The War in View #16

General Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with General George C. Marshall at an airfield in Paris, France. The man behind Marshall's elbow is Senior Advisor to President Roosevelt, Justice James F. Byrnes. Several photographers are on the left. Robert Doyle notes: "Arrival of first plane US ATC (United States Air Transport Command) to fly direct from America today." The airplane is a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (42-107451) and was the first US ATC (United States Air Transport Command) aircraft to fly direct from America. 6 October 1944.

 

General Dwight D. Eisenhower (SHAEF commander) poses with (left to right) General George C. Marshall (Army Chief of Staff), Justice James F. Byrnes (Senior Advisor to President Roosevelt) and Lieutenant General Omar Nelson Bradley (Army Ground Commander) at an airfield in Paris, France. The airplane is a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (42-107451) and was the first US ATC (United States Air Transport Command) aircraft to fly direct from America. 6 October 1944.

 

An ATC (Air Transport Command) Douglas C-54 Skymaster aircraft is being loaded by two soldiers at the air base on Kwajalein Island of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. Three addition al C-54s are visible. 6 March 1945.

 

From the caption that accompanied the image: "Fellow workers in civilian life, these Milwaukeeans met recently on Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall islands. They are (from left) Robert J. Doyle, The Journal's staff war correspondent; Lieutenant Louis Olszyk, on leave from The Journal news staff, now officer in charge of the 4th Marine Air Wing news service at Kwajalein, and Ensign Ray Hansen, also on leave from The Journal news staff, who works in the naval air transport service office at Kwajalein." They are all smiling, and Doyle and Hansen hold Olszyk's legs as he reaches his arms up to hold onto the bottom of the open door of a C-54 Skymaster. Circa March 1945.

 

From the caption that accompanied the image: "Fellow workers in civilian life, these Milwaukeeans met recently on Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall islands. They are (from left) Lieutenant Louis Olszyk, on leave from The Journal news staff, now officer in charge of the 4th Marine Air Wing news service at Kwajalein; Ensign Ray Hansen, also on leave from The Journal news staff, who works in the naval air transport service office at Kwajalein and Robert J. Doyle, The Journal's staff war correspondent. They are chatting beneath the "Naval Air Transport Service" sign on a building at the airfield. Circa March 1945.

 

The Douglas C-54 became the backbone of the ATC, with its excellent range and reliability. It could carry up to 10,000 lbs of cargo, two and a half times more than the Douglas C-47.

 

Douglas R5D-1, 39173, NATS, landing at Oakland with one prop feathered.

 

Douglas C-54 arrives at Meeks Field, Iceland. 2nd Service Group, 17 April 1943.

 

In September 1945, soldiers raised the American flag at Atsugi Airbase in Japan as the first occupying forces arrived. Douglas C-54 transports are in the background.

 

Lockheed C-56 Lodestar.

 

Lockheed L-18-40 Lodestar that at some point departed the U.S. bound for Latin America. Her C/N is 2102 and previous IDs include 42-68347, VHCAA, ZK-ANA, XA-TAP and N796G.

 

VHCAA at Port Moresby, with "QANTAS" in a lighter color painted on the camouflage on the nose.

 

Qantas Empire Airways Lodestar VHCAA at Port Moresby, New Guinea in December 1942, being loaded by American and Australian forces. Hudson Fysh, QEA founder and Managing Director with hands on hips.

 

Tail of Lockheed L-18-40 Lodestar (VHCAA) at Townsville Airfield, Queensland, Australia. 21 October 1943.

 

VHCAA later in the war in natural metal finish.

 

Waco CG-4A “Hadrian”.

 

Paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division in a Waco CG-4A during training.

 

U.S. glider pilots who ferried assault paratroopers to their D-Day destinations are picked up at the beachhead for return to England.

 

A wrecked U.S. Army Air Force Waco CG-4A glider (42-73623) in Sicily in July 1943.

 

Airborne troops exiting a CG-4 glider, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

C-47s towing CG-4A gliders, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

CG-4A glider landing, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

Jeep coming out of the front cargo door of a Waco CG-4A glider after landing, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

CG-4A glider making a training landing, England. June 1944. Note invasion stripes.

 

A line of Waco CG-4A gliders.

 

Waco CG-4A glider in flight.

 

A CG-4A glider coming in for a test landing with a 10-foot nylon drag parachute serving as a giant air brake. Parachutes enabled gliders to land more quickly on small fields. They were used extensively during landings in Europe. This test glider is also equipped with a Griswold Nose.

 

CG-4A gliders on the ground after a supply mission to Bastogne, December 1944.

 

CG-4A gliders and Douglas C-47s of the Ninth Troop Carrier Command lined up along the runway await take off time at Greenham Common air base in England prior to taking part in the invasion of France. 6 June 1944.

 

Troops of a glider field artillery battalion entering a Waco CG-4A glider, Camp Mackall, North Carolina.

 

Still from movie footage of a CG-4A glider landing at Son, Holland. Operation Market Garden. September 1944.

 

Ford-built CG-4A glider sitting in a pasture, Normandy, France. June 1944.

 

Waco CG-4A glider cockpit interior.

 

This CG-4A glider of the USAAF Troop Carrier Command from Atterbury Army Air Field didn't quite make it back and landed in Perry Doup's farm field at the corner of the base in 1945. It was "snatched" out of the field by a C-47 tow plane.

 

C-47 with a double tow of CG-4A gliders out of Atterbury Army Air Field.

 

A double tow line up of CG-4A gliders on the field at Atterbury Army Air Field.

 

Waco CG-4A glider of the 9th Troop Carrier Command comes in for a landing at Remagen, Germany, to pick up wounded personnel. 21 May 1945.

 

USAAF Troop Carrier Command demonstrating loading wounded men onto a CG-4A glider, Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York. 24 Mar 1945. Note Dodge WC54 ambulance.

 

U.S. Army Air Forces Waco CG-4A glider with Lt. Suella Bernard in the right-hand seat of the cockpit just as the glider is being snatched by a C-47.

 

Waco CG-4A glider pickup by Douglas C-47.

 

CG-4A glider ready for snatch pickup by C-47, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

The snatch is made!

 

A CG-4A glider of the Ninth Troop Carrier Command loaded with injured soldiers, takes off from a field at Remagen, Germany. 22 March 1945.

 

CG-4A taking off after snatch pickup, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

 

A CG-4A glider and C-47 tow plane will deliver its wounded in a matter of minutes rather than the usual days by truck.

 

Glider Reclamation: Two weeks time was all that the engineers of the 82nd Service Group, Ninth Troop Carrier Command, required to place 60 percent of the 300 gliders in flyable condition after the Rees-Wesel airborne invasion. Shown here is a small group that has been reclaimed through snatch pickup methods somewhere in Germany. 1 Spring 1945.

 

Glider tow release mechanism.

 

A U.S. Army Air Forces Waco CG-4A-GN glider (45-27948) at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, at Dayton, Ohio.

 

Inside view of the front fuselage of a Waco CG-4 glider.

 

Inside view of the rear fuselage of a Waco CG-4 glider.

 

Waco CG-4A on display at the Silent Wings Museum.

 

Waco CG-4A glider.

 

Waco CG-4A glider in Pittsburgh during World War II. Heinz employees supplied the wings.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment. The CG-4A broke down into tail section, main cabin section, cockpit section, inner wing panels, outer wing panels. There were 15,000 board feet of lumber in the five crates a CG-4A came in.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

Waco CG-4A glider being crated for shipment.

 

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR - DECEMBER 1942: An soldier guards a C-47 Skytrain at a United States Army Air Force base in December 1942 in Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada.

 

ADEN, YEMEN - CIRCA 1943: Airmen on an M6 Bomb Servicer at a U.S. Army Air Force base circa 1943, in Aden, Yemen.

 

BENGHAZI, LIBYA - AUGUST 16,1943: A view as crew members of the 98th Bombardment Group get a ride back to base on a repurposed FIAT SPA CL39 as bombs lay on the ground at the U.S Air Force Base in Benghazi, Libya.

 

Another view of the 98th Bomb Group FIAT SPA CL39.

 

NATAL, BRAZIL - JUNE 1943: A view of a C-87 Liberator Express Transport plane at the Parnamirim airport at the US Army and Air Force base in Natal, Brazil. Notice the much darker shade of OD used on the Jeep and Dodge Command Car. Registration numbers on both vehicles were done in lusterless blue paint.

 

NATAL, BRAZIL - JUNE 1943: A view as US servicemen at the Parnamirim airport at the US Air Force base in Natal, Brazil. The Jeep is painted in a dark OD with blue lusterless registration number. The forklift in the background appears to be painted in strata blue.

 

ALGIERS, ALGERIA - AUGUST 1943: A view as an US Air Force pilot looks out his window during take off, flying from Algiers to Tunis, Tunisia. Jeep sports lusterless blue registration numbers.

 

FAYETTEVILLE, NC - 1942: A view of army soldiers on guard duty at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1942 with pre-war 1-1/2 ton trucks.

 

CHABUA, ASSAM, INDIA - CIRCA 1943: A view of local workers and soldiers transport an engine with a CCKW at the United States Army Air Force base in Chabua, Assam India. Circa 1943.

 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - CIRCA 1942: A view African American Army soldiers ride in an Army G-506 truck (registration no. W-351058) at the Las Vegas Army Air Force Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada. Circa 1942.

 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - CIRCA 1942: Soldiers train at the flexible gunnery training with shotguns and trap loads at the Las Vegas Army Airfield in Las Vegas, The pickup in the back is a 1/2-ton Dodge (possibly a WC-1) Nevada. Circa 1942.

 

PALERMO, SICILY, ITALY-AUGUST 22,1943: US soldiers drive in the streets after Allied Invasion called "Operation Husky" in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The white bumper markings on the command car appear to be "HQ CO 10 PE NO."  

 

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR, CANADA-DECEMBER 1942: A 1/2-ton Dodge ambulance (reg.no W-76024 in blue lusterless paint) next to a airplane on the U.S. Air Base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada.

 

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR, CANADA-DECEMBER 1942: U.S Airmen use an Autocar U-7144-T 4.5-ton tractor to tow a U.S bomber onto the tarmac on the U.S. Air Base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada.

 

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR,CANADA- DECEMBER 1942: A view of airfield snow blowing trucks clearing  snow on the U.S. Air Base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada.

 

BERMUDA - CIRCA 1943: U.S. Marines ride OD-painted bicycles after pitching tents in a field at the U.S. Naval Air Base in Bermuda.

 

Civilian prisoners at Santo Tomas interment camp, Manila, Philippines, 1945.

 

Aerial photograph of the Old Hospital (Engineering building) of Santo Tomas University in Manilla in 1945. Surrounding the buildings are shanties built by internees at the camp.

 

Roofless buildings stand among scattered masonry and wreckage of vehicles in the bomb-torn town of Tobruk.

 

A daylight raid by Allied air forces on the Castel Benito airdrome in Tripoli.

 

Brigadier General Auby C. Strickland of the US Army 9th Air Force has his shoes shined by locals in Tripoli.

 

All that is left of a Junkers 52 troop carrier after Allied airmen bombed the administrative building and airdrome of an Axis position in Libya 1943.

 

Axis air equipment and installations took a heavy pounding from US Army Air Force bombers as they pursued Erwin Rommel's retreating Afrika Korps through Libya.

 

A street scene in Tripoli, 1943.

 

A man in Libya using one of the popular mobile bath units in the Western Desert 1940.

 

Havoc wrought by British artillery bear Derna, with the dead lying among the wreckage of an Italian ammunition column hit by shells.

 

Archbishop Spellman of New York (left) surveys the ruins of the chapel of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Brigadier General Auby C Strickland and three Catholic nuns look on.

 

The faces of Tripoli's residents as they watch the arrival of the British Army.

 

British troops dig in around Tobruk, which was under siege for several months by Axis forces but ultimately relieved.

 

An Arab assistant to an RAF armorer makes a head-dress out of ammunition intended for a Kittyhawk plane.

 

A B-24 bomber, belonging to the US Army 9th Air Force, at an American base in Libya. The first major American involvement in North Africa was during Operation Torch in 1942

 

A smiling Lieutenant William Marx of New York City, who was attached to the public relations office of the US Army 9th Air Force, enjoying a spot of painting in the streets of Tobruk.

 

The editor on the rotary machine seen with his assistant, who is typing. The powerful images show the desert campaign in great detail.

 

Snow White, a B-24 bomber of the US Army 9th Air Force at a forward bomber base in the Libyan desert. Four crew members pictured piloted the plane for 36 hours across Atlantic. The B-24, first flown in 1939, was used as a heavy bomber by the US Air Force, RAF and Royal Australian Air Force among others. During the North Africa campaign, the Allies lost about 1,400 aircraft compared to 8,000 lost on the Axis side.

 

Gunners manning a captured breda gun ready to fire at any German aircraft that ventures within range as the Allies and Axis battle ferociously for control of North Africa. At the end of 1942, the USA, Free French and Britain embarked upon Operation Torch, a massive offensive designed to liberate French North Africa. Several months later, in May 1943, Axis forces surrendered in North Africa.

 

Signposts printed in German and Italian point to former Axis offices at a street corner in Tobruk, Libya. In 1941, Allied troops led by Britain were under siege by Axis forces - led by German general Erwin Rommel - for 7 months before finally being relieved by the 8th Army. The siege distracted Axis troops from the main fighting as the Tobruk garrison repelled several attacks. More than 100 Axis planes were lost alongside thousands of soldiers

 

Archbishop Spellman of New York (standing in the foreground) inspects the damage done to the chapel of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Tripoli after bombing. The Americans did not join the struggle until 1942, leaving Britain the only major power fighting for the Allies in North Africa for close to two years. On the Axis side was Italy, Germany and Vichy France. The Free French, however, were on the Allied side, and lost 16,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing

 

Pictured in 1942, Lieutenant-General Andrew G.L. McNaughton was the dominant Canadian personality of the Phoney War in 1939-40.   LAC/3205306 

McNaughton studied electrical engineering at McGill University, graduating in 1910. He joined the Canadian Militia in 1909 and led an artillery battery overseas in 1914 as a 27-year-old major. Wounded twice in early fighting, McNaughton recovered and rose rapidly, in 1917 becoming the Canadian Corps’ Counter Battery Staff Officer. He pioneered a sound-detection technique to locate enemy guns, helped make the Corps’ artillery a formidable force, and was a brigadier-general commanding the Corps’ heavy artillery at the war’s end.

He remained in the Permanent Force, attending the British Army Staff College and the Imperial Defence College and receiving glowing reports. In 1929, now 42, he became Chief of the General Staff, conceiving and organizing the army’s role in running relief camps for the unemployed during the Depression. In 1935, he went to the National Research Council as its president.

When war broke out in 1939, McNaughton quickly offered his services to the government and was soon named to command the First Canadian Division.

“I thought no better man could be selected,” said Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

McNaughton toured the country, visiting the troops, dealing with equipment shortages. His concern for his soldiers and his “red tape be damned” approach drew massive praise in the media. And when he went overseas, he impressed senior British officers with his intellect and drive.

“Every officer and everyone in the ranks worship him and trust him implicitly,” said one Canadian officer. That was certainly true in 1939-40, and McNaughton seemed destined for ever better things.

 

French General Maurice Gamelin inspects officers of the Royal 22nd Regiment on the grounds of the British army camp at Aldershot, England, on March 28, 1940.   LAC/PA-034165