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Un P-38
La Segunda Guerra Mundial en Color
- Tema iniciado Rober D
- Fecha de inicio
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Un Wellington
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Un B-17
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A Sherman tank of the British 11th Armoured Division stands guard at the crossroads as a Loyd carrier towing a 6-pdr anti-tank gun passes by into Rue de Caen in Martin-des-Besaces, Lower Normandy.
31st of July 1944.
'Operation Bluecoat'
Monday, the 31st of July
"At dawn the tanks of the 1st and 3rd Squadrons of the Coldstream Guards return to the top of the Hill 309. The 2nd squadron covers the left flank. At 0530 a heavy artillery bombing hits the hill lasting half an hour. At 0600, grenadiers from Panzer-Division 21 appear in the village of La Ferriere-au-Doyen on the northeast of the hill. Panzer engines can be heard from the woods at the east, Le bois du Homme. At 0645, the German units attack the positions of the Seaforths and Glasgow Highlanders. This first attack fails as also a second attack with the support of panzers. All day long, the "Coldstream Hill" will be under constant German bombing.
While the 6th Guards Armoured Independent Brigade and the 15th Scottish Infantry Division defend the hills 309 and 226, the 11th Armoured Division continued its advance and near 1200, the village of St-Martin-des-Besaces was captured. At the same time, the C squadron the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment accomplished a daring raid, deeply between the border lines of two German army corps, the II Fallschirmjager Korps (west) and the LXXXIV Armee Korps (east). Leading the advance, a troop under command of Lt D. Powle with armored vehicles reached a bridge crossing of the deeply embanked river Souleuvre. The single German sentry is neutralized. At 1030, and then at 1035 the squadron commander sends a message to his HQ : "Bridge 637436 is free of enemy and totally undamaged".
General Roberts commander of the 11th Armoured Division, unhesitatingly sends tanks of the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry to support the C squadron. The bridge captured, the 11th Armored Division can advance now. On the left flank, the Guards Armored Division covers the progression."
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'Lightning Recon'
28th Photo Recon – In front of one of their first photo reconnaissance planes in the Marianas Islands.
These six 7th AaF Lightning pilots indicate the 12-foot stack which the 17,170 prints from their pre-invasion photographs of Iwo Jima would make if assembled in one heap. Flying l,600 miles per round trip in their unarmed Lightnings to race across Iwo Jima 50 feet above Jap gun muzzles, these pilots took pictures for Army, Navy and Marine units planning the invasion of Iwo Jima.
L. to R. on grounds 2nd_Lt. Floy Portor, Memphis, Tenn.; lst Lt. Lloyd Q. Mettes, Atlanta, Mo.; 2nd Marshall E. Mullens Omaha, Nebr.; and lst Lt. Alfred A. Wooton, Buckeye, Ariz. On shoulders; Capt. Bennie P. Bearden, Decatur, Texas. On nose; 1st Lt. Leo F. Wilkinson, Oxford, Ind.
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'Privates on Parade'
Date and place of this scene are unknown but the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-1940 is one possibility. 3rd Infantry Division posted a provisional company from 30th Infantry (“San Francisco’s Own”) at the Exposition venue on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in 1939, where it was billeted at Camp Hunter Liggett (perhaps the tents shown behind the corporal). The “Treasure Island Company” in 1940 included troops from other Ninth Corps units as well as from 30th Infantry. The 1935-1936 California Pacific Exposition in San Diego is another possibility. Third Division sent a unit of some 164 30th Infantry soldiers and bandsmen to this event.
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'Bombs Away'
Bombs from U.S. Army 7th Air Force planes are seen here about to fall on Iwo Jima. Although tiny, the island is the only major airbase between the Marianas and Japan. It is the last air barrier before the home islands, guarding the south-eastern approach to the Empire.
On the 16th February 1945 Marine Brigadier General William W. Rogers held a press conference on the command ship USS Eldorado, telling those present that the coming invasion of Iwo Jima would take five days. Strong fighting on the beaches was expected followed by counter-attacks at night – suicidal Banzai charges. But once the initial resistance was over they could take the island quickly. There were reasons to believe that the Japanese forces on Iwo Jima were seriously weakened, they had been subject to bombing since mid 1944, and they had been bombed every single day for the past 74 days, with a total of 6,800 tons of bombs. In addition there had been periodic, intense, naval bombardments, which started again on the 16th. It seemed hard to believe that anything could survive on the island after this plastering – but the raids had served to encourage the Japanese in their new strategy of moving underground and
for the invasion troops to come to them.---------------------------------
Takahashi Toshiharu was a corporal in the Japanese First Mixed Brigade of Engineers, responsible for building some of the eleven miles of tunnels and underground bunkers on the island:
"The guns that were trained on the island all spurted fire at the same time. On the island there was a huge earthquake. There were pillars of fire that looked as if they would touch the sky.
Black smoke covered the island, and shrapnel was flying all over the place with a shrieking sound. Trees with trunks one meter across were blown out of the ground, roots uppermost.
The sound was deafening, as terrible as a couple of hundred thunderclaps coming down at once.
Even in a cave thirty meters underground, my body was jerked up off the ground. It was hell on earth.
…
Next, large planes—many tens of them—came all together. They made a deep rumbling sound as they came. They were silver. Once over the island they dropped one-ton bombs — terrifying things. The sound they made as they fell, one after another, was terrifying. A timid man would go insane.
They made a whistling sound as they fell. Then the earth shook. There were explosions. Rocks, earth, and sand all flew up into the air. Then they fell back down. They made craters ten meters wide and five meters deep in the earth.
No one could survive in these conditions. Any Japanese soldiers, like the runners who went outside, were all killed. The only option was to take advantage of the night and go out then."
Colourised by Paul Reynolds.
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'Mt Suribachi'
This image depicts Joe Rosenthal taking a photo of Marines with the U.S. flag as it flies atop Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi, February 1945.
Because he had no idea whether he had successfully captured the second flag-raising, Rosenthal wanted a "gung ho" group shot. At least, with a posed shot, he would have a record of the men who'd raised the flag, plus some of their "brothers in arms."
Colourised by Paul Reynolds.
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'Frog Skin'
A US Marine wearing his camouflage suit fires a Thompson sub-machine gun during Jungle Training - 1942.
Well over 300,000 troops trained at various Jungle Training Centres throughout WWII, most in the Hawaiian area.
The M1942 Frog Skin pattern was the United States military's first attempt at disruptive colouration camouflage, Designed by horticulturist Norvell Gillespie. In 1942, the Marine Raiders were the first issued the Frog Skin uniform, which was reversible with a five-colour jungle pattern on a green background on one side and a three-colour beach pattern with a tan background on the other side, however the pockets are only on the green side of the uniform.
Just prior to the Normandy invasion there was a limited experimental issue of HBT camouflage uniforms to elements of the 2nd and 30th Infantry Divisions, the 17th Engineer Battalion and the 41st Armoured Infantry regiment, of the US 2nd Armoured Division.
Although the uniform seems to have provided good camouflage for the troops wearing it, the unfamiliar uniforms were often mistaken for the camouflage smocks worn by the German Waffen SS. This resulted in a number of 'friendly fire' incidents.
The uniforms were withdrawn from the ETO (European Theatre of Operations), although troops were often still issued with the camouflage uniform as their original ones wore out, and period photos show the type in use until well into August 1944.
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'At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them'
Men of the 8th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment going up to the line near Frezenberg during the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917.
The Battle of Passchendaele, also referred to as the Third Battle of Ypres, was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies of World War I against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders.
Casualties:
Various casualty figures have been published, sometimes with acrimony, although the highest estimates for British and German casualties appear to be discredited. In the Official History, Brigadier-General J. E. Edmonds put British casualties at 244,897 and wrote that equivalent German figures were not available, estimating German losses at 400,000. Edmonds considered that 30% needed to be added to German statistics, to make them comparable with British casualty criteria. In 2007, Sheldon wrote that although German casualties from 1 June – 10 November were 217,194, a figure available in Volume III of the Sanitätsbericht (1934), Edmonds may not have included them as they did not fit his case. Sheldon recorded 182,396 slightly wounded and sick soldiers not struck off unit strength, which if included would make 399,590 German losses. The British claim to have taken 24,065 prisoners has not been disputed.
In these figures some 80,000 men (total from both sides) were recorded as missing, completely lost on the field of battle.
R.I.P.
'Mt Suribachi'
This image depicts Joe Rosenthal taking a photo of Marines with the U.S. flag as it flies atop Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi, February 1945.
Because he had no idea whether he had successfully captured the second flag-raising, Rosenthal wanted a "gung ho" group shot. At least, with a posed shot, he would have a record of the men who'd raised the flag, plus some of their "brothers in arms."
Colourised by Paul Reynolds.
" BANDERAS DE NUESTROS PADRES" (FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS)
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Artillery men of one the Cannon Companies of the three US 4th Infantry Division Regiments fire their 105 mm Howitzer M3 at German positions in Normandy 1944.
(Possibly near Carentan, July 1944)
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A captured German V-2 rocket on display in Trafalgar Square, London. Saturday 15th of September 1945.
Operational History of the V-2:
Originally, plans called for the V-2 to be launched from massive blockhouses located at Éperlecques and La Coupole near the English Channel. This static approach was soon scrapped in favor of mobile launchers. Traveling in convoys of thirty trucks, the V-2 team would arrive at a staging area where the warhead was installed before towing it to the launch site on a Meillerwagen. There, the missile was placed on the launch platform, armed, fueled, and the gyros set. This set up took approximately 90 minutes and the launch team could clear an area in 30 minutes after launch.
This mobile system proved highly successful and up to 100 missiles a day could be launched by German V-2 forces. Also, due to their ability to stay on the move, V-2 convoys were rarely caught by Allied aircraft. The first V-2 attacks were launched against Paris and London on September 8, 1944. Over the next eight months, a total of 3,172 V-2 were launched at Allied cities including London, Paris, Antwerp, Lille, Norwich, and Liege. Due to the missile's ballistic trajectory and extreme speed, there was no effective method for intercepting them.
V-2 attacks against English and French targets only decreased when Allied troops were able to push back Germans forces and place these cities out of range. The last V-2-related casualties in Britain occurred on March 27, 1945. Accurately placed V-2s could cause extensive damage and over 2,500 were killed and nearly 6,000 wounded by the missile.
Highly interested in the weapon, both American and Soviet forces scrambled to capture existing V-2 rockets and parts at the end of the war. In the conflict's final days, engineers von Braun and Dornberger surrendered to American troops and assisted in further testing the missile before coming to the United States. While American V-2s were tested at the White Sands Proving Ground, Soviet V-2s were taken to Kapustin Yar. Working to develop more advanced rockets, von Braun's team at White Sands used variants of the V-2 up until 1952. The world's first successful large, liquid-fueled rocket, the V-2 broke new ground and was the basis for the rockets later used in the American and Soviet space programs.
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