WW II Historical Thread, Discussion, Pics, Videos

[Miragedriver]

D Day plus one. On the shingle of Omaha Beach Dog White sector, at Saint-Laurent sur Mer, Normandy.

"I managed to find one reference to this photo on a French web site and I sent a scan of it to Joseph Balkoski author of 'Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944'. He concurred on the location and possible date. What I find interesting is the fact that there are so few people around. Must have been right before the big surge of troops onto shore.

This photo would be the spot that General Cota rallied the troops and led the attack off the beach. At 07:50, C/116 led the charge off of Dog White, between WN-68 and WN-70, by forcing gaps in the wire with a Bangalore torpedo and wire cutters. 20 minutes later, the 5th Rangers joined the advance, and blew more openings. The command party established themselves at the top of the bluff, and elements of G/116 and H/116 joined them, having earlier moved laterally along the beach, and now the narrow front had widened to the east. Before 09:00, small parties from F/116 and B/116 reached the crests just east of Dog White. The right flank of this penetration was covered by the survivors of the 2nd Rangers’ A and B companies, who had independently fought their way to the top between 08:00 and 08:30. They took WN-70 (already heavily damaged by naval shells), and joined the 5th Rangers for the move inland. By 09:00 more than 600 American troops, in groups ranging from company sized to just a few men, had reached the top of the bluff opposite Dog White and were advancing inland
This picture is from a 2 ½ by 2 ½ inch black and white negative most likely taken by an Army Signal Corps Photographer. Apparently the photographer liked it enough to bring it home. I purchased it a couple of years ago."

(Additional notes from 'PhotosNormandie' - "Des marins américains se tiennent sur des galets devant un muret, probablement à Dog White, vers le 7 juin 1944.
A Omaha, les 6 th et 7th U.S. Naval Beach Battalion (NBB) avec les 5th et 6th Engineer Special Brigade (ESB) sous les ordres du Brigadier General William M. Hoge formaient la Task Force 124.2 'Shore Party'.")

(Image and Caption supplied by and Colorized by Dave Ford from Ohio, USA)


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[Miragedriver]

Close port-side view of a CAC CA-13 Boomerang fighter aircraft, serial no. A46-128, of No. 5 (Tactical Reconnaissance) Squadron RAAF, piloted by 407056 Flight Lieutenant Donald Howard Goode of Port Pirie, South Australia.
The aircraft is coded BF-N with the nicknamed "U-Beaut 2" and is flying from Mareeba, Queensland.
18th of March 1944.

(Australian War Memorial image NEA0414)

No. 4 Squadron and No. 5 Squadron flew Boomerangs in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands Campaign and Borneo Campaign, also in the close support role, with marked success. Flying in pairs (one to observe the ground, the other to observe the air around them), their tasks included bombing, strafing, close infantry support and artillery spotting. When attacking larger enemy formations Boomerangs often operated in conjunction with larger aircraft. In this role the Boomerang would get in close to confirm the identity of the target and mark it with a 20 lb (9 kg) smoke bomb with the "cooperating" aircraft delivering the major ordnance from a safer distance. A partnership between 5 Sqn Boomerangs and Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsair fighter bombers during the Bougainville Campaign was said to be particularly effective.


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[Miragedriver]

Public humiliation of a Polish man and a German woman -head shaved by the police, accused of a degenerate affair are tied to a pole in the central square of Eisenach, Thüringen, Germany. 1940. The poster reads: "I am a defiler of the race" ...

Jewish women are conducted under arrest in the streets of Budapest by members of the Nyilaskeresztes Párt, the Hungarian Nazi pertido Red Arrow ...

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[Miragedriver]

Italian soldiers of the Milizia Volontaria Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN, watch the front during the siege of Tobruk, Butnan district, Libya. September 1941 ...

A member of the Hitlerjugend (center) and two youth Gioventù Italiana del Littorio chatting amicably during a fascist rally in Padua, Veneto region, Italy, during the Italo-German bilateral celebrations for actions in North Africa and the Mediterranean...

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[Miragedriver]

Belgian civilians of German blood receive Reich troops as liberators, for the precipitous decline of the Allied lines in the Blitzkrieg of 1940 ...

Girls of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, celebrating in Vienna, Austria the passage of the Nazi troops during the Anschluss Österreichs ...

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[Miragedriver]

Some pictures of the Bismark

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[Miragedriver]

Infantry soldiers and US armoured vehicles of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division come down the Rue Saint Michel in the village of Lonlay l’abbaye, Normandy.
On the 14th of August 1944.

Throughout the first half of August, 1944, the Division held its ground on the north and south flanks of the German thrust and by steady pressure drove the enemy back, aiding materially in the eventual closing the Falaise gap. Co. H., 41st Armored Infantry Regiment held a hill east of Mortain for five rugged days and nights, driving back repeated enemy counterattacks. Co. H, 41st Inf. also received the Presidential Citation for its valiant stand in this engagement. CC"A" pushed from the Vire area toward Flers and rejoined the Division in the Domfont area.

(Colorized by Royston Leonard UK)


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[Miragedriver]

Bell P-400 Aircobra "Sun Setter", 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th FG., Fifth US Airforce at Milne Bay, New Guinea.
September 1942 - February 1943.

The P-400 was an unusual design: a 20mm cannon fired through the propeller hub in the nose: the engine was located behind the cockpit and it featured a tricycle landing gear. The central location of the heavy Allison V-1710 engine helped to stabilise the plane.

Standing on the wing is Captain Philip Rasmussen.

On the morning of 7th of December 1941, as a Second Lieutenant of the 46th Pursuit Squadron based at Wheeler Field on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, he was one of the few pilots to get off the ground during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was awakened by the air-raid, and ran from the officers mess strapping on his .45 Colt, clad only in his purple silk pyjamas, he jumped into a surviving Curtiss P-36 Hawk and taxied to a revetment at the edge of the airfield, where he joined three other pilots also preparing undamaged P-36 fighters. The pilots took off under fire, and were directed by radio toward Kaneohe Bay where they engaged 11 Japanese fighters in battle.
After shooting down one Japanese aircraft, Rasmussen was attacked by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. Gunfire and 20mm cannon shells shattered the canopy, destroyed the radio and severed the P-36's hydraulic lines and rudder cable. Rasmussen sought refuge in nearby cloud cover and began flying back toward Wheeler Field. He landed the P-36 without brakes, rudder or tailwheel, and with more than 500 bullet holes.

Major Rasmussen would go on to fly P47s over the Pacific earning Oak leaf clusters to his Silver Star (awarded at Wheeler Field), and continue serving with the air-force until retiring in 1965 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Sadly Philip M, Rasmussen passed away on April 30th 2005.

(Colorized by Leo Determann from the Netherlands)


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[Jeff Head]

The mammoth Japanese battleship, Musashi (foreground) second of the two Yamato class battleships.



She displaced 74,000 tons full load, and had a main armament of nine 18.1 inch guns, the largest naval guns ever installed on any vessel..

On October 24, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf (the largest modern naval battle in history), Musashi was sunk by carrier aircraft from a total of four or five carriers.


Above, Musashi under attack in the Battle of Leyte Gulf

Over a period five hours, from 10:30 AM until 3:30 PM, and during five attacks by a total of 91 aircraft she took the following amazing punishment:

25 bomb hits from 500 and 1,000 lb bombs.
21 Torpedo hits.

She finally sank at about 7:30 PM.

Her guns shot down a total of ten US aircraft. Of her 2,400 man crew, 1,379 survived.

Tomorrow, I will relate how Musashi's sister ship, the Yamato, met her fate. Yamato was with Musashi during the battle mentioned above, but was not sunk. Yamato went on to fight in the battle off Samar the next day, and retired successfully from that fight.

 

[Jeff Head]

On April 7, 1945, five and one half months after the Battle of Leyte Gulf where her sister ship, Musashi met her fate, the battleship Yamato met hers.



The largest battleships ever built, with the largest main armaments ever deployed at sea, Yamato also displaced 74,000 tons full load. She was part of the Japanese operation Ten-Go at the time, which was an operation where the Japanese fleet dispatched Yamato and her escorts (the cruise Yahagi and eight destroyers), to the Island of Okinawa in the hopes of attacking and breaking up the huge US Navy and allied fleet and landing operation there.

The Imperial Battle fleet was vastly reuced from just six months earlier when they had tried to disrupt the landings in the Philippines at Leyte...but they were also much closer to the home islands.

Rather than use the Imperial Japanese carriers (which had very few aircraft at the time) to act as a diversion as they had done at Leyte, the Japanese staff were sending hundreds of Kamikaze aircraft to attack the American fleet.

The Yamato was sent on essentially the ultimate kamikaze mission, She only had enough fuel to reach the battle zone and engage, but not enough to return home.

But the US Navy knew the Yamato and her escorts were coming and they devised a plan, with a backup, to ensure she never got there.

The US had fifteen aircraft carriers employed around Okinawa. They dispatched a half dozen of them to specifically deal with Yamato. If Yamato somehow got through that aerial bombardment gauntlet, the US Navy also had the following dedicated force waiting to intercept her and deal with her and her escorts.

6 x Battleships
7 x Cruisers
12 x destroyers

As t turned out, the large surface force was not needed.

Beginning at 12:30 PM on April 7th, a force of 240 aircraft from the American carriers began attacking the Yamato and her escorts. Four waves came over a two hour period.



These waves were larger, closer spaced, and used a little different tactics than the attacks that had taken down the Musashi five and one half months earlier. They had learned from that experience and knew where Yamato was vulnerable.

The Yamato received:

9 x 500 and 1,000 lb bomb strikes
13 torpedo strikes

This sealed her fate. As she rolled over after the final attacks after 7 PM, one of her magazines exploded and she went to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.



3,055 of her 3,332 crew perished.

It was already well known by this time, but these events punctuated the very detailed and organized bombing tests and opinions of Billy Mitchell, that he made in July 1921, with the battleship, Ostfriesland. where US Army aircraft sank the battleship in 22 minutes of aerial attack with 1,100 lb and 2,000 lb bombs scoring there hits and four near misses.

This demonstrated the capabilities of aerial attack against capitol ship and led to the building of US aircraft carriers which became the principle weapon in surface engagements throughout World War II in the Pacific.