Great photos! I noticed in photo No. 5, a paratrooper has a M1 carbine without the collapsible steel stock. I wonder if the M1 was put there for the photo op?

Bob

I greatly enjoyed the D-Day photos. General Eisenhower's pivotal decision.

David

This is most likely a staged shot or a practrice jump. Notice that there are NO other weapons in sight and their faces are not blacked out. The uniforms are brand new. The carbine is unsecured and the trooper would never have jumped with it this way. The carbine was probably borrowed from an airport MP for dramatic effect, since it is right up front in the photo.

What I have always been curious about the purpose of are the blimps above each boat like in photo #11 on that D-Dya picture web page.

Those are "Barrage Balloons". They had multiple cables dangling down from each balloon in an attempt to discourage dive bombing and straffing runs by enemy aircraft.

These had limited success but did provide some deterrent.

My ulcle Phil was in the eighth air force, flew 25 missions as a b-17 or B-24 bombidier.He was lucky, was sent home as an instructor.He almost never talked about the war, when i asked him it was like pulling teeth.All he would say was "the flak was so thick it looked as if you could walk on it".My father joined the Navy Before the army could draft him in1942.Was sent to the Soloman islands on August 1942-his ship arrived the day after the battle of Savo island.It was the worst fought battle in US navy history i think.The US navy learned what NOT to do fighting the Japs.I did learn a little of the war in the pacific from him, mostly how horrible the climate was there.My family was lucky, all of them came back.

Yeah my grandfather never would talk about it. I know he wasnt in the thick of it and seen what some others saw. But, when you would ask he would just get this look and get quiet. You knew then not to get asking.

I do have other family members that I know were in WWII. One was Sgt. Leon Rowe on my fathers side of the family who I know was in Africa and then was sent into italy. I never knew them, but I sure would like to know his stories. There was another one Howard Johnson that was in the Navy that was a cook, but was on a few different ships in the pacific war. I knew of him when I was real little, but never knew anything about him. He still has a daughter alive that I recently spoke with that she says she has all kinds of stuff of his. She said he wrote a paper on his time in the war. I'd love to read it.

Sgt. Leon Rowe

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Howard Johnson

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My grandfather worked in the shipyards in Bremerton, WA and mom remembers having one of those blimps anchored in their backyard. It went up after dusk and came down right before dawn. The hope was that it would tangle on any lower flying raids on the shipyards.

Kool pics, wierd thing is my Grandfather fought in the German army...

Not unusual Frank. A lot of ex German soldiers emigrated to the US after the war, since they had little home to go back to, especially if their hometown was in the Soviet zone of occupation. General Erwin Rommel's widow lived here in Florida until her passing some years ago.