WW2db.com Featured Image, #6

Has it been nearly a month since my last featured image? Indeed it has.

So I wanted to jump back in with something I’ve seen around and this image fit the bill. It comes from Tarawa early in the war and shows just how far the Marines (and others) had to go before the war would end. But there is humor, too.

“Why the hell do you care? You ain’t going there.”

The image is part of a larger image set accompanying the Gilbert Island Campaign event description over at ww2db.com.

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 4000 plus photos, many culled from the National Archives, Library of Congress, the US Naval Historical Center, and other research institutions.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #5

The P-51…lots of interest here lately, given the air show tragedy at Oshkosh.
Reviewing the archive over at the ww2db.com preparing for this entry, there were a few notable pictures, but none as artistic looking as this, with the framing (man on right directing the aircraft as it prepares to take off).

The caption there reads “P-51 Mustang fighter ‘My Girl’ taking off from Iwo Jima, 1945.” I’ve seen this one around the web some, and there are probably better pictures of the p-51 out there, but to me, the way this one looks separates it from the crowd of ww2 flight pictures. When you click the link, be prepared to scroll around a little. It is archived in large form.

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.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #4

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.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #3

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 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.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #2

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 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.

ww2db.com Featured Image, #1

The ww2file is pleased to announce 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.

Okay, so here we go. When I first saw this image (Hellcat Diver, Jan 1945) , it was in the middle of a fat picture book, highlighting the work of a naval photography unit. The strength of that book was that there was common thread among the photographs, not only of the equipment (like this aircraft) but also of the closeness of the men on those ships.

The photo itself…wow. Perhaps it was the scale in the book, maybe even the sharp turn the pilots are making, or maybe it’s the angle of decent toward the carrier. There is just something dramatic about it. Very often in war ariel photography, the lines are straight, either looking at other planes or ships in the distance. Here, everything is in one tight frame and the line of sight is bending down.

Back then, I was working at a job where one of my primary functions was to mess with photoshop, so I scanned this baby at the highest res I could get and just studied it. Magnifying the image beyond 100% revealed a good deal about those specs on the carrier’s deck and towers. It’s an exercise I suggest to anyone, if you have the time.