By Mark McConville
INCREDIBLE images showing coal miners in Pennsylvania have surfaced a week after President Trump opened the first coal mine in the US in ten years in the state.
The striking pictures show miners preparing to go into the mine and resurfacing after a long shift as well as enjoying their lunch deep underground.
Other black and white shots show miners and soldiers imparting wisdom to each other as the army joined the miners for anthracite rallies in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1942 as part of a war production drive.
The photographs were taken at several mines in the state of Pennsylvania, USA in 1943 as World War Two raged on.
President Donald Trump opened a new coal mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on Thursday 8th June – the first to open in America in ten years.
Corsa Coal Corporation will operate the mine and it is expected to supply coal used in making steel and generate between 70 and 100 full time jobs.
The President will certainly be hoping the work ethic will match that of the miners during the war who strived to mine enough hard coal to support the US war effort.
Production posters were displayed on mine locations in 1943 to urge miners to turn out more hard coal.
Other snaps show how soldiers taught a coal miner how to operate a machine gun at an anthracite rally while miners returned the favour as they showed a soldier that the fighting tool of the production front is the pneumatic drill that anthracite miners used to produce hard coal. Servicemen learned how anthracite is mined.
Smiling with pleasure, a coal miner is also pictured reading the paycheck enclosure which explains the importance to the war effort of all-out production.
