Photos WW2 US Forces

[BravoZulu]

An infantryman of the 29th Infantry Division, United States 9th Army carrying a bazooka anti-tank rocket launcher runs past a knocked out burning Jagdpanzer 38 (SdKfz 138/2 Hetzer) self-propelled light tank destroyer armed with a 75mm Pak 39L anti tank gun from the 15th Panzergrenadier Division (Wehrmacht) during the Siegfried Line Campaign on 4th December 1944 at Aldenhoven in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany.

 

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Marine Raiders gathered in front of a Japanese dugout on Cape Torokina on Bougainville, Solomon Islands. January 1944

 

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B-24 bombers of the 15th Air Force during a bombing run over Salzburg. December 27, 1944.

 

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Boeing B-17 'Five Grand' of 96th Bombardment Group out of Snetterton Heath, over England. The 5,000th to be built. It was signed by all those who worked on her

 

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B-24 Liberator nicknamed “Extra Joker" shot down with all souls over Austria. August 1944

The normal crew of Extra Joker, is the crew flying the plane the pic was taken from.
They swapped at the last minute because the crew of the Extra Joker was assigned a bombing role requiring a bomb sight that wasn't installed yet, so the crews switched planes with a crew who had the sight installed.
The photographer who snapped the pic was still supposed to be on the Extra Joker though, but got on the other plane by mistake, and then watched the plane he was supposed to be on get shot down.

 

[BravoZulu]

USMC M4A2 Sherman "Commando" knocked out during the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943

The 3rd Platoon commander, First Lieutenant Louis Largey, was jockeying Cannonball toward Red 3 when a shrieking explosion rocked his Sherman. A medium-caliber round had hit the frontal armor. The driver quickly reversed and slewed around. When Largey saw that his command tank was responding well to the rough handling, he ordered his driver to turn back for the beach. Largey’s other tanks—Charlie, Condor, Commando, and Colorado—made it ashore without further mishap, as did 2nd Platoon’s four surviving tanks, which regrouped to drive westward.

Under orders from the Red 3 beach commander, Cannonball led the way for Colorado, Charlie, Commando, and Condor in an attempt to cross the island without infantry support. During the action, Condor fell victim to a U.S. Navy divebomber whose pilot had heard there was Japanese armor on Red 3—but not that friendly tanks would land. Condor’s crew bailed. Charlie lost a duel with Japanese antitank gunners. That enemy gun crew, or one nearby, scored a hit on Cannonball, whose rattled driver steered onto a camouflaged underground fuel dump. Flames erupted beneath the tank, but Lieutenant Largey and his crew escaped. A Japanese firebomb set Colorado ablaze; the driver plunged his tank into the surf, quenching the flames. Commando ranged the farthest inland, taking out two Japanese antitank guns and several fighting positions before armor-piercing rounds disabled it. Largey gathered the 14 surviving tankers and began the trek hundreds of yards back to secure lines.

 

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4th Tank Battalion M4A3 Sherman "CAIRO" knocked out by a Japanese mine during the Battle of Iwo Jima in early 1945

 

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Jesse Rhodes Waller, an Aviation Ordnanceman stationed at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, installing a M1919 Browning machine gun in a U. S. Navy PBY Catalina. August 1942

 

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Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division take cover behind M4 tanks, to avoid fire from a German sniper. (Sankt Andreasberg, Germany 14th April 1945)

 

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Personal photo's from a B-17 pilot over Europe. He survived

 

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LCDR Creed C. Burlingame, USN, Commanding Officer, USS Silversides (SS-236) Wearing foul weather gear and smoking a corncob pipe on board his boat, during a 1942 war patrol.

 

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Fragmentation holes in the wading gear of a USMC Sherman knocked out on Saipan in 1944

 

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The control tower at RAF Molesworth, England, when occupied by the USAAF 303rd Bomb Group (as Station 107), September, 1944.

 

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Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller (shown here, second from left in January 1944 with his regimental staff on Cape Gloucester) worked closely with the Navy in defense of Marine positions on Guadalcanal.

 

[CorkyM]

 

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M5 Stuart tank after striking a mine in Germany - 17 November, 1944

 

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Italian Campaign. November 1943. A USAAF Bristol Beaufighter Mk VIF strike aircraft of the 416th Night Fighter Squadron near Grottaglie.

 

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Consolidated B-24D-30-CO Liberator (#42-40127) "First Sergeant" of the 8th Air Force, 458th Bombardment Group, 754th Bombardment Squadron, is shown on the apron at the group's base at RAF Horsham St. Faith.
Originally "Thar She Blows Again" in operation from Algeria against Ploesti with the 93rd Bombardment Group, 329th Bombardment Squadron, and received moderate damage. Her crew, led by Lieutenant Charles Merrill, all returned safely.
Originally named "Bucket of Bolts" when it was first received by the 458th, "First Sergeant" became the 458th's first assembly ship and was painted with the polka dots for high visibility.
"First Sergeant's" job would be to take off before the other combat aircraft, and then lead them of the group into a combat formation, to provide maximum coverage for each ship. Then "First Sergeant" would return to base. She was crewed by rotation, usually pilots or aircrew that had suffered combat fatigue or were in need of flight time.
On May 27, 1944, "First Sergeant" was the victim of a flare. While loading the plane's Very signal pistol, the gun discharged and lit other flares. This caused the war-weary B-24 to burn on the runway.

 

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M4A3 of the 5th Marine Tank Battalion knocked out on Iwo Jima. March 1945

 

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Soldiers of the 317th Infantry Regiment of the 80th American Infantry Division rest on streets in the French city of Argentan next to a knocked out Panther from the 2nd Battalion, 33rd Panzer Regiment, 9th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht - 21 August, 1944