This past month I've been reading Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the USA (and Allies) in Europe, WW2. [An Army At Dawn, etc]. The record of the German paras throughout is mind-blowing. Their triumph was the assault in 1940 ... Crete, later, was a pyrric victory, and thereafter they were always in losing situations where their only avenue for valor and brilliance was in "spoiling" ... and they were the masters of spoiling ... just ask the Canadians who mouse-holed through Ortona, Italy.
Yes Terry. The pic was taken in Philadelphia where the ship had some equipment stripped for evaluation before being being sent out to the Pacific for A-bomb tests.
Japan 40 cm/45 (15.7") Type 94 - NavWeaps
Rare photograph showing Musashi firing her forward guns during gunnery trials in 1942. This photograph was provided to a newspaper by the family of Captain Tameshige Nagahashi who was a gunnery officer on Musashi.