u/kingofnerf

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: "An American P-40 Warhawk (known as Kittyhawk in the RAF and RAAF) of the 33rd (Provisional) Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Force (USAAF). This aircraft may be the only American P-40 Warhawk to have survived after the first Japanese air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942. The attacking Japanese managed to destroy nine of the ten P-40s of the 33rd (Provisional) Pursuit Group, which was based at Darwin on the day. The sole surviving aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Robert (Bob) Oestricher claimed two of the four Japanese aircraft shot down during the raid." Taken in February, 1942. (AWM P05303.003)

The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was both the first and the largest attack mounted by Japan against mainland Australia, when four Japanese aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū) launched a total of 188 aircraft from a position in the Timor Sea. These 188 naval aircraft inflicted heavy damage on Darwin and sank eight ships.

A raid conducted by 54 land-based army bombers (27 Mitsubishi G3M and 27 Mitsubishi G4M) later the same day inflicted further damage on the town and RAAF Base Darwin and resulted in the destruction of 20 military aircraft. Allied casualties were 235 killed and between 300 and 400 wounded, the majority of whom were non-Australian Allied sailors. Only four Japanese aircraft, all navy carrier-borne, were confirmed to have been destroyed by Darwin's defenders. All but one of the P-40s of Major Floyd Pell's 33rd Pursuit Squadron, was shot down or destroyed on the ground at RAAF Darwin by the Japanese.

The two Japanese air raids were the first, and largest, of more than 100 air raids against Australia during 1942–1943.

The flight line at Patterson Field in Ohio. Date unknown.

NARA (342-C-K-002207_001)

This was from the Shawfest airshow in 2013 at Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC. The USAF Thunderbirds headlined the show, so I included some F-16 eye candy as well.

Unfortunately, most of these have no further information. I also have his khaki cover and wings. Served in the 40s.

The guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto (CG-56), also recently returned from Desert Storm deployment, is docked in the background.

ORIGINAL CAPTION: "Enemy 'Stuka' hidden in shed on Airdrome west of Innsbruck, Austria. June 1945."

(NARA 342-FH_000153)

This is a colorized screenshot from the 1944 movie "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" that I did.

ORIGINAL CAPTION CREW #7 PHOTO: "Front Row (left-to-right): , Lt. Ted W. Lawson, pilot; Lt. Dean Davenport, copilot. Back Row (left-to-right): Lt. Charles L. McClure, navigator; Lt. Robert S. Clever, bombardier; Sgt. David J. Thatcher, flight engineer/gunner."

While the movie was being shot at Alameda, there was an oil fire in nearby Oakland, so the film crew sent up the camera plane and the B-25 to get some realistic footage for the movie and that is the background for this shot.

Lawson intended to land the real Ruptured Duck on a beach below on the island of Nantien and take off early the next with what he believed were 100 gallons of fuel left. The plane was going 110 knots when both engines quit a quarter mile from shore and the plane hit the water with the landing gear down. When the real plane crash landed, Lawson and Davenport were ejected still strapped into their seats through the cockpit windscreen. McClure, the navigator, was anchoring his shoulders against both cockpit seats with his head between the seats. McClure was not ejected but broke both shoulders and couldn't remember how he got out of the plane.

Clever, the bombardier, was crawling aft through the nose section and was ejected through the nose canopy when the plane hit the water. He suffered serious lacerations to his face and elsewhere, eventually passing out from the loss of blood. Thatcher, engineer/gunner, was thrown around a bit and only temporarily knocked knocked out with a bleeding bump on his forehead to show for it.

Lawson was much more badly wounded that portrayed in the movie. His face was pushed in from going through the windscreen of his plane. All of his front teeth were loosened and fell out into his hand when he tried to straighten them. His lower lip was laid open to the cleft in his chin. In addition to his leg being gashed open, his left bicep was severed in half. Thatcher was the only one of the crew who could initially walk, going back to plane twice at risk of capture to try to recover anything that could be useful to the crew's escape and recovery. He was eventually awarded the Silver Star for his actions in caring for his wounded fellow aircrew.

ORIGINAL CAPTION FIRST PHOTO: “1st Lt. Robert C. Thoman, Rochester, N.Y., who recently shot down an ME-109, examines the cockpit of a similar enemy plane at a former Luftwaffe field as fellow 9th A.F. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots look on. The pilots were given the opportunity to see at first hand many German aircraft which they have previously encountered in aerial combat or while strafing enemy fields when their group moved east of the Rhine to their second German airfield. 15 enemy planes of several types were found on the abandoned base.

Left to right: Capt. Paul L. Van Cleef, Salina, Kas., 1st Lt. Thomas Manjak, Ambridge, Pa.,1st Lt. James L. McWhorter, Sanford, Fla., 2nd Lt. Sherman E. Price, Caplinger Mills, Mo.,1st Lt John W. Wise, Prosser, Wash., and Lt. Thoman in the cockpit. All are members of the "Hell Hawk" group of Col. Ray J. Stecker, Hazleton, Pa.” (NARA 342-FH_000335)

ORIGINAL CAPTION SECOND AND THIRD PHOTOS: “Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers of Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg's 9th AF parked on and near the apron of a former Luftwaffe base in Germany, now used by the 365th fighter-bomber group. Service and maintenance men are working the planes, preparing them for further flights ahead of U.S. ground forces. The base is the twelfth occupied by the 365th pilots since landing in Normandy.”  (NARA 342-FH_000525, 342-FH_001135)

Cooke Air Force Base was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base on 4 October 1958 in honor of General Hoyt Vandenberg, then the Air Force's second Chief of Staff.

ORIGINAL CAPTION: “Air Force's Experimental Heavy Bomber, the Northrop XB-35.”

The photos were taken in 1948. (NARA 342-C-K-4670, 342-C-K-004603_001)

ORIGINAL CAPTION PHOTO #1: "Dick Cole (left, kneeling) and crew of the 1st Air Commando Force pose beside the Douglas C-47 "Hairless Joe" at Lalaghat, India." (NARA 342-FH_001216)

SECOND PHOTO (CREW #1): Front Row (left-to-right): Pilot Lt. Col. J.H. Doolittle, Co-Pilot Lt. R.E. Cole. Back Row (left-to-right): Navigator Lt. H.A. Potter, Bombardier SSgt. F.A. Braemer, Engineer Gunner SSgt. P.J. Leonard.

Born on September 7, 1915, in Dayton, Ohio, Dick Cole graduated from Steele High School, Dayton, Ohio and completed two years of college at Ohio University. Enlisting on November 22, 1940, he completed pilot training and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in July 1941. Cole was the co-pilot of Crew #1 (Doolittle’s plane) on the Tokyo raid.

He remained in the China-Burma-India Theater after the Tokyo raid until June 1943 and served again in the China-Burma-India Theater from October 1943 until June 1944. He was relieved from active duty in January 1947 but returned to active duty in August 1947.

Dick Cole was the last surviving Raider when he died on April 9, 2019, at the age of 103. His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, and Chinese Army, Navy, Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade.

ORIGINAL CAPTION: "Crew chief S/Sgt Gerald Bentley of Gainesville, Texas, inspects the oil lines on a North American P-51 at an 8th Air Force base somewhere in England. Underneath is assistant maintenance chief T/Sgt Paul A. Fick of Fremont, Ohio, who is checking the hydraulic pump."

NARA 342-C-K-002110_001

Cdr. Charles L. Crommelin, commander of Air Group 5, was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for action in an attack on Marcus Island on 31 August 1943.

While he was leading a reconnaissance flight over Mili Atoll on 21 November 1943, a flak burst blinded him in his left eye and blood running down his face impaired the vision in his right eye. Despite being badly wounded, with the assistance of his wingman he was able to fly 100 nm back to his carrier and make a perfect landing on the USS Yorktown (CV-10). Footage of him landing and being helped from his Hellcat appeared the Fighting Lady movie and I put some screenshots from that into two montage pics. That's his blood on the inside of the canopy; not oil.

He was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross for action as Commander of Air Group Five on board the USS Yorktown (CV-10) during the Gilbert Islands Campaign during this time.

After a lengthy recovery from his wounds, he returned to the Pacific in command of Carrier Air Group 12 aboard the USS Randolph (CV-15). He was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism during the first carrier force raids on Japan in February 1945.

On 28 March 1945, Cdr. Crommelin flew on a pre-invasion strike on Okinawa, but he never returned from that mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVNEGdnR8nA