Cool pix!

"WAVES selling war bonds at a Naval Air Station in the Mid West from a firecracker-shaped booth to pay for two motor torpedo (PT) boats."

I suspect this was a repurposed roadside fireworks stand prior to this new mission.

 

"Interwar and WW2 Soviet Navy flying boat Beriev MBR-2. (4251x2834)"

 

"Hellcat fighters warming up aboard USS Cowpens during Marshall Islands Campaign, Jan 1944."

 

"Jimmy Stewart (yes, that Jimmy Stewart) flew 20 combat missions as a B-24 command pilot, wing commander or squadron commander, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm."

And he did it all with just a slight stutter.

 

"Mrs. W. R. New is shown with her electric ice box, electric stove and electric water heater in Norris, Tenn., on March 29, 1938. Mrs. New's husband works for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). (Photo by Charles Gorry/AP Photo) (3780x2464)"

My grandmother didn't get electricity to her house until 1963. The electric company said they'd string the wires if we put up poles, so I spent one summer helping trim trees. (I was 12 at the time and the chainsaw was nearly as big as I was.)

Relevance of this picture to WWII? The TVA was the electric power source for important parts of the Manhattan Project. The wider electrification of the US came none too soon for our WWII production efforts.

 

"The Kawasaki Ki-32 ‘Mary’ was a IJAAF bomber. It was a single-engine, two-seat, monoplane with fixed landing gear. The internal bomb bay carried 660 lbs with another 330 lbs mounted on external racks. 850+ Ki-32’s were built, it saw active service until end of 1941 and was then used as a trainer."

Looks like the love child of two other ugly airplanes.

 

"A Bofors anti-aircraft gun manned for action against German V-1 flying bombs on the southern coast of England during the summer of 1944."

 

"The Victorian battleship HMS Benbow, with her 16.25-inch guns. [3264 x 2329]"

 

"[2764 x 1973]HMS Kilbride in dazzle camouflage during WWI. This class of gunboat/sloop was designed to face both ways to confuse U-boats."

Damn.

 

1

"A 12-year-old Polish insurgent with a German GrB 39 grenade launcher posing for a photo at the barricade. Warsaw Uprising 1944."

 

"A privately owned Valentine Mk.V in Luxembourg. One of the few countries in the world where private collectors own more tanks than their own armed forces."

 

"Heinkel He-111 [1491 x 877]"

 

"Dornier Do-24 of the Search and Rescue unit of the Spanish Air Force in 1944 over Mallorca island. Nationalist Spain received 12 units during the Spanish Civil War and operated them until 1969. They were very active all along WW2 in the Western Mediterranean rescuing downed pilots from both sides."

 

"USN Ashland-class dock landing ship USS Oak Hill packed with LVT(A)-1, April 1944."

 

"Betty Gillies, of Long Island NY, was the first pilot to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron on Sep 12, 1942. As a 14-year veteran pilot with 1,400 hours of flying time, Betty eventually became the squadron leader of her group based in Wilmington, DE. [1859x2048]"