Posted on 11/15/2010 8:08:42 PM PST by rlmorel
I was at my in-laws some time ago, and they brought out a bunch of boxes with images in them. We were looking over the family pictures, and I saw this small stack wrapped in brown paper. When I opened it, I found prints of the six images below. When I asked my mother-in-law where they came from, she said that she had worked at a drugstore in East Boston as a teenager in the mid to late forties. People brought film in to be developed all the time, and never came back to pick it up. They held onto some of them for years before they threw them out. She said she grabbed them with a bunch of other pictures as they were being thrown in the trash during an long-needed cleanup at the store. These were prints from what were probably original negatives I would guess.
What I found most interesting was the surrender scene. All this time I had it, I just assumed it was another angle from the Missouri Surrender ceremony, but when you really look at it, it isn't. There are no civilians, the weather is wrong and the ship looks older than the Missouri. Has anyone ever seen any of these images? Comments? I am very well versed on WWII history particularly in the Pacific Theater, and I don't recall ever seeing these pictures in any books I have ever read.
As I pondered these last night, I thought the very same thing, there were a lot of guys who had cameras on all sides, likely the first war where cameras were common enough to be carried by that number of individuals.
I was cleaning out a drawer a few years ago, and came across an old undeveloped roll of 35 mm film. Just for yucks, I had it developed, and it was a roll I had taken of flight operations aboard the USS Kennedy back in the Seventies. It was like a trip back in a time capsule.
Then I thought, how many guys took pictures and never even got them developed? I’ll be there were a lot...a lot of exposed but undeveloped film tossed in the trash during the journey through life or at the end of it.
Holy Smokes, 60Gunner...that is great work. You can barely see that stripe, and it looks like it is there on one plane but not the other, so perhaps it is right around 1947 when it changed, and not all the planes had been repainted yet.
I looked and found this:
The first major change came in the Star-in-Circle insigne in 25 years. To reduce possible confusion with the Japanese Hinomaru (”Meatball”) insigne, on May 28, 1942 the red center was ordered removed from the star. A unique non-standard variation of the insigne, possibly resulting from a misinterpretation of existing insignia specifications. A yellow border surrounding the national insigne was used breifly begining in late 1942 on some USAAF aircraft based in England and North Africa.
One non-standard variation of the early WWII insigne is a gray rather than white star. A black bordered national insigne was probably the result of a local attempt to paint out the short lived yellow border. The use of the RAF-type red, white, and blue fin flash on the tail was another recognition marking.
Aircraft were used in an in-flight test at Eglin Field, Florida on June 18, 1943 to verify the increased visibility of the proposed design. On June 29, 1943, the second major WWII design change was adopted. A white rectangle or bar was added on each side of the blue circle and a red border surrounding the entire insigne. While the new design was estimated to be 60 percent more recognizable, the use of the red border was short lived. The final WWII national insigne was adopted on August 14, 1943, this change eliminated red from the national insigne until after WWII. The red border was replaced with one of blue.
With horizontal red bars added to the white blocks on either side of the circle the design was adopted on Jan 14, 1947. This basic design remains in use today on most USAF aircraft. To reduce the infrared image and reduce the vulnerability to infrared guided missiles, markings such as a single color national insigne were stenciled on the aircraft using low gloss black paint.
Very interesting stuff!
So true.I try to write on the back of pictures of my family so they will know who,what,where 20 years from now.
Interesting...here is a clip of her history. It looks like the last time she had planes on her was September 24 1945 when she arrived in Pearl Harbor and offloaded her squadrons. So it is a bit of a puzzle...the person might have had duty on another ship after leaving the USS Nehanta Bay...
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USS NEHENTA BAY
(CVE–74: dp. 7,800; l. 512’3”: b. 65’: ew. 108’1”; dr. 22’6”; s. 19 k.; cpl. 860; a. 1 5”, 16 40mm., 28 a c.; cl. asablanca; T. S4–S2–BB3)
Nehenta Bay (CVE–74) was launched by Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Vancouver, Wash., 28 November 1943, under Maritime Commission contract: sponsored by Mrs. Robert H. Smith; acquired 3 January 1944: and commissioned at Astoria, Oreg., the same day, Captain Horace A. Butterfield in command.
Nehenta Bay made her shakedown cruise from San Francisco Bay to Pearl Harbor 6 to 12 February 1944, carrying replacement aircrews and planes. She put into San Diego 21 February with damaged planes returned from combat zones for repair. After further West Coast training, she sailed for Pearl Harbor 18 March, again with replacement aircraft and aviation materiel, added to her lading in Hawaii, and reached Majuro 7 April to deliver mail, men, and aircraft to fast carriers moored there. She returned to San Diego from Majuro and Pearl Harbor 27 April, bringing home wounded and other passengers, along with damaged aircraft.
After combat readiness training off California and in Hawaii, Nehenta Bay left Pearl Harbor 18 June for the Marianas assault, staging at Eniwetok late in the month. With TF 51, her planes flew antisubmarine and combat air patrols during operations against Tinian, which they strafed 5 and 7 July, blasting gun emplacements and a sugar refinery. Returning to Eniwetok 16 July to refuel and replenish, Nehenta Bay next sailed, with Midway and 12 destroyers, for antisubmarine and combat air patrols off Guam and Saipan, striking targets on the latter.
Next assigned to escort fleet oilers during at-sea replenishment operations, Nehenta Bay played an essential part in the 3d Fleet’s victory-winning operations from August 1944 through January 1945. The ships she guarded made it possible for the fast carriers to remain at sea for extended periods, smashing at targets in the Carolines and Philippines, on Formosa, and on the Chinese coast. Such attacks in turn made possible the capture of the Palaus, and the return to the Philippines.
With Manus and Ulithi as her bases, Nehenta Bay faithfully and tirelessly protected her vulnerable charges, fighting through the December typhoon despite heavy damage and shooting down a Japanese attacker 12 January 1945. She returned to San Diego 19 February for overhaul, refreshed her training in Hawaiian waters, then qualified new aviators off Guam before arriving at Ulithi 9 May to prepare for strikes on Okinawa. Her planes flew patrols and made direct strikes on enemy positions to aid fighting men ashore, blasting the Japanese from eaves and ridges. Her formation came under kamikaze attack 7 June, when two of her sisters were crashed.
From the end of June through early August, Nehenta Bay again guarded oilers as they served the 3d Fleet in its climactic raids against Japan itself. She was en route to operations in the Aleutians when hostilities ended, and her task force sailed 31 August for occupation duties around Japan, patrolling and dropping supplies to prisoners of war. She returned to Pearl Harbor 24 September to disembark her air squadron and all aviation equipment and gasoline, thus making room for passengers. She sailed 30 September to embark homewardbound troops in the Marshalls, and with them reached San Francisco in mid-October. In November she sailed to the Philippines on similar duty, returning to the West Coast 27 November. Sailing via the Panama Canal, Nehenta Bay arrived Boston 31 January 1946 for inactivation. She decommissioned and entered reserve at Boston 15 May 1946. Reclassified CVU–74 on 12 June 1955 and AKV–24 on 7 May 1959, Nehenta Bay was sold to Coalmarket, Inc., 29 June 1960 and scrapped.
Nehenta Bay received 7 battle stars for World War II service.
"...Sailing via the Panama Canal, Nehenta Bay arrived Boston 31 January 1946 for inactivation. She decommissioned and entered reserve at Boston 15 May 1946..."
Perhaps the film was taken off the vessel by Boston Shipyard personnel, found in a drawer or cabinet somewhere. Or the guy could have been crew, on her for the decommissioning.
Unusual picture of USS Nehanta Bay. This must have been in ferry duty. I can make out a PBY, a Gruman Albatross, F4F Wildcat, an Avenger and a DC-3 with no tail.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/USS_NEHENTA_BAY_%28CVE-74%29.jpg
I spent 20 years in the Navy, retiring in 1998. They still use a high line to transfer supplies between ships, and to hang hoses onto during underway refueling. But for personnel (and a lot of supplies) helicopters are used.
USS Nehenta Bay (CVE-74) is the Escort carrier.
Nehenta Bay received 7 battle stars for World War II service.
The American Naval officer appears to be a commander and the highest rank visible.
My guess it is a photo of another surrender ceremony by lessor Japanese forces and not the ceremony in Tokyo bay.
Too cool!
Another poster figured it out:
U.S.S. Nehenta Bay was assigned to Task Force 44, the Northern Honshu & Hokkaido Surrender Force, under the command of Vice Admiral Jack Fletcher, Commander North Pacific (COMNORPAC). The task force arrived at Ominato Guard District in Mutsu Bay, Honshu on 7 September 1945, and U.S.S. Panamint AGC-17 met a Japanese delegation offshore on September 8th to prepare for the entry of the U.S.S. Panamint and the task force through the minefields and into into the Japanese 5th Fleet anchorage and naval base at Ominato Naval Base. The ceremony for the surrender of Honshu and Hokkaido Islands occurred on the deck of the U.S.S. Panamint on September 9th.
My Dad was in the CBI Theater of War. Thanks again.
Well, you chose a forum full of people that love America and respect the history and traditions of this country. I wonder what would have happened had you posted these to DU and asked for help identifying what they were? "Symbols of American imperialism!" and "Useless relics of an irrelevant past that has been swept into the dustbin of history by the advent of the postmodern, post-american new reality of blah blah blah..."
Go to vegas and talk to the pawn stars.
WOW! Thanks for posting!
Ping
Yep ... same image. Interesting.
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