Photos WW2 US Forces

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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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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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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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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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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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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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US soldier and destroyed Panzer III, 1943, Tunisia.

 

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

 

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