World War II Database

1. buzz says:
24 Aug 2010 10:11:16 PM

I saw this photo in a book of US Navy photos from WWII. The caption said the seaman taking the photo was killed by the concussion of the bomb.

2. Anonymous says:
12 Oct 2011 03:39:42 PM

Eric Hammel, in Carrier Crash (Chapt. 31), identified the photographer as PhoM3 (Photographers Mate 3rd class) Robert Read: "Read ... was standing tall in an exposed vantage point on the island as he followed the thired bomb in his viewfinder all the way to impact. Read got his superb shot, but shrapnel from the blast killed him."

3. Anonymous says:
2 Jun 2014 03:53:53 AM

Why NO size of bomb given.?

4.  David Stubblebine says:
2 Jun 2014 08:34:01 PM

To #3:
The size of the bomb is information that should be easily available but I was surprised that I could find nothing about it at my usual internet sources. It will probably turn up somewhere.

What was on the internet was a lot of chatter about who the photographer was and what happened to him following this explosion. So to #1 & #2:
The Navy’s official caption now includes, “According to the original photo caption, this explosion killed the photographer, Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Robert F. Read. However, Morison’s ‘History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II’ (volume 5, page 97) states that Read was killed by the bomb that had earlier hit the after starboard 5"/38 gun gallery, which can be seen burning in the upper left. Morison further states that the bomb seen here exploded with a low order detonation, inflicting only minor damage.”

Then, the Wikimedia caption includes this: “The bomb was dropped by a Japanese Aichi D3A1 ‘Val’ dive bomber piloted by Kazumi Horie who died in the attack. According to the original photo caption in the US Navy's archives, this explosion killed the photographer, Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Robert F. Read. This image, however, was actually taken by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Marion Riley, who was operating a motion picture camera from the aft end of the ship's island, above the flight deck and who survived the battle although his photographic equipment was damaged. The film Riley took that day, and of which this still was extracted together with others and published in Life, can be seen at this Youtube link [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFXcnUtMT4A] (explosion at 03:05). Robert Read was stationed in the aft starboard 5" gun gallery and was killed by the second bomb to hit Enterprise. The smoke from the bomb explosion that killed Read can be seen in the upper left of this photograph.”

5. Anonymous says:
24 Aug 2016 12:29:19 PM

I believe the Val bomber carried either 1 250 kg @500 lb bomb or 2 69 kg @140 lb bombs. I only see one explosion so I would guess 250kg