silver Shirts, in the press of the day if not in membership numbers, eventually caught the eye of the federal government, and even Roosevelt began asking what could be done about Pelley. In 1939, the Dies Committee, a congressional body that investigated communist agitators and Nazi sympathizers (including the Bund), turned its attention to Pelley’s group. A violation of the terms of his parole in North Carolina served as the pretext to investigate the group’s headquarters; Pelley hid out with the Klan in Indiana to avoid facing possible prison time. A government infiltrator also testified to the Dies Committee that she had heard Pelley claiming that he would eventually be “dictator of the United States,” and that he wanted to implement the “Hitler program.” Pelley felt the walls closing in on him.

In his typical slick style, instead of having his organization broken up by the government, Pelley told his followers that the Dies Committee was doing such a great job rounding up communists and other elements of the “alien menace” that the Silver Legion no longer needed to exist. He disbanded the group, but when the war began, he was still put on trial in North Carolina for publishing a seditious magazine and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He secured an early release from prison in 1950 and started publishing about spiritualism and the occult again, espousing a philosophy called SoulCraft and writing theories about U.F.O.s, all of which still have followers today.

Hart believes that the United States was lucky that its political parties at the time policed the extremists within their ranks and that the advent of war more or less shut down any pro-Hitler rhetoric, but that wasn’t inevitable. If the Depression had dragged on or if the United States sat out the war, the extremism bubbling beneath the surface may have become more organized and powerful. By 1940, many Coughlinites, Bundists along with more mainstream isolationists, anti-war activists and others coalesced into the America First! movement, which had a burst of popularity before it went down in flames when its most famous member, aviator Charles Lindbergh, gave a brazenly anti-Semitic speech in September 1941, just a few months before Pearl Harbor.

“We need to take a new perspective on this period. It was much more ideologically divided than we remember,” says Hart. “The outcome that happened in 1945 was in no way preordained. Had Pearl Harbor not happened, [Ameican Nazism] would have gone on for quite some time. We have to realize we’re not immune to political extremism or extremist pressure groups.”

The USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship commissioned in the United State Navy in 1916. She went through an extensive modernization in 1929, with new deck armor, boilers, turbines, guns and fire-control. During the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, a bomb may have detonated a powder magazine at the midships gun turret and the battleship exploded violently and sank, with the loss of 1,177 officers and crewmen. The U.S. made a formal declaration of war against Japan the following day. Germany and Italy then declared war on the United States, which the U.S. reciprocated on Dec. 11.

The USS Arizona still rests at the bottom of the harbor and is now part of the USS Arizona Memorial. The ship and all of her crew are memorialized at the University of Arizona Mall.

USS ARIZONA taken from Manhattan Bridge on the East River in New York City on its way back from sea trials. Note Christmas trees on both lookouts atop cage masts. December 25,1916.

Library of Congress

View of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and Commandant Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves, USN, at the keel-laying of USS ARIZONA (BB-39) in 1914.

Naval History and Heritage Command

View of Waterfront Looking North from Top of Building Number 6, U.S.S. Arizona at Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1911

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

USS Arizona, Arrival of Sponsor, Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, in 1915

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The propeller shaft and aft cradle of the USS Arizona the day before its launch in 1915.

US Bureau of Ships. Department of the Navy

Launch of USS Arizona at the New York shipyards in June, 1915.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

This is a hand out photo of the Arizona delegation at the christening of the ship on June 19, 1915 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. The photo includes Eva Behn, Mrs. W.W. Ross, Sec of Navy Josephus Daniels, Gov. George W.P. Hunt and Esther Ross who christened the ship. Note the rope still attached to the champagne bottle used in the christening. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

This is the remains of the champagne bottle and the rope that was attached to it that was used to christen the ship on June 19, 1915 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

This is a detail of the champagne bottle used to christen the ship on June 19, 1915 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

This is the remains of the water bottle used to christen the ship on June from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

This is a commemorative medal worn by the ship’s sponsor, Esther Ross, during the christening of the ship on June 19, 1915 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016. Note, the metal is from a casting from a cannon on the USS Maine which was sunk under mysterious circumstances in Havana, Cuba in 1898.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

This is the reverse side of a commemorative medal worn by the ship’s sponsor, Esther Ross, during the christening of the ship on June 19, 1915 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016. Note, the metal is from a casting from a cannon on the USS Maine which was sunk under mysterious circumstances in Havana, Cuba in 1898.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

The leader Arizona passing 96th St. Pier in great naval review at N.Y. City. Ca. 1918. Paul Thompson. (War Dept.) Exact Date Shot Unknown NARA FILE #: 165-WW-334A-4A WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 477

Defense Visual Information Center

USS Arizona steaming with other Atlantic fleet battleships during gunnery practice, 1917.

National Park Service

A Sack race Recreation on board a battleship, circa 1916-1917. This ship is either USS Pennsylvania (Battleship # 38) or USS Arizona (Battleship # 39). The original image, copyrighted by N. Moser, New York, is printed on post card (AZO) stock.

Naval History and Heritage Command

The USS Arizona at sea on Dec 16, 1918 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

View of number 3 turret, with a Nieuport 28 airplane on the flying-off platform, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa spring 1921. Note: airing hammocks and mainmast details.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Firing 14″ guns broadside during battle practice, 1920s.

Naval History and Heritage Command

U.S.S. Arizona in lock, Panama Canal, 1921

Library of Congress

Pushing a peanut by blowing on it, during a shipboard competition on board USS Arizona (BB-39), circa 1923-1925.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Ship’s complement posing on her forecastle, forward turrets and superstructure, circa 1924. The officer seated in the second row, 4th from right, is Ensign Arleigh A. Burke. Collection of Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN, 1977. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Naval History and Heritage Command

A 1922 Christmas program from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. “At ‘Em, ” as in term Up and A’tem, was the ship’s slogan.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

U.S.S. Arizona in 1924

Library of Congress

USS Arizona (BB39). Starboard bow, underway with aircraft overhead in 1927.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The ship’s engineering crew posed by one of the gun turrets circa 1928 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Note, a couple of African-Americans on the crew. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

USS Arizona’s crew cleaning forward section near gun turrets #1 and #2, late 1920s.

National Park Service

An amphibious airplane rests on the catapult of the ship circa 1927 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Aircraft are perched on the fantail of the ship while at anchor which may have have been taken in 1927-28 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson.. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Around 1929, an airplane is catapulted from the deck of the ship from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Crew members of the ship sweep the deck circa 1927-1928 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Arizona (BB39) port bow, before being modernized at Norfolk Naval Shipyard between May 1929 and January 1930. Photo taken between 1917 and 1929

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Starboard rear quarter view of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia (USA), in March 1931 following her modernization. To the right are the destroyers USS Blakeley (DD-150) and USS Biddle (DD-151).

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

After being modernized the ship takes President Herbert Hoover, left, on a vacation cruise to the Caribbean as he walks with Secretary of War Patrick Hurley in March 1931 from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Dines at sea on board USS ARIZONA (BB-39). Captain Charles S. Freeman, Commanding Officer of BB-39, is fourth from the left. President and his party were embarked in ARIZONA for a 10 day tour of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, beginning 19 March 1931.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Description: Underway with President Herbert Hoover on board, March 1931. The Presidential Flag is flying from her mainmast peak.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

In drydock at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Oahu, T.H., 3 March 1932.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

USS Arizona, Upon Completion of Modernization, Norfolk Navy Yard Ports, Virginia, Serial No. 140-31

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Pitching in heavy seas during the 1930s. after modernization. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Naval History and Heritage Command

In early March 1933, the ship was sent to Long Beach, Calif., after an earthquake struck the area and the ship provided a shore party that helped patrol the area, communcations, set up first aid stations and food and shelter for the victims of the tremor from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

USS Arizona central galley interior, 1930s.

National Park Service

The naval tradition of the “crossing the line” ceremony is a long-standing ritual involving initiation rites of passage for new recruits crossing the equator for the first time as this 1936 photo of a sailor dressed as Davey Jones from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

These are a couple of pages from William Charles Austin’s scrapbook from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. The book contains 96 pages of documents, black and white photographs of sailors, relatives and friends, US Naval battleships, the Arizona’s athletic teams and interior views of the ship and aircraft from 1930-31. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

The ship’s baseball team took batting practice wherever they could including at sea in this circa 1931-1938 Navy propoganda photo from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

The ship’s whale boat team in 1941 was the Pacific Fleet runner up from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson. Only two member of this team survived the attack at Pearl Harbor. Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Members of the USS Arizona band, known as Navy Band Unit 22, perform on Nov. 22, 1941, in the semifinal round of the Battle of Music at Bloch Arena at Pearl Harbor. They finished second and advanced to a final competition that would never be held. Everyone in the band died onboard the Arizona during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. U.S. Navy photo by Tai Sing Loo

Courtesy of UA Special Collections

Aerial photograph from 2500 feet altitude, looking southward, showing the U.S. Fleet moored in the harbor on 3 May 1940. This was soon after the conclusion of Fleet Problem XXI and four days before word was received that the Fleet was to be retained in Hawaiian waters. There are eight battleships and the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) tied up by Ford Island, in the center of the harbor. Two more battleships and many cruisers, destroyers and other Navy ships also present, most of them moored in groups in East Loch, in the foreground. A few of the destroyers are wearing experimental dark camouflage paint. In the distance, center, is Hickam Army Air Field. The Pearl Harbor entrance channel is in the right distance.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

Vertical aerial photograph from 17,200 feet altitude, looking directly down on East Loch and on the Fleet Air Base on Ford Island. Taken on 3 May 1940, after the conclusion of Fleet Problem XXI, and just prior to the 7 May receipt of word that the Fleet was to be retained in Hawaiian waters. There are eight battleships and the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) tied up along the island’s southeastern side (toward the top), with two more battleships alongside 1010 dock at top right center. Two light cruisers and two destroyers are among the ships moored along Ford Island’s northwestern side. Seventeen other cruisers and over thirty destroyers are also visible, mainly in East Loch. At the seaplane base, at the southern (top right) tip of Ford Island, are at least 38 PBY patrol planes.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command

Vertical aerial view of Battleship Row, beside Ford Island, during the early part of the horizontal bombing attack on the ships moored there. Photographed from a Japanese aircraft. Ships seen are (from left to right): USS Nevada; USS Arizona with USS Vestal moored outboard; USS Tennessee with USS West Virginia moored outboard; USS Maryland with USS Oklahoma moored outboard; and USS Neosho, only partially visible at the extreme right. A bomb has just hit Arizona near the stern, but she has not yet received the bomb that detonated her forward magazines. West Virginia and Oklahoma are gushing oil from their many torpedo hits and are listing to port. Oklahoma’s port deck edge is already under water. Nevada has also been torpedoed. Japanese inscription in lower left states that the photograph has been officially released by the Navy Ministry. Donation of Theodore Hutton, 21 September 1942. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Naval History and Heritage Command

USS Arizona (BB-39) ablaze, just after her forward magazines exploded. At right, shrouded in smoke from the fire, are the main and foremasts of USS West Virginia, which is listing sharply to port after she was torpedoed. Upright mast further to the right is the mainmast of USS Tennessee (BB-43), moored inboard of West Virginia. The bow and foremast of USS Vestal (AR-4), moored outboard of Arizona, are visible at the left. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Vertical aerial view of Battleship Row, beside Ford Island, soon after USS Arizona was hit by bombs and her forward magazines exploded. Photographed from a Japanese aircraft. Ships seen are (from left to right): USS Nevada; USS Arizona (burning intensely) with USS Vestal moored outboard; USS Tennessee with USS West Virginia moored outboard; and USS Maryland with USS Oklahoma capsized alongside. Smoke from bomb hits on Vestal and West Virginia is also visible. Japanese inscription in lower left states that the photograph has been reproduced under Navy Ministry authorization. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Aftermath of the Japanese sneak attack on these three stricken U.S. battleships; from left to right: West Virginia (BB-48) (severely damaged),Tennessee (BB-43) (damaged), and the Arizona (BB-39) (sunk). (click on image to zoom in)

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. USS Arizona sunk at en:Pearl Harbor. The ship is resting on the harbor bottom. The supporting structure of the forward tripod mast has collapsed after the forward magazine exploded.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The forward magazines of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) explode shortly after 08:00 hrs during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (USA), 7 December 1941.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Front page of the Arizona Daily Star on the morning after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

Arizona Daily Star file

Burned out and sunk in Pearl Harbor on 10 December 1941, three days after she was destroyed during the 7 December Japanese raid. Ships in the background are USS Saint Louis (CL-49), in center, and the hulked minelayer Baltimore (CM-1) at left. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Naval History and Heritage Command

Battleships moored off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack on Dec. 7 1941.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Burned-out wreck of USS Arizona, at Pearl Harbor, December 1941

U.S. Navy

USS Arizona 4358-42; Man coming out of turret #3 in 1943. Department of the Navy. Fourteenth Naval District. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Fleet Salvage Unit. ca. 1941-1947

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The USS Arizona’s sister ship, the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) leading USS Colorado (BB-45) and the cruisers USS Louisville (CA-28), USS Portland (CA-33), and USS Columbia (CL-56) into Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, in January 1945.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

USS Arizona, Submerged off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI

Library of Congress

Aerial of Pearl Harbor and Ford Island with salvage operations of USS Arizona underway on Oct. 27, 1942.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Aerial of Pearl Harbor and Ford Island with salvage operations of USS Arizona underway on Oct. 27, 1942. View is just aft of the gun turret #4.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

USS Arizona, Submerged off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI

Library of Congress

Passes the wreck of USS Arizona (BB-39) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Memorial Day, 31 May 1958. Bennington’s crew is in formation on the flight deck, spelling out a tribute to the Arizona’s crewmen who were lost in the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Note the outline of Arizona’s hull and the flow of oil from her fuel tanks. Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

U.S. Navy

A starboard quarter view of the battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62) passing the USS ARIZONA Memorial in 1986.

U.S. Navy

Tugs move USS MISSOURI (BB 63) to her berth at Ford Island (background). This berth is roughly where the battleships MARYLAND (BB 46) and OKLAHOMA (BB 37) were moored on 7 December 1941. The 184 foot-long USS ARIZONA Memorial in the foreground spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship USS ARIZONA (BB 39).

U.S. Navy

An aerial view of the USS Arizona Memorial with a US Navy (USN) Tour Boat, USS Arizona Memorial Detachment, moored at the pier as visitor disembark to visit and pay their respects to the Sailors and Marines who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

U.S. Navy

Elgin clock that is reported to have been recovered from the Admiral’s bridge aboard the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) following its loss on December 7, 1941.

National Park Service

USS Arizona cruise album (P130) with open pages titled “Memory Leaves” signed by friends/shipmates, listing their hometowns.

National Park Service

The Smooth Log from the Life and Legacy of the USS Arizona exhibit at the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson., on Nov. 23, 2016. The log is a source reference for historical data of all weapon system aboard the ship. It is used for inspections, material readiness and operation documentation.

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Ben McCallum (left) and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class James Aldridge, with Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2 Construction Dive Detachment (CDD) Alpha, swim toward the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to conduct an indoctrination dive for future work May 20, 2016.

Petty Officer 1st Class Charles / U.S. Navy

Steel Worker 1st Class Jesse Hamblin (left) and Builder 2nd Class Justin Lieder, with Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2 Construction Dive Detachment (CDD) Alpha, examine a ladder well of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during an indoctrination dive for future work May 20, 2016.

Petty Officer 1st Class Charles / U.S. Navy

USS Nimitz (CVN 68) passes by the Arizona Memorial as Sailors spell out “FREEDOM” and man the rails of the ship as the ship pulls into Pearl Harbor for a liberty visit in 2001. The stop is the first port call for Nimitz following a transit around South America while on the way to the her homeport of San Diego, Calif.

Shawn Patrick Eklund / U.S. Navy

The USS Port Royal (CG 73) commanded by Capt. Pat Allen, prepares to pass in review and render honors to the USS Arizona Memorial with the sunken battleship’s gun turret number three protruding from the water during the Dec. 7th commemoration ceremony hosted by Commander, Navy Region Hawaii.

U.S. Navy

Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class Jennifer Usenick, assigned to the Golden Eagles of Patrol Squadron (VP) 9, reads the list of fallen military members following colors aboard the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 2014. The memorial marks the resting place of more than 1,000 Sailors and Marines who were killed aboard the battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Amber L. Porter / U.S. Navy

Sailors salute as USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) passes the Arizona Memorial on Dec. 2, 2016, and arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to participate in National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day events. Dec. 7, 2016, marks the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Oahu.

PO3 Cole C. Pielop / U.S. Navy

NATICK, Mass. — A World War II museum in Massachusetts is displaying artifacts commemorating the Pearl Harbor attack ahead of the Dec. 7 anniversary.

The International Museum of World War II says it recently acquired a life ring from the USS Arizona.

The battleship was among those destroyed in the surprise attack by Japan on the U.S naval base in Hawaii that prompted the U.S. to enter the war in 1941.

The ship’s sunken remains are now a national memorial.

The museum, located in the Boston suburb of Natick, also displays many other artifacts related to the attack.

Among them is Japan’s formal declaration of war against the U.S., pieces of Japanese planes shot down at Pearl Harbor and women’s panties that read: “Remember Pearl Harbor, Don’t Get Caught with Your Pants Down.”