WWII Tank, Aircraft, and Ship Identification guides

Some of the vehicle silhouettes from WWII US War Department identification guide "FM 30-40 Recognition Pictorial Manual on Armored Vehicles." Source: Archive.orgIn the skies, seas, and battlefields of World War II, hundreds of different vehicles of all shapes and sizes meant US soldiers needed a fast way to tell which side a tank, plane, or ship was fighting for. The US War Department published a series of pictorial identification guides to train soldiers to quickly distinguish friend from foe. “Before the outbreak of this war few realized the grave problems of recognition: Since then, mistakes in recognition, on the sea, on land, and in the air, have been too numerous to mention,” reads a 1943 “Recognition Pictorial Manual on Armored Vehicles.”Pages from WWII US War Department identification guide "FM 30-40 Recognition Pictorial Manual on Armored Vehicles." Source: Archive.orgThe same guide explained why soldiers needed to study the distinctive characteristics of these vehicles:…