American paratroopers Inside a CG-4 Waco glider

 On the way to Normandy drop zone

Pathfinders of  the 3rd battalion, 505th regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, under Lieutenant-Colonel Krause was the closest to the town and had a mission to seize Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, France. 

Pathfinders just before their mission

A group of Italian prisoners of war in camp # 42.

England 1942 - Camp 42 Helston - Italia P.O.W.

The 2nd battalion of the 505th’ pathfinders - 82nd Airborne Division - prior to the taking off, in England; June 5, 1944.

Destination Normandy, France

The respected 1st battalion of the pathfinders of the 505th parachute regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, in the late hours of 5 June 1944.

Still in England, not for long...

The Waco CG-4 was the most widely used American troop/cargo military glider of World War II. It was designated the CG-4A by the United States Army Air Forces,[1] and given the service name Hadrian (after the Roman emperor) by the British.

Waco Glider

Paratroopers waiting in England for "The longest day", on the evening of June 5, 1944, bound for the Cotentin peninsula; France...

The Airborne Invasion about to begin

The men of the 506th parachute regiment of the 101st Airborne Division within the airfield of England in the late hours of June 5, 1944

Waiting for departure for Normandy 

Wartime poster: Your Country Needs You

A group of the German soldiers from the Luftwaffe flak unit on the front steps of the Sainte-Mère-Église Hôtel de Ville (=City Hall), Normandy, France; Spring 1944.

The 82nd Airborne guys will be here soon...

US Marines move off the beach on the first day of the battle; 1 April, 1945.

Battle of Okinawa, Japan

Vmail, or Victory Mail, was sent for the first time on June 22, 1942. One roll of film contained 1500 letters to military service members in WWII.

To keep in touch with loved one(s)

Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich with airmen of the 401st Bomb Group after a ride in a B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed "Pakawalup". 
With Ms. Dietrich are Colonel William T. Seawell (2nd left) and Captain Felix Kalinski (left) and Lawrence W Pfeiffer as navigator.
She entertained about a 1,000 men.


Posing with B-17 crew

U.S. Army nurses, newly arrived, line the rail of their vessel as it pulls into port of Greenock, Scotland, in European Theater of Operations. They are waiting to disembark as the gangplank is lowered to the dock.; August 15, 1944. 

Arrival of Army Nurses

US Infantry squad advances past a dead German Nazi after taking Cherbourg, France;  June 1944.

U.S. soldiers on mop-up activity

Infantrymen and a Sherman tank of the U.S. 3rd Army cautiously advance down a walled lane near Metz, north-east France; November 1944, as German troops pull back.

Looking out for ambush

A couple of Dogface GIs made the front page of Life Magazine; August 14, 1944.

Somewhere in France

US troops negotiating the narrow sunken lanes of the bocage country in Normandy; summer 1944.
Most fields only had one gated entrance and were surrounded by high hedgerows, which were ideal for German ambushes.

Hedgerow country

A German soldier is about to throw a  hand grenade into a house, while his comrades wait for the result; Eastern Front.

Suspicious house

Soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Division with the M1 Garand and M1903 Springfield rifles ready to disembark in Australia; 1942. 
   The 32nd was a National Guard unit from Michigan and Wisconsin and would initially fight in New Guinea and later in the Philippines. It spent more days in combat than any other unit.

Newcomers to down under

U.S. Army paratroopers climb into a C-47 transport plane en route to their jump into the Netherlands during September 1944's Operation Market Garden.

Destination Dutch drop one

4 American GIs stopping to look for directions somewhere between the towns of Trier and Saarburg, Germany, 1945.

Distraction from seeing the road sign

U.S. M15A1 Halftrack with 37mm & 2X .50 cal combination AA guns in Cherbourg France - July 1944.

Combination firepower

U.S. Artillery in action during the winter of 1944-45.

Ardennes - Battle of the Bulge

Miserable autumn weather forced many in Patton’s Third Army to seek shelter - even if that shelter was  only a muddy foxhole under canvas. Somewhere in France; November 1944.

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