US Navy Recognition Training Slides

 

From Luft (Fw190.org Webmaster)

A colleague from work sent me this email:

"I originally thought these were from my grandfather's collection. He joined WWII in his early 40s (he'd also been in WWI briefly). He was in the Army Air Force, stationed in Wattisham, England.  However, the boxes are marked with my dad's name, and one says USNR. My dad was in the Navy during the war, teaching radar school in Ft. Lauderdale. Maybe you'll know the source by looking at the planes."

It was determined the slides belonged to Norwin Caley Pierce. Aircraft recognition would have been a part of radar training. All of the slides are mounted on glass. Some are one solid sheet of glass where the aircraft is stenciled on. Others are 2 thin sheets of glass with the photographic film inserted between the halves. The black border is electrical tape which was carefully placed around each slide to prevent cuts. The aircraft images and the gray colored border areas have been stenciled onto the glass. There were about 100 slides and I used a scanner to obtain the images. The slides are all standard 35mm size and they fit into a carousel slide projector just fine.

 

A Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft recognition slide dated June 15, 1943.

 

The collection consists of two intact boxes of slides.

 

Click the picture above to see a high resolution scan of the slides. At the bottom of this page are all of the slides.

A JU52 dropping troops

High resolution scans of the entire collection of slides

 

The image as it is displayed from a slide projector

German landing craft - the Siebel ferry

 

This one has me baffled. What is the significance of the number 749523?

The USS Squalus and the USS Sculpin

When I first heard of these slides I was under the impression they were World War II aviation photos and was quite excited to see what they may contain. As soon as I saw them I realized they were aircraft recognition slides (It wasn't rocket science figuring that one out - "Recognition Training - US Navy". Still, it was a rare find so I took them home and began the examination process.

 

Mixed in with the aircraft slides were two slides of submarines. The names of the subs rang a bell but I could not recall what. Here I was with official US Navy slides of the USS Squalus and the USS Sculpin in my hands. I held them beside each other and up into the light. Both submarines were facing each other in the picture. The crew of the Squalus had fallen into formation on deck in dress whites. The crew of the Sculpin were also on deck appearing relaxed and at ease.

USS Sculpin crew

USS Squalus crew

 

 

I tried to get a better image of the slides and tried both scanning them at a high DPI and using a slide projector. The results were ok but I could not clearly make out the crew of the USS Squalus. The crew of the USS Sculpin was clearer but individuals are not recognizable. For more information about this amazing story Luft recommends visiting this external site:

http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-sculpin-191.htm

 

 

The USS Sculpin and the USS Squalus were 300 foot long diesel submarines that were built beside each other right before the beginning of world war II. They were sister ships and both were eventful in the others fate. The Squalus was one of the few naval vessels ever to be raised from the depths of the ocean, refurbished, and sent back out to sea with a name change: the USS Sailfish.