Hi;
WWII in the Pacific; Louis Kemm's Photos+the WWII era in Washington DC. pictures, photos, and videos, from military on webshots
I should probably redo these sometime-Adobe Elements 6 is light years beyond the 4 I did them in-and I myself have made some progress in this new science of photo restoration-but they are still good. If anyone recognizes some of the places these recon shots were taken I would sure like to hear (Manila?). Louis was in the Pacific War from start to finish in a combat mapping squadron.
JeffinMNUSA

hi
you should post them up in the forum photo gallary
cheers krieg

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for thow . will be ours someday.we shall have it all
... und mear.......

Wow!!
I went thru all of the pics, which were great, only to find videos!!! Great stuff, those interviews are absolutely fantastic! I've not gotten thru them all, but will soon!
Thanks for sharing these with us!

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Scott

BF and Kreig;
Thanks and glad you enjoyed. Like I say, I will have to redo this in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 sometime (AND maybe rescan the aerial shots). Can't tell you exactly when. Louis' strangest story was the one about where they did a Bomb Damage Assessment Mission after a raid early on? Well they had instructions to fly at treetop level which had them scared silly. They did the flight and for some reason nobody took so much as a pistol shot at them. To this day he does not understand exactly why. Most of the other BDA and Mapping missions were done at high altitude where the Japanese planes could not reach (a similiar unit in Europe was shot out of the sky in short order).
JeffinMNUSA

Fantastic photos Jeff, thanks for sharing. I particularly like the nose art pics, some are very detailed.

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Regards
John

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see" - Winston Churchill

John;
And all those B-25s were flown into the ocean at the war's end-too bad. "Obsolete," even then. Louis has taken to sleeping with a Webley under his pillow since his wife passed away in 2002-something he had not done since getting married. He picked up the habit on the islands when starving Japanese soldiers used to raid them for food at night. I am uncertain if the ammunition is still effective. He is too old to attend the reunions anymore-if there are any-something he did for years. Maybe our daughter can get some more interviews when she comes again this August. My wife has always said that in Louis' world, nothing before or since WWII is of much consequence-he just might have a point.
JeffinMNUSA

I'll bet that rings true to many of our WWII vets.

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Scott

Excellent pics!

I forgot to comment on these when you posted them, Jeff. Good pics.

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Best Regards,
JW

Thanks for sharing these Jeff. The thread on noseart should have link over here! I didn't look at the videos - glad Scott mentioned them. I shall be back to listen to the interviews. Glad your father-in-law will tell your daughter the stories.

I find myself agreeing with your wife's assessment. Everything about my parents lives was rooted in their World War II experiences. Probably why I and one brother are quite passionately interested in the Second World War and why our other brother can't stand anything to do with the military.

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."

Excellent pics! Thanx! Got to check the videos later on.

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Really nice pics' JeffinMNUSA! Thanks for sharing!

Hi all;
And thanks for your comments. My wife relates how she and her mother were dragged to every WWII movie that came out during the 60s (and how much she hated them). "The Longest Day" and a few others got the Louis stamp of approval, but many more he saw as pure hogwash. "Memphis Belle" "Flyboys" (WWI-but he appreciated the airman humor) "Band of Brothers" and a few others of the modern flicks have met his approval (we have him set up with a DVD), but all together too many others set off my father in law's "hogwash detector". I guess he would know what is hogwash and what is not-he was there.
JeffinMNUSA
PS. Hope out daughter can get a few more "candid camera" tales from her Grandpa this August.
PS. Another curious thing about Louis; Grandma had to really dig to find out about those 8 Bronze and 1 Air Medal-like a lot of actual combat vets Louis still insists up and down that he was "just doing his job" and that "the heroes are dead."

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Hello Jeff, I once asked asked an Uncle what he did to receive his Silver Star on Saipan. He always replied with "there were extras after they handed them out to the ones who deserved it, so I got one".
I'm sure many vets are the same way.
Very nice pic's by the way, and thank you for sharing them with us.

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"Like so many of our people, we have now had a personal experience of German barbarity which only strengthens the resolution of all of us to fight through to final victory."-King George VI
"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning."-Colonel David M. Shoup-Saipan

Mike;
Strange but Louis has said the exact same thing-"Ah they just handed those things out like popcorn!" He never bothered to pick all 8 bronzes up. "8 bronze!!???"
my friend Jim said (ARTY Germany mid seventies). "He is damn lucky to be alive." True enough-the Pacific mapping squadrons had no combat casualities but they lost many to accidents-then there were those ships that failed to make the rensdesvous in Africa ("A good navigator is GOLD!" Louis once said).
JeffinMNUSA

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Thanks for posting them, Jeff. I don't have the bandwidth just now, but will review them later.

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David

"It is history that teaches us to hope"
Robert E. Lee