The War in View

A selection of images covering a wide range of topics on the war.

US Army recruitment poster for Japanese-Americans in Hawaii (1944).

Map showing the various POW camps in Germany during the Second World War. Officers and other ranks were sent to separate Oflag and Stalag camps, respectively.

Fokker C.XI-W of the Royal Netherlands Navy with unidentified Dutch warship.

Two examples of Britain’s war forces, a soldier in battle dress and a bearded Canadian sailor share a light at an English port, on January 14, 1941.

A German frogman, captured while swimming with others along the Rhine River near Remagen, in an attempt to destroy the bridges of the First US Army. Captured by the men of the 164th US Engineer Battalion, Kripp, Germany, March 18, 1945.

German loot, gold and artwork from Berlin that was discovered by the American 90th Division of the Third Army. As Allied bombing increased over Berlin, the SS transferred reserves of gold, valuables and museum paintings by rail from Berlin to a salt mine in Merkers, Germany. Photo taken in 1945.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, flanked by Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson (left) and ambassador to Mexico (and former Secretary of the Navy) Josephus Daniels during the 1934 Presidential Fleet Review in New York.

Australian troops — equipped with US jeeps, trucks, and other vehicles — storm ashore from landing craft in the first assault wave to hit Balikpapan. Picture taken by Coast Guard Combat Photographer James L. Lonergan. Balikpapan, July 1945.

Troops wading ashore from an LCI(L) on Queen beach, Sword area, 6 June 1944.

Commandos of 47 (RM) Commando coming ashore from LCAs (Landing Craft Assault) on Jig Green beach, Gold area, 6 June 1944. LCTs can be seen in the background unloading priority vehicles for 231st Brigade, 50th Division.

Disembarkation of men and equipment from a landing ship, Salerno, September 1943. The Allies landed at Salerno, south of Naples, on 9 September 1943. Although the Italians had already signed an armistice, the Germans had moved south to replace them and met the assault with determined resistance. At one stage the spirited German counter-attacks imperiled the Allies' hold on their beachhead, but they held out and by 16 September were able to advance inland, capturing Naples on 30 September.

128th Seabee band during broadcast from CINPAC auditorium, 9 July 1945.

USS Lunga Point (CVE 94). Passengers and freight on board for New Guinea on shakedown cruise.

Admiral Jean Darlan, French Navy.

Admiral Darlan, General Eisenhower, Sir Andrew Cunningham and General Giraud (left to right) in North Africa.

High Allied officials surround the coffin of Admiral Darlan, assassinated on 24 December 1942.

Alain Darlan, son of Adm. Jean Darlan.

Royal Marines form an honor guard aboard HMS Prince of Wales to welcome FDR aboard (upper right) for Sunday services during the Atlantic Conference, 10 August 1941.

While the Royal Marine detachments in battleships, aircraft carriers and cruisers shared the many duties with the seamen, they were always ready to fulfill their special function of landing as an infantry force. Here they are seen on their own messdeck, which they call “The Barracks.”

Another view of Royal Marines on their messdeck.

Where enemy forces may be met, Royal Marines lived by their guns, as in the gunhouse of a 6-inch turret as shown here.

The Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS York (90) and the tanker Pericles , both damaged, at Souda Bay, Crete, in May 1941. A Short Sunderland flying boat is landing between them.

HMS Howe under attack from Japanese aircraft, torpedo-armed Vals by artist Terence Tenison Cuneo.

The Little Ships at Dunkirk: June 1940, by Norman Wilkinson. The gently shelving beaches meant that large warships could only pick up soldiers from the town’s East Mole, a sea wall which extended into deep water, or send their boats on the beaches to collect them. To speed up the process, the British Admiralty appealed to the owners of small boats for help. These became known as the ‘little ships’.

French and British troops on board ships berthing at Dover, 31 May 1940.

Sea Hurricane and Martlet fighters with Swordfish torpedo bombers on the deck of a British aircraft carrier escorting a Malta convoy.

Five Royal Navy Hawker Sea Hurricanes and a single Supermarine Seafire lined up in the hangar of HMS Argus (I49), with several mechanics working on them.

Suicide attack aftermath. June 1945, on board a British Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier after it had been attacked by Japanese suicide planes during operations in the Pacific. Heap of twisted metal from wrecked naval aircraft on the flight deck after the attack.

Suicide attack aftermath. June 1945, on board a British Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier after it had been attacked by Japanese suicide planes during operations in the Pacific. Firefighters of the carrier spraying the smoldering wreckage of an aircraft on the flight deck after the attack.

The War at Sea in View

USS S-25 (SS-130, the future Polish ORP Jastrząb).

USS S-25 (SS-130, the future Polish ORP Jastrząb).

USS S-25 (SS-130, the future Polish ORP Jastrząb).

USS S-25 (SS-130, the future Polish ORP Jastrząb), Boston shipyard.

Submarine V-3 bow close-up, 11 April 1929. Renamed Bonita in 1931, decommissioned in 1937, and only the imminence of World War II provided a reprieve, in preparation for which she was recommissioned in September 1940.

The Tambor departs San Francisco in December 1943, a month before her fateful tenth war patrol.

USS San Francisco in middle distance.

USS Indiana delivers some 16-inch shells to a manufacturing facility north of Tokyo. Behind her, barely visible, is the Massachusetts, and to the left is a Baltimore class cruiser.

Aerial view of ex-USS Independence at anchor in San Francisco Bay, California, January 1951. There is visible damage from the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.

USS Texas memorial.

USS Lexington (CV-2), top; USS Saratoga (CV-3), with her distinctive funnel stripe; and USS Langley (CV-1) , across the pier from Saratoga. Bremerton, Washington, 11 November 1929.

USS Langley CV-1 in Pearl Harbor, May 1928.

Planes in USS Langley's hangar during the 1920s. The larger plane in the foreground is a Douglas DT torpedo bomber, with its wings removed. Other aircraft are Vought VE-7s of Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2), including Bureau Nos A5936 (marked '2-F-9') and A5938 (marked '2-F-8'). The ship's boats are stowed along the hangar sides.

USS Astoria CA-34 heavy cruiser, Pearl Harbor.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) in 1944. The destroyer escort was laid down in Texas in December 1943 and named for coxswain Samuel B. Roberts, who received the Navy Cross posthumously for his actions at Guadalcanal. In June 2022, the Navy confirmed the discovery of the wreckage site the destroyer escort, which sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Despite having half as many guns as destroyers, less than a third as many torpedoes and slower, the John C. Butler-class ship known as “Sammie B.” engaged three Japanese battleships, including Yamato, and two Japanese heavy cruisers. These actions during the Battle of Samar by the much smaller American ships successfully protected the U.S. invasion force in its landings at Leyte Gulf against the counter-attacking Japanese fleet. Eighty-nine crew members of Samuel B. Roberts died in the battle. Its commander, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Copeland, said 120 men were rescued. The Battle of Samar, was the last phase of the naval combat in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Leyte Gulf is often considered the largest naval engagement in history. The destroyer escort’s wreckage was discovered at 6,895 meters by Victor Vescovo and his underwater technology company Caladan Oceanic and EYOS Expeditions.

USS Ranger CV-4, the first ship built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier.

The Missouri (BB-63) transfers crew to her sister Iowa (BB-61) in the foreground for a landing party in Japan on 20 August 1945.

Unidentified transport sinking, probably off the coast of Africa, circa 1943.

U.S. Navy fleet, Kerama Rotto, Okinawa, April 1945

June 4, 1942: The U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown, left, and the other fighting ships of a United States task force in the Pacific, throw up an umbrella of anti-aircraft fire to beat off a squadron of Japanese torpedo planes attacking the carrier during the battle of Midway.

The USS Yorktown is hit on the port side by a torpedo launched from a plane off the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu during the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942.

USS Washington under construction, 1921.

USS Washington (BB-47). Launching, at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, Camden, New Jersey, 1 September 1921. Photographed by the Aero Service Corporation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. USS Colorado (BB-45) is fitting out in the wet basin at the end of the covered shipways building. The two 535-foot passenger liners fitting out in the upper left are S.S. Southern Cross (later USS Wharton, AP-7) and S.S. Hoosier State. Washington's construction ceased in February 1922, under the terms of the Naval Limitations Treaty, and she was sunk as a target in 1924.

A freighter sails past the USS Washington (BB-47), as she lies in her berth next to a steamer, Camden, New Jersey, September 30, 1921.

USS Washington (BB-47). (BB-47) Fitting out at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, Camden, New Jersey, circa late 1921 or early 1922. This photograph was released by the International news photo service, of New York City, with text dated 17 February 1922 concerning the possible cancellation of the ship's construction under the terms of the recently-concluded Washington Naval Limitations Treaty.

The USS Washington (BB-47), photographed from the South Yard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, on 5 April 1922. Her construction had been suspended some two months previously, under the terms of the Washington Naval Limitations treaty.

USS Washington during construction after launching. Photographed from the South Yard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, on 5 April 1922. Her construction had been suspended some two months previously, under the terms of the Washington naval limitations treaty.

Incomplete hulk of the Washington (BB-47) being towed out to sea. Among the many not completed features, note the partially completed cage mast.

USS Washington (BB-47) being struck by a salvo on 26 November 1924.

A salvo from the battleship New York (BB-34) strikes the Washington (BB-47) on her starboard side while the ship was used as a target off Virginia Capes, Virginia, 26 November 1924. The battleship Texas (BB-35) is in the background.

The uncompleted USS Washington being sunk by gunfire off the Virginia Capes, 25 November 1924.

Final moments of Washington (BB-47) on 26 November 1924. The battleship New York (BB-34) is in the background.

Lt. Cmdr. Manning M. Kimmel, USN, son of Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, in a photograph taken circa 1943. He was commanding officer of USS Robalo (SS-273) and was lost with her in July 1944.

U.S. landing ship tanks are seen from above as they pour military equipment onto the shores of Leyte island, to support invading forces in the Philippines. November 1944.

Two Coast Guard-manned landing ships open their jaws as U.S. soldiers line up to build sandbag piers out to the ramps, on Leyte island, Philippines. November 1944.

U.S. Marines come ashore from the mouth of a Coast Guard manned LST, during the invasion of New Britain Island, at Cape Gloucester. January 1944.

USS Tills (DE-748), San Pedro, California,  11 October 1944.

USS Hoel (DD-533) a Fletcher class destroyer in 1943. In San Francisco Bay, California, 25 October 1943, after post-completion alterations.

USS Jenkins (DD-447) a Fletcher class destroyer, 1943.

USS Johnston (DD-557) a Fletcher-class destroyer on 27 October 1943.

The Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942.

USS Langley (CV1) the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, converted from a collier.

Crew of USS Snook holding up the submarine's scorecard, Midway, 7 Dec 1943.

BM 3rd Class Donald O. Smith at the conning tower of USS Wahoo, Midway Atoll, 6 Apr 1943.