Practice Jump Before D-Day

Image size: 1600 x 1138 pixel. 580 KB
Date: Saturday, 13 May 1944
Place: Ramsbury, Wiltshire, England
Photographer: Joseph Pangerl

Practice jumps by the Allied paratroopers were common in the months preceding D-Day; this night jump on Douglas C-47 aircraft was made on 13 May 1944. The troopers pictured are members of Headquarters 3.Company / 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (3/502 PIR). From left to right, on the left side of aisle: Captain Edward “Poop” Barrett (S-3 of 3/502), Dell Winslow, Sergeant 1st Class Harwell Cooper, two unknown, Joe Lofthouse, and Bill Cady. Standing at the end of the aisle: unknown and George J. Schwaderer. On the right side of aisle, from right to left: Lieutenant Corey Shepard, Fitzgerald, “Eddie” Edwards, Virgil Thornton, two unknown, Kenneth Cordry, and unknown. The Allies are aware that the greatest weakness of the airborne units lies in their lack of firepower. Equipped with small arms, they are not theoretically capable of fighting against an opponent with heavy armored vehicles. Thus, airborne units are to receive the support of gliders troops: the latter are armed with anti-tank guns, Jeep light vehicles and heavy machine guns,  equipment for sappers. Signal Corps via Joseph Pangerl.

 Another view taken in the same plane, same jump, with Dell Winslow (3/502 Battalion clerk) standing in foreground. This night exercise resulted in many jump- landing injuries that cost the 101st Airborne more than one hundred troopers who would have dropped into Normandy but had to be put out of the lineup. H/502 jumped over the town of Ramsbury, England, and some troopers landed on rooftops or on the hard cobblestone streets!

Source :
"101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles in World War II" by Mark Bando
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/air-operations/usa

Artillery Fires in Support of Tenth Army Advance on Shuri

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Date: Friday, 11 May 1945
Place: Southern Okinawa Near Shuri, Japan
Photographer: USMC Corporal Eastman

Marine M114 155mm howitzer of III Amphibious Corps fires in support of Tenth Army advance. On May 9, 1945, US Army Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. ordered a coordinated Tenth Army attack for May 11. The plan of attack called for Tenth Army to renew the assault on the Shuri defenses with its two corps abreast, III Amphibious Corps on the right, XXIV Corps on the left. The initial scheme of maneuver was an envelopment of Shuri by the Marine divisions on the west and the Army divisions on the east, while a strong holding attack was maintained in the center The Tenth Army staff believed that the Japanese positions were weaker on the right and that the fresh Marine divisions had a chance for a quick break-through on that flank. Moreover, the terrain was more favorable along the western coast. The wide flanking maneuver around Shuri that later developed was not projected in the original plans. General Buckner explained on May 10 that there would be nothing spectacular. He added: "It will be a continuation of the type of attack we have been employing to date. Where we cannot take strong points we will pinch them off and leave them for the reserves to reduce. We have ample firepower and we also have enough fresh troops so that we can always have one division resting." The initial order for the attack provided for a 30-minute general preparation by the artillery just before the ground attack. This provision was revoked two days later in favor of pinpointing of targets. The new order stated that "the maximum practicable number of known enemy guns and strong points will be destroyed or neutralized" prior to the infantry assault. The attack launched on schedule, although coordinated initially along the entire front, soon broke down into a series of intense battles for particular landmarks. For ten days of continuous fighting, from Sugar Loaf on the west coast to Conical Hill on the east, the Japanese, except for local and relatively minor retreats, held tenaciously to their long-prepared positions. Finally, on May 21, after some of the fiercest action of the battle of Okinawa, the American forces were to seize the eastern slope of Conical Hill, close to the east coast, and thereby to make an opening in the enemy lines which permitted an attempt at envelopment. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives)

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1056

155mm "Long Tom" Fires at Japanese on Guam

Image size: 1279 x 1600 pixel. 478 KB
Date: Thursday, 3 August 1944
Place: Finegayan, Guam, Mariana Islands
Photographer: USMC Corporal A.F. Hager

III Corps Artillery of the 7th Marine 155mm Gun Battalion "Long Tom" M1 firing during the night of August 2-3, 1944, during operations to liberate the town of Finegayan. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John S. Twitchell; Executive Officer Major Dale H. Heely. 7th Battalion's "Long Toms" were initially set up in the open 500 yards from White Beach 2. The positions were in the shadow of the mountain range secured by the 4th Marines and the Army's 305th Infantry after heavy fighting. At the start of the campaign, enemy opposition might be fierce enough to contain the beachheads and prevent the planned link-up on the Force Beachhead Line, where 3rd Marine Division and 1st Provisional Marine Brigade would protect the beachhead. Successful employment of corps artillery presented a problem. The minimum effective range of the powerful 155mm guns and howitzers was so great that they might be limited to deep support missions should the assault move slowly. To meet this contingency, US Army Brigadier General Pedro A. del Valle and his newly-formed artillery staff planned to land two 155mm battalions in the south behind the brigade. This would permit the heavier guns of the 7th 155mm Gun Battalion, with only long range capabilities, to reinforce the fires of the 12th Marines in support of the 3d Division. All artillery battalions of the 12th Marines had displaced forward by 2 August in order to be in position to provide continuous support to regiments of the division. Corps artillery had also moved, so that its longer range guns could now be used more effectively. By nightfall, units had brought forward a good supply of ammunition in anticipation of the increased need for artillery support in the Finegayan area. During the night 2-3 August, the 12th Marines delivered 777 rounds of harassing and interdictory fires on roads and trails within the division's zone of action. On August 9, investigation showed that a Saipanese civilian report of 2,000-3,000 Japanese located in the northern cliff area had caused a sudden halt in the American advance. Corps artillery was notified to place all fire possible in that region. With the 7th 155mm Gun Battalion being the only corps unit that could reach the suspected enemy concentration, it received orders to cover the densely forested terrain. In two and a half hours of uninterrupted firing, the 7th hurled an unprecedented 1,000 rounds into the area from the 12 guns of its battalion. Division artillery batteries added 2,280 75mm and 105mm shells to the same target. No resistance met the 9th Marines when it moved in, but neither were there many Japanese bodies. As the Corps Artillery A-3 later wrote: "The intelligence information on which all the firing had been based was wrong, and we had made this great effort for nothing. However, it did provide a bang-up end to the campaign." The M1 155 gun has a range of 14.4 miles (23,221 meters) and can fire 6-inch shells at the sustained rate of 40 per hour. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1051

44 Squadron Lancaster Warms Up

Image size: 1600 x 703 pixel. 360 KB
Date: Sunday, 2 January 1944
Place: Dunholme, Lincolnshire, England
Photographer: Unknown

Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster B Mark I, Serial R5729, Squadron Code "KM-A" of 44th Squadron, 5 Group, warms up at RAF Dunholme Lodge prior to a raid of Berlin on January 2, 1944. Note Rolls Royce Merlin engines. This aircraft flew 70 missions with 44 Squadron before it was shot down on the night of January 14/15, 1945. 44 Squadron was permitted to add "Rhodesia" to its unit crest in September 1941, as a quarter of its personnel were from that British colony. As losses mounted, 44 Squadron was crewed by Canadians, Rhodesians, Australians and British. Originally part of an order of 200 Avro Manchesters ordered in September 1939. When that type proved unacceptable, the order was converted to Lancaster Mark Is. R5729 was heavily damaged by a JU-88 night fighter on July 23/24, 1942; Pilot Officer Day managed to return to base. Flying as part of the RAF's night offensive into Germany, R5729 raided Turin, Stuttgart, Manheim, Munich, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Lorient, Nuremberg, Saint Nazaire, Stettin, Bochum, Oberhausen, and Hannover; many cities multiple times. At 1643 Hours on January 14, 1944, Pilot Officer L. Curatolo of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) flew off R5729 with Sergeant G.W. Williams, Sergeant P.R. Hughes, D.S. Mullin (RCAF), Sergeant T. Whitely, Sergeant S.W. Weldon, and Sergeant G. Armitt of the Royal Australian Air Force for Brunswick. The Germans were heard vectoring their fighters for attack as soon as the bomber stream crossed the frontier at Bremen; they tracked the bombers forty miles (64 kilometers) off England. Around 2000 Hours, R5729 was engaged by a German night fighter and destroyed near Gieboldehausen, 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) East-Northeast of Gottingen. The entire crew was killed and buried in Hannover Cemetery. Because Brunswick was not a major city and the Germans effectively eliminated the pathfinders (11 were lost) the city received only minor damage. Ten houses were destroyed and fourteen people killed. Many towns and villages to the south were hit by errant bombs, especially Wolfenbuttel. A total of thirty-eight Lancasters were lost. 

Source:

Imperial War Museum (IWM) CH 11927 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0038

Jedburgh Special Forces Board B-24D Liberator, Bound For France

Image size: 1600 x 1273 pixel. 327 KB
Date: Friday, 11 August 1944
Place: Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
Photographer: Unknown

Jedburgh Team Aubrey seen just before boarding Consolidated B-24D-35-CO Liberator "Fightin' Sam" (#42-40506) of 8th Air Force, 801st Bombardment Group, 788th Bomb Squadron, for parachuting into France. Left to Right: E. W. Appel, plane crew; unidentified woman; Sergeant Ivor Hooker; Captain Jean-Francois Chaigneau (back to camera) Captain Godfrey Marchant (behind Chaigneau) and unidentified American aircrew member. "Fightin' Sam" was painted black for this mission. The Jedburghs were special forces 3-person teams, formed from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (Intelligence and Operations Central Bureau), and later personnel from the Dutch or Belgian Army. During Operation Overlord, Jedburghs were inserted via parachute or by landing in Douglas C-47 Dakotas behind German lines to work with the Forces Francaises de l'Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior, FFI, the Resistance) to organize sabotage, intelligence, and engage retreating German forces. Team Aubrey consisted of of Captain Marchant (British, code name RUTLAND), Captain Chaigneau (French, nom-de-guerre J. Telmon, code name KILDARE), and Sergeant Hooker (British, code name THALER, radio operator). They dropped into France at 0115 Hours on August 12, 1944 at La Plessis-Belleville. Two other B-24s accompanied the mission to drop weapons, food and supplies. Aubrey operated in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris; they completed their hookup with the "Spiritualist" SOE network the night they landed. As German forces retreated from Paris on August 27, 1944, Major Rene Dumont-Guillemet, the leader of the "Spiritualist" circuit, ordered the FFI to ambush them. Only the Jedburghs were trained with PIAT anti-tank rockets, and only two Bren machine guns were available. LVIII Panzer Corps, shattered in the Normandy breakout, had elements of the Panzer Lehr and 9th Panzer Divisions in the area and engaged the FFI, killing eighty-six French. Captain Chaigneau was killed by a tank shell as he attempted to rescue a nurse. Hooker and Marchant were separated in a river bed, using the deep, thick mud to hide from the Germans until they were able to independently escape eight hours later and rejoin the American VII Corps at Nongloire-par-Puisieux. By August 30 both Hooker and Marchant were back in London. Marchant was killed in Burma in April 1945 on another Jedburgh mission; Hooker survived the war and died in 1988. 91 Jedburgh teams operated in France in July and August 1944, destroying bridges, railroads, communications, and reporting to London that the Germans had fled Paris. These operations laid the groundwork for the creation of dedicated intelligence operations in the United States, United Kingdom and France after the war.

Source:

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 226-FPL-T-25 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0009