Young couple at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, May 1943, photographer John Collier
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Proposing in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier? That's weird. Also no liberty cuffs is pretty lame for a WWII sailor. Probably destined for submarines or aviation.

Foxy lady.

16-inch howitzer M1920, stamped Watervliet Arsenal 1921, Ft Story Virginia 1942

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Just found this in my Grandpa's stuff. He was on the South Dakota.  This is the Battleship's newsletter from July 15th, 1945
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Photo from battleship South Dakota approaching Kamaishi with battleships Indiana and Massachusetts, cruisers Chicago and Quincy
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South Dakota opened fire
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Indiana firing, Massachusetts' masts showing beyond her superstructure, cruisers behind her bow
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16" salvos strike Kamaishi
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That is truly awesome, thank you for sharing!

My dad 1942 during flight training.

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Civilian flight school 1942, Meacham Field, Fort Worth
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The military absorbed most commercial airliners and personnel into the Air Transport Command, but there was still a lot of commercial flying in the US during the war
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Memorial Day parade marches down main street past town hall, 1942, Southington Connecticut.  There are few spectators because the war plants remained working
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At Beecher Street School, Southington, Connecticut
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Beecher Street School, 2018
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Posing for this poster separately were Sergeant French L. Vineyard, US Army; George Woolslayer, welder; and Aviation Radio Chief John Marshall Evans, US Navy
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After the poster was distributed nationwide Woolslayer asked the Office of War Information for contact info to write the others.  Instead OWI arranged for the three to visit each others' work places for a magazine article.  At the Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Mill, Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, where Woolslayer worked
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"Formerly a sociology major at the University of Southern California... Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis has been appointed by civil service to be senior  supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department at the Naval Air Base,  Corpus Christi, Texas."  Note the photo ID badge
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WE KEEP THEM FLYING  US NAS CC
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Lorena Craig, Corpus Christi "cowler" (specialist at opening/removing fuselage panels?)
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Interesting tail hatch and access ladder details, Catalina
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"Pearl Harbor widows have gone into war work to carry on the fight with a personal vengeance, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mrs. Virginia Young (right) whose husband was one of the first casualties of World War II, is a supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department of the Naval Air Base. Her job is to find convenient and comfortable living quarters for women workers from out of the state, like Ethel Mann, who operates an electric drill"
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Original caption: A R-4B Sikorsky helicopter alights on the tiny flight deck of the First Aircraft Repair Unit (Floating) somewhere in the Pacific. The helicopter is equipped with floats.

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Japanese recruits march with wooden dummy training rifles, flag tied to one
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Tired Marine examines dummy rifle captured on Saipan.  This one has a detailed trigger, spring loaded dry fire trainer?
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5'-5" long Japanese bayonet drill rifle
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The trigger is not represented at all, the stock grip is a simplified bump
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But the handguard groove, important for a proper thrust, is faithfully carved out
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Japanese soldiers fence with bayonet training rifles in Vladivostok during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.  The blunt training rifle ends are padded (or perhaps something like a flour dabbing marker for scoring?) and Kendo-type protective gear worn

Don't want this thread to slip off the page.

I'm sure this has been posted before but thought this was a stunning shot of a 339th Bombardment Squadron 96th Bomb Group B-17 over Germany in 1944.

wow thats a beautiful shot!

AUGUST 10, 1943  Crew members of the 376th Bombardment Group work on B-24-Liberators at the U.S Air Force base in Benghazi, Libya
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USS Texas entering Havana, Cuba in 1940.

Ravenna Arsenal, Ohio, molten TNT poured through funnels into 75mm shells
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Ravenna 2,000lb bombs
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Ravenna 2,000lb bombs being filled with Amatol (TNT and ammonium nitrate)
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Quality control, one ton bomb Amatol core being sawn apart to check middle for solidity
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Ravenna March 24, 1943   A 20-man crew had been unloading four boxcars of cluster bombs from a railroad siding into semitrailers for storage in a 60-foot igloo of reinforced concrete at the depot. The men rolled the 168-pound crates down a conveyor and stacked them inside the igloo from back to front.  It was 11:55 a.m. and the crew was looking forward to lunch. Investigators later wondered if the men had hurried to complete the job before getting some chow. There were only a few crates left to stack. Perhaps one slipped or bumped another.

At five minutes to noon, 2,516 clusters of 20-pound fragmentation bombs detonated with a deafening roar, killing 11 men. Jagged concrete chunks, some weighing 2 tons, were hurled up to 3,800 feet away. The igloo's heavy steel door was blown 1,800 feet forward.

The blast was felt up to 20 miles away in eastern communities including Youngstown, Niles, Warren and Girard. Because the igloo was designed to direct the force of any blast, the concussion wasn't felt in Ravenna, only 15 miles to the west.

Beacon Journal reporter Harold Lengs described a dirty, soot-like rain that fell for miles around the depot. "Witnesses said the soot and a fine, sand-like material that resembled 'pulverized concrete' fell for several minutes after the blast   dropping as far away as Windham. It seemed to spill out of the edges of the ominous, black umbrella of smoke that rose over the site of the blast."...

The Army Service Forces conducted an investigation into the Ravenna Arsenal disaster and released a classified document in August 1943 with its findings. Investigators zeroed in on M-110 fuses manufactured at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey and shipped to the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant in Indiana for bombs to be stored at the Portage Ordnance Depot.

According to the Chicago report, reprinted in The History of the Ravenna Arsenal (2009) by Ralph A. Pfingsten, more than 1 million fuses "had to be reworked before they were sufficiently reliable to be placed on the bombs. The chief weakness was that a pinion column could come out of adjustment and permit safety blocks to fall out of place and thereby arm" the fuse.

Investigators checked a Kingsbury boxcar and found that several crates contained bombs with "a large amount of play" and some that were pre-armed with safety blocks in a "very loose position."

In their final report, Army investigators cited the "bad history" of the M-110 fuses and concluded: "It was believed that the fall of any bomb having an armed fuse from a height of three feet would have been sufficient to initiate the first bomb explosion."

German pilots receive instruction on attacking B-17's.  The photo was taken in 1942, the model has protruding teardrop waist gun blisters and shark fin tail lacking a tail gun, making it a B-17B.  I don't think the Germans ever actually fought any B models, although RAF briefly flew a few similar B-17C's in combat ('Fortress MkI').  This instruction was probably faulty, since the first USAAF B-17's to fight the Germans were the E model, with added tailgun and dorsal turret.
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German training model bristles with the numerous firing arcs of a later model B-17
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I have a few more if I can find them.

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B-17C's and D's in mixed paint schemes prepare to depart for the Philippines in 1941.  Only 39 B's, 38 C's, and 42 D's were built.
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B-17D at Iba Airfield, Luzon, October 1941.  North American A-27, ground attack version of the T-6 Texan, in the background.  A-27 production was a total of 10, all from a contract to Thailand.  Thailand was invaded by Japan before they could be delivered, so the US Army took them.
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Iba Airfield
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Seversky EP-106, built for Sweden and appropriated by the US as the P-35A, taxiing at Iba
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Douglas B-18 Bolos over Manilla Bay.  Retractable dorsal gun ports are raised.
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About this - https://t.co/QcYpgeImvY
An unexpected twist - a former German, then Czechoslovakian and then Syrian tank in Ukraine. Czechoslovakian remake of the Pz.Kpfw.IV - T-40/75N. How it ended up in Ukraine - a mystery. Now there is only the chassis. only the chassis. If left. pic.twitter.com/QkGdbKwY56

Andrei_bt  (@AndreiBtvt) October 17, 2023

Neat.  
I work at that plant, although the particular location they show is just an empty building used to store slabs and scrap by a contractor now.
And we do a lot of defense end use metals

Boeing B-17D "The Swoose"

The Boeing B-17D "The Swoose" is currently undergoing restoration. (April 2023)



https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196864/boeing-b-17d-the-swoose/

The Imprint of a Mitsubishi kamikaze Ki-51 Sonia two-seat light bomber and it's fixed undercarriage along the side of H.M.S Sussex.

"According to the U.S. Naval Institute, HMS Sussex was protected by belt armor that was 4.5 inches thick, although other accounts from naval warfare experts point out that the County class did not carry any additional belt armor, as a result of limits placed on protection by interwar naval treaties, with the kamikaze raider instead ultimately being defeated by an just inch of steel."

Same as the dent in the side of the Missouri you can still see today.

Brand new B-18 Bolo at the 1937 Cleveland Air Race, initial version with the short round nose
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B-18A's with revised nose over San Juan Puerto Rico
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Over Diamond Head, Hawaii.  Most of these got shredded at Hickam during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Getting blown up on the ground probably saved a lot of lives, the Bolo was slow and poorly armed.  Survivors did anti-submarine patrol and training all over the place.
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Dutch Guyana, 1942
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Ironic shark teeth, 1943 Texas
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Here's a B-18 with tail mounted MAD for sub detection.

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California 1938
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Advanced communications equipment
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Later, ASW radar
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GI's looking through a box of German pistols sometime in 1945. Imagine being encouraged to take bringbacks and them being provided for you.

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Finnish Panzerschreck team near Tornio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tornio

Seversky SEV-3, which set a speed record for float planes, was the first product of the Seversky company.  Pilot in the forward cockpit, rear cabin for two passengers, or a tail gunner. A handful were sold to Spain and Colombia.  Colombian Air Force Seversky SEV-3 float fighter, one of three or four delivered.  One was still in service when Colombia declared war on Germany in 1943.
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Seversky SEV-2S, two seat wheeled version the SEV-3 and highly successful air racer beginning 1937, Alexander de Seversky and aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran.  With minor changes became the P-35 fighter.  Company advertising played on his name with the motto "sever the sky".
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USAAC P-35's (196 built)
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Then Seversky screwed up. He secretly negotiated the sale of 20 SEV-2PA-B3 two seat bomber escort fighters to the Japanese Navy, which pissed off the War Department and caused them to cut short purchases of the P-35.  Seversky was ousted by his board while on a European sales trip and the company was renamed Republic in 1939.  The SEV-3, P-35 lineage would influence the moderately successful Republic P-43 Lancer and the iconic P-47 Thunderbolt.  

Japanese Navy Seversky SEV-2PA-B3 (A8V1 "Dick"), flown as reconnaissance fighters during the war with China.  The IJN may have bought them to reverse engineer as a backup plan to the Zero but lost interest when Zero development was successful (Zero's first combat over China 1940).  Withdrawn from service before Pearl Harbor, a surplus pair of them were flown by newspaper Asahi Shimbun for reporters to get around during the war.
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Great video about the Panther II.

And from an arfcommer.

A number of US aircraft makers sold aircraft to the Japanese prior to World War II.

Douglas sold their prototype - experimental DC-4E to the Japanese.  Many of the aircraft's innovative design features found their way into the Nakajima G5N bomber after the single DC-4E prototype was sold to a Japanese airline and clandestinely dismantled for study by Nakajima at the behest of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

In late 1939, the DC-4E was sold to Imperial Japanese Airways, which was buying American aircraft for evaluation and technology transfer during this period; at the behest of the Imperial Japanese Navy, it was reverse-engineered, becoming the basis for the unsuccessful Nakajima G5N bomber. To conceal its transfer to the Nakajima Aircraft Company for study, the Japanese press reported shortly after purchase that the DC-4E had crashed in Tokyo Bay.



Note the Tri-Tail layout similar to the Lockheed Constellation.    The C-54 / DC-4 of the US service was almost an entirely different & new aircraft from the DC-4(E)

Bigger_Hammer

DC Bailey and the bridge.

Tirpitz with "building" camo.

Interesting stuff. I never paid much attention to the DC4 since the DC3 seemed so much more prevalent. Also, big change in the tail - I also read they dropped the planned pressurized fusalage for the military model.

The Japanese also built a copy of the DC-3 under license from Douglas. This one was shot down by a B-24.

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Republic P-43 Lancer
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USAAC 1941 lineup: Republic YP-43 Lancer prototype, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Bell P-39 Airacobra, Lockheed P-38 Lightning
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USAAF and Chinese Lancers at Kunming, China
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The P-43 was a P-35 airframe evolved as far as it could go, built as a demonstrator for the turbo-supercharger.  Belly mounted turbo-supercharger (ducting left exposed) gave the Lancer good high altitude performance for the day but was unreliable, and fuel leaking onto it caused fires.  Designed before lessons from the European air war were learned, unlike the P-47 the Lancer was unmanueverable, unarmored, and lacked self-sealing fuel tanks.  They also only had two cowl .50's and two wing .30's originally, or four total .50's in the A model, compared to the P-47's eight .50's (to be fair that had been considered plenty of firepower in 1940, but not by 1942ish).  So they're like midget P-47's with none of their good qualities.  Adding those qualities caused the P-47 to be eight feet longer and 70% heavier than a P-43.
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USAAC realized the Lancer was obsolete at first flight and wouldn't have ordered any if Republic had something better to build, but they didn't because the first couple of attempts at the P-47 design were failures of evolving specs and technical challenges and the Thunderbolt got stuck in development hell for a few years, so the Army ordered 272 Lancers built 1940-1941 to keep Republic in business.  Lancers flew in the Pacific for the USAAF, China, and Australia.  High altitude performance and good range plus poor dog fighting characteristics and vulnerability to battle damage meant Chinese Lancers primarily intercepted Japanese photo-recon, while B, C, and D models were outfitted for photo-recon themselves, but mostly ended up in US and Australian training squadrons.  Camera ports alongside the turbo-supercharger and in rear facing tail blisters.
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YP-43
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Lancers, looks like 1941 maneuvers.  "Red Army" or "Blue Army" crosses covering USAAC meatball roundels.
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Zero and Lancer comparison flight in China, 1943
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Australian P-43D
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Robert Scott (God is my Co-pilot) flew missions in a P-43.

German Type VII U-boat. On patrol somewhere warm, by the looks of it.

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Abandoned WW2 bunker in Normandy

Cliff fell out from underneath it? I'm thinking it might be a wee bit unstable...nifty, but not getting on it.

Republic P-44 "Rocket", 80 plane contract for an up-engined P-43 Lancer, planned to fit the huge PW R-2800 that the P-47 Thunderbolt flew with.  Intended to be a light weight, high speed interceptor, with a much bigger engine but no more fuel capacity than the P-43 it would have been very fast but very short range.  Cancelled while still in the mockup stage when USAAC digested European air war lessons and realized they needed fighters with range, not short legged interceptors.  Lead designer Alexander Kartveli began sketching the Thunderbolt on the train ride home from the meeting where USAAC changed their specs and cancelled the Rocket.
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Climb rate and internal fuel capacity were at odds with a high speed monoplane design, so a "slip-wing" had been proposed for the P-44, a disposable biplane wing/fuel tank that also decreased minimum takeoff distance and stall speed and acted as a flotation device.  Like a drop tank, which were not yet standard equipment, a slip-wing could be ejected in flight when contacting the enemy.
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This was not a unique idea and perhaps it was borrowed from the British firm of Hillson, who had been promoting the slip-wing and successfully demonstrated ejection of one on their own dime from a sporter plane in 1941, but failed to sell any.  A worn out Hurricane was tested by Hillson in 1943, but climb rates of monoplane fighters were improving and slip-wings must have been vastly more expensive than metal clamshell drop tanks, while large numbers of dirt cheap drop tanks were being made from laminated paper beginning 1943.
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A ball turret from the B-17 Flying Fortress "SPOT REMOVER" s/n: 42-30246 of the 390th Bomb Group, 570th Squadron falls into the sea after being unattached from the aircraft in preparation for belly landing on 21/9/43. Pilot landed and crew set plane on fire and was captured and taken as prisoners.

Found a bunch of WWII training pictures in a dumpster at work.. give me a few days to upload.  Williams Field in AZ, 1944, 45'.