Photos WW2 US Forces

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Operational air-bases were busy and potentially very dangerous places with large numbers of often large aircraft coming and going throughout the day, therefore careful management of the air traffic was essential, for obvious reasons.
Here, trainee USAAF controllers use a table-top layout and model aircraft to learn and practise the necessary skills.
Looks like fun!
(NASM)

 

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Holding a Colt M1911, a U.S. Marine moves cautiously through the jungle of Saipan, July 1944, Pacific theatre of the Second World War
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan

 

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CV-6 Enterprise in dry dock in 1942.

 

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During WW2 many US Eighth Air Force bases in the flatlands of eastern England bordered small towns or villages.
Thus, it was not unusual for the airmen based there to strike up friendships with the locals...especially members of the opposite sex!
The perimeters of the airbases often bordered private land and, even allowing for wartime security, curious locals would gather to watch the planes coming and going and the general activity on the base.
Little boys, not unnaturally, were fascinated by it all. This much is evident in the memoirs of those who witnessed it...for example, the late avaiation historian Roger Freeman, who is credited with coining the phrase, "The Mighty Eighth".
Here, some young ladies from the village gather to watch AAF mechanics working on the engine of a B-24.
They don't seem to object to their presence!
(NASM)

 

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State-of-the-art simulators...1940s style.
These strange-looking contraptions were used by the USAAF to train its Bombardiers.
They were propelled by a small motor.
The Bombardiers would climb aboard via a ladder to their elevated position beneath the canvas cover which represented their position within the nose of an airplane.
Contained within was a highly secret Norden bomb-sight and the other tools of the Bombardiers' trade.
The platforms moved across a "target area" mapped out upon the ground below and as they did so the Bombardiers calibrated their bomb-sights and completed a simulated attack.
The 1940s movie "Bombardiers" actually shows such bombing simulators in use.
(NASM)

 

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USS Wasp CV-7 followed by USS Madison DD-425 in the North Atlantic enroute to the UK, with TF39, photographed from HMS Edinburgh (16) - April 1942
IWM - Coote, R G G (Lt) Photographer

 

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As a publicity stunt to demonstrate the truly gargantuan size of the prototype Martin XPB2M-1 Mars flying-boat, a Piper J-3 Cub was placed on its wing.
The photograph was taken at the Martin Aircraft Factory, Martin State Airport, Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1942.
(NASM)

 

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The US Naval Base at Corpus Christi, Tx., was home to a number of flights of Chance-Vought OS2U Kingfisher float-planes during WW2.
They were usually carried aboard capital ships and acted as "the eyes of the fleet".
Here, a USN aviation cadet clambers into the cockpit of one ahead of a training flight.
(NASM)

 

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A pair of curious US Marines examine the wreck of a Japanese Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" on the island of Okinawa, April, 1945.
The Hien was known as a "Tony" in Allied identification code and was the only frontline IJAAS fighter to employ an inline liquid-cooled engine.
In appearance it somewhat resembled a cross between a Bf 109 and Maachi C.202.
(NASM)

 

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Watched by his shipmates, US Coastguardsman paints a U-boat silhouette on a bulkhead aboard USS Moberly (PF-63) a USCG Patrol Frigate, for its part in the sinking of the U-853, May 6th 1945.

(USCG Official Photo)

 

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The C.O. of the U-853 either did not receive the radio order to cease hostilities or for, some reason, chose to ignore it. She sank a collier SS Blackpoint, the last U.S. ship loss in the Battle of the Atlantic within sight of the Rhode Island coast. That resulted in the Moberly and the destroyer escort USS Atherton being sent to the scene - cornering the Type IX U-boat in shallow waters and pummeling her first with magnetic fuzed Mk 8 depth charges and then hedgehogs.
The water was so shallow that the back up depth fuze were not setting off the charges that did not come within actuation range of the magnetic pistol. One depth charge, however, did explode indicating it may have come close enough to the target ... The rest of the depth charges remain unexploded on the shallow bottom - as indicated on the local charts!
The contact fuzed hedgehogs did explode - at least most of them did - when they hit bottom. There were explosions with each of the three Hedgehog attacks made by Atherton - with one particularly big - perhaps countermining some of the unexploded depth charges. Moberly made her share of attack runs as did USS Ericsson which also came on the scene.
Two K-class ASW blimps (K-16 and K-58) had flown over from New Jersey (Lakehurst) to help in the hunt that lasted all night and into the following day - when hostilities officially ended. The blimps were equipped with magnetic anomaly detectors which allowed them to drop modified Mousetrap projectiles directly over the target.
The hunt was called off after oil and debris including the cap of the U-853's skipper was blown on to the surface! Divers were sent down to try and retrieve the log book but without success. One body was retrieved and the autopsy showed no water in the lungs, suggesting the cause of death was shock from the attacks and not drowning.
A big hole was found to have been blown on the deck of the U-853 for'd of the conning tower. But an unexploded Hedgehog or Mousetrap projectile was also found next to the wreck near the stern. Further dives were called off because of the potential hazard from unexploded ASW ordnance ...

 

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January 27, 1943
Eighth Air Force send a force of 91 bombers including B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators to bomb the port city of Wilhelmshaven including factories constructing U-Boats.
This was the first American bombing of the German Homeland.

 

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Future President Ronald Reagan serves in film unit...
On January 27, 1943, future President Ronald Reagan, an Army Air Corps first lieutenant during World War II, is on an active-duty assignment with the Army’s First Motion Picture Unit.
Technically, Reagan was a unit public relations officer, however Warner Brothers Studios and the American Army Air Corps had tapped him the previous year to star in a motion picture called Air Force. To allow filming to go forward, Reagan was transferred from his cavalry unit to the Air Corps’ motion-picture unit in early January 1943.
Housed in the old Hal Roach studios, the First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) produced military training, morale and propaganda films to aid the war effort.
FMPU released Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series and a documentary of the bomber Memphis Belle, the crew of which completed a standard-setting 25 bombing missions in Europe. The films were screened on domestic training grounds and in troop camps overseas as well as in U.S. movie theaters.
Air Force, which was later renamed Beyond the Line of Duty, conveyed the true story of the heroic feats of aviator Shorty Wheliss and his crew and featured narration by Lt. Ronald Reagan. The documentary, intended to promote investment in war bonds, won an Academy Award in 1943 for best short subject. Reagan went on to narrate or star in three more shorts for FMPU including For God and Country,Cadet Classification, and the The Rear Gunner. Reagan also appeared as Johnny Jones in the 1943 full-length musical film This is the Army.

 

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The 16" guns of the USS Missouri ( BB-63)... aka "Mighty Mo"... at elevation as the massed squadrons of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet fly over her on September 2nd, 1945, at the conclusion of the proceedings conducted by General Douglas MacArthur which marked the end of the war in the Pacific.
One can only imagine the overwhelming sense of power which must have been conveyed by the sight and sound of the waves of planes, plus the vast array of naval vessels at anchor in Tokyo Bay.
(US Navy Official)

 

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A fine colour portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., standing alongside his P-47 in Sicily, circa 1944.
Lt-Col. Davis was a former West-Pointer and a "Tuskegee Airman" who rose to command the 332nd Fighter Group...the famed "Red Tails".
He was also the son of Brigadier-General Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first African-American to be appointed to that rank in the US Army.
Post-war, Lt-Col Davis remained in the USAF, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1965.
However, under President Bill Clinton's administration, he was awarded his fourth star in recognition of his distiguished service to his country.
Lt. Col Davies wears a Type A-11 flying helmet with Type B-8 goggles and a Type A-14 oxygen mask. His summer flying suit is as AN-S-31A.
(NASM)

 

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PBM Martin Mariner.

 

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