Photos WW2 US Forces

[BravoZulu]

P-51 Mustang escorts flying from Iwo Jima viewed from the cabin of a B-29 Superfortress during a raid on Japanese installations in July 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

US Army troop transport USAT Otsego off Seattle, Washington. 30 August 1943

This ship had a long and involved history and was downright venerable at the time of this photo. Completed in 1902 for Hamburg America Line as Prinz Eitel Friedrich. Interned at New York at the start of WWI. Taken over by the USN in 1917. Renamed Otsego and served as a Navy transport 1917-19. Laid up for several years until a buyer could be found. In 1924 acquired by Libby, McNeill & Libby, a canned food company. Spent the next seventeen years hauling employees, supplies and product between Seattle and the company's Alaskan salmon canneries. Chartered by the US Army in 1941 and became USAT Otsego. Her wartime service consisted of transporting troops and supplies from Seattle to various Alaskan bases. Her WWII characteristics were: 8,895t. 1x3in/50 gun. 10.5kts. In January 1945 transferred to the Soviets under Lend Lease and renamed Ural. Spent the rest of her existence in Siberian waters and may have been used to transport prisoners to various prison and labor camps. Renamed Dolinsk in 1947, she was hulked or scrapped near Vladivostok in 1955.

 

[BravoZulu]

An M3A1 Halftrack named "Bitching Pals" of 'B' Company, 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, 9th Armored Division, 1st U.S. Army, moves through Engers, Germany in March 1945

 

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Sgt. Frank Perez of the 401st Bomb Group posing next to his ball turret gunner position then (WW2) and in 2010.

 

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Light Tanks M24 or Chaffee at the victory parade in Berlin, in 1945.

 

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A convoy of Allied lorries under enemy artillery and mortar fire on the road between Son and Eindhoven, Holland, 20 September 1944. In the foreground American paratroopers shelter in a ditch

 

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Main gun maintenance in the field for an M10 tank destroyer in France in 1944

 

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S/Sgt. Robert L. Taylor, an Eighth Air Force waist gunner, poses in full flying gear at his position in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress; 1943.

 

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Infantrymen await the word to advance in pursuit of retreating Japanese forces on Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands. 13 September 1943

 

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B-25 Mitchells lined up at a repair depot in Townsville, Australia, 1943

 

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18yo Pvt. Raymond L. Roth, 69th Inf Div, after fighting through the Siegfried Line, 4 Mar 45. “I was scared to death.”

 

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7th Armored Division Shermans in temporary position near St. Vith, Belgium, fire on enemy positions beyond the city. 40th Tank Battalion. 7th Armored Division. 24 January 1945.

 

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Sherman of the 746th Tank Battalion supporting Company I, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division along Rue Fond Leval in the town of Sprimont near the Belgian border - September 1944. The image is probably a training exercise

 

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Soldiers rest in front of a field of camouflaged tanks of 5th Army. Italy, 18 September 1943

 

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Lieutenant Junior Grade John J. Malone, USN, Catholic Chaplain with the Seventh Regiment of the First Marine Division says mass on Peleliu Island for the Marines who fell while storming the island. Comrades of the dead kneel in prayer. September 22, 1944.

 

[BravoZulu]

Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina is loaded with depth charges and bombs at Adak in the Aleutians. Note the derelict Consolidated B-24/PB4Y Liberator in the background., Spring 1943.

 

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C-47 Transport planes loaded with paratroopers at Jackson's Drome near Port Moresby, New Guinea prior to an aerial assault at Markham River Area. 17 September 1943

 

[RisingStar]

J.D. Salinger, who would later author the iconic novel The Catcher in the Rye, kicking back in an Army Jeep during his service for the US Army in World War II (1944)

 

[BravoZulu]

Assault craft streaming toward beach on Iwo Jima. Note smoke rising on beach from naval shelling. Taken by aircraft from USS Saginaw Bay (CVE 82), February 19, 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

The crew of a USN Vought OS2U Kingfisher belonging to the battleship USS Missouri steps out of the plane after returning from a scouting sortie. August 1944.