Speaking of WWII…
My buddy Brian, the Air Force Vet, sent me a link to an amazing series of photos focusing on the Pacific Theater in WWII. Many, if not most, of the photos were new to me. Each photo is captioned, and I am ashamed to say that I had not known of several of the island battles until now.
If you are interested in WWII history, you should take a look.
[…] our buddy Jim, here are some amazing photos of the War in the Pacific. The first couple I’d seen before, […]
Pingback by The Coalition Of The Swilling » Some Amazing Photos — December 9, 2010 @ 8:16 am
Surveying the damage wrought, it is unbelievable, almost inconceivable, that Japan is one of our strongest allies. They were broken of their kamikaze fanaticism and emperor worship bullshit; I wonder if the same could ever come true for the Religion of Peace. After thousands of terror attacks, countless deaths, and really obnoxious civil liberty violations, it would be nice for these filthy punks to get their shit together and get over the whole “Death to the Great Satan” thing. It’s so old already.
Comment by Erica — December 9, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
Ain’t gonna happen unless we take it as seriously as they do, Erica.
Comment by Mr. Bingley — December 9, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
It could come for Islam, but only if we have the will to break them. They need to be stomped.
Judaism got stomped long, long ago. Christianity got stomped a while back, from inside, mostly.
It’s going to take one or the other. Being nice won’t work. They need to be broken of their worship of violence and belief that they must rule the world.
Or in shorter words, what Mr. Bingley said. “Ain’t gonna happen unless we take it as seriously as they do, Erica.”
You can’t fight a war by telling terrorists, “Hey, it’s not NICE to blow up people and cut off their heads and such. Stop it.” Sigh.
Comment by Kathy Kinsley — December 9, 2010 @ 7:28 pm
… those were amazing…. especially those of the ships unloading supplies in the Philippines….. it is hard to imagine just how much FORCE the USA mustered in the Pacific….
Comment by Eric — December 9, 2010 @ 7:44 pm
Kathy, of course they’re not going to stop if you don’t say “please”….
Comment by Mr. Bingley — December 9, 2010 @ 7:48 pm
In 1995, I actually walked Corregidor and toured the Malinta Tunnel. I also saw the dock where Dugout Doug said “I shall return”.
I also saw parts of the Bataan Death March route.
The VERY cool part about Corregidor is the Filipino authorities have done nothing to the battlefield and it looks exactly as it did in 1945. The hidden guns are still there, the mortars are still there and the barracks, the O Club and the Movie theater still stand complete with bullet holes.
I have some great photos of this all in my travel album.
Real funny story about Corregidor. As I was touring the island, i came up on a Jap machine gun nest. As I approached I saw part of an exploded grenade. It was definitely recognizable as a U.S pineapple grenade and I pick it up to examine it. Well…knowing the rules on American battlefields about removing things and the subsequent arrest that awaits you for not complying with that rule, I drop the piece of history.
All of a sudden, a kid walks up behind me says “oh cool!”, puts it in his pocket and walks away.
Damn, I thought……..
Comment by RobbieRob — December 10, 2010 @ 9:16 am
Nothing like a photograph of the real deal..thanks for the link. One of my fathers best friends was part of the invasion of Guadalcanal…the stories he told were not pretty. Unlike today, back then we were in it to win…and we did.
Cool Runnings!!
Comment by Yabu — December 10, 2010 @ 11:14 am
When I was a kid back in the 50`s, every saturday was movie day & we headed downtown but we always managed to spend time at the Erie Book Store which had a bargain basement & clearance section appropriately in the basement where one could look for books which were very economical”CHEAP”anywhere from $.25 to $2.00
My then best friend Dave always looked for war related books to buy as that was his collecting hobby. I guess at least 50% of returning service personal decided to write the defining WW2 novel complete with a photo section as it related to his particular branch of the service or theater of action.Many were just photo collection`s of aircraft,ships or battle scenes from the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific.
Dave collected all the hard covers he could get his hands on & amassed a huge collection during his teenage year`s & was quite proud of this collection.
After graduation from college he joined the Air Force to make it his career. To his dismay ,dear old mom decided to clean house while he was gone & among other things the books were all tossed out.
I talked with Dave at his Fathers passing a few years back & he told me that collection would be worth its weight in gold today. First he had collected several hundred books & many were like new as these books when issued did not sell all that well with only one limited edition printed This scarcity now commanded a premium from potential buyers for historical war time material.
If only we knew then what we all know now about the value of reference memorabilia.
Comment by dudley1 — December 10, 2010 @ 1:05 pm
Why do mothers always throw priceless stuff away? World War II reference books, Mickey Mantle baseball cards…ugh…
Comment by Erica — December 10, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
Baseball Cards…..I had complete sets of Tops Cards for all major league teams in 1953,54,55,56,57,58 & 59 as well as over 500 45 RPM records which now reside in the landfill. Mom was wonderful but not when it came to things which should have been saved.
Comment by dudley1 — December 10, 2010 @ 9:41 pm