National Archives US Military Aviation (Kodachrome) …

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Stoney]

the T-6 gunnery trainer looks to have the wooden tail cone.

[JohnB]

Allow me to point out something I did not notice until recently.

When you see an O.D. Army vehicle like the Jeep on page 5, notice its serial numbers and other lettering (like on the large fuel truck a couple if pages back) are painted in a blue/gray color.
Not white (or even yellow) like you see on many restored military vehicles.

Also, notice the Jeep's right rear tire, it has the "Ford" script...meaning the unit is probably a Ford built GPW, not a Willy's built MB.

I tried, but failed, to identify the fire truck on page four. Very much an "off the shelf" unit with those streamlined Car-like fenders.

Neat shots of the Tuskegee Airmen, especially highlighting the maintenance crew.

Finally, as seen in the B-17 photos above...notice the typical English farm fields, somewhat irregularly shaped and bordered with hedge rows.
On my first flight to the UK, I made it point to get a window seat and I immediately recognized the landscape from all the wartime aircraft photos I had seen.

Last edited by JohnB on Fri Dec 22, 2023 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Firebird]

Blimey......that's what you call oil stained

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Mark Allen M]

[Dave Homewood]

This is an absolutely amazing collection of coloured photos Mark! Wow!

I know there are a couple of coloured Kodachrome shots taken at Torokina, Bougainville of RNZAF P-40s in 1944, but I wonder if you are able to find any others, or better versions of these ones? I believe these were taken by a USMC photographer, but that may be wrong.

These are the ones I am aware of.

[Mark Allen M]

Greetings Dave and Happy Holidays!

Yes, actually I do have some very clear images of those photos. I'll post asap.

Also if you haven't looked here:
https://catalog.archives.gov/search?ava ... ugainville

[Clifford Bossie]

Dana Bell is responsible for this great effort. He and others (including his son) scanned them and NARA uploaded them. This is an ongoing project and will mainly be private individuals doing the scanning.

For those interested Dana has just authored TBD Devastator in action ISBN 9780897473835. I do not have this one yet, but his books on the F4U and SB2U are great books.

[Mark Allen M]

Dana Bell is responsible for this great effort. He and others (including his son) scanned them and NARA uploaded them. This is an ongoing project and will mainly be private individuals doing the scanning.

For those interested Dana has just authored TBD Devastator in action ISBN 9780897473835. I do not have this one yet, but his books on the F4U and SB2U are great books.

I'm not quite convinced Dana had much to do with the images I've been posting from the "Linked National Archives" I refer to in the first post of this thread. I know Dana's work and I know he's a master researcher. I'd be surprised if Dana would not add much more detailed and accurate information for each and every image he had anything to do with, as some are clearly not accurate at all with the little amount of information they have. Not to try to take any credit for these posted images, but most all of them needed minor to major photoshop work so as to come out looking the way they do in my posts. Anyone who has an interest can open the link I posted and compare just about any of the images. You'll see a vast amount of difference in quality. I wouldn't think Dana would allow for marginal quality. That's just my opinion and I'm certainly not trying to take anything away from Dana's research. Dana Bell is a valued WIX member who occasionally chimes in with his invaluable knowledge of his years and years of research. He's in the same conversation as Joe Baugher and so many others who have spent a lifetime doing all the legwork and intricate research on older Military aviation, that without guys like Dana, we would possibly be assuming so much misinformation was true and true information was misleading.

I'd love for Dana to chime in on this thread (as a couple other knowledgeable guys have done so far). He'd be able to explain so much of what we are seeing in these images that I certainly cannot do sadly.

[Clifford Bossie]

I hope Dana does respond. This is from a post of his on Hyperscale:

"The Archives' plan is to eventually scan and post all 62,000 USAF color images at very-high resolution. We've copied several thousand so far, and many of these are expected to post in January and February.

The 8x10 shots are scanned at 600 dpi, the 5x7 at 1200 dpi, 120 and 70 mm at 2400 dpi, and the 35mm at 3200 dpi. Much to their credit, the Archives staff has elected to post the images at these resolutions, and make them available to the public at no charge. It's amazing how much clearer the details are in images we've been looking at for decades!

We've had to slow the scanning progress, and I doubt I'll be around to see the end of the scanning/posting. I've been working with the collection for over 50 years, but I'm shocked how many of the images "lost" in the collection are beginning to resurface as we inventory the originals. Here are a couple of favorites that turned up this month - but there are many more:

While this project may have started for my own amusement, the Archives staff have found a way to benefit the entire aviation history community. I expect these images will soon appear in a wide variety of books and on many more web sites. I hope everyone will enjoy them as much as I do!

Cheers,


Dana"

Dana Bell is indeed one of the greats. His research has led to many aspects of history being preserved.

Anyone interested can read the thread here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hypersc ... 41369.html

Last edited by Clifford Bossie on Fri Dec 22, 2023 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.