Some WWII USN Grays in glorious color

That's the USS Texas in 1942. My Mom's Cousin was the Navigator on June 6th '44.

And be sure to notice the text that accompanies the picture.  Often it will reveal the ship is a different ship than that typed into the search terms.

Helpful bump

with a new photo...

True, some of the captions do leave a lot to be desired. But as long as you take them with a grain salt, keep your search terms on the generic side, and try various approaches, there is a lot of great stuff to be found in there.

Hey Prof - the Google Life archives are a collection of awesome frustration. Lots of great photos filed horribly (presumably by LIFE). Would you believe Battleship Hornet?

There are a lot of miss-captioned photos and ones with really bad captions. I've found if there's one I like, to make a note of the listed photographer as well as the title and to search on that. "Battleship Hawaii" is a favorite of mine

Regardless of ship type, those are some AMAZING photos! Thanks for posting!

Life has the photos captioned as summer 1944 in either Southern France or Italy. Considering the leggings seen on some of the soldiers in the photos, Korea is out. Those were no longer part of the Army uniform by then.

That description matches what my father said about his ship:  quad 40 forward and unshielded 5" aft.  The old, old Revell kit, if I remember right (a serious question), has 5" fore and aft.  It was originally sold as the Randall, probably because that ship played the lead in the popular movie "Away All Boats." Navsource says that ship only had one 5", and so do its photos. Whether the Revell designers looked at that ship, or used some set of drawings someplace, or some other ship, I have no idea.

Stikpusher, did Life provide the dates of those pictures? I'm wondering if they might have been taken during the Korean War.  At least one of the General Pope class ships took part in it.

I have the original design drawings for the Haskell class APAs. As designed there was only to be one 5"-38 open mount at the stern. There was to be a quadruple 40MM on a raised platform on the bow and two twin 40MMs on the focsle deck as well as two twin 40MMs on a raised platform at the stern. There also would have been in WWII a whole lot of 20MMs. When I served on the Rockbridge (APA 228) in the 1960s this was the configuration we had less the 20MMs. I visited a number of other APAs at Norfolk and saw various configurations, mostly the removal of the quad 40MMs and in a few cases the installation of 3" antiaircraft guns. I never was aware of an APA with two 5"-38s although I can't say it never happened.

Ahhh, but the guy with the shoulder patch is wearing leggings and not jump boots, like the troops on the gang plank.... who knows who they are? But it really is interesting speculation on the ship type and troop unit. The definition of the color and detail of these shots is quite enthralling to me. Especially in the personnel.

Quite possible.  They weren't actually converted liners, but they were built by the Maritime Commission and sure looked like liners.  Navsource has a picture of the General Pope in mothballs that clearly shows a blast shield like the one in one of the Life pictures.

I think its a P2 Pope Class AP. Some of them had 4-  5" 38 guns, and they had cargo booms at the stern from a double mast frame.

In the shot showing the troops going down the gangway, you can see a shoulder patch on one uniform.  It doesn't look like the "Devil's Brigade" patch.  On the other hand, the ship in that picture seems to be painted differently than the one in the other shots.  This may be a different ship - and a different Army or Marine unit.

I've spent a little time communing with Navsource.  Finding a transport, or an attack transport, with at least two five inch guns (more likely at least three; it stands to reason that with two on the fantail, there's also be at least one on the forecastle) is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  The majority of APs and early APAs (the ones that had been converted from civilian passenger ships) seem to have had 3" guns as their biggest weapons.  The Haskell class officially had two 5", (though my father said his ship, the Bollinger [APA 234] only had one). 

I think the ship in most of those pictures is a converted liner.  Another hint:  the enormous number of liferafts (which appear to be painted a darker blue than deck blue, and have strips of white or grey canvas around them).

Interesting little historical detective exercise.  I also tried to find out what ship carried the First Special Service Force to Italy, but so far I've come up empty.

Any other ideas?

jtilley

I'm trying to figure out what sort of ship we're looking at in that picture. Two 5" I shields guns. Either soldiers or Marines all over the place, what appear to be cargo booms in the foreground, and some sort of large object under a tarp. The sailors' hats haven't been died blue. Liner converted to a transport.

Stikpusher (it let me get away with it that time) - Thanks. Fabulous site! It's going to take me a while to learn to navigate it, though. Any tips?

I use two methods to navigate- 1) very generic search terms, usually geographic such as "France 1944",or  "North Africa"; or 2) the photogrpahers names once I stumble across them. Some of the more famous Life Magazine photgraphers such as Carl Mydans and Margaret Bourke White often used color film. Robert Capa, who shot the famous Omaha Beach photos appears to have always used black & white film. Occasionally I will type in something like "bomber" or "aircraft carrier" and come up with some fabulous stuff as well. Happy Hunting!

Here are a few more shots from that photo essay, with lots more of the green rabble. The caption say Italy or Southern France, so I suspect that these guys may be "Forcemen" from the 1st Special Service Force (AKA the "Devils Brigade") due to: the jump boots, the arctic/mountain trousers (squared off cargo pockets) on the upper right side, the M1943 field jacket on other guys. All these uniform items in one place is peculiar to that unit.

GA, he is going to blow that and give the command for chow or announcements or some such,,,,it is too fast underway for Loading the Landing Craft, and the Marines aren't in battle dress

we are looking aft over the fantail of any one of the "cargo net into Higgins Boats" over the side transports (I have found 20 pics of "what it is not", but, can't find the one good shot of what it really IS)

LOL at "green rabble"

I have always liked the USN WW II Purple-Blue Grays better than the late war true-Neutral Grays,,,,,much more colorful to my eye.

Remember that the USN had ships from "large like  a Liberty or Victory" size, all the way down to APDs build from Destroyer Escorts to haul the "Green Rabble" from one work site to the next,,,,,and that the single open 5 inch gun was at the bow and stern of a lot of them.

Those pics go great with the sites with the camo patterns on them, and the S & S paint chips.

The guy standing on the ventilator with the trumpet looks like a Marine.

There looks to be a civilian over towards starboard from him.

A lot of those Marines have life jackets on so  they're doing something over the side.

Sailor in dress over to port with a  pennant.

Nice pile of garbage in the stern.

It looks like an attack transport, definitely a commissioned Navy ship as it's blue.

Those are great pics. Thanks for sharing

I'm trying to figure out what sort of ship we're looking at in that picture. Two 5" I shields guns. Either soldiers or Marines all over the place, what appear to be cargo booms in the foreground, and some sort of large object under a tarp. The sailors' hats haven't been died blue. Liner converted to a transport?

Stikpusher (it let me get away with it that time) - Thanks. Fabulous site! It's going to take me a while to learn to navigate it, though. Any tips?

LOL! Yes that auto spell auto correct is a beach

Here is the link

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

stikpusher

and a few more

Lot of green rabble in that photo...

They look hungry...

Fascinating! Younger generations can stand to be reminded that World War II really wasn't "the one they fought in black and white."

Stikpusher (my phone tried to tell me your handle was "still usher"), I've tried several times to access to that Life photo website, but haven't managed to do it. Can you tell us what's the trick?

I like the search and signal lights myself- black on the outer portion of the shutters. I will have to do that on my next USN build

Thanks, stik.  The colors look pretty close to what WEM produces in naval paint.

and a few more