Jack's Favorate Wartime Photos

[Jack Cook]

B-25Js banking over Italy 1945

Maj Weissinberger cranks up his F4U-1 under the flag.

Gary Austin surfing Texas style!!

Sad but very dramatic

F6F-5 ginger 13 Vf-11 great composition

B-26C 12th AF going down over S. France 1944

P-40K 18th FS showing the essence of what being a fighter pilot is all about!

Capt Jim Cannon 353rd FS P-51 driver!

Great shot a a P-38

What can ya say???

LOU IV is a all time classic!

P-47D 318th FG carrier launch

One of the best Corsair shots!

P-40E firing at night way cool!

A-20s on the deck can't be beat!

Beast in the pattern.

B-24s hitting Ploesti

Lt Winneger & his P-38L

P-47D 366th FG 1944 hung up bomb exploded upon landing

Lt Art Heiden & crew 20th FG

[Pat Carry]

Great photos Jack! Love the Corsair pic w/ the palm trees in the background and the B-24's over Ploesti. BTW, did you get my PM?

[Jack Cook]

BTW, did you get my PM?

I'll check. For some reason I rarely get PM notifications.
BTW Glad you liked the photos.
Corsairs are VMF-216 and are leaving for a mission to Rabaul.

[michaelharadon]

Thanks, Jack. I'm wondering if the ball turret gunner in the b-17, who looks like he cranked around to see what had happened, was able to get out.

[Tigercat]

Very nice selection of photos, Jack! I particularly like the first one with the B-25's, the B-26 with lost engine, and the T-Bolt carrier lauch....Thanks.


TC (Ted)

[Jack Cook]

Hi Ted,
Next time your out drive by the house and see what you think!

[Tigercat]

Hi Ted,
Next time your out drive by the house and see what you think!

OK......

Ted

[SPANNERmkV]

Thanks Jack...

Had a good laugh at the "Nazis Quit!"

I needed a pick me up!

SPANNER

[Hal B]

Oh man, the detail in the last shot (P-38) is just awesome. Thanks, Jack!

[JDK]

I knew the photo, but it takes on a new life with the caption:

Gary Austin surfing Texas style!!

That's what a surfboard needs; four big radials, a nose, tail and ventral gunners positions.

As to this photo:



I've never believed it's genuine, unlike many others. Why not? It exhibits all the hallmarks of a wartime paste-up composite of two photos - a view of a B-17F flying overhead, added onto a pretty standard vertical recon shot of landcape. The telling points to that are:
- A distinct 'outline' drawn in all the way around the aircraft
- Note how the port-outer's join to the wing is 'fatter' than the real thing, while the wingtip's the wrong shape.
- Touched in props - note the port inner's overlap onto the fuselage...
-the 'dent' in the rear of the wing behind that engine - sure you might get a dent, but there'd be crumpling or damage, and that trailing edge is thin around that, not thick as 'drawn' here
- the 'missing' wing is created, I believe, by making a rough cut-off to a complete wing - note no debris, or wing interior is visible, just a nice sharp edge.
- The nose is also telling - the 'guns' are credible, but (I think) drawn in, and there's that complete outline again, which visually doesn't match the guns in the same area.

Contributory factors are the touching up of the star on the fuselage, and a 'soft' graininess often seen on re-photographed composite photos. Also, where was the photographer? The ground shows he's looking exactly straight down (the street grid at the bottom) yet this B-17 has swung right under his own aircraft. Sure, it could be a ball turret gunner's photo, but they didn't usually have cameras in there, it was cramped enough. It could be a waist gunners show with his aircraft in a bank, but...

Sure, it could be a genuine shot badly retouched.

My money is it's a German propaganda photo, someone's taken at face value, and then taken as genuine since.

No criticism of Jack's excellent selection, but sometimes things aren't what they seem. Proof either way welcome, and please don't even mention PhotoShop...

Regards,