Aiming a "Tommy" gun from a Coast Guard aircraft (30 September 1941)
A Coast Guard aviation photograph of 30 September 1941: a man in a flying helmet aims a drum-fed submachine gun from an aircraft window. The caption says the aviation arm helps locate smuggling vessels and capture escaped convicts.
- Date
- 1941-09-30
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 205576693
- Rights
- A photograph in the Records of the U.S. Coast Guard (Record Group 26), series "Photographs of Activities, Facilities, and Personalities" (NAID 513164), file unit "Aviation - Operations." The item reads "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says: "Fewer than one percent of photographs in this series are credited to commercial sources, and may have copyright or other use restrictions." No commercial credit appears on this item; a Coast Guard photograph is a United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored copy is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's scan.
The National Archives catalog title is Aiming a “Tommy” Gun, with local identifier 26-G-09-30-41(5), with a production date of 30 September 1941. The mounted print shows a man in a flying helmet and goggles in the window of a riveted aircraft, aiming a submachine gun with a drum magazine. A tab on the mount reads AIMING A “TOMMY” GUN.
The typed caption below the print reads: “INASMUCH AS THE COAST GUARD IS PRIMARILY A MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY, THE AVIATION ARM IS OFTEN CALLED UPON TO DO SUCH JOBS AS AIDING IN THE LOCATION OF SMUGGLING VESSELS OR THE CAPTURING OF ESCAPED CONVICTS.” The catalog’s description repeats that.
The airman is not named. The weapon is identified as a “Tommy” gun by the caption; this page does not identify its model.
