1953anewhope - Tumblr blog

[1953anewhope]

Officer of the Queen Mary's Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in conversation with an injured member at an encampment in Crecy Forest, 7 June 1918.

[1953anewhope]

Three Curtiss Tomahawks of No. 403 Squadron RCAF based at Baginton, Warwickshire, flying in 'vic' formation over clouds. In the foreground is a Mark I, AH878 'KH-G', accompanying two Mark IIAs, AH882 'KH-R' and AH896 'KH-H'.

[1953anewhope]

Janie Girl of the 503rd Fighter Squadron after a crash landing, 11 August 1944

[1953anewhope]

German Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) waive to a passing Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber, also known as a Stuka, during the Battle of the Netherlands (codename: Fall Gelb, or “Case Yellow”). Near Venlo, Limburg, Netherlands. May 1940.

[1953anewhope]

A Peugeot armoured car. It had a crew of four and was armed with either a hotchkiss machine gun or a 37mm cannon. By 1918 it had proved impractical and there were only 20 left at the end of the war.

[1953anewhope]

Tanks in Action

I came across a pair of sketches of US tanks and infantry in action by Captain George Harding. George Matthews Harding was a painter and illustrator who acted as an official US war artist during World War One. Harding had previously been a writer and illustrator with The Saturday Evening Post and Harper’s Monthly.

The first sketch depicts a platoon of FT light tanks, armed with Hotchkiss machine guns, advancing near between Avocourt and Montfaucon, during the Battle of St. Mihiel. The sketch was submitted in September 1918, while the second shows troops following up another FT, armed with a 37mm cannon, during an attack near Esseu. The second sketch is undated. 

The sketches are beautifully dynamic with crisp, accurate, detail in the foreground and an ethereal conveyance of the atmosphere of battle in the background. Harding was one of eight war artists sent with the American Expeditionary Force. During World War Two, he commissioned with the USMC and again acted as a war artist. He died in 1959, aged 77.

Sources:

Images: 1 2

The American Expeditionary Forces In Action: Drawings of Capt. George Harding V.S.R. Official Artist A.E.F., H.M Harding (1920) (source)

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[1953anewhope]

British soldiers carry their wounded through the Franco-British outpost line, past a Hotchkiss machine gun in a hastily dug trench - Roye, south of the Somme, March 1918

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Aerial view of a bombing raid on the railroad bridge at Albenga, Italy, by U.S. Army Air Forces Martin B-26B Marauders from the 320th Bombardement Group. 12 April 1944.

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B-25 Mitchell bomber factory WW2

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[1953anewhope]

Formation of Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, 1942

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[1953anewhope]

Abandoned t-35 tank on the road Lviv-Brody, July 1941.

[1953anewhope]

Sud-Ouest SO 8000 Narval The SNCASO S.O. 8000 Narval (English: Narwhal) was a French carrier-based strike fighter designed by Sud-Ouest in the late 1940s. The French Navy (Marine Nationale) ordered two prototypes in 1946 and they made their maiden flights three years later.

[1953anewhope]

SNCASO Narval, c. 1946.

[1953anewhope]

WWII photograph showing captured German Luftwaffe aircraft onboard HMS Reaper being shipped back to England for examination and testing.

[1953anewhope]

Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 captured by US forces in North Africa and repaired for testing.