World War II in photos

[Ichiban]

I've just started looking at this but there are some truly amazing photos here.  It really helps to put the sheer magnitude of the war in perspective.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/ww2.html

[Dakotaranger]

WOW

[twyacht]

My Father and I were huge loyal followers of WWII documentaries, the "World At War" series, were tradition since I can remember.

What an awe inspiring time. I remember some of these pics. Thank you for sharing.



If nothing else, my ex-wife, given a Moisin, with bayonet, and unleashed on evil "men"....would slay them without quarter....
(I'm still recovering)...



Veronica Lake.. OMG!!  .Men, like my Grandfather, and many others, kissed a small photo of her on the wall, painted her on bombers, along with Rita Hayworth, and others...and fought for God, Family, Country, and those beautiful American Women.



Note they are holding hands, they know the fate that captured women resistance fighters await them...BUT they also know, the rag tag band of resistance fighters with practically homemade weapons, and second hand surplus, bogged down the SS, and German military for months, and they are not forgotten. I'll take a woman of character, and that fighting spirit anyday in any foxhole. The IDF gets it right...Train the women to fight and shoot.  Forget the sexist, macho crap. These women went through far worse.

God Bless Them All.

Thanks again for the link.

[Pecos Bill]

You earned your number 1 with that.

Pecos

[twyacht]

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[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

I buried my father about 22 years ago.  While in town for the services, we went through his stuff and I came across a scrapbook of his Naval career which dated from 1938 to 1948. The cover title was “USS Wasp CV-7”.  I Didn’t think too much of the title then.  My brothers and I went through it one morning and recalled how we used to play with his medals when we were kids but couldn’t recall any stories from his time in service.

The scrapbook was handmade, leather bound and was most definitely something that he’d spend a lot of time on over the years. It had pictures, news clips, dates and names of hundreds of sailors, ports of call and all of the commands and ships that he was assigned too.  Of the ten years my father was in the service, he’d spent 8 solid years at sea.

I can only imagine the images that he’d seen, the experiences and the tragedy of the years between 1941 and 1945.  He never said a word about it, even after his oldest son decided to enlist in 1971, his second son in 1974 and me in 1975.  We did it because he had, I did because they all did.  It was a simple decision.

I came across that scrapbook again recently and decided to set up a memorial for him on the Together We Served website.  While doing the research of the dates and ships, I came across some startling information.

The USS Wasp was sunk on September 15, 1942.  My father was reassigned in August 1942 and rotated off the ship.  He was a Boiler Tech, Third Class at the time.  His chances of survival had he been aboard when she went down would have been zero!

I wonder who would be typing this if history had been a little bit different.  He'd lost a lot of friends that day!

2 Purple Hearts
Philippine Liberation Medal
2 Good Conduct Medal
5 Sea Service Deployment Medals
WWII Victory Medal

Thanks Pop! 

[Pathfinder]

Timothy, I think that was about the same time I was laying my Dad to rest too. He was 8th AF, 398thBG, though, not Navy.

Like your Dad, mine never talked much about the war or his service. Defeating Hitler and the Japs was an ugly, nasty job that had to be done and put behind them. It is a fairly common attitude among the Vets I've found. We knew he flew B-17s (pilot), and I still have his leather flight jacket. But it wasn't until the 398th BG Memorial Association put up a website that I learned more.

Dad got in later in the war, but was still involved in a number of milestone bombing missions in Europe, 32 bombing missions over the continent in all. Multiple bombings of Berlin, the lead-in to D-Day, on D-Day, bombing Peenemunde where Werner von Braun et al. were building and launching the V2 rockets, and to prepare for Operation Cobra, the breakout from Normandy to the south by Patton. They were also involved in bombing the German army in the Falaise Gap toward the end of Cobra. The Falaise Gap held the still dangerous remnants of the German army in that area. The bombing helped accelerate the German’s escape, which they did due to delays in Montgomery’s army in closing the northern approaches to the gap. The Germans did have to leave most of their trucks, tanks, cannons, etc. behind though.

His navigator kept a diary, which the 308th BGMA has posted:
http://www.398th.org/History/Diaries/Fugge/Diary_Index_Fugge.html
 
At the bottom of that page is something I had not seen before this past week – a diary kept by Dad’s radioman. He gives a very personal and interesting account to complement Fugge’s.
 
Here's a picture of Dad and his crew as they finished up at Rapid City right before they headed to England. He's second from the left, back row.