WWII vintage pics. some of these will make you think.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/03/18/captured-blog-the-pacific-and-adjacent-theaters/#more-1547

man pic #95 is nuts. wouldn't wanna be caught in that. my granddad, 96 now, has just recently found the courage to talk about his time in the war. he fought in Guam and has some really crazy stories about sprinting across the beach running from a Japanese sniper hidden in the palm trees. also he would shoot those big floating mines (shaped like wrecking balls with spikes on em) to get rid of them. he said that was the loudest explosion or sound he's ever heard. he is now almost completely deaf but still kickin like a chicken.

My father was a machinist's mate (fancy talk for aircraft mechanic ;D) in the Navy during WWII in the Pacific Theater.

He never spoke about the war. He died when I was 12, I never got to talk to him about it. I can only imagine some of the stuff he saw. Then again, maybe I couldn't :'(

really glad you posted this ghoti.

My brother went on a tour of the USS Intrepid (picture number 75) where it is moored in New York.  At one place, the tour guide stopped and pointed out that that place was the spot where the kamikazi aircraft had hit the ship and where numerous sailors had lost their lives.  He (my brother) said it was quite a sobering moment.

Wife & I visited the Arizona Memorial in July. Humbling experience.

Funny thing, we had a lot of Japanese in the museum and a lot sat through the film you are required to see before going out to the memorial. I got to looking around out on the memorial and did not see one Japanese out there. Did not see any of them on the battleship either.

Go figure.

man pic #95 is nuts. wouldn't wanna be caught in that. my granddad, 96 now, has just recently found the courage to talk about his time in the war. he fought in Guam and has some really crazy stories about sprinting across the beach running from a Japanese sniper hidden in the palm trees. also he would shoot those big floating mines (shaped like wrecking balls with spikes on em) to get rid of them. he said that was the loudest explosion or sound he's ever heard. he is now almost completely deaf but still kickin like a chicken.

Yeah, crazy.  Tracers were normally loaded into a belt every 5th round.  So, for every 1 tracer projectile you see, there are 4 non tracer projectiles you don't. 

Anyone else notice the grenade in pic 52?

Anyone else notice the grenade in pic 52?

it was actually the first thing i noticed

great photos, since im an ocean engineering major it is shocking at how much abuse a carrier can take before it submits to the sea.  I once saw a show where they were showing that a carrier had 3, 2-5 foot sections of solid steel wrapped all the way around the bottem of the boat to protect from torpedoes.  They also in the case of a breach had air pockets to keep the ship floating so the torpedo would have to go through all 3 to sink the ship.

Great post, Great photos, Thanks for sharing Ghoti.

Those are the best WWII pictures I have ever seen.

Pic 104

Any WW2 experts? As far as I knew both bombs went off while they were still on their way down and never hit the ground. Where as the damage would have been significantly less if the bombs hit the ground because the Earth would have absorbed a lot of the bombs energy. By going off in the atmosphere they were even more destructive.

Pic 104

Any WW2 experts? As far as I knew both bombs went off while they were still on their way down and never hit the ground. Where as the damage would have been significantly less if the bombs hit the ground because the Earth would have absorbed a lot of the bombs energy. By going off in the atmosphere they were even more destructive.

Upon closer inspection (and reflection), I doubt this was "ground zero" because there are several buildings and line of utility poles in the immediate vicinity which would have very likely been pulverized (The bomb (nicknamed "fat man") was dropped on August 9th and the photo is purported to have been taken on August 10th).  So, unless they hustled right out and built all these things immediately afterwards, it's unlikely that this is "ground zero".  Or, another hypothesis is that the photo was not taken on August 10th but many weeks or months afterwards.  It's a black and white photo but that looks like living vegetation in the picture-not likely on August 10th (although I think the crab grass in my yard has that level of endurance).

Like you said, the bomb was detonated about 1600 feet above the city in order to create the strongest blast effect.

Yea I didn't think that pic was from the day after either.