FASCINATING PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM FROM THE USS SALAMAUA IN THE PACIFIC THEATER DURING WORLD WAR II, WITH ALMOST 300 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS, INCLUDING A DRAMATIC SERIES OF EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS MARKED "SECRET" SHOWING A KAMIKAZE ATTACK ON THE CRUISER U.S.S. LOUISVILLE

(SALISBURY, Fred R.). Photograph album—U.S.S. Salamaua. No place, circa 1945. Leather-bound photograph album, 9-3/4 by 11-1/2 inches, 124pp., with approximately 290 black-and-white photographs, ranging from 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches to 8 by 10 inches, with photographs both pasted and laid in.. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $8500.

Photograph album belonging to Lt. Commander Fred R. Salisbury of the USS Salamaua, with approximately 290 fascinating original photographs of scenes in Papua New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, Guam, the Philippines, post-war Japan, and other places, with a dramatic series of 8 photographs showing a kamikaze attack on the U.S.S. Louisville on January 5, 1945 stamped "Secret" on the verso.

The USS Salamaua (1944-1947) was a Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier built in Vancouver, Washington; named Salamaua after the invasion of the village of Salamaua in New Guinea; and launched on April 22, 1944. Captain Joseph Irwin Taylor Jr. (1902-1985) commanded the ship with a crew of fifty-four officers and 518 enlisted men. Designed to carry 27 aircraft, during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf, the Salamaua carried 14 FM-2 fighters and 10 TBM-3 torpedo bombers. After two transport trips to New Guinea in the summer and fall of 1944, the ship traveled to the Admiralty Islands to prepare for the invasion of Luzon, Philippines. During the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, a kamikaze attack on January 13, 1945, left a 16-foot by 32-foot hole in the Salamaua's flight deck and several fires burning. The starboard engine was submerged, and the ship listed 8 degrees to starboard but managed to keep up with the task group using only the port engine. After initial repairs at Leyte, the ship returned to San Francisco for further repairs, which began on March 3 and continued until late April. By May, the Salamaua was supporting land operations on Okinawa. On June 5, the ship endured a typhoon, which destroyed all aircraft bolted to the ship's flight deck and rendered the flight deck inoperative. After repairs at Guam, the Salamaua participated in anti-submarine operations through the end of the war. In late August, the ship escorted a troop convoy of the U.S. Eighth Army to Tokyo Bay, where it arrived on September 2, and the ship's planes photographed the landing of the occupation troops at Yokohama during the formal Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. For the next several months, the ship completed three "Magic Carpet" trips to return veterans to the United States. Decommissioned in May 1946, the ship was broken up in 1947. For its service, the USS Salamaua received three battle stars.

This photograph album was assembled by Fred R. Salibury, a Lt. Commander on the Salamaua. Highlights include:

Photographs of Dreger Harbor, near Finschhafen on Papua New Guinea, in the summer of 1944.

Photographs from Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea.

Photographs of crew members and scenery on Guam.

Photograph of Salisbury and others at the base of the Magellan Shrine on Cebu, the Philippines. The tower was erected in 1866 to honor Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, thought to have been killed there in the 1521 Battle of Mactan.

A dramatic series of eight black-and-white photographs showing a kamikaze attack on the cruiser USS Louisville in Lingayen Gulf on January 5, 1945, taken from the USS Salamaua; all stamped "Secret" and "Not to be used for publication by order of the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics." The attack killed one crewman and injured seventeen, including Captain R. L. Hicks. A second kamikaze attack on the Louisville the following day killed forty-three and wounded 125. Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler was fatally injured helping fight the fires. The Salamaua was damaged in a similar kamikaze attack eight days later.

Photographs of Japanese suicide mini-submarines in Yokosuka, Japan.

Photographs of Nagato, the only Japanese battleship still afloat at the end of the war.

Photographs of Yokosuka and Yokohama in September 1945.

Aerial photographs of Tokyo.

Fred R. Salisbury II (1914-1990) was born in Minnesota and named for his grandfather. He worked in his father's business, the Salisbury & Satterlee Company of Minneapolis that manufactured furniture and mattresses. During World War II, he enlisted the U.S. Navy in February 1942 and served as lieutenant-commander of the USS Salamaua (CVE-96), a Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier. Salisbury was released to inactive duty in March 1946. After the war, he served as secretary and then vice president of Salisbury & Satterlee Co.

Mild edge-wear to album covers; photographs in excellent condition.