M-2 Wildcats and F4U Corsairs at Daugherty Field, Long Beach, California

Image size: 1600 x 1107 pixel. 577 KB
Date: Thursday, 10 August 1944
Place: Long Beach, California, United States
Photographer: Unknown

The Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) at Long Beach, or Daugherty Field, under the jurisdiction of the Eleventh Naval District. View from atop building 75. General Motors FM-2 Wildcats and Chance-Vought F4U-1 Corsairs are undergoing maintenance. Throughout World War II, the airfield was given over to the war effort. In August, 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Administration took over control of the airport, which had increased in size to 500 acres. in 1941, NAAS Long Beach serviced carrier borne Grumman/General Motors F4F/FM-2 Wildcats, Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, Chance-Vought F4U Corsairs, Grumman F6F Hellcats, Grumman/General Motors TBF/TBM Avengers, and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers. In addition, it had utility aircraft and such patrol planes as the Consolidated PBY Catalina and north American SNJ "Harvard" trainers. In 1942, the Navy turned over the facilities to the U.S. Army Air Corps which had also established a training base adjacent to it. As the Navy's activities began to be shifted to Los Alamitos, the Long Beach Army Airfield at Long Beach became the home of the Army's Air Transport Command's Ferrying Division, which included a squadron of 18 women pilots commanded by Barbara London, a long time Long Beach aviator. Like the Naval Air Ferry Command at NAS Terminal Island, the Army's ferrying work was an immense undertaking, thanks to Douglas Aircraft's wartime production. With the end of the war, the U.S. Navy abandoned any use of the Long Beach Municipal Airport facility completely, and with it, the designation of Long Beach as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives) Identifier 295426

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_at_NAS_Long_Beach_c1945.jpg

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1063

P-51 fighter planes being prepared for test flight at the field of the North American Aviation

Image size: 1600 x 1229 pixel. 488 KB
Date: October 1942
Place: Inglewood, California, USA
Photographer: Alfred T. Palmer from Office of War Information

North American NA-91 Mustang fighters being serviced at North American Aviation at Inglewood, California (USA), in October 1942. After passing of the lend-lease act in March 1941, the USAAF ordered 150 NA-93 Mustang Mk IA fighters on 25 September 1941 for delivery to the United Kingdom. The RAF serial numbers assigned were FD418-FD567 (FD553 is visible on the left). For contractual purposes, these aircraft were assigned the U.S. designation of P-51 (USAAF serials 41-37320 to 41-37469). The Mustang IA differed from earlier versions in having the machine guns replaced by four 20 mm wing-mounted Hispano cannon. After December 1941 serials FD418-FD437, FD450-FD464, FD466-FD469, and FD510-FD527 were reposessed by the USAAF (and briefly named A-36A Apache). These Mustangs will later be fitted with their designed armament of 4 x 20mm cannon. The British designated this model Mustang Mk IA To the USAAF is was the P-51 (Exactly that, no sub-type suffix letter or production block number.) Note that the machine at left has an RAF serial number and fin flash but a US star on the fuselage. That aircraft and the one at right appear to be in RAF camo whereas the other two seem to be in Olive Drab indicating that they are destined for the USAAF. North America's development and production of their NA-73 design for the UK was approved after 2 examples were supplied to the USAAC as XP-51, but before that the US army had already contracted for the procurement of 150 additional aircraft for supply to the UK under lend-lease, designating these P-51 and they differed from the initial eight gun armament by having four wing mounted 20mm canon (as pictured). From this batch 93 went to the UK becoming Mustang IA 55 went to the USAAF as F-6A's and the remaining 2 were also taken on by the USAAF and re-engined as XP-51B's. Not the first models to enter combat for the US, those were A-36A's in August 1943 (P-51 with dive brakes, bomb racks and six 0.50in) which saw service in the Middle East and in the invasion of Sicily

Source:

Library of Congress LC-USW361-495 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P-51_%28mustang%29.jpg

Tiger #222 Taking Tiger #231 in Tow After a Breakdown

Image size: 1600 x 1126 pixel. 338 KB
Date: Wednesday, 14 June 1944
Place: Villers-Bocage, Basse-Normandie, France
Photographer: Arthur Grimm (PK Signal-Einsatz)

Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf.E Tiger I (Sd.Kfz.181) heavy tanks of the 2.Kompanie/schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 at north-eastern outskirts of Villers-Bocage, France. Standing on Tiger #222 (commanded by SS-Oberscharführer Kurt Sowa) with kradmantel (motorcyclist's coat) is SS-Untersturmfuhrer Georg Hantusch (Zugführer of 2.Zug/2.Kompanie/schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101) taking Tiger #231 (SS-Standartenoberjunker Heinz Belbe) in tow after a breakdown, victim of British anti-tank gun, while small in the background is a captured American Personnel Half-track M5. This photo (by Kriegsberichter Arthur Grimm from Propaganda-Kompanie Signal-Einsatz) were taken just outside Villers-Bocage on June 14, 1944, so just one day after Wittmann's attack there.

Source:

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-738-0275-10A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-738-0275-10A,_Bei_Villers-Bocage,_Panzer_VI_%28Tiger_I%29.jpg