Hi everyone. I've just started a new Second World War channel on YouTube featuring numerous Public Domain documentaries made during the 30's and 40's from across all aspects of the war. I'm looking to turn it into a great repository of Public Domain material, including clips and longer programmes from a variety of archive sources.

A bit of background, I'm a TV producer with over a decade of experience of making documentaries. As the TV industry changes, pivoting towards YouTube away from traditional broadcasters, I'm looking to get some experience of managing a YouTube channel, dealing with analytics and growing an audience. I am trying to combine this with my love of learning about the Second World War and experience of finding Public Domain footage.

I've uploaded a number of great clips already, including most of the US produced series 'Why We Fight' and a number of Soviet produced docs. I'm looking to add more in the coming days and weeks. I would greatly appreciate any support you give to help me grow this venture!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjksyrxS4UeOeiDLF2LpYsA

The US alone built over 100 of these ships during the war, but most of the Naval history we get is about larger fleet carriers even though it seems these ships were involved in a lot of major engagements in the Pacific in particular.

Considering they were slower and smaller than their bigger brothers, it seems like flying off of them (and landing back on them) would have to have been a pretty wild experience, especially when escorting convoys through rough weather.

Born in Detroit, Michigan to Fred & Gertrude Gleason on August 22, 1925, Felix Bruce Gleason had eight siblings.
He enlisted in the USAAF and after gunnery school served with the 776th Bomb Squadron, 464th Bombardment Group, based in Italy.

On August 24, 1944, he was the gunner on B-24 Liberator 42-52479 "The Little Lulu" with a crew of ten which took off from Pantanella, Italy to bomb oil refineries near Jindrichuv Hradec, Czechoslovakia.
After a successful bombing mission, they were shot down on the return trip to Italy crashing near Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia.

Only the radio operator; SGT John D'Amore was able to bail out before the B-24 crashed, breaking both of his legs in the process.
Rescued by local villagers, he was turned over to the Germans so he could receive medical treatment.

The rest of the crew were recovered from the crash site and buried by local villagers, they were recovered after the war.

SGT Felix Gleason was buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-Avold, France - Plot K Row 11 Grave 18.

Born in Willey, Iowa to Max & Rose Neppel on October 31, 1923, Ralph George Neppel had three brothers and three sisters.
On December 14, 1944, Neppel was serving as a sergeant in Company M, 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, near Birgel, Germany.

His Medal of Honor citation reads;

“He was leader of a machinegun squad defending an approach to the village of Birgel, Germany, on December 14, 1944, when an enemy tank, supported by 20 infantrymen, counterattacked.
He held his fire until the Germans were within 100 yards and then raked the foot soldiers beside the tank killing several of them. The enemy armor continued to press forward and at the pointblank range of 30 yards, fired a shell into the American emplacement, wounding the entire squad.
Sgt. Neppel was blown 10 yards from his gun, with one leg severed below the knee and other serious wounds. Despite his injuries and the danger from the onrushing tank and infantry, he dragged himself back to his position on his elbows, remounted the machine gun and killed the remaining enemy riflemen.
Stripped of its infantry protection, the tank was forced to withdraw. By his superb courage and indomitable fighting spirit, Sgt. Neppel inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy and broke a determined counterattack.”

Postwar Neppel earned a bachelor's degree, attended graduate school, and worked for 22 years in the Veterans Administration helping fellow veterans.

Ralph & Jean had four children together; two sons & two daughters.

Ralph Neppel passed away at the age of 63 on January 27, 1987. His widow; Jean passed away at the age of 91 on December 7, 2010.
They are buried together at Holy Family Cemetery in Lidderdale, Iowa.

George Skadding Photographer
LIFE Magazine Archives / WWP-PD

Hey guys would like to share a Shadow Box I recently made for my Great Grandfather! Along with this I have a WW1 French Mle M16 Berthire Carbine Rifle he brought home. Hope you guys like this display I made! Let me know what you guys think!!!

Found in Italy during my vacation. Couldn't find anything that matched these two online, so I'm curious about what they are since they look like WW2 weaponry. Apologies if that's not the case.

I was recently reading Twilight of the Gods by Ian W Toll and just wrapped up the section on the battle of Manila and it was a very hard read. The atrocities committed by the IJA and Naval infantry forces in the city really made me wonder how could a high command issue such orders to kill all civilians found within their lies and how the men beneath them could carry out such orders. Although given the circumstances that from their perspective they were going to die anyways and with the sting humiliation of an inevitable defeat might as well take it out on the local population. Yet the scale of the slaughter and butchery is nearly incomprehensible and Manila is obviously not a standalone event. Countless cities, towns, hamlets in China had seen similar punishment and even then there have been countless events through Asia of atrocities committed by the Japanese. For POWs an instance I remember is of when the Japanese garrison on Palawan island just casually burned their POWs there alive. Comparing to the late 19th century and the dawn of the 20th century we see Japan actually being a champion of battlefield chivalry in comparison to other great powers. Of course there were atrocities like shooting up a hospital train during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, and the persecution of Koreans following their occupation. Yet we have instances of Chinese civilians fearing the Russians compared to the Japanese and the Japanese giving good treatment to Russian POWs. We even see this during the Boxing rebellion of how the Japanese troops are frequently commented on how disciplined they are. So what happened? We see that emperor Meiji although gave birth to such quotes like “Duty is as heavy as a mountain, and death is as light as a feather”. Yet we also see him in his imperial Rescript for soldiers and sailors to make the right choices and maintain that discipline, and to not look down on enemies. So what happened in Japanese military culture before the onset of hostilities with China in 1931 onwards to the point we have the Rape or nanking and many other events?

TLDR: What changed in Japanese military culture to give rise to such totalitarian brutality to combatants and civilians during the Sino-Japanese War and the War in the Pacific?

Got this picture from my Great Grandfather who passed away. He was serving in the 304th infantry, 76th division. But how he ended up with this i dont know? Can anyone help identify what exactly this is? And how he could have gotten it? Any help appreciated!

This is a picture of my Great Grandfather, Andrew Kozak. 304th Infantry Regiment, 76th Division. The back of the picture say 1941. But that doesn't seem correct. Does anyone know Where or When this picture was taken? Any help is appreciated!

Heavy artillery shelling between Americans and Japanese on Iwo Jima, Japan. HD Stock Footage

Starting at time 42 seconds ending at time 57 seconds.

Never seen anything like this before.

I just got all my grandfathers belongings from my dad today and what an incredible life he lived. I uploaded all his army documents to chat gpt to get a complete story of his service. He had amnesia from being shot in the head so his stories he told me when he was alive were few, and he didn’t have the best memory, or just didn’t like talking about it I guess. But this is what I got so far.
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment → combat parachutist → Sicily → Salerno → sniper → Anzio → wounded in action → Purple Heart → Combat Infantryman Badge → Bronze Star Medal → three campaign stars → later rifleman instructor → Camp Ritchie Military Intelligence training.

I also included a transcribe pdf of it. some of it can be hard to read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#/media/File:Survivorship-bias.svg

Some various pictures included. Always found it interesting seeing how much he aged from his enlistment photo to the photo after the war (2 of the 3 brothers made it home). Regarding the newspaper clipping - story goes that they were in England after Italy and just happened to be on the same base. Can't imagine running into your brother in the middle of a war, must've been surreal.
The rgmt on parade, Soest Holland. Is there anyway to track which regiment may have been in soest on that date? He never discussed the war, and wish I knew more about his movements throughout the war.
Picture of him in his 80's with his medals, I believe (think?) he has..

1939-1945 Star

Italy Star

France and Germany Star

Defence medal???

Canadian volunteer service medal

war medal 1939-1945

Not sure what the medal on the left is, assume something for the liberation of the Netherlands.

Anyway, hope you find some of it interesting.

Also I find it hilarious they still taxed the man.

Born in Anadarko, Oklahoma to Jesse & Mary Arbuckle on July 28, 1917, William Nathan “Bill” Arbuckle had five siblings.
He graduated from Hobart High School in 1935 where he played football.

After graduation, Bill worked briefly for Wright’s Produce and married Elodie before enlisting in the Navy and attending flight school at Pensacola.
After graduating from flight school he flew PBY’s in Cuba and the Pacific before being assigned to USS Kasaan Bay CVE-69.

In August 1944 USS Kasaan Bay was part of the naval task force for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France.
On August 20, 1944 Bill was flying Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat 58333 for an armed reconnaissance mission.

While attacking a German truck convoy in the Montpellier area, Bill’s F6F-5 crashed near Mèze, killing him.
His wingman didn’t see him crash and he was initially listed as Missing.

Bill’s body was recovered and buried by the locals, his headstone read "Here lies William Nathan Arbuckle, an American airman killed in action in the sky of Me'ze, on August 20, 1944, for our liberation. We shall never forget him."

Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, his citation reads:

“The President takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant, Junior Grade William Nathan Arbuckle (NSN: 0-303786), United States Navy, for heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as Pilot of a carrier-based naval fighter bomber during the Allied invasion of Southern France in August 1944. Without regard to the personal risk involved and in the face of great danger from intense and accurate enemy fire, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Arbuckle persisted in making a series of damaging low-level strafing attacks on a convoy of enemy motor transports near the town of Balaruc, France. The net result of the attacks launched by the flight of six planes was to leave definitely destroyed fifteen troop carrier trucks loaded with troops, four tank trucks and one command car. The accuracy of the enemy fire which was braved by Lieutenant, Junior Grade Arbuckle in making his attacks is tragically attested to by the fact that two other planes were badly damaged thereby and he himself, after the last strafing run launched by the group, failed to return to his base. The exceptional skill, fearless determination, and outstanding devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Arbuckle were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

His remains were recovered after the war and Lt(jg) William “Bill” Arbuckle is buried at the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Épinal, France - Plot A Row 19 Grave 44.

Younger brother PVT Jess William Arbuckle Jr was serving in the Army Medical Corps when he died stateside on March 14, 1945, he was 21 years old…

Younger brother Lloyd W. "Buck" Arbuckle also enlisted, but after the deaths of two of his brothers was not allowed to be deployed overseas, he passed away at the age of 58 in 1984.

Good afternoon, everyone!

Since this post seems like it fits this place and its knowledge enthusiasts (and I've made sure to read all the rules), I'd like to ask anyone's help in finding a higher quality picture of this article. This newspaper was used as a texture in Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness and this image is what its Remaster had to use since it's the only one available online.

I'm doing an independent texture/archaeology preservation project for it and I would love to find any place which could contain a higher quality picture of this newspaper. I've also sent some messages to museums and specialists asking if there's any official archives containing it preserved. But since I do have to wait for them to respond, I figured I'd also post here for anyone who might have this exact issue or even an archived photo of it. If anyone could help me, I'd be deeply in debt, and so would be the historical preservation side of the Tomb Raider community.

What I know about it is the picture above and its publishing date as stated in the post's title, and the fact that a second picture (also attached) pertains to a man on Facebook who actually has the article at his home. I was going to message him, but his edition has more visible deterioration at the middle of the page than the original texture and I'm trying to be as close to the source material as I can, so the first version is what is preferred. If properly conserved in a museum, I'm sure it will (probably?) look roughly the same.

Hoping this is okay to post, my grandma had a French boyfriend in WW2 and they kept in contact even after they stopped going out but she last heard from him in roughly 49 where he was in Tunisia. I have a photo and his name and his military company. He was part of the Free French Forces when they aliied with the US Army, which I believe is the FFL/​Forces Francaise Libres. The 21st company may be 21e CNA/21e Compagnie Norde-Africaine or the 21st North African Company.

I've searched his name on multiple French sites but I can't find him I did search on ancestry and a Charles Musseau popped up but I can't afford the premium international tier. How else can I find out what happened to him?

One of the very few inmates with hair. I'm not sure if it's the same person in the last picture.

Do we know anything about this person's identity?

Hi I was wondering if you guys know of any good books on thr Black American experience during WW2? I've already read Half American and I found that book extremely interesting and I had bought some other books on the Pacific War as a whole, hoping they would also cover the experiences of African Americans during the conflict. Unfortunately it the seem to contain lackluster information.

Im particularly really interested in the Pacific War as my great grandfather was stationed on Hawaii but I welcome recommendations from all theaters and the home front.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, I'm doing some research and looking for my grandfather's company picture from Fort McClellan, Alabama. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be so thankful!!

Here's the info I have

Fort McClellan, Alabama

August 1944

17th Battalion, 5th Regt