The War in View No. 1

"Naval Air Might at Santa Cruz". Oil painting by Robert Benney, circa 1943.

Soldiers of the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Division, resting in a ditch alongside a road on the way to Pabianice, during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

PzKpfw IV medium tank, Poland, September 1939.

PzKpfw IV Ausf C, Poland, 1939.

Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf. D development model, on approach to Warsaw, September 1939.

Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. B, both tracks being repaired, Opatow, Poland, September 1939.

Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. B, Warsaw, September 1939.

German infantry cautiously advance on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland on September 16, 1939.

German soldiers, taken prisoner by the Polish army during the Nazi invasion, are shown while they were held captive in Warsaw, on October 2, 1939.

SdKfz 221 armored car, Poland, 1939.

Adolf Hitler salutes parading troops of the German Wehrmacht in Warsaw, Poland, on October 5, 1939 after the German invasion. Behind Hitler are, from left to right: Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch, Lieutenant General Friedrich von Cochenhausen, Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt, and Colonel General Wilhelm Keitel.

Sherman Firefly tanks of C Squadron, Pretoria Regiment somewhere in Italy in late 1944 during Operation Olive.

German troops reach the sea at Calais, France, 1940.

Panzerkampfwagen III destroyed during the April 1941 attack on the eastern perimeter of Tobruk.

PzKpfw IV medium tank on the road to Tobruk.

The Siegfried Line, somewhere along the German border.

The Siegfried Line at Lichenbuch, Germany.

Constructing “dragon’s teeth” tank traps on the Siegfried Line.

Dragon’s teeth obstacles on the West Wall (Siegfried Line).

Flight Sergeant Wilbert “Turkey” Dodd of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, shot down four enemy fighters in Malta and contributed to other victories.

Personnel of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry advancing past a Sherman tank, Valguarnera, Italy, July 19, 1943.

On the move. Prinz Eugen Division vehicles move across the Balkan Peninsula in late 1944 after completing a very important mission: covering the retreat of over 300,000 German troops of Heeresgruppe E under Generaloberst Alexander Löhr, who were falling back through the Balkan Peninsula from the Aegean. The Division held a vital bridgehead in the Vardar Corridor in Macedonia against the Red Army, Bulgarian forces and Tito’s communist partisans for weeks. After helping to hold the line in the Vardar Corridor, the Division subsequently took part in many rear-guard actions resulting in a long retreat from Čačak all the way to Brčko.

Andrey Vlasov and General Zhilenkov (center) of the Russian Liberation Army meeting with Joseph Goebbels. February 1945.

German troops wait to disembark in Norway.

German troops land in Norway.

German troops in armored railway cars guarding a rail line in Norway.

Norway's rugged terrain did not lend itself to the modern blitzkrieg. A German supply column moves up using an ancient means of transportation.

A column of mules and horses transporting supplies for German forces in Norway, 1940.

Although the surrender of Norway ended systematic fighting, the Germans suffered harassment from Norwegian resistance fighters and Allied commando raids. Some 300,000 German troops were tied up in Norway for the duration of the war.

Ice axes are here seen stuck in the snow on the left, having been used to level off a site for a German MG 34 of a medium machine gun company. This photo dates from the Norwegian campaign of April 1940. This gun is set up in a typical defense position on a ridge commanding a mountain pass. Part of a defense line, only a lookout mans the weapon.

Boeing B-17F “Memphis Belle” crew, 7 May 1943. First to complete 25 missions. Left to right: Harold Loch, top turret gunner, Cecil Scott, ball turret gunner, Robert Hanson, radio operator, Jim Verinis, co-pilot, Robert Morgan, pilot, Chuck Leighton, navigator, John Quinlan, tail gunner, Tony Nastal, right waist gunner, Vince Evans, bombardier, Bill Winchell, left waist gunner.

A pre-war photograph taken in 1939 shows PBY Catalina number 1 from Patrol Squadron 51 in the colorful yellow wings markings. Posed in front of the aircraft is the Governor of Puerto Rico, William P. Leahy.

VADM Patrick Bellinger presides over a ceremony at NAS Norfolk. The PBY Catalina is finished in the Atlantic ASW scheme of Gull Gray over White. Note the asymmetric demarcation of the color separation on the fuselage.

A PBY-5A framed by the twin tails of the aircraft which supplanted, but never entirely replaced the Catalina in service, the Martin PBM Mariner.

Sailors perform engine maintenance at NAS New Orleans. The Catalina is in the graded camouflage scheme and carries the national markings authorized in August 1943.

A PBY Catalina on the ramp displaying her waist gun and rather intricate radio antenna rig.

A Catalina in the RAF Temperate Sea scheme, but this time in U.S. markings at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in August 1942. A number of aircraft on British order were pressed into U.S. service after Pearl Harbor.

A PBY passes by Segula Island in the Aleutians.  While it makes for a visually interesting picture, the ruggedness of the terrain is also apparent.

This PBY illustrates the propensity in the Aleutian Theater to deviate from standard insignia protocols. All the national insignia visible on this aircraft carry the red outline briefly authorized during the Summer of 1943, although by that time the insignia was not supposed to have been carried on the upper surface of the starboard wing.

Another photograph from the Aleutians shows this PBY Catalina moored to a buoy with others visible in the background. Flying boat squadrons could be based in sheltered bays and supported from seaplane tenders, many of which in the US Navy were converted from flush-deck destroyers.

Another photograph showing a PBY over the inhospitable Aleutian terrain. Prior to the Pacific War the U.S. Navy had declared seaplane operations in the Aleutian Winter to be impossible, but wartime requirements soon forced a reassessment.

Crewmen performing engine maintenance on PBY-5A number 8 of VP-31. The spray strake on the bow is clearly visible, as is the search radar aerial on the port wing.

The USAAF operated the Catalina in the search and rescue role, designating their aircraft the OA-10A. This white example displays a USAAF serial on the vertical tail and the streamlined radar housing which first appeared late in the PBY-5A production run.

The USCG also operated the PBY-5A, this example is seen in the Atlantic ASW camouflage scheme of Dark Gull Gray over White parked on the Marston Mat apron in Greenland. Note the Quonset hut buildings in the background are all marked with the U.S. insignia.

A PBY-5A amphibian with its wheels lowered for a shore landing in the late-war camouflage and insignia.

These PBY-5As seen on the ramp at NAS Pensacola display a variety of camouflage and markings. These aircraft are serving in the training role. Of interest is the “V” tape visible on the aileron and wing of the aircraft at the bottom of the photograph, this feature can be seen in pictures of many PBYs.

As part of the complex program that made the U.S. Naval Aviator among the best trained pilots in the world, aviation cadets were given instruction in the use of oxygen and high-altitude flying equipment. Cadets spent many hours in low pressure, low temperature tanks getting used to the sensations of high altitude work. Shown is the Oxygen Indoctrination Unit at the Naval Air Training Center, Pensacola, Florida.

The first shift enters the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, California. Note: Upside down in lower left corner the notation: "10/27/41".

The Black janitors of the plant maintenance department in North American’s Kansas City factory in V-formation as they start out on their daily tasks. February 4, 1942.

Major Daniel M. Lewis looks up at aircraft contrails at Royal Air Force station Steeple Morden, located 3.5 miles west of Royston, Hertfordshire, England. 25 June 1944.

Elevated view of the airfield at Royal Air Force station Steeple Morden, located 3.5 miles west of Royston, Hertfordshire, England. The 355th Fighter Group was stationed there. August 1944.

A woman drills parts for a Vultee Vengeance dive bomber at the Vultee Aircraft Corporation factory in Nashville, Tenn., in February 1943.

The dramatic and tragic scene as the Cunard White Star liner Lancastria was sunk on August 3, 1940. The Lancastria was evacuating British nationals and troops from France, and had boarded as many as possible for the short trip – an estimated 4,000 to 9,000 passengers were aboard. A German Junkers 88 aircraft bombed the ship shortly after it departed, and it sank within twenty minutes. While 2,477 were rescued, an estimated 4,000 others perished by bomb blasts, strafing, drowning, or choking in oil-fouled water. Photo taken from one of the rescue boats as the liner heels over, as men swarm down her sides and swim for safety to the rescue ships. Note the large number of bobbing heads in the water.

The faces of Jewish children living in a ghetto in Szydlowiec, Poland, under Nazi occupation, on December 20, 1940.

A German Army officer lecturers children in a ghetto in Lublin, German-occupied Poland, on December 1940, telling them “Don’t forget to wash every day.”

Māori soldiers from New Zealand perform a traditional war cry known as a haka in Helwan, Egypt, June 1941.

When the wreckage of Japanese planes was cleared from this airfield on Tinian, a Marine Curtiss C-46 Commando transport landed with a cargo of supplies and prepared to evacuate wounded Leathernecks. The battered Nakajima C6N1 “Myrt” in the foreground was a victim of the pre-invasion bombardment.

Strafed on the ground, a Nakajima Ki.43-II Hayabusa of the 13th Fighter-Attack Sentai lies derelict on Tadji airstrip, three miles south of Aitape, in April 1944.

A N1K1 floatplane caught by the gun camera of a plane from the USS Bunker Hill.

Mitsubishi Ki.51 Type 99 light bomber/dive bomber (Allied code name "Sonia"), 44th Sentai, China.

L2D “Tabby”, a Japanese-built version of the DC-3, shot down by a B-24 of the 380th Bomb Group, over Kolara, Celebes, 20 August 1943. It was reportedly carrying a Japanese general.

Japanese paratroopers move along a flight line of Nakajima Ki.34 “Thora” transports which they are about to board for a training jump.

A destroyed Kawanishi N1K1-J at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, May 1945. Marines are using the shell hole in the foreground for bathing.

Japanese paratroopers loading into a Kawasaki Ki.56 “Thalia.”

Japanese paratroopers inside their Ki.56 transport ready for a jump.

Japanese paratrooper exits the Ki.56 transport during a jump. Most likely the photo was taken while the plane was still on the ground as this would be a nearly impossible shot to get in the air.

D3A2 (“Val”) of the 553rd Naval Air Corps, piloted by Lt. H. Abe, flying over southern Kyushu, 31 March 1944. The younger pilots of the JNAF disliked the D3A2 because of its slow speed and vulnerability.

A D3A2 taking off from one of the four airfields at Rabaul in 1943. The bomb carried under the port wing is noticeable.

A D3A2 outward bound for Guadalcanal, in early 1943, with a 250 kilogram bomb under the fuselage.

A line-up of D3A2s at the Misawa Air Base, in Japan’s northern Honshu, at the end of the Pacific war. Photograph taken on 20 October 1945. Propellers have been removed to prevent their being flown.

Mitsubishi A5M2b. The Mitsubishi A5M single-seat shipboard fighter was the first fighter monoplane to be used by the Japanese Naval Air Force. It was first flown in February 1935, saw considerable service in China in the late 1930s, and was still standard carrier equipment when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. It had a speed of 273 miles per hour and was powered by a 710 horsepower engine. It was armed with two 7.7mm machine guns. It was given the Allied code name “Claude.”

Ki-84, 2nd Chutai, 47th Sentai, Home Defense, 1945.

 

Ki-84, 1st Sentai, Philippines, 1945.

Two U.S.-captured Kugisho MXY7-K2 catapult trainers for the Ohka 43B Cherry Blossom bombers, resting on sawhorses, likely Yokosuka, Japan (near Tokyo), probably circa late 1945.

Japanese aircraft featured very little embellished art during the war, until late in the conflict when AAF units in particular had unit flashes applied to the rear fuselage and vertical tail surfaces. This Dinah reconnaissance aircraft, shot down by 14th AF fighters over China, exhibits a large, stylized tiger.

A Betty bomber carrying a rocket-powered Ohka piloted bomb awaits as the bomber’s crew relaxes just prior to the start of a kamikaze mission.

The Mitsubishi J8M1 “Swinging Sword” prototype. At an early stage the Japanese showed great interest in the “Komet.” Negotiations for its production in Japan resulted in the dispatch of a pattern airframe to that country, but this was lost when the submarine carrying it was sunk. Nothing daunted, and armed with nothing more than a engineering manual and a sample Walter motor, the Japanese set to work with a design loosely based on the Me 163. The J8M1 made its first flight in July 1945, only to suffer an engine failure and crash.

Mitsubishi Ki.21 “Sally” bombers approach Corregidor from the Bataan Peninsula in the north.

Troops of the U.S. 158th Regimental Combat Team examine a wrecked Japanese “Sally” bomber, Kamiri Airfield, Noemfoor Island, July 1944.

Mitsubishi Type 97 “Ann” light bombers of the 16th Sentai on their way for another raid on Bataan, 3 March 1942.

Nakajima B5N2 Kates on their way to attack Pearl Harbor.

British destroyers race through the Straits of Gibraltar, the western gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. In the foreground is a battleship, while above a Fleet Air Arm seaplane surveys the far horizon.

Germans captured a Russian guerrilla, disguised as a woman, who was dropped by parachute behind the German lines on the Novorossisk front.

Waffen-SS mountain troops in north Italy in late 1944. The men of this MG 42 team are wearing a fall/winter mottle camouflage smock of regulation pattern. The gunner wears the gebirgsmütze (mountain cap) while the others wear the camouflaged version of the einheitsmütze forage cap. Nearest man has rolled up zeltbahn (camouflage poncho).

German field artillery bombarding Calais.

Left to right: Air Marshal Arthur W. Tedder, RAF, Brigadier General Strickland, USAAF, and Air Vice-Marshal Cunningham, RAF, Libya.

A U.S. soldier inspects thousands of gold wedding bands taken from Jews by the Germans and stashed in the Heilbronn Salt Mines, on May 3, 1945 in Germany.

The Imperial Japanese Navy's heavy cruiser Furutaka is refueling from the tanker Tsurumi. 1935.

Furutaka at anchor off Shinagawa, Japan, on 4-10 October 1935. The three bands painted on her after smokestack signify that she is the third ship of the 6th Sentai (squadron). The cruisers Aoba and Kinugasa, also members of Sentai 6, are in the left distance.

Heavy cruiser Furutaka with heavy cruiser Kinugasa in background. According to installation of degaussing cables, three white stripes on forward funnel and two E7K2 on board this picture should be taken in early November 1941. Note the main gun fire command room and rangefinder room installed on the top of the bridge.

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Duncan (DD-485) underway in the South Pacific on 7 October 1942, five days before she was sunk in the Battle of Cape Esperance. The photo was taken from the escort carrier USS Copahee (ACV-12), which was then engaged in delivering aircraft to Guadalcanal. Duncan dueled and won against the Furutaka. She launched at her two volleys of torpedoes. Some allegedly hit but failed to explode of the first volley. The second was more successful and stopped the cruiser dead in the water. In between she rained down some ninety 5-in HE hells on her, one or two hitting the torpedo tubes banks and setting her ablaze.

Two Luftwaffe sergeants wearing the summer flying suits with a 9mm Luger on their belt are helping each other to secure the parachute prior to a flight over the English Channel, early 1940.

A member of the Luftwaffe exchanges gifts with a native in North Africa, 1941.

Luftwaffe radio operators.

Luftwaffenhelferin (air force helper).

The Poles' reputation for gallantry towards women became so famous that some British pilots pretended to be Polish. Collier's Weekly published a supposedly successful pickup line devised by one of the RAF pilots: 'I am a Polish aviator. Please have a drink with me. I am very lonely'. Wing Commander Tadeusz Sawicz of the 3rd Polish Fighter Wing is photographed here with his bride, Mrs Diana Hughes, after their wedding at Corpus Christi Church on Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London on 24 August 1944. (Imperial War Museum)

General Wladyslaw Sikorski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, inspects Polish airmen during their training in France, 15 April 1940. (Imperial War Museum)

Portrait of Flying Officer Antoni 'Tony' Glowacki, who shot down five enemy planes in one day on 24 August 1940 while in service with No. 501 Fighter Squadron RAF. At the time this photograph was taken, 13 April 1943, he was serving with No. 308 (Polish) Fighter Squadron. (Imperial War Museum)

Portrait of Sergeant Josef Frantisek, the Czech fighter ace who served with No. 303 Fighter Squadron and was the highest scoring pilot of the Battle of Britain. He is credited with 17 confirmed kills and 1 probable. (Imperial War Museum)

The first four Polish recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross of No. 303 Fighter Squadron wear their awards after a presentation ceremony by Air Marshal Sholto Douglas at Leconfield, 15 December 1940. Left to right are: Flying Officer Witold Urbanowicz, Pilot Officer Jan Zumbach, Pilot Officer Miroslaw Feric and Flying Officer Zdzislaw Henneberg. (Imperial War Museum)

Pilots of No. 303 Fighter Squadron rest in front of a dispersal hut at RAF Northold in September 1940. From left are: Pilot Officer Witold 'Tolo' Lokuciewski (leaning on the chair); Flight Lieutenant Witold Urbanowicz (seated in the chair in the foreground); Zygmunt Wodecki, the squadron doctor (in a dark uniform); Sergeant Josef Frantisek (in the back, face partially covered); Flight Lieutenant John Kent; Flying Officer Ludwik Paszkiewicz. (Imperial War Museum)