WWII Photos - Taken / Collected by Family Members

[fl&wvmike]

WIDEBRIM ..........................
I think that they are. They are small, so I think that they are some GI's personal photos, taken with his "Brownie", etc. They are gruesome. They show stacks of bodies, etc. These are all unpublished photos.
I have one published photo of a SS Guard, laying there, with the top of his skull off and his brains halfway, out of his head. The story is, that the GIs let the prisoners have their way with the guards, for a short period of time.

FL&WVMIKE

 

[Widebrim]

^^That is gruesome.

 

[Story]

Since this touches on the gruesome, might as well place it in this thread.

In February 1943, LIFE magazine published a series of photographs from Guadalcanal — the largest of the Solomon Islands and the site of the Allies’ first, pivotal offensive in the Pacific during World War II.

One of those pictures, made by a 25-year-old LIFE photographer named Ralph Morse, instantly struck a nerve with the magazine’s millions of readers. Seven decades later, it remains one of the most unsettling images to emerge from any war. Morse’s picture (the first in this gallery) of a severed Japanese soldier’s head impaled on a tank captures more graphically and immediately than volumes of words ever could the relentless and often casual barbarity of war.

The caption that accompanied Morse’s disquieting photo in the Feb. 1, 1943, issue of LIFE read, “A Japanese soldier’s skull is propped up on a burned-out Jap [sic] tank by U.S. troops. Fire destroyed the rest of the corpse.”

Morse, however — still remarkably spry at 95 — remembers it a bit differently. As anyone with even a passing knowledge of World War II knows, U.S. troops (and troops of every other country who fought in the long, brutal conflict) sometimes engaged in the sort of grisly behavior evinced in Morse’s photograph. But in the photographer’s recollections of that day, it seemed just as likely that the Japanese were the ones who placed the torched skull on that ruined tank as a gruesome trap for curious Americans.

“We came to a big opening on the beach,” Morse says, “and there was a tank with a skull on it, right near the turret. The sergeant leading the patrol looks at it and says, ‘Guys, that skull has been put there for a reason, and the Japanese have probably got mortar shells aimed right at this spot.’ A disgusting scene like that will always draw people in, and the idea, of course, was that any American troops who came along would obviously want to stop and take a look.

” ‘Everybody stay away from there,’ the sergeant says, then he turns to me. ‘You,’ he says, ‘go take your picture if you have to, then get out, quick.’ So I went over, got my pictures and ran like hell back to where the patrol had stopped.”

Read more: http://life.time.com/history/guadalcanal-world-war-ii-1942-rare-photos/#ixzz22sWCA9Zn

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

For a while, I was buying original WWII photos at Gun Shows, etc. I have sets from the liberation of Concentration Camps, a set from a photographer in the Philipenes, a lot of German photos and a lot of misc. I have some Official photos of the dead bodies of the Nazi criminals, still with the rope around their necks.
FL&WVMIKE

The one I saw at a gun show and regret not buying was of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Nearly everyone has seen the famous pics of the surrender ceremony but this one was taken from another angle from atop the 16 inch gun turret seen in the pics.

 

[Widebrim]

Since this touches on the gruesome, might as well place it in this thread.




Read more: http://life.time.com/history/guadalcanal-world-war-ii-1942-rare-photos/#ixzz22sWCA9Zn

Thanks for that, Story. Since Morse was there, I'll take his word for it.

 

[Gingerella72]

My Dad's older brother, John Clyde Hird (the family always called him by his middle name of Clyde), served in the South Pacific with the 5th cavalry. He was in the band and so acted as a litter bearer and ammunition runner (forgive me if there are more technical, military terms for these jobs) but he also was involved in some fighting action - Dad told me Battle of Midway - and was injured and sent to Australia for recovery. I think he was also involved in Manila. I don't know a lot of details and I'm planning on sitting down with my Dad and a video camera to record all of this information and his memories of the time (Uncle Clyde passed away in 1977). Dad was born in 1931 and so was a young boy during the war but he can remember a lot of things.

(these photos were pasted into a scrapbook by their sister and so when I was scanning them I had to scan the entire page and then crop as needed, but thankfully she "captioned" them all by writing in the necessary info right onto the scapbook paper)

I don't know what kind of bird is on his shoulder in this pic

My dad wrote and sent this poem to him around 1942, and Clyde carried this "talisman" from his little brother in his pocket the entire time he was overseas.

It reads: "When you go to town, and some candy you see, just stop to think, this won't help me. Just save all your dimes, and then we will be, a little bit closer, to victory." written at the bottom is "This is a little poem I made up today. From, Wesley"

V-mail telling the family he's on his way home

Irrelevant to the war but cool nonetheless, in the 30's he toured the Vaudeville circuit with a group called "Denny's Comedians". In this photo he is front and center holding the trumpet.

Another irrelevant photo from after the war. Clyde has the stand up bass and my Dad, now a teenager, is on the far right. The other gentlemen are brothers also. My Dad is the youngest of 13, he had a lot of siblings!

 

[Gingerella72]

Yet another one of my Dad's older brothers, Charles Hird, also served. He was a staff sergeant in the Army Air Corps. Again I'm hazy on the details but Dad said Charles was a crew chief on a B-24, and his superiors were so impressed with him they made him an instructor at a training base so he never saw any overseas action.

On the left are Charles and Clyde on a visit to home, upper right, Charles, and bottom right Clyde and Charles with their sister Dora in the middle.

On the left, Clyde and a friend at Ft. Bliss in Texas, middle pic (turn sideways to view, lol) is the Army barracks at Ft. Bliss, and far right is Charles

 

[lolly_loisides]

Here are a few pictures of (and taken by) Uncle Bill. He was a teller of tall tales and for years I never really believed his stories of WW2. Like when he met King George & Monty & how when he was in Rome met Pope Pius & the time he "commandeered" a very expensive sports car & later crashed it when he served in the Middle East.........
Here are some of his photos.

I don't know if Bill actually met the Pope, but he certainly made it to St Peters (He is on the right, standing next to the priest)

Bill behind the wheel of the commandeered Peugeot 402

Dignified as ever, that's Bill on the right poking his tongue out.

 

[Widebrim]

^^I guess Uncle Bill's tales were not so "tall"...Nice photos.

 

[Widebrim]

Love the old campaign hats. Reminds me of a vet I recently met at a swap meet who enlisted in the Cavalry in 1937. Judging by a caption on one of the photos, your uncle was a Combat Infantryman with the 1st Cav Division.

 

[Blackjack]

Whell his pictures check out so I guess I'd believe him!!!!!

 

[Stearmen]

My dad in ROTC uniform, 1941. He quit and became a Sergeant in the Army Air Corp.

 

[Widebrim]

^^What is he wearing, leggings?

 

[Blackjack]

My pop and my grandparents. I'm assuming he's home from boot here...

[/IMG]

 

[Widebrim]

^^It looks some time after Basic Training, because it appears that he already has a ribbon over his left pocket, unless the photo was flip-flopped.

 

[majormajor]

^^It looks some time after Basic Training, because it appears that he already has a ribbon over his left pocket, unless the photo was flip-flopped.[/QUOTE]

And the two guys started wearing jackets that buttoned up the girl's way?

 

[Blackjack]

^^It looks some time after Basic Training, because it appears that he already has a ribbon over his left pocket, unless the photo was flip-flopped.[/QUOTE]

I don't know exactly when this was taken, but it had to be not to long after basic cause he was shipped overseas in late 43 I think then he didn't come home till 45.

 

[Stearmen]

^^What is he wearing, leggings?

It looks like it. Unfortunately, the photo is blurry, and there are no others of him in that uniform!

 

[Widebrim]

^^It looks some time after Basic Training, because it appears that he already has a ribbon over his left pocket, unless the photo was flip-flopped.[/QUOTE]

And the two guys started wearing jackets that buttoned up the girl's way?

Yep, it looks like it was flip-flopped, so that would be a unit citation ribbon.

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

A great deal of the Swiss uniforms and equipment show heavy Italian, Austrian and even US influence. The Swiss M18 helmet, seen here in the pictures was actually a rejected US design. Some debate however that they were designed simultaneously and independent of one another but..... I'm not buying it. But yes, all the Swiss stuff I have in my collection is VERY high quality.