Historic Naval Operations

Historic images depict naval ships and operations from different wartime eras, emphasizing maritime military activity.

Supplies Inland Beachhead Is Secure. This image depicts activity on the beachhead below Mount Suribachi.

Supply Line. This image depicts a photograph from the deck of a Coast Guard manned combat transport.

Marshall Island Task Force at Sea. This image depicts a convoy containing Coast Guard-manned transports sailing towards the Marshall Islands, painted by Coast Guard Combat Artist Ken Riley.

Fotocollectie Eerste Wereldoorlog. With the British navy in war time. General view of inspection on quarter deck by Captain on Sunday. 1914-1918}

Red Cross Women on Coast Guard-Manned Ship for France. Up the gangway from landing barges, American Red Cross women board a Coast Guard-manned invasion transport at an undisclosed port for a voyage to Southern France. There, they were landed by Coast Guardsmen and followed victorious Allied forces pressing northward toward Germany.

Off on a Mission of Liberation. With its propellers churning a foamy wake, an LCT pulls away from a Coast Guard-manned assault transport, carrying a load of troops to a strategic island somewhere in the Southwest Pacific. The fighting men have just poured down the gangway (at left) into the LCT. All carry full fighting equipment and are toughened to meet the task of occupation.

Supplies Inland Beachhead Is Secure. This image depicts activity on the beachhead below Mount Suribachi.

Coast Guard Battles Ice For Iron. This image depicts U.S. Coast Guardsmen clear the straits of Mackinac and upper lake Michigan for passage of the oreboats.

In The Old (Pacific) Swimmin' Hole. This image depicts Coast Guardsmen and Marines aboard a Coast guard-manned assault transport taking a dip from the side of the ship.

"Soldiers aboard the "Susquehanna" say farewell as the ship departs from St. Nazaire, France. The vessel, carrying 2,500 soldiers, is headed towards the United States. This photograph was taken on January 17, 1919, by an A.E.F. Enlg. photographer."

They Have Their Ups And Downs. This image depicts the gale blows up in the North Atlantic, the sea engulfs the forward decks of the ships in the foreground.

Ride 'Em Convoy. This image depicts destroyer escort frigates, another parade of troop transports and supply ships running into stormy weather.

Gi'S, Wacs, Nurses And Officers Board The Italian Steamer Partenope In Naples Harbor Enroute To The Army Air Forces Rest Camp On The Isle Of Capri Where They Will Spend Several Days Leave.

A Refill Somewhere In The Pacific. This image depicts a Coast Guard-manned assault transport being tied up to a Navy destroyer for refueling and supplies.

Off Shore Patrol. This image depicts Coast Guardsmen watch the return of incoming ships and a Navy blimp to an American port.

Coast Guard on Mercy Mission In the Midst of War. Although beset by the hazard of enemy subs and aircraft in the Mediterranean, the U.S. Coast Guard carries on its missions of mercy at sea. In this small boat being hoisted aboard a Coast Guard-manned Destroyer Escort, crewmen transfer an African missionary's child who suffers from a broken arm. The DE had responded to a call for immediate medical assistance from a ship in its convoy. After receiving emergency treatment by the DE's medical officer, the child was taken to a Mediterranean medical base.

Amphtanks Churn Towart the Holocaust on Angaur. Toward the flaming beaches of Angaur Island near Peleliu churn amphibious tanks with guns ready, as another Pacific H-Hour brings first the bombardment, then the attack. This picture, made from a spearhead Coast Guard-manned landing barge by a Coast Guard combat photographer, shows an amphtank churning toward the smoke-shrouded shore.

Welcome ceremony for the Admiral aboard the USS Mayflower during the return of the Victory Fleet. Photo taken on December 26, 1918 by Lieutenant Craig of the Signal Corps. (Photograph Number: 31801)

AG (Spar) , Ships, Naval Vessels, Boats, Naval History, Navy

Coast Guard Destroyer BEALE. This image depicts the Coast Guard Destroyer BEALE chasing a rum-running vessel in the North Atlantic.

Voyage Into Loneliness. Almost surrounded by icebergs, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter visits a lonely camp on the desolate northeast coast of Greenland. This picture was made from a Kodachrome by the late Coast Guard Lt. Thomas S. La Farge, who lost his life when the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Natsek, was sunk in the Atlantic. Lt. La Farge was commanding officer of the Natsek.

First Trucks Roll Out During Cape Sansapor Invasion. Backing up the invasion waves that swiftly grasped a foothold on Cape Sansapor on the western end of Dutch New Guinea, a Coast Guard-manned LST drops its ramp at the end of an improvised wharf and trucks rolled out into the thick going to carry supplies to the invaders. When the versatile LSTs run into too shallow waters, bulldozers and troops build a ramp of sand out to meet it. Cape Sansapor fell in the American jump by jump advance along the northern coast of New Guinea. Its fall helped protect the flank of the Yankees' recent smash into the Palau Islands.

Photograph of Whalers, 11th Naval District. This photograph was taken by Boatswain's Mate Second Class James C. Watson, ex-newspaper photographer of 15 years experience.

"Mercy Trucks" Accompany Invaders. U.S. Coast Guardsmen load an ambulance aboard their transport at a North African port as they prepare to sail for Sicily. In addition to troops the Coast Guardsmen carried much materiel.

Photo collection First World War. With the British Navy in War Time. Lowering a Boat from a Destroyer. 1914-1918}

US Coast Guard off Omaha Beach on the morning of D-Day, Normandy, France during the World War two D-Day landings 1944

American LST's Burn Off Mindoro. Bombed by a Japanese plane, an LST burns under a cloud of black smoke rising from another LST hit by the enemy attackers during the amphibious landings on Mindoro in the Philippines. The Coast Guard-manned LST from which this picture was made also was under attack, but its gunners shot two of the Jap planes out the sky. An LCM came up to take the crew from the burning ship.

U.S. iron clad Galena, after her attack on Fort Darling, James River, Va. | Library of Congress

Photo collection Government information service. The port of Amsterdam. On the warily painted warships, the German sailors deliver the ammunition to the domestic armed forces. May 1945. Amsterdam, Noord-Holland

Coast Guard Air Unit Aids Stricken Seaman. This image depicts an injured seaman being transferred by a Coast Guard plane which is piloted by Lieutenant Commander Larry L. Davis.

""Into the Jaws of Death"". Down the ramp of a Coast Guard landing barge Yankee soldiers storm toward the beach sweeping fire of Nazi defenders in the D-Day invasion of the French Coast. Troops ahead may be seen lying flat under the deadly machinegun resistance of the Germans. Soon the Nazis were driven back under the overwhelming invasion forces thrown in from Coast Guard and Navy amphibious craft.

Over the Side at Saipan. This image depicts Marines loading into landing craft during the invasion of Saipan, drawn by Coast Guard Combat Artist Ken Riley.

Coast Guard Fires a Friendly Shot. The Coast Guardsman with the gun isn't a sniper trying to pick off the passing ship. He is firing a line across the deck along the convoy lines in the mid-Pacific. Over such lines, written messages and orders are passed between ships at sea.

Photo collection First World War. With the British Navy in War Time. Battleship Taking a Destroyer in Tow. 1914-1918}

Photo collection First World War. Floating bucks at a half sunken carbid ship. undated

Albanienreise Archduke Max, at Skutaree. .

Mid-Ocean Transfer by Breeches Buoy. Over the chasm between two ships in the mid-Atlantic, an ailing merchant seaman is transferred by breeches buoy from his ship to a Coast Guard combat cutter for medical treatment. The buoy is rigged after a line is fired from one ship to the other. It is used when the launching of small boats is deemed inadvisable.

Photograph of Japanese Prisoners Climbing Aboard Coast Guard-manned Transport. Four Coast Guardsmen Capture Nine Japs at Kwajalein. The nine Nips crawl up the landing nets to face interment internment. They became prisoners of war under the American flag flying aboard a U.S. Coast Guard-manned transport in the Marshall Islands invasion. It was a day of good hunting for the four Coast Guardsmen who remained puzzled over why the nine Japs were on the sand spit between Namur and Roi Islands in Kwajalein atoll.

How the Oran Boom was "Crashed". How the ex-American Coast Guard cutter "HARTLAND", and the "WALNEY" "crashed" the boom at ORAN has been told by officers who took part in the gallant action which resulted in the loss of the two vessels, though not before part of their work in the Oran landings had been done. The two boats crashed through the boom and American assault troops and a mixed force of British and American naval ratings from them enabled landings to be made on both sides of the port.

The image depicts the U.S.S. Virginia during the 1910s. The photograph was taken on February 12, 1918, by a C.P.I. photographer. The U.S.S. Virginia is seen prominently with the designation H symbol AU. The photo is associated with the notes 3111 SAVIMA.

Early Morning Patrol. This image depicts the boiling surface of the rough sea glistening in the early morning sun as a Coast Guard cutter tosses and rolls along the anti-sub patrol.

An official photograph of the USS Rowan, taken on July 22, 1916. The USS Rowan had a tonnage of 3,704 kilotons. This photo was received from C.P.I and is labeled as image number 7059 in the collection of American Military Activities during World War I. The photograph is for official use only.

Passing a Line in the Mid-Atlantic. This image depicts a line being fired over the deck of a Coast Guard combat cutter.

Off Watch, They Sleep by Their Guns. Aboard a Coast Guard combat cutter proceeding through European waters, two Coast Guardsmen snatch a few minutes sleep as a shipmate keeps alert watch for signs of enemy attack. The sleeping men are off watch, but they stay close by their guns, ready to spring into action.

Albania trip Archduke Max, warships in the Bocce di Cattaro. .

Forced Landing on Invasion Beach. Combat ended with a forced landing on the beach at Paestum, Italy, for this Spitfire being examined by a U.S. Coast Guardsmen manned combat transports and landing craft, one of which appears in the background.

Taxis to Hell -- And Back. That's Hades dead ahead, Mates - toward the exploding beach of Angaur Island in the bloody Palaus, drives a Coast Guard manned invasion barge. This is the height of the pre-invasion bombardment from the U.S. fleet and planes. Out of that hell will come bitter fire of a ferocious foe. The Coast Guard boat crews "Have to go in, but they don't have to come out.".

Fotocollectie Eerste Wereldoorlog. With the British navy in war time. Marines on drill on quarter deck. Piled guns. 1914-1918}

Captured Germans. This image depicts captured German sailors as they are taken aboard a Coast Guard cutter.

Takow, Formosa Taiwan. Photograph, 1981, after a negative by John Thomson, 1871.

Photograph of Two Japanese Prisoners Climbing the Landing Net Under Observation of Coast Guardsmen. Jap Prisoners Go Up the Landing Net. The war is over for these two Jap prisoners, captured in the invasion of a South Pacific island and transferred to a Coast Guard-manned assault transport. Removed from the beach in a Coast Guard landing craft, they climb the landing net into captivity.

It Takes All Kinds of Landings to Make a War. At this beach in the Marshall Islands no pontoons were available, so a bulldozer was used to pull supplies ashore.. 1946-01-01T00:00:00.

""Thar She Blows"". This image depicts a roaring mountain of water heaving up astern of a Coast Guard combat cutter patrolling the North Atlantic as its sub hunting crew looses a depth charge in battle practice.

Same Situation - Different Cargo. Standing by on the stern of the Coast Guard Icebreaker "Apalachee", a Coast Guardsman prepares to throw a heaving line bound for Baltimore. Even the largest of the Bay tugs are not able to get their barges through the ice-packed Chesapeake Bay without the aid of the Coast Guard icebreakers.

Invasion Armada Swarms Upon Eniwetok. Coast Guardsmen shuttle landing craft back and forth from the anchorage to the beach of Eniwetok Atoll, bringing in fighters and supplies, carrying back the wounded. On the beach supply dumps swiftly pile up.

Black Smoke Shrouds Wreckage of Charon-Kanoa. Coast Guardsmen, participating in the invasion of Saipan, look over the wreckage on the pier at Charon-Kanoa, Japanese base on the Marianas island which fell before the withering fire of American invaders. In background, still burning, is a sugar refinery which was blasted by shells from the U.S. Fleet.

Heavy Weather. Ploughing through a heavy sea off the coast of Greenland, a Coast Guard cutter carries on her mission. Men of the Coast Guard are on all seas in this global war.

Coast Guard Officer Awarded Flying Cross for Rescues. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox today awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross to Commander Richard L. Burke, U.S. Coast Guard, in recognition of his daring rescues, including that of seven survivors of a destroyed German U-Boat. In the above picture the Germans are shown clinging to a life raft dropped from the Coast Guard plane. A burning smoke bomb identifies the location, and a Navy blimp hovers overhead. A few months later the prisoners were picked up by Commander Burke's plane. He is commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City, N.C. North Carolina.

Elsevier photo collection. Dutch Detachement United Nations Korea home travel Netherlands aboard "General McRae" troop ship. Protestant church service board. Pastor DS. Brothers. September 24, 1951

A fleet of steamships and gasoline launches, commandeered by the Americans in the "Coblens Sector", passing before Major General J.T. Diekman, Commander of the American Army of Occupation in Germany. The fleet largely consists of U.S. Marines from the 5th and 6th Regiment, U.S.M.C., with passengers being leave men on a Rhine River excursion. Andernach, Germany.

Officers on deck of monitor Saugus, James River, Virginia. No. B696, Title from item, Mounted with four other photographs, Gift; Col. Godwin Ordway; 1948. United States, History, Civil War, 1861-1865, United States, Virginia, James River.

Heads Bowed Before Battle. This image depicts U.S. Coast Guardsmen and Marines joined in prayer for the success of American arms in the invasion of Guam.

Alligators Prove Worth at Tarawa. An alligator in the lagoon at Tarawa is snapped by a U.S. Coast Guard combat photographer during the invasion of the bomb-battered atoll in the Gilbert Islands. "They were used for everything; crawled up out of the lagoon day and night," said a Coast Guard officer who participated in the assault.

Seamanship-U.S.S. Wyoming. .

""Come On In! The Water's Fine!"". This image depicts a tiny craft. Once a Japanese suicide boat, it is now a pleasure boat in the hands of these Coast Guardsmen somewhere in the Pacific.

The recovery of the shell of the M12 airship fallen into the sea in the Grado lagoon on July 23, 1917, World War I, Italy, 20th century.

Liberation Forces, Like These, Strike in France. Down the twin ramps of a Coast Guard-manned LCIL (landing craft infantry, large), Yankee fighting men hit an English beach in final dress rehearsal maneuvers for the liberation of Europe which started before dawn when allied forces in great strength poured across the channel into French Normandy.

A / B of a Dutch auxiliary mine sweeper in W.O. II

Blankets from the Beds. Blankets from the beds of Coast Guardsmen aboard the USCG Campbell, boards, canvas and other odds and ends, went into the construction of the cofferdam made to repair the hole in her side caused by ramming a Nazi U-boat. The patch was about 9 x 14 feet and weighed more than a thousand pounds. It took more than a score of Coast Guardsmen to lift it over the side of the cutter. The CAMPBELL contacted six Nazi subs within 12 hours. She is now in an unnamed East coast port.

Collection of World War I Photographs, 1914-1918 that depict the military activities of British and other nation's armed forces and personnel during World War I.

Alongside Big Ice. The Antarctic. The World of Ice. The Coast Guard's icebreaker NORTHWIND noses alongside a huge ice cake, for the purpose of putting "ashore" a group of personnel whose job is to take oceanographic and magnetic observations. This personnel (not to mention the Coast Guard's photographer), were equipped with life jackets, and with lines around them loading back to the ship. Snow often conceals dangerous crevasses, and the life-line equipment is a "must" for every man who went out onto the huge ice cake. As in the far north, the hidden crevasses of the Antarctic are veritable death traps. This episode took place in January, during the Byrd Expedition to the Antarctic. The Coast Guard's NORTHWIND was the icebreaker for the central group, whose destination, the Bay of Whales, was reached after a difficult and dangerous voyage through the ice.

Port Security Work. This image depicts Coast Guardsmen searching a foreign vessel in New York Harbor.

Project 22 - Operation Castle (Bikini/Enewetak) Test Activities. Project 3.4 Recovery of Sea Mines by USS Reclaimer, Post-Union. Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.

First Coast Guardsmen Get Bleak Welcome At Yokosuka Base. This image depicts deserted hulks of bombed warehouses at Yokosuka Naval base.

The Great Naval Battle of Manila Bay - Admiral Dewey's Victory.. Muller, Luchsinger & Co.

Coast Guard Swing to Safety. In the aftermath of the hurricane which swept the Atlantic coast September 14, 1944, 13 crew members of a ship which foundered off the Virginia coast were brought to safety by means of a breeches buoy by Coast Guardsmen from the Virginia Lifeboat Station. Rescue operations were begun while the storm was at its height, and the ship was in danger of breaking up on the beach.

Massachusetts - Graves. Wave effect on Northeast Grave.

40 Winks Off Iwo Jima. This image depicts Coast Guardsmen slumbering in the sun. Others try to read or write letters to get their minds off the uncertainties of tomorrow's battle.

Toss Oars. U.S. Coast Guard Academy Cadets, learning to handle boats under oars, on the Thames River at New London, Conn. Connecticut, hold their oars at the toss. Coast Guard Cadets also learn seamanship aboard practice cutters and upon graduation are ready for active duty afloat or ashore.

Information office radio broadcaster Dutch Guinea. Warning cooling recruitment downstairs. 1950. Hollandia, Guinea

Photo collection Government information service. Royal Military Police. Marechaussee in water. 1954

Cutter Ahoy!. This image depicts two cutters meeting up, with one ploughing through the harsh Atlantic waves.

Collection of World War I Photographs, 1914-1918 that depict the military activities of British and other nation's armed forces and personnel during World War I.

The steamship Pannonia arrives in Fiume. 1920

Enroute to Balikpapan. Australian troops wisely stay out of the sun, using the protection of the shelter halves as the Coast Guard-manned LST transporting them heads in convoy for Balikpapan, Borneo. Two of the Aussies, however, can be seen in top center, "Chumming" with the Coast Guardsman who stands a lookout watch.

Independence Day Greeting. Scene at Noemfoor Island on the morning of Independence Day shows three Coast Guard-manned LSTs approaching the island as smaller craft ferry supplies to the beach in the background.

Description: Location: Cambodia Date: 14 March 1955 Location: Cambodia Date: 14 March 1955 Description: His Majesty Norodom Suramarit, accompanied by H.M. Ambassador, on board H.M.S. 'Opossum'. Location: Cambodia Date: 14 March 1955 asia, cambodia, asiathroughalens

Coast Guard Officer Gets Flying Cross for Daring Rescues. For rescues, such as this one of seven German survivors of a destroyed U-Boat, Secretary of the Navy Frank L. Knox today awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross to Commander Richard L. Burke, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City, N.C. North Carolina. In the picture the Coast Guard officer's plane is shown on the sea near a life raft dropped to the survivors, while a burning smoke bomb identifies the location. A Navy blimp hovers overhead. Pontoons of a second Coast Guard plane shows at the left. On another occasion Commander Burke landed his plane in eight-foot waves to transfer a sailor from a ship to shore for an emergency operation.

Virginia - Ragged Point. Ragged Point Light Station, Virginia. Looking approx. W; shows what remains of the detached riprap ice breaker. It has been leveled somewhat and pushed southerly.

Wolf class Frigate Hr.Ms. Jaguar (1954-1983), during fishing inspection in 1977

Photograph of Coast Guard-manned Tank Lighter Torn by Japanese Mortar Fire. Japs Score a Hit on Coast Guard-Manned Tank Lighter. In the invasion of Saipan, this Coast Guard-manned tank lighter was torn by Jap mortar fire as the craft made a run for the beach. Here a Coast Guard coxswain examines the gaping hole made by a direct hit. American invasion forces encountered fierce resistance in expanding their beachhead over the strategic island in the mid-Pacific Marianas.

Eastwind - Deep Freeze V. USCGC Eastwind, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, Jan. 29 -- History - past and present - meet here on this remote continent at the bottom of the world, as the U. S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Eastwind - and the hope of a few men some 60 years before - stand together. The cross, erected in memory of a fallen comrade during Robert Scott's historic epoch in the Antarctic, commemorates the effort of that first expedition, while the Eastwind represent a furtherance of that effort. The Eastwind's arrival here at McMurdo of January 19, 1960 marked the completion of her second trek to the Antarctic, both as part of the Navy's "Operation Deep Freeze.".

Bilbao, August 1908. Bilbao Regattas. The jury in the mollo, at the moment of giving the boats a start with the firing of a cannon shot.

Image of page 18 from a loose -leaf photo album of the Dutch Poundfinders Association (N.P.V.), Department Utrecht, with photos of: The camp of Troep 3 o.l.v. Hopman van Popta in Maarsbergen in 1924 (310 to 316); Troep 5 in the Weekendhuis in Bosch en Duin in 1926 (317 to 318); the patrol corner in the 5th Troop Chamber (319); The Shelterkamp of Troep 5 (320); Some members of Troep 5 in the spring of 1926 (321) .n.b. In 1927 the name Troop was changed to group.

Rome Italy may 1947 A group of people gather around a stranded sailboat on the shore during the 1940s capturing the drama and excitement of coastal life

Knocked Out LCI High and Dry on Invasion Beach. Battered by exploding mines, smashed by Nazi 88s and gutted by fire, this Coast Guard infantry landing craft perches abandoned at the high water line on one of the hotly contested French invasion beaches. Coast Guard LCI's were in the first waves of the liberation craft to hit the invasion coast of D Day.

Adolphe Block's circa 1870 stereoscopic photograph captures activities in the military harbor of Naples, Italy, printed on albumin paper in stereo format.

''The Graphic, Front Cover Saturday January 25. 1890',1890.

Lifeguards from the United States, United States Life-Saving Service, Columbia River Estuary, 1906, Oregon, Coast Guard Station Point Adams, Columbia River, Point Adams Life Crew

Recovery of a lost torpedo by a fishing boat or patrol vessel. Finders received 5 pounds for salvaging derelict torpedoes and returning them to the Admiralty authorities. Date: 23 February 1916

The Oil Comes In (6 of 7). As soon as the hose is connected to the pump on the fuel barge (right, center), the flow of oil to the empty drums at Cape Hinchinbrook Light Station can begin. The LCVP from the Coast Guard's NORTHWIND stands by to assist. Though it took almost two days to get the necessary gear ashore, actual refueling time was five hours. Six hoses were kept busy all the time. The rugged Alaskan coastline, while picturesque, was a headache for the men faced with the job of getting the equipment on the beach. They had only about 20 feet accessible by boat for the landing.

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