The World War II Database has it all: Event Summaries, Book Reviews, Participant Profiles, detailed specs on ships and aircraft, and 3500+ photos. The DBs RSS feeds are here and here.
So you might have noticed that I’ve been writing a little about The Pacific War series, now filming in Australia. Lots of folks seem interested in this, so I’m going to ride this wave of interest where ever it takes me.
This week’s featured image shows the beach on Guadalcanal, and a beached transport (Kinugawa Maru) is in the background. Dale Dye’s most recent blog entry (highlighted in a previous post) features info about the battle inland. But there was a good deal of action on the sea between two formidable navies, and Peter Chen’s battle summary highlights the complexity of this engagement.
This has been another entry in the ww2db.com Featured Image partnership. The idea behind this post (and the weekly posts to come) is to highlight ww2db.com’s collection of 3500 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.
Reading the Book World section of the Washington Post, I came across two ww2 themed reviews. An American Hero looks like a winner, and After the Reich looks like the dog of the pairing. Check’em both out.
Dale Dye has posted an update on The Pacific War project, now filming in Australia. He writes:
It’s hot and muggy here in tropical North Queensland just as it was on Guadalcanal back in August 1942. We’ve managed to sweat our way through a second week of filming on this epic and are just about to begin night shoots. That’s grueling on everyone, but a glance up at the night sky to see the Southern Cross hanging over us just as it did over the men who fought on the awful island during World War II is an inspiration.
Much of the entry here details the attention to detail of the production staff in making this series visually authentic…one viewers won’t soon forget. And that’s good to see, and it’s something Dye has been writing about for the last few weeks…about doing the kind of job that will be memorable in honoring those who fought and died there.
In closing his post, Dye suggests that the setting is as good as they can make it: “Sitting behind the sights of an M-1917A1 water-cooled machinegun or looking over the splatter shield of a 37mm cannon, it’s not hard to believe you are actually on Guadalcanal at that moment in time. And at night, under flare-light, it’s even spookier.”
I feel like a kid at Christmas, though we’ll have to wait until 2008 (or later) to see this on HBO. Read the entire post here.
This week’s image comes from the nearly 100+ on display as part of the “WAVES: Women in the WW2 US Navy” article at ww2db.com. Many of the images are of women at work, and there is a kind of casual “oh hey…taking my picture, huh?!” vibe at work. But there are others that are much more orchestrated, and are meant to show these women as important contributors to the war effort. Many are in color, and are staged quite artfully (and some with a little sex appeal). Check out the whole WAVES set.
So according to the caption, this is Parachute Rigger 3rd Class Myra Jean Clark, who is standing in front of a very interesting set of recruitment posters. I have many of them from my travels on the internet, but have never seem them blown up like they are here, with heavy emphasis on WAVE recruitment and other US Navy themes. I very much like the one in the middle (near the top) with the man in the bow tie showing a picture of this daughter (presumably). I’ve never seen this one.
This has been another entry in theww2db.comFeatured Image partnership. The idea behind this post (and the weekly posts to come) is to highlight ww2db.com’s collection of 3500 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.
I would love to link up to this, but alas. Visit the link above, read the article, and check out the picture. Sadly, there is only one, and it’s not that big. This section of the article caught my eye:
Rocky Point residents yesterday told of waking to the blood-curdling screams of an invasion.
“It’s not too bad,” said local Angela Pringle, who lives just metres from the beachfront film set.
“If I close my windows I can’t hear the bombs or screams or anything,” she said.
Location manager Nick Daubeny said special attention had been paid to details.
“The minute we lose the authenticity, the suspension leaves the viewers and I think that’s what really made Band of Brothers,” he said.
Angela! Get your backside over there with a camera and take some pix and put them up for the rest of us who’d liked to see a little more.
Dale Dye has a new entry as well, dated AUG 18. He writes about the progress of filming:
I had a few General A.A. Vandegrift moments this week when we brought five period LCVPs ashore in an assault line and watched the bow ramps splash down to disgorge about 200 World War Leathernecks. What a rush something like that is for an old Marine warhorse!
Over at the new www.pacificfans.com forum, it looks like there is a cast member from the Pacific War mini-series, now filming in Australia. A gentleman named “schmoopy” posted this updated cast list via imageshack. The direct link to this thread is here.
It’s good to see a Pacific War web site back “on the job.” About two weeks ago, this search term appeared on the stats sheet for this blog.
“the pacific war forum site close”
I’d hadn’t surfed in to the forum of late and wondered, could it really be be gone? And it’s true; it’s gonzo. I’m sure there is some backstory there. I do know this: the new pacificfans.com is run by TexasNick and moderated by MrBassbone, so the same duo who built up old site is building this new site, and it looks like a winner. Check it out.
Just after the recent p-51 crash in Oshkosh, I posted a link to images via Flickr and also to a video of the crash via the the Aero News Network site. Since that video has been posted on youtube, I’ve posted a more direct link to it here.
Again, there is commentary from the creator, a witness interview, and the actual crash.
As I was browsing the ww2db.com image archive late one night, I came across this gem of a 101st Airborne trooper…in color. There are more than a few 101st A/B ww2 images floating around in B/W…so this image caught my eye.
The caption (click on the image) reveals this is Corporal Louis E. Laird, though I couldn’t find much on the web about him beyond the caption here (as his name isn’t listed in the archives via the National WW2 Memorial Registry).
An nara.gov search shows young Laird hailed from Florida and joined the Army on March, 6, 1943, and that his occupation was “MOTORCYCLE MECHANIC or PACKER, HIGH EXPLOSIVES (Munitions worker, ammunition.) or TOOLROOM KEEPER or STOCK CLERK or STOCK CONTROL CLERK.” Caps belong to the web page. So here’s to you, Louis Laird, in that brown M42 jumpsuit and jump (not combat) boots.
Men like Laird would face some tough times, as illustrated by the story of trooper Doug Garrett in the War Stories section of Mark Bando’s excellent 101st A/B Trigger time web site (visit the site and buy his books).
“Finding out in jig time that war was kill or be killed, it took me less than five minutes to find that out. A bullet had hit my reserve chute and felt like being hit in the stomach with a sledge hammer. I then hit the ground and pulled a .45 cal. pistol given to me by my supply sgt cousin in the Air Corps.
While I lay there, gasping, a German came out of the bushes in a dive for my throat with a razor sharp knife. It was his last dive at anybody. That .45 roared like a cannon and he was dead when he landed on top of me. I cussed him out for getting his blood on me, but then thought ‘better his than mine’. I then waded into a flooded area and washed his blood off.
Then I saw 3 gliders come in, with machineguns and artillery following them to the ground. Then mortars took over. Then, I started up a road and a machinegun opened fire at me and I learned how to do the jitterbug faster than any man had ever learned it before or since. How it missed me, I’ll never know. I’m just glad it did.
I only spent five days in Normandy before being seriously wounded, but it was five days of my life that I can never forget.”
This has been another entry in theww2db.comFeatured Image partnership. The idea behind this post (and the weekly posts to come) is to highlight ww2db.com’s collection of 3500 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.
This just in from the NTSB.gov web site. It details the crash of the P-51A in preliminary form. Visit the web site linked here for the report on the P-51D.
NTSB Identification: CHI07FA243A
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Friday, July 27, 2007 in Oshkosh, WI
Aircraft: Beck P-51A, registration: N8082U
Injuries: 1 Fatal, 1 Uninjured.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On July 27, 2007, at 1519 central daylight time, an amateur-built Beck P-51A, Mustang, N8082U, was destroyed during landing approach when it impacted terrain after it collided into the empennage and fuselage of a North American P51-D, Mustang, N151RJ. N151RJ had just landed on runway 36 (8,002 feet by 150 feet, grooved concrete) at the Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and was starting its landing roll when N8082U struck its empennage and fuselage. N8082U was still airborne at the time of the collision, and it rolled over to the right of the aft fuselage of N151RJ and impacted the terrain in a wings level, inverted attitude. The collision with N8082U pushed N151RJ onto its nose, and N151RJ subsequently skidded down the runway and came to rest about 788 feet from the initial impact point. The pilot in N8082U received fatal injuries, and the pilot in N151RJ was not injured. Both Mustang airplanes departed from OSH as part of a five-aircraft air race demonstration event at the EAA AirVenture 2007 air show. The demonstration air race was completed and the five aircraft were in the process of landing separately, and not in formation, on runway 36. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
o ride this wave of interest where ever it takes me.
