Marines and Civilians Celebrate V-J Day in Times Square

Image size: 1600 x 1281 pixel. 432 KB
Date: Tuesday, 14 August 1945
Place: New York City, United States of America
Photographer: Matty Zimmerman

Starting on August 10, 1945, false reports of the end of the war caused premature celebrations across Canada and the United States. Most waited for the official word from US President Harry S Truman at the White House. As the negotiations progressed through early Tuesday morning, August 14. Throughout the day, thousands, then hundreds of thousands, gathered in Times Square to watch the "zipper" that gave updated information about the surrender. by 1900 750,000 people were pressing into 40th to 52nd Streets between 6th and 8th Avenues. At 1933 the official word of the acceptance of the Japanese surrender was flashed across the "zipper" and the crowd began to party. Some two million people crowded into Times Square. "Individual movement was virtually impossible; one moved not in the crowd but with it." said the New York Times. Women were forcibly kissed, barely able to recover from one soldier's affection before another embraced or kissed her. The party continued long into the night. The next day, over one million people again gathered in Times Square, continuing to revel in the surrender of Japan. 

Source:

http://www.replayphotos.com/usamilitaryphotostore/world-war-ii-print/vj-day-times-square_189862.cfm

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1138

Crowds Celebrate V-J Day in Times Square

Image size: 1600 x 1269 pixel. 731 KB
Date: Tuesday, 14 August 1945
Place: New York City, United States of America
Photographer: Sergeant Reg Kenny from US Army Signal Corps

View of Times Square looking north to Broadway and 7th Avenue. Hundreds of thousands of people gather in Times Square to wait for news of the Japanese surrender. Note line of film camera trucks in a line in the center of the photo; statue of Iwo Jima flag raisers; film camera in lower left. The marquee for the Hotel Astor had an NBC television crew shooting live video from it. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of photographers circulated around the crowd. The euphoria of the victory over Japan led to partying long into the night. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1139

USS Yorktown After Bomb Hits in the Battle of Midway

Image size: 1600 x 1283 pixel. 249 KB
Date: Thursday, 4 June 1942
Place: Midway, Oceania
Photographer: Unknown

Fires are burning in USS Yorktown's (CV-5) uptakes. USS Portland (CA-35) stands by. With her boiler rooms out of action through the effects of the bomb hit in her uptakes, Yorktown coasted to a stop, while her escorts circled around her. Her crewmen fought fires in her smokestack and elsewhere, patched holes in her uptakes and flight deck, treated casualties and stayed alert for another possible enemy attack. The crew of one boiler room heroically worked amid heat and smoke to keep the ship's auxiliary systems operating. To maintain his mobility, Task Force 17 commander Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher shifted his flag to USS Astoria. Ships were sent from the nearby Task Force 16 to reinforce those clustered around the stricken carrier. Meanwhile, Yorktown aircraft returning from attacks on the Japanese carrier Soryu were diverted to USS Enterprise. Some, however, were too short of fuel to fly on, and ditched nearby. As damage control parties made progress, flight deck crews respotted several fighters aft to takeoff position and the engineering force began to bring other boilers back into service. After nearly two hours' hard work by all hands, Yorktown was underway again, though only capable of about twenty knots speed. To the west, as yet undetected, Japanese torpedo planes from IJN Hiryu were approaching. The Japanese aircraft penetrated heavy air and gunfire opposition to hit Yorktown with two torpedoes, opening a huge hole on her midships port side. The stricken ship again went dead in the water and took on a severe list. Concerned that she was about to roll over, her Captain ordered his crew to abandon ship. After a further torpedo hit by IJN I-168, Yorktown rolled over on her port side and sank by the stern on the morning of June 7. 

Source:

http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/entry/seeschlacht_um_die_vogelinseln/100012/angriff_auf_die_uss_yorktown.html?o=position-ASCENDING&s=0&r=48&a=24923&of=14&c=1

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1137

Nakajima B5N2 Passes USS Northampton (CA-26)

Image size: 1600 x 1260 pixel. 324 KB
Date: Monday, 26 October 1942
Place: Solomon Islands, Pacific Ocean
Photographer: Unknown

Battle of Santa Cruz, October 26, 1942. Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber (Allied code name "Kate") carrying Type 91 17.7 inch (45 centimeter) torpedo heads for USS Hornet (CV-8). USS Northampton (CA-26) is behind the Kate. That morning USS Enterprise (CV-6) planes bombed carrier Zuiho. Planes from Hornet severely damaged carrier Shokaku, and cruiser Chikuma. Two other cruisers were aleo attacked by Hornet aircraft. Meanwhile, Hornet, herself, was fighting off a coordinated dive bombing and torpedo plane attack which left her so severely damaged that she had to be abandoned. Survivors were soon picked up by destroyers. Northampton tried several times to tow the stricken carrier to safety. The abandoned Hornet, ablaze from stem 'to stern, refused to accept her intended fate from friends. She still floated after receiving nine torpedoes and more than 400 rounds of 5-inch shellflre from destroyers USS Anderson (DD-411) and USS Mustin (DD-413). After attempting to tow her as well, Japanese destroyers also tried to sink her by firing four 24-inch torpedoes at her blazing hull. At 0135 Hours, October 27, 1942, she finally sank off the Santa Cruz Islands. Her name was struck from the Navy List January 13, 1943. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1132

V-J Day on Market Street San Francisco

Image size: 1600 x 1290 pixel. 599 KB
Date: Tuesday, 14 August 1945
Place: San Francisco, California, United States of America
Photographer: Ernest K. Bennett

San Franciscans crowd 4th Street and Market Street on Victory Over Japan Day. Overnight the crowd, fueled by liquor and hysteria, would riot, leaving eleven dead, and 1,000 injured! Many of the injuries involved broken limbs and cracked noggins from fights and falls. The riot, which followed the Japanese surrender announcement by a day, was mostly confined to downtown San Francisco and involved thousands of drunken soldiers and sailors, most of them teenagers. They smashed store windows, attacked women, halted all traffic, wrecked Municipal streetcars. 30 streetcars were disabled, and one streetcar worker was killed. The rioters took over Market Street and refused to leave until military and civilian police drove them away long after nightfall following hours of chaos. At 11 o'clock that night, the authorities finally moved in on Market Street. The police and military moved up Market, sweeping the rioters before them. Hours later, the rioters dispersed. The State Theatre at 787 Market Street, designed by Alfred Henry Jacobs, closed in 1954. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1133

US Infantry Soldiers on Okinawa Listens to News of German Surrender

Image size: 1600 x 1200 pixel. 449 KB
Date: Tuesday, 8 May 1945
Place: Okinawa, Ryukyu Island, Japan
Photographer: Unknown

A few yards behind the front lines on Okinawa, fighting men of the US Army's 77th Infantry division listen to radio reports of Germanys surrender on May 8, 1945. Their battle hardened faces indicate the impassiveness with which they received the news of the victory on a far distant front. One minute after this photo was taken, they returned to their combat post, officially however, American forces on Okinawa celebrated the end of the war in Europe by training every ship and shore battery on a Japanese target and firing one shell simultaneously and precisely at midnight! Okinawa is a strategic island in the Ryukyu (Loochoo chain), situated 375 miles from Japan. The Western European GIs were going home; the grim expressions reflect the realization that they still had hard fighting ahead. Both the 77th and 7th Divisions had hard slow fighting in the center of Okinawa. The 77th Division was repelling an attack by the Imperial Japanese Army's 32nd Regiment. The 7th Division was also attacked by the Imperial Japanese Army's 24th Division. By noon of May 5, 1945, there was apprehension at the 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Division, command post, which had not fully appreciated the strength of the infiltration. From a hill near the command post Lt. Col. Albert V. Hard, executive officer, could plainly see several Japanese soldiers 600 yards away on Tanabaru Escarpment. The Japanese were in turn watching American activity. Lying on his stomach, Colonel Hard fired some shots from an M1 at the Japanese to neutralize them. While he was so engaged, a soldier ran up with a radio report that the German armies had surrendered. "Well now," Hard said, "if we just had the Japs off the escarpment we'd be all right, wouldn't we?" 

Source:

Reactor B at the Hanford Engineer Works

Image size: 1600 x 1277 pixel. 587 KB
Date: Thursday, 1 February 1945
Place: Hanford, Washington, United States of America
Photographer: Unknown

Reactor B at the Hanford Engineer Works. With the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility too close to a large population and demanding more power then the Tennessee Valley could provide, a new site for plutonium production was required. On December 16, 1942, 560 square miles (1450 square kilometers) around Hanford, Washington State, were set aside. Ample Hydroelectric power was available, and it was determined that the existing infrastructure could be upgraded to support the construction and operation of the facility. three water-cooled production reactor (piles), designated by the letters B, D, and F, would be built about six miles apart on the south bank of the Columbia River. The four chemical separation plants would be built in pairs at two sites nearly ten miles south of the piles. A facility to produce slugs and perform tests would be approximately twenty miles southeast of the separation plants near Richland. Ground-breaking for the water-cooling plant for the B Reactor, the westernmost of the three, took place on August 27, 1943. DuPont work gangs began to lay the first of 390 tons of structural steel, 17,400 cubic yards of concrete, 50,000 concrete blocks, and 71,000 concrete bricks that went into the pile building. By early 1944, a windowless concrete monolith towered 120 feet above the desert. On September 13, 1944, Enrico Fermi placed the first slug into the pile at B Reactor. The pile stopped and restarted, frustrated by an unforeseen buildup of Xenon gas. DuPont overbuilt the reactor, so it was pushed beyond the designated load, which eliminated the Xenon before it could build up and shut down the reaction. Los Alamos received the first shipment of Plutonium in February 1945. 

Source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hanford_B_site_40s.jpg

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1131

Sanno Shrine after Atomic Attack on Nagasaki

Image size: 1600 x 1312 pixel. 615 KB
Date: Monday, 24 September 1945
Place: Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Photographer: Corporal Lynn P. Walker, Jr.

 Statues of Amida Buddha and Jizo in Sanno Shrine after atomic attack on Nagasaki. One-legged Torii (short for bird place or expression "pass through and enter") of Sanno Shrine at extreme right. This Shinto Shrine nestles among towering camphor trees at the edge of the former Urakami kaido, the narrow road used by Edo-Period travelers entering Nagasaki from the north through the Urakami Valley. The shrine was founded in 1652 and named after Sanno (Hie) Shinto Shrine near Kyoto because of the similarity in the terrain and the fact that both shrines were located in a place called "Sakamoto." The two enormous camphor trees flanking the entrance to Sanno Shinto Shrine were probably planted at the time of the shrine's foundation. Located about 800 meters from the hypocenter, Sanno Shinto Shrine was completely flattened, except for one of its Torii Gates on the far side of the hypocenter and the half-flattened Torii in the extreme right of the photo. While the neighborhood and the shrine were rebuilt after the war, the one-legged Torii was left as a reminder of the power of the explosion as a memorial to the 74,000 Nagasaki residents who were killed immediately or by the lingering effects of radiation between August 9 - December 31, 1945. The camphor trees were originally thought to be killed in the blast, but they survived to bloom again and were designated a national landmark on February 15, 1969. 

Source:

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Display_CD.cfm?StartRow=1&MaxRows=50&CD=War%20And%20Conflict%20CD

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1339

Hiroshima's Financial District One Day After Atomic Blast

Image size: 1600 x 1063 pixel. 436 KB
Date: Tuesday, 7 August 1945
Place: Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Photographer: Mitsugi Kishida

Smoke still hangs over the vicinity of Ohte-machi, Kamiya-cho, Hondori and Fukuro-machi after the bombing. Here were the Hiroshima Branch of Yasuda Bank, the Hiroshima branches of Obayashi Corporation, Sanwa Bank, Sumitomo Bank and the central Geibi Bank. Except for those buildings made of steel rebar reinforced concrete, the stores lining the Hondori Shopping Arcade were completely destroyed by blast and fire. Steel and concrete buildings mostly withstood the bomb, but their fixtures made of glass and wood melted or burned. Brick buildings suffered major damage, and the wooden buildings were completely consumed by the fire. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1096

Junkers Ju 52 After Landing on the Hartvigvann-Lake

Image size: 1600 x 1115 pixel. 399 KB
Date: Saturday, 13 April 1940
Place: Hartvigvann-lake, Narvik, Norway
Photographer: Unknown

Junkers Ju 52 g4e “DB+RB” of 3./KGr.z.b.V. 102 after landing on the Hartvigvann-lake north of Narvik, Norway. This aircraft landed there on 13 April 1940 with 10 other Ju 52 to bring in supplies during the fighting around Narvik. Because of lack of fuel and the deep snow only one Ju 52 was able to take-off from the frozen lake! The other aircraft sank when the ice melted. Between 1983 and 1986 four of these aircraft were recovered and later restored. This aircraft carried an Ace of Hearts emblem. Pilot was Feldwebel Kathmann and the flight engineer Feldwebel Härtelt. The name of the radio-operator is still unknown.

Source:

Luftwaffe im Focus - Edition No.1 2002

A V-1 With Very Unusual Camouflage Pattern

Image size: 1600 x 867 pixel. 478 KB
Date: Between 13 September and 7 October 1944
Place: Varrelbusch Airfield, Cloppenburg, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

A V-1 with very unusual camouflage pattern! Picture taken at the ammunition dump of Varrelbusch airfield. The V-1 was stored in the open, without special camouflage measures. Note the yellow protective cap on the nose of the V-1! This picture was taken between September 13th and October 7th 1944 with 1.Staffel / Kampfgeschwader 53 (KG 53) on Varrelbusch airfield. The Staffel operated from September 16th from this base with V-1’s against England. The V-1’s were to be released over the northsea. The missions were flown at low level to prevent detection by British radar. After release of the flying bomb, the bomb was directed to its target by a fixed bearing and fuel load. The losses of KG 53 were high, mainly caused by Allied nightfighters and bad weather.

Source:

Luftwaffe im Focus - Edition No.1 2002

A Heinkel He 111 Rolling Towards its Heavily Guarded Revetment

Image size: 1600 x 856 pixel. 399 KB
Date: Between 13 September and 7 October 1944
Place: Varrelbusch Airfield, Cloppenburg, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

A Heinkel He 111 rolling towards its heavily guarded revetment. A groundcrew member looking out of the cockpit gives the pilot instructions to prevent hitting trees and other obstacles. Please note the flame damper on the exhaust pipes and the carrier for the V-1 on the right hand side of the fuselage! This picture was taken between September 13th and October 7th 1944 with 1.Staffel / Kampfgeschwader 53 (KG 53) on Varrelbusch airfield. The Staffel operated from September 16th from this base with V-1’s against England. The V-1’s were to be released over the northsea. The missions were flown at low level to prevent detection by British radar. After release of the flying bomb, the bomb was directed to its target by a fixed bearing and fuel load. The losses of KG 53 were high, mainly caused by Allied nightfighters and bad weather.

Source:

Luftwaffe im Focus - Edition No.1 2002