Designated "Mod. XXX," the Spitfire auxiliary fuel tank photographed here is being filled with Pale Ale from Henty & Constable Brewery.
"XXX Joy Juice" was racked into jettisonable "slippers" of up to 90 gallons (240 liters) for transport under the center of the fighter.
The modification was used by British RAF pilots to circumvent thin supply lines to the front line in France after the D-Day invasion.
18 gallon (82 liter) casks could also be fitted under modified pylons on each wing in a "beer bomb" configuration.
Westerham Brewery attached Bitter on one wing, Mild on the other. Flying at 15k ft (4,572 m) ensured the beer was chilled when it arrived.
Made by Sun Rubber and Disney-approved, this Mickey Mouse gas mask was created for U.S. children following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Having witnessed the Japanese Army's use of mustard gas against Chinese soldiers, the Army Chemical Corps feared attacks on America.
In preparation for a hypothetical attack, gas masks and warnings were distributed to civilians in cities on the U.S. west coast.
The Mickey Mouse masks were sized for children up to 4-years-old and were intended to turn chemical attack drills into a fun “game.”
It turned out that U.S. chemical weapon concerns were well justified.
Post-war investigations into Japan's infamous Unit 731 uncovered plans to deliver chemical and biological agents by balloon and kamikaze.
Pictured here carrying an inflatable tank are 4 members of the 1,100 strong 23rd Headquarters Special Troops “Ghost Army.”
From 1944 until the end of the war the Ghost Army was tasked with faking the existence of two 30,000 man U.S. Army units across Europe.
Engineers and artists from the 603rd Camouflage provided visual deception...
...while the 3132nd Signal Service provided fake audio and dummy radio traffic.
The Ghost Army participated in over 20 classified battlefield deceptions, even faking whole airfields complete with hanging laundry.
For Operation Fortitude the unit tricked German coastal defenses into believing D-Day would be arriving across the Strait of Dover.
Seen in this 1939 photo, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Churchill was a British solider known for leading commando charges with a Scottish broadsword.
"Mad Jack" believed that "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."
Also among Churchill's preferred accoutrements was a set of bagpipes used to rouse his troops and a longbow and arrows for combat.
He is credited with recording the last longbow kill in action, felling a German sergeant with a barbed arrow to signal the start of an attack.
Churchill later fought the Japanese in Burma and was disappointed in the U.S.'s use of atomic weapons:
“If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years...”
Officially a weather balloon, secretly a UFO? This photo shows a mysterious object hovering over the "Battle of Los Angeles."
Tensions in Los Angeles were high following the February 23, 1942 bombardment of the Ellwood oil field by a Japanese submarine.
The next night the city succumbed to "war nerves" when a lost US weather balloon trigged artillary fire from the 37th Coast Brigade.
When the photo of the battle was published in the LA Times, UFOologists believed it was evidence of an extraterrestrial craft.
The Navy and Air Force insisted there were no signs of enemy planes in the area...
...while Army reports suggested the presence of 1 to 5 unidentified craft...