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 Author  Topic: Color PT photos in Nat'l Archives Color Slide Naval Collection
Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 5:31am
Since we're all WWII PT buffs (and veterans) here, I thought this information might be of interest to everyone, if they're not already aware of it, particularly since T. Garth has asked for sources of color PT boat photos in the recent past.

I found this site when searching on the computer for PT photos. It's the National Archives Color Slide Naval Collection, and it has hundreds and hundreds of mostly World War II (and some Korean War-era) U.S. Navy color photos on it, with many PT boat pictures included. The Archives are in the process of downloading their entire 14,000 Navy photo collection onto the internet, or so the site states. The web address that shows up is:

http://www.historylink101.com/ww2_navy/archive/index.html

You can also Google "Naval Archive Pictures From World War II" or "National Archives Color Slide Naval Collection."

The site has many series' of photos, listed in numbered groups, about 20 to 25 per group, which when you click on the number groups all the photos come up as "thumbnails," which of course can then be clicked on to bring up individually. An irritating distraction, which becomes evident after viewing just a few of the photos, is that most, if not all, of the photos have been "flipped," or reversed when posted by the Archives-- they're backwards, "mirror" images!

The PT photos are scattered willy-nilly, with no rhyme or reason, (as are most of the subjects), among all the hundreds of photos. It would take many, many hours of searching and opening the groups to find all the PT photos, but here are some of the catalog numbers of photos and groups with (mostly gray) PTs in them I found:

#1250-1299 (two photos of Ron 9's CO Robert B. Kelly, observing from the cockpit of a gray 103-class 80' Elco).

#13627 (the starboard turret and cockpit of what I think is a gray PT 107, based on other photos I've seen of her with the same helmet-liner wearing cockpit crew and binocular cases on top of the the dashboard at the base of the windshield).

#3900-3999 (four photos of an 80' Elco underway).

#4300-4349 (a photo of a crewman painting kill marks on PT 134's outboard port cockpit, taken at the same time the photo on page 145 of Frank D. Johnson's "United States PT-Boats of World War II In Action" was taken -- the boat numbers were red, with white shading!, and an 80' Elco's port turret, one without gun-limit railing).

#6650-6699 (two photos of a 78' Higgins launching Mark XIII torpedoes off roll-off racks).

#13597 (a 103-class 80' Elco underway).

#13600-13649 (an 80' Elco underway, the starboard turret, and stern 20mm on an 80' Elco, and a PT crewman with belted .50 cal ammo [and a good look at the painted settings on the end of a depth charge next to him]).

#14050-14099 (a 78' Higgins underway).

#14117 (a cheery Rosie the Riveter screwing a plate on the warhead of a torpedo -- can't tell if its a Mark VIII or a XIII).

#14150-14199 (a 78' Higgins underway).

#14517 (an 80' Elco's starboard turret, taken from just abaft the curved splash shield).

#16150-16199 (four light gray 78' Higgins', moored side-by-side).

Anyway, those will give you a start -- as I said, there are more, but they are scattered all through the site's photo groups.



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TGConnelly

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 7:04am
Drew,

Hi. Do you think you could possibly scan those and email them to me?

Garth


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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 7:22am
T. Garth,

I wish I could, but scanning and sending images is beyond my capacity/computer knowledge at this point... I DID capture several of the PT images I wanted to keep in the "Pictures" file on my computer...if I ever figure how to scan/send them, I'll gladly send them off to you.

I used to be able to email images with my old computer, but I haven't figured out how to do that on this new HP one...that function isn't very "user-friendly"...

You should be able to access the photos by going to the site, then saving them by right-clicking on them and clicking "Save Picure As" to your file(s)... Remember, as I said, those PT photos are all reversed, or "flipped"...

-- Drew


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  TED WALTHER

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of TED WALTHER   Send Email To TED WALTHER Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 8:27am
DREW;
HERE ARE THE PHOTOS;
-ROBERT KELLY ON EITHER PT 159(HANK BRANTINGHAMS RED DRAGON), 156(COWBOY), OR 158(RENDOVA RACER) RON 9, LOOK AT TOP OF NUMBERS, MOSTLY ALL THE PHOTOS HAVE NEGATIVES REVERSED!! MAYBE P.J. CAN HELP WITH I.D.'S
-PT'S UNDERWAY DOING TIGHT TURNS ARE PT 332(3 OF THE PHOTOS) AND THE ONE WITH BOAT ON FOREDECK IS PT 333 GREEN BEAST.
-OTHER ELCO UNDERWAY IS PT 314 RON 4
-FADED OUT ELCO UNDERWAY IS PT 141 RON 4
-PT 134 IS OF LT. EDWARD POPE AND SAILOR.
-PHOTO TAKEN FROM TOP OF DAYROOM SHOWING NO DEPRESSION RAILS AND A FOLLOWING PT IS TAKEN FROM PT 134, FOLLOWING PT IS PT 136 NEW GUINEA KRUD.
-SHOT OF 4 BOATS IS RON 13 IN ALUTIANS, ADAK
-HIGGINS UNDERWAY AS ON FRANK JOHNSONS BOOK AND THE OTHER SIMILAR PHOTO IS PT 463 RON 31 ON LAKE PONCHATRAIN, LA
-HIGGINS PT FIRING TORPEDO IS PROBABLY THE SAME BOAT, NOTICE SAILORS "UNIFORM" ALSO NOTICE YELLOW WARHEAD ON TORPEDO, I KNEW I HAD SEEN THIS COLOR BEFORE, ON RON 31 BOATS! PRIOR TO THERE RUN DOWN TO PANAMA.
-THE REMAINING ELCO GUNNERY PHOTOS IS FRON RON 5 TAKEN IN JULY 1942, OFF NEW JERSEY
GREAT SITE, BUT TOO MANY PORTRAIT PHOTOS AND MOSTLY ALL THE NEGATIVES ARE REVERSED, SO EDIT THEM.
TAKE CARE,
TED


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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 12:09pm
Thanks for the I.D.s of the photos, Ted.

The only reason I mentioned the Kelly photos might be on Ron 5 boats is I thought they may have been taken at the same time as the series of (b&w) photos of the 107 most of us are familiar with (I've seen the series on Gene Kirkland's PT King website), and the reason I say that is there's a color photo elsewhere on that Nat'l Archives website of an 80' Elco's (in the exact same gray paint) starboard turret and a slice of her charthouse & cockpit that's a dead ringer -- guys in helmet liners w/chinstraps and binocular cases on the ledge under the windshield -- for the 107 in the b&w photo series.

It would make more sense, of course, for the boat Kelly's on to belong to his Ron 9 (obviously, in its original configuration in the photo).

Maybe a Ron 9 expert can I.D. the officer at the wheel...?


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Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 - 4:06pm
I hope you guys don't mind but I wanted to post some of these great shots from the National Archive. There are more on the Photobucket site.

They also make great wallpaper for your desktop.




















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Nathaniel Smith

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Nathaniel Smith   Send Email To Nathaniel Smith Posted on: Sep 20, 2008 - 7:22am
I tried to clean up the two pictures of Robert Kelly. Pictures of him are hard to come by. I hope no one minds the double post. I am interested in Ron 9. I can add a little info to the mystery. Thanks Ted for adding your knowledge to Drew's (for me) great discovery.

PT-156 (Lt.(jg) Rex L. Anderson was CO in July 1944)
PT-158 (grounded off Munda Point July 5, 1943)
PT-159 (Hank Brantingham) Hank looks very different. In the picture below, my father, Hamlin Smith is on the left. Next to him is William Carter (Pat Rogers helped me identify him). Hank may be on the far right. The insert has been identified as Lt. Henry J. Brantingham.




natsmith

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TGConnelly

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Sep 20, 2008 - 11:16am
Drew,

Yes, thanks ... I noticed that myself. I saved a few too. A very interesting site to say the least ... I saw and saved a few photos of SCs and two of a recovered sunken S-100 Class Schnellboot.

I've emailed the guy too.

Garth


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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 20, 2008 - 12:54pm
Gary,

Thanks for posting those National Archive photos. Can you post the other one of Robert B. Kelly standing at the rear of the 80' Elco cockpit? I think that gray slab at the bottom of the photo is the top of one of those airfoils we were talking about a while ago...


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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 20, 2008 - 1:01pm
Garth,

I was very interested by the photos, too, and the actual colors of many things military-related I had been looking at for years in black & white...

For instance, I learned that some Navy UDT frogmen's masks and fins were green, not black as I had supposed they all were...




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