Official United States Navy Photographs
World War II

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1. "BB" THROWS K.O. PUNCH--Heavy guns of a Navy battleship emit smoke and flame as they throw a "knockout punch" at distant targets on Okinawa, supporting the advance of American soldiers across the Jap base.

2. SUBMARINE RESCUES U. S. NAVY AIRMEN--About to be rescued by a U. S. Pacific Fleet submarine are crewmen of a Fleet Air Wing One plane afloat in their rubber raft as the undersea craft approaches to take them aboard. The rescue was effected in the East China Sea.

3. LANDING AT EMPRESS AUGUSTA--Barrage balloon hovers over camouflaged LSTs (Land Ship Tanks) as U. S. Marines open the campaign for Bougainville by landing in the shallow waters of an inlet on Empress Augusta Bay, November 1, 1943.

4. WAR ON AXIS SUBS--Graceful and flower-like plumes from an American depth charge spell doom for an Axis sub,

5. CRUISER BLOWS "SMOKE RINGS"--A perfectly formed "smoke ring" hangs in the air after a U. S. Navy cruiser fires at Jap positions in a recent Pacific action.

6. JAPANESE SHIP BOMBED AND STRAFED--This Japanese tanker in Takao Harbor, southwest Formosa, was strafed and bombed by fast carrier Curtiss Helldivers of Admiral C, W. Nimitz's U. S, Pacific Fleet, on 11 Oct. 1944 (WLT). The wing of the attacking plane can be seen in the picture, the crowded harbor is clearly shown in the background, and another attacking plane is over the industrial area of this important Japanese shipping and industrial center.

7. PTs IN THE PACIFIC--Crewman of a PT boat semaphores a message to other torpedo boats as they speed out on patrol along the vast battle line.

8. A U. S. Navy Aircraft Carrier flanked by PTs moves to sea.

9. GUARDING THE CANAL--Armed with machine guns, torpedoes, and depth charges, a U. S. Navy PT boat skims through the Caribbean on the lookout for hostile submarines, Fast and packing a powerful punch, these Navy "mosquito boats" are keeping the strategic Canal area free from enemy marauders.

10. PLAQUE MARKS SURRENDER SPOT--This plaque on the deck of the U.S.S. MISSOURI marks the spot over which the instrument of formal surrender of Japan to the Allied powers was signed on September 2, 1945.

11. SKILLFUL SHIP REPAIR UNITS KEPT U.S.S. HONOLULU IN FIGHT--Dramatic picture story of how the Navy cruiser U.S.S. HONOLULU survived the effects of a Jap torpedo which carried away its bow in the Battle of Kolombangara in mid-July, 1943, shows the efficiency of Navy ship repair units. Temporary repairs were made at Espiritu Santo. At Tulagi a jury bow was affixed, enabling the cruiser to make her way back to the U. S. under her own power. By January, 1944, she was back in the Pacific. The cruiser HONOLULU shows her "snub-nose" profile before the jury bow was affixed.

12. Another view of the cruiser before the jury bow was rigged. .

13. SUBMARINER'S EYE VIEW OF JAP SHIPPING--A Japanese merchant ship up-ends for its plunge to the bottom after being struck by a torpedo fired by the U. S. Pacific Fleet submarine which made this photograph through its periscope.

14. MASTHEAD STRAFING ATTACK--Shooting a picture at the same time as they were firing their guns, the pilot and crew of a U. S. Navy photo-reconnaissance plane returned with this close-up as evidence of their attack on a Japanese cargo ship in the Marshall Islands area. Not carrying any bombs, the Navy LIBERATOR riddled the freighter with "all the .50 calibre guns that could be brought to bear" on its victim at only 100 feet above the hull. Note the Rising Sun insignia on a hatch. The forward ~n of the vessel is not manned, indicating that the plane caught the foe completely by surprise.

15. Navy SBDs (SCOUT BOMBERS, DOUGLASS)--take off from their carrier, heavily loaded with instruments of death, on a mission with Task Force 58.

16. VENTURA'S WAKE--Making a "take-off in white" from Amchitka, in the Aleutians, this U. S. Navy Vega Ventura, (PV-1) leaves a wake in the snow" as it gathers speed before soaring off in the gray winter sky.

17. First Jap torpedo bomber "Jill" flying through hall of AA fire toward a U. S. Carrier to attack, during the raid on Truk, Caroline Islands. .

18. Wading out into the ice-choked Northern Pacific is just part of a day's work for this U. S, Navy ground crew whose job it is to keep the big PBY patrol bombers flying over Alaskan waters, Despite the bitter cold, this crew maneuvers the plane toward land as the pilot shouts directions from the cockpit,

19. SEAMAN RESCUED--A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800-ton U.S.S. WEST VIRGINIA, burning in the foreground. Smoke rolling out amidships shows where the most extensive damage occurred. Note the two men in the superstructure. The U.S.S. TENNESSEE is inboard.

20. DIRTY WEATHER . . .FOR JAP PLANES--Smears of "flak" smudge the Pacific sky as anti-aircraft batteries aboard ships of a Navy task force blast at Jap planes during recent battle action in the Pacific.

21. JAP CRUISER ATTACKED IN KURE HARBOR--Its camouflage deception pierced, a Japanese cruiser of the Tons class, Nippon's most modern 8-inch class, rocks under the hammer blows of carrier based aircraft of the U. S. Third Fleet, July 24, in Japan's Naval Base, in Kure Harbor, Honshu, as American sea and air forces continued their pounding of the Japanese home islands, Completely hidden by bomb-born geysers at right is another Japanese warship.

 22. A Jap plane bursts into flame as it is struck by antiaircraft fire from ships of an American task force in the Battle of Santa Cruz, October 26. An American carrier is seen left; a destroyer left center.

23. BATTLE OF SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS--showing the destruction of two attacking Japanese warplanes. One plane has already crashed into the water as a second plummets to a similar fate.

24. STOCKPILES FOR BATTLE--Barrage balloons hover over a long line of LSTs (Landing Ship-Tanks) on the shore of a port in Southern Italy as the vessels are loaded with the sinews of war in preparation for the assault on Southern France. This view of the busy harbor indicates what a massive amount of material modern warfare demands; the flotilla shown is only part of the giant fleet which finally smashed ashore on August 15, 1944.

25. A Navy PBM (Martin Mariner) takes off and climbs to flying altitude in a matter of seconds because of Jet Propulsion assistance.

26. OKINOYAMO MARU, JAP SHIP AT OKINAWA. FOLLOWS SISTERS TO DAVY JONES--After the fall of Naha, Okinawa, work began immediately to clear the harbor of the Capitol city. The Okinoyamo Maru, a Jap ship in the harbor already damaged by bombs, was towed to sea and blown up by well-placed explosive.

27. A massive bi-motored Martin Mariner (PBM) in a jet-assisted takeoff that enables this heavy Navy plane to shoot up from the water like a Fourth of July sky rocket.

28. Banking into a twisting dive. Douglass DAUNTLESS Dive-bombers, of Task Force 58, perform aerial "exercises" with the carrier as a background . . . keeping "sharp" for battle missions in the Pacific.

29. OFF CHERBOURG-THE LUFTWAFFE ATTACKS AT NIGHT--Allied guns weave a tapestry of flame in the night skies off the Cherbourg Peninsula, as Nazi planes appear overhead to bomb a group of invasion ships. In the foreground is the sinking hulk of an American ship, mortally wounded by a bomb hit. The glare of two bomb flashes breaks the black in the distance. This spectacular photo of battle pyrotechnics was made by a Coast Guard combat photographer under fire in this Channel action.

30. FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY, June, 1942. A Japanese heavy cruiser of the "Mogami" class after having been bombed by U. S. carrier based naval aircraft.

31. Troops in landing craft deploying in treadmill fashion about an attack transport before going ashore. Off Attn, Aleutian Islands, May 11,1943.

32. View from the bow of the U.S.S. MISSOURI as one of the 16-inch guns churns the water with its blast.

33. Nerve center of the ship is the "shack" Communication Office. Here, among the maze of cable, typewriters, senders and receivers contact is maintained with other ships of the fleet, with bases and intership phones.

34. HEADING FOR THE "BARN"--A telescope lens catches ships of U. S. Navy Task Force 38 moving in line of bearing prior to their entry into Ulithi anchorage following a pat operation. The force was returning from air strikes against Jap positions to receive supplies and ammunition at Ulithi. In the foreground is the U.S.S. LANGLEY, an Independence class carrier. Next is the big Essex class carrier, U.S.S. TICONDEROGA. Masts of other ships in the picture are those of the Battleships NORTH CAROLINA, WASHINGTON and SOUTH DAKOTA.

35. THE U.S.S. TICONDEROGA LEAVES A BLAZIN TRAIL IN THE PACIFIC--A view of the burning Ticonderoga as it steams cross-wind after being hit by two suicide planes. While damage control crews fought to overcome the flames, Commodore Dixie Keifer, U.S.N. (then a Captain) put the carrier through many turns. The resulting roll of the ship helped to rid the burning decks of gasoline left by the two Jap planes.

36. ALASKAN AND ALEUTIAN AREAS--This is the kind of rough going the officers and men of the U. S. Fleet encounter when they transfer in small boats from ship to shore and from ship to patrol plane in the Aleutians.

37. U.S.S. HUTCHINS.

38. DESTROYER GETS "LIFEBLOOD" FROM CARRIER --The Navy Destroyer U.S.S. KNIGHT pulls up along side an aircraft carrier for refueling operations somewhere at sea. High waves hurl spray across the decks of the destroyer.

39. DESTROYER LISTS, DOWN BY STERN--U.S.S. WILLIAM D. PORTER lists, down by stern, as an LCS which aided in rescue of her crew stands off. The Porter was hit by a Japanese suicide plane off Okinawa early in June, and sank shortly afterward.

40. POWER ON THE FLOOD--The mounting tonnage of the U. S. Navy's devastating fleets is indicated by this telephoto picture of a small segment of the Navy's armada entering a Pacific anchorage. In the foreground is a carrier of the INDEPENDENCE class, followed by an ESSEX-class carrier, three modern battleships and three cruisers. The telephoto lens distorts the perspective of the photograph, so that the ships seem much closer to each other than they really are. These ships form part of the Third Fleet.

 41. NOTABLES AT ATLANTIC CHARTER CONFERENCE--The impressive list of notables who attended the Atlantic Charter Conference in August, 1941, line up aboard the Navy Cruiser, U.S.S.AUGUSTA; for a group portrait. They are, left to right:  Front row: Sir Alexander Cadogan, British Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; R.A.F. Air Chief Marshal Wilfred Freeman; Prime Minister Winston Churchill; President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, First Lord of the British' Admiralty; Field Marshal Sir John Dill of the British Army; Lord Cherwell.   Second row:  Averill Harriman; Harry Hopkins; Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S.N., Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Fleet; Rear Admiral Ross McIntire, U.S.N., Chief of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; Major General Edwin M. Watson, U.S.A., Aide to the President; Lt. John Roosevelt; Admiral Harold R. Stark, U.S.N., Commander, .U. S. Naval Forces in Europe; Rear Admiral John R. Beardall, U.S.N.; General George C. Marshall, U.S.A., Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Army; and Lt. (now Lt. Comdr.) Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., U.S.N.R.  Standing between and immediately behind the President and Mr. Churchill, is Sumner Welles, then Under Secretary of State.

42. A U. S. NAVY DESTROYER ESCORTS A UNITED NATIONS CONVOY SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC-Officers on the deck fight a stiff wind and a pitching destroyer in rough seas.

43. THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA--The big explosion aboard the U.S.S. LEXINGTON may have come from the gasoline system. Captain F. C. Sherman, U.S.N. and other officers are still aboard.

44. DEATH IN THE DEPTHS--Trapped and racked by our devices and weapons, a Nazi U-Boat is half-veiled in smoke as it meets doom on the surface of the Atlantic.

45. WELCOME FOR SUBMARINE--This U. S. Navy Submarine, which has sunk five Japanese ships (two merchantmen and three men-of-war) in the Pacific, receives a gala welcome as it ties up at the submarine base at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The local Navy band is lined up on the pier to serenade the heroes of the undersea fleet.

46. JAPANESE TWO-MAN SUBMARINE BEACHED ON ISLAND OF OAHU DURING ACTION WITH U. S. FORCES, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1941.

47. Leyte Beachhead--the beach still smouldering from the devastating fire from battleships, cruisers, LCI Rocketships and destroyers. From amphibious landing craft, first waves storm ashore.

48. MAGAZINE OF U.S.S. SRAW EXPLODES--This, one of the most remarkable combat photographs of all times, was made at the exact moment the destroyer blew up during Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941.

49. AMERICANS AND AUSTRALIANS INVADE BALIK PAPEN, BORNEO--On July 1, 1945, Americans and Australians island-hopped right into the center of the rich, Jap-held oil field of Balikpapen, Borneo. Units of the Navy's Seventh Fleet paved the way for Australian landings. In the bombardment which preceded the landings at Balikpapen, Borneo, Seventh Fleet units fired over 10,000 rockets. LCI (R) 338 opens up in the first of two rocket runs made by these crafts on the beach. Rockets have proven to be very effective "persuaders" in the Navy's amphibious landings.

50. RESCUE WORK OF SUBMARINE--U. S. Pacific Fleet submarine goes to the rescue of stranded airmen.

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