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World War Two American Forces Artwork
Art of America  World War Two |
[UP] - American Revolution - Native Americans - The Alamo - War of 1812 - American Civil War - Battle of Gettysburg - Gilbert Gaul Art - Chris Collingwood Art - Civil War Regiments - Currier and Ives - US Navy - Pearl Harbor - US Battleships - USS Tennessee - USS Indiana - USS New Jersey - USS Iowa - USS Texas - Aircraft Carriers - USS Kitty Hawk - USS Ranger - USS Coral Sea - USS Eisenhower - USS America - USS Enterprise - USS Yorktown - USS Hornet - US Cruisers and Submarines - USS Seattle - USS Long Beach - US Air Force - Mustang - Thunderbolt - Flying Fortress - Vietnam War - Battle of Lake Erie - George Custer - Buffalo Bill - Korean War - Gulf War - Pirates - World War Two - Military Gifts - Postcards |
Historical art of American Forces during World War Two. Historical art prints published by Cranston Fine Arts by leading historical artists David Pentland and Ivan Berryman. |
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| Text for the above items : |
Scaling the Cliffs at Pointe du Hoc by Brian Palmer. (GL) The American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. James E. Rudder. During the American assault of Omaha and Utah beaches on June 6, 1944, the Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha and Utah beaches. At a high cost of life, they successfully defended against determined German counterattacks. |
Red Beach Two, Tarawa Atoll, 20th November 1943 by David Pentland. US Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd RCT, 2nd Marine Division, supported by LVTs and tanks, take part in the successful but bloody assault on Betio Island, part of the Tarawa Atoll. Operation Galvanic as it was known became the first step on the island road to Japan itself. |
Sainte-Mère-Église by Simon Smith. Captured by the US 82nd Airborne in the early hours of D-Day, Sainte-MèreÉglise would become the first town in France to be liberated by the Allies. The small town of Sainte-MèreÉglise, at the foot of the Cotentin peninsula, is just five miles inland from Utah Beach, the most westerly of the five assault beaches for D-Day and critical to the Allies' right flank. The town lay beside the main highway from Paris that ran north from Carentan to the port of Cherbourg, and which provided a vital link to any German forces engaged in the defence of the area. Vital to ensuring a successful landing on Utah, the task of securing the town and road together with the nearby railway line and bridges over the River Merderet, was given to one of the best units in the US Army - the battle-hardened paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. In the early hours of 6 June 1944, after a widely scattered drop, some in the Division's 505th PIR found themselves landing right in the heart of the town, caught in the glowing light cast by a burning building. With the white silk of their parachutes clearly visible, many of the men hanging defencelessly beneath them were easy targets. The casualty rate was high but, after regrouping with other units, the men of the 82nd attacked in a ferocious assault and a fierce firefight with the German defenders soon erupted. By dawn it was over and with the capture of the town the Stars and Stripes now flew over Sainte-Mère-Église. |
Hell's Corner, 7th June 1944 by David Pentland. The men of the US 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment ambushed the German 1st Battalion, 6th Fallschrimjager Regiment making their way to Carentan, the Battle of Hell's Corner ensued. |
High Ground at Easy Red by James Dietz. Commemorating the Sixtieth Anniversary of D-Day, 6th June 1944. Omaha beach is four miles long and bordered on each end by two cliffs over 100 feet high. At low tide, wide, hard-packed tidal flats lead upwards from the beach towards commanding bluffs. It was at these bluffs that the men of the US 1st Army would consolidate prior to moving inland into France. But first, the beaches had to be traversed. This scene, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of D-Day, depicts the 743rd Tank Battalion leaving the beaches the evening of June 6th. Their ordeal began over 12 hours earlier. At H-50, the 741st Tank Battalion, scheduled to land in the 16th Infantry's sector suffered a terrible disaster. Of the thirty-two Sherman tanks that debarked 6,000 yards off the eastern half of Omaha beach only six tanks made it to shore. The remainder sank to the bottom of the English Channel due to heavy seas. Someone in the 741st used a tank radio to contact the 743rd Tank Battalion to inform them of their fate, saving the lives and tanks of the 743rd and allowing them to get to shore to protect the infantry. The 743rd Tank Battalion was able to successfully land most of their Sherman's in the initial wave on Omaha's western beaches. They provided invaluable support to both the 116th Infantry and the 16th Infantry on the eastern beaches. The 743rd Tank Battalion left Omaha Beach through both the D-3 exit road and E-1 exit road at St. Laurent-sur-Mer. As one soldier observed, Standing out there on the water beyond all this wreckage was the greatest armada man has ever seen. You simply could not believe the gigantic collection of ships that lay out there waiting to unload. Looking from the bluff, it lay thick and clear to the far horizon of the sea and on beyond, and it spread out to the sides and was miles wide. Its utter enormity would move the hardest man. The landings at Omaha Beach had incurred significant casualties and in fact, the enemy defenses were stronger than expected. Very little progress had been made in the push to the interior and this caused significant backups on the beach. Of the 2,400 tons that were planned to arrive on the beach on D-Day, only 100 tons were delivered. Operations on the 7th and 8th of June would be spent deepening the bridgehead. As the Tankers entered combat to expand the beachhead, few would forecast the hardships that lay ahead in the Norman hedgerows of the Bocage. Though thousands of Americans were spilled onto Omaha beach, the high ground was won by a handful of men who on that day burned with a flame bright beyond common understanding. For its action on June 6th, the 743rd Tank Battalion, commanded by Colonel John Upham, was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation, French Croix de Guerre and a Bronze Arrowhead in recognition of their participation in the Assault Landing. |
Helping Hands by David Pentland. Northern Ardennes, Belgium, 25th December 1944. M36 Tank Destroyers of A Company, 703rd TD Battalion are a welcome Christmas present for the Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. They would prove invaluable as they were the only US vehicle capable of handling the Panther or Tiger tanks. |
Chuting Up by David Pentland. England, 5th June 1944. U.S. Paratroops of the 82nd All American Airborne Division, preparing for their imminent assault on France. |
The Deadly Trap by David Pentland. St Mere Eglise, Normandy, 6th June 1944. Unaware that the Germans had recently flooded large areas around St. Mere Eglise, many U.S. Paratroops of the 82nd All American Airborne Division, were lost having landed in unexpected marshes and swollen rivers. |
Thunderbolts and Lightnings by Nicolas Trudgian. The relief of Bastogne turned the tide in the Battle of the Bulge and Hitlers final great offensive of World War II lay in ruins. P47 Thunderbolts of the 406th Fighter Group, in company with P38 Lightnings, support the advancing armor of General George Pattons US Third Army as they prepare to relieve the battered 101st Airborne Division from their heroic defence of Bastogne during the final climax to the Battle of the Bulge, 24 December 1944. The Battle of the Bulge was one of the largest land battles of WWII with more than a million American, British and German troops involved, incurring huge casualties on all sides and this release pays tribute to the sacrifice of Allied Forces, during this important milestone in World War II. Published 2005. |
Fire for Effect by David Pentland. Bastogne, Ardennes, Belgium, 20th December 1944. Newly arrived 81mm Mortars of 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, fire in support of U.S. Paratroopers defending against German probes to the north of Bastogne. |
First to Fight by David Pentland. St Mere Eglise, Normandy, 6th June 1944. U.S. Paratroops of the 82nd All American Airborne Division, descend on occupied France. |
Though I be the Lone Survivor by James Dietz. Darbys Rangers - Battle of Cisterna. 22 January, 1944, 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions spearhead the Anzio landing in Operation Shingle. This was one of the most effective and least costly of all Allied amphibious landings, but the least exploited. It was ten days after the landing before General Lucas ordered his forces to advance on Rome. The mission of Task Force Ranger was to use their special training for a night infiltration behind German lines to set up two major blocking positions. This would relieve the pressure on the beachhead and possibly start the 30-mile drive on to Rome. 0100, on 30 January, 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions moved out into the night hoping to reach the town of Cisterna and its vital road junction. The terrain between the departure point and Cisterna was flat farmland with little or no cover. Stealthily moving toward the objective, 1st and 3rd Battalions continued to avoid detection. Though they passed close by German positions and enemy patrols crossed in front and on both sides, the Ranger presence seemed to go unnoticed as daylight approached. Moving in the file formation, as they had used several tines successfully before, is one of the more risky behaviors of the Ranger advance. As night gave way, the Rangers could see the town of Cisterna, only five hundred yards away. The two battalions surged forward as one trying to enter the town, and find cover before the sun and the Germans found them. As night ended so did the elements of Task Force Ranger. The single enemy machine gun that once blocked 4th Ranger Division soon became a dozen. The Germans quickly counterattacked stopping them dead in their tracks, even cutting them off as Colonel Darby urged them forward towards their brother Rangers. No Rangers, Infantry of Sherman tanks would force their way up that road that day or in 100 days. 4th Ranger Battalion bled themselves white for eight hours trying to reach 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions, but they were left on their own. As the Rangers sprinted forward with Garands, BARs and Thompson machine guns in their hands, covering the last two hundred yards; the end of a long journey seemed near and so it was. Somewhere along the last mile the Germans detected the Ranger infiltration. The unit that got to the town first was not the Ranger, but elements of the 4th Fallschirmjaeger Regiment, the elite of the German Paratroopers. A sheet of flame and steel ripped into the Rangers in mid stride causing them to collapse in a nearby farmer's open field. Going into semi-circular defensive position, which measured 300 yards by 100 yards, the Rangers returned fire. As the Rangers, lying in the open field, devoid of cover, fired, the German Paratroopers closed in on them with heavier and heavier weapons systems. The Rangers fought bravely through that night and into the day, but without heavy organic weapons, the battle was lost as soon as they were caught in the open. In just under eight hours, the battle was over. No more shooting was heard just the moaning of the the dead and dying, and the shuffling of the captured. Only six men returned to report to Colonel Darby, only six out of the 767 that began the missions. |
Act of Valor by Simon Smith. After single-handedly destroying a German Mark V Panther tank that had pinned down his unit, First Lieutenant James Maggie Megellas leads his platoon from the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne towards the Belgian town of Herresbach, 28 January 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge draws to its conclusion. Minutes before, despite being vastly outnumbered in heavy snow and freezing conditions, the platoon had overwhelmed and completely defeated a large force of German infantry in a ferocious frontal assault, without losing a single man. Simon Smith's dramatic image picks up the story as, with the Panther rendered harmless, Megellas readies his men for their final advance into Herresbach. |
Taking of Big Apple, Okinawa, 10th - 14th June 1945 by David Pentland. Men of the US 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Division supported by the tanks of 763rd and 713th Flamethrower Tank Battalions, during the assault on Yaeju Dake. This escarpment, known as Big Apple was the last in a series of tough Japanese defence lines on the south of the Island. |
The Spoils of War by Simon Smith. Thrown into a baptism of fire on D-Day the men of the 101st Airborne Division had quickly shown their mettle in the killing fields of Normandy. By the time they were called upon to jump into Holland during Operation Market Garden they had become one of the toughest and most formidable units of the entire US Army. After fighting alongside the British in Holland it was on 5th October 1944, along the muddy banks of a dyke, that the men of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under the leadership of Lt Dick Winters once again ran into a large group of Germans. It wasn't the first time they'd been outnumbered and, with scant regard for the odds against them, Easy Company attacked. After a brief fire-fight that drove the enemy back, Dick Winters gathered half of his reserve platoon and proceeded to wipe out an enemy machine-gun position and bringing up the rest of his men, charged with fixed bayonets. The Germans - two companies of battle-hardened Waffen-SS troops, several hundred men - were too stunned to respond and were quickly overpowered by Winters' small band. A few days later Colonel Robert Sink, the battalion commander, issued a citation praising them for their daring and aggressive spirit, and sound tactical ability. Shortly after their success, Dick Winters was promoted to become the battalion Executive Officer. This painting portrays the men of Easy Company moments after the action was over, standing easy but, as ever, alert for trouble. |
Final Roster by Anthony Saunders. On the evening of 5th June 1944, at a dozen airfields across southern England, more than 13,000 American paratroopers prepared themselves for a mission that would change the course of history. The next morning these brave young men found themselves at the forefront of the bitter fighting to secure the right flank of the Normandy beach-head. The odds against them were huge and, if they failed, the American amphibious landings on Utah and Omaha beaches would face disaster - the destiny of the US First Army rested squarely on the shoulders of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. |
Tank Killers by David Pentland. Bastogne, Ardennes, Belgium, 23rd December 1944. Beleaguered U.S. Paratroopers of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, defend against a German armoured attack. |
Boarding Call by David Pentland. Southern England, D-Day, 6th June 1944. U.S. Paratroopers of 101st Airborne Division awaiting H-hour, and the call to board their DC 3 Dakota transports. |
Operation Cobra, Normandy, 28th July 1944 by David Pentland. After almost two months Sherman tanks and armoured infantry of the US 2nd Armoured Division eventually broke through the German defences south-west of St Lo. Pushing aside the shattered remnants of Panzer Lehr Division, their rapid advance forced a general German retreat. This would ultimately spell disaster for the German armies in France. |
82nd Airborne by Chris Collingwood. Superb figure study of the 82nd Airborne in 1944. |
Spearhead by David Pentland. Normandy, France, 1944. U.S. Armoured Infantry and M3 halftracks of the 36th Infantry Regiment, 3rd (Spearhead) Armoured Division, in the Normandy bocage. |
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