Photos WW2 US Forces

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #561

" So, is this where the bullet comes out honey?"
Yet another M1902 3" field gun and caisson /limber displayed in the vicinity of Fort Bragg, N.C.
In the March 1942 issue, LIFE magazine published a photo-essay featuring a typical GI...one Private Teed of the 9th Infantry Division.
This is he on the cover...and with his sweetheart.
(LIFE / Strock

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #562

WW2, shot of a P-47 pilot flying though the trouble he has wrought when he hit an ammunition truck.

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #563

284th Engineer Combat Battalion
"On 21 October 1944 we put on our packs and assembled all equipment at 2200 hours, so we would be sure to be aboard the midnight train. As usual, the train was late and at 0035 hours 22 October 1944 we left Camp Shanks for New York Harbor. It was in this harbor that we boarded the good ship S.S. Marine Raven and pulled out into the harbor from which we sailed at 1130 hours on this same day. This boarding ship was not such a simple matter as this tends to convey. CPL. Tony Palumbo was impressed with the work of the Red Cross in connection with the service that was rendered to departing soldiers. We all remember trying to struggle through the act of managing a duffle bag, a pack and a bedroll all while trying to dunk a doughnut at the same time. It really was brutal. The gang plank was also a force to be reckoned with and the ascent was maneuvered in several ways. Some of the boys used the drag ‘em type of ascent with duffel bag afar to the rear and gently coaxed along with the strap for a towline. Others took a firm grasp around the bag as a “GI” would hold his best girl, after a year’s absence. No matter what methods were used the desired results were achieved. Once you were aboard ship reaching your quarters was quite a simple matter as it was a case of struggling to the nearest stairs leading to your hold, tossing yourself bodily into the abyss and gravity took care of the rest. Now an assignment to a little bunk that was to be your abode for the long trip over the ocean. The bags were wide, the aisles were narrow and after you reached the correct spot you were hoisted almost bodily and laid or squeezed into a crevice and told to make yourself comfortable. Can you imagine anyone settling down to a comfortable position under such conditions? There were twelve hundred men in a hold that could accommodate three hundred comfortably."

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #564

Two Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment during fighting at Wana Ridge during the Battle of Okinawa, May 1945.
Colour by Royston Leonard

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #565

Sheet metal workers repair a damaged tail rudder from a B-24. England.

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #566

Michigan National Guard- March 1942

 

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• Jan 18, 2021

• #567

A C-47 transport aircraft drops supplies by parachute to Allied troops in action against Japanese forces; a common event during the fighting in Burma and India during 1944, Burma Campaign.

 

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• Jan 19, 2021

• #568

The Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bomber was definitely not the most "aesthetic" of warbirds produced by the American aviation industry in the late 30s!
Original colour image.
(LIFE / Kessel)

 

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• Jan 19, 2021

• #569

The prevailing conditions on Kiska in the Aleutians were sometimes so bad that even Caterpillar tractors became bogged down and needed recovery.
(LIFE / Kessel)

 

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• Jan 19, 2021

• #570

Allied officers confer during an alfresco cigarette break.
To the left, Lieutentant Fenton J. Mee of the US Marine Corps and to the right Captain H.O. Griffith of the Royal Marines, photographed during field exercises in the United Kingdom.
Lieutenant Mee wears OD coveralls bearing the USMC stencil on the breast pocket.
His M1917A1 helmet has a burlap cover.
Captain Griffith wears officers' battledress with a netted Mk.II helmet.
He is armed with a service revolver in its webbing holster, drawn from the left.
(LIFE / Wild)

 

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• Jan 19, 2021

• #571

Improvised camouflage.
This USMC M4A2 is concealed behind sheets of corrugated metal and salvaged signage etc. Makes a change from natural foliage!
Saipan, August 1944.
(LIFE / Stackpole)

 

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• Jan 19, 2021

• #572

Saipan, August 1944.
US Marines evacuate their casualties folowing the fighting around the village of Garapan.
In the background with a very angular, almost Germanic-looking appearance, is a Type 2 Ka-Mi tank.
These tanks had an amphibious capability, and were armed with 37mm guns.
Numbers were used in the defence of Saipan but were no match for the US Shermans.
(LIFE / Stackpole)

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #573

US soldier and destroyed Panzer III, 1943, Tunisia.

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #574

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson's masterpiece of art-deco aviation design...the prototype XP-38 photographed at March Field, California, in January 1939 (SI 89-14512).
With its futuristic design and gleaming stressed aluminum skin, it must have looked to 1930s eyes like an F22 Raptor looks to us today!
The P-38 "Lightning" possessed one of the most distinctive airframes of WW2, earning itself the nickname "Der Gabelschwanz-Teufel" (Fork-tailed devil) by Luftwaffe pilots who had the misfortune to come up against it.
"Red Bull" own and fly an immaculate example to this day. A few years ago I saw it close up and personal at Duxford's "Flying Legends". It was and is a totally awesome machine!
(Smithsonian)

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #575

Standing before a C-47 Skytrain of Troop Carrier Command is Lieutenant Clifford Allen of the 555th PIB ( Parachute Infantry Battalion)
The 555th...known as "The Triple Nickles" (sic) was unique in that it was the first African-American airborne unit to be raised by the US Army during WW2.
Much to their disappointment and frustration they did not get into the fight against Nazi Germany.
Rather, they were deployed to the western United States as a part of "Operation Firefly" where they fulfilled a valuable role as "smoke-jumpers" to combat the effects of the Japanese Fu-go incendiary-balloons which were intended to set alight the forested areas of states such as Oregon and northern California, thus creating potentially damaging wildfires, rather like those we've seen in recent years.
During their deployment the 555th "smoke jumpers" successfully dealt with 28 such fires.
Lieutenant Allen carries a length of rope which would enable him to lower himself down to the ground if he got hung up in a tree during his descent.
Note his translucent plastic jump-helmet with face-guard attached. All the smoke-jumpers wore such helmets to protect their heads and faces when jumping into wooded areas.
( Smithsonian)

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #576

USAAF Bombers stored in Kingman Arizona await their fate in early 1947
LIFE Magazine Archives - Peter Stackpole Photographer

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #577

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #578

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #579

 

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• Jan 24, 2021

• #580