Warbird Information Exchange

Christmas's must have really been an emotional time back in the war years. Here's a wide collection of stuff to simply remember those years long ago. Happy Xmas once again.


Christmas Eve At Camp Wright, Iceland. 2Nd Service Group, 24 December 1942


Aviation
Engineers Who Are Clearing Debris From Area On Saipan, Marianas
Islands, Pause Long Enough To Wish The Folks At Home A 'Merry Christmas'


Twas
the night before Christmas... Unidentified pilots of the 80th FG Burma
Banshees with a non-refundable gift yet to be delivered, 24 December
1944


This
Christmas message from a 9th Air Service Command unit in Belgium, to be
delivered by 9th Air force Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots


Triming A Christmas Tree For A Party Given For Homeless Children


Actor Mickey Rooney pictured during a Christmas visit to Intrepid (CV 11) 1945


Billboard sponsored by Hudson's Bay Company, Calgary, Alberta 1944


Gi,
At Left, Pauses To Watch Christmas Day Dog Fight Between Allied And
Enemy Planes Over Ruins Of Aldenhoven, Germany. Sky Is Streaked With
Vapor Trails From Fighting Planes


Members
Of The 7Th Photo Tech Squadron Enjoy Their Christmas Dinner In The Mess
Hall At An Air Base In Bally, India. 25 December 1944.


Navy nurses, only women on Attu, Aleutian Islands, visit the pilots of a fighter group on Christmas Day.


Santa
looks through the book of Christmas cards made by the English children
for the French children as part of the 1,000 evacuees and English
orphans


SSgt.
J.A. Muller, Cpl. John W. Coleman And Cpl. L.B. Thomas Of The 16Th
Fighter Squadron, 51St Fighter Group, Christmas Dinner China 25 Dec 1942



These
Gis Attached To The 9Th Service Command Somewhere In England, Take Time
Out On Christmas Eve To Decorate A Tree At Their Base.





A
makeshift Christmas tree complete with playing cards serving as
ornaments pictured in the Bombing Squadron (VB) 87 ready room on board
the aircraft carrier Randolph (CV 15) Dec 1944


Officers
of Air Group Eleven celebrate Christmas in a ready room on board the
carrier Hornet (CV 12) Dec 25 1944, (Dad's outfit at that time)


View of the presentation of gifts during a Christmas party held on the hangar deck of the carrier Hornet (CV 12) Dec 1944


A
Christmas Tree Adds A Festive Note To The Party Given For British
Children By Men Of The 401St Bomb Group At An 8Th Air Force Base In
England On 25 December 1943


A Christmas tree adds a note of cheer to one of the wards in the Poltava Airbase hospital 24 Dec 1944


Algiers, Algeria-Christmas mass was held for soldiers in the Algiers area at St. Charles Cathedral on 25 December 1942


'Hombicrismus' (Home By Christmas), an anonymous B-29 of the 679th Bomb Sq, 444th BG, India


Lt.
Col. Edward O. McComas of 502 E. 12th Street, Winfield, Kansas,
qualified about Christmas time as top ace of the fourteenth Air force in
China with 14 Japanese planes destroyed


Lt.
Glotfelty And Crew Of The 493Rd Bomb Group, 8Th Air Force, In Front Of A
Boeing B-17 complete 35 missions combat tour on Christmas Eve 1944


Christmas Day menu for the wardroom on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Dec 1944


View of officers having Christmas dinner in the wardroom on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Dec 1944


View of officers having Christmas dinner in the wardroom on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Dec 1944


View of officers having Christmas dinner in the wardroom on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Dec 1944


View of officers having Christmas dinner in the wardroom on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) Dec 1944


View of the mess hall at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lakehurst, New Jersey during the holiday season 1921


View of the mess hall at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lakehurst, New Jersey during the holiday season 1921














Menu for Christmas dinner held in the flag mess on board Yorktown (CV 10), 25 December 1944


Menu for Christmas dinner held in the flag mess on board Yorktown (CV 10), 25 December 1944
















[img]http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/images/Mark_Allen_M3/ChristmasMenuRAFBanff1944_zps63c5b3c7.jpg" alt="Image">


Christmas 1945 .... war finally over

_________________
“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

Love the Herblock picture -- prior to his days as editorial cartoonist at the Washington Post. Here is one that I copied from a previous posting of these pics on WIX. Whomever the original poster was...thank you! I believe this was Christmas '44 or '45


AvengerChristmas by onyxsax, on Flickr

I agree. I can't even fathom what it must have been like to celebrate major holidays during the global maelstrom of World War II: the time away from home and loved ones combined with the uncertainty of being in a combat zone.

Attu Island, scene of a battle between U.S. forces and IJA troops dug in there. The 7th Infantry of the 7th Infantry Division was tasked with retaking the island with troops fresh out of California and none of them issued arctic gear they went into a 41f (35f @ night avg) weather on a windswept island that had no beaches and where vehicles bogged down. The IJA was dug in at the top of a pass on the island and American troops with zero cover, had to fight their way up the slope. The Japanese troops actually held a banzai charge that broke through the American lines.
The U.S. troops suffered 2100+ with exposure injuries (frostbite, trench foot) and 549 KIA while the IJA suffered 2850+ KIA and only 28 captured alive (no officers).
Attu was use to bomb the Japanese held Kurile Islands later and was abandoned by the USCG in the early 80's leaving the island vacant.
Attu is from what I've been told, about 2 blocks from where the earth gets an enema.

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Kenneth Figg Collection CASC Archive - Christmas 1943 - Camp Davis AA School by Cherry Bomb Photography, on Flickr

_________________
Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

HMR-161 dressed up their HRS-1, Bureau Number 127789, before delivering presents to a nearby Korean orphanage and hot meals to troops near the front lines - Christmas 1952.

_________________
Cheers,

Craig

Facebook Groups:

U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

You're not the first person I've heard that from.

Here in the soft underbelly of southern Minnesota, we've got a sub-zero windchill and blowing snow going on. Outside after tonight's Christmas Eve service at church, I shivered out one extra prayer of thanks for all the boys who suffered in a frozen foxhole or cockpit over the years for the folks back home.

I literally bumped into an elderly vet at the mall recently with an 11th AF pin on his cap. After apologizing for the accidental collision, I thanked him for enduring service in the Aleutians. Tears came to his eyes when he realized that someone even knew what that pin represented. And ditto for the fellows of Patwing 4. Can we ever offer enough thanks for what they endured? Greatest generation indeed.

_________________
It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

The images have been restored to this thread.

_________________
Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
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