US Navy motorcycle with a back seat and a sidecar

Found on https://www.facebook.com/chazsterhd?fref=nf

when a mighty barrel of whoop ass was opened up to stop Japans invasion of the Pacific, these flew out

Found on https://www.facebook.com/iloveww2planes?fref=nf

the Brodie take off and landing system for Navy LST ships during WW2

Skip to the 7 minute mark for the take off, and hang around for about a minute for the landing by skyhook arresting wire

These L 4 and L 5 planes were artillery spotter planes

Wow... this is a first! "Nose Art" on a WW2 Jeep!

I've never seen that before!

The canvas flap that protects the passenger from mud and muck that flies up from front tire splashes, is something I don't remember seeing before also, but anyway, this photo was colored in, and the artist can't figure out the word under the pin up art. Any ideas?

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/70897.html/3

making Merlins, Rolls Royce aircraft engines

Women seem to avoid all engine build shops, dyno shops, and speed shops. Damn... that is where I'd like to meet women actually... but in WW2 with most men having been drafted into every countries army and navy, women were pulled into every factory job to manufacture the planes, tanks, guns, and vehicles needed to fight the enemy. So... why do women avoid mechanical jobs, and vehicular racing? Because most guys are assholes is my suspicion.

Image from Facebook... I can't remember which page, probably https://www.facebook.com/groups/yachtclubdesavionsdelaroute/

WW2 Army Surplus quonset hut gas station

Shoemanthal's Gulf Station & Garage, Fredonia, New York. (1948)

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/353785941367129/

hand crank starting a Junkers 87

I wonder how long that took on a cold day? Or what he did to piss off the boss and get sent to hand start the planes.

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/look-at-these-mind-blowing-colourised-images-of-wwii.html/2

WWII Pacific air combat in color

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/tube-wwii-pacific-color-air-combat-gun-camera-archive-footage.html

Some very interesting footage, but skip ahead through the long dull spots, and at the 6 minute area you'll see B-29s not land very well at the air strip, ditch in the drink just off the beach, and later, around the 11 minute mark, straffing runs on buildings and trains... and shooting planes on the air fields at the 13 minute area

original color movie of an hour long, Hell Over Germany, narrated by Clark Gable. 720p High Def, skip the first 13:45 to get to the planes

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/tube-hell-germany-colour-rare-footage-b-17s-vs-luftwaffe-1944-720p.html

Washing the ambulance between call outs, 1944, England

Women of the American Ambulance Great Britain wash an ambulance car of the surgical unit to pass the time between call-outs at their depot, somewhere in London, 1944.

found on http://www.vintag.es/2014/10/women-at-work-in-united-kingdom-in.html

71 years after getting shot down in France, pilot Charlie Screws is reunited with his P 47's tailsection

the plane was found 20 years ago by relic hunters, but the tail section was just found at an auction, and from serial numbers was tracked to the pilot, who happened to be an acquaintance of the Silent Wings museum director in Lubbuck, who was friends with the auction buyer of the tail section.

Full story at http://www.reporternews.com/news/local-news/i-survived-and-so-did-part-of-abilene-pilots-wwii-plane_40314608

the English steam locomotive that got revenge and killed the German fighter pilot that shot it

On the morning of 27 November 1942 Charles Gilbert in Tank Engine No.2365 was travelling towards Lydd at a sedate pace of 25mph when Heinz Bierwirth banked his aircraft and dived towards it.

Shells and bullets poured into the engine, steam shot into the footplate area, badly scalding the fireman. The pressure blew the locomotive boiler apart, it tore away the chimney, dome and safety valves.

A cannon shell from the ‘plane burst the D3’s boiler just at the precise moment the boiler exploded Heinz Bierman’s aircraft was passing overhead 20 feet above. The plane crashed, the pilot was killed whilst the train and driver survived! The explosion was so powerful the dome landed in a field 100 metres away and a portion of the top rim of the chimney almost a quarter of a mile.

Tank Engine No.2365 got it’s revenge on the Focke Wulf for the terrible damage it had suffered.

The dome landed in a field 100 metres away.  it propelled a portion of the top rim of the chimney almost a quarter of a mile.

An eyewitness saw the pilot, still in his seat, fall into a nearby field. Heinz Bierwirth was buried with military honours at Hawkinge Cemetery A local newspaper reported that it was the New Romney line’s most famous day when a train brought down an enemy fighter!

Found on http://ryesown.co.uk/german-bomber/

Hiroshima

Found on http://www.vintag.es/2014/11/hiroshima-and-nagasaki-black-and-white.html

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg team up for a 10 part tv series about WW2 bombers

the series is based on the 2006 novel by Donald L. Miller "Masters Of The Air" the story of the US Eighth Air Force’s crews, as well as the story from the ground or those being bombed in Britain, Germany and throughout Europe. fhttp://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/new-tv-series-masters-air-tell-story-world-war-two-bombers.html

The TV series, they say, will avoid using composite characters, focusing instead on the real stories of the actual figures who flew with Eighth Air Force, and in particular the "Bloody Hundredth" bomb group, one of the hardest hitting — and hardest hit.

 With a purported budget of $500 million (more than seven times that of Saving Private Ryan) the 10-part HBO miniseries Masters of the Air is poised to become the most expensive production in television history as Spielberg and Hanks endeavor to produce a visually stunning and at times viscerally heart-rending tribute to the brave aircrews. http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/masters-air-tribute-mighty-eighth

Joining an oeuvre that already includes 2001's Band of Brothers and 2010's The Pacific, the miniseries will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force. The miniseries are a significant financial commitment for HBO requiring the construction of large-scale sets, significant special effects and pyrotechnics and, because of the nature of the stories, big ensemble casts. Brothers cost $125 million to produce, and The Pacific was budgeted at $200 million; millions more were spent on promotion for both series. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbo-developing-third-wwii-miniseries-413632

Spielberg has directed with Hanks in a leading role, in Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, and Catch Me If You Can... and they have recently worked on the Cold War true story of the CIA attorney that was trying to get the release of the U2 spyplane Russia captured http://www.ew.com/article/2014/12/18/steven-spielberg-tom-hanks-cold-war-spy-mission

Jimmy Stewart served in the 8th

https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum is the source of the below images of crews from the 8th, and the image of Jimmy Stewart above

As you probably know already, World War II could not have been won without the Eighth Air Force's fearsome B-17 Flying Fortresses (the "Boeings," the Luftwaffe called them), which pounded Germany by day while the British bombed at night. As America's main strategic bomber command, the Mighty Eighth brought Nazi Germany to its knees with an unrelenting aerial assault from bases in eastern England involving tens of thousands of airplanes and hundreds of thousands of men. Never before in the history of warfare has such a fearsome force been unleashed on an enemy — nor is it likely in the post-nuclear era that the world will ever again witness such an awesome aerial display.

That's not to say that the young American men inside the bombers flew without fear. The Eighth Air Force's B-17s and B-24s launched on audaciously daring missions over heavily defended Europe to strike at the heart of Adolf Hitler's industrial war-­making capacity. Daylight strategic bombing on such a massive scale was an untested idea at the start of World War II, but military commanders including legendary American generals like Ira Eaker and Jimmy Doolittle knew that, while the plan was risky, it was also the surest way to inflict crippling damage on Hitler's ability to wage war.

The Mighty Eighth would eventually achieve its objectives through relentless bombing of German airplane factories, submarine pens, oil refineries, railway yards, ball bearing production facilities and other industrial targets deemed central to the Nazi war effort. In the beginning it would do it alone, without fighter escorts, another untested approach. But against the dug-in Nazis there seemed no other way. As President Franklin Roosevelt put it in 1943, "Hitler built walls around his ‘Fortress Europe' but he forgot to put a roof on it." http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/masters-air-tribute-mighty-eighth

the tv series even has a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Masters-of-the-Air/142322062593374

Bruce Bairnsfather, official cartoonist to the American forces in Europe

Image from https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum/

http://forum.armyairforces.com/Old-Bill-m93062.aspx

Bruce Bairnsfather congratulates crew of B-17 "Old Bill"

http://www.fold3.com/spotlight/2558/bruce_bairnsfather_congratulates_crew/

http://www.fold3.com/image/38257090/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355080751842031060/

Mary Churchill - daughter of Winston - gets ready to christen the "Stage Door Canteen" with a bottle of Coke as Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier watch

Image from https://www.facebook.com/mighty8thmuseum/

A couple of cool color WW2 photos

Both found on http://www.vintag.es/2015/01/27-rare-color-photographs-from-world.html

WW2's changes upon Detroit's normal day to day business

Scrap drives to destroy the cars and trucks and use the steel for making war materials

GM's body making company Fisher Body was making huge anti-aircraft guns, the U.S. Army’s new powerful Stratosphere guns

and on Sept 24th 1945 motorists were waiting for gas to be delivered to the station

All found on http://www.vintag.es/2015/01/25-amazing-black-white-photographs.html

during WW2, Baldwin was building both Sherman tanks and steam locomotives

In this 1943 company photograph, two different war product lines are shown, a brand new Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range “Yellowstone,” one of the largest steam engines produced, along with an M4 Sherman tank. This view is from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s collection

Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway?fref=nf

Panzers left on the Bulgarian border with Turkey since WW2

Found on http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/german-ww2-panzer-relics-in-bulgaria-video.html