Aerial Bombing Operations

Photographs showcasing strategic bombings in World War II, including raids in Japan and Austria, depicting smoke and destruction from aerial assaults.

COMPLETELY PLASTERED. The last string of bombs edges in to smash the span of the Incisa rail bridge. Note carefully in upper left corner of picture: Cars of a repair train that had been sent to repair the damage of an earlier raid on the bridge.

Flying Fortresses Of The 15Th Aaf Blast At Strategic German Factories At Steyr, Austria, 2 April 1944. Giant Pillars Of Smoke Rise From One Smashied Target In The Foreground.

Tokyo Palace Area - Night Raid - 26 May 1945.

COMPLETELY PLASTERED. The last string of bombs edges in to smash the span of the Incisa rail bridge. Note carefully in upper left corner of picture: Cars of a repair train that had been sent to repair the damage of an earlier raid on the bridge.

Sparkling Fires Swept Through This Group Of Houses Occupied By German Troops Defending Bologna, Italy, After A Fire Bomb And Strafing Attack By Brazilian Pilots Of The 22Nd Tactical Air Command. The Fuel Tank Incendiaries Have Destroyed One House And Set

These Are The Results Of The Bombing Of 2 Freighter-Transports (4-500 Gross Tons) By 5 Catalinas, 15 Miles East Of Dyaul Islands On 16 Jan 44. The Photographs Were Taken Some 8 Hours Later By A Consolidated B-24. The Smaller Of The Ships (Upper) Is Emit

Bursts of bombs dropped from Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the US Army Eight Air Force on the Nazi repair and maintenance base at Kjeller, Norway. This photo clearly shows the nature of the country, with winding rivers, mountains, forests and few

Bombing of a railroad bridge in June 1944 at Taro-Solignano, Italy.

Bombing of a railroad bridge 6/22/44 at Taro Solignano, Italy.

Aircraft, Burma, India & Bombing,

Hundreds Of Paratroops Drop From Troop Carrier Planes In Spectacular Invasion Of Southern France In The Summer Of 1944.

Despite the use of smoke pots by the Nazis, North American B-25 Mitchells of the U.S. Army 12th Air Force attack the San Michele Rail Bridge, a key link on the Trento-Bolzano Brenner Pass feeder Line. They scored successful hits on the target, which

Parachute bombs falling on Clark Field in the Philippines during the week that preceded General MacArthur's landing on Luzon Jan 9, 1945.

Avoiding The Great Craters Left By Bombs Of The 8Th Aaf, Landing Craft Nose Into The Shore Somewhere Along The Beachhead On The Coast Of Nazi Held France. Army Vehicles Dotting The Shore Shown In This 8Th Air Force Reconnaissance Photo.

Allied landing craft along...

Bomb Damage Inthe Hildensheim Marshalling Yards In Germany After A 9Th Af Bombardment Attack. 22 Feb. 1945.

Aircraft, Burma, India & INDIA,CAMOUFLAGE War

Through The Smoke Of Bursting Bombs, You Can See The Rail Lines That Converged In The Yards At Orte, Junction For Railroads Running East-West And North-South Above Rome. B-26 Marauders Hit The Yards Six Days Before The Allied Landings South Of Rome; B-25

Unidentified Airdrome in New Guinea.

A Consolidated B-24 Liberator of the 15th AAF turns off the target, the railroad yards at Brasov, Rumania, 16 April 44 after dropping its bombs. Bomb strike photographs show over 75 hits in the yards. Lines to the west were cut and adjacent

Built in an old abandoned quarry, the probable rocket emplacement at Wizernes in the Pas de Calais area is shown after having been repeatedly attacked by U.S. 8th Air Force heavies. Direct hits have collapsed much of the quarry walls onto

Detailing Information On Normandy Beach Defenses Was Obtained From "Dicing" Shots Like This. Element 'C' A Steel Gate-Like Boat Barricade, Failed To Stop Landings. Photo Taken By 1St Lt. Albert Lanker, 10Th Photo Reconnaissance Group, On 6 May 1944, On

Installations At Lechfeld Airfield, Germany, Are Plastered With Bomb Bursts During A Mission By Planes Of The 305Th Bombardment Group, 8Th Air force On 18 March 1944.

Smoke from bursts covers a grounded HE-111 parked near an outhouse on a Nazi airfield somewhere in occupied France.

Smoke pours from harbor installations at Balikpapan, Borneo, N.E.I., after bombing by U.S. bombers on July 2, 1945.

Smoke And Pyrotechnic Target Identification Bombs Fall, Along With General Purpose Bombs, Toward The Target At Boulogne, France On June 3 1944, During A Mission By Planes Of The 8Th Air Force'S 44Th Bombardment Group.

Concentrations Build Up As The 8Th Air force Attack On The Bridge At Wesel, Germany Progresses On 14 Feb. 1945.

Looking like an on-rushing tornado, a huge column of smoke looms above the synthetic oil plant at Politz, Germany, second largest Nazi controlled plant of its kind. This photo was taken as heavy bombers of the U.S. 8th AAF left the scene after

ONE AMERICAN FIGHTER DID THIS to a German convoy, carrying ammunition and gasoline, and retreating somewhere in France. A U.S. Army 9th Air Force Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilot, Lt. Col. Louis T. Houck, Todd, N.C., came in at deck level and

(Above) Air view of enemy barracks behind the Siegfried Line at Thaleischweiler, four miles north of Pirmasens in the U.S. 7th Army sector. All is peaceful-except for that neat little stick of bombs in the right hand corner which has just been

Aircraft, Burma, India & Bombing,

September 27-Emden-Leading Port Far Ruhr. U-boat Building Yard. Blind bombing method used.

North American B-25 Mitchells Of The 38Th Bomb Group, 71St Bomb Squadron Fly In At Minimum Altitude To Attack A Japaneseanese Ship In The Sorong Area, Dutch New Guinea On 17 June 1944.

Oblique Showing Enemy Wurzburg Radar, Pole-Type Beach Obstacles, And Gun Positions Burrowed Into The Cliffside Near Point De Hoe, France.

HULS, GERMANY

Too far, probably more than 2,000 yards away, three Japanese planes are above cloud at left center. The 5th Air Force finds Japaneses can be discouraged, advises opening up at more than 1,000 yards. This would be pure waste against Germans.

Both targets covered with compact clusters of bombs is the story told by this picture taken 3 Sep 44 as 8th USAAF bombers attacked gun emplacements and a fortress on the Brest, France Peninsula. Bombs are crashing into gun sites on the rocky coast

Mont Fleury, France Beachhead.

Bombs Dropped By Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses Of The 15Th Af Explode On Airdrome Near Wollersdorf, Germany, On 29 May 1944.

Into An Isolated And Thinly Populated Valley On Free China's Western Frontier, Three Helicopters Responded To A Radio Distress Call From An American Air Crew Whose Transport Plane Had Crashed During A 'Hump' Crossing. The Helicopters Landed On A Knoll Ne

Directly over the truck, the pilot found himself in the midst of the explosion. After landing at his base, while he was counting the holes in the plane, he found stay pieces of German uniforms, some small arms shell castings, and even some emptied

Two North American B-25S Of The Mediterranean Allied Air Force Wing Their Way Toward The Target - An Enemy Installation Somewhere In Italy.

Ninth AF Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, carrying out an operation originally planned for heavy bombers, dived from 7,000 to 100 feet to breach the Etang de Landre dam near Dieuze, about 25 miles east of Nancy, France. The mission against the 200 year

7th Australian Division about to land at Klandasan Beach, Balikpapan, Borneo, N.E.I. Note coordination in the attack: smoke screen laid by 42nd group, 13th A.F. B-25 Mitchells, rockets bursting just off shore and bombardment of beach defenses by

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses Of The 381St Bomb Group Pencil Their Vapor Trails In The Sky As They Roar Toward Their Target, Somewhere In Europe.

Allied ships crossing the English Channel during practice invasion tests about September, 1943.

Coral, Which Provided An Excellent Material For Surfacing Airstrips Was Obtained In Abundance At Coral Pit #6, About Four Miles From Kadena Strip B On Okinawa, Ryukyu Retto. 30 June 1945.

Japaneseanese cargo vessel, zig-zagging frantically thru waters off the northern coast of New Guinea, is shaken by bombs from a U.S.A.A.F. Liberator. Experience has shown that "near-misses" often do more damage to a vessel than direct hits on the deck

Heavy Incendiary Damage To Large Sections Of Urban Area. Yokohama, Japan.

Bombing of LaHug airdrome, Cebu Island, Philippines.

Radio compartment of Boeing B-17 "Flying ofrtress" caused by heavy flak and 20 mm shells

Formation Of Consolidated B-24 Liberators Of The 15Th Af Enroute To Bomb Casarsa, Italy, 1944.

Aircraft, Burma, India & Bombing,

Three Consolidated B-24 Liberator "Snoopers" of the "Fightin' 13th" AAF, the jungle AF, delivered an accurate attack against Sangga-Sangga oil installations 45 miles north of Balikpapan, Borneo, and thus dealt another smashing blow at the enemy's

ATTACKING HALMAHERA ISLAND, the last Japaneseanese bastion between New Guinea and the Philippines. A ternate oil dump goes up in smoke after an attack by Mitchell Bombers of the U.S. Army 5th Air Force and Far East Air Forces.

FIGHTER PATROL: Fighters swoop and dive through the air as they sweep the skies for enemy aircraft in protection of 8th AAF Liberators on their way to strike at Diepholz, Luftwaffe airbase, during Monday, 21 Feb 44 attack on Nazi airdromes and

Kiska Island, Aleutians, August 10, 1942.

This Photograph Was Taken At The Height Of The Bombardment Of 1200-Foot Road Bridge Near Galliate, 20 Miles West Of Italy, From One Of The Attack North American B-25 Mitchell Medium Bombers.

Collection of World War I Photographs, 1914-1918 that depict the military activities of British and other nation's armed forces and personnel during World War I.

Herewith are pictured...

Navy battleships maneuver in and out to direct their guns on the targets at Corregidor and Caballo Island in the Philippines, during the first Naval shelling of this area. Consolidated B-24 "Liberators" of the 494th Bomb Group, participated in the

Off Mushu Island on the north coast of New Guinea, American bombers caught several small Japanese vessels. An aerial camera from 100 feet got this picture: A sunken enemy vessel (foreground); and enemy ship burning (left); and a damaging near miss in the

Hits were scored on the railway south of the train ferry terminus and in the neighborhood of the customs house and infantry barracks during this raid by heavy bombers of the U.S.S.A.A.F. on Messina, Sicily and columns of smoke are seen rising from

Attack of a German submarine by a plane of the 479th Anti Submarine Group somewhere in the North Sea. 29 July 1943.

Bombs burst on enemy military installations at Helgoland, North Sea, as planes of the 91st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force carry out their mission against the Axis, 15 May 1943.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses Of The 15Th Af, En Route To Bomb Oil Refinery At Blechhammer, Germany, Leave Fleecy Vapor Trails.

The coastal village of Ulamaingi which was captured by U.S. Marines resulting in the extension of the perimiter of their lines. Ulamaingi lies approximately 3 miles southwest of Cape Gloucester.

Literally bursting in mid-air, this Flying Fortress with the starboard wing breaking between the engines is being engulfed in flames that prevented the flyers from opening parachutes. The Fortress is making a bomb run over the target at Nis

Smoke colored high cloud and heavy flak over Ludwigshafen, Germany. (30 Dec 43)

A large formation of B-24 Liberators of the 15 AAF bombed the Miramas railyards, 20 miles south-east of Arles, in southern France, on 8/6/44 cutting the tracks and half destroying the station. Smoke rising from the target area blankets the yards.

Bombing of Brunswick, 11 Jan 1944.

Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the 15th AAF attacking the railroad yards at Forli, in Northern Italy, fly over the target area after releasing bombs that caused a number of large explosions, on May 19, 1944.

Uprooted tracks and...

Aerial View Of Bologna Looking North Towards The Po River. Constant Aerial Pounding Preceding The 5Th Army Jump Off Towards Northern Italy, And Now Maap Planes Of The 12Th Af Are On A Field Day Harrying The Retreating Enemy Relentlessly.

Hull Of Destroyer Escort (Frigate Class) Panicky Japaneses And Debris Is All That Remains After Attack By North American B-25 Of The 345Th Bomb Group On 6 April 1945 Near Amoy, China.

Aircraft, Burma, India & INDIA,RESCUE War

Boeing B-17s Flying ofrtresses took part in mission against Villacoublay airdrome (near Paris Aug. 1943, which lasted 4 hours). They were escorted by Republic P-47 planes. Picture show formations above clouds illustrating how ofrts fly in high and

U.S. paratroop landing in New Guinea. Below and to the right of the leading plane may be seen several parachutes in various stages of opening, swinging the men at extreme angles and very close to the ground.

This is not an Aleutian blizzard but a Flying ofrtress which has just been saved from burning by ofamite, a chemical sprayed by a USAAF fire-fighting crash crew at a U.S. Army 8th Air force bomber station in England. While taking part in a bomber

Royal Air Force Operations in Malta, Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, 1940-1945. Bombs from Douglas Bostons of the Tactical Bomber Force of the North West African Air Forces explode along the main road at Randazzo, Sicily, during repeated attacks on enemy road convoys retreating toward Messina.

Beach Defenses Set Up By The Germans On The Coast Of Normandy, France.

DURING: Bombs walking across an airfield is an old pattern but a good one. Three groups totaling 87 Martin B-26s attacked Practica di Mare on 17 Sept., with 13,580 hundred-pound bombs and thirty 500-lb incendiaries from 11,000 ft.

A "line smashing" American Martin B-26 Maurader of the First Tactical Air Force passes over the main defense belt of the German Siegfried Line southeast of Zweibrucken as smoke from first bombs begin to develop on the target. Blasting a path through

#3 AFHQ. Aug. 10, 1943--Solid comfort for Yank. Sgt. Albert J. Stewart of New York City. Sgt. Albert J. Stewart of New York City finds good use for smashed Axis airplanes at a Sicilian Airport recently captured by American forces. Direct hits by

First on 17 Jan 1944 by Fortresses, and next on 21 Jan by Liberators, the railroad yards at Prato, just above Florence, were hit by the bombers of the U.S. 15th AAF. The object was to cut all rail lines over which the Hun could bring fresh strength

Bombs Dropped By North American B-25 Mitchell Of The 12Th Air Force Explode On The Target At Cassino, Italy. This Is Prob. The City Of Cassino, Coordinates 41.29N/ 13.00E, And Not Monte Cassino, Where The Abbey Is.

Bombing of Ostheim, Germany.

Netze Railroad Bridge In Germany After A 9Th Aaf Bombardment Attack.

Japanese camouflage tactics show no sign of deterioration, 13th AAF air crews patrolling the Netherlands East Indies report. The crudely-built dummy gun position was photographed near the airdrome on Haroekoe Island, a tiny base sough of Cerman Island in

Aircraft, Burma, India & Bombing,

Bombing of enemy shipping at Portoferraio, Elba Island, by Martin B-24 "Marauders" of the French Air Force, on 29 March 1944.

Bombing Of The Viaduct Near Calafuria, Italy, By Martin B-26 Marauders Of The 319Th Bomb Group, 12Th Air Force, On 12 May 1944.

MARSHALLING YARDS AT GROSSETO, ITALY, PLASTERED--Great clouds of smoke rise from the marshalling yards on the edge of Grosseto, Italy, after a large formation of USAAF Martin B-26 Marauders pounded the Axis target today. In addition

Achtung! Don't look now but--there's a Lockheed F-5A right in back of you! Only two German soldiers in this formation near Netkovic, Yugoslavia, seem to have gotten wise to this U.S. Photo Plane on low-level reconnaissance mission in time to duck.

Photographs depicting military activities in France, May - June 1940. Included photographs of Rommel, Guderian, Dreuz, Bottcher, Italian General Garaboldi, Lucie Rommel, shots of Rommel with Hitler. Photographs of equipment and troops arriving and in action, from the personal collection of Rommel.

Anefo photo collection. Reconstruction. May 18, 1946

Longest Mission - Bombs Fire Sendai From B-29's That Flew 3960 Miles From The Marianas, Longest Combat Mission In Army Air Force History. The Raid Was Made On July 10, 1945. This City

Vapor trails of fighter escorts mission toward Germany.

Damaged Boeing B-17 (ofrtress), Port Side, Radio Compartment.

Group release bombs on marker bombs.

The railyards at Rimini under the shadow of a North American B-25 Mitchell, one of the many MAAF planes that wrecked the huge yards and all their facilities as part of "operation strangle," the master plan to throttle the Huns supply line to the roar

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