Hi folks,
I've had a busy summer scanning & posting pictures on my website, in addition to the over 1800 rail photos I have on there, I'm proud to say that now I finally have over 200 of my dad's photos from World War II now on the site, mostly scanned individually from negatives for the best quality (even though some still aren't the best), but many of these are really superb for their age, and I'm glad I was able to preserve a part of this history while I still can. They were stuffed in a metal can for decades, and many of them he had never printed at all. Go to:
Frank's Photography Site

and near the top is a link for the World War II photos. These were mostly taken in Italy around 1944-45.
There are only 3 aircraft photos, though, so please don't be disappointed.

He mentioned that he was in the 421st Signal Co., which appears to have been part of the 15th Air Force, part of the sweep campaign from Tunisia through Italy in 1944. Though he passed away in 1988, and it seems I've had this metal can of negatives for years, I just recently looked at them and was amazed by how many there were, and that some are of very good quality. I just got a negative scanner a few months ago to work on my own collection of U.S. rail negatives (1969-present), so I knew it would only be a matter of time before I scanned & posted these.


Hope you enjoy these, and write me back with any comments. I am going to look up some other forums on the web of aficionados from this era too, and hopefully you/they can fill me in on many of the missing captions, though I did a fairly good initial job of figuring out where a good deal of these may have been taken. Mainly (and I don't know how many thousands of photos like this are out there), I'm posting these for the enjoyment of all, but ESPECIALLY, I'd like to hear from folks who know WHERE EXACTLY and ABOUT WHAT DATES some of these were taken, to help recreate in my mind a better picture of my dad's life during the war, and assistance in ADDING MORE ACCURATE CAPTIONS to these photos.

So best wishes to everyone, and please e-mail me if you have good info on the shots where I'm totally lacking. And of course, I hope you all enjoy these photos.

Frank Florianz, Asheville, NC email: frank754@bellsouth.net

Best wishes,
Frank Florianz

Great pics. Glad you posted them.

We can help you with you questions about equipment. The planes were C-47s, the military version of the commercial DC-3. They looked to have RAF markings and the Brits would have called it the Dakota.

The cannon you mentioned behind the scrap is an 88mm Flak 18 or 36. This was dual purpose gun that could be used as an anti-aircraft or anti-tank gun. I could not see the tank you mentioned.

The "jeep" on the same page is a command car. One of the vehicle wonks on the forum can tell you specifically what model.

The "tank" is a self propelled gun. There is a difference. Tanks have turrets (for the most part) and this one is lacking that. It looks like a German Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III), but the armor wonks here can verify that for you.

__________________
Best Regards,
JW

Thanks, JW
I will see what info people inform me of in the next day or so, and then adjust my captions accordingly (with due credit). So you are saying that basically all 3 of the aircraft pix are C-47's. That's good, and narrows it down quite a bit. On the equipment page I had a shot of a few smaller ships at sea, and some heavy shells on the ground. Any ideas what these were?
Your reply was very much appreciated.
Frank F.