Phenomenal WWII pics..

[rattlsnak]

This site is truly amazing.... The greatest generation ever, is right!

World War II — The Atlantic


EDIT:.. The Holocaust ones are brutal..

[tcar]

Thanks.

[seanratpel]

Lots of photos I've never seen before. epic

[recycled sixtie]

Thanks rattlsnak. Those are great pics which I have never seen before.

[pwd72s]

Took a spell to view 'em all...thanks!

[herr_oberst]

I love those large-format color images from the American munitions factories. Great stuff. Huge detail that can't be duplicated thru digital. Our finest hour.

[Jolly Amaranto]

If you want more color photos, the mother lode is at the Library of Congress.
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs
I like to download the high resolution TIFF images and clean them up in Photoshop a bit.

[rusnak]

I just love those old photos.

I'll send the links to my dad. Thanks, guys!

[flatbutt]

Just imagine, hundreds ... HUNDREDS of bombers dropping their loads in just a few hours on a single target.

And how the heck did we produce so much armament and so many vehicles?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Very cool - an amazing time in our history that we could learn a lot from.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Wow. Simply Wow.

[Scott R]

We were attending the 100 year anniversary of the company I work for in Washington State and a gentleman, now in his 90's, was a line manager for the B17's. He was asked to tell us how they did things during the war VS. what he sees now? He said "you're doing it all wrong." The crowed laughed at his remark, but I noticed he wasn't laughing at all...

[Jrboulder]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Just imagine, hundreds ... HUNDREDS of bombers dropping their loads in just a few hours on a single target.

And how the heck did we produce so much armament and so many vehicles?

Basically most companies were operating at a small percentage of their capacity in the years before the war and then were given a blank check with the stipulation that they will get paid for everything they get done before the war ends. That's kind of a big motivation.

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Just imagine, hundreds ... HUNDREDS of bombers dropping their loads in just a few hours on a single target.

And how the heck did we produce so much armament and so many vehicles?

go on wiki and look up "Arsenal of Democracy"

There is also a wonderful book " http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-arsenal-of-democracy-by-a-j-baime-1402693102"

It is a great read about Detroit, Edsel Ford and the Willow Run plant that produced one B24 plane every hour.

America at its finest.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by jcommin

...the Willow Run plant that produced one B24 plane every hour.

For the most part, German weapons were superior to their American counterparts. The huge advantage we had was this massive capacity to produce huge numbers of ships, planes, tanks, cannons and other weapons in very short order. The depth of this capability was woefully underestimated by the Germans. We were able to pour these assets into the war effort faster than the enemy could knock them out. It boiled down to a numbers game.

[impactbumper]

super cool, thx for sharing

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Here's something interesting.
Last night, I shared this link on another website. Within short order, a poster found a picture from the site:



He wrote back and shared these stories about his father:

"Dad was a CPO on the USS Samuel Chase, APA 26. He was in 7 landings in the ETO. Normandy was the worst. There were ships as far as you could see. There were so many bodies in the water that they looked like you could use them as stepping stones between ships.

There were several combat cameramen on the Chase including the only one that had color film on D-DAY. Any of the landing craft with identification numbers PA26- ? were from the Chase. There is a picture looking down the ramp of one Higgans and another that shows a Higgans running near the photographer.

The only surviving pic, of my old man, on the ship was him repairing a Higgans boat that had a bunch of holes in it. The Chase was large so, they got staffed often. "

(I asked if this was the picture and if I could share his story here)

"Yes, look at the hull number and it looks like it says PA26-15. In the 60s when we watched tv shows about Normandy, Dad would point out his boats. As the carpentry Chief he was responsible for their hulls(they were wood). I believe the stepping stone comment was my dads' own words. Go ahead and use it. The info about the cameramen was from the website for the USS Samuel Chase where I learned alot about the ship and its missions. Dads' stories were just for his personal experiences and were usually to make a point of emphasis with me. ie: Never wear jewelry at work or in a combat zone. They were ashore in North Africa, getting supplies. A bunch of them were riding in the back of a duce and a half. A kraut plane attacked them. They all unassed from the back of the truck to get into a ditch. One guy, wearing a ring , got the ring caught as he was jumping from the truck. It pulled his finger off. The Doctors on the ship worked on him but he got an infection and died, because of that ring. I still don't wear jewelry. Good Luck, Rick"

For info on the USS Samuel Chase: ( jacked legged link but eventually works if you click twice )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Samuel_Chase_(APA-26)

[tcar]

Originally Posted by rcooled

For the most part, German weapons were superior to their American counterparts. The huge advantage we had was this massive capacity to produce huge numbers of ships, planes, tanks, cannons and other weapons in very short order. The depth of this capability was woefully underestimated by the Germans. We were able to pour these assets into the war effort faster than the enemy could knock them out. It boiled down to a numbers game.

For instance, the German tanks were light years superior to our Sherman tanks. They could hit the Shermans before the Shermans were even in range.

But the Germans built several thousand Tiger tanks.

We built 98,000 Sherman tanks (that was both theaters, though).

[tcar]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Just imagine, hundreds ... HUNDREDS of bombers dropping their loads in just a few hours on a single target.

And how the heck did we produce so much armament and so many vehicles?

Hundreds... shoot, there was one bombing run that we had over 1,200 bombers (US and Brits)... that's over 10,000 men in them bombing Dresden over 2 days.

Not only aircraft plants were building equipment, but every single automotive plant was building engines (Packard, Chrysler, GM), bombers (Ford, etc.) Trucks, and automotive suppliers (torpedos, bombs).

We treated England as if it was one enormous aircraft carrier, sitting off the coast of France.

And that was only the European Theater.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by Scott R

We were attending the 100 year anniversary of the company I work for in Washington State and a gentleman, now in his 90's, was a line manager for the B17's. He was asked to tell us how they did things during the war VS. what he sees now? He said "you're doing it all wrong." The crowed laughed at his remark, but I noticed he wasn't laughing at all...

I'm with the same company far to the southeast and would be inclined to agree with him.