Picture of the day. (10 Viewers)

[syscom3]

UF4U Corsairs on the flight deck of Essex-class fleet carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), April 9, 1945.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Histomil.com
bundesarchiv_bild_101i-363-2270-18-_frankreich-_flugzeug_me_210-jpg.576844

 

[syscom3]

Corsairs and Wildcats, NAS Long Beach, Calif. 1945

 

[Hardlydank]

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

10 April 1940

The German light cruiser Konigberg is sunk at Bergen by Blackburn Skua dive bombers of the British Fleet Air Arm. While attack Bergen the previous day, she then made a high-speed run into the port in an attempt to land the remainder of the infantry in the town directly. A 21 cm (8.3 in) coastal battery at the Kvarven Fort took the ship under fire, and scored three hits, all forward. The hits caused severe flooding and fires in her boiler rooms that cut the ship's power. Adrift, and unable to maneuver, Königsberg had to drop anchor, while she and Köln, Luftwaffe bombers, and the infantry neutralized the Norwegian guns.

The next day, British dive bombers attacked her 7:20, catching the ship's crew off guard. Half of the dive bombers had completed their dives before the crew realized they were under attack. Only one large anti-aircraft gun was reported as being manned with shells being fired once every five seconds from the aft of the ship with lighter anti-air weapons firing from the shore and adjacent ships firing even later in the attack.

Königsberg was hit by at least five 500-pound (230 kg) bombs, which caused serious damage to the ship. One penetrated her thin deck armor, went through the ship, and exploded in the water, causing significant structural damage. Another hit destroyed the auxiliary boiler room. Two more bombs exploded in the water next to the ship; the concussion from the blasts tore large holes in the hull. She took on a heavy list almost immediately, and the captain ordered the crew to abandon the ship. It took slightly less than three hours from the start of the attack for the ship to completely capsize and sink. Only eighteen men were killed in the attack. No photo credit available.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

The final moments of U-515, following a 5 hour hunt by US Task Group 22.3. April 10th, 1944. No photo credit available.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

• Battle of Pointe du Hoc
Pointe du Hoc is a promontory with a 100-foot (30 m) cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in France. During World War II it was the highest point between the American sector landings at Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east. The German army fortified the area with concrete casemates and gun pits. On D-Day, the United States Army Ranger Assault Group attacked and captured Pointe du Hoc after scaling the cliffs.
Pointe du Hoc lies 4 mi (6.4 km) west of the center of Omaha Beach. As part of the Atlantic Wall fortifications, the prominent cliff top location was fortified by the Germans. battery was initially built in 1943 to house six captured French First World War GPF 155mm K418(f) guns positioned in open concrete gun pits. The battery was occupied by the 2nd Battery of Army Coastal Artillery Regiment 1260. To defend the promontory from attack, elements of the 352nd Infantry Division were stationed at the battery.
The plan of attack called for the three companies of Rangers to be landed by sea at the foot of the cliffs, scale them using ropes, ladders, and grapples while under enemy fire, and engage the enemy at the top of the cliff. This was to be carried out before the main landings. The Rangers trained for the cliff assault on the Isle of Wight, under the direction of British Commandos. The assault force was carried in ten landing craft, with another two carrying supplies and four DUKW amphibious trucks carrying the 100-foot (30 m) ladders requisitioned from the London Fire Brigade. One landing craft carrying troops sank, drowning all but one of its occupants; another was swamped. One supply craft sank and the other put the stores overboard to stay afloat. German fire sank one of the DUKWs. Once within a mile of the shore, German mortars and machine guns fired on the craft.
These initial setbacks resulted in a 40-minute delay in landing at the base of the cliffs, but British landing craft carrying the Rangers finally reached the base of the cliffs at 7:10am on June 6th, 1944 with approximately half the force it started out with. As the Rangers scaled the cliffs, the Allied ships USS Texas, USS Satterlee, USS Ellyson, and HMS Talybont provided them with fire support and ensured that the German defenders above could not fire down on the assaulting troops. The cliffs proved to be higher than the ladders could reach. The original plans had also called for an additional, larger Ranger force of eight companies (Companies A and B of the 2nd Ranger Battalion and the entire 5th Ranger Battalion) to follow the first attack, if successful. Flares from the cliff tops were to signal this second wave to join the attack, but because of the delayed landing, the signal came too late, and the other Rangers landed on Omaha instead of Pointe du Hoc.
When the Rangers made it to the top, they had sustained 15 casualties. The force also found that their radios were ineffective. Upon reaching the fortifications, most of the Rangers learned for the first time that the main objective of the assault, the artillery battery, had been removed. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a small patrol went off in search of the guns. Two different patrols found five of the six guns nearby and destroyed their firing mechanisms with thermite grenades.
The costliest part of the battle for Pointe du Hoc for the Rangers came after the successful cliff assault. Determined to hold the vital high ground, yet isolated from other Allied forces, the Rangers fended off several counter-attacks from the German 914th Grenadier Regiment. The 5th Ranger Battalion and elements of the 116th Infantry Regiment headed towards Pointe du Hoc from Omaha Beach. However, only twenty-three Rangers from the 5th were able to link up with the 2nd Rangers during the evening of June 6th, 1944. It was not until the morning of June 8th, that the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc were finally relieved by the 2nd and 5th Rangers, plus the 1st Battalion of the 116th Infantry, accompanied by tanks from the 743rd Tank Battalion.
At the end of the two-day action, the initial Ranger landing force of 225+ was reduced to about 90 fighting men. In the aftermath of the battle, some Rangers became convinced that French civilians had taken part in the fighting on the German side. A number of French civilians accused of shooting at American forces or of serving as artillery observers for the Germans were executed. No photo credit available.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Stuka dive-bombers fly over, Immola, July 2, 1944. No photo credit available.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots guys!

 

[syscom3]

A pathfinder B-24 Liberator (serial number 44-49710) nicknamed "Stevonovitch II (Black Nan)" of the 464th Bomb Group, U.S. 15th Air Force explodes and rolls over in midair as a result of a direct flak hit, during a mission over Lugo, Italy, 10 April 1945. On April 10, 1945 B-24s from the 55th wing of the 15th Air Force were on the 2nd day of Operation Wowser. This was a switch from strategic to tactical bombing in support of the 5th and 8th Armies driving Axis troops out of Northern Italy. After dropping their payload at 18,000 ft, the Stevenovitch 44-49710 (aka The Black Nan) received a direct hit between the #1 and #2 engines from an 88 mm shell. Of the 11 crew, only the Radar Navigator, Captain George Wall, survived as he was thrown out of the open bomb bay.
On board were: Lt. Col. James Gilson – Command Pilot Capt. Charles Foote IV – Pilot (My great uncle) 1st Lt. Robert O'Leary - Navigator Capt. Lacey Morton - Navigator 1st Lt. Edward Walsh - Radar Navigator Capt. George Wall - Bombardier Sgt. Jerrold Ruben – Engineer/Gunner Sgt. Charles Montegut Jr. – Radio/Gunner Sgt. Robert Rogers - Gunner Sgt. Norman Cope - Tail Gunner Sgt. Melvin Thomason – Gunner

 

[syscom3]

P-38J Lightning 'Droop Snoot' with the 402nd Fighter Squadron coming in for a landing, possibly at Sandweiler, Luxembourg, April 10, 1945.

 

[syscom3]

Thousands of Boeing workers gather in front of Boeing Plant 2 for ceremonies marking the changeover from B-17 to B-29 production on April 10, 1945.

 

[jetcal1]

Corsairs and Wildcats, NAS Long Beach, Calif. 1945

View attachment 576867

Fun little photo. There appears to be a Curtiss SOC-3 Seamew in the lower right hand corner, there's an intermediate blue tri-color SNC-1 in the picture and in the distance a Culver T2DC-1 drone in the far background.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

American ships landing troops and supplies on a beach on Okinawa, Japan, 13 April 1945. No photo credit available.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Burial at sea aboard the USS Hancock for those killed by Japanese special attack two days prior, off Okinawa, April 9, 1945. ww2db.com

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

This day in 1945, a German Arado Ar 234 jet-powered bomber flew a reconnaissance flight over Scotland, the last sortie over Britain by a Luftwaffe aircraft. No photo credit available.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Histomil.com
bundesarchiv_bild_101i-363-2271-21-_frankreich-_flugzeug_me_210-_bomben-jpg.577024

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Parachutes fill the sky after the 12th Air Force Troop Carrier Air Division C-47s drop Allied soldiers and supplies over the beachhead between Marseilles and Nice, during the Allied Invasion of France. August 1st, 1944. No photo credit available.