f0rbe5's photostream  

Whilst this Royal Docks complex looks like it is from the 1930s Art Deco period, it was actually completed in 2001. Designed by Goddard Manton Architects, this 252-apartment complex overlooks Barrier Park (to the right in this view).

The tower is intended to provide an overview of the River Thames, whilst the cascading balconies of the lower levels are designed to blend in with the French formal design of Barrier Park.

Seen from the south bank of the Thames.

Along the ridge, the sharp edges and bumps are caused by wind-blown spray, which hardens small areas of rock. the softer rock around these erodes away, leaving an uneven surface.

Wave energy channelled along the sides of the stack carves the deep smooth grooves just above sea level. With one wave every 14 seconds, there's a lot of erosion over a year, century or millennium.

The Razorback once extended much further out to sea. the force of the waves gradually eroded and undercut the base of the stack. Vertical cracks such as that clearly visible towards the outer end, were widened by rainwater, forming a line of weakness. Huge blocks of rock then collapsed into the sea, leaving rock shelf just under the sea's surface.

An Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, the 19,200-ton LPH-9 was launched by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 22 August 1964 and commissioned 16 January 1965. She was the third US Navy ship to carry the name, after the Battle of Guam.

After fitting out and builder's trials, the new amphibious assault ship joined the US Atlantic Fleet on 21 April 1965 and sailed for Norfolk, her homeport. Arriving at Hampton Roads the next day for training off the Virginia Capes, she departed Hampton Roads for underway training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Guam returned to Norfolk on 5 July for intensive amphibious training before sailing on 29 November to participate in amphibious and ASW exercises en route to the Caribbean. On 10 December Guam joined the Amphibious Ready Squadron in the Caribbean as flagship for Amphibious Squadron 12, ready to protect the peace and security of the Caribbean and Central America. From 16 to 28 February 1966, Guam patrolled south of the Dominican Republic ready to land forces on the volatile island of Hispanola if necessary. She conducted amphibious exercises until entering Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 1 June for post shakedown availability.

She departed Philadelphia on 2 August 1966 to act as the primary recovery ship for the Gemini 11 space flight. On 18 September at 0959 EDT Guam recovered astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon 710 miles east of Cape Kennedy. From 28 November to 12 December Guam participated in Exercise Lantflex 66, and on the latter date became flagship of Amphibious Squadron 8 and Caribbean Amphibious Ready Group.

In the summer of 1971 Guam was chosen as a test vessel for Admiral Elmo Zumwalts Sea Control Ship concept. She was to operate a few VSTOL fighters and some ASW helicopters in order to free up supercarriers from convoy duty during a conflict with the USSR. On 18 January 1972 she began extensive testing and in 1974 deployed in the Atlantic as a sea control ship with USMC Harrier VSTOL fighters and Sea King ASW helicopters. Guam completed the SCS tests and reassumed her role as an Amphibious Assault Ship on 1 July 1974.

On 17 January 1977 in Barcelona, Spain, a landing craft being used as a liberty boat by USS Trenton and USS Guam, was run over by a freighter. Forty-nine of the over 100 sailors and Marines on board were killed. A memorial is erected at the landing pier in their memory.

While operating 50 km SE of Morehead City, NC on 19 July 1981, a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashed into another CH-53 and a UH-1N upon landing. Four were killed and 10 were injured.

Guam deployed to Beirut in 1982 for the Lebanese civil war as part of a multi-national peacekeeping force. She is seen above during that phase of her life. On her flight-deck are five CH-46 Sea Knights, four CH-53 Sea Stallions and two UH-1 Hueys.

In October 1983, as the lead ship of Amphibious Squadron Four, she participated in the invasion of Grenada.

In early 1985 the ship was drydocked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and given a massive overhaul lasting several months. Two Phalanx CIWS were added to the ship at this time.

On the subsequent cruise to the Mediterranean, the ship was damaged while sailing through a tropical storm. At least two helicopters were washed overboard and the ship stayed in port in Marseille, France for almost three weeks for repairs.

She departed from Norfolk in August 1990 for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, with less than a month's notice. When her crew received notice of the deployment the boilers were torn down for PMS (preventative maintenance).

In January 1991, Guam was sent to the coast of Somalia for Operation Eastern Exit. She was originally set to take the rescued personnel from the Embassy to Kenya, but Kenya refused the Russian Ambassador. Instead, Guam took them to Muscat, Oman before returning to the Persian Gulf.

In 1996, the USS Guam supported the 22nd MEU in Operation Assured Response off the coast of Liberia.

She was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on 25 August 1998 and was disposed of as a target on 16 October 2001.

Seen from the Eureka Skydeck on the 88th floor of 7, Riverside Quay, Southbank. The details below are from Wikipedia.

The Cathedral is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. It is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the Province of Victoria.

The cathedral is in a great location in the centre of Melbourne, on the eastern corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets. It is diagonally opposite Flinders Street Station, which was the transport hub of 19th century Melbourne and is still an important centre.

The location is the site of the first Christian service held in Melbourne in 1835. The area of the current site became a corn market until 1848, when it was made available for the construction of St Paul's Parish Church, a bluestone church which was consecrated in 1852 and was in use until 1885 when it was demolished to make way for the current cathedral.

Although there was no established church in colonial Victoria, most of the colony's establishment were Anglicans and the Church of England (as it was then) was given the best site in Melbourne for its cathedral. At the time of its construction St Paul's was the tallest building in central Melbourne and dominated the city's skyline. The growth of multi-storey buildings in central Melbourne during the 20th century robbed St Paul's of its commanding position and restricted views from many angles.

St Paul's is built in a revival of the style known as Gothic transitional, being partly Early English and partly Decorated. It was designed by the distinguished English architect William Butterfield, who was noted for his ecclesiastical work. The foundation stone was laid in 1880. Butterfield never saw the site and the building work was frequently delayed by disputes between Butterfield in England and the church authorities in Melbourne. Butterfield resigned in 1884 and the building was finished by a local architect, Joseph Reed. Consequently the design of the spires differs greatly from those originally planned. The cathedral chapter have a scale model of the original completed design.

The cathedral was consecrated on 22 January 1891, but the building of the spires did not begin until 1926. The spires were designed by John Barr of Sydney. An organ by T C Lewis, one of the most prominent organ builders of the 19th century was imported from England.

St Paul's is unusual among Melbourne's great 19th century public buildings in that it is not made from bluestone, the city's dominant building material. Instead it is made from sandstone from the Barrabool Hills and limestone embellishments of Waurn Ponds limestone, both from near Geelong, giving the cathedral a warm yellow-brown colouring rather than Melbourne's characteristic cold blue-grey. This gives it a strikingly different appearance to the bluestone Gothic of St Patrick's Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern edge of the city. Because the spires are made from Sydney sandstone and are 30 years newer, they are of a darker tone than the older parts of the building. St Paul's Moorhouse Tower is the second highest Anglican spire in the world, the tallest being that of Salisbury Cathedral, England.

By the 1990s the constant traffic vibration of central Melbourne had led to concerns about the structural soundness of the cathedral, particularly the spires. A public appeal raised A$18 million to restore the spires and improve the interior of the building. The seven-year restoration project was completed in 2009, under the guidance of Falkinger Andronas Architects and Heritage Consultants. The restoration works were undertaken by Cathedral Stone. The restoration works were acknowledged by the Australian Institute of Architects with the Llachlan Macquarie National Award for Heritage Architecture 2009.

As part of the work, stone heads of Dean David Richardson and philanthropist Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, created by Melbourne sculptor Smiley Williams and carved by stonemason Daryl Gilbert, were added to the spires and new dalle de verre glass was created by Janusz and Magda Kuszbicki for the new west doors and the "Eighth Day" lantern in the Moorhouse Tower.

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The Warhawk was used by the air forces of 28 nations, including those of most Allied powers during WWII, and remained in front-line service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter, after the P-51 and P-47; 13,738 were built, all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facilities at Buffalo, NY.

Warhawk was the name the USAAF adopted for all models, making it the official name in the USA for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.

P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and N African campaigns, during June 1941. No. 112 Squadron RAF was among the first to operate Tomahawks, in N Africa.

The P-40's lack of a two-stage supercharger made it inferior to Luftwaffe fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in high-altitude combat and it was rarely used in operations in NW Europe. Between 1941 and 1944, however, the P-40 played a critical role with Allied air forces in three major theatres: N Africa, the SW Pacific and China. It also had a significant role in the Middle East, SE Asia, E Europe, Alaska and Italy.

The P-40 had good agility, especially at high speed and medium to low altitude. It was one of the tightest-turning monoplane fighters of the war, although at lower speeds it could not out-turn the extremely manoeuvrable Japanese fighters such as the A6M Zero and Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar.

Climb performance was fair to poor, depending on the subtype. Dive acceleration was good and dive speed was excellent. The highest-scoring P-40 ace, Clive Caldwell (RAAF), who claimed 22 of his 28½ kills in the type, said that the P-40 had "almost no vices", although "it was a little difficult to control in terminal velocity". Caldwell added that the P-40 was "faster downhill than almost any other aeroplane with a propeller."

The P-40 tolerated harsh conditions in the widest possible variety of climates. It was a semi-modular design and thus easy to maintain in the field. It lacked innovations of the time, such as boosted ailerons or automatic leading edge slats, but it had a strong structure including a five-spar wing, which enabled P-40s to survive some mid-air collisions: both accidental impacts and intentional ramming attacks against enemy aircraft were occasionally recorded as victories by the Desert Air Force and Soviet Air Forces. Caldwell said P-40s "would take a tremendous amount of punishment, violent aerobatics as well as enemy action." Caldwell found the P-40C Tomahawk's armament of two .50 in machine guns firing through the prop and two .303 Browning machine guns in each wing to be inadequate. This was rectified with the P-40E Kittyhawk (above), which had three .50 in guns in each wing, although Caldwell preferred the Tomahawk in other respects. It had armour around the engine and the cockpit, which enabled it to withstand considerable damage. This was one of the characteristics that allowed Allied pilots in Asia and the Pacific to attack Japanese fighters head on, rather than try to out-turn and out-climb their opponents. Late-model P-40s were regarded as well armoured. Visibility was adequate, although hampered by an overly complex windscreen frame, and completely blocked to the rear in early models due to the raised turtledeck. Poor ground visibility and the relatively narrow landing gear track led to many losses due to accidents on the ground.

The Kittyhawk was the main fighter used by the RAAF in WWII, in greater numbers than the Spitfire. Two RAAF squadrons serving with the Desert Air Force, No. 3 and No. 450 Squadrons, were the first Australian units to be assigned P-40s. Other RAAF pilots served with RAF or SAAF P-40 squadrons in the theatre.

Many RAAF pilots achieved high scores in the P-40. At least five reached "double ace" status: Clive Caldwell, Nicky Barr, John Waddy, Bob Whittle (11 kills each) and Bobby Gibbes (10 kills) in the Middle East, N African and/or New Guinea campaigns. In all, 18 RAAF pilots became aces while flying P-40s.

Nicky Barr, like many Australian pilots, considered the P-40 a reliable mount: "The Kittyhawk became, to me, a friend. It was quite capable of getting you out of trouble more often than not. It was a real warhorse."

At the same time as the heaviest fighting in N Africa, the Pacific War was also in its early stages, and RAAF units in Australia were completely lacking in suitable fighter aircraft. Spitfire production was being absorbed by the war in Europe; P-38s were trialled, but were difficult to obtain; Mustangs had not yet reached squadrons anywhere, and Australia's tiny and inexperienced aircraft industry was geared towards larger aircraft. USAAF P-40s and their pilots originally intended for the US Far East Air Force in the Philippines, but diverted to Australia as a result of Japanese naval activity were the first suitable fighter aircraft to arrive in substantial numbers. By mid-1942, the RAAF was able to obtain some USAAF replacement shipments; the P-40 was given the RAAF designation A-29. RAAF Kittyhawks played a crucial role in the SW Pacific theatre. They fought on the front-line as fighters during the critical early years of the Pacific War, and the durability and bomb-carrying abilities (1,000 lb) of the P-40 also made it ideal for the ground-attack role. For example, 75, and 76 Squadrons played a critical role during the Battle of Milne Bay, fending off Japanese aircraft and providing effective close air support for the Australian infantry, negating the initial Japanese advantage in light tanks and sea power.

The RAAF units which made the most use of Kittyhawks in the SW Pacific were: 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 82, 84 and 86 Squadrons. These squadrons saw action mostly in the New Guinea and Borneo campaigns.

Late in 1945, RAAF fighter squadrons in the SW Pacific began converting to P-51Ds. However, Kittyhawks were in use with the RAAF until the end of the war, in Borneo. In all, the RAAF acquired 841 Kittyhawks (not counting the British-ordered examples used in N Africa), including 163 P-40E, 42 P-40K, 90 P-40 M and 553 P-40N models. In addition, the RAAF ordered 67 Kittyhawks for use by No. 120 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron (a joint Australian-Dutch unit in the SW Pacific). The P-40 was retired by the RAAF in 1947. - From Wikipedia.

The example above, A29-133 "Polly" operated out of Milne Bay in 1942-43 and is seen in the Australian War Museum in Canberra.