Portal:War/Featured picture

The Soviet flag being flown over the Reichstag building as Berlin falls to the Red Army.

Photo credit: Jewgeni Chaldej

The LG-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Photo credit: U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command

A rope trick is the whimsical term given by physicist Dr. John Malik to the curious lines and spikes which emanate from the fireball of a nuclear explosion just after detonation. The image is from the Tumbler-Snapper test series of 1952.

Photo credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The F-15 Eagle is a multi-role tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas. The first flight of the F-15A was in July 1972, but since then it has been produced in six model variations with both single seat and dual seat versions.

Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Allen, USAF

The Teller-Ulam design is a nuclear weapons design used for megaton-range thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs. It uses a fission bomb as a trigger to ignite a fusion explosion by compressing the fusion fuel with a radiation implosion.

Illustration credit: Fastfission

A LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division on the morning of June 6, 1944 (D-Day) at Omaha Beach.

Photo credit: U.S. Army's First Division

The M4 Carbine is a shorter and lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle, achieving 80% parts commonality with the M16A2. Here an M4 is shown just after firing, with an ejected ammunition casing in mid-air.

Photo credit: Suzanne M. Day, U.S. Air Force

A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing at Da Nang, Vietnam — August 3, 1965.

Photo credit: Unknown - NARA archive

The USS Iowa firing during target exercises near Vieques, Puerto Rico. USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleship, was the fourth United States Navy ship with this name.

Photo credit: Naval Historical Center

Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, October 29, 1917. The photo was taken in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which was one of the major battles of World War I.

Photo credit: Frank Hurley

Photo taken by a Lockheed U-2 spy plane of the San Cristobal MRBM launch site in Cuba, November 1962, after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although this image was taken days after the crisis had ended (October 28), this image has become iconic of the crisis to the point where it is often cited incorrectly as having been taken during the crisis.

Photo credit: United States Air Force

The Battle of Passchendaele, otherwise known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was one of the major battles of World War I, fought by British, ANZAC and Canadian soldiers against the German army near Ypres (Ieper in Flemish) in West Flanders, northwestern Belgium over the control of the village of Passchendaele.

Photo credit: Imperial War Museum

Although used occasionally in later experimental devices, this nuclear weapon design was used only once as a weapon, in Little Boy, because of the extreme danger of a misfire. A simple crash could drive the "bullet" into the "target" and release lethal radiation doses or even a full nuclear detonation.

Illustration credit: Fastfission

Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish national hero, general and a leader of the Kościuszko Uprising against Russia in 1794. In this painting, he is shown taking the oath as leader of Kościuszko Uprising in Kraków market square. He also fought in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army on the side of Washington.

Painting credit: Wojciech Kossak

Zuikaku was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her planes took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor that started the Pacific War, and she fought in several of the most important naval battles of the war. Sustaining heavy damage in the battle off Cape Engaño, the crew lowered the flag (shown here; note the sharp list to port) and attempted to abandon ship, but were unable to do so before she capsized.

Photo credit: Kazutoshi Hando

The battleship USS Pennsylvania leads USS Colorado, USS Louisville, USS Portland, and USS Columbia into Lingayen Gulf before the landing on Luzon, Philippines in January 1945. Battleships and other big gun naval vessels that served in the Pacific Theatre during World War II were used primarily for offshore bombardment of enemy positions and as anti-aircraft screens for aircraft carriers.

Photo credit: United States Navy

The Nez Perce tribe lived in the northwestern United States, although they were known to head as far east as the Great Plains. They fought the last great battle between the U.S. government and an Indian nation as Chief Joseph and his warriors battled U.S. Cavalry troops over 1,600 miles (2,560 km) towards Canada before surrendering on October 5, 1877. This photograph was taken in 1910.

Photo credit: Edward S. Curtis

Binoculars mounted to the signal bridge of the USS Harry S Truman show a MH-60 Knighthawk delivering supplies to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Photo credit: Airman Ricardo J. Reyes, U.S. Navy

The Lockheed SR-71, commonly known as the "Blackbird", was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft that flew from 1964–98. The SR-71 was one of the first aircraft to be shaped to have an extremely low radar signature.

Photo credit: NASA

Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States dating from the War of 1812. During World War I and World War II, Uncle Sam's image was used for military recruitment in this poster.

Image credit: James Montgomery Flagg

A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for war. This plate from the 1728 Cyclopaedia shows first and third rate English warships.

Illustration credit: 1728 Cyclopaedia