A new addition to my collection comes in the form of an autographed French RPPC of the 59th Pioneer Infantry Regiment commander. J. Warner Reed was a colonel with the Delaware National Guard during the Mexican Border War and later went on to form the 59th Pioneer Infantry of the 2nd Army. Units from this regiment were engaged in road building, bridge building, and front line construction and improvement projects.
Guys like this make me proud to be Irish Catholic! I have hundreds of negatives from this 9th Armored Division collection, many of them related to Chaplain services during WWII. The collection includes 20-30 shots of this same jeep – gotta’ love the name! Ave Maria.
See the bar projecting above the front of the hood? It was created to cut wires that may have been strung across French and German roads in order to decapitate US soldiers. Ouch!
Who knew that the US captured a series of German U-Boats during the tail end of WWII? I had no idea until I picked up a rare collection of 24 photos that belonged to a member of the original prize crew for one of the U-Boats. The photos are incredibly detailed with crisp focus and in a large 8X10 format. They show the capturing of U-234 and the subsequent arrival in port in Portsmouth, NH. Also pictured in the grouping (not all posted here) are Captain Fritz Steinhoff and Luftwaffe General Ulrich Kessler. Steinhoff actually ended up committing suicide in a Boston jail with the aide of a broken glasses lens. A wartime news article about the suicide can be found here. Ulrich Kessler was delivering a load of Uranium and a set of German jet planes to an undisclosed South American country when the captain decided to surrender. An amazing collection for sure.
The following set of slides (and many more not shown) were picked up at a local flea market along with 3000 more from the same photographer. In this case, he was invited down to view a series of military exercises at Pope Air Force Base in Fort Bragg, NC. The activities and joint demonstrations by the United States Readiness Command (USREDCOM), Brass Key II at Fort Bragg in North Carolina were a series of military exercises to show the readiness of US airborne and Special Forces troops. A great set of shots all taken in 1974.
Casual followers of this blog (as well as some dedicated followers) will know that I’m obsessed with casual snapshots of celebrities during the war. I’m more interested in obscure personalities that rarely show up on eBay. My collection includes shots of Spike Jones, Joe Brown, Frank Sinatra, Ernie Pyle, and Lee Marvin. A few months back I was lucky to add another shot of famed WWII journalist Ernie Pyle to my collection. Sorry for the delay!
Ever wonder how doughboys sent their photo postcards home? I actually don’t own a single example of a postmarked photo postcard from the war, but recently came across a grouping that contained an envelope and postcard sent home by a 42nd Division soldier. A member of the 151st Field Artillery, Frank Svec sent home a studio portrait shot of himself. Not incredibly rare, but a good example of how WWI photos were sent during the war. The 42nd Division is one of my favorite divisions, so this is an addition “kicker”.
I’ve been recently turned on to the magic of ancestry.com, one of the best tools for researching WWI images I’ve yet to discover. I decided to start a search for one of the names written on the back of one of my better WWI images. Alex Lindell poses in his WWI French portrait photo showing off his missing finger – likely a battle wound received on October 18th, 1918 while he was with the 309th Infantry Regiment (78th Division) during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After a search of draft cards through the National Archives, I came across a pair of WWI and WWII draft cards with the presumed identity of Alex Lindell. After comparing the signatures on both my photo and the draft cards, I realized I had a match! Success! His ASN was 2451963.
Alex served in Company H, 309th Infantry Regiment, 78th Division and was originally born in Oeland, Finland but eventually ended up in Brooklyn, NY. He was born on May 5th, 1889 and passed away just shy of the age of 61 on April 11th. 1950 where he was buried in Long Island National Cemetery. He was listed as being severely wounded in action on October 18th, 1918 where he presumably lost his finger as seen in the below photo.
Finding wartime photos of nurses is becoming increasingly difficult given the recent demand for quality WWI photography. One of my favorite poses for the WWI nurse has to be the standing studio portrait with an American flag on hand. I have three good examples in my collection, but am always on the lookout for more.
Snapshots taken during combat situations are the Holy Grail for WWII photo collectors. In this case, a soldier in the 395th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Division snapped a photo during a firefight with Germans near a dike in Neustadt, Germany. A great action shot! To make this shot even more amazing, I found an original film shot shortly after the same episode in the exact same postion. This time the dike has been fortified with sandbags and pontoon boats. Look for the 0:39 second mark.
Portraits of War 