If you’re researching a World War II Army Air Forces veteran, fallen, unit, aircraft, or airfield, photographs can add incredible depth to your understanding of their service. They can also add incredible detail to the narrative you write, especially if you publish a book. People love photos and images will keep them reading.
Go into any Facebook group and you will see requests for photos from family members, European grave adopters, and those who write stories of veterans or the fallen. For some families, even being able to obtain one photo would be an incredible gift. So where do you begin to attempt to locate photos from World War II for the Army Air Forces?
Please note – these are a few suggestions but there are more online and in archives so go explore!
Start with the holdings of the National Archives, where Record Group 18 (Army Air Forces) contains thousands of official photographs documenting training, combat operations, aircraft, personnel, and air bases around the world. Some of these are digitized on NARA Catalog using the link above. Others are still sitting in the NARA at College Park, MD. You might also discover photos at the Library of Congress, the Air Force Historical Research Agency, and the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Don’t overlook local historical societies, university archives, and state archives, especially if your veteran trained or served at a specific installation. Additionally, if your veteran attended college or university after the war, it is possible the archives have a photo or some documentation. Then back up in time a little and check for high school yearbooks. If your service member died in the war or was Missing In Action, post-war school yearbooks may have memorials and photos to the war dead.
1. Fold3 has a Publication called Military Yearbook Collection. Also you can search Fold3 to see if anyone has uploaded a photo - or if he was part of a bomb crew there could be photos.
2. You can search NARA Catalog by the name of the person, his ASN, or unit and see what turns up.
3. You can search Military Yearbook project
4. You can search for the AAF unit he was part of and see if they have/had a Reunion Association Group and website with photos and records.
5. You can look at another yearbook site - Army Air Force Collection.
6. If you know who he flew with - search for those names because often when we search collaterals - the people someone served with - you might hit gold. About 10 years ago I searched for the Pilot of a bomber that was shot down 2 Nov 1943 - my person of interest was the co-pilot. Searching the pilot took me to a website where someone had extensively researched that day’s mission and every crew and person and wrote a book complete with photos. He gave me a copy. So always research collaterals - people, units, places, ships.....
7. Visit the UNWRITTEN RECORD blog - NARA’s blog for an article on locating photos.
Again, these are just a few places you might explore but don’t forget to check offline places like libraries, ethnic museum, high schools, colleges, overseas museums and libraries, archives at various levels and locations and be sure to check locally to see who in the community might have additional information.
Jennifer Holik is a military researcher, genealogist, author, publisher, and educator specializing in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veteran research, storytelling, and ancestral healing. With over 15 years of experience, using a proven two-part military research strategy she created, she conducts military research and book writing for clients, and teaches researchers how to reconstruct military service and transform historical data into meaningful, accurate narratives. Jennifer takes research and writing clients - email jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to set up a free project consult. Join her newsletter and grab your PDF Freebie today.
Learn more about her WWII training programs, books, coaching, and more at her online course site the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School. Then visit the WWII Research and Writing Center where you can find more than 10 years’ worth of articles, records, tips, videos, and more.
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