There Once Was a War

The most important historical event of the 20th century was a war that seemed to be fought in black-and-white. Our collective memory of the years 1941-1945 exists in monochrome, because that is the way most of us saw it—and continue to see it—in the films and still pictures of the day.
Color film for motion pictures and still cameras was readily available then, but was not in wide use because of its fragility and the difficulties of developing it. But there were enough hardy photographic pioneers around in 1941 to take the new color film to war, and their pictures, surviving beautifully to this day, show us a very different world than the one we see in old newsreels.
At first glance these images are a bit startling; we are not used to seeing the people, places, and events of the early 1940s in living color. But in due time these pictures seem utterly right, and in fact bring World War II into more recognizable form, more comfortable for modern eyes.
Here, then, is a colorful recollection of World War II in over 200 photographs taken, for the most part, by amateur lensman—ordinary soldiers, sailors, and airmen who wanted to record and preserve their time in the largest conflict in world history.

(Not all aviation photographs, but as you would expect from Jeff Ethell the majority are of aviation subjects.)

by J. Ethell, C. Yeager and B. Anderson
Published by Viking Studio Books 1995 1st edition. 224pp profusely illustrated. 23x29 mint, including d/j.




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Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.