A PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF A
YEAR OF VICTORY WITH SPECIAL
SECTIONS ON WAR PERSONALITIES,
WEAPONS, AND GREAT BATTLE SCENES
Vol. 5
New York
WM. H. WISE and CO., INC.
1946
Copyright 1946
WM. H. WISE & Co., INC.
Printed in the United States of America
| PAGE | |
| STORY, SEPTEMBER THROUGH AUGUST | 2055 |
| PICTURE HISTORY, SEPTEMBER-AUGUST | 2057 |
| PERSONALITIES OF THE WAR | 2241 |
| GREAT BATTLE SCENES | 2305 |
| WEAPONS OF THE WAR | 2433 |
| INDEX | 2497 |
Photographs in this publication were obtained from the following sources:
Acme Photo
2060, 2073, 2090, 2091, 2114, 2137, 2138, 2158, 2242, 2245, 2481
Bachrach
2279
British Information Service
2078, 2079, 2441, 2482
French Press and Information Service
2390
Government of India Information Services
2378, 2379
International News Photo
2057, 2061, 2062, 2063, 2064, 2065, 2068, 2069, 1072, 2075, 2076,
2077, 2080, 2086, 2094, 2095, 2107, 2113, 2117, 2122, 2123, 2124,
2125, 2126, 2127, 2128, 2129, 2142, 2148, 2156, 2157, 2168, 2281,
2283, 2284, 2285, 2287, 2289, 2292
Odhams Press
2342, 2372, 2403, 2408, 2409, 2418
Official Coast Guard Photo
2279, 2377, 2385, 2422, 2423, 2428, 2458, 2471
Official U. S. Marine Corps Photo
2070, 2337, 2344, 2351, 2360, 2361, 2382, 2391, 2412, 2413,
2415, 2420, 2427, 2429, 2440, 2446, 2465, 2474, 2479, 2480
Official U. S. Navy Photo
2059, 2309, 2322, 2332, 2333, 2340, 2348, 2349, 2352, 2354, 2355,
2358, 2368, 2370, 2371, 2375, 2383, 2386, 2387, 2397, 2400, 2402,
2406, 2426, 2437, 2439, 2450, 2457, 2471, 2488
Press Association
2058, 2066, 2067, 2071, 2074, 2081, 2082, 2083, 2084, 2085, 2087,
2088, 2089, 2092, 2093, 2096, 2097, 2098, 2099, 2100, 2101, 2102,
2103, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2108, 2109, 2110, 2111, 2112, 2115, 2116,
2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2130, 2131, 2132, 2133, 2134, 2135, 2136, 2139,
2140, 2141, 2143, 2144, 2145, 2146, 2147, 2149, 2150, 2151, 2152,
2153, 2154, 2155, 2157, 2159, 2160, 2161, 2162, 2163, 2164, 2165,
2166, 2167, 2169, 2170, 2171, 2172, 2173, 2174, 2175, 2176, 2177,
2180, 2181 through 2239, 2242, 2243, 2244, 2246, 2247, 2248, 2249,
2250, 2251, 2252, 2253, 2254, 2255, 2256, 2258, 2259, 2260, 2262,
2263, 2264, 2265, 2266, 2267, 2268, 2269, 2270, 2271, 2272, 2273,
2274, 2275, 2276, 2277, 2278, 2279, 2280, 2282, 2286, 2288, 2290,
2294, 2295, 2296, 2297, 2298, 2299, 2300, 2301, 2302, 2303, 2404,
2407, 2408, 2417, 2419, 2434, 2435, 2436, 2438, 2442, 2443, 2445,
2447, 2448, 2449, 2451, 2452, 2453, 2454, 2456, 2459, 2460, 2462,
2463, 2466, 2470, 2472, 2475, 2476, 2478, 2483, 2484, 2485, 2490, 2491
Sovfoto
2247, 2261, 2291, 2338, 2339, 2374, 2388, 2389, 2410, 2425, 2430
U. S. Army Air Forces
2318, 2334, 2335, 2347, 2357, 2359, 2401, 2411
U. S. Army Signal Corps Photo
2293, 2306, 2307, 2308, 2310, 2311,
2312, 2313, 2314, 2315, 2316, 2317, 2319, 2320, 2321, 2323, 2324,
2325, 2326, 2327, 2328, 2329, 2330, 2331, 2336, 2341, 2343, 2351,
2353, 2356, 2362, 2363, 2366, 2367, 2373, 2376, 2380, 2381, 2382,
2384, 2391, 2392, 2393, 2396, 2398, 2399, 2414, 2415, 2416, 2421,
2424, 2431, 2444, 2448, 2455, 2461, 2464, 2467, 2468, 2469, 2473,
2474, 2477, 2480, 2486, 2487, 2489, 2402, 2403, 2494, 2495 .
THIS fifth, and final, volume of the PICTORIAL HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II brings to the reader the story of the first year of victory in a world still technically at war. While the events of that year would perhaps have filled a volume by themselves, it was felt that there was rounding out and polishing off to be done on the story of the earlier years.
For this reason, the fifth volume has been divided into five sections, the first and largest of which is the chronology of the dramatic year just past, from V-J Day to Baker Day in the Bikini Lagoon. The second section is a gallery of the great personalities who led the Allies to victory—in informal studies as they appeared during the war years.
One of the important gaps in the earlier volumes was caused by the necessity for censorship—photographs not being released for publication until security had been satisfied. It has been possible now to go back and collect a number of the most interesting and breathtaking photographs which were released too late for inclusion in their chronological position in earlier volumes. These are gathered into the section on Great Battle Scenes. Likewise, with the section on Weapons. Many of these photographs were not released until after the war.
Not the least interesting section to the reader, it is hoped, is the cumulative index to all five volumes. The index is complete and detailed and should make it easy and quick to locate any subject, be it ship, personality, outfit, or theatre of operations.
There was so much that might have been included in this volume, that the editorial problem was one of leaving out, rather than putting in. If subjects have been omitted or treated too lightly, it is only because of the limitations of space.
THE PUBLISHERS
The full story of the Japanese surrender was not told on V-J Day. Not only Japan itself remained to be occupied, but her vast stolen Empire, from Singapore to Manchuria, had to be restored.
American troops entered Tokyo on September 5 while the British prepared to occupy Singapore on the same date. Troops of the Chinese Sixth Army began to fly to the coastal provinces of China and to liberate important cities such as Nanking as early as September 6. The situation in northern China was more complicated, with clashes occurring between the Communist and Nationalist armies for many months.
A further complication which plagued the victors was the spread of strong movements for independence, from Egypt to the Dutch East Indies. In Indonesia rebels set up an independent government and declared war against the Netherlands on October 13. Repeated demonstrations, frequently accompanied by bloodshed, occurred in Egypt, Palestine, India, and Indo-China. As the first year of peace ended, revolts were still simmering in these trouble spots.
In Japan, General Douglas MacArthur moved quickly and efficiently to disarm and democratize the country. Emperor Hirohito proved an effective puppet for carrying out the Allied aims. The key men in the government were shaken up and a progressive, democratic regime under Premier Shidehara was installed. The banks were reorganized, war industries converted to civilian purposes. But Japan was a badly crippled country, her cities had been laid waste by Superfortresses and atom bombs. There was much hunger and misery. It would be a long struggle to emerge from the disaster brought upon the Japanese people by their war lords.
Germany, on the other hand, was scarcely a nation. It had been divided into four administrative zones (English, American, French and Russian) which badly hampered the rehabilitation of the war-weak country. Germany's towns were heaps of rubble. Her people too were hungry. At the Paris Peace Conference in the summer of 1946, Germany was not even on the agenda, well over a year after her defeat. The future was distant and uncertain for the once powerful country which had been the hotbed of nazism and the starting point of the world War II holocaust.
A novel procedure after World War II was the rounding up and prosecution of those charged with war crimes. The Nuremberg trial of high Nazi officials was unique in history. Opening on November 21 with the arraignment of twenty top Nazis, including Goering, Keitel, Hess, von Ribbentrop and von Papen, the trial continued for nearly a year before the defendants were finally sentenced. The whole extraordinary procedure was calculated to establish a precedent which would help to deter future wars.
Although the war with Japan ended later than the European struggle, the prosecution and punishment of many high Japanese war criminals took place before the Nazi criminals were brought to justice. General Yamashita was taken into custody on September 3 and hung on February 22, 1946. General Homma was arrested on September 15, found responsible for the "Bataan Death March," and shot on April 2, 1946. General Hideki Tojo, Premier at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, was apprehended on September 11, but attempted suicide and was not arraigned for his crimes until the following summer. Many lesser known but no less ruthless and brutal men were shot or hung in both Japan and Germany in the first year following V-J Day.
In the first year following the end of World War II, the chief hope for future peace lay in the organization of the United Nations. The first session of the General Assembly opened on January 14 in London and the Security Council met in New York on March 25. From the outset of the meetings, there was a major split in policy between the Western Powers and Soviet Russia. The first test case was Iran, which Russian troops had occupied beyond the agreed date for withdrawal. The question was placed on the Security Council's agenda in the face of Russian disapproval and a satisfactory settlement was finally effected. Progress was also made by the United Nations in lesser matters and the way was cleared for the first peace conclave in Paris where delegates of the twenty-one victor nations gathered on July 29 to see whether the peace of the world could be secured by lawful negotiation in a future dominated by the atomic bomb.
In the United States, the main post-war headache was economic. Throughout the first winter of peace, management and labor struggled for what each deemed its proper share of profits. Reconversion came to a standstill as all the major industries went on strike, including the automotive, steel, coal and utility industries. But by spring, satisfactory wage levels had been negotiated and the wheels of industry began to grind again. However, the damage had been done and the consumer was still waiting for the goods he did without during the war. After a year of peace there was still a seller's market with prices zooming sky high. In the summer of 1946, the Office of Price Administration was briefly discontinued, then a substitute measure passed which some thought might prevent inflation and disaster. It had been a bitter year for labor, management and consumer.
A bright spot in the picture was the readjustment of the returning veterans. Although millions of men were demobilized, the rate of veteran unemployment was surprisingly low. Many of the younger veterans were taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and attending college. They proved to be the best students in the nation's universities.
On the other hand, although veterans were securing employment, salaries were too low for the new high-cost-of-living and many preferred to mark time while collecting their unemployment insurance. Although many veterans proved excellent students, others were unable to enroll because of the crowded conditions in the universities. Worst of all was the housing situation which forced many veterans to live in cold water flats, tents, huts, or with overcrowded "in-laws."
But on the whole, the spirit of America was hopeful. Despite inflation, black markets, and other evils, there was a feeling in the air that the country was headed for a period of unprecedented prosperity.
Operation Crossroads in the summer of 1946 could conceivably change the future course of the world. Costing an estimated $90,000,000, this unique experiment consisted in detonating two atomic bombs, one in the air (Test Able) and one under water (Test Baker), both bombs exploding in the bull's-eye area of Joint Task Force I. There were seventy-three target ships of all types in the first test; about 87 ships in the second test.
Admiral William H. P. Blandy was in command of the tests, with some 42,000 men manning the ships and conducting the experiments. Able Day was July 1, Baker Day, July 25. Of the 160 vessels in both tests, eight warships and two landing craft were sunk, some twenty other vessels seriously damaged.
The blasts indicated that either type of atom bomb detonation would probably sink or badly damage any ship within 500 yards of the explosion point; personnel casualties would be, heavy within a four mile radius. In short, the effects were startling and terrible, but less spectacular than expected by many observers. It appeared that the bomb's importance would be strategic, that is, it would be most effective against cities rather than against dispersed ships on the ocean. In any case, the atom bomb was demonstrated to be a potent force to reckon with in keeping the peace so dearly won.
Cheering GIs return to an America at peace
September 3, 1945
'''IT'S OVER, OVER THERE"
During the war 7,300,000 soldiers and 126,859,000 tons of cargo were shipped from United States ports. Much of the cargo would never be brought back and more than 250,000 men would never return. Total casualties, including wounded, were 1,069,632. Many of the armed forces would remain overseas for occupation duty, and compulsory conscription continued long after V-J Day. But those thousands who were lucky enough to be immediately demobilized (above) cheered wildly as they came home to their war-dislocated country.
The "Tiger of Malaya" is caged
September 3, 1945
YAMASHITA SURRENDERS
On the day after V-J Day, General Tomoyuki Yamashita came out of the Luzon mountains to surrender to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at Baguio. The arrogant, six-foot-tall Japanese general was the commander of all hostile forces in the Philippines where Wainwright had been forced to capitulate in 1942, and also waged the brilliant drive on Singapore. The general is shown as he grimly enters Bilibid prison a few hours after signing the surrender.
The American flag is raised on Wake
September 4, 1945
EPIC OF ISLAND ENDS
Wake Island, which was defended so gallantly by 400 marines in the first month of the war, was avenged on September 4, 1945, with the raising of Old Glory and the surrender of 1,200 Japanese soldiers to Brigadier General Lawson S. Anderson, commanding general of the Fourth Marine Wing. The American naval base had fallen to the Japanese in December, 1941, after 14 days of furious fighting by the small band of marine defenders.
The Stars and Stripes over Tokyo
September 6, 1945
THE FINAL TRIUMPH
The first American flag to fly over Tokyo is hoisted above the Nippon Times building. Two days later the official flag was raised at the United States Embassy compound in the presence of General MacArthur who remarked as the flag went up: "General Eichelberger, have our country's flag unfurled and in Tokyo's sun let it wave in its full glory as a symbol of hope for the oppressed and as a harbinger of victory for the right." General Robert Eichelberger was commander of the Eighth Army which garrisoned Tokyo.
An embarrassing situation for the Japs
September, 1945
POLITENESS PREVAILS
When the Yanks first landed in the Tokyo Bay area, although no shots were fired, the situation was tense and the Japanese reaction was mixed. The two Japanese in the top picture, among the first to be questioned during the early landings, appear openly hostile to the U.S. Marine Corps interpreter, while the Japs, below, are polite, correct and even grateful for the cigarettes proffered by a generous Yank at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Other Japanese soldiers, especially those who had run prisoner of war camps, were servile to the point of bowing low before their conquerors.
The Japs bow in defeat—to their Emperor
September, 1945
IT'S AN OLD CUSTOM
When the Yanks first arrived in Tokyo the Japanese were still revering their Emperor as in this picture where they are shown bowing to the Imperial Presence within the Imperial Palace. Many of the Japs also bowed before their conquerors. This was their way of being politely—and discreetly—correct. Here, the Americans look puzzled.
7,000,000 sullen Japs begin to go home
September, 1945
DEMOBILIZATION PROCEEDS QUICKLY
Beaten Japanese troops await mustering out in a Tokyo street. General MacArthur was to demobilize about 3,000,000 Japanese homeland troops and 4,000,000 overseas troops within the short space of less than two months. By October 16 MacArthur announced the job was completed.
War workers seek peace-time employment
September, 1945
WANTED: A JOB
Glum war workers crowd a New York State employment office in search of work. They're glad the war is over but one must eat. However, many war workers were tired from their long and faithful ordeal and seemed in no hurry to find work. Many of the women were to be replaced by men in peacetime industry. Some of the older workers would not be needed. Some of the younger would not have experience. All of the workers wanted war-time pay.
Peace at last in China
September 6, 1945
NANKING CELEBRATES
The various tentacles of the Japanese Army in China were lopped off one by one. United States Army Air Force planes began a vast operation to transport 80,000 Chinese troops to the coastal provinces to disarm and control the rapidly surrendering beaten enemy. Here, joyous natives of Nanking line the highway to the airport to watch the victorious Chinese forces arrive to accept the Japanese surrender there. This greatest airborne movement of troops in Asiatic history was under the direction of Lieutenant General George E. Stratemeyer, commander of United States Air Forces in China. Troops of China's Sixth Army, equipped with American material, flew 650 miles to liberate Nanking.
The Marines rescue Formosa prisoners of war
September 7, 1945
BRAVE MINE FIELDS
A United States task force swept through two mine fields to land marines on Formosa where they rescued 1,200 weak but happy prisoners of war who had spent the better part of the war in three "hell camps." The commander of the rescue force, Rear Admiral Dixwell Ketcham, sent out this radio message: "We are observing darkened-ship regulations, but the glow from within the souls of these men who were Japanese prisoners for almost four years lights up our whole horizon." Most of the prisoners were British, about 200 being Americans. The picture shows emaciated British and Australian soldiers streaming out of Camp No. 6 in Formosa as sullen faced, well-fed Japanese guards turn away.
A victim of the atom bomb
September, 1945
ONE OF THOUSANDS
The dreadful effects of the Nagasaki atom bomb are examined by the head physician of the Saga General Hospital and by a United States Navy lieutenant as a Japanese nurse stands by. On September 3 a Tokyo radio broadcast stated that scientists of the Kyushu Imperial University had classified the effects of the bomb on the human body under three headings: (1) instant death, (2) symptoms like those of dysentery followed eventually by death and (3) throat ulcers, bleeding gums, falling hair and eventual death. All victims showed a marked decrease in blood count and severe damage to bone marrow according to this report. Plant life, on the other hand, the report said, had revived in Nagasaki. Japanese newsmen who visited the Nagasaki region said that persons were paralyzed ten miles from the explosion center and other persons who had originally received only minute wounds eventually perished as a result of the atom explosion.
"Tokyo Rose" is silenced
September, 1945
HER VOICE BARRED
Iva Toguri, the "Tokyo Rose" who broadcast Japanese propaganda to American troops in the Pacific, now blows off steam in a cell in Yokohama. In her broadcasts she attempted to undermine the morale of American GIs. Born twenty-nine years ago of Japanese parents in Los Angeles, Calif., she was charged with treason against the United States.
Japanese war fangs are pulled
September, 1945
GUNS GO OVERBOARD
Japanese small arms and rifles are heaped into an LSM to be borne out to sea off Saishu Island, Japan, where they were dumped into the ocean. The very first task of American occupying forces was to disarm the enemy and render all fighting equipment harmless.
The price of defeat September, 1945
GERMANS FORAGE FOR FOOD
Hungry Germans pick through a garbage dump for scraps of food. GI trucks unloaded waste from army kitchens in this area and people from as far as five miles came to look for edibles. Well-fed during their victories over other European countries, some of Europe's misery now comes home to the German people.
Peace-making in London
September 11, 1945
FOREIGN MINISTERS' COUNCIL MEETS
The first post-World War II peace parley opened in London when the Foreign Ministers' Council of the five big powers prepared to grapple with problems of the peace which might take a year or two of negotiation. This first meeting of the big powers who had held together during the war began in an atmosphere of conflict and ended twenty-two days later a complete failure. Nothing had been accomplished. But here, on the opening day, the United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, earnestly tackles a problem with an expressive forefinger, while England's Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin listens lugubriously.
Life goes on in Hiroshima
September, 1945
NATIVES CARRY ON
Although most of Hiroshima was obliterated and although the odor of death still clings to the ruins, the survivors of the atom blast in Hiroshima gradually begin to restore their broken lives. These little natives, dressed in the long bloomers that became the wartime fashion in Japan, pick their way through the rubble wearing mouth and noseguards to protect them against the human decay and carrying parasols to guard against the sun.
Tojo attempts suicide
September 11, 1945
TOPPED WAR CRIMES LIST
When General MacArthur put out a dragnet for forty Japanese militarists and war fomenters, General Hideki Tojo, Premier at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, sought to cheat a conqueror's court by taking his awn life not by the traditional hara-kiri but by a bullet. When MacArthur's men came to take him in custody he beckoned from a window (above) but when the house was entered Tojo had collapsed (picture at right) from a self-inflicted bullet. American blood plasma and medical skill saved Tojo's life for trial as a war criminal.
The British take back Singapore
September 12, 1945
JAPANESE SURRENDER RELUCTANTLY
The huge, unbeaten in battle, southern armies of the Japanese surrendered to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten at Singapore on September 12. The capitulating enemy forces included 85,000 troops in the Singapore area and 500,000 troops in southeast Asia and the East Indies. In the picture, Admiral Mountbatten reads the order of the day. At his side is General R. A. Wheeler, deputy Southeast Asia Commander representing the United States.
Singapore natives welcome the British
September 12, 1945
CELEBRATE WITH A CARNIVAL
Gay processions of gigantic masks, gong beaters and cars with floral decorations wound through the crowded streets of Singapore to greet the returning British. The surrender by the Japanese to the British put the British again in control of 1,500,000 square miles of territory inhabited by 128,000,000 persons and rich in mineral and agricultural wealth, territories extending from Bengal to Hollandia.
A GI gets a lesson in Japanese
September, 1945
IT'S A TOUGH LANGUAGE
The fraternization ban in conquered Germany had proved impractical and was not put in force in beaten Japan. Here, a bewildered Yank scratches his head over a difficult lesson in the Nipponese language. He is aided by a booklet and a pretty Japanese tutor.
General Homma is held for questioning
September 15, 1945
SUSPECTED OF BATAAN "DEATH MARCH"
When Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma was arrested in connection with the "death march" of Bataan he remarked in a British accent that he had been "surprised" to find his name on MacArthur's list of suspected war criminals. Of the infamous "march" he said, "I don't think it was such a tough march." With Homma is Lieutenant General Shigenori Kuroda, center, and at the right is an American MP. Kuroda was Homma's successor in the Philippines.
The post-war labor struggle begins
September 15, 1945
FORD SHUTS DOWN
A bare two weeks after V-J Day Henry Ford II announced a shut-down of virtually all Ford plants because of a series of crippling strikes. Above, young Ford tells a radio audience of layoff of 50,000 employees. A few days later, automotive labor troubles were followed by a wave of strikes in the oil industry. The picture below shows Texas pickets eating refreshments. The wave of strikes, with both management and employees trying to get as big a share of post-war profits as possible, reached a climax in mid-winter. Meanwhile, reconversion dragged, prosperity was far around the corner .
Surrendered Japanese nurses look glum
September, 1945
SERVED ON CEBU
Although the Japanese forces on Cebu, in the Philippines, gave up nine days before the general Japanese surrender, this picture was not released until after V-J Day. The girls take their defeat hard as do their brothers-in-arms, in the background of picture. These army nurses served in the field under the same battle conditions as the men.
Argentines rally for freedom
September 19, 1945
250,000 DEMONSTRATE
In an unprecedented expression of mass feeling, one quarter of a million Argentinians demonstrated in Buenos Aires against the military dictatorship which had controlled the country for more than 27 months. Bearing banners and placards, the crowds surged through the streets shouting for their liberty and singing, surprisingly, "God Bless America."
Hirohito pays a social call on MacArthur
September 27, 1945
THE BOSS AND HIS PUPPET
General Douglas MacArthur, wearing his campaign khaki without medals or necktie, stuffs his hands in his pockets to pose with his visitor, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, at the United Slates Embassy. The Emperor arrived in a five-car convoy from the Imperial Palace and bowed and tipped his hat to a group of correspondents at the entrance of the Embassy. The foreign ruler of Japan and the man through whom he rules conversed for 35 minutes. The subjects discussed were not made public but the visit was said to be a social one. In any event, the unusual procedure was a powerful symbol to expose the divinity of the Emperor to the Japanese people.
Life stirs in shattered Tokyo
September, 1945
CONQUERED CITY IS DESOLATE
American forces in Tokyo were appalled by the immense stretches of obliterated buildings in Japan's capital. However, residents set to work cleaning away the debris and, in the above picture, a trolley is again in operation. Poorer residents of Tokyo, below, line up for a ration of beans. Note complicated ration documents.
Two versions of Japanese prison camps
September, 1945
THE GOOD DID NOT BALANCE THE BAD
The top picture shows the hospital ward in the notorious Shinagawa prison camp in Japan. The sick and wounded slept on the wooden platforms or on the floor. In sharp contrast is the picture below depicting an American colonel and the Japanese commandant of a prison camp in Shanghai engaged in a chat before a baseball game. This picture was distributed by the Swedish representative of the YMCA War Prisoner Aid.
The homeless and hungry of Japan
October, 1945
WAR'S VICTIMS
Hundreds of Japan's homeless and hungry people sought shelter in the subways of Tokyo during the windy, fall nights following defeat. Many were bombed out of their homes, others were affected by the war's economic dislocations. Reports indicated that the season's crop would be considerably smaller than the previous year's. On October 16 Tokyo had its first "hunger march."
The Marines occupy north China hotspot
October 1, 1945
SITUATION IS CONFUSED
When the First Marine Division, above, marched into Tientsin the natives were genuinely glad to get the Japanese conquerors off their backs. Note the crowds even on the rooftop. However, Tientsin was uneasy with Chinese Nationalist and Communist forces at bayonet points and a Japanese Army still to be disarmed. Bridges and trains had been blown up and there were many riotings and lootings of dubious origin. North China was far from peace and security.
Laval fights for his life
October 4, 1945
TRIAL IS TURBULENT
Pierre Laval is shown taking his place in the Paris High Court of Justice on the opening day of his trial on charges of treason and intelligence with the enemy. The very first day of the trial, October 4, was marked by unbelievable outbursts from Judge, jurors, spectators and the defendant. The crafty former Premier of France cajoled, persuaded, argued, acted hurt, contrite, insolent and was finally dragged from the stand screaming like a madman.
Japan gets a new Premier
October 7, 1945
ANTI-MILITARIST GETS POST
When General Douglas MacArthur purged the Higashi-Kuni cabinet it fell apart and Hirohito appointed 74-year-old Baron Kijuro Shidehara as Premier to form a new cabinet. The new Premier is shown, center above, with Chief Secretary of the Government Tsagita, left, and Public Welfare Administrator Ashida, right. Baron Shidehara, anti-militarist who had been in retirement 14 years, is shown flashing his medals in a happier time, lower picture. He promised full cooperation with our occupation forces and freed 3,000 political prisoners.
The "Jersey Bounce" in Tokyo
October, 1945
GIs DANCE WITH GEISHA GIRLS
The Army imposed no fraternization ban in Japan and much of the Yank's social life was provided by Geisha girls, trained from childhood in the art of entertainment and dancing. Above, a GI jitterbugs while another Yank, below, prefers ballroom dancing. The Japanese girls quickly adapted themselves to the strenuous American dance steps.
A Jap comes back from the war
October, 1945
REUNION—ORIENTAL STYLE
There is no "vulgar" western-style kissing as this demobilized Japanese soldier is greeted at the station by his wife and child. They exchange polite greetings. But there is pathos in the intent look they exchange as the little soldier leans forward under the weight of his immense pack and the infant peers timidly over his mother's shoulder.
The Indonesians demand independence
October 13, 1945
DECLARE WAR ON NETHERLANDS
The occupation of Java began peacefully at the end of September but the natives were quick to demand their independence and early in October seized control of key cities, declaring war on October 13. The commander of the Indonesian People's Army in the Batavia area called for all-out guerrilla warfare, stating that the weapons would be "poison, poison darts and arrows, all methods of arson and any kind of wild animals, as for instance snakes." In the youth meeting shown here the natives are armed largely with sharpened bamboo poles. The British opened up with fire from their warships and the RAF strafed and bombed the rebels.
Laval, traitor of France, faces firing squad
October 15, 1945
TRIED SUICIDE FIRST
Pierre Laval, three times Premier of France, and a notorious collaborator with Nazi Germany, faces the firing squad in the Fresnes prison yard, Paris. A few hours before he was to be shot he swallowed poison which he had carried on his person for the past year, but time had deteriorated the poison and Laval was resuscitated. Wearing the white tie which he had made famous, he stood before the firing squad hatless and without a blindfold, crying out to his executioners. "I do not hold this against you. Aim at my heart. Vive la France!"
Revolution below the border
October 19, 1945
BLOOD IS SHED IN VENEZUELA
Three hundred persons were reported killed and 1,000 wounded when young army officers revolted in Caracas and deposed President Isaias Medina Angarita. The dead officer in the foreground of the upper picture was killed after he had slain those lying in the background. The revolutionary junta which took control of the country, left to right, consisted of Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, Raul Leoni. Dr. Bettancourt (President of the junta), Luis Beltran, Major Vargas, Dr. Eduardo Fernandez and Dr. Gonzalo Barrios.
Ley cheats Nuremberg trial
October, 1945
STRANGLES SELF IN CELL
Dr. Robert Ley, former Nazi labor leader who was to be tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg, took his own life with a strip torn from a prison towel which he tied about his neck and fastened to a pipe in the toilet of his cell. He had stuffed his mouth with bits of rag to muffle his death gasps. Ley was first apprehended in May of 1945 while hiding near Berchtesgaden. He had been clad in pajamas (above) and showed signs of mental and physical degeneration.
The French turn out for elections
October 21, 1945
24.000,000 VOTERS SET RECORD
In the first general elections in France since 1936, 24,000,000 voters expressed their overwhelming support of the Communist, Socialist and Republican Popular Movement parties. All other parties were far behind. Women voted for the first time in a national election (above) and 31 women, 14 of them Communists, won seats in the Assembly.
The Navy has its day
October 27, 1945
THE PRESIDENT REVIEWS THE FLEET
The greatest fleet in the world assembled a powerful portion of its ships in the Hudson River west of Manhattan Island on October 27 to celebrate Navy Day. Vast crowds swarmed along the shoreline as the great battleships, carriers, cruisers and other craft paraded their might from mid-Manhattan all the way up to the George Washington Bridge. Overhead an armada of 1,200 Navy planes roared in impressive formations. In the picture, President Harry S. Truman stands on the bridge of the Renshaw with Admiral Jonas H. Ingram, commander of the Atlantic fleet, and takes a salute from a cruiser. As the President proceeded up the Hudson 47 other ships each gave him the full 21 gun salute. Earlier in the day he had ridden the length of throng-lined Fifth Avenue and at Central Park another huge crowd (estimated at a million) heard the President address the nation and the world in a speech outlining America's foreign policy for keeping the peace. The President's statement of America's peaceful intentions cheered the troubled world for the moment, with favorable comments coming from all the great capitals.
The trial of Yamashita opens in Manila
October 29, 1945
ACTRESS TESTIFIES
A recital of incredible cruelties was begun on the opening day of the trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, first to be tried as a war criminal in the Pacific area. Carazon Noble, Filipino actress, took the stand with her arm in a sling and told of the massacre in the Manila Red Cross building on February 10, 1945. She described in a low voice and with tears in her eyes how she had been shot and bayoneted while holding her ten-months-old baby in her arms. She testified that the infant had been bayoneted to death. Major Robert M. Kerr, chief prosecutor, charged Yamashita with responsibility for not controlling those within his command.
Three men in a tub
November, 1945
RUB-A-DUB-DUB
These gentlemen are really in hot water. They're top Japanese war criminals awaiting war trials at Omori prison camp in Japan. Their crude tub formerly served American prisoners of war. The gentlemen now being cleaned up are, left to right, former Cabinet Ministers Michiyo Iwamura, Admiral Baron Kantaro Suzuki and Admiral Ken Tereshima.
Change of address for a war lord
November, 1945
TOJO'S ONE ROOM SUITE
After recovering from his attempted suicide, General Hideki Tojo was lodged in a cell like the one shown here in Sugamo Prison, Tokyo. Tojo, who was Japanese Premier at the time of the attack upon Pearl Harbor, was detained for trial as a war criminal.
A general swabs his cell
November, 1945
RETRIBUTION
Major General Saito was commander of all prisoner of war camps in Singapore. When the British returned to Singapore they put the general in one of his own prisons and held him as a war crimes suspect. The general polices his quarters while awaiting trial.
A Jap colonel keeps his equilibrium
November, 1945
AWAITS WAR TRIAL
Despite the fact that he must face trial as a war criminal, Japanese Lieutenant Colonel Ohta walks gaily along a precarious log at the Omori Prison Camp in Japan. The smiling colonel was charged with ordering Japanese soldiers to massacre Manila civilians with swords.
A child describes her nightmare
November 6, 1945
THE JAPS KILLED HER PARENTS
Weeping, 11-year-old Rosalinda Andoy, testifying before court trying Yamashita, describes how she received 38 bayonet wounds and her parents were murdered by the Japanese. Major Gricerio Opinion, of the prosecutor's staff, is at right.
A Japanese War Minister is jugged
November, 1945
THE CORPORAL IS BOSS
General Sadao Araki, former Japanese War Minister, is escorted into a Tokyo prison by an MP corporal. The general, styled by MacArthur as an "important influence behind Tojo," seems arrogantly reluctant as the husky corporal places a hand under his arm.
A Nazi civilian faces death on the gallows
November 10, 1945
HIS CRIME WAS MURDER
Five German civilians were tried and found guilty of the murder of six American fliers who parachuted down upon Germany from a disabled plane in 1944. Johann Seipel, the first to be hanged, has only a few seconds to live. The noose has been fastened about his neck and the hood is being placed over his head preparatory to springing the trap at the Bruchsal Prison, Germany.
Sketch of a Japanese death chamber
November 11, 1945
DRAWN BY ONE WHO ESCAPED
This crude sketch, presented as evidence at the Yamashita trial, was drawn by Eugene Bayot who received a deep cut in the back of his head but lived through the ordeal. Heads were hacked from victims kneeling at hole in top floor and the bodies tumbled into the room below. The witness said the sketch represented scene at 1195 Singalong Street, Manila.
A dragon is bearded November, 1945
CAUGHT IN MACARTHUR'S DRAGNET
This saucy-eyed, bearded old man was chief of the dreaded Black Dragon Society of Japan. Kuzuu was arrested in a war criminal roundup. Working behind the scenes, he had directed the regime of political assassination and terrorism which reinforced the ultra-militaristic clique in Nippon.
Their conversation is explosive
November 11, 1945
LEADERS DISCUSS ATOM BOMB
After honoring the war dead in Armistice Day ceremonies at Arlington cemetery, President Truman, center, and Secretary of State Byrnes, left, take their distinguished guest, Prime Minister Clement Attlee of England, for a cruise down the Potomac River. The British Prime Minister made the arduous trip to this country for the express purpose of discussing the atom bomb problem. His proposed answer to the problem was to turn the bomb over to the United Nations Security Council, providing that the Soviet Union frankly state its aims and policies.
U.S. starts destruction of Nazi war plants
November 12, 1945
POWDER PLANTS BECOME POWDER PUFFS
Six months after the German defeat the United States began its program of destroying German industries used solely for war purposes. The first plants to go were 59 structures of the Fabrik Kaubeuren Gunpowder Works. As the destruction begins only smoke is visible, above, as the installations were well camouflaged by trees, roof gardens, and disappearing chimneys. These plants, located in the pine forests of Bavaria at Kaufbeuren, were operated by the titanic I. G. Farben interests. Another Farben plant, below, shows the permanent and expensive structure of these factories, built apparently with a view to many years of world-conquering activity.
U.S. Marines are fired on in China
November 14, 1945
TROUBLE SPOT
A train between Tientsin and Chingwantao, China, was stopped by a mine as it was carrying Chinese workmen and U.S. Marines, above. Workmen and Major General DeWitt Peck (standing, extreme left) scamper for cover as marines duck into a ditch, left. After this episode, troops and civilians were fired on from a nearby village, shown in picture below. American planes fly low above the village as a warning. Arrow in foreground guided planes to area.
Riots sweep Palestine
November 14, 1945
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS ATTACKED
On November 13 Britain's Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin stated that Britain and the United States would form a joint committee of inquiry into the problem of European Jews in Palestine and that in time Palestine would become a trusteeship of the United Nations Organization with eventual self-government as a Palestinian, not Jewish, state. On November 14, terrorists swept through the streets of Tel Aviv, stoning and burning government buildings. Neither the Zionists nor the Arab leaders were pleased with Britain's statement of policy. The soldiers riding in the truck, top picture, were stoned into unconsciousness and the vehicle set afire. In the lower picture, a detachment of the British Sixth Airborne Division clears a street in Tel Aviv.
A page from Eva Braun's diary
November IS, 1945
DER FUEHRER AND CHILD
When American intelligence officers found Eva Braun's treasure chest on November 15, they unearthed an album with scores of family pictures showing Adolf Hitler with the mysterious blonde child, Uschi, and with Eva Braun (above). Hitler was supposed to have married the pretty former actress just before both of them died during the siege of Berlin.
The Belsen gang is convicted November 17, 1945
GUILTY
Joseph Kramer, the "beast of Belsen," and his hard-faced blonde assistant, Irma Grese, were sentenced to death by hanging for the atrocities they perpetrated at the Belsen and Oswiecim concentration camps. Nine others were sentenced to the same fate by a British Army court at Luneburg. One got life, five got 15-year sentences, 13 got one to ten years, 14 were acquitted. Sixteen of those convicted were women. The crimes committed were mass murder and ill treatment of the prisoners. Sullen-faced 29 year-old Kramer is shown leaving the courtroom, left, followed by Dr. Fritz Klein, who picked victims for the gas chamber. In the picture at the right, Irma Grese, center, leaves the courtroom. The blonde sadist sobbed when she heard the sentence.
The Nuremberg war crimes trial opens
November 20, 1945
JUDGEMENT DAY
On November 20, months after the European war ended, twenty top Nazis, ragged and dispirited from their long imprisonment, were hailed into the Nuremberg Palace of Justice for the unprecedented purpose of being tried as plotters and planners of aggressive warfare. The prisoners occupy the dock at the extreme left of the picture and are flanked by military policemen at the rear and defense counsel in front. The judges of the High Tribunal are on the bench at the extreme right (former Attorney General Francis Biddle representing the United States) and below and in front of them are the prosecution staffs, with the United States represented by Robert H. Jackson and aides. Vast bundles of evidence were ready—sheaves of documents, transcripts, diaries, letters, and films. When the atrocity films were shown the defendants were visibly shaken, one vomiting upon its conclusion. The prosecution detailed at great length and with scrupulous fairness the whole gigantic plot to seize Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland. Not one of these once powerful men was left unentangled by the great web of evidence which was spun with such elaborate thoroughness and exactitude.
In the prisoners' dock
November, 1945
THE ACCUSED
Front row, left to right: Herman Goering, former No. 2 Nazi; Rudolph Hess, high Nazi who flew on a mysterious mission to England during the hostilities; Joachim yon Ribbentrop, diplomat; Wilhelm Keitel, former chief of the German High Command; Alfred Rosenberg, Voelkischer Beobachter editor and propagandist; Hans Frank, former Governor General of occupied Poland; Wilhelm Frick, former Minister of the Interior; Julius Streicher, notorious Jew-baiter; Walther Funk, former Minister of Economics; and Hjalmar Schacht, financier. Rear row, left to right: Karl Doenitz and Erich Raeder, former Grand Admirals; Baldur yon Shirach, youth leader; Fritz Sauckel; Alfred Jodl, former Colonel General; Franz von Papen, diplomat; Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi; Albert Speer, former Minister of Armament and Munitions; Constantin yon Neurath, boss of Bohemia-Moravia; and Hans Fritzsche, propagandist.
The International High Tribunal
November 20, 1945
"FOR CIVILIZATION"
Four judges, one each from America, Britain, Russia and France, together with their alternates, presided over the Nuremberg trial. In the top picture are Norman Birkett, British alternate; Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, British presiding judge; former Attorney General Francis Biddle; and United States alternate Judge John Parker. The defense pleaded unsuccessfully against a high tribunal representative of the victors only, claiming that neutral or defeated countries should also be represented. Justice Robert H. Jackson, below, chief prosecutor for the United States, in his opening address emphasized the Nazi determination to wage aggressive war and said that "the real complaining party…is civilization." Figure behind Justice Jackson is Sir Hartley Shawcross, British prosecutor.
At the "bottom of the river"
November, 1945
"SLUM AND CRACKERS"
November 20, 1945 Goering's girth attests to his joy in eating, but now it's army stew, regular fare of the GI's, and quite different from the suckling pigs and caviar which Herman formerly wolfed. His dining partner is Alfred Rosenberg, philosopher of Nazism. Below, Rudolph Hess applies himself earnestly to the GI "slum."
Goering dominates prisoners' dock
November, 1945
PLAYS TO THE GALLERY
Although the defendants were for the most part a subdued and broken lot, Goering was irrepressible, smiling and bowing to the spectators, guffawing and gesticulating. In the top picture he is talking animatedly past an impervious Hess, while in the lower picture he gets out of hand completely and claps a hand over his mouth after speaking out of turn.
All defendants plead not guilty
November, 1945
INNOCENTS
All twenty of the high Germans accused of war crimes rose and pleaded not guilty. Goering, top picture, tried to use the occasion for a speech but was squelched and said hotly, "I declare myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty." Von Papen, lower left, rises to say, "Guilty not at all," while Keitel, lower right, said, "I declare myself in the sense of the indictment not guilty." Hess, who sits glumly next to Goering, shouted the single word "Nein!" Von Ribbentrop, next to Hess, used the same formula as Goering and Keitel.
A page from Hitler's book
December 1, 1945
THE NAZIS IN WARSAW
This photograph, depicting the Nazis "cleaning out" the Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg trial. The photograph is a copy from a leather bound book which contained the report of the German commander who was responsible for the Nazi acts in the Warsaw Ghetto. Women and children are herded before the Nazi firearms.
Nation-wide strike cripples car conversion
November 21, 1945
GENERAL MOTORS' PLANTS SHUT
Members of the United Auto Workers (C.I.O.) Union rush from the plant of the Chevrolet Gear and Axle Division at the start of the longest and most bitter strike of the entire reconversion period. There was little doubt that the workers should get pay rises, but the gigantic industrial organization and the powerful union could not agree upon the amount and as the strike dragged through the winter other problems rose to plague and complicate the negotiations.
An early witness at Pearl Harbor probe
November 23, 1945
HULL TAKES STAND
On November 15 a Senate-House investigating committee began the long-awaited probe of the Pearl Harbor disaster. One of the first major witnesses was former Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The 74-year-old statesman said that on November 25, 1941. he had warned that the Japanese might be expected to attack "anywhere at any time." He emphatically denied that his note to the Japanese on November 26 had been an ultimatum but, in fact, that the Japanese note of November 20 to us had, amounted to an ultimatum. When the aging and ill Hull left the inquiry he was given a spontaneous ovation.
Hitler's secretary is held as witness
November, 1945
WOMEN TO TESTIFY AT NUREMBERG
Women witnesses, waiting at the Nuremberg Jail to testify in the trial of Nazi war criminals are, top, left to right: Johanna Wolf, Hitler's private secretary from 1940 until his death, and Ingeborg Sperr, secretary for Hess from 1934 until 1941. Bottom, left to right: Louise Guyon-Witzschel, secretary at an SS headquarters in Germany, Margaret Himmler, wife of German Gestapo chief who committed suicide, and her daughter, Gudron.
The first snow falls in Nuremberg
November 26, 1945
COLD COMFORT
What little food there was in Nuremberg often had to be sold in the streets since most of the buildings (background) were wrecked beyond use. Here, German housewives shop for bread amidst debris covered by the winter's first snowfall.
Hirohito opens Japanese Diet
November 28, 1945
ASKS PEACE AND PROSPERITY
His hands trembling slightly, Emperor Hirohito opens the Japanese Diet with a brief address. He wears a new uniform without military insignia. This was the first time in history that photographs were permitted to be taken in the Diet. When Premier Shidehara addressed the session he was hooted and laughed at and his government was apparently foredoomed.
Hurley resigns as ambassador to China
November 27, 1945
ASSAILS CAREER DIPLOMATS
On November 27, President Truman accepted the angry resignation of Patrick J. Hurley, United States ambassador to China, and appointed General George C. Marshall as his special envoy to that country. Hurley had ranted and raved about the career diplomats who had sabotaged our foreign policy but his hearing before Congress soon collapsed. General Marshall, longing for a rest after his war service to his country, nevertheless took off for the highly important job of unifying China and settling differences there. Hurley is shown on the witness stand, above, and General Marshall is shown, below, as he testified before the Pearl Harbor inquiry just before leaving for his tasks in China.
Hess admits faking amnesia
November 30, 1945
DRAMATIC MOMENT
Rudolph Hess, who had solemnly and steadfastly claimed complete loss of memory, suddenly stunned the Nuremberg court by rising to confess that he had feigned amnesia for "tactical reasons." Not only were medical men fooled by his performance but also his own attorneys. Above, he is excitedly telling the court that he is ready to "bear full responsibility for anything I have done," Below, Goering seems to be poking fun at the poseur, while next to them von Ribbentrop fingers his throat as if in anticipation of a gruesome experience with a rope.
A day with the German generals
November, 1945
KEEPING HOUSE
At a prisoner of war camp in Hersfeld, Germany, 278 Nazi generals and admirals spent their days as shown on these two pages. Behind the barbed wire, first, the once high ranking brass strolls for an airing. In the second picture, General Karl Theissen, once a member of the General Staff, sits on a crude bunk and sews his own clothing. He must also keep that bunk made up, shine his shoes and brush and care for his clothing. In the third picture, General Majors Erich Fiedler (left) and Wilhelm von Kirchenpauer wring out their wash. Fiedler lost his command after the attempt on Hitler's life in 1944. With the conquest of Germany he lost his orderly.
A murderer takes a bow
December, 1945
SO SORRY, PLEASE
Major Sakaji Sakai bows politely to his guard as he is removed from his cell for an airing. The guard is impassive for the polite Jap is one of nine soldiers charged with participating in the torture and murder of three American B-29 fliers who crashed near Hankow, China, in November, 1944.
These Japs ordered Wake massacre
December, 1945
THEY'LL HANG
Lieutenant Commander Soichi Tachibaba, left, and Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara ordered the execution of 96 American civilians on Wake Island in October, 1943. On trial before a military commission on Kwajalein Island, they read statements in their behalf, above, but were sentenced to die by the hangman's noose.
A German general is paid in kind
December 1, 1945
DOSTLER FACES FIRING SQUAD
In March, 1944, General Anton Dostler ordered the shooting of fifteen American soldiers without trial when they were caught behind German lines on a mission for the Office of Strategic Services. On October 12, 1945, an American military tribunal sentenced General Dostler to "be shot to death by musketry." On December 1, in Aversa, Italy, Dostler was tied to the stake, upper picture, as a chaplain read last rites. In the lower picture, the general slumps as the bullets pierce his body and send up a shower of splinters from the stake. General Dostler was the first officer of the German General Staff to be tried by an American tribunal on a war crimes charge.
Jap die-hards surrender on Saipan
December 1, 1945
FORGOTTEN BATTLE ENDS
It was not until three months after V-J Day that Japanese Imperial Army Captain Sakae Oba and 46 of his soldiers surrendered after hiding 17 months in the coral caves and jungle of Saipan. Captain Oba gives up his Samurai sword to Lieutenant Colonel Howard G. Kurgis.
In MacArthur's net
December 2, 1945
LISTED AS WAR CRIMINAL SUSPECTS
On December 2 General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters published the most extensive list of war criminals to be rounded up since V-J Day. Among the 59 high officials arrested were two former premiers, Koki Hirota (upper left), and Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma (upper right). Important military leaders on the list were Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, Commander-in-Chief of Japanese forces in China (lower left), and Admiral Sankichi Takahashi, former Chief of Staff and Commander of the Combined Fleet (lower right).
Korean Japanese are repatriated
December, 1945
HALF A MILLION GO HOME
By December more than 500,000 Japanese living in Korea were repatriated to Japan. Japanese small fry are counted, top picture, by American officers at port, and in the lower picture. Japanese soldiers swab a dock under American supervision. Nips awaiting deportation may be seen crammed aboard ship in background.
G.I. brides collected in India
December 6, 1945
DEPOSITED IN NEW YORK
Arriving in New York aboard the Navy transport U.S.S. General A. W. Greely, these brides were married in India by United States servicemen. The young woman at the left was a former WAAF from Aberdeen, Scotland, while the other two are from Karachi and Calcutta, India.
Refugee children are given aid
December, 1945
UNRRA LENDS A HAND
These children of the war are fed, clothed, and sheltered at an Allied Commission Camp at Ancona, Italy. The camp was later turned over to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. It was UNRRA's task to prepare children like these to live in a remoulded Europe.
A Japanese war criminal is sentenced
December 7, 1945
YAMASHITA FACES DEATH
General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya," listens stonily as he is sentenced to death by hanging by the Military Commission in Manila. The death sentence climaxed weeks of appalling recitals of cruelties and atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers under Yamashita's command in the Philippines. The verdict is being pronounced by Commission President Major General Russell B. Reynolds (seated, lower left). Standing, left to right, are: Colonel Harry E. Carke, chief defense attorney; Hamamoto, interpreter; Yamashita and Major Harry D. Pratt, court interpreter.
A Nazi is hanged for killing American fliers
December 10, 1945
ONE FOR TWO
Franz Strasser, former Nazi official, is strung up for killing two American fliers who were forced down in Germany during the war. Johann Reichart, German executioner, is just visible behind him. At the far left of picture, Colonel T. N. Griffin, U.S. Third Army Provost Marshal, reads the charges against Strasser as other officers and a priest stand by.
A Jap demonstrates Yank beheading
December 12, 1945
HE'LL HANG FOR IT
Japanese Warrant Officer Tatanichi Manaka illustrates the position he made members of an American B-25 crew assume to be beheaded on Mille Atoll in February, 1944. Manaka and five other Japanese officers were tried in a military court on Kwajalein Island and were sentenced to be hung for their brutal crime.
War still rages in China
December, 1945
COMMUNISTS AND NATIONALISTS CLASH
In Manchuria fighting was frequently on a major scale as Nationalist troops penetrated 210 miles into this region in three weeks. The first picture shows a railway bridge which the Chinese Communist forces damaged, and, second, two Nationalists hold two Communists at gun's-point in Chinchow. Japanese helped repair the bridge.
General Marshall is welcomed to China
December 21, 1945
GREETED BY GENERALISSIMO AND MME. CHIANG
President Truman's special envoy to China, General George C. Marshall. was met at the Nanking airport by Chiang Kai-shek, right, and Mme. Chiang who cast protocol aside to meet the general there rather than have him brought to their residence by officials. The general's difficult task in China was to arbitrate the differences between the Chinese Nationalist and Communist leaders and to make possible a unified and strong China.
Revolution flares in the Far East
December, 1945
INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT GROWS
While the Indonesians were demanding their independence of the Netherlands, strong factions in India and Indo-China were also clamoring for self rule. Above, members of the Indian National Congress Party halt train service near Calcutta by gathering on the tracks during a three-day demonstration. Below, members of the underground movement in Indo-China brandish swords and pistols in a demonstration to shake off colonial rule.
Japanese cyclotrons are dumped into the sea
December, 1945
SCIENCE TAKES A NOSE DIVE
On November 23, American troops raided Japanese scientific laboratories with blow torches and explosives and devastated five costly cyclotrons which had been used in Japanese atomic research. A few days later the mutilated machinery was toted to sea, above, and dumped The Army's purpose was to destroy the Japanese war potential; some scholars publicly lamented the loss to science.
A Doolittle flier confronts a killer
December, 1946
JAP GETS FIVE YEARS' HARD LABOR
Captain Tatsuta Sotojiro, who gave the firing order in the execution of three grounded Doolittle raiders, bows low before contemptuous Captain Nielsen, a Doolittle raider who escaped. The American military commission later gave a surprisingly light sentence of five years at hard labor in view of the extenuating fact that the shootings were carried out in obedience to the orders of higher officials who would be prosecuted in their turn.
GIs are stuck for Christmas
December 25, 1945
A TOUGH BREAK
These soldiers were forced to remain on their ships at San Francisco because of a transportation bottleneck during the Christmas holidays. However, entertainment was provided on the pier and the boys seem to be taking the matter philosophically.
A Russian and a fraulein dance in Berlin
December 25, 1945
CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS
A Soviet soldier dances the polka with a blonde, befurred German girl in central Berlin during the Christmas holiday celebration. Note the small fry in the audience of solemn faced Germans. Celebration was held against background of war-wrecked buildings.
"We want to go home"
January 8, 1946
GIs DEMONSTRATE IN PARIS
Carrying torches in a night procession along the Champs Elysees, Yanks in Paris shout, "We want to go home!" Other homesick GIs were demonstrating in Germany and in widespread areas in the Pacific. The President and high-ranking military authorities said that demobilization was proceeding as rapidly as possible and ordered it speeded up still further.
Irate wives demand return of GI husbands
January, 1946
BACK TO THE WALL
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the European invasion, finds himself faced with an "emotionally upsetting" situation, as vociferous wives of service men demand the return of their husbands from overseas. As the clamor for demobilization grew, scenes like the one below also took place, with wives and children demanding "daddies" or punishment for politicians at the polls.
Fifty-one United Nations meet in London
January 10, 1946
FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONVENES
The momentous first General Assembly of the United Nations opened in London on January 10 with 51 nations represented. The session, which lasted 37 days, was considered generally satisfactory although the General Assembly was overshadowed by the activity of the Security Council and friction between the Western Powers and Soviet Russia began almost at the outset. In a later New York meeting of the Security Council a climax was to be reached in the matter of Soviet intervention in Iran. Here, in the upper picture, are (left to right) Soviet delegation chief Andrie Vishinsky; Edward R. Stettinius, United States representative; and Ernest Bevin, Britain's Foreign Secretary. Below, the United States delegates are shown upon their arrival in England. Left to right: Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, Stettinius, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator Tom Connally.
The United Nations look over some real estate
January 10, 1946
HYDE PARK CONSIDERED
Members of the United Nations site-inspection committee stand on a pleasant knoll and view the rolling country of Hyde Park on the Hudson. The neighborhood of the late President Roosevelt pleased them, but they liked Westchester more. Left to right: Francois Briere, France; Awyn Elkhalidi, Iraq; Dr. Shushi Shu, China; Huntington Gilchrist, U.S.; Stoyan Gavrilovitch, Yugoslavia; Major K. S. Younger, United Kingdom; Julio A. Lacarte, Uruguay, and Georgii Saksin, Russia. The chairman of the committee, Stoyan Gavrilovitch, was pleased with "the flat land, so good for building."
Pearl Harbor commanders have day in court
January, 1946
LONG SILENCE IS ENDED
Major General Walter C. Short, above, and Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, below, the Army and Navy commanders in Hawaii when the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor, are sworn in at the Pearl Harbor investigation for their first public opportunity to speak out in their own defense. The late Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox had put the major blame for the Pearl Harbor tragedy on their shoulders. Both commanders denied responsibility, claiming they had received inadequate warning. Other testimony brought out the fact that the Japanese code had been broken, that ample warning of war was received at least in certain quarters. Many weeks of conflicting evidence seemed to indicate that blame for the Pearl Harbor incident was a matter of confusion, misunderstanding, and lack of coordination among several high officials. No one man appeared to blame; the nation had been caught napping.
Man "reaches the moon"
January 10, 1946
RADAR MAKES CONTACT
The first man-made contact with the moon was engineered at the Evans Signal Laboratories, New Jersey, when a radar signal was beamed at the moon and bounced back in 2.4 seconds. The round-trip signal covered an estimated distance of about 450,000 miles. Lieutenant Colonel J. H. DeWitt, who supervised the experiment, said he and his associates knew the signal had been echoed from the moon "because there was nothing else there but the moon!" A small group of scientists visited the laboratory and verified the findings. The possibilities for exploring the solar system as well as the war-time use of the experiment were said to be incalculable. Above, the antenna used in the startling experiment. Below, a photograph of a radar scope showing start of impulses towards moon and contact with the moon at a distance calculated at 238,000 miles from the earth.
Disorder in India
January 24, 1946
VIOLENCE FLARES
Eleven persons were reported killed and more than 400 wounded when police clashed with supporters of Subhas Chandra Bose, former leader of the Japanese-created Indian National Army. Adherents of Bose staged a demonstration in Bombay and when they were barred from the Moslem sections of the city by police mob rioting began. This was the second outbreak of followers of Bose within two months. Racial problems in India and the movement for independent from Britain were factors in the growing restlessness of the populations. Above, students in a tangle after a foray with police. Below, an Indonesian sailor hurls a basket at police.
Atom scientist arrives in America
January 25, 1946
FLEW SECRETLY
Dr. Lise Meitner, Austrian physicist whose researches contributed to the development of the atom bomb, arrived at LaGuardia Field from Hurn, England, in a plane whose passengers were kept in ignorance of her presence. On the plane's manifest her occupation was listed as "none," her nationality as "stateless," and her age as 65. She posed for photographers, above, but, asked for a statement, she said, "I really can't. I'm so awfully tired."
Jet plane crosses U.S. in record speed
January 26, 1946
FLOWN BY COLONEL COUNCILL
Streaking from Long Beach, California, to LaGuardia Field, New York, in four hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds, an Army P-80 jet-propelled fighter plane set a new non-stop transcontinental speed record on January 26. Colonel William H. Councill, who piloted the plane, wore an oxygen mask the whole distance and averaged about 584 miles an hour for the distance of 2,470 miles. He said that at times he reached a speed of 660 miles an hour and flew at a height of from 35,000 to 41,000 feet. Two other planes also made the trip but stopped en route to refuel. The colonel is pictured arriving in New York.
Post-war unrest in Chile
January 28, 1946
SIX KILLED IN RIOT
Victims of a bloody clash between labor demonstrators and police lie sprawled in a street in Santiago, Chile. In the lower picture, three policemen aid a fellow officer who was wounded. In all, six persons were killed in the rioting.
New Brazilian president takes office
February 1, 1946
DUTRA SUCCEEDS VARGAS
Promising a new constitution, a democratic regime and civil rights, President Enrico Gaspar Dutra was inaugurated on February 1 to succeed Vargas as head of the Brazilian government. He is shown here with his daughter, left, and his daughter-in-law.
Homma's wife takes the stand
February 7, 1946
THE GENERAL WEEPS
Japanese Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma covers his face with a handkerchief and weeps, lower picture, as his wife testifies in his behalf, above, during his war crimes trial at Manila. The Japanese general assumed full moral responsibility for the Bataan "Death March," for which he issued the order. He was later convicted and sentenced to be shot.
The Bataan "Death March" is avenged
February 11, 1946
HOMMA HEARS DEATH SENTENCE
Japanese Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma stands before a five-man military commission in Manila and hears himself pronounced guilty of war crimes and sentenced to be "shot to death." Homma accepted full moral responsibility for the Bataan "March of Death." Flanking Homma are, left, Major J. H. Skeen, Jr., chief defense council, and on the right is Homma's interpreter. Reading the verdict is Major General Basilo J. Valdes. president of the commission. Members of the prosecution staff are in the background.
America's outer defenses in the Pacific
February, 1946
ACTUAL AND PROPOSED BASES
The enormous importance of the Pacific islands in warfare was demonstrated in the conflict with Japan, almost all of which was a battle for these islands, from Hawaii to Iwo Jima. The future fate of many of these bases was left in doubt at the war's end. Here, definite United Slates bases are indicated by flags; proposed base by, stars. The Philippines later became independent.
Pope Pius XII elevates 32 prelates
February 18, 1946
CONDEMNS IMPERIALISM AS MENACE TO PEACE
For the first time in 400 years Italy became a minority in the College of Cardinals when Pope Pius XII elevated 32 prelates to be cardinals. Only four of the newly created cardinals were from Italy. Eighteen other countries were honored, including the United States with four cardinals. The Pontiff is shown in a recent portrait, above, and the United States cardinals are shown, left to right below: Cardinal John J. Glennon of St. Louis; Cardinal Edward Mooney of Detroit; Cardinal Samuel A. Stritch of Chicago; and Cardinal Francis J. Spellman, of New York. The Pope took the occasion to denounce modern imperialism as a menace to the peace of the world.
Anti-British demonstrations sweep Egypt
February 21, 1946
MANY KILLED AND HURT
Anti-British rioting flared in five Egyptian cities on February 21 with twelve dead and more than 100 injured. At the same time clashes occurred in Palestine and India. Above, a young Egyptian receives medical attention after being hurt in the Cairo demonstrations.
Italian war-brides arrive in the U.S.A.
February 22, 1940
BRING JUNIOR GI JOES
Italian brides of American servicemen are wreathed in smiles as they arrive in New York City. Their offspring seem to take a more serious view of the situation. In all, 412 war-bride arrived on the Army transport Algonquin. Other vessels were arriving almost daily with war-brides from England, France, Persia, India, Australia and other countries.
UNRRA clothes Europe's children
February, 1946
HER FIRST PARTY DRESS
A little Yugoslav girl poses proudly in her first party dress, distributed to her through the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Much of the clothing passed on to the destitute of Europe by UNRRA was gathered together by generous American families in drives held throughout the United States. An UNNRA camp also provides shelter for child pictured here.
Argentine voters support Peron
February 24, 1946
"STRONG MAN BEATS TAMBORINI."
Three-and-one-half million male citizens of Argentina went to the polls on February 24 to choose between Juan D. Peron (upper left picture) and Jose P. Tamborini (upper right) to succeed President Edelmiro Farrell, shown listening to election returns (below). Farrell had been a figurehead while "strong man" Peron ruled as a dictator and was accused by the American State Department of having flirted with the Nazis. The election was remarkably free of incident and, weeks later, when the returns were in it was found that the people favored Peron, labor candidate, to Tamborini, candidate of the democratic coalition. The elections were considered fair.
Hirohito looks at Japanese housing
February, 1946
SUBJECTS BOW LOW
A mother, crippled by United States bombing raids, and her son bend low before Emperor Hirohito as he inspects new housing development for homeless Japanese in Yokohama. As the "Son of Heaven" pokes his head in the doorway, "sonny boy" raises his head in curiosity. The mother's crutches are in left hand corner of room.
Former Hungarian Premier is shot
February 28, 1946
PUNISHED FOR WAR CRIMES
Bela Imredy, former Hungarian Premier and Finance Minister stands before a firing squad, above, in the yard of Marko Jail in Budapest after being convicted for war crimes and anti-Jewish acts. Below, he is shown slumped on the ground after his execution.
Feeling mounts against Franco-Spain
February 28, 1946
FRANCE CLOSES BORDER
On February 29 France imposed an economic boycott against Spain by closing the border (above), declaring that the Franco regime constituted a danger to international security. The matter was considered for action by the United Nations and popular demonstrations were frequent as in the lower picture. Dancer Sono Osato carries a picket sign in a New York City demonstration directed against Franco for the execution of Spanish patriots in Spain.
The labor stew boils over
February 28, 1946
PICKETS AND POLICE BATTLE
By mid-winter the entire nation was paralyzed by strikes. General Motors. United States Steel, General Electric (pictures on this page), Westinghouse, and many other huge industries came to a standstill, with Ford and Chrysler among the first to break the deadlock between management and labor. By spring a satisfactory formula had been worked out between most managements and labor, only to be threatened by the scuttling of the Office of Price Administration controls. The long and bitter strikes were a hardship to the laborer and his family, costly to management, and a vexation to the consumer itching to buy.
Seize spy suspects in Canada
March 5, 1946
RING CHARGED WITH SUPPLYING INFORMATION TO SOVIET
A gigantic spy ring operating in Canada and the United States, was exposed when several of the suspected agents were arraigned in Ottawa, Canada. Above, left: Kathleen Wilsher, said by Canadian royal commission to have divulged secret documents to Russia. Top, right: Edward Wilfred Mazerall, electrical engineer charged with turning over to Reds confidential radar reports. Lower: Captain Cordon Lunan, left, is booked as leader of spy ring directed by Lieutenant Colonel Rogov of the Russian Embassy. Meanwhile, Dr. Alan Nunn May, British scientist who worked on the atomic bomb in Canada, admitted disclosing secret atomic information, but would not say to whom he gave the information.
The Russians strip Mukden industry
March, 1946
NEWSMEN INSPECT LOOTED FACTORY
Russian forces in Mukden, Manchuria, were reluctant to leave and when they did leave they took with them large amounts of machinery from local industries to the Soviet. Newsmen inspect one of the stripped factories, above, and Russian soldiers armed with submachine guns, below, walk across the main square towards a building decorated with Russian inscriptions and a portrait of Stalin. The Russians admitted taking machinery, saying they did so by Big Three agreement.
Churchill sounds off from America
March 5, 1946
MISSOURI BLAST STARTLES WORLD
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, speaking as a plain British citizen traveling in America, caused an international furor when he told students of Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, that "Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do…or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies," Since Churchill made his address from the geographical heart of America and in the presence of President Truman, Russian writers criticized him bitterly. In the top picture, Churchill is shown in Fulton with President Truman, left, and in the lower picture the British war leader is shown with Mrs. Churchill, left, and their daughter, Mrs. Sarah Oliver, in New York's Hotel Waldorf-Astoria.
Trouble in Trieste
March 10, 1946
ITALIANS AND YUGOSLAVIANS CLASH
Trieste, with a predominantly Italian population surrounded by Yugoslavians in the hinterland, was a dangerous sore spot in Europe following the end of World War II. The Foreign Ministers' deputies agreed to a four-power commission to study the Italian-Yugoslav border area for the purpose of working out an ethnic frontier and a satisfactory disposition of Trieste, but in the meantime clashes occurred such as the one pictured here. An Italian mother of three children lies dead on a street of Trieste as the result of a skirmish with civil police after a Yugoslav flag was removed from a church.
The labor picture brightens
March 13, 1946
LONG-DRAWN BATTLES END
Workers of General Motors, above, and General Electric, below, were jubilant when their long fight for an increase in wages ended with acceptable adjustments on March 13. The General Motors strike, lasting 113 days, was one of the most bitter of the reconversion period. The General Electric strike lasted 57 days.
A wily Goering takes the stand
March 15, 1946
NO.2 NAZI IS BOLD AND RESOURCEFUL
Hermann Goering proved himself a crafty and enterprising witness when he was called to the stand in the Nuremberg war crimes trial. He boldly proclaimed his Nazi beliefs and aims, proved difficult to trip when cross-examined. He calmly admitted his part in the German plan for seizing living space, but said he had not paid much attention to the master race theory, stating that one is either superior or is not. He said that he had opposed Jewish pogroms for economic reasons and because of their effect on the rest of the world. He admitted drawing up economic laws against the Jews, saying that he scorned to hide behind the Fuehrer's signature. Goering is shown here talking to his attorney, Dr. Otto Stahmer, during a court recess.
Mikhailovitch jailed in Yugoslavia
March, 1946
FORMER CHETNIK LEADER SEIZED
General Draja Mikhailovitch, who formed the first Yugoslav resistance to the Germans in April, 1941, was captured by Yugoslav authorities in March, 1946, and placed in jail (above) on a charge of treason and collaboration with the Germans. Later, in July, 1946, the former guerrilla leader was tried and found guilty by a Yugoslav military court and on July 17 Mikhailovitch and eight others were shot by a firing squad. The former Chetnik chieftain had been supplanted in his guerrilla efforts in 1943 by the emergence of Marshal Tito's Partisan forces.
From Bundist to baggage man
March, 1946
FRITZ KUHN GOES TO WORK
The former leader of the German-American Bund, Fritz Kuhn, rustles baggage in an old castle in Asperg, Germany, where he was interned. But by April 25, Fritz Kuhn had been freed and was on his way to join his family in Munich. At the same time that Fritz was freed, General McNarney was improving the morale of American troops in Europe with a nine-point program, including longer training and an 11 P.M. curfew.
"Axis Sally" is off the air
March 21, 1946
SINGS IN JAIL
"Axis Sally," whose voice over the Berlin radio exhorted Allied soldiers to give up the fight, smokes a cigarette and talks to reporters in the United States Counter-Intelligence Headquarters, Berlin, following her arrest. She was born Mildred Gillars, 37 years ago, in Portland, Maine. Note the American tissues and cigarettes in her barracks bag.
The UN Security Council opens sessions
March 25, 1946
NEW YORK CITY IS HOST
The eleven-nation Security Council of the United Nations opened its first session at Hunter College in New York City on March 25. Dr. Quo Tai-Chi of China swings the gavel, above, flanked by New York's Governor Thomas E. Dewey, left, and United States Secretary of State Byrnes. Below, the "Big Three" delegates, left to right: Andrei Gromyko, Russia; Sir Alexander Cadogan, United Kingdom; Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., United States.
Iranian question vexes Security Council
March 26, 1946
RUSSIA UNWILLING TO DISCUSS MATTER
Soviet troops in Iran after the agreed time for withdrawal was one of the first questions suggested for the Security Council agenda. Gromyko (above, left) voices the Russian desire to postpone discussion while (left to right) Cadogan, Stettinius and Byrnes listen. Below, Iranian Ambassador Hussein Ala, center, sits with Akbar Daftari, Iran delegate (right), and John Lord O'Brian, adviser to the delegation.
Gromyko takes a walk
March 27, 1946
LEAVES SECURITY COUNCIL
Conflict over the Iranian problem reached a dramatic climax when Andrei Gromyko, Soviet delegate, left the meeting as it became evident that the Iranian question would be discussed over Russia's objection. Poland was the only supporter of the Russian position. Gromyko is shown marching from his position at the extreme left of the council table, while heads turn and expressions register various reactions to the Russian's startling behavior. Later, Russia agreed to evacuate her troops from Iran by a definite date; in Teheran closer economic ties were worked out between Russia and Iran; Gromyko returned to his chair in the Security Council on April 9.
U.S. arrests Russian officer as spy suspect
March 26, 19461
LIEUTENANT IS LATER ACQUITTED
Lieutenant Nicolai G. Redin of the Soviet Navy was arrested in the United States by officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of buying secret naval information and conspiring to send it to Russia. The young Red officer is shown here with his wife, Galina. Later, on July 17, Redin was cleared by a Federal Court jury. When the verdict was delivered Redin declared, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury and Your Honor, I'd like to thank you for this fair trial in these United States of America." Redin and his wife were free to go home to Russia.
Death erases a smile
March 29, 1946
THE LAST LAUGH
Laszlo Endre, former Under Secretary of State in Hungary, smiles broadly as he is put into position to be hung, above. But in death, below, the lips are slack and meaningless. Endre was found guilty of torture and persecution of Jews during the war as was Under Secretary Baky, hung with Endre, upper picture, left.
The war wounded overcome handicaps
March, 1946
PERFORM MIRACLES OF READJUSTMENT
It took heroism to face bullets; it took even more courage to face life with the handicaps inflicted by battle. The wounded veterans shown on these pages were not wanting in spirit or resourcefulness. Upper left picture: M/Sgt. Frederic Hensel, only battle casualty in this war to lose parts of both arms and legs, sits behind the wheel of his new car in which he and his wile, Jewell, made a tour of the country. Lower left: Lieutenant George L. Sharpnack paints with aid of a hand-hook. Above: Elmer Morriss lost both legs, an arm and an eye in the Battle of the Bulge. Newspapers raised money to buy him and his wife, Velma Lee, a home and farm.
Veterans come home to huts
March, 1946
HOUSING SHORTAGE HITS GIs
Many a veteran returning from the foxholes and jungles found himself on the American streets without a roof overhead at the end of the struggle against totalitarianism. Civilians also suffered from the situation but all admitted that the veteran's housing problem amounted to a national disgrace. One makeshift remedy offered was the one-room cottage, above, consisting of a frame on which was stretched a canvas blanket containing spun glass insulation against heat and cold. Soldiers had lived in similar houses in the Arctic and the tropics.
Life goes on in Dresden
March, 1946
TROLLEYS RUN IN RUBBLE
Almost a year after V-E Day, Dresden, Germany, is still a heap of rubble, most of the damage having been caused in 20 minutes by 2,000 bombers in a mass raid. But out of all the chaos, a semblance of order has been attained, with trolleys running and people boarding them to ride home from their employment amidst the heaps of stone and twisted steel.
The black market in Italy
March 31, 1946
ITALIANS LOSE THEIR TEMPERS
While black marketeers in the United States were operating in defiance of the Office of Price Administration, similar lawless operators were profiting by the lack of consumer goods in other countries. In Italy an angry crowd takes matters in its own hands by chasing down a black marketeer (arrow, above) and beating him mercilessly, below.
Roosevelt shrine is dedicated
April 12, 1946
TRUMAN PAYS TRIBUTE
On the first anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death, crowds gathered at Hyde Park and paid homage, above. The grave-site and homestead were made a national shrine. President Truman, shown, below, with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, pledged himself to fight for the late President's principles, and leaders all over the world joined in paying tribute.
Modern science comes to Bikini
April, 1946
NATIVES MOVE OUT
The location chosen for the most extraordinary scientific experiment in history was the primitive Pacific atoll of Bikini in the Marshall Islands. The picture at the left shows King Juda who cooperated with atom bomb authorities in moving his subjects from Bikini atoll to Rongerik atoll, 109 miles away, to be safe from the explosions of the atom bombs to be dropped in the Bikini Lagoon. Above, King Juda's subjects are shown moving their possessions to a ship bound for new home.
Investigating world food conditions
April 18, 1946
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Former President Herbert Hoover, left, is given a royal banquet by Egyptian King Farouk, right, in Cairo, while on a tour of the world's hunger areas. Hoover did not find conditions in Europe as bad as in Asia where he said that unless the world rushed supplies to the stricken peoples of India, "tens of millions" would be "in jeopardy of life."
Philippines President visits U.S. President
May, 1946
ROXAS DEFEATS OSMENA
Manuel A. Roxas, who defeated former President Osmena at the polls, to become first president of the Philippines Republic after July 4, visits this country after his election in May. He chats gaily with President Truman (left, above). With him is Paul V. McNutt, High Commissioner to the Philippines, right. Below, Maria Rosario Roxas, daughter of General Roxas, sits on a bench at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where she is a student.
Tojo gets a pat on the pate
May 3, 1946
CURIOUS COMEDY AT START OF WAR CRIMES TRIAL
When Japan's wartime Premier Hideki Tojo finally came before the nine-nation International Military Tribunal for the Far East on May 3, he played an involuntary role of comedian, above, when Shumei Okawa, a co-defendant, solemnly slapped the top of his very bald head. The stern-faced former war chieftain seems to enjoy the joke at his expense. Okawa, suspected of cracking up, was taken away for observation. Tojo and twenty-five other defendants stayed to face charges of war crimes.
Price Administration
June, 1946
GROUPS FIGHT FOR OPA
All though the Administration favored extension of price controls to prevent inflation, Congress was doing everything it could to weaken controls. Despite demonstrations by the majority of the public for extension of the Office of Price Administration as it stood, Congress submitted such an emasculated bill to President Truman that he vetoed it, saying it was worse than no control at all. Demonstrators pictured on these pages lost their fight and OPA died on June 30. After a short period of no price control, Congress sent another compromise measure to President Truman who signed it into law as the best possible measure he could get out of an unwilling Congress. The rest was left to the future.
Normandy Beach-two years after D-Day
June 6, 1946
INVASION RELICS
Landing craft which carried Allied troops to the German-held Normandy Beach in June, 1944, lie rusting, in 1946, in their former battle positions, upper picture. In the lower picture, amphibious ducks, wrecked airplanes and other war materiel litter a field along the St. Lo-Carentan road where they were left behind by the advancing Allied armies of the great invasion.
Scientific "eyes" are prepared for atom tests
June, 1946
REMOTE CONTROL TO CLICK CAMERAS
Because of the widespread and deadly effects of radioactivity, human observers would not have ringside seats for the atom bomb blasts, but would depend upon radio-controlled cameras. The remote-control cameras in the above picture were to be mounted on steel towers ringing Bikini Atoll. The drone planes, below, would fly near to the bursts, with cameras and scientific instruments gathering close-up data by radio control.
Bikini—Crossroads of the world
June, 19411
BEFORE THE ATOM BLASTS
The primitive atoll of Bikini (above), flanked by the Pacific Ocean on the left and a lagoon at the right, became the Crossroads of the world's interest as the United States prepared to atom bomb Joint Task Force One in the peaceful Pacific lagoon. Below, the quiet atoll is shown before the natives abandoned it to the atom bombs.
Operation Crossroads begins
July 1, 1946
PILOT AND BOMBARDIER START FOR PLANE
Major Woodrow P. Swancutt, left, pilot of "Dave's Dream," B-29 carrying the fatal atom bomb, leaves hangar at Kwajalein, July 1. With him is Major Harold Wood, bombardier. They dropped the bomb somewhat too high and to one side of the target ship, Nevada, but Admiral Blandy termed the mission "successful."
A single atom bomb blasts a fleet
July 1, 1946
45 VESSELS DAMAGED IN TEST "ABLE"
A cloud of atomic fury bursts over Joint Task Force One, boiling up into the sky and forming a gigantic mushroom of death. This extraordinary photograph was taken from a camera mounted on a steel tower on Bikini atoll, and controlled by radio. If an observer had stood upon the seemingly peaceful beach he would have been in mortal danger from invisible radioactivity. The radio-controlled camera gives a view of the ships on the horizon flaming and smoking. Preliminary reports showed a score of five ships sunk (two destroyers, a cruiser and two transports); nine ships heavily damaged (including two battleships); at least 45 vessels damaged. The total number of target ships was 73. Many of the test animals aboard the vessels were not immediately killed but died later and it would be weeks, perhaps even months, before the complete story would be told of an aerial atom bomb's potency against a naval fleet dispersed in a harbor area.
A movie "short" of the atomic burst
July 1, 1946
FROM FISSION TO FINISH
This moving picture sequence depicts the explosion of the first Bikini atom bomb from the moment the nuclear split-second fission detonated the bomb (upper left picture) to the 30,000 foot pillar of fiery cloud in the lower right corner. Two tremendous concussions accompanied the burst which flashed light ten thousand times brighter than the sun.
Test "Able" as seen from the U.S.S. Mt. McKinley
July 1, 1946
RINGSIDE SEATS ARE TEN MILES DISTANT
Although the flagship U.S.S. Mt. McKinley is a safe ten miles from Bikini, the towering atomic pillar seems to overshadow these observers on her deck. This photo was made aboard Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy's flagship just a few seconds after the detonation.
The Independence takes a licking
July 6, 1946
NEVADA ESCAPES
Although the target ship Nevada remained afloat after the first atom bomb at Bikini, the light aircraft carrier Independence was convulsed by internal explosions and belched fire and smoke (center, above) many hours after the bombing. The superstructure was blown off the carrier's flight deck, which was also heavily damaged, below.
Wartime finagling gets an airing
July, 1946
PROFITS PROBED
When the Senate War Investigating Committee took the lid off munitions profiteering, an unsavory odor was exuded. Such high figures in Washington as Representative Andrew J. May, chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee (left, above) were asked to explain their interest in huge munitions combines. May first could not find time to testify, then developed a reported illness. Henry Garsson (above, right) was a central figure in a huge industrial combine under investigation by the Mead Committee. Neither he, however, nor Benjamin F. Fields (lower left, with wife) could be procured for questioning, both standing on their constitutional rights. But pretty Jean Bates (lower right), former secretary in the munitions combine, willingly testified that she had been asked to be "hazy" on the stand. She preferred to be honest. Big names and well known companies were involved in wartime profits grab; "everybody and his brother seemed out to get the government."
The stage is set for Baker Day
July 25, 1946
BLANDY BROADCASTS EVENT
The diagram, above, shows the disposition of target ships for the second Bikini atom bomb test. This time the bomb was placed under shallow water in the area indicated by circle. The dramatic event was broadcast from the U.S.S. Mt. McKinley by Admiral William H. P. Blandy, director of the experiment, below, speaking into microphone held by Sergeant Dave Simmons, of San Francisco.
The world's first underwater atom bomb explodes
July 25, 1946
GIGANTIC POISON MUSHROOM BLOOMS AT BIKINI
As the second Bikini bomb burst under water it sent up a huge water spout, which expanded to one half mile at its base and went seething upward to an altitude of one mile. Ten warships were sent to the bottom, including the Arkansas which some observers thought caused the gap at the right side of water column, visible in this picture.
A tree grows in Bikini Lagoon
July 25, 1946
THE ATOMIC CLOUD HURTLES SKYWARD
This amazing photograph, taken by an automatic camera on Bikini atoll, shows the underwater atomic explosion in a second stage. The mushroom effect of the picture on the previous page is now roiling up into an immense tree of lethal radioactivity, with the target ships near its huge trunk beginning to become engulfed by the wave of radioactive water.
The eerie sequence of the underwater blast
July 25, 1946
SPLIT-SECOND CATACLYSM
This remarkable series of photographs shows the development of the underwater atomic blast at Bikini from the moment of detonation (Figure 1) to the towering fury in Figure 6, only a minute fraction of a second later. The bomb used was said to be of the same type and power as the one which created such havoc at Nagasaki when exploded in the air, nearly a year earlier.
The U.S.S. Saratoga goes down
July 25, 1946
SINKS SEVEN HOURS AFTER BLAST
The U.S.S. Saratoga, her island showing (above) and her flight deck flopping over (below), goes to the bottom of Bikini Lagoon seven hours and thirty-two seconds after the underwater atomic bomb was detonated. The underwater test sank more than four times the ship tonnage destroyed by the aerial burst. Ten warships were sent to the bottom.
Facing towards peace
August, 1946
BYRNES ADDRESSES PARIS CONFERENCE
As the first year of victory drew to a close, 21 nations gathered at Paris to start to grapple with the peace treaties. American domestic problems had largely been settled: the wave of strikes was ended, price structures had been agreed upon, employment was at an all-time high of 60,000,000, and production had gone into high in July. Now America was turning with determination to the negotiation of a just and equitable peace. The map on the opposite page indicates the main problems to be thrashed out in the Paris Peace Conference.
Areas under debate at Paris conference
August, 1946
EUROPE'S FACE CHANGES
The Big Four peace treaty drafts, under discussion at the 21-nation Paris Peace conference, affected the shaded and numbered regions on the above map. No. 1—Finland to lose Arctic port and province of Petsamo to Russia. No. 2—Hungarian-Czech border to be restored to pre-Hitler line, Transylvania to go to Russia. No. 3—Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to go to Russia. No.4—Italy loses to France five small boundary areas. No. 5—Trieste and environs to be "Free Territory" under United Nations supervision, with Italy losing most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia. No. 6—Bulgaria gets Southern Dobruja from Rumania. No.7—Italy to return Dodecanese Islands to Greece.
The Nuremberg trials end
September 30, 1946
THE VERDICT IS HEARD
A general view of the courtroom as the War Crimes Tribunal read the verdict. The defendants are seated in the prisoners' box in the upper left. Second, Hermann Goering (left) rests his head on his hand and Rudolf Hess (right stares into space as they listened to their fate.
The Nuremberg trials end
September 30, 1946
SENTENCES ARE METED OUT
The sentences imposed are listed with each defendant's name in this view of the prisoners' box, below. Rudolf Hess who is hidden behind Goering received life imprisonment. Above. Hjalmar Schacht. who was acquitted, told newsmen. "First I have no money. Second I have no ration card. Third I have no home. So where do I go?"
Ten Nazis hang
October 16, 19461
THE ARMY'S HANGMAN
No photographs of the hangings at Nuremberg prison were made public, the Allied Control Commission having decided that the two photographs of each of the prisoners, one clothed and one nude, should remain "top secret." Above, Master Sergeant John O. Woods of San Antonio, Texas, who was in charge of the hangings.
Goering commits suicide
October 16, 1946
ANNOUNCING GOERING'S OUTWITTAL OF JUSTICE
Colonel Burton C. Andrus, Chief Security Officer at Nuremberg prison, announces that Hermann Goering committed suicide by swallowing a phial of potassium cyanide several hours before he was to be executed. An Army investigation board was immediately convened to inquire into how he obtained the poison.
The Big Three
THEY LED THE ALLIES
The top personalities of the Allied war effort were, for the greater part of the war, left to right (above): Marshal Joseph Stalin of Russia, President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain. They are shown at the Teheran Conference. In the closing weeks of the war Roosevelt's death and Churchill's defeat at the polls brought two new members into the Big Three meeting at Potsdam, below. Left to right: Prime Minister Clement Attlee, President Harry S. Truman, and Marshal Stalin.
America's war leader
THE WAR'S NO.1 PERSONALITY
The late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt successfully led the world's greatest nation through the hardest years of the tragic world conflict. He was denied the final victory, dying April 12, 1945, less than a month before victory in Europe and less than six months before Japan's defeat. But his work was done and a free world was grateful. There were many who disputed his politics but few who could deny the great victories at arms that were won by the American forces under the inspiring leadership of the Commander-in-Chief.
Stalin turned the Nazi tide
HITLER UNDERRATED HIM
When Hitler struck his surprise blow at the mighty Soviet Union in June of 1941 the Russian armies reeled back and immense areas were overrun by the German hordes. But at Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad the Russians made their famous stand and slowly, under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the German forces were pushed back across their own frontiers and finally crushed in the very heart of their own country. Stalin—and the Russian people—had triumphed in the greatest test of arms in the history of their country.
"We shall fight on the beaches .. :'
'THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND."
It was Prime Minister Winston Churchill who more than any other one man inspired the British to defy, withstand, and eventually crush the Nazi onslaught against the tight little isle of England. "Winnie" is shown here wearing his fighting look in the early days of the war when France had fallen, the British had evacuated Dunkirk and the black days of the battle of London were still to be endured.
DeGaulle and the Free French
HEROES OF DEFEAT
When France fell in the early summer of 1940, Petain and others concluded with Germany what they termed "an honorable peace." But tall French General Charles DeGaulle refused to admit defeat, escaped France and formed in England an army of free Frenchmen, consisting of both men and women who wished to continue the fight against the Nazis. The general is shown, above, with a band who rallied to the standard of stricken France.
China's road was long and hard
A MEDAL FOR THE LEADER
China had been embroiled with the Japanese long before the Allied entry into the war and the Chinese people had suffered tremendous hardships. China's leader was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek shown at lunch with Mme. Chiang, his loyal partner in China's cause. Mme. Chiang fingers a Legion of Merit medal which was presented to the smiling Generalissimo by General Joseph Stilwell, former American commander in the China, Burma, India theater.
Secretary Forrestal tours the front
SUCCEEDED KNOX
Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal, who succeeded Secretary Knox in April, 1944, tours the Marshall Islands in a jeep during the period when he was Undersecretary of the Navy. In the jeep with Forrestal is Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, center, of Fifth Fleet fame. The Marines had just occupied Namur and Roi Islands.
The United States Secretary of War
HE SAW THE JOB THROUGH
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson held the important top post in the War Department from July, 1940, when the nation was mobilizing, until shortly after V-J Day when the 77-year old Secretary resigned. He is shown here with his wife at the end of his long and arduous war job.
Admiral King and General Marshall
TOP DOGS
Admiral Ernest J. King, left, and General George C. Marshall leave the White House on June 6, 1944, after a conference with President Roosevelt on the progress of the invasion of France. Admiral King was made Commander-in-Chief of the entire U.S. Navy after the Pearl Harbor disaster to replace Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, and in 1942 he became also Chief of Naval Operations. General Marshall, Chief of Staff, served in the Army's highest post throughout the conflict.
United States Secretary of Navy Knox
REVIEWS PEARL HARBOR DISASTER
One week after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor Navy Secretary Frank Knox was back from a personal inspection to tell reporters what he saw in the Hawaii area. Calmly smoking his pipe, he leans back in his chair and tells reporters that at least one battleship and five other warships were lost at Pearl Harbor. His aide, Captain Frank E. Beatty, stands beside him. Knox was appointed Secretary in June, 1940, and served until his death in April, 1944.
MacArthur returns to the Philippines
WADES ASHORE AT LEYTE
When General Douglas MacArthur's forces were driven out of the Philippines by the Japs in 1942 he said, "I shall return." Above, he is shown wading ashore with his troops as they invaded Leyte in a major amphibious operation. MacArthur is at the left and next to him a Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland his aide. Below, MacArthur a shown in the early days of the war at Corregidor with Mrs. MacArthur at his side. Later they were evacuated to Australia at the President's order so that the brilliant general could direct the campaign to hit back at the Japs.
Monty and Ike on the road to Germany
A TOUGH COMBINATION
Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, left, Commander of British ground forces, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, charted a path from the Normandy beachhead to the heart of Germany. General Eisenhower was the man responsible for the overall plan of the invasion forces; Monty directed the British ground forces against the Nazis.
Army Air Chief "Hap" Arnold
STAR GAZING
General Henry Harley Arnold, who moulded the Army Air Forces into the most powerful in the world, gives a five-star greeting to child admirers at an air show at the end of the war. A West Pointer, "Hap" Arnold got into aviation early and was one of the Army's first four military aviators. In World War II General Arnold brought air power to its peak.
President Truman honors Nimitz
AWARDS GOLD STAR
Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's brilliant performance as naval commander in the Pacific was recognized in special Nimitz Day ceremonies held on the White House Lawn shortly after V-J Day. President Truman, left, pins on the Gold Star award while Mrs. Nimitz smiles her pride. Nimitz look command of the Pacific Fleet after the Pearl Harbor disaster, built it up, and set it on its course towards Tokyo and victory.
General Vandegrift of the Marines
TOP DEVIL DOG
General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, Commandant of the United States Marines, is shown here in the early days of the war on Guadalcanal. The general telephones from a jungle outpost with his bayonet and rifle handy. Although Vandegrift was in his fifties he scrambled up and down cargo nets, took cover in foxholes and withstood the same battlefront hardships as his men.
Tito, master of guerrilla warfare
HE HARRIED THE NAZIS
Early in the war years Mihailovitch was the chief Nazi stumbling block in Yugoslavia. Later, however, Marshal Josip Broz Tito emerged as the most potent proponent of guerrilla warfare in the Balkans. Tito's importance was political as well as military, for his loyalty was to Moscow and England was no longer master of the Balkans, astride the Empire life-line.
Hero worship
A BOY AND HIS GENERAL
When General Omar Bradley, United States 12th Army Group Commander, came home following the European victory a tumultuous welcome was given him. Here, a small boy sneaks between a policeman's legs and, kneeling, gets a handshake from the Great Man. After V-J Day Bradley was put at the head of the Veterans' Administration.
Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet
FORTUNATELY HE WAS WRONG
Admiral Jonas H. Ingram once predicted that it was "possible and even probable that the Germans will attempt to launch bombs against Washington." It did not take place largely because the head of the Atlantic Fleet took effective steps to prevent it. Admiral Ingram's biggest job was to get the soldiers and supplies safely across the Atlantic.
Major Bong gets Congressional Medal
DIES IN TEST FLIGHT
General Douglas MacArthur (above, left) congratulates the Army's Pacific flying ace, Major Richard I. Bong, after presenting him with the Congressional Medal of Honor at ceremonies on an airstrip on Leyte Island in the Philippines. Major Bong led Army fighter pilots with a total of 40 Japanese planes shot down in combat. Shortly afterward in August, 1945, the youthful hero died tragically in a test flight at Burbank, California, when an army P-80 jet-propelled plane exploded. Mrs. Marjorie Bong, widow of the famous flier, poses below with sketches she made of her husband.
A hero of the Soviet Union
HE OUT-GENERALED THE GERMANS
Marshal of the Soviet Union Gregory Zhukov was the most famous of the Russian generals. It was he who directed the defense of Moscow; it was he who led the way back to Berlin. As Deputy Commander of all Soviet forces Zhukov ratified at Berlin the terms of the Nazi surrender at Rheims. He is shown here, his chest sparkling with medals, at a victory celebration in Berlin.
The Russians toss "Texas Bill"
HONOR GENERAL SIMPSON
Lieutenant General William Simpson of the U.S. Ninth Army is tossed in the air three times by the Russians, a signal honor in the Soviet. General Simpson led the famous Ninth Army in the conquest of Germany. When he arrived home at the end of the European victory, he was given a hug by his 87-year-old mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Hood Simpson.
Admiral Mitscher swings to safety from the Bunker Hill
SURVIVES TRAGEDY
On board ship there is no distinction between the brass and the enlisted men in combat. A Kamikaze plane does not discriminate. But Admiral Marc A. Mitscher was lucky and when two Kamikazes struck the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, taking a toll of 392 dead or missing, Mitscher was one of the fortunate ones to be swung to safety, above, in a boatswain's chair. The imperturbable Admiral wears the baseball hat which he made famous.
Chennault and Halsey
PERSONALITY PLUS
Major General Claire Chennault, of Flying Tiger fame, left, meets Admiral William F, Halsey, of Pacific fame, for the first time at a party after V-J Day. Chennault's 14th Air Force in China and Halsey's Third Fleet exploits became legendary. It was the Third Fleet that helped rout the Japs in the Second Battle of the Philippines and pasted the Jap mainland in the summer of 1945; it was the Fourteenth Army Air Force that finally cleared the Japs from the air over China.
An American hero of the C.B.I. theater
"VINEGAR JOE"
Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, Commander of the American armies in the China, Burma, India theater, turned a losing battle of the jungles into a winning one for the Allies. In 1942, badly beaten by the Japs, the peppery general led the famous retreat from Burma through 140 miles of dense jungles and malaria-infested swamps. He is shown at the head of his band, above, and below he is pictured plotting a battle in 1944 when the tide was turning in favor of the Allies. With him at the right is Major General Liao Yau Siang, Commander of one of his divisions.
The Allied boss of the Mediterranean
THE BRAINS BEHIND THE BATTLES
As Supreme Allied Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson was not so well known to the public as his field chiefs—Generals Alexander, Clark and others. But he was pre-eminently qualified by brains and background to control the vast theater of operations extending from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles, from Africa to the southern shores of Europe. Of an aristocratic family, Wilson was a professional soldier, trained in the tradition of Empire.
The Allied Commander in Italy
VIEWING THE ADOLF HITLER LINE
General Sir R. L. G. Alexander was the Allied Commander in Italy. His Anglo-American team was composed of General Clark's Fifth and General Sir Oliver Leese's Eighth Army. Before taking over from Eisenhower in Italy, Alexander had distinguished himself in Africa and Burma and when he took charge of the evacuation of Dunkirk he was one of the last off the beaches. Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, he went over the top 30 times in World War I, and was wounded twice.
King George and the British Second Army Commander
IN THE NORMANDY BEACHHEAD
Lieutenant General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey led the British Second Army onto the Normandy beaches, across France and into northern Germany. It was his difficult assignment to hold the anchor at Caen while Bradley's forces made their spectacular breakthrough into France. Both he and King George (shown together, above) were veterans of action in World War I.
The hero of Corregidor
BEFORE AND AFTER
To Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright went the heartbreaking assignment of surrendering to the Japs at Corregidor in the Philippines. Following this defeat General Wainwright spent the rest of the war in Japanese prison camps. When he was rescued in August, 1945, he was gaunt and emaciated from his long ordeal. But he received a hero's welcome, above, and was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Truman. The lower picture shows the general, wearing campaign hat, directing war games in the Philippines just before the Japanese attack.
"Front line general"
CLARK OF THE FIFTH
Lieutenant General Mark Wayne Clark's Fifth Army had in Italy one of the toughest assignments of the war. It was not until the last few days of the war that the Fifth, with the British Eighth Army, was able to push the Nazis up the Italian boot and overwhelm them in the Po Valley. The six-foot-two general is shown here touring the front lines in a jeep, one of his long legs astride a fender. Clark graduated from West Point, was wounded in World War I, and first became famous with his submarine mission to Africa to enlist the aid of French patriots prior to the invasion.
A French general returns to Paris
HE REFUSED DEFEAT
General Jacques LeClerc was one of the French military men who helped lift France from her defeat of 1940. He came back to Paris fighting. He is shown here as he inspected one of the units of the Second French Armored Division of which he was commander. Paris is again free and the French armor and men are drawn up in a victory celebration under the Arc de Triomphe.
Merrill and two of his Marauders
JUNGLE GENERAL
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill was the leader of the first American infantrymen to see action in Asia. Training his forces along the lines developed by Wingate's Raiders, Merrill took the band deep into the swamps and jungles, penetrating behind the enemy and cutting his supply lines. Merrill's forces were dropped supplies by plane. Merrill is shown here, flanked by two of his aides, Later Merrill became General Stilwell's aide.
Colonel Hobby of the WACs
'MISS SPARK-PLUG"
Head woman of the United States Women's Army Corps was Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby. The wife of a newspaper publisher and former governor of Texas, Mrs. Hobby had been a lawyer and also a newspaper executive vice-president. Colleagues on the Houston Post nick-named her Miss Spark Plug. Smart, efficient Colonel Hobby's WACs served in every major battle theater.
An amphibious team watches Leyte invasion
ZERO HOUR
During the opening stage of the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, left, Commander of the U.S. Sixth Army, and Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid, Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, grimly watch the action from the deck of an invasion ship. Both commanders played an important part in the winning of the war in the Pacific.
General Patch of the Seventh
FROM THE SOLOMONS TO SOUTHERN FRANCE
Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch, a West Pointer and World War I veteran, was Commander of the United States Seventh Army which invaded southern France and then coordinated with Patton's Third Army and the French First Army in the final defeat of Germany. Patch's first battle command in World War II was in the Solomons, where he is here shown congratulating a group of Army privates who captured the first Japanese officer to be taken in the Solomons.
Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders
THE FIRST TO BOMB TOKYO
The first spectacular raid on Tokyo in April, 1942, was led personally by Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Jimmy Doolittle. A group of his fliers who landed in China are shown, above, outside a shelter carved from a mountainside in China. After the famous raid both the raiders and Doolittle went on to greater exploits and when the war ended all were adulated by the American public, part of which dances with the general, below, in a Chicago theater.
The Commander of the First French Army
HELPED FREE FRANCE
The First French Army, under the command of General de Latre de Tassigny, helped roll the Germans back at the southern end of the Western Front. Here, de Tassigny, left, is shown inspecting the famous FFI Alpine Regiment. He compliments a 19-year-old farm boy as others in background sneak glances. Note that the general smokes while making inspection.
A general and his mother
HOMECOMING
General Carl Spaatz, who distinguished himself as Commanding General of the U.S. Tactical and Strategic Air Force, comes home after the victory to pin an orchid on his 87-year-old mother, Mrs. Anna Spaatz. Early in the war Spaatz had headed the Eighth Air Force and a few months after the war ended he succeeded retiring General Arnold as Chief of the Army Air Forces.
The women see it through
LEADERS IN WAR EFFORT
In addition to the large organization of Wacs, there were other important services in which women helped to win the war. The Women's Reserve, United States Navy (WAVES), was directed by Captain Mildred H. McAfee, USNR, upper left picture. The Director of the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve was Colonel Ruth Cheney Streeter, upper right; Captain Dorothy C. Stratton, USCGR(W), picture at lower left, was Director of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS); and Captain Sue S. Dauser (NC), lower right, was Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
An amphibious expert
"HOWLIN' MAD" HOLLAND SMITH
Lieutenant General Holland Smith laid much of the groundwork for amphibious training of American troops. But truculent Holland Smith ached for combat and got it when he was given the Central Pacific combat corps command. It was on the Pacific atolls that General Smith and his men wrote history—in the Gilberts, the Marshalls, Kwajalein, Namur, and Tarawa.
Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten
ALLIED COMMANDER IN ASIA
Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, an English aristocrat of royal blood, first captured the popular imagination by heading the British Commandos in the early months of World War II. He later took over in the Far East and it was he who signed the Jap surrender treaty in Singapore in September, 1945. By this treaty the Japanese southern armies in Singapore, southeast Asia and the East Indies gave up to the Allies. The admiral is shown with General Ho Yin-Chen, China's Minister of War and Chief of Staff in 1943 when Mountbatten became the new Allied Commander in South East Asia.
Portrait of a hero
CAPTAIN COLIN KELLY
The nation's first hero of the Second World War was Captain Colin Kelly who died a hero's death in sinking a Japanese battleship in the Philippines during the first days of the war in December, 1941. Captain Kelly's widow stands beside a portrait which later was hung in the Military Academy at West Point. The whole nation paid tribute and Captain Kelly was decorated posthumously.
Air chiefs in the southwest Pacific
BUILDERS OF MACARTHUR'S AIR POWER
To General George C. Kenney goes the major credit for building General Douglas MacArthur's huge southwest Pacific air force. Here, General Kenney, right, chats with his Deputy Chief Major General Ennis Whitehead. In the First World War General Kenney enlisted as a private in the Signal Corps, later got into flying and was twice shot down.
Britain's top soldiers before Dunkirk
GORT AND IRONSIDE
General the Viscount Gort, left, and General Sir Edmund Ironside were considered England's leading military strategists when they studied this map in September, 1939. Ironside was Chief of the Imperial Defense Staff and Gort was Commander-in-Chief of the field forces. It was Gort's lot to lead the B.E.F. before the fall of France and Dunkirk. Later he was made Governor of Malta, the Mediterranean island which suffered thousands of Axis air raids.
''Pappy'' Boyington comes home
"BLACK SHEEP" WELCOME HIM
Lieutenant Colonel Gregory ("Pappy") Boyington is held aloft by members of his famous Black Sheep Squadron which he trained and led in battle. The occasion is Pappy's return to the States after spending 20 months in a Japanese prison camp. The famous marine flying ace got his nickname from his three small children.
An American general meets a Russian
TIME FOR A SMOKE
It was a long, hard road, but now Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges, Commander of the United States First Army, and Russian General Jardov can relax and smoke as they celebrate link-up in the heart of Germany. Hodges' great First Army fought its way across France, ran head-on into von Rundstedt's counteroffensive, drove on to victory in the inner Reich.
Canadian and British leaders in France
WATCH ACTION OVER NORMANDY
In the top picture, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, left, Allied Naval Commander, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander, crane their necks to watch Allied planes "go over" the Normandy beaches during invasion. Ramsay and Tedder tour the beaches in a "duck." Below, Lieutenant General H. D. G. Crerar, Commander of the First Canadian Army, holds a dress inspection of his men in France. Crerar's Canadians played a big part in the battle against the Nazis in the northern sectors of the European battle front.
Captain Rickenbacker survives Pacific ordeal
ADRIFT THREE WEEKS ON A RAFT
The famous flier Captain Eddie Rickenbacker drifted for 22 days in the Pacific Ocean aboard a life raft after his plane was lost while on a survey flight from Hawaii. Four others were rescued with him, three were picked up later from a small island, one perished. Rickenbacker is shown above, center as he is helped to a jeep just after his rescue. Below, left, he is shown with Secretary of War Stimson, to whom he made a report on the ill-fated survey flight.
Wingate of the famous raiders
EXPERT IN JUNGLE WARFARE
Major General Orde Charles Wingate (right, above) created a fabulous legend with his exploits in Burma during the early stages of the war there. As leader of the Imperial airborne Commando forces in Burma, he raised hob with the Japs by dropping men behind their lines to ambush and massacre when least expected. Scholar-soldier Wingate died in the Burma jungle when his plane crashed in March of 1944.
Foxhole generals
"BLOOD AND GUTS"
Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., above, follows the battle action in Africa during the early days of the war from a foxhole up front. Below, in the same theater, he is joined by Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., left, and Major General Terry Allen, center. After distinguishing himself in Africa and Italy, Patton went on to even more spectacular victories in the invasion of Europe and the routing and defeat of the Nazi armies in the west. Patton was killed as a result of an automobile accident shortly after V-J Day; General Roosevelt died of an illness before the war ended.
Marshals of the Soviet Union
THEY LED THE RUSSIANS TO VICTORY
The four Marshals of the Soviet Union pictured here were the geniuses of the Russian victory. Marshals Ivan Konev (upper left) and Konstantin Rokossovsky (upper right) directed the great Russian armies in the mighty offensive which culminated in victory near Berlin. Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky (lower left) led the successful campaign in East Prussia, and Marshal S. K. Timosheako (lower right) directed early field campaigns, later was member of General Staff.
Airman Eaker gets high honor
DEVERS PRESENTS LEGION OF MERIT
Major General (later Lieutenant General) Ira Eaker, Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force, is awarded the Legion of Merit by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers (left). Eaker was the driving genius behind the famous Eighth Air Force's smashes against Germany. General Devers directed the Sixth Army Group in its task of helping to overwhelm Germany in the west.
Brigadier General Davis
TOP NEGRO OFFICER
Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, highest ranking Negro officer in the Army, watches a Signal Corps crew in action just after the Normandy breakthrough. Negro troops and officers served valiantly in every major theater of war.
Generals watch assault on Naha
ACTION ON OKINAWA
The high ranking brass on Okinawa were often under fire and several were killed. Shown here are, left to right, Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., Commanding General of the Tenth Army; Major General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Commanding General of the Sixth Marine Division, and his assistant commander, Brigadier General William T. Clement. From their rocky ledge they follow the movement of their troops against Okinawa's capital, Naha. Later, General Buckner was killed in action by an enemy shell fired during the final phase of the battle of Okinawa.
"She's quite a girl"
HE'S QUITE A DAD
Since Major Joe Foss of the Marines knocked 26 Japanese planes out of the skies it is natural for his daughter, Cheryl June, to look up to him. She's 3-1/2 months old and they're meeting for the first time. With them is Mrs. Foss. Major Foss was the first to top Rickenbacker's World War I record. Later, Major Bong surpassed all records with 40 planes to his credit.
Carney of the Third Fleet
HALSEY'S RIGHT HAND
Rear Admiral Robert B. Carney, as Chief of Staff to the Commander of the Third Fleet, participated in some of the most important of the Pacific naval engagements. Earlier, while Chief of Staff to the Commander of the South Pacific Force, he saw action in the Solomons. He is pictured here on Bougainville talking to wounded war correspondent Rembert James (right).
Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division
A GENERAL JUMPS
Major General James ("Slim Jim") Gavin led the famous 82nd Airborne Division from Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, to Normandy, Nijmegen, the Belgian Bulge. The young Brooklyn-born general take a parachute jump as readily as his men. He is shown here, left, as he is strapped into his gear to make a jump to test wind drifts. Captain John Thompson assists him.
Admiral Spruance of the Fifth Fleet
MIDWAY TO OKINAWA
Admiral Raymond Spruance was the skipper of a string of victories in the Pacific from his first great battle command at Midway to the final assault on Okinawa. Here, Spruance, right, talks to his chief, Admiral King, at Saipan in the Marianas. Spruance achieved a reputation for toughness in battle, a toughness which sometimes cost lives but won victories.
Lord of the East
VICEROY OF INDIA
Lord Archibald Percival Wavell, Viceroy of India, first became famous when his Imperial Army of the Nile drove the Italians out of Cyrenaica early in the war when the general outlook was dark for the Allies. In 1943 he became Viceroy of India. Wavell lost his left eye in the Ypres offensive of World War I. An Egyptian servant attends him here as he reads his morning newspaper during the African campaign. Lord Wavell also served in the Near East before the war.
Geiger of the Marines
A VETERAN CAMPAIGNER
Major General Roy S. Geiger was Commander of the Marine's Third Amphibious Corps on Okinawa and was leader of the Allied Air Command in the Solomon Island campaign. He is shown here getting his bearings on Peleliu, stepping stone to Japan. When General Buckner was killed on Okinawa, Admiral Nimitz made General Geiger Commander-in-Chief of the Ryukyus forces.
Commander of the Invasion task force
OFF THE NORMANDY BEACHES
Admiral Alan G. Kirk, center, was Commander of the United States Navy Task Forces in the invasion of France. Aboard his flagship he is shown talking to one of his 20mm crews as H-Hour approaches. Anglo-American naval forces coordinated in the biggest and most complex invasion operation of the war.
A general at Anzio
MAPPING A WAY OUT
This picture of Major General (later Lieutenant General) Lucian Truscott of the Fifth Army was censored during the touch-and-go stage of the Anzio beachhead, but when the beachhead finally became a rear area the picture was released. Anzio was one of the hottest beaches of the war; Italy one of the toughest theaters. General Truscott served valiantly and with distinction, later being promoted and shifted to the Western Front in Europe.
Luck was with Lieutenant Tom Harmon
FOOTBALL STAR COMES HOME
Lieutenant Tom Harmon, former Michigan football star, survived after bailing out of a plane over the French Guiana jungles and after being missing in China for over a month. Here he is happily united with his wife, screen actress Elyse Knox, and daughter, Sharon Kristan Harmon.
Hill 604
"THIS IS IT"
A dramatic close-up of a battle formation, this photograph takes you into the front lines along the Verde Trail in the Philippines. At the right is a machine gun position, backed by a tommygunner, and to the left, riflemen are deployed in their shallow foxholes. Members of the 32nd Division, they are exchanging fire with Japs on the next ridge. Note shattered foliage and battle smoke.
Unearthing a sniper
HIDDEN IN THE RUBBLE
In the ruins of every devastated German town, snipers lay in wait and took pot shots at the occupying forces. Here, in the rubble of Prum, Germany, riflemen of the Fourth Division scramble after a die-hard Nazi sniper.
The U.S.S. Lindsey is decapitated
REFUSES TO SINK
When the U.S.S. Lindsey was struck by two Japanese suicide planes her forward magazine exploded, shearing away the bow and leaving only twisted and jagged steel, above. Even this blow was not fatal, however, and the Lindsey was brought to port. The action took place off Okinawa on April 12, 1945, but the photograph was not released until after V-J Day.
Battle's end
THE LIVING PRAY
Troops stand with bowed heads as services are held for those who died in the invasion of Okinawa. Although the Okinawan campaign was unusually bitter, only about 7,000 Tenth Army soldiers were killed, compared to some 87,000 Japanese. About 30,000 men of the Tenth Army were wounded. These figures do not include naval and air casualties of the Ryukus campaign.
Winter war
IN THE BELGIAN BULGE
A Yank's gun is silhouetted against the snow as he places another clip of cartridges in position during the advance in the Houffalize sector. Two German soldiers, wearing camouflage snow suits, lie dead in the drifts. The bitter fight against von Rundstedt's sudden onslaught was made even more gruelling by the hardship of winter weather.
Wading into the enemy
MOROTAI INVASION
Guns held clear of the water, infantrymen of the 31st Division wade from ships to shore during the invasion of Morotai Island, of the Palau group, in September, 1944. The small island was an easier nut to crack than its neighbor, Peleliu Island.
Casualties on Normandy beachhead
THEY SURVIVE ORDEAL
These American assault troops passed through withering fire on a Normandy beachhead and, although wounded, reached the comparative safety of the chalk cliff at their backs, Smokes and food were available for their comfort. Note the cards attached to their jackets, containing information for disposition of their cases in rear areas.
Battle babies
IN THE WAR'S WAY
Japanese children who were found hiding in the caves of Shuri, Okinawa, are led through the mud of the battlelines to safety behind the American lines. A marine lieutenant, attached to the 77th Division, carries the frightened baby, the other two walk demurely at his side. The Yanks gained a reputation for kindness to children in all theaters of war.
Kwajalein cafeteria
TIME OUT FOR LUNCH
One must eat, and so this infantryman on Kwajalein settles himself among the dead of the battlefield and partakes of his "C" rations. His comrade checks the action of his rifle and both keep their heads low behind the shelter of a knocked out pillbox. The smoke of battle hangs like a pall over the shattered trees and debris.
A Liberator goes down in flames
SKY SACRIFICE
A B-24 Liberator of the U.S. Army 8th Air Force plummets to its death during an attack on the railway marshalling yards at Munster, Germany. The port wing is tearing loose as the blazing fuel tanks leave a trail of fire. Even in its death throes the German war machine was still capable of knocking out some of the heavy bombers that daily hammered Germany.
Dead men can be dangerous
BOOBY TRAPS TOOK TOLL
A Third Army infantry man cautiously approaches a dead German soldier in the depths of the snow-covered Luxembourg forest. One of the war's most treacherous devices was the booby trap, an explosive which would be hidden in the least expected place and then detonated by any unsuspecting soldier who might run afoul of it.
The blitz through France
DRIVE TOWARDS THE SEINE
When General Patton's men broke out of the Normandy pocket, infantry and armor coordinated in the lightning drive to Paris, as graphically shown here. On the approaches to the Seine River bridge, north of Fontainebleau, France, this column is under heavy enemy fire but manages to give back better than it receives from the Nazis.
Strike three-but not out
THE BIRMINGHAM FIGHTS ON
Having survived two earlier attacks in the war, the light cruiser Birmingham was struck for a third time on May 4, 1945, when a Jap suicide plane plunged straight out of the sun to rip through the deck, above. This picture was not released until the end of the war. Crewmen are struggling to remove a shipmate who was killed while others fight fire with hose.
The road back
AWAY FROM WAR
His face drawn with pain, an infantryman of the 94th Division, Third Army, makes his way to an aid station in Holzerath, Germany, after being wounded in the front lines. His clothes are in shreds, probably from the impact of a shell explosion.
Infantrymen roll into Born
AN ARMY ON WHEELS
Rifles alert, 30th Division infantrymen enter Born, Germany, atop a reconnaissance car. The burning town was soon captured and the Ninth Army continued its final drive of the war to the River Elbe, last barrier before Berlin.
Houses become pillboxes
HOMES ARE RUINED
A white surrender flag is displayed on the shell-pocked, tightly shuttered house, above, but GIs approach warily, in fear of possible snipers or treachery. The home in the lower picture is under bombardment as two Yank infantrymen seek its shelter. Both houses are in German towns.
Little soldiers
THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Towards the end of the war, Hitler's plight was made manifest by such captives as these, both under 14 years of age. The Nazis, having suffered millions of casualties, were desperate for manpower. Little more than children, these Nazis are searched by a Third Army Yank.
Mopping up St. Malo
SNIPER HUNT
Bullets rattle in the streets of St. Malo, France, as one Yank crouches low and dashes across the road while his buddies draw a bead on a Nazi sniper. Occupation of the town was delayed several hours by German rearguard units.
Sniper hunt
IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE
The grim business of hunting down human beings and shooting them in the wooded battlefields of the Western Front is dramatically pictured here. As two Yanks bend low and run forward, a companion crouches by a tree and covers them with a tommygun. One Nazi has already been slain. There are two alternatives only—kill or be killed.
Scorched earth
HEAT WAVE
During the bitter struggle for "Big Apple" ridge on Okinawa, the Japanese burrowed into the earth and rocks and could only be dislodged by "heat treatments." The Japs were holed in along both sides of the sunken road, shown here. A flame-throwing tank of the 96th Division rolls through the mud, spouting flame and smoke, as an infantryman brings up the rear. In the lower picture, two marines blast their way towards Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
Facing death on an open beach
SAIPAN SCRAMBLE
Marines in the first wave to hit the Saipan beach fall to their knees and crawl as withering enemy fire sings over their heads. One marine glances fearfully inland as they get set to take up pre-assigned positions which they must hold until additional troops are landed.
Bunker Hill casualties
TRAGEDY AT SEA
This picture, released weeks after the heroic fight of the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, show only a few of the casualties suffered in the encounter with two Kamikaze planes in the Ryukyus on May 11, 1945. Total casualties were 392 dead or missing, 264 wounded. Here, the decks are still soaked with part of the millions of gallons of water used to combat flames caused by the Kamikazes.
Crash landing
MISSION COMPLETED
This B-29 Superfort made a successful strike at Tokyo but was crippled and forced to make an emergency landing on Iwo Jima. Brakes on the huge plane locked and she careened into the flight line, plowed through four Mustang fighters and burst into flame. Two members of the crew were hospitalized for burns, two treated for minor burns, and the remainder escaped unhurt.
The drive through ruined Germany
DESOLATION
As the Allied armored columns ground deeper and deeper into Germany, scenes of desolation such as the one shown here were common. Debris litters the road, a dead German lies in the foreground. However, the victorious Yanks were frequently "softies" as attested by the wounded Nazi being given a lift on the front of the tank.
Pecking at a pillbox
A TOUGH TARGET
Crouching behind a tree trunk, this marine on Tarawa tries to slam a bullet into one of the narrow apertures through which the Japs are sighting him. The usual debris litters the battle ground and the trees are chewed up by gunfire.
BATTLE PANORAMA
One of the great epics of the war was the heroic defense of Stalingrad which marked the turning point in the German struggle with Russia. Begun in the summer of 1942, the siege lasted into February of 1943 and cost the German Sixth Army some 330,000 men. The picture here (top) shows the dogged Soviet soldiers grimly fighting amidst the wreckage of their great city. A huge force of Nazi planes battered the city on a 24-hour schedule. But the Russians held, and in October of 1942 launched a counteroffensive which by February, 1943, had hacked the Nazi forces to bits. It was Hitler's Waterloo in Russia. The lower picture shows Soviet soldiers charging under fire.
The Hornet's flight deck folds
RIPPED BY TYPHOON
Although the Japs were stung by the U.S.S. Hornet over a period of 18 months at sea, not once was the Hornet so much as hit by a single enemy bullet. It took a typhoon on June 5, 1945, to button down the lip of the carrier, above. She had already knocked out some 1,400 Jap planes and 1,270,000 tons of Jap shipping. Picture was released at end of conflict.
The tide goes out
WASHED UP
The body of a Japanese soldier floats in the water of Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, after a futile counter-attack against American positions. The helmet is still in place, and fingers of right hand are crossed.
The British drive through Holland
ATTEMPT TO TURN SIEGFRIED LINE
British airborne troops are shown in the upper picture as they prepare to repulse the enemy which is a bare 100 yards distant. In the battle at Arnheim the British fought bravely but with initial failures. In the lower picture, the Tommies are shown advancing on Hertogenbosch, key communication center for German troops in western Holland.
Playing hide and seek with death
HOUSE CLEANING
An alert team of American soldiers methodically clears out the Germans from buildings in the suburbs of Duren, Germany. The bodies in the foreground attest the efficiency of the clean-up party. The house in background has been sprayed with gunfire.
Last rites for Saipan heroes
SILENT SORROW
The tragedy of war is expressed in the faces of these Saipan marines as they listen to their Chaplain read last rites for their buddies who died the hard way—in battle.
Chasing the Nazis out of Italy
ON THE DOUBLE
A soldier of the 88th Division, United States Fifth Army, dashes past burning German vehicles in a battle-scarred street of Vicenza, Italy. Although this picture was taken in April of 1945, the devastation indicates that the fighting was bitter to the very end of the Italian campaign.
A captured German photograph
TWO SHOTS FROM BEHIND
This picture, found on a German officer taken prisoner, bore no descriptive note and needs none. It is eloquent of Nazi ruthlessness and brutality.
Bombers over Berlin
B-17s DROP EGGS
When the Russians finally drove into the heart of Berlin in the closing days of the war, they found the once great city a pile of rubble from repeated Allied air attacks such as the one shown here. B-l7 Flying Fortresses of the United States Army 8th Air Force reach the smoke markers over the target area and release a cascade of bombs in unison.
Death of a tanker
FUNERAL PALL
A vast umbrella of black smoke goes up over a Pacific Fleet Train as one of its members, the oil tanker U.S.S. Mississinewa, is set aflame by enemy action. Duty aboard this type of ship was exceptionally hazardous since a single hit could turn the vessel into a raging inferno within seconds. Other ships of the Fleet Train stand helplessly
Yank kindness
CANDY FOR A CHILD
A bearded marine reaches through the barbed wire of an internment camp on Tinian to pass a piece of candy to a native child. GI candy won the hearts of enemy children in both the Pacific and European battle zones where American candy was a rare treat.
Hitting the Pacific beaches
UNDER FIRE
The war in the Pacific was a series of beach stormings from Tarawa to Okinawa. Here, marines are shown piling ashore on Guam, above, and infantrymen are creeping up the beach of Cebu in the Philippines, below. Both beaches are under heavy enemy fire.
A Navy flight nurse on Okinawa
"UNION AIR TERMINAL OKINAWA
MAIL, FREIGHT, PASSENGERS
AIR EVACUATION
A.T.C.—N.A.T.S.—T.A.G.—T.C."
READY FOR DUTY
This smiling Navy flight nurse is one of the many who performed the great service of ministering to the wounded as they were borne from the battle areas by plane to rear area hospitals. She stands by the sign which designates the field from which Naval Air Transportation Service planes take off from Okinawa to hospitals in the Marianas.
Bringing in German prisoners
ROUND-UP
In the top picture, infantrymen of the 94th Division march German prisoners through the shattered streets of Nening, Germany. The lower picture is a scene in the front lines in Belgium. Members of the 82nd Airborne Division have just clashed with a Nazi patrol, killing several of the enemy and bringing one back alive. The closeness of combat is evident in the attitudes and expressions of the men as they bend low and bring in their captive at gun-point.
Death comes close
U.S.S. LANGLEY HAS NARROW ESCAPE
Crewmen of the light carrier Langley hit the deck as a Japanese suicide plane swerves near and then is caught in the vessel's gun fire and heads harmlessly out to sea (upper center of photo). But the crew had a hair-raising moment and one member raises his hands aloft in a mingled expression of thanksgiving and malediction on the foe.
American columns run into trouble
NAZIS FIGHT BACK IN FRANCE
The American tank and infantryman in the upper picture are seeking out an enemy machine gun nest which has opened up on them along a road near Coudray, France. Below, an American infantry column is attacked outside Brest, France. Although the German collapse in France was sudden and fast, the Nazis fought back ferociously as shown in these combat pictures.
A lone American fighter mauls Nazi convoy;
COLUMN GOES UP IN SMOKE
As this German convoy, carrying ammunition and gasoline, retreated through France, a United States 9th Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt swooped in at deck level and sprayed the Nazis with incendiary caliber .50 bullets. One vehicle burst into flame, then another, and another, until the entire convoy is ablaze and 90 percent destroyed.
A Kamikaze strikes the U.S.S. Intrepid
INFERNO AT SEA
Although the U.S.S. Intrepid was attacked and hit four times by the Japanese, she was still in action at the end of the war. This picture, taken in November, 1944, but released months later, shows the blazing result of a strike by a Japanese suicide plane. The carrier was also struck by a torpedo during the American assault on Truk, caught a Kamikaze on its deck in October, 1944, and was again hit while operating off the Japanese homeland toward the end of the war.
Phosphorus bombs miss Yanks
LIBERATORS BOMB IWO JIMA
Phosphorus bombs, dropped by Jap Zekes, end in harmless puffs of smoke as the enemy makes a series of unsuccessful attacks on United States Army 7th Air Force Liberators. The American planes had already delivered a load of bombs to Iwo Jima, then occupied by the enemy.
Journey's end
A CEMETERY IN BOUGAINVILLE
The Second World War put American military cemeteries in the most remote corners of the earth. Here, in the jungles of Bougainville, a Navy Chaplain reads services over a fresh grave as marines listen in grim sorrow. In this brief battle interlude the men do not bother to don shirts but the grief in their faces is no less sincere.
Phosphorus grenades sear Japs
ROUT FROM HIDING
Stubborn Japanese soldiers, hiding in a culvert near Aritao, Luzon, are showered with stinging phosphorus grenades by troops of the American 129th Regiment. Above, an infantryman fires a grenade from rifle attachment, and, below, troops wait for Japs to emerge, if still alive.
The Yanks dig in
DEFENSE AGAINST ARTILLERY
Under mortar and artillery fire, infantrymen of the 94th Division, United States Third Army, dig foxholes near Kell, Germany, above. The Yanks in the lower picture are digging in on the beach after landing in southern France in the St. Tropez area.
The Russian juggernaut in Germany
SOVIET HAMMER HITS NEIDENBURG
The great miracle of the war was the Russian recovery from the German onslaught and then her own mighty counter-offensive which swept from Warsaw to Berlin in the early months of 1945. Here, a Soviet armored column grinds into the broken town of Neidenburg in East Prussia. Fires arise from the shattered houses and the dead litter the streets.
A Jap machine gun nest is wiped out
DEATH VALLEY
Jap machine gunners sprawl dead in a ditch near Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, after a counterattack against American positions there. Guns and other equipment are scattered among the grotesque and badly mauled bodies.
"Honorable" Jap says "Uncle"
AN AWKWARD MOMENT
Looking decidedly uncomfortable and frightened, a Japanese soldier comes out of hiding to give up to a GI of the Seventh Division on Okinawa. Another Jap is following right at his heels (lower left of picture). Note watch collection on Yank's wrists.
The tragedy of the U.S.S. Franklin
PRAYER FOR A HERO
His gloved hands pressed together, Navy Chaplain Joseph O'Callahan, Lieutenant Commander (ChC), administers last rites to an injured crewman aboard the ill-fated Franklin. A Japanese dive-bomber dropped two heavy bombs on the Franklin when she was operating 60 miles off the Japanese mainland on March 19, 1945. Although 832 of the crew gave their lives and 270 were wounded, the ship survived and was brought 12,000 miles to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs.
The Canadian First Army takes Cleve
SIEGFRIED BASTION FALLS
British tanks move up to support infantry clearing snipers from the devastated German town of Cleve, above, strong-point in the northern sector of the Western Wall. Lower picture shows Cleve after its capture. Formerly a picturesque medieval town with a pre-war population of nearly 25,000, Cleve was completely destroyed by the fighting and the preceding air bombardment. More than 700 RAF. Lancasters and Halifaxes joined the attack on the fortress town.
The U.S.S. Hazelwood limps home
HIT BY TWO KAMIKAZES
Her fires under control and her engineering plant again in operation, the destroyer U.S.S. Hazelwood begins the first leg of her journey to the States. She was hit while escorting a fast carrier striking force off Okinawa late in the evening of April 29, 1945, but the above picture was held back by the censors until a later date. The first Kamikaze to strike succeeded in merely grazing the aftermount, but the second plunged into the superstructure creating the havoc shown here. Ten officers and 67 enlisted men were killed or missing.
Marauders smash German communications
POUND MARSHALLING YARDS
The Allied 'round-the-clock bombing of German communications played a decisive part in the collapse of the Nazi war machine. Here, Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauders, flying in precise formation, dump their eggs accurately on the important railroad bridge and marshalling yard at Enskirchen, Germany. The last rail line over the Erft River was cut.
Fighting in France
GIVE AND TAKE
Signal Corpsmen of the 100th Division, 7th Army, above, have been spotted by Nazi forward observers and are pinned to the ground by shell fire. Below, American infantrymen go into action fast, the GI at the left launching a fragmentation grenade from his rifle while his buddies lay down rifle fire against a nest of Nazis at close range.
The siege of Leningrad
RUSSIA STRIKES BACK
The seventeen months' siege of Leningrad and its subsequent breaking by the Russians was one of the great epics of the war. Soviet infantrymen are shown, top picture, as they take a German strongpoint on the Leningrad front. In the lower picture, Red soldiers appear as in a nightmare as they charge through the eerie murk of a burning battleground.
The mangled heart of a warship
U.S.S. NEWCOMB SURVIVES FOUR HITS
Attacked by seven suicide planes and struck by four, the U.S.S. Newcomb was badly crippled while operating in the Ryukus. One Kamikaze caught the vessel amidships, tearing the gaping hole pictured here, and knocking out the steam and electric power, leaving her dead in the water. Temporary repairs by the crew enabled her to reach an advance base anchorage.
A grim journey
MEDICS REMOVE WOUNDED
A victim of a handgrenade is brought back in a stretcher from the front lines on Kwajalein. The medics, members of the 7th Division, trudge through a recent battle area, still shrouded with smoke, and scarred by gunfire.
Japanese children view Yank armor
"MARCHING ALONG TOGETHER"
The Second Marine Division met little opposition in its occupation of Iheya Shima, small island in the Okinawan group. In the scene above, a native girl and her baby brother watch the invaders much as they would watch a peace-time parade.
Battling in Burma
14TH ARMY ADVANCES ON RANGOON
Sikh troops go into the familiar infantry crawl as they advance cautiously on Japanese forces in a village near Pyawbwe, 22 miles southeast of Meiktila, Burma. This drive culminated in the capture of Rangoon and the virtual end of the Burma campaign. In this picture a protective smoke screen mingles with the pall of battle.
Evicting a Jap
A TROUBLESOME TENANT
Scouts of the 32nd Infantry Division in Northern Luzon crouch in a moment of indecision as they are fired upon from a nip shack (top picture). Quickly organizing, they commence to sneak up on the shack through the deep weeds (second picture). In the lower picture, the trigger-happy Jap decides to come out with his hands up.
Waiting their turn
SO FAR SO GOOD
The Yanks have made the beach and now they await the next step—inland. The marines in the upper picture are shown digging in just before the attack on Saipan. An amphibious tractor burning in the background indicates what they have already been through. The lower picture shows 3rd Division medics shortly after landing in the St. Tropez area, southern France.
Over the top on Iwo Jima
BEGINNING AND END
Crouching low against a storm of enemy missiles, marines go over the top from their beachhead positions on Iwo, above. In the lower picture, a bandaged marine paces through the rows of crosses in Iwo Jima cemetery, looking for the graves of buddies who fell in battle.
Ducking shells on the Western Front
YANKS HIT THE DIRT
The GI at the extreme left, above, burrows into a pile of fertilizer, and his buddy runs for the cover of their tank as enemy shells scream over Schillingen, Germany. The lads in the lower picture are not resting—they're hoping the shells overhead do not bear their numbers.
Yanks pray for fallen buddies
BATTLEGROUND IS CEMETERY
Against the somber background of front-line battle, Coast Guardsmen and soldiers attend rites for their fallen comrades on Ie Shima. A Chaplain leads a service over the graves even as the smoke of battle still hangs low and threatening about them. The altar is crudely made, the grim-faced men wear battle garb and will return to the fighting after the services.
Saipan beach
SUICIDE CHARGE
Dead Japanese litter the beach after a last desperate charge against American forces on July 6, 1944. While these final frenzied efforts to oust the Yanks only resulted in wholesale slaughter, American forces also paid dearly, suffering an estimated 10,000 casualties which was considerably more than the enemy's toll of an estimated 1,500 troops killed.
The Red Army in Austria
ATTACK NAZI SATELLITE
The German-Russo front extended from the Baltic to the Balkans and an important part of the Red counter-offensive was the drive into Austria. Here, Soviet infantrymen supported by mammoth tanks, attack German positions in an Austrian farming district.
The war's path through France
TOWNS CRUMBLE AND BURN
France not only suffered occupation by the enemy, but saw the course of battle pass through many of her towns, sometimes more than once. A small town on the Western Front is practically obliterated, above. A soldier lies dead in the street, a baby carriage is knocked over (right background). The little Alsatian village, below, burns furiously from an artillery hit. The French First Army eventually had the satisfaction of helping to chase the Germans off French soil.
Dynamite dislodges Japs
DEMOLITION CHARGES USED
Besides using handgrenades and flame-throwers to coax the Japs out of their caves and dugouts, the Yanks also used demolition charges as shown here on Saipan, above, and Guam, below. In the upper picture, note marine crouched in foxhole, extreme lower left of picture.
A Japanese tomb
JAPS RETURN TO ANCESTORS
This rugged concrete tomb served as a pillbox as well as last resting place for die-hard Japs on Okinawa. GI at extreme left sneaks cautiously upon the entrance from a side angle while another crouches directly before the entrance with his sights leveled and ready for signs of the enemy. Men at upper right stand ready to cover the action. Note bodies in center of picture.
Moving up
TARAWA AIRSTRIP IS RINGED
Crouching and crawling in the sand, marines take shelter behind enemy pillboxes before advancing in the smoke and fire of battle toward the Jap airfield on Tarawa.
Medics save the wounded
ADMINISTER FIRST AID IN THE FIELD
An infantryman who fell in the Huertgen Forest, Germany, is treated by medics of the 4th Infantry Division, above, and in the picture below, medics of the 94th Division aid a soldier whose leg was cut off by shrapnel during the advance on Kell, Germany.
The U.S.S. Hancock survives "one-two punch"
VICTIM OF FREAK HIT
Crewmen of the U.S.S. Hancock pour water on the blazing deck after the carrier was crippled in a novel manner off Okinawa on April 7, 1945. A Japanese plane that dropped a bomb on the Hancock was then caught in the blast of its own bomb, and cart-wheeled into a group of Navy planes on the after deck. One of the ruined planes is shown, below, and the furiously blazing Hancock is pictured, above. Since the carrier was miraculously back in action within four hours, these pictures were not released until the war's end. The toll of the Hancock was 29 killed, 35 missing, and 76 wounded.
Foxhole finish
A BITTER END
Foxholes often furnished a safe refuge in World War II but they were far from invulnerable. Both Japanese and American soldiers lie sprawled in the slit-trench on Guam, shown in the picture above. Below, a Nazi bazookaman was killed in his foxhole near Windischleuba, Germany, by 6th Armored Division infantrymen.
The U.S.S. Maryland is hit
SILHOUETTE OF DISTRESS
A billow of smoke and a shower of fire are disgorged from the U.S.S. Maryland as she takes a blow from a Kamikaze off Okinawa on April 7, 1945. Eleven men were killed, six missing, and 36 wounded—but the ship continued to fight. Picture was held up by censors.
Bird of prey in the Brenner Pass
IT'S A STRIKE
Like a huge bird, a 12th Air Force B-25 swoops low in the Brenner Pass to drop its eggs flush on a railroad bridge near Dogna, Italy. Although the Allies continuously pounded the Nazi supply arteries in the north of Italy, the German armies held out for many bitter months, and the Allied progress up the Italian boot was slow and costly.
Cheating Davy Jones
OUT OF THE DEEP
In the upper picture, one of twenty men, who were blown off the deck of the U.S.S. Houston, is hoisted aboard the destroyer Stephen Potter. The Houston, struck by two aerial torpedoes off Formosa in October, 1944, nevertheless made anchorage. The oil-smeared men, below, head for shore in a landing boat after being rescued from the U.S.S. Coolidge.
The Japanese sink the U.S.S. St. Lo
PHILIPPINE SEA CASUALTY
The United States Navy won a great victory in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea in October, 1944. One of our few losses was the escort carrier U.S.S. St. Lo which burst into flames, above, and sunk after an attack by enemy planes.
An American column is shelled in Germany
THE NAZIS STRIKE BACK
American vehicles burn furiously on the road to Dusseldorf, Germany, after running into a German counter attack near Krefeld. Note the trench systems in the foreground and upper center. Although the Allied blitz into Germany was spectacularly successful, the Nazis were still capable of dealing out punishment as shown by this picture.
Putting the handcuffs on German U-boats
SUBS COME UP FOR AIR
At the end of the war in May, 1945, the first German submarine to surrender to the British Navy was the U-249. above, shown as its captured crew boards a British ship at Portland Harbor. Below, a German submarine surrenders to the U.S. Navy. During the rest of the month the greatest U-boat roundup of the war was carried out by both the Royal and the United States Navy.
Kamikazes catch carriers
CAUSE HAVOC
The disastrous effects of Jap suicide strikes are shown by these photographs of the U.S.S. Essex, above, and the U.S.S. Enterprise, below, each shown just after receiving hits amidships. Although separate incidents, the pictures are remarkably similar since both are carriers, both took Kamikaze blows. Pictures were held back until the end of the war, although the Essex action occurred in November, 1944, the Enterprise action in May of 1945, during the Okinawa campaign.
Fifth Army casualties in Italy
HEROES OF SALERNO
The battle of Salerno was one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. Fifth Army men who paid the price of victory are shown in the upper picture as a burial detail prepares graves which will be marked by crosses, placed temporarily on bodies. American casualties in the lower picture were caused when German bombers knocked out a half-track in which the men were riding.
British and American troops cross the Rhine
OPERATION IS ON A VAST SCALE
The combined airborne and amphibious crossings of the Rhine River in the vicinity of Wesel on March 24, 1945, was the greatest military operation since D-Day. British, Canadian, and American troops of the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Montgomery combined in the vast push across the last natural barrier in the west. The upper picture shows paratroopers just after landing East of the Rhine and a huge glider nosing down for a landing. Lower picture shows a British regiment after crossing the river in "Buffaloes."
The battle of the Belgian bulge
GERMANS ARE HALTED
The great German counter-offensive in Belgium came to a halt at the end of December, 1944, when the weather cleared and the Allies were able to throw in huge air forces against von Rundstedt's men. Above, U.S. Army engineers hit the road as they blow up a German pillbox. Below, dead German in a wood near Liesneux. Note vehicles in background.
Across the steppes of Russia
RETURN TRIP
Red soldiers pursue the Nazis back across the vast steppes which the Germans invaded early in the war. But in the winter of 1944 the Russians had the upper hand and they are shown here attacking in open terrain, above, and during a night operation, below. In the upper picture, bodies in the ditch are German soldiers.
American bombers over Budapest
AIRDROME IS BLASTED
B-24 Liberator bombers of Major General Nathan F. Twining's 15th Air Force leave the Budapest-Tokal airdrome in Hungary a cloud of smoke after dropping their bombs on the Nazi-held base. Bombings of central Europe were an important part of the Allied overall strategy.
The assault on Iwo
DIGGING IN
As enemy fire sweeps the beach from Mt. Suribachi in the background, marines burrow into the volcanic sand of Iwo Jima. Equipment and supplies are being unloaded from landing craft which are under heavy enemy fire.
A mortar squad harasses the enemy
LAYS DOWN RAPID FIRE
A United States Army mortar squad ducks as it lets go a heavy shell at the Nazis in France. The entire pile of ammunition shown in foreground was fired within a few minutes after picture was taken. Note rifles stacked near at hand for instant use. In the lower picture, an infantryman dashes through a shattered orchard, still under fire, in Tittingen, Germany.
Pouring it on in the Pacific
EVERYTHING GOES
Infantrymen of the 77th Division, above, use a Browning Automatic rifle, mortar fire and a rifle grenade against Japs along an escarpment on southern Okinawa. In the lower picture, marines on the beach of Tarawa start out on a patrol while buddies in background wait their turn.
Battling for the Marne
WORLD WAR II VERSION
Camouflaged tanks, upper picture, move into position to protect a bridge across the Marne River in France while infantrymen dash for cover from German sniper fire which rings about them from the other side of the river. But in World War II the Marne was quickly left behind and troops raced on to Germany where they fought the enemy in his own towns, lower picture.
American losses are heavy at Bari
ITALIAN PORT CAUGHT BY SURPRISE
American cargo vessels in the Italian port of Bari, on the Adriatic Sea, blaze fiercely after a surprise German bombing attack on the dawn of December 2, 1943. Secretary of War Stimson disclosed that the raid cost the Allies 17 cargo vessels, including five American ships, and 1,000 casualties. Losses were ascribed to lack of fighter protection.
The Nazis are routed from Brest
U-BOAT BASE FALLS
The Germans in the French town of Brest held out for 46 days before the siege was broken on September 19, 1944. In the upper picture, a United States tank destroyer fires at point-blank range to clear a side street. Bottom picture shows German women among prisoner haul.
A bitter task
BRITISH TOMMY CARES FOR DEAD BUDDY
A British soldier shovels dirt on the body of his dead comrade to put out a fire which started when a sniper's bullet hit a phosphorus grenade he was carrying. In the lower picture, German snipers are caught by United States combat engineers, after the snipers had fired upon them in a wood near the Roer River where the Yanks had been repairing a bridge.
Opposition is fierce on Peleliu
LAST BARRIER TO PHILIPPINES
Peleliu, in the Angaur group of islands, put up stiff opposition since it was the last obstacle to the return to the Philippines, only 300 miles away. Die-hard Japs, in the upper picture, have holed up in a dugout and refuse to come out. The marines later had to blast them with phosphorus grenades. In the lower picture, an American soldier has been wounded and is given a drink of scarce water from a buddy's canteen.
The Infantry attacks a German town
ADVANCES ON LINDFORT
Troops of the 35th Division, United States Ninth Army, crouch low along the road to Lindfort, Germany (above), in preparation for an assault on the town. Other troops of the same outfit, below, move across an open field towards the same objective. These forces have just captured Rhineberg, Germany, and Lindfort is next on their timetable.
D-Day
STORMING THE NORMANDY BEACH
This is what the German-held coast of France looked like to Allied soldiers as they swarmed from their landing barges in the face of fierce enemy fire on June 6, 1944. Heavily loaded with their combat and field equipment, the men wade waist-deep through the water toward the smoke-shrouded, battle-strewn shore.
All quiet on this front
A JAP RESTS IN PEACE
A United States Army captain peers into the jungle lair of a Japanese soldier who has been killed during the fighting in the northern part of Luzon in the Philippines. Note the clips of cartridges scattered in the lower right corner of picture.
Battling in the snow of Russia
WINTER WAR
The long, severe Russian winters were a hardship to the Nazis, whereas the Soviet Army prepared especially for that condition. Here, Russian guardsmen are shown in the winter of 1942, operating against the Nazis on the Ukrainian front. Above, they wear snow-suits as they battle for a key height. Below, a patrol has killed a Nazi sentry and is firing on other opposition.
Injured survivors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis
MERCY SHIP
A landing craft takes injured survivors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis to Peleliu for hospitalization. The cruiser was sunk by enemy action in the Philippine Sea after delivering atomic bomb materials to Guam from the United States. There were 1,196 casualties.
Going over the top
A COUPLE OF TOUGH GUYS
These Yanks mean business. One prepares to toss a handgrenade at the Japs while the other holds his carbine alert as he gets set to take forward a bandoleer of ammunition.
A Coast Guardsman sacrifices his life
KILLED AT BATTLE STATION
The bitter price of victory is epitomized in the twisted body of this Coast Guardsman, killed at his post when his ship was smashed by enemy action.
Getting the wounded to safety
CASUALTIES LEAVE THE BATTLE
A Tarawa marine, who went over the top to get the enemy, is pulled back to the protection of the sea-wall after being wounded, top picture. A stretcher case, below, is taken along the Tarawa beach to a landing craft to be evacuated to a hospital. In the lower right corner of picture, note the legs of another casualty.
Fighting in the villages of Russia
DISLODGING THE NAZI INVADERS
Red infantrymen are shown in these pictures as they battle from house to house to clear the Germans from two of the many villages which were overrun early in the war. In the lower picture, a Soviet nurse dresses the wound of a Red infantryman.
Two ways to surrender
A JAP AND A NAZI GIVE UP
The wounded Japanese soldier in the upper picture had to be blasted from the Agriculture Building in Manila and then carried bodily from the ruins by Yanks of the First Cavalry Division. The Nazi, in the lower picture, comes out of a Maginot fort with his hands behind his head as a GI menaces him with his rifle. Combat engineers closed passages from one Maginot fort to another by setting off explosives.
Japan's "secret weapon"
PAPER BALLOONS WERE INEFFECTUAL
In a fantastic and futile effort to retaliate for the bombing of Tokyo, the Japanese released against the United States 9,000 free-flying paper balloons bearing incendiaries and bombs and costing approximately $18,000,000. Only a small portion of these reached our shores, killing six people, and starting small grass fires. One of the balloons which didn't explode is shown in the air, top. It has an inflated diameter of 33 feet. Since the balloons were not directed at specific targets but simply set adrift at the general area of North America, many of them came to roost harmlessly in trees, second. Below are shown an anti-personnel bomb, left, and an incendiary, right, which were carried by a paper balloon which fell in Western Canada. A number of the balloons were found in the ocean.
The "world's biggest bomb"
ALREADY OBSOLETE
This huge 45,000-pound bomb dwarfs the 500-pounder and the man standing beside it. Described as the "world's biggest bomb," its use was made unnecessary by the terrible force of the atom bomb, described by some as "small as a baseball." However large the atom bomb may be, its destructive force makes even this 45,000-pounder seem puny indeed.
An electronic" eye" spots the enemy
RADAR PLOTS THE BATTLE
This dramatic photograph was taken in the radar plot room of an Essex class aircraft carrier during operations in the China Sea in December, 1944. Radar, an electronic device which throws out beams which locate objects, was a major weapon of World War II. It provided detection of airborne and surface objects, through fog and darkness, and greatly increased the accuracy of fire control and the safety of navigation.
The Navy unveils its deadly "bat" bomb
UNCANNY BOMB TOOK TOLL OF JAPS
Three months after V-J Day the Navy revealed a weird bomb which was directed to its objectives by radar and in the last year of the war took an immense toll of Japanese shipping. The 12-foot radar-guided bomb would follow its target despite evasive maneuvers, operating on much the same principle as a live bat which emits a short pulse of sound and directs itself by the echoes. The flying bombs were carried by large Privateer patrol bombers, one under each wing, above. Below, the bomb is shown as it is hoisted into position under the wing of the patrol plane.
A Kamikaze misses its target
THE JAP BID TO TURN THE TIDE
Kamikaze or suicide planes were the most desperate weapons the Japanese resorted to in their frenzied effort to stop the American advance toward Tokyo. The Kamikazes, first used on a big scale during the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, would crash into their targets, pilot and all. Their use reached a peak during the Okinawa campaign. Here a Jap plane is shown as it misses its suicide plunge toward the U.S.S. Sangamon.
A Jap acts as direction finder for Marines
GUIDES STRIKE AGAINST HIS OWN COMMAND
In warfare, expediency often determines the weapon, and when Japanese Lieutenant Wada volunteered to lead marine fliers to secret Japanese headquarters in the Mindanao jungles, the Marines quickly accepted. Here, Wada scans terrain and gives directions for locating the long-sought 100th Japanese Army Division Headquarters. Wada was captured after living an animal existence on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.
This navigator guided D-Day operations
OPERATES ON NEW PRINCIPLE
A new type navigator, operating on a principle radically different from radar, was used for the first time on D-Day, guiding the flotillas of minesweepers and then directing the first landing craft to their exact destinations on the Normandy coast. This simplified navigator, weighing only 30 pounds, was developed by the British. It is a complete radio navigational system operating on the low frequency continuous wave carriers of synchronized transmitting stations, rather than on the high frequency carriers used by radar systems and subject to inaccuracies and complications. In the top picture, the pilot simply consults two dials which are easily interpreted by a grid map. The use of this navigator can be learned in a few minutes. Below, its use is shown in a small boat. A long 1,100-mile flight was made from England to Gibraltar, bringing the plane directly over the rock, so accurate is this simplified new system.
Rubber decoys hoaxed Hitler
"GHOST ARMY" HAUNTED NAZIS
Rubber landing craft, guns, tanks, planes and even men were set up at night by specially trained units to resemble real armies and fool the Nazis, the War Department revealed. These simulated forces would cover weak spots while real divisions would move forward against the enemy. The phony weapons shown here are made of inflated pneumatic tubes and painted fabrics. The enemy could not tell them from the real thing from the air or ground even at a few hundred yards' distance.
A Bofors gun blasts Nazi ground targets
ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN IS GROUNDED
Towards the end of the war the Luftwaffe became so scarce that many anti-aircraft units turned their artillery from the sky to the ground. The versatile 40mm Bofors gun, shown here, kicks up a cloud of smoke as it strikes at a Nazi ground unit.
Germany's V-2 rocket
TERROR WEAPON
The famous German secret weapon, the V-2 rocket, was directed against England and the channel ports of northern Europe late in the war. Erratic in aim, it was still the most amazing innovation to come out of Germany's experimentation with new weapons. It is pictured here as it leaves Cuxhaven, Germany, bound for a target 150 miles away in the North Sea. For American experiments with the weapon after the war, see the chronological section of this volume.
A handgrenade is tossed to the Japs
CLOSE COMBAT WEAPON
A marine winds up to sling a handgrenade at an enemy pillbox on Tarawa. The handgrenade, a weapon of World War I, more than held its own in World War II. The Japanese liked to hide in caves and crannies where they could be dislodged only by grenades or flame-throwers. The weapon was also used against German pillboxes and in ferreting out snipers.
The war developed super bomber and fighter
THE PEAK OF AIR POWER
By the end of the war American industry had developed the ultra modern planes pictured here. The Northrop Flying Wing XB-35 long range flier, upper picture, is pushed along at high speeds by four eight-bladed co-axial pusher propellers, driven by four Pratt and Whitney Wasp Major engines. The ship weighs in at 209,000 pounds under gross overload conditions. The lower picture shows the new Boeing single seat fighter, said to be more versatile than any previous fighter, and capable of a speed of 450 miles per hour with twin contra-propellers
Enemy guns are made use of by Allies
YANK INGENUITY
The huge German railroad gun, above, was used by the Yanks in France to mend a bombed out bridge near Aix. By dismantling the gun, men of the 343rd Engineer Regiment found they could use the remaining carriage to perfectly replace the bombed out section of the bridge. The gun in the lower picture was designed and manufactured by the Japanese to blast our shipping. A dejected Jap sits by the gun which never left the factory but has been marked "good" by the United States Navy and was later transferred to America.
The Navy's Fireball plane
DOUBLE POWER
The top picture shows one of the war's most carefully kept secrets, the Navy's FR-l Fireball plane which uses both jet and conventional engines with propeller. The plane's tail structure is separated from the rest of the ship to reveal the jet engine. Note the tricycle landing gear, the first to be accepted for aircraft carrier use. The picture below illustrates the "Brodie" system, used late in the war. The plane, equipped with an overhead hook, engages a loop suspended on a cable and the loop and the plane slide along the cable until stopped by a friction brake. The value of such a system would be invaluable in, for example, a jungle region where landing fields could not be readily prepared.
The Navy's big guns roar
THUNDER OFF OKINAWA
Heavy guns of a Navy battleship belch fire and smoke as they bombard land targets on Okinawa. However, the real fire power of the Navy lay not in the big guns of the warships but in the planes such as the one pictured below taking off from a carrier to bomb Tokyo. Guns which were more frequently used than those above were the anti-aircraft batteries.
The Navy develops airborne television
BATTLES CAN BE WATCHED FROM AFAR
During the war the United States Navy developed a new television system which enables a ship or shore-based commander to broaden his horizon by 150 to 200 miles. The above televised picture of the Potomac was seen by people sitting in a comfortable Washington auditorium. The new system clicks the pictures from a plane and transmits them to a given station. The lower picture shows the television equipment in a JM-l Marauder reconnaissance plane. Radio Corporation of America worked on the project with the Navy.
German war birds
THE ARADO 234 AND MESSERSCHMITT 262A-l
The plane shown in profile, top, is the German Arado 234, a jet-propelled bomber capable of speeds up to 470 miles per hour. The lower plane is the Messerschmitt 262A-l. German jet-propelled fighter. It has a wing-span of 41 feet, an overall length of 35.5 feet and an estimated speed in level flight of about 515 to 530 miles per hour. The lower picture shows the Walter engine, a jet-propulsion type used in Germany's fastest interceptors.
Blood plasma was a powerful weapon
MANY LIVES WERE SAVED
The miracle of blood plasma saved the lives of many thousands of wounded soldiers in World War II. The blood donated by civilians at home often ended in dramas such as those depicted on this page. Above, plasma is administered to a wounded Yank in Sicily. The tragedy of war to women in a battle zone is mirrored in the faces watching the grim fight for life. Below, a Navy hospital corpsman is giving plasma to a casualty just behind the front lines in Okinawa.
The Navy's pilotless aircraft
"BUZZ BOMBS"
The "Gargoyle" above, is the Navy's version of pilotless aircraft. Jet-propelled, it carries a 1000-pound armor-piercing bomb, controlled visually by radio after release. The "Jato" (jet assisted takeoff unit in the tail) thrusts the missile forward so that it attains a top speed of 700 miles per hour in a dive on a target. The two-ton GB-4 glide bomb, pictured below, was one of the Army Air Force's secret weapons. Launched from a plane, it has a range of 20 miles.
The bayonet was a much-feared weapon
COLD STEEL HELPED BEAT THE ENEMY
The bayonet, with the Garand rifle (or piece), was familiar to every soldier. All though bayonets may not have often killed the enemy, still bayonets were frequently "fixed' as in the charges shown here and had a salutary effect on both the carrier and the enemy. Infantrymen advance in St. Malo, France (above), and Luzon (below).
"Tiny Tim" did a big job
ROCKED THE ENEMY WITH ROCKETS
Rocket warfare was being adapted at the end of the war to all types of launchers including tanks, jeeps, ships, and planes. Above, an Army P-47 lets loose with a load of five-inch rockets and, below, a P-47 fires a pair of 11.75-inch, 1,300-pound rockets at a ground target. The lower plane is diving at 450 miles per hour. The rockets, which have the punch of a 12-inch artillery piece, are the largest developed for aircraft during the war.
Navy blimps patrol the skies over Europe
SKY WATCH
In World War II blimps again proved their worth, ranging up and down the coast lines and sometimes as close as 60 miles to the front lines of ground battles. Blimp patrol duty was exceedingly hazardous since blimps lacked the speed, armor, and fire power of planes. The blimp's very slowness made possible a thorough scrutiny of any area. Here, a Navy blimp emerges from its hangar to take up its daily patrol duties from a base in the European theater.
A field piece rakes Japs on Iwo
LIGHT ARTILLERY
After the heavy bombardment of the beaches and after the taking of the beaches with small arms at close quarters, the field artillery took up the task of battering the Japs on Iwo. Here, the Fourth Marine Division is well entrenched as a field piece fires over the lines at the Japs.
Goering had plans for New York
HE DREW A BEAD ON THE BOWERY
This map of New York City, taken from the files of Herman Goering, indicates target areas which the Germans planned to attack with rockets. The bull's-eye of the map is located in the vicinity of Delancey Street and the Bowery. Radiating from this point are zones of primary and secondary damage. The rockets were to be successors of the famous V-2 rockets;
The "winged wind tunnel"
"THUNDERJET"
The Army's Republic XP-84 is unique with an air scoop in its nose, above. Bottom picture shows jet exhaust in tail. The blanket of secrecy was only partially lifted from this jet-propelled fighter after its successful flight tests at the Army Air Force testing base at Muroc Field, California. The Thunderjet was named from the Thunderbolt of which 15,329 were made for the Army during the war.
Mobile guns blast Germans
SHELLS FOLLOW RETREATING NAZIS
Part of the armored power of the modern army are these 155-mm. self-propelled guns, top, shown as they blast a path for the Third Army near Budesheim, Germany. In the lower picture, the muzzle blast from a 76-mm. gun swirls dust around an M-18 tank destroyer after it fires in support of infantry attacking Wiesloch, Germany.
Sulpha drugs reach the battle lines
FIGHT INFECTION
A wounded gunner in Tunisia is given a sulpha tablet as an infection preventative. Three companions in a half-track combat car were killed, but the lives of countless wounded soldiers were saved by the use of sulpha compounds. In addition to fighting infection, sulpha drugs were also used successfully to combat venereal disease, pneumonia, meningitis and other maladies.
Floating airfields become a reality
"THE LILY" IS DEMONSTRATED
A tin-can carpet for landing planes at sea was invented during the war years by R. M. Hamilton of the English Navy but was not revealed until after V-J Day. The experimental seadrome shown in the picture is constructed of hundreds of buoyancy cans with hexagonal surfaces, each can six feet across and thirty inches deep. The "carpet" gives to the motion of the sea from any direction but remains sufficiently rigid to bear the weight of heavy aircraft. Floating fields like this can assembled in one hour by a crew of forty men and the experiment proved the technical feasibility of larger seadromes in mid-ocean or bridges across such bodies of water as the English Canal, the British Admiralty claimed. Lily is a development of the Swiss Roll, a floating pier which was used successfully during the Normandy invasion. The Swiss Roll was unrolled from ships to beaches and could carry war vehicles. This invention, like the Lily, was dependent upon the principle of tension.
Tanks sear Germans
A Jap pillbox is fumigated
FLAME THROWERS ROUT THE ENEMY
Flame-throwing devices, attached to armor or carried by individuals, frequently played a decisive role in wiping out strong points of the enemy in World War II. In the first two pictures, flame-throwing tanks belch their fury on German resistance, while a marine flame-throwing tank, above, blasts a Japanese pillbox on Saipan.
Science snoops out laps
BULLETS FIND ENEMY IN DARKNESS
The snooperscope, above, and the sniperscope, below, both using the infra-red ray principle, ferreted out the enemy on the blackest of nights and enabled American soldiers to train their guns on the unsuspecting victims and shoot them like targets in a gallery. The enemy cannot detect the infra-red light of these devices but he himself is visible when he thinks himself safe in the dark. About 30 percent of the Japanese casualties in the Okinawa campaign are attributed to these weapons.
Mortars attack concealed positions
LOB SHELLS OVER HILLS
The mortar was particularly deadly because its trajectory was an arc and could reach into defiladed enemy positions. Above, a Yank crew fires a 4.2 mortar at enemy positions on Bougainville and, below, members of the 81-mm. mortar crew, Third Division, fire on Germans in the Rigney area, southern France.
An anti-tank crew goes into action
READY FOR THE KNOCKOUT
An American anti-tank crew unlimbers its gun to take care of troublesome Nazi tanks in Aachen, Germany. The town was devastated as a small German garrison held up the American advance for many days. In addition to the anti-tank gun which the GIs are readying for action, note also the heavy caliber machine gun mounted on the half-track.
Containers of death
EMPTIED ON JAPS
This mountain of clover-leaf containers was filled with 81-mm. mortar shells before the contents were transferred to the Japanese on Bougainville. Ammunition was, of course, the common denominator of most weapons of war.
A D-Day secret is revealed
CREDITED WITH SAVING LIVES ON NORMANDY BEACH
Sherman tanks took to the water and hit the Normandy Beaches on D-Day, saving an estimated minimum of 10,000 lives, it was revealed on September 18 after V-J Day. The tanks were disguised, above, but when they rolled ashore, below, they pulled down their canvas camouflage and blasted away at the enemy. They were kept afloat by means of air cells and their canvas-rubber aprons.
The "Thinking Cap" of a PT boat
"SEEING EYE"
The use of radar was especially valuable to the PT boat, above, since many of its missions were accomplished under cover of darkness which radar enabled it to penetrate. The antenna was housed in the "radome" bulb shown at top of the mast-like structure in center of boat. Another small craft which rendered great service was the coast guard cutter, one of a flea fleet of air-sea rescue boats, shown below keeping a rendezvous in the icy north Atlantic.
Night bombers could see targets
RADAR PIERCED DARKNESS
Still another use of widely used radar was to furnish eyes for night bombers. The radar photo of Vienna, Austria (above), snatched away the protective cover of darkness from bridges, shops and warehouses which bore the full brunt of Allied bombing fury. The lower radar photo shows the familiar outlines of Manhattan as seen by radar at night.
The bazooka was nemesis of enemy tanks
INFANTRYMEN STOP JAP ARMOR
Lying directly in the path of a Japanese tank on Luzon, above, infantrymen fire point blank with a bazooka to knock out the tank, which is concealed by smoke. This weapon was also used against gun emplacements as in the picture below, where a GI (at right) lets go with his bazooka at a Nazi position on the French front.
Rockets on land and sea
NEW WEAPON PUMMELS FOE
One of the great innovations of World War II was the development of rocket warfare. Above, a hit-and-run mobile unit launches its rockets at Japs on Iwo Jima and, below, an LST bristles with rocket equipment. British officers stand on the bridge.
Penicillin played major role in war
NOBEL PRIZE AWARDED TO DISCOVERERS
Many thousands of wounded soldiers were helped to recovery by the miracle drug, penicillin. The Nobel prize was awarded to three men whose scientific work was largely responsible for the development of the discovery: Sir Alexander Fleming, Dr. Ernst B. Chain, and Sir Howard W. Florey. In this picture, Fleming is shown, left, with one of the wounded soldiers who benefited from penicillin.
Radio shell fuze helped win the war
RATED SECOND TO ATOMIC BOMB
The "radio proximity fuze" which is no larger than a pint milk bottle and fits into the nose of a shell (above), was a major secret weapon of the war. The device consists of a tiny radio sending and receiving set which explodes the shell or bomb within an effective distance of a target. The fuze was a potent factor in the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns used to combat the Nazi buzz blitz of London, helped mightly in knocking out Japanese suicide planes, and was used by artillery in stopping von Rundstedt's counter-offensive in Belgium. The lower picture shows the size of one of the experimental fuzes held in a man's hand. The handle is a radio antenna. The radio set was powered by a generator driven by the wind of the shell's flight. About 80,000 persons worked on the highly secret project; an estimated 800,000,000 dollars were spent.
Tanks spearhead the attack
COORDINATE WITH INFANTRY
The tank played a major role in the highly developed blitz tactics of World War II. Above, tanks of the Third Armored Division proclaim the beginning of an assault as they open fire on Breining, Germany. Below, a United States tank fires point blank at an enemy target in Aachen, Germany, as infantrymen peer warily from doorways on either side of the battle scarred street.
Japanese aircraft were carried under water
LAUNCHED FROM SUBMARINES
These giant submarines, taken from the Japanese at the end of the war, carried two planes each in a compact hangar situated just forward of the conning tower. A portion of the dome-like entrance to the hangar can be seen below the rail of the conning tower. The long catapult leading forward was used for launching the planes. Along the port side of the sub is a gun with specially constructed carriage which allows the gun to lie flush with the deck when not in use.
A machine gunner gets a well earned rest
AFTER NINETEEN DAYS OF IT
The nightmare of nineteen days' of jungle fighting shows in the weary features of this marine as, he lugs his heavy machine gun to a rear rest area on Cape Gloucester. The heavy machine gun was a powerful weapon and its operation was especially hazardous since the enemy would concentrate all its efforts on knocking out a machine gun nest.
Yanks take shelter behind a tank
UNDER FIRE
Enemy shells screaming overhead, these grim GIs huddle beneath a tank in the ruins of Geich, Germany. The tommygun, held by the Yank at the left, was a common weapon of World War II and was a favorite in particular with the Soviet soldier.
Midget sub was a match for the Tirpitz
IT ALSO PROWLED THE PACIFIC
This tiny submarine, its story told only after V-J Day, struck powerful blows at the mighty German battlewagon Tirpitz and, late in the Japanese war, was active in delivering stinging blows to Japanese vessels. Serving in the Royal Navy, it is shown speeding on the surface of Sydney Harbor, Australia, base of the British Pacific Fleet. Thirty to fifty feet long, it was manned by three or four crewmen and traveled ten or twelve feet beneath the surface of the water.
Radar fights unseen foe
LOCATES AIRCRAFT AT NIGHT
Radar was an invaluable aid in knocking the enemy out of the night skies over England. Here, a predictor detachment of British servicewomen of the A.T.S, (Army Auxiliary Territorial Service) guides a gun battery (background) onto invisible enemy planes coming over Britain in a night raid. The "on target fire" order has just been given.
Army Air Forces reveal secrets
DISPLAY "PUSH-BUTTON" BOMBS
In a spectacular Army Air Forces "fair" at Wright Field, the public had a chance to view for the first time some of the scientific marvels developed by the air technical service command. The "roc," a strange contraption (above) with a television set in its head, is a high angle bomb that can be guided to its target by a control plane. Radio controlled bombs were used in the war in Italy and Burma, but the invention of the atom bomb makes their future use dubious. However, the extraordinarily compact and powerful engines on display could well be the motors of the future. The engine shown below is capable of 5,000 horse-power and weighs 5,500 pounds.
A reminder of the war's most powerful weapon
ATOM RUBBLE
Months after the world conflict, two Australian soldiers, above, view the ruins of Hiroshima, target of one of the two atom bombs which precipitated the end of the war. Although the atom bomb was cloaked in secrecy, some of its implications were revealed in the spectacular tests at Bikini atoll in the Pacific Ocean almost a year after V-J Day. See the chronological section of this volume for a full report on this sensational post-war development.
Aircraft carrier
TWO IN ONE
A tiny Navy cub hospital plane is lifted from the belly of a huge Curtiss Commando transport at the airstrip on Peleliu Island. Two of these l,200-pounders were part of the cargo on a routine flight from Guam. Planes were shipped in sections and reassembled at destination.
Water was no obstacle
AMPHIBIOUS CRAFT WERE MANY AND VARIED
In the top picture, riflemen fire on Japs from an amphibious tractor which brought the Yanks ashore on Peleliu. In the lower picture, "alligators" transport men of the 351st Infantry Regiment across the Po River in Italy.
Pipelines followed the battle lines
AN ARMY TRAVELS ON GAS
This pipeline in Manila Harbor carried fuel oil inland to tank farms which in turn supplied the armies. In Europe similar operations carried oil from the Normandy beachhead to Germany. The lightning drive of Patton was closely followed and made possible by oil lines.
A warship fights off Jap planes
ANTI-AIRCRAFT GOES INTO ACTION
Helmeted crews of bristling anti-aircraft batteries reload to fight off Jap planes attacking off Saipan in the Marianas. These protective guns frequently saw more action than a warship's big guns, since the attack was usually carried out at long range by aircraft.
A Nazi pillbox is riddled
LIKE CHEESE BEFORE YANK GUNS
The pillbox, considered impregnable early in the war, proved vulnerable as Allied weapons were developed. The pillbox, shown above, was punctured by tank fire in France. Flame-throwers were also a potent weapon against this type of defense. Below, a GI examines one of the four different air-changing machines found in a type 108D pillbox, captured from the Germans on the Siegfried Line near Aachen, Germany.
The "Viper" was secret Nazi weapon
CAPTURED PHOTOS REVEAL UNIQUE MISSILE
The "Viper" a piloted, rocket-propelled missile, was designed to attack Allied aircraft with cannon, rockets, or by ramming. The pilot automatically ejected himself before ramming. In the picture at the left, the contraption is prepared for launching, and at the right it zooms skyward. The Nazis were developing many new weapons at the war's end.
Radar "umbrella" protected beachheads
USED BY MARINES
Designed for beachhead use, this light-weight, portable radar unit can be dismantled and carried in four 100-pound cases. The "umbrella" antenna acts as a reflector in sending out radio pulses and as a receiver in catching the echoes reflected within its 80-mile range.
The "Weasel"
CONQUEROR OF MUD AND WATER
An M29-C, nicknamed the "Weasel," clambers up a mud embankment in Europe with the greatest of ease. The famous "Weasel" was equally at home on land or water and was highly maneuverable in mud and difficult terrain of all kinds.
Heavy artillery mauls cities
MANILA AND BREST ARE HAMMERED
The giant gun above is an American 240mm. howitzer, pictured after hurling a shell at the walled city of south Manila in the Philippines. Below, an 8-inch gun of a field artillery unit just outside Brest, France, slams one of its massive shells into the city to soften it up for the final infantry assault.
"Long Toms" disrupt a Jap column
LONG DISTANCE DESTRUCTION
The murderous "Long Toms" in the upper picture are assaulting an advancing Japanese column ten miles away on Leyte Island in the Philippines. Below, an American gun crew fires a 155mm. self-propelled gun at an enemy pillbox near Gressenich, Germany.
A Japanese tankette
NO MATCH FOR AMERICAN POWER
A Yank lieutenant inspects the turret of a Jap tankette knocked out in the battle for Shuri on Okinawa. The miniature tank measures only ten feet by four feet, is about five feet high, and carries a crew of two men.
Atomic storm
LETHAL CLOUDS FORM OVER BIKINI LAGOON
This striking photograph, taken from seaward, was made several minutes after the underwater burst and shows the formation of radioactive clouds settling over the target fleet and changing the entire appearance of the Bikini Lagoon. The small dark spots are some of the vessels about which vapor waves are forming.
Exploring the ionosphere
THE ''WAC CORPORAL" TAKES OFF
The Army's ionosphere rocket, known as the "Wac Corporal" is loaded into its launching tower, upper left, soars upward, upper right and lower left, and leaves a wind-blown trail of exhaust against the sky, lower right. In quest of various secrets of the sky, the Army conducted a series of these tests in New Mexico, equipping the rockets with instruments.
The Able burst from the air
A FIREBALL LIGHTS THE WATER
This spectacular picture shows an early stage of the Able burst taken from such height that the whole of the lagoon shows. The shape is still that of the fireball, and the shock wave has travelled a short distance from the center of the impact. The ships have been obscured for reasons of security.
Not a man from Mars
A DIVER GOES OVERSIDE
One of the crew of divers which prepared the ships for Test Baker, this man wears a grotesque face mask and "long underwear" protective clothing. This outfit is much more comfortable than conventional diving suits, and all that is required to work in warm shallow water such as that of the Bikini lagoon.
Two ships at Bikini
DAMAGE AND METHOD
The upper picture shows the damage done to the U.S.S. Skate in the first test. A scientist is testing it for radioactivity. In the lower picture, the "Cinderella" ship waits her mission. The underwater bomb was suspended beneath this ship which was blown to fragments in the Baker burst.
Test Baker from overhead
Test Baker from overhead
LOOKING STRAIGHT DOWN ON THE BURST
Robot planes, flying directly over the scene of the test, were able to make photographs from on top. On the previous page two stages in the first development of the burst. On this page, what looks like a tree when seen from surface level becomes a cauliflower when seen from on top.
Spectacular beauty
THE TREE RISES
The "cauliflower" is rising from the center of the ring of vapor, formed when the moisture in the air was suddenly precipitated by the burst. A familiar phenomenon to physicists, it appeared with melodramatic effects in the underwater test. This photograph shows the typical cloud formations which attended the Bikini tests.
Science makes experiments
EFFECTS OF RADIOACTIVITY ON GENETICS
Scientists are studying the effects of radioactivity in many connections, and the lives of the test animals are being followed closely. Here a white rat which was exposed to the blast watches over her two-day old litter. It will take several generations of breeding before definite findings are made.