Jamie McTrusty
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jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
Jamie McTrusty
@jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
2.6K followers 51 following 4.7K posts
Posts on (mostly) Second World War aviation and naval history. See ALT text for picture credits and additional information!
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Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Bit late for this, and using 'Ships' page's work on Facepalm as I have not written this up myself.

23rd Dec 1941, the DEMS SS Shutien was torpedoed and sunk whilst carrying POWs by U-boat U-559. It was not yet the final naval tragedy in the Med of 1941.

SS Shuntien pre conversion.

Details in ALT
In the Second World War the British government requisitionedthe Swire owned China Navigation Co's SS Shuntien, built by Taikoo Dockyard & Eng. Co. in 1934, and converted her into a Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS). Photographs of Shuntien taken about that time by a US photographer, Harrison Forman, show Shuntien in the Port of Shanghai apparently being converted into a prison ship. Shuntien moved to the Mediterranean, where her British officers supplemented her Chinese crew with Arab and Maltese recruits. In the Western Desert Campaign on 23rd December 1941 Shuntien left Tobruk in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya as a member of Convoy TA 5/M bound for Alexandria in Egypt with an escort of four naval vessels. She was carrying between 800 and 1,000 Italian and German prisoners of war, guarded by more than 40 soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI). On that December evening, the sun set at 4.30pm, just half an hour after the convoy had left Tobruk. A blustery northwester was blowing and there was a strong swell; with her “snub-nosed” conformation, Shuntien would have rolled heavily. The convoy sailed in formation, showing no lights and there was almost no moon that night; for the almost 1200 men crammed onboard, frightened and seasick in the pitch dark, it must have been hell. Submarine lookouts were posted at strategic points all over the ship, and they could just make out the closest vessels in the convoy, escort ship HMS Salvia and merchantman SS Rodi, a captured Italian vessel that was later renamed Empire Patrol. At 1910 hours – three hours into the voyage and not yet 50 miles east of Tobruk these watch-keepers heard the sinister thud of depth charges being dropped by HMS Salvia. Moments later, Shuntien was struck by a single torpedo, blowing away the entire stern section of the ship. Position 32.06N24.46E. The ship sank within five minutes, her bow lifting high into the night sky; there was no time to launch her boats, or to send out a distress message.
December 27, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
crusaderproject.bsky.social
On 27 Dec Fliegerführer Afrika sent a strength return to Athens, where his CO was residing. This was intercepted and decoded by ULTRA. It enables us to see how the Luftwaffe in North Africa was doing after a campaign of about five/six weeks.
@airpowerhistory.bsky.social @smoorebofb1940.bsky.social
The impact of air operations
Background A discussion on the AHF (linked here) allows us to track individual unit strength of Luftwaffe (GAF) units during the campaign.  This is based on three snapshots, on 11 October (before C…
rommelsriposte.com
December 27, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
usni.org
From the early years of the 20th century into about the mid-1930s, airplanes shared the world’s skies with much larger aircraft—huge rigid airships commonly known as zeppelins. usni.org/magazines/n...
The Caption is Key | Naval History - December 2025, Volume 39, Number 6
From the early years of the 20th century into about the mid-1930s, airplanes shared the world’s skies with much larger aircraft—huge rigid airships commonly known as zeppelins.
www.usni.org
December 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
briandunn.bsky.social
In late 1943 HMS Malaya was placed in reserve. She was used as a target ship at Loch Striven, Scotland for the experimental Highball bouncing bomb. As shown in the video, a Mosquito got a hit, tearing a large hole in the ship's forward hull ahead of the belt armor.
#NavalHistory
youtu.be/akoMiIouVdw
Bouncing highball test - HMS Malaya in Loch Striven
YouTube video by Ships Of Legend
youtu.be
December 27, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
nickleh.bsky.social
Boxing day blues? Nothing to listen to? Check out our month by month analysis of the German Occupation. You can listen online here or use the link in the thread to listen on your favourite podcast app.

islandsatwar.buzzsprout.com
Islands at War
A Podcast about the occupation of the Channel Islands by German forces 1940 to 1945.  Focusing on personal experiences of those that lived through it using diaries and  our own research.&nbs...
islandsatwar.buzzsprout.com
December 26, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
25 Dec 1689 (O.S.) // A violent storm which struck Plymouth on Christmas Day caused HM ships Centurion (50 guns) and Henrietta (60 guns) to be wrecked after breaking free from their moorings in Plymouth Sound. 150 died in the Centurion, and about 60 in the Henrietta. [1/3]
December 25, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
25 Dec 1941 // Destroyer HMS Thracian was captured by the Japanese after being scuttled in Hong Kong harbour in mid-December. She was salvaged and served in the Imperial Japanese Navy until scuttled again in 1945. The #RoyalNavy recovered her and she was scrapped in 1946. #WW2 #NavalHistory
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Thracian. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons. Imperial Japanese Patrol Vessel No. 101, the former HMS Thracian, photographed in 1942. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
December 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
theaviation.show
A little late due to being dragged up a dune outside of Bordeaux, here is my family's connection to the Fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941.

Available to all supporters free and above.

www.patreon.com/posts/nice-n...
The Nice New Suits The Government Bought Them | The Aviation Show
Get more from The Aviation Show on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 25, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
andyaitch.bsky.social
Merry Christmas to all my pals on here… to all the 27 listeners of News of the War and especially Happy Christmas to 1939 Winston Churchill, who looks remarkably well… compared to 1945 Winston.
🎅🏼 🎄

linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar
December 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jowolff.bsky.social
My Xmas present to you all. The book cover that shows the most mistaken assumptions about the content of all time, I believe.
Cover of All Quiet on the Western Front with a cowboy on a horse.
December 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
As is tradition on Christmas morning, I’ve managed to fill an entire recycling bin with wrapping paper and empty boxes already…
December 25, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
This week’s free to read

jerijerod14.substack.com/p/christmas-...

Also happy Christmas to everyone who follows me here, there or anywhere 😊
Christmas at Chatham
Just a short post to say Happy Christmas to everyone who follows my nonsensical writings and I hope you are having a wonderful time with whatever you are doing and here are a few pictures from the IWM...
jerijerod14.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
armouredcarriers.bsky.social
Merry Christmas from Armoured Carriers! Maintaining the theme, here's a quick look aboard HMS Victorious on Christmas Day, 1941: #NavalHistory #ww2 #history
December 25, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
24 Dec 1804 // Two 12-gun brigs, HMS Mallard and HMS Starling, sailed from the Downs to cruise between Calais and Boulogne. They became separated in poor weather and mist as they crossed the Channel, and before the end of the day both were wrecked on the French coast. [1/5]
December 24, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
24 Dec 1811 // 74-gun 3rd-rate HMS Defence and 98-gun 2nd-rate HMS St George, returning from the Baltic, were driven ashore in a storm and wrecked near Thorsminde, western Jutland. They broke up with great loss of life: about 1400 people in the two ships died, with just 17 reported survivors. [1/2]
'A View of the Shipwreck and Total Loss of the St George of 98 Guns and the Defence of 74 guns in the North Sea', hand-coloured print, March 1812. National Maritime Museum collection, Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0.
December 24, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
rnshiplosses.bsky.social
24 Dec 1941 // Corvette HMS Salvia was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean by U-boat U.568. In addition to her 59 crew she was carrying men rescued from POW ship Shuntien, sunk west of Alexandria on 23 December. There were no survivors. (Image: IWM FL 18637) #RoyalNavy #WW2 #NavalHistory
Royal Navy corvette HMS Salvia, torpedoed and sunk in the eastern Mediterranean on 24 December 1941 with the loss of all 59 crew and many rescued survivors from POW ship Shuntien, torpedoed and sunk on the previous day. Imperial War Museum image: FL 18637.
December 24, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
dreadships.bsky.social
PS: despite, or because of, me virtually begging for it in the alt text, this is of course the best Wikipedia photo caption edit ever...
Before and after - the photograph is of Piper Kerr, a member of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, playing bagpipes to an indifferent penguin. Three second version of the caption helpfully points out Kerr is the one on the right.
December 24, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
mthrjo.bsky.social
This thread has been saved from the wastes of Twitter!

Go on; have a read, it’s a lovely Christmas Eve tale.
richycraven.bsky.social Richy Craven @richycraven.bsky.social · Nov 27
The most stressed out I've ever been about Christmas was when I was 16 and I got my first ever job, working at M&S in Dundrum. As soon as I started I kept hearing these myths about the Christmas Eve Waste Sale, where all the food that wasn't sold on the 24th was marked down 90%.
December 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
jamiemctrusty.bsky.social
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all! (An aircrew officer and a guard on night duty listen to a choir, composed of the ground crew of No. 122 Wing, singing Christmas carols by a Hawker Tempest in a dispersal at Volkel airfield, Holland, conducted by the Padre, Sqn Ldr K J Morgan).
📷 IWM CL 1736
Group of RAF personnel singing by the left wing of a Tempest fighter at night, conducted by an officer with a long baton. The scene is illuminated by a pilot carrying a portable lamp or torch. In the foreground, a helmeted sentry with a rifle looks on.
December 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
theaviation.show
#OTD at 15:40 GMT in 1968, Apollo 8 was in lunar orbit. As they came around the dark side of the moon for the first time, Bill Anders took one of the greatest photographs ever taken. Now known as 'Earthrise', Anders' photo of our home has resonated ever since.

📸 NASA - more in ALT Text

#space
Nasa caption: The rising Earth is about five degrees above the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft near 110 degrees east longitude. The horizon, about 570 kilometers (350 statute miles) from the spacecraft, is near the eastern limb of the moon as viewed from Earth. Width of the view at the horizon is about 150 kilometers (95 statute miles). On Earth 240,000 statute miles away the sunset terminator crosses Africa. The crew took the photo around 10:40 a.m. Houston time on the morning of Dec. 24, and that would make it 15:40 GMT on the same day. The South Pole is in the white area near the left end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds. NASA Image ID: AS08-14-2383
December 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
dreadships.bsky.social
This here, a proud and upsetting member of His Majesty's Royal Navy, is Pollyanna the reindeer.

And for the avoidance of doubt, she's the one on the right of the photograph.
A Royal Naval captain (left) cuddling a rather non-plussed reindeer. Somebody will almost certainly reply to this thread with the greatest Wikipedia photo caption edit ever, and yes, this was a deliberate reference.
December 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
duncanweldon.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
When turkeys were walked to London for Christmas
Before railways and refrigeration, the birds had to make the long journey to market on foot.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
lydiajane13.bsky.social
Here's a little thing I wrote a while back about Christmas in the 1970s and 1980s, in a small town in North East England. Hope this brings back some memories for some of you!
www.justcuriousjane.com/seaham-part-...
SEAHAM PART 9 – CHILBLAINS AND CHRISTMAS CAROLS – JUST CURIOUS JANE
Seaham Part 9 - Chilblains and Christmas carols, Midnight Mass drunks, Santaphobia and family traditions...Enjoy a Very Seaham Christmas!
www.justcuriousjane.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
jerijerod14.bsky.social
This week’s podcast is on the Caroline affair of 1837 and how the US & Britain almost came to blows over the SS Caroline - also why it is still relevant today with the current US administration’s Caribbean mis-adventures.

#navalhistory #podcast

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...
December 24, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Jamie McTrusty
hushkit.bsky.social
Well, as it’s Christmas, and you’ve been very good: Here’s a Fleet Air Arm GA.11, the most handsome Hunter of all
December 23, 2025 at 11:17 PM