USA

USS Idaho battleship shelling Okinawa sometime in late March 1945. The USS Idaho joined Task Force 54 as the flagship of Bombardment Unit 4 for the invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa. Shelling began on March 25th in preparation for the landings which occured one week later. The battleship …

Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers fly over Japan’s Mount Fuji en route to blitzing Tokyo sometime in 1945. During the war, the US Intelligence Center actually considered the option to dye the snow capped Mount Fuji by dropping black or red paint on it. The plan was part of a psychological …

USS Pennsylvania battleship heading towards Lingayen Gulf before landing in Luson, Philippines, in January 1945. Behind USS Pennsylvanya we can see USS Colorado, USS Louisville, USS Portland and USS Columbia in a real show of force by the US Navy. Laid down in October 1913, USS Pennsylvania was not sent …

U.S. Army Air Force Lieutenant Robert L. Hite is carried from a Japanese transport plane after he was flown from China to Tokyo along with seven other captured US airmen. Lt. Robert L. Hite was co-pilot of crew 16 (B-25B s/n 40-2268 Bat out of Hell, 34th Bomb Squadron) of …

US and Soviet troops meet for the first time during World War II at the Elbe river near Torgau, a town in Saxony, Eastern Germany. The historic meeting took place on April 25th 1945, a date which came to be known as “Elbe Day”. Book suggestions: ⤵️ 📖 The Last …

A sunken Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber of the US Air Force is lying on the Pacific Ocean seabed with another Allied aircraft behind it, which appears to be a Douglas SBD Dauntless as well. The pictured bombers are just two of many US aircrafts which were intentionally dumped in …

US tanks pictured in Schevenhütte, Germany, sometime during 1945, vs. modern days. We can see that, quite remarkably, the buildings and architecture captured in the photograph have not changed at all in the 80 years since the end of the war (although the cafe on the left seems to have …

An overwhelmed US Marine is pictured while weeping among ruins during the Battle of Peleliu, more specifically after the battle for Hill 200 (one of the many strategic hills on the island). The photograph was taken on September 26th, 1944, a time at which the Americans were making good progress …

Al Blozis (left, pictured in 1941 at New York’s Polo Grounds with Georgetown coach Jack Hagerty) was an American Football player for the New York Giants between 1942-1944 and a decorated track and field athlete in college. Blozis was inducted in the US Army on December 9th 1943, after his …

U.S. Marine pictured while giving a Japanese boy candy through the barbed wire of a civilian containment area sometime in July – August 1944, during the Battle of Tinian. The battle of Tinian was fought on the Tinian island of the Mariana Islands and lasted for one week. More than …