The morning of August 15, 1945, dawned with the realization that after a long war resulting in some 60 million deaths worldwide, WWII was finally over and Victory in Japan (V-J Day) had arrived. Hours earlier, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender, bringing WWII hostilities around the world to an end. President Harry S. Truman…
We’ve recently completed a publication that contains nearly 11 million records of U.S. Veterans gravesites that date back to the Revolutionary War. The U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites, ca. 1775-2019 collection compiles records from a variety of sources and cemeteries for soldiers and their dependents who were buried in Veterans Affairs (VA) National Cemeteries, state veterans’ cemeteries,…
On July 30, 1945, just days before the end of WWII, the USS Indianapolis was sailing from Guam to Leyte when she was struck by two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine. The ship sank in roughly 12 minutes. Survivors were thrown into the shark-infested Philippine Sea where many perished before rescuers arrived four days…
We are pleased to announce that we’ve added the unit history of the 456th Bombardment Group (Heavy) to our Fold3 archives. These records contain extensive information on the 456th Bombardment Group which included the 744th, 745th, 746th, and 747th Bomb Squadrons. The 456th was activated on June 1, 1943, at Wendover Field, Utah. After being…
By the time the United States entered WWI in 1917, photography had become a growing hobby within the country. Many soldiers had their portraits taken before heading off to war and the government trained photographers at the Columbia School of Military Photography to record America’s involvement in the war using still and motion pictures. Here…
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a naval battle fought June 19-20, 1944, in the Philippine Sea several hundred miles west of Saipan near the Mariana Islands between the United States Navy and the Japanese Imperial Navy. It resulted in a decisive American victory that put American forces within bombing range of the Japanese…
Seventy-five years ago this month, Allied forces declared victory in Europe. V-E Day came at a steep price for American troops with more than 400,000 deaths during WWII. These WWII veterans, often called the Greatest Generation, were everyday men and women who put aside families, schooling, and jobs to answer the call and serve their…
