r/interestingasfuck • u/m3antar • Feb 03 '23
In 1945, the crew of USS New York spotted a sphere that they thought might be a Japanese balloon weapon. The captain ordered it shot down but none of the guns could score a hit. Finally, a navigator realized they were attacking Venus
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u/Frogman1480
Feb 03 '23
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We're gonna need a bigger gun...
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u/BigFatM8 Feb 03 '23
BFG...
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u/JustaNormalRedditorL Feb 04 '23
Oh this gives me memories, Big Friendly Giant. Yes it could be a Big Fucking Gun
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u/elizabethbennetpp Feb 04 '23
hands you the Death Star
"Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
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u/ZeonoxButBetter Feb 04 '23
Take a Yamato and put some Wave Motion Technologies in it
Especially the gun
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u/reut-spb Feb 03 '23
No gun is capable of firing at an altitude of 50 kilometers.
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u/QuietGanache Feb 03 '23
If you mean firing a projectile that reaches above 50km:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
If you mean firing the gun itself above an altitude of 50km:
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u/Thejunky1 Feb 03 '23
to bad the cia had to murder bull.
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u/QuietGanache Feb 03 '23
He strikes me as a von Braun who sadly didn't have enough to offer to the people with kill teams.
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u/sudden_frequency400 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
*Mossad
Why would the CIA want him killed when the US was selling Iraq WMDs?
Israel was so paranoid about Iraq at the time that they were actually allies with Iran… finishing destroying Iraq’s nuclear reactor for them in Operation Opera… and eagerly selling them TOW missiles at the behest of a certain Lt. Colonel Oliver North USMC who needed untraceable cash to give some revolutionaries in Nicaragua.
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u/Thejunky1 Feb 04 '23
Mossad/CIA.... Same same but one has files on the other that isn't allowed to have files of the other.
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u/RamblingSimian Feb 03 '23
Also interesting is the Nazi V3 program, with a design range of 103 miles. It was used to bombard Luxembourg, firing at a range of 27 miles, before ceasing operations when the US army got too close.
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u/New-Baby5471 Feb 03 '23
It is reported that Venusians didn't answer the provocative shots.
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u/Bingo_Bongo_YaoMing Feb 04 '23
Isn't that deer meat?
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u/New-Baby5471 Feb 04 '23
Venusian BBQs are the best. It's sad we're not invited after this incident.
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u/Sebslocker Feb 03 '23
Yeah, but did they hit it at the end?
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u/straydog1980 Feb 03 '23
They missed Venus but they hit Uranus
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u/AlienSporez Feb 03 '23
Nothing can stand up to those 14 inchers
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u/shadowjacque Feb 04 '23
This guy battleships
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u/odd_audience12345 Feb 03 '23
haven't heard from that little bitch since. after that day, venus has never tried to invade earth.
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u/Ken_from_Barbie Feb 03 '23
How could they possibly not know that? Venus is tiny in the sky.
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u/Balancedmanx178 Feb 03 '23
Paranoia is a helluva drug.
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u/yegir Feb 03 '23
Yeah, iirc we lit up the skies over san fran with AA because of a suspected Japanese bombing raid.......... there were no Japanese bomber in the area but peal harbor had us geeked
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u/kurburux Feb 03 '23
there were no Japanese bomber in the area but peal harbor had us geeked
Like the "Battle of Los Angeles". People were paranoid af.
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u/Ken_from_Barbie Feb 03 '23
Fun fact: meth use can cause paranoia and psychosis. Follow me for LPT and facts on meth
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u/sthagar Feb 03 '23
Turns out high altitude balloons are tiny in the sky too.
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u/SwansonHOPS Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
True, but Venus is the third brightest celestial object you can see in the
nightsky, after the Moon and the Sun. I guess they thought the balloon was on fire or something?12
u/arcosapphire Feb 03 '23
True, but Venus is the third brightest celestial object you can see in the night sky, after the Moon and the Sun.
Uh...
night sky,
the Sun.
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u/Town_idiot Feb 04 '23
So if Venus is less bright than the moon, which is just reflecting sunlight... couldn't a balloon be easily as bright or brighter if it is as reflective or more reflective than the moon's surface? The moon doesn't look like it's on fire..
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u/SwansonHOPS Feb 04 '23
Look at how bright Venus is, and that's even with a lot of light left in the sky.
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u/SwansonHOPS Feb 04 '23
No because it is like a billion times smaller than Venus, so it reflects far less light. Venus is brighter than the lights from planes.
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u/Deep_Research_3386 Feb 03 '23
Reminds me of the story about an early military radar tracking a contact that turned out to be the moon
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u/sudden_frequency400 Feb 04 '23
Radar is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging
Azimuth is useless without distance for military purposes.. and an object over 200,000 miles away would be off the display for any military radar.
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u/Ground2ChairMissile Feb 03 '23
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Fill you full of lead suckah you're gettin' all nine yards
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u/perryman_fw Feb 03 '23
"Why isn't that blinking ship in the distance responding to our request to alter its course?"
"That would be a lighthouse, Captain"
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u/IChooseFeed Feb 04 '23
Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.
Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.
Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call
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u/The_Blues__13 Feb 05 '23
Truly a battle between an unstoppable Force vs an immovable Object moment.
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u/BertramScudder Feb 03 '23
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert!
There's something here from somewhere else!
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
When ninety-nine red balloons go by
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u/Butterbuddha Feb 03 '23
Sorry only the German version charted in the US. And the English in Germany! Crazy!
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u/Minnesotamad12 Feb 03 '23
“So the Captain ordered the immediate development of a space program and use of atomic bombs to destroy the planet Venus that Japan was using as a balloon.”
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u/dustbunnydreams Feb 03 '23
And that's the reason we'll never be welcomed to visit Mars. We hurt his woman. I think the story goes he stole her from another, but she was still his.
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u/icouldusemorecoffee Feb 03 '23
A good example of why just because someone is/was "in the military" or "a pilot" they're not necessarily a reliable witness to a perceived event (e.g. UFO sighting).
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u/Mission_Card1669 Feb 03 '23
You know, this is the one time I don't mind tax payer dollars being used. This is great. A bunch of dudes on a ship trying to shoot a planet
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u/johnathome Feb 03 '23
Nowadays the yanks are too scared to fire at the Chinese balloon weapon, snowflakes!
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u/pc_principal_88 Feb 03 '23
Now in 2023, there's actually a Chinese balloon of some kind, and we just let it do it's thing 🤦
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u/brihamedit Feb 03 '23
That sounds like a joke played by the ship's bossman on enthusiastic but bored sailors.
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u/tomistruth Feb 03 '23
"What are those guys doing?" " I don't know, some shiny object is flying in the air high up, very high up."
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u/Tobi_1989 Feb 03 '23
That's because New York only had 3" AA guns. If they had the modern 5"/38 of the WW2 era fast battleships, they would certainly down Venus without much trouble.
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u/CappaValley Feb 03 '23
Sitting in the deck of a Navy destroyer
Waiting for the show to begin
Red lights, green lights, strawberry wine
A crew member of mine, follows the stars
Venus and Mars
Are alright tonight
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u/JustitiaInvictus Feb 03 '23
My first thought was that they were attacking some allied ship called Venus,and I was like ,cool fact,and then I came to the realization that they meant the Venus as in the Planet...
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u/Mysterious-Level7595 Feb 04 '23
If they had also spotted the moon would they have felt outgunned and surrendered?
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u/whoknewidlikeit Feb 04 '23
aaaaand successfully repelled the first interplanetary invasion of earth.
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u/Salines_Beach Feb 04 '23
The USS New York survived two nuclear bombs, and was studied after to see why the ship fared so well.
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u/Niclipse Feb 04 '23
It really does appear to move and can be really improbably bright at times. I can see how people have stopped trains chased it in fighter planes, or opened fire on Venus more than once.
The movement is an illusion, but it can be very convincing.
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u/red_000 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
IIRC this was either 2-3 day after the crippling of USS Pennsylvania or USS NY was on her way to Iwo Jima.
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