Photos Photos of the US Army in the ETO

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Mission Albany - Taking off just after midnight June 6th 1944 over 2000 airborne troops would drop behind enemy lines 5hrs before the first troops got their boots wet on the Normandy beaches.
As the sun sets over Exeter Airfield, England, June 5th 1944,Lieutenant-Colonel Robert l. Wolverton (CO 3rd Battalion/506th Parachute Infantry Regiment/101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles"), and the headquarters staff are checking their gear before boarding transport aircraft C-47 "Dakota" 8Y-S # 292717 "Stoy Hora" of the 440th Troop Carrier Squadron.
Of the 15 paratroopers pictured, 5 would be KIA and 9 would be captured by sunset the following day.

 

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MP from the 82nd Airborne Division with a Norman lady.

 

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GI with his little furry friend.

 

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Bob Hope and Francis Langford visiting an American airfield in England, 1943.

 

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Some pics from the 284th ECB.

 

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A Sherman tank of the 14th Armored Division "Liberators" drive through a wired connection. For added protection against 'Panzerfaust', the tank was coated with sandbags. Rittershoffen, Alsace, France. March 1945.

 

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An American M8 armored car in the streets of Chateau-Salins, 15 November 1944. Note commander armed with a German Gewehr 43 semi automatic rifle

 

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When the US Army landed in Normandy on June 6th 1944 it was equipped with 75mm M4 / M4A1 tanks.
Meanwhile, languishing across the Channel back in Britain were a few hundred of the new 76mm armed M4A1s.
The powers-that-be declined to take them as it was thought that the fact that they used different ammunition, among other things, would unneccessarily complicate the logistics chain.
Fast-forward a few weeks into the fighting and it soon became apparent that a bigger, harder-hitting gun was indeed desirable, so the 76mm armed M4A1s were hurriedly shipped over to France.
They were first deployed during "Operation Cobra" in July 1944.
This particular M4A1 (76mm) of the 3rd Armored has been fitted with a "Rhino" hedge-buster and has two-tone disruptive camouflage finish.

 

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M10 tank destroyer in Southern France - August 1944

LIFE Magazine Archives - Carl Mydans Photographer

 

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284th ECB.

 

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A GI examines a KO'd Panther. It has evidently completely burned out and has suffered the collapse of its torsion bar suspension.The picture was taken at Belval railway station on St-Lo-Coutances (D 972) road. SS-Uscha. Essow (from SS-Pz.-Rgt. 2 "Das Reich") s "Panther" 322 at "La Bretonnière", hit by a bazooka squad, toward 1100/1230 AM on 28 July 1944.

 

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US 9th Air Force airmen in conversation beside their B-26 Marauder named "Ginger", France, 1944.
Both wear Type A9 summer flying helmets. The airman on the left has RAF Mk VII goggles, minus their flip-up sunshield, whilst the other wears USAAF issue B7s.
The flak vest is an M1 with an M3 Apron, or "flak diaper", attached.
Interestingly, the airman on the left wears what appear to be A-15 "Mosquito Boots". These high-leg, russet leather boots were fastened with wrap-around straps and were favoured by some USAAF airmen in the ETO.
(LIFE / Scherschel)

 

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Saint-Lô, Normandy, 1944: German and American medical personnel treat wounded German and Allied soldiers.

 

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Captured German Pilot shot down by anti-aircraft fire during the Hüertgenwald campaign, near Weisweiler, Germany Fall 1944

 

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German pilots captured by soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division after being shot down over Eschweiler, Germany, on December 3, 1944.

 

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M3 Half-track vehicle of 16th Infantry Regiment, US 1st Infantry Division moving through a muddy road in the Hürtgen Forest, Germany, Feb 15, 1945.
United States Army

 

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Three different Sherman tank variants in Cologne, Germany in 1945. In the foreground is an M4A3E2 “Jumbo” Sherman (although it was never called that during the war to my knowledge, but rather an Assault Sherman). Behind it is an M4A3 (76 mm) W and in the background is an M4A1 (76 mm), possibly a Normandy survivor.

 

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"The roads were becoming jammed with prisoners coming down out of the hills. Soon the problems of disarming them, not to mention taking them into custody, became too time consuming. If we stopped at all it was to hurriedly collect their pistols and "issued" Wehrmacht watches, leaving machine guns, rifles and cannon intact. Most of them had thrown their weapons down — in the woods, into streams, in meadows or just into the ditches. In one spacious estate we found the swimming pool half filled with weapons."
It was said the British fought for King and country, the Germans fought for Der Fatherland and the Americans, well the Americans fought for souvenirs
Source: http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/.../141/141113.htm

 

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Jumbo Sherman's and foot sloggers of the 39th Inf Regt, 9th Div "Old Reliables" near the town of Rath, Germany. Operation Grenade. February 1945

 

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Destroyed M4A3E2, somewhere in the ETO.