World War II in Photographs
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
1942
GUADALCANAL
In mid-1942 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff authorized Operation
Watchtower, an attack on Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon
islands, where the Japanese had begun to construct an airfield.
The initial American landing, carried out by 1st Marine Division,
was successful, but the Japanese reacted swiftly, and both sides
reinforced, leading to vicious fighting on land, in the air and at sea.
The Americans completed the unfinished airfield on Guadalcanal
(Henderson Field), and its possession gave them a decisive edge.
In mid-November the three-day naval battle of Guadalcanal, a
costly victory for the Americans, marked the climax of the
struggle. Japanese survivors were evacuated in January 1943.
ABOVE
US Marines landing on Guadalcanal, August 7.
Initial lack of opposition encouraged the
caption to describe a "successful attack
against the occupying Japanese."
RIGHT
In what became known as the battle of the
Tenaru River in late August a 900-strong
Japanese force was literally wiped out.
221
1942
THE MALTA CONVOYS
The island of Malta possessed the only British-held harbour between
Gibraltar and Alexandria and was crucial to convoys bringing
supplies to forces in the Western desert. The Axis hoped to
neutralize it by air attack, and Malta was besieged from 1940 till the
Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943. It owed its survival to
fighter squadrons based on its airfields and fast convoys that ran the
gauntlet to reach the island. In March-April 1942 Malta received
twice the tonnage of bombs dropped on London during the Blitz,
and in all 1,493 of her citizens were killed and 3,764 wounded.
OPPOSITE PAGE
The crew of a pom-pom multiple anti-
aircraft gun aboard a destroyer escorting
the Pedestal convoy enjoying a smoke break
between air attacks. The photographer
had already been sunk aboard the cruiser
HMS Manchester, and transferred to
a destroyer "with his camera intact."
222
ABOVE
The aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable
almost hidden by near misses from air
attack as she helps escort the vital
Pedestal convoy to Malta, August 1942.
RIGHT
Tugs bustle round the American tanker
Ohio,
crippled
but
still
full
of
fuel,
as
she enters Valetta harbour, August 1942.
1942
224
1942
STRATEGIC AIR OFFENSIVE
In 1942 the strategic bombing offensive against Germany was
substantially increased. The 1941 Butt report, which showed just
how inaccurate night bombing actually was, encouraged the intro-
duction of area bombing of German cities. Sir Arthur Harris took
over as Commander-in-Chief of the RAF's Bomber Command in
February. He quickly ordered fire-storm raids on Rostock and
Lübeck, and then, in May, mobilized his second line and training
aircraft to mount the first thousand-bomber raid, on Cologne.
OPPOSITE PAGE
RAF armourers fusing bombs prior to loading
them aboard a Short Stirling at RAF
Waterbeach, near Cambridge, April 30,1942.
BELOW
The caption to this German photograph of
the gutted Lübeck cathedral described the
raid on the city as "a new crime against
civilization." It helped inspire the German
Baedeker raids, so called because the
official announcing them declared that the
Germans would attack all building marked
with three stars in the Baedeker guidebook.
225
1942
ABOVE
On the night of May 30, the first thousand
bomber raid was launched on Cologne. The
top picture shows a rubber factory at Deutz,
on the east bank of the Rhine, before the raid,
and the lower picture shows it afterwards.
226
1942
ABOVE
The four-engined Avro Lancaster came
into service in early 1942. Although it
was generally used at night, this
photograph shows a low-level
daylight raid on the Schneider armament
works at Le Creusot on October 17.
227
1942
RIGHT
Another daylight attack, this by Lockheed
Venturas, Douglas Bostons and de
Havilland Mosquitos on the Philips
radio valve works in the Dutch town
of Eindhoven, December 6.
BELOW
German flak and fighters imposed a steady
toll on bombers. Here a Vickers Wellington
of the Polish 301 (Pomeranian) Squadron,
lies in the mud of a Dutch estuary.
228
1942
OPERATION TORCH
Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, was
launched in November under the command was the unknown US
Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Allies tried to ensure
French co-operation, and in the event resistance was patchy in
quality and quantity. Fortuitously, Admiral Darlan, Marshal Petain's
deputy, was visiting his sick son in Algiers, and was persuaded to
order a ceasefire. The Germans swiftly sent troops to Tunisia, and
the Allied advance bogged down with the rains of early winter.
ABOVE
Although the Vichy government repudiated Darlan's ceasefire, Hitler was
furious and invaded the Unoccupied Zone of France. A German force had
orders to seize the French fleet at Toulon, but the French activated a well-prepared
plan and the fleet was scuttled by its crews in the nick of time. Here damaged and
sunk cruisers and destroyers can be seen through the smoke of burning heavy cruisers.
229
