:: PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY ::

~ UNCLASSIFIED PHOTOS ~

IV

American aircraft carrier of the Essex class
The Essex class comprised the most modern American aircraft carriers that operated during the Second World War, being the backbone of the US Navy from mid 1943 onwards. Besides, it constituted the most numerous class of capital warships built during the 20th century, with 24 units completed.

American battleship USS Arkansas
The aerial threat during the Second World War gave as a result that the main naval units were scalloped with numerous automatic cannons of 20 or 40 millimeters in caliber. This photograph shows a quadruple 40-millimeter mounting, installed upon the original 127-millimeter cannons on the old battleship USS Arkansas.

American paratroopers training
Also the paratroopers, which would constitute the vanguard of the landing during Operation Overlord, were subjected to exhausting trainings.

German aviator of a Focke-Wulf Fw 190
Pilot of a German interceptor Focke Wulf Fw 190 preparing for immediate take-off. Vital pieces of the equipment are the life vest and the parachute, elements that saved the lives of many aviators. The helmet is fitted with headphones and oxygen mask, this latter indispensable for flying at the high altitudes (over 7000 meters) that the Fw 190 could operate on. The equipment includes as well a wraist watch, a wraist compass, sunglasses, a pistol for distress signals - with ten signal and smoke cartridges - carried on the thighs along with a large jackknife, and a waterproof chocolate box serving as emergency rations.

Polish forced laborers
Polish laborers watched by German soldiers dig trenches around Warsaw to prepare the defense against the foreseeable Soviet attack.

German missile V-1
The secret weapons program was the last hope of Germany to give a turn to the fate of war. This photograph shows a V-1 missile in flight. This contraption was basically a rocket-propelled aircraft in which the human pilot was replaced by a gyroscopic device, which guided the flying bomb towards the target. As the V-1 flew like a normal aircraft would do, and its speed was not higher than that reached by the best fighter aircraft, some skilled pilots were able to intercept these flying bombs and destabilize their path when hitting them with the wingtips of their aircraft.

First atomic bomb tests
Experimental explosion of one of the first American atomic bombs. Not much time would pass until this science-fiction experiment were turned into an atrocious reality.

:: Previous page :: :: Return to Index :: :: Next page ::