Soviet soldiers trudge through the snow in the forest near Zvenigorod, Moscow Oblast, Russia. (30km. west of Moscow)
1st of November 1941.
The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Germany’s attack on the capital of the Soviet Union, and the largest Soviet city.
Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces during the invasion and occupation of the U.S.S.R.
(Image taken by Alexander Kapustyanskiy.)
Troops of the US 5th Engineer Special Brigade, wade through the surf to the northern coast of France, at Fox Green Sector of Omaha Beach.
They were part of the over-increasing number of men bolstering the forces which made the initial landings on the beachhead.
8th of June 1944.
OPERATION COLIN, BATTLE OF MAAS.
Infantry of the 153rd Brigade, 51st Highland Division are carried into battle aboard a Sherman tank (T-233073) near Udenhout in the Netherlands.
29th of October 1944.
Demolition men of the US 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, gathered in front of a Japanese dugout they helped to take at Cape Torokina on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands in January 1944.
Winston Churchill, visiting the Tactical Headquarters of the 9th. Australian Division near El Alamein.
He was accompanied by General Sir Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief Middle East, and other high ranking allied officers.
Here Mr. Churchill is seen alighting from his car on arrival and being welcomed by Lieutenant-General W.H.C. Ramsden, Commander XXX Corps.
5th August 1942.
Two riflemen from the 317th Infantry Regiment, US 80th Infantry Division take a moment to roll their own cigarettes while in Goesdorf, Luxembourg on January 10, 1945.
On the left is SSG Abraham Aranoff, a native of Boston, Mass., to the right is, Private Henry W. Beyer of Grand Rapids, Michigan. These men, from E Company, 1st Battalion, 317th Infantry, had been fighting for 27 days straight, most of it during the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes. They’d just been pulled out of the lines for a short, well-deserved break.
U.S. soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division carry wooden sculptures and paintings, including the "Adam and Eve" oil painting by Franz Floris from 1550, out of Hermann Goering's art bunker in the Wemholz, Berchtesgaden area, and load them into a truck. May 1945
New Zealand front line troops on leave in Campobasso, in central/southern Italy, meet a gharri (a horse-drawn cab) driver, with a little English, and are set for the day".
The 3rd of May 1944.
A rare light hearted view of war.
A German Flak crew photo of their regimental mascot sitting by a 88mm, FlaK 36. Flugzeugabwehrkanone (aircraft-defense cannon)
Medics from the 5th and 6th Special Engineer Brigade help wounded soldiers on Omaha beach, Fox Green and Easy Red sectors. Survivors of sunken landing craft are recovered by other troops, who reached the beach by using a life raft.
June 6th, 1944, D-Day
A Panzerkampfwagen IV F-1 of Panzer Regiment 24, Pz Div. 24 on the Russian Steppes in the Summer of 1942.
(Note that the 24th Panzer Division was allowed to use the golden yellow collar tab trim in recognition of their roots as an Imperial German Cavalry Unit. The 24th Panzer Division was the only Armored Division so honoured. Other Panzer Divisions use the famous "Panzer Pink" Waffenfarbe.
Also resting on the opened turret door, there is, what appears to be, a German Heeres Model 1928 Signal (Flare) Pistol. The pre-World War II pistols were produced by Walther.
A Wartime radio broadcast, 1940.
As Princess Elizabeth, The Queen made her first public speech at the age of 14, on the 13th of October 1940, with a radio address to the children of the Commonwealth, many of them living away from home due to war. Her younger sister, Princess Margaret, joined in at the end
A group of men from the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, US 2nd Armored Division gather round a piano for a sing-a-long in the Rue Monteglise, Barenton in Normandy on the 10th of August 1944.
A group of 'walking wounded' British troops evacuated from Dunkirk, in front of a 'Great Western Railway' carriage at Dover, Kent on the 31st of May 1940.
Private First Class Rez P. Hester of the 7th War Dog Platoon, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th US Marine Division takes a nap in a fighting hole dug out of the the volcanic sand on Iwo Jima while 'Butch', his Doberman war dog stands guard.
February 1945.
Lt. Robert Roger Marchi standing on his Yakovlev Yak-3 of the Free French "Normandie-Niemen" 1st Squadron. GCIII Normandie (Groupe de Chasse) No.III
East Prussia, March 1945
.Fallschirmjäger Division, at Anzio in Italy, January 1944
The trooper shows off a captured British 'Bren' Light Machine Gun and is leaning on a wooden case marked: "Luftdichter Patronenkasten" (Air tight sealed ammunition boxes, for 1500 x 7.92 Mauser or 9mm cartridges).
A close-up of a British heavily armed patrol of 'L' Detachment SAS in their jeeps, just back from a three month patrol.
18th of Jan 1943
Private L.V. Hughes, 48th Highlanders of Canada, Cdn.1st Division sniping a German position near the Foglia
River, on the Gothic Line in Italy.
Late August 1944.
A squad leader of either the 27th or 161st Infantry Regiment of the 25th US Infantry Division ("Tropic Lightning") points out a suspected Japanese position at the edge of Balete Pass, near Baguio, Luzon, Philippine Islands. 23rd of March 1945.
To Be Continued....
D Day plus one. On the shingle of Omaha Beach Dog White sector, at Saint-Laurent sur Mer, Normandy.
Ground Crew applying "Invasion Stripes" to a Martin Marauder B-26 of 553rd Bomb. Squadron, 386 Bomb. Group at Great Dunmow air base in Essex, England sometime between the 3rd and the 5th of June 1944.
In the background is the Marauder 131577 AN-Y "Elmer" (which crash landed in France 31st July 1944).
lose port-side view of a CAC CA-13 Boomerang fighter aircraft, serial no. A46-128, of No. 5 (Tactical Reconnaissance) Squadron RAAF, piloted by 407056 Flight Lieutenant Donald Howard Goode of Port Pirie, South Australia.
The aircraft is coded BF-N with the nicknamed "U-Beaut 2" and is flying from Mareeba, Queensland.
18th of March 1944.
The 92nd US Infantry Division, 5th Army (also known as the 'Buffalo Soldiers', an all African American division) firing mortars towards German positions in Massa, Italy, as some other members of the division pass ammunition towards the 81mm M1 Mortar.
November, 1944.
A Finnish infantryman, with his KP/-31 Suomi sub-machine gun during the Battle of Vuosalmi in Karelian Isthmus, Finland as part of the Continuation War, between Finland and the Soviet Union. (1941-1944)
July 1944.
American troops help push a medical jeep out of the snow and slush while evacuating casualties from the 53rd Armored Infantry Division, near Esch, Luxembourg on 26th January 1945.
An M8 'Greyhound' light armored car is in the background.
Supermarine Seafire L.IIIs of RNAS 808 Squadron on the deck of the escort aircraft carrier HMS Khedive (02), entering the Grand Harbour of Valletta in Malta. July 1944.
An attack on one of the caves connected to a three-tier blockhouse destroys the structure on the edge of Hill 382, giving a clear view of the beachhead toward the southwest on Iwo Jima, as U.S. Marines storm the island on 3rd of March 1945.
Mitsubishi A6M-3 Type 22 Zero, JNAF 251 Kōkūtai (Tail code UI105) flown by Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa known as the 'Red Devil of Rabaul' by the allied pilots and became Japans leading Ace of WWII.
Seen here flying over the Solomon Islands in May 1943.
8.8cm FlugzeugAbwehrKanone 18/36/37.
The 88 mm gun (eighty-eight) was a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun from World War II. It was widely used by Germany throughout the war, and was one of the most recognized German weapons of the war. Development of the original models led to a wide variety of guns.
A tired member of Fighter Squadron 17 (VF-17) 'The Jolly Rogers' pauses under the squadron scoreboard at Piva Airfield, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands.
February 1944.
'The Jolly Roger's were one of the most decorated fighter squadrons of the war in either theater, downing 156 Japanese aircraft and 12 ships for the loss of 12 pilots over five months of carrier and land-based operations in the Solomon Islands. Flying the F-4U Corsair, the squadron produced 12 aces, more than any other Navy Squadron.
'Operation Market Garden'
Four men of the 156th Parachute Battalion moving through a shell-damaged house in Oosterbeek, near Arnhem, Netherlands.
23rd.September 1944.
The Battalion arrived with the second lift at Arnhem on the 18th of September 1944, landing under heavy fire. Blocked to the north-west of Arnhem and suffering heavy casualties during the withdrawal to the Oosterbeek perimeter, the battalion was virtually destroyed alongside the other units in the 1st Airborne Division. Only a few survivors escaped across the Lower Rhine.
The under-strength Battalion was disbanded shortly after the battle in September 1944.
(Note: This photo is often captioned as being 'posed' but a relative of the trooper at the rear of the group said that 'Section leader Ross' always insisted the pic was taken as they were clearing the local houses of German infantry and the photographer "just appeared and snapped the shot")
A group of Fallschirmjäger (German paratroopers) are examining a captured M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun in Tunisia, sometime during mid-1943.
The trooper on the left is wearing the third pattern splinter jump smock and a plain clip-on helmet cover. On the right his comrade has a mud-daubed M38 helmet and a second pattern plain jump smock.
Australians from the 2/48th Battalion, 26th Brigade, 9th Division on board the destroyer HMS Kingston (F64) departing Tobruk en route to Alexandria in Egypt. October 1941 (possibly on the 25th).
A 24cm (9.45 inch) Haubitze 39 (Howitzer Model 39) of the II/814 Artillerie-Regiment 814 as part of the 11th Army, firing a 166 kilograms (366 lb) shell probably during an attack on Sevastopol in Russia. September/October 1941.
The howitzers were transported on three horse-drawn wagons. The 27,000 kilogram (60,000 pound) weapon chassis required a dug-in firing platform; you can see the fixing rods in the concrete holding the howitzer on its base in the lower right of the photo. It took artillery crews six to eight hours to prepare the howitzer for firing. Firing one to two rounds per minute, the Haubitze 39 had a range of 18,000 metres (20,000 yards)
Colonel Robert L. Scott Jr. (Macon, Georgia) Commanding Officer of the 23rd Fighter Group, US 14th Air force.
He stands besides his Curtiss P-40 at Kunming airfield, Southern China, before his departure back to the USA.
4th January 1943.
'Operation Barbarossa'
German Schnelltruppen, supported by Schutzenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz. 251/1&10 (armoured personnel carriers), move into a burning Russian village at an unknown location during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, sometime between June 26th and July 1st, 1941.
Russia was unprepared for the sudden 'blitzkreig' attacks across a border that spanned nearly 2,900 km (1,800 mi), and they suffered horrible losses. Within a single week, German forces advanced 200 miles into Soviet territory, destroyed nearly 4,000 aircraft, and killed, captured, or wounded some 600,000 Red Army troops. By December of 1941, German troops were within sight of Moscow
Corporal John 'Jack' William Sillito
Was a member of a four-man SAS patrol (1 SAS 'A' Squadron) tasked to blow up a strategic railway line, behind the enemy's positions, just before the offensive at El Alamein.
After a firefight with the enemy, Sillito got separated from the rest of his group, and set out to walk well over 100 miles back to the British lines, without food or water, a gruelling week-long experience which he only just survived.
This photograph was taken after spending several days in hospital following his rescue, with his feet still bandaged. November 1942.
He was awarded the Military Medal and Bar in October 1943, as a Corporal (acting Sergeant) Nº 324811 of the Staffordshire Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps and served in Africa and Sicily.
A 7.2-inch howitzer of the British Army's 75th Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery being towed through the narrow Via Giuseppe Mazzini by the corner of Via Oreste Bandiniin in the commune of Borgo San Lorenzo, Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany.
12th of September 1944.
A M1919 Browning machine gun post manned by men of the 1st Battalion, 157th Regiment, US 45th Division near Bastogne, Belgium on the 10th of Dececember 1944.
Infantry soldiers and US armoured vehicles of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division come down the Rue Saint Michel in the village of Lonlay l’abbaye, Normandy.
On the 14th of August 1944.
Throughout the first half of August, 1944, the Division held its ground on the north and south flanks of the German thrust and by steady pressure drove the enemy back, aiding materially in the eventual closing the Falaise gap. Co. H., 41st Armored Infantry Regiment held a hill east of Mortain for five rugged days and nights, driving back repeated enemy counterattacks. Co. H, 41st Inf. also received the Presidential Citation for its valiant stand in this engagement. CC"A" pushed from the Vire area toward Flers and rejoined the Division in the Domfont area.
This a possible identification of an Italian Bersaglieri Motorised Marksman of the 10. e 10.bis compagnie moto (motorcycle companie).
He is on a motorcycle armed with a 6.5mm Breda 30 machine gun.
Near Sidi Omar in the Butnan District of Libya during the Western Desert Campaign. November 1940.
Māoris of 'C' Company, 28th Māori Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Division perform the 'Haka' (ancestral war dance) for the visit of King George II of Greece, his wife the Queen, his cousin Prince Peter and Major General Freyberg.
At an army training camp at Helwan in Egypt.
In the early evening of the 25th of June 1941.
Pfc. Terry Paul Moore of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was number one Browning Automatic Rifleman in 2nd Platoon, Company 'F', 184th Infantry Regiment of the US 7th Infantry Division and is lighting his first cigarette of the day on the island of Okinawa soon after the dawn attack on the town of Yonabaru.
In the early morning of the 22nd of May 1945.
This famous photograph by war correspondent Gordon Short captures Leslie ‘Bull’ Allen rescuing a wounded American soldier on Mount Tambu, New Guinea, 30th of July 1943.
(Source: Australian War Memorial, image number 015515)
During an American assault against the Japanese on Mount Tambu, more than 50 US soldiers were injured. Two medics were killed trying to retrieve them.
The Australians were not supposed to be involved in the fighting, but having witnessed so many casualties, Allen, a stretcher-bearer, was determined to do what he could.
The Australian War Memorial record for the photograph states:
“1943-07-30. Mount Tambu, New Guinea. 2/5th Battalion stretcher bearer Corporal Leslie 'Bull' Allen MM, age 26, of Ballarat, Victoria, carrying to safety an American soldier who had been knocked unconscious by a mortar bomb. Allen carried out twelve American casualties while under fire on Mount Tambu. For this gallantry he received the United States Silver Star. He had won his Military Medal as a Private on 7 February 1943 at Crystal Creek, Wau.”
A Ballarat filmmaker who researched Allen's story, Lucinda Horrocks, says what the soldier did next was extraordinary.
"So this is the point at which Bull decides to go up and start carrying men out one at a time over his shoulder, through this terrain, facing the snipers and the machine gun fire and the mortar fire," she said.
Amateur historian David Cranage says each time he went back for another rescue attempt, soldiers would make bets on whether he would return.
"Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Magnificent courage, unbelievable," he said.
"I've never heard anything like it before in my life and I've spent many years studying military history.
"Remember, he was carrying men from another country.
"His heart was so big. He just hopped in. It wouldn't matter where you came from. That's the mark of the man."
It was an act of bravery worthy of place in Australian folklore.
Now, 70 years after the bloody Wau-Salamaua campaign fought in Papua New Guinea, historians are calling for the military's highest honour, the Victoria Cross, to be posthumously bestowed on Australian war hero Leslie 'Bull' Allen.
The Drive for Messina - American troops advance through the damaged Piazza S. Martino in Randazzo, Sicily.
'Operation Husky'
The Allied invasion of Sicily, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis Powers. It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.
Husky began on the night of 9th July 1943, and ended on 17th August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. The Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island; the Mediterranean's sea lanes were opened.
The island was defended by the two corps of the Italian 6th Army under General Alfredo Guzzoni. The total Axis force in Sicily was about 200,000 Italian and 32,000 German troops, and 30,000 Luftwaffe ground staff. The main German formations were the Panzer Division Hermann Göring and the 15th Panzergrenadier Division. The panzer division had 99 tanks in two battalions with three infantry battalions, while the panzergrenadier division had three grenadier infantry regiments and a tank battalion with 60 tanks.
At its peak some 467,000 allied personnel were involved in the Sicily invasion.
Aftermath:
Allied losses:
5837 KIA or MIA
15,683 Wounded
3,330 Captured
Axis losses:
Germany:
4678 KIA
5532 Captured
13,000 Wounded
Italian:
4325 KIA
32,500 Wounded
116,681 Captured
As a result of the invasion, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was toppled from power in Italy. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy
2 Fallschirmjäger Division (Ukraine) sharing a ride on the
Pz. VI 'Tiger' Ausf E. Turmnummer 'S33' in a road march with Kampfgruppe Lammerding, 8.Kompanie, 2nd SS Panzerregiment, 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich."
In the region of Berdychiv, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine.
1st December 1943.
On December the 24th, the Soviets launched a massive operation that shattered the Ukrainian Front and threatened to cut off German forces. Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube successfully extricated his 200,000 soldiers and inflicted heavy losses on the Red Army, but at a high cost in armour. The Soviets could now concentrate on liberating Kharkov.
Except for two Tigers evacuated for factory maintenance, all the vehicles were destroyed by April 1944.The "Das Reich" survivors were then removed from the Eastern Front and sent to France to be rebuilt.
On the 15th of December 1943 the entire 2 Fallschirmjäger Division were airlifted from the Zhitomyr sector to Kivovgrad to counter a Soviet breakthrough. After heavy losses, they were eventually wound-down in April and rested at Köln-Wahn by May 1944.
US Navy pilots, (in front) Lieutenant (jg) Henry H. Dearing of Cleveland, Ohio, Ensign Charles W. Miller of Houston, Texas and Lieutenant (jg) Bus Alder of San Mateo, California walking toward their Grumman F6F-3 'Hellcats' aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) on the 5th November 1943
Lt Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, OBE (15th Nov. 1915 – 4th Nov. 1990) was a Scottish mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.
Stirling was commissioned into the Scots Guards from Ampleforth College Contingent Officer Training Corps on 24 July 1937.
In June 1940 he volunteered for the new No.8 Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock which became part of Force Z (later named "Layforce"). After Layforce (and No.8 Commando) were disbanded on 1 August 1941, Stirling remained convinced that due to the mechanised nature of war a small team of highly trained soldiers with the advantage of surprise could exact greater damage to the enemy's ability to fight than an entire platoon.
Stirling managed to convince Deputy Commander Middle East General Ritchie to allow him to set up a new special operations group and so "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade" was created.
Stirling often led from the front, his SAS units driving through enemy airfields to shoot up aircraft and crew. These hit-and-run operations eventually proved Stirling's undoing; he was captured by the Germans in January 1943. Although he escaped, he was subsequently re-captured by the Italians, who took great delight in the embarrassment this caused to their German allies. A further four escape attempts were made, before Stirling was finally sent to Colditz Castle, where he remained for the rest of the war. After his capture, his own brother Bill Stirling along with Paddy Mayne took command of the SAS.
In North Africa, in the fifteen months before Stirling's capture, the SAS had destroyed over 250 aircraft on the ground, dozens of supply dumps, wrecked railways and telecommunications, and had put hundreds of enemy vehicles out of action. Field Marshal Montgomery described Stirling as "mad, quite mad" but admitted that men like Stirling were needed in time of war.
He was knighted in 1990, and died later that year 11 days before his 75th birthday. In 2002 the SAS memorial, a statue of Stirling standing on a rock, was opened on the Hill of Row near his family's estate at Park of Keir, Doune, Stirlingshire, Scotland.
Side note: Upon creation the SAS was very short of equipment and the very first operation for L detachment SAS was to relieve a well-equipped New Zealand unit of small tents, a large tent and contents, and they also took the bar and a piano.
U.S. Army Pfc. Jesse E. Devore (born in Oklahoma) of the 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, holds a young French boy following the Allied Landings at Normandy and the liberation of Trévières on the 10th of June 1944.
Devore was killed in action at the age of 23, just two weeks after this photograph was taken, and was buried in the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Calvados, Lower Normandy, France on the 27th of June 1944.
US Marines lie flat and try to spot the source of the fire which has them immobilized.
The 2nd and 4th Marine Division 1st Hours on Saipan Beachheads.
15th of June 1944.
(This could be 'Red Beach 2' and if so, these are men of the US 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Division)
At about 08.43, men of the 6th and 8th Marines of the 2rd Division and the 23rd and 25th Marines of the 4th Division hit the beach and immediately came under intense mortar and artillery fire. All units suffered heavily. There was no hesitation, however; the Marines were well oriented, and the attack moved forward. Within 20 minutes, 700 LVT's and 8,000 troops were ashore. Many leaders were hit, but their responsibilities were rapidly assumed by their immediate subordinates. Shells showered on the beach.
Over the next two days, the Marines secured and expanded the beachhead. The morning of 16th of June was spent closing the gap between the two divisions, which were separated by a strong Japanese force on Afetna Point. By noon, this goal was accomplished. A huge Japanese counterattack was successfully repelled that afternoon and the Marines engaged in the largest tank battle of the Pacific War. Aslito Airfield was under pressure at the close of the day. In contrast, the 27th Infantry Division (Army) came ashore to support the Marines on the morning of 17th of June and bore the brunt of a door-to-door fight through Garapan village, another novelty in the Pacific War
The loss of life during the Battle of Saipan was tremendous. Approximately 3,426 of the 67,451 U.S. troops who participated in the battle were killed or reported missing in action. Four times this number were confirmed wounded. Japanese losses were far greater. Of the approximately 31,629 Japanese troops who participated in the battle, 29,500 were lost. Japanese sources, however, estimated the total number killed on Saipan to be well over 40,000. Additionally, 14,560 civilians were placed in internment camps (including 1,173 Koreans) and it is estimated that 22,000 civilians committed suicide (including Japanese, Koreans and native islanders). Civilians on Saipan were afraid of being imprisoned and tortured by the U.S., thus a vast number committed suicide, some with children in hand.
Troops of the 51st Highland Division aboard a landing craft heading for Normandy, reading travel information booklets on France which they were issued before embarkation.
7th of June 1944.
US Marines of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade sit in pouring rain while one of them uses a radio for communication during a lull in the fighting for the Orote Pennisula, Guam.
July 29th 1944
(Photographer: W. Eugene Smith for 'Life' Magazine)
On July 21, 1944, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade assaulted and landed south of the Orote Peninsula on Guam, the largest island of the Mariana Islands.
It consisted of the 4th Marines and the 22nd Marine Regiment. After the invasion of Guam it was disbanded and formed into the 6th Marine Division.
A Marine's experience of life on Guam:
"Rain falls on Guam almost every day in the year. In order to distinguish between the wet and the dry season, any rainfall under 12 inches is part of the dry season. We landed in the middle of the wet season. Aside from a few minor discomforts like mosquito clouds, flies, living in pup tents, eating K-rations, wading up to your .... well - navel, delayed mail, and about 8,000 loose Japs, life the first few weeks was about as tame as a girl scout hike....."
A comrade nails a division sleeve badge on the grave of Cpl. Marcelino Gil Martin of the 2nd Battalion, 263 Inf. Regt., 250th 'Division Azul' Wehrmacht Spanish Volunteers (Died 22/8/42) in Grigorovo, Near Novgorod in Russia.
This photo was taken in June 1943 when his brother, Lt. Angel Eustaquio Gil Martin obtained the necessary permission to go to the Volkhov Front to look for the grave of his brother Marcelino, who fell the previous year.
The iconic image of American photographer Lee Miller in Adolf Hitler's bathtub in Prinzregentenplatz 16, Munich. The image was taken on April the 30th 1945, the day that Hitler was reported to have committed suicide in Berlin.
(Photograph by David E. Scherman)
Lee Miller, covering WWII for 'Vogue' magazine, teamed up with the American photographer David E. Scherman, a 'Life' magazine correspondent on many assignments. The photograph by Scherman of Miller in the bathtub of Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich is one of the most iconic images from the Miller-Scherman partnership. The New York Times had this to say: “A picture of the Führer balances on the lip of the tub; a classical statue of a woman sits opposite it on a dressing table; Lee, in the tub, inscrutable as ever, scrubs her shoulder. A woman caught between horror and beauty, between being seen and being the seer.”
This apartment is where Hitler's half-niece Geli Raubal died, having supposedly committed suicide on the 18th of September 1931.This was also where Hitler and Chamberlain met on September the 30th 1938, following the signing of the four-power Munich Accords.
U.S. Army Sgt. Norwood Dorman of 'E' Company, 36th Field Artillery Regiment, from Benson, North Carolina, mimics the pose of a statue on a memorial for Italian soldiers of WWI while taking a brief rest during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Brolo, Province of Messina, Sicily.
14th August 1943.
Well, we are still here.
Here's a man who needs no introduction along with an extract from one of his many famous speeches. Also an excellent colourisation from 'Mads'.
"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
Winston Churchill
February 9, 1941
Broadcast from London
A mixed group of German soldiers (Kampgruppe) aboard a leichte Schützenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz.250/1 Neu (halftrack) somewhere in the Aachen area of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
c.March 1945.
The American aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13) nicknamed "Big Ben" listing, with crew on deck, 19 March 1945, photo taken from the USS Santa Fe (CL-60) light cruiser, running along side in preparation to evacuate wounded crew.
Before dawn on 19 March 1945, 'Franklin', which had maneuvered to within 80 km (50 miles) of the Japanese mainland, closer than had any other U.S. carrier during the war, launched a fighter sweep against Honshū and later a strike against shipping in Kobe Harbour. The 'Franklin' crew aboard had been called to battle stations 12 times within six hours that night and Captain Gehres downgraded the alert status to Condition III, allowing his men free to eat or sleep, although gunnery crews remained at their stations. Suddenly, a single Japanese aircraft pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the ship to drop two semi-armour-piercing bombs. The damage analysis came to the conclusion that the bombs were 550 lb (250 kg), the Aichi B7A "Grace" had this capability (reports of the exact aircraft type are still inconclusive, also as to whether the plane was shot down or escaped). One bomb struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the Combat Information Center and air plot. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks.
At the time she was struck, 'Franklin' had 31 armed and fueled aircraft warming up on her flight deck. The hangar deck contained 22 additional planes, of which 16 were fueled and five were armed. The forward gasoline system had been secured, but the aft system was operating. The explosion on the hangar deck ignited the fuel tanks on the aircraft, and gasoline vapour explosion devastated the deck. Only two crewmen survived the fire on the hangar deck. The explosion also jumbled aircraft together on the flight deck above, causing further fires and explosions, including the detonation of 12 "Tiny Tim" air-to-surface rockets.
'Franklin' lay dead in the water, took a 13° starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires. Many of the crew were blown overboard, driven off by fire, killed or wounded, but the hundreds of officers and enlisted who voluntarily remained saved their ship. A recent count by 'Franklin' historian and researcher Joseph A Springer brings total 19th March 1945 casualty figures to 807 killed and more than 487 wounded. Certainly, the casualty figures would have far exceeded this number, but for the work of many survivors. Among these were the Medal of Honor recipients Lieutenant Commander Joseph T. O'Callahan, the warship's Catholic chaplain, who administered the last rites, organized and directed firefighting and rescue parties, and led men below to wet down magazines that threatened to explode; and also Lieutenant JG Donald A. Gary, who discovered 300 men trapped in a blackened mess compartment and, finding an exit, returned repeatedly to lead groups to safety. Gary later organized and led fire-fighting parties to battle fires on the hangar deck and entered the No. 3 fireroom to raise steam in one boiler. The Santa Fe rescued crewmen from the sea and approached Franklin to take off the numerous wounded and nonessential personnel.
'Franklin', like many other wartime ships, had been modified with additional armament, requiring larger crews and substantial ammunition stocks. Aircraft were both more numerous and heavier than originally planned for, and thus the flight deck had been strengthened. The aircraft carrier, therefore, displaced more than originally planned, her freeboard was reduced, and her stability characteristics had been altered. The enormous quantities of water poured aboard her to fight the fires further reduced freeboard (exacerbated, on her starboard side, by the list), and her stability was seriously impaired, such that her survival was in jeopardy. 'Franklin' had suffered the most severe damage experienced by any U.S. fleet carrier that survived World War II.
USS Franklin was taken in tow by the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh until she was able to raise enough steam to reach a speed of 14 kts (26 km/h), and then she proceeded to Ulithi Atoll under her own power for emergency repairs. Next, she steamed to Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, where repairs permitted her to steam to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, via the Panama Canal, where she arrived on 28 April 1945.
She was eventually restored to active service after WWII had ended.
USS Franklin received four battle stars for her World War II service.
German soldiers in a posed photo on or soon after the invasion of Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia, 28th August 1941.
German forces started its Tallinn Offensive on 19th August 1941, capturing Rapla on 21st August. They reached Tallinn outskirts in Pirita on 24th August and Harku and Lasnamäe on 26th August . Ordinary citizens were ordered to build defenses around Tallinn. Soviet forces started evacuating by sea on 24th August . Of the 195 ships, that left Tallinn and Paldiski, 55 were sunk by mines near Juminda Peninsula, killing around 15,000 evacuees. Evacuating Soviet forces destroyed much of the infrastructure and industry around Tallinn. German forces captured Paldiski and Tallinn on 28th August, shooting down the Soviet Flag on Tallinn Pikk Hermann Tower. Estonians replaced it with the Flag of Estonia, but it was replaced with the Flag of Germany on the next day. German forces were greeted as liberators in Tallinn. It was also the first time since 1219 that Tallinn had been captured by a military engagement.
A jeep manned by Sergeant Albert 'Joe' Schofield (from Manchester) and Trooper Oliver Jeavons (from Hendon) of 1 SAS near Geilenkirchen in Germany. The Willys MB jeep is armed with three Vickers 'K' guns, and fitted with armoured glass shields in place of a windscreen. The SAS were involved at this time in clearing snipers in the 43rd Wessex Division area.
18th November 1944.
Two British Airborne troopers dug in near Oosterbeek, Holland on 18th September 1944, showing the woodland fought in on the western side of the British perimeter.
By September 1944, Allied forces had successfully broken out of their Normandy beachhead and pursued shattered German forces across northern France and Belgium. Field Marshal Montgomery proposed a bold plan to head north through the Dutch Gelderland, bypassing the German Siegfried line defenses and opening a route into the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr. Initially proposed as a British and Polish operation codenamed Comet, the plan was soon expanded to involve most of the First Allied Airborne Army in what would be the biggest airborne assault in history reinforced by a ground advance into the Netherlands, codenamed Market Garden.
Montgomery's plan involved dropping the U.S. 101st Airborne Division to capture key bridges around Eindhoven, the 82nd Airborne Division to secure key crossings around Nijmegen, and the British 1st Airborne Division, with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade attached, to capture three bridges across the Rhine at Arnhem. The British Second Army, led by XXX Corps would advance up the "Airborne corridor", securing the Airborne Division's positions and crossing the Rhine within two days. If successful the plan would open the door to Germany and hopefully force an end to the war in Europe by the end of the year.
The fierce battle went on for 9 days with both sides making advances and retreats before an eventual full retreat by allied forces.
The Allies' failure to secure a bridge over the Lower Rhine spelled the end of Market Garden. While all other objectives had been achieved, the failure to secure the Arnhem road bridge over the Rhine meant that the operation failed in its ultimate objective. Field Marshal Montgomery claimed that the operation was 90% successful and the Allies did possess a deep salient into German occupied territory that was quickly reinforced, however the losses were catastrophic for the British airborne, something it would never recover from during the remainder of the war.
Allied Airborne Unit losses:
British 1st Airborne
8,969 - Total troops involved.
1,174 - Killed in action or died of wounds.
5,903 - Captured or missing.
1,892 - Safely withdrawn.
British Glider Pilot Regiment
1,262 - Total troops involved.
219 - Killed in action or died of wounds.
511 - Captured or missing.
532 - Safely withdrawn.
Polish Brigade
1,689 - Total troops involved.
92 - Killed in action or died of wounds.
111 - Captured or missing.
1,486 - Safely withdrawn.
German casualty figures are less complete than those of the Allies, and official figures have never been released. A signal possibly sent by II SS Panzer Corps on 27 September listed 3,300 casualties (1,300 killed and 2,000 injured) around Arnhem and Oosterbeek.
A British Army Churchill IV (NA 75) tank of 'A' Squadron, 'The North Irish Horse' attached to the 25th Tank Brigade passing through Via XX Settembre, a narrow street in Montefiore Conca in Rimini, Italy on the 11th September 1944.
A Soviet artillery section of a 45-mm anti-tank gun M1942 (M-42) seen here in what looks like a training exercise under cover of a smokescreen. c.1943.
These guns were used from 1942 until the end of the war. In 1943, due to its insufficient anti-armor capabilities against new German tanks such as Tiger, Panther and Panzer IV Ausf H, the M-42 was partially replaced in mass production by more powerful 57 mm ZiS-2 anti-tank gun.
The total number produced up to 1945 was 10,843.
Three Germans (on the right is a Panzer commander) pose with a knocked out French AMC Somua S 35 Command tank (serial Nº 10664) somewhere on the Western Front (maybe Arras) during the 'Fall of France' in May/June 1940.
American soldiers of the 274th or 275th Inf. Regt., 70th Infantry Division of the US 7th Army display a Nazi flag and a portrait of Adolf Hitler, outside of a cafe in Hohenzollernstraße, Saarbrücken, Germany after the capture of the city on the 22nd of March 1945.
Lance Corporals A Burton and L Barnett, Corps of Military Police, 6th Airborne Divisional Provost Company, guarding a road junction near Ranville, Normandy on the 9th of June 1944.
Horsa gliders can be seen in the field behind.
L/Cpl C.G. Bunting, a fellow 6th Airborne MP, died in the Ranville area on the same day, the 9th June 1944.
Panzerjäger I 4.7cm PaK(t) (Sf) auf Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B tank destroyer, probably with panzerjäger abteilung sfl 521 on the Western Front in France 1940.
The 'Panzerjäger I' was the first tracked tank destroyer to be produced in Germany. It was created by removing the turret from an obsolete Panzer I Ausf B light tank and replacing it with a mounting for a 4.7cm Czech anti-tank gun. This gun was protected by on three sides by a 14.5mm armoured gun shield, but was open at the rear. Eighty six rounds of anti-tank ammunition were carried. The gun had a very limited degree field of fire – 17.5 degrees to either side of the forward position.
Anti-tank Battalion 521 (Eastern Front) July 1941
"The effective range of the 4.7 cm Pak(t) is 1,000 to 1,200 metres (1,100 to 1,300 yd) with a maximum range of 1,500 metres (1,600 yd). When attacking an enemy position equipped with anti-tank guns and artillery, as occurred near Mogilev and Rogachev, because of its high superstructure that presents a good target for artillery and anti-tank guns, the Panzerjäger is destroyed before it can get into action."
"When large shells explode close-by, fragments penetrate the thin armor, as occurred near Rogachev. Russian 4.5 cm (1.8 in) anti-tank guns already penetrate at 1,200 metres (1,300 yd) range. The 1. Kompanie lost 5 out of the 10 vehicles (Kampffahrzeuge) in such actions, of which only two could be repaired."
Troops from the 101st Airborne with full packs and a bazooka, in a C-47 just before take-off from RAF Upottery Airfield to Normandy, France for "Operation Chicago. 5th June 1944.
Additional ID: (F-Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division underway to Normandy aboard their C-47 #12. At 01.20 hours they jumped over DZ "C" (Hiesville). L to R: William G. Olanie, Frank D. Griffin, Robert J. "Bob" Noody, Lester T. Hegland. This photo took on a life of its own after publishment. In the picture Bob remembers he must have weighed at least 250 lbs, encumbered with his M-1 rifle, a bazooka, three rockets, land mines, and other assorted "necessities".)
The division, as part of the VII Corps assault, jumped in the dark morning before H-Hour to seize positions west of Utah Beach. As the assault force approached the French coast, it encountered fog and antiaircraft fire, which forced some of the planes to break formation. Paratroopers from both the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions missed their landing zones and were scattered over wide areas.
From 00.15 in the darkness of June 6, 1944, when Capt. Frank L. Lillyman, Skaneateles, N.Y., leader of the Pathfinder group, became the first American soldier to touch French soil, and for 33 successive days the 101st Airborne carried the attack to the enemy.
Queen Elizabeth with the 18 year old Princess Elizabeth visiting the 6th Airborne Division on Friday the 19th of May 1944. She is seen here talking to Cpl.'Jungle' Jones of the 22 Independent Parachute Company.
The aircraft in the background is a Handley Page Halifax ready to tow a Hamilcar glider and the other is a Short Sterling with a Horsa glider in tow (out of shot).
6th Airborne commander, Major General Richard ‘Windy’ Gale;
"I remember one incident. We were demonstrating to them a new method of unloading guns from the Horsa glider. Something had evidently gone wrong inside and the gunner concerned, unaware that all he said could easily be heard outside, made one or two colourful remarks about the gun lashings with which he was having difficulty.
Eventually the job was done, really much quicker than it had seemed to me, who was so anxiously waiting. The Queen congratulated the gunners on their work, saying with her gracious smile, she could well guess how difficult it had been."
A rare, good quality photo of an Imperial Japanese Navy Pilot.
He was probably a Kamikaze pilot (Japanese pronunciation "Shinpu")
used in suicide attacks against allied naval vessels.
Most Kamikaze pilots were aged 18-24 and some as young as 16. One fifth of them were student soldiers ('Gaku-to Hei'), 130,000 students including some from Formosa, China and Korea were drafted into service as available manpower decreased.
They believed that dying for Japan and their emperor was very honourable. They saw themselves much like the samurai of the Middle Ages, brave Japanese warriors.
Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 Allied and American sailors, and wounded over 4,800.
This pilot carries a wooden 'Omamori' good luck charm wrapped in paper and tucked into his 'Senninbari', a 'belt of a thousand stitches' which was sewn by a thousand woman who did one stitch each, given as an amulet to soldiers on their way to war as a part of the Shinto culture of Imperial Japan. He also wears the 'Hachimaki' headband, with the emblem of the Rising Sun. It was all part of a ceremony where they were also given the Japanese flag, with inspirational or spiritual words inscribed on it and a pistol or 'Katana' (sword).
Squadron Leader Brian 'Sandy' Lane, CO of No. 19 Squadron RAF (centre) confers with Flight Lieutenant Walter 'Farmer' Lawson (left) and Flight Sergeant George 'Grumpy' Unwin at Fowlmere near Duxford, 21st of September 1940.
S/L Brian Lane DFC was killed in combat over the North Sea on the 13th December 1942 (aged 25). He had been given command of No. 167 Squadron, a Dutch Squadron, equipped with outdated Mk V Spitfires. On a sweep over Holland that day, they were attacked by two FW 190s. Lane turned to attack, and was last seen chasing a 190.
This 'loss' was claimed by Oblt W Leonhardt of 6./JG1 and crashed into the sea 30 km west of Schouwen at 16:34 hrs.
Leonhardt was himself shot down over the North Sea less than two months later, and has no known grave.
F/Lt Walter Lawson DFC was given command of 19 Squadron in early July 1941.
On 28th August that same year the squadron was escorting Blenheims on a low-level attack on shipping in Rotterdam harbour. Lawson was shot down and killed in Spitfire IIa P7995 by Me109's of 6/KG53 15 miles off the Dutch coast.
He was 28 and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Panel 28.
FL/S George Unwin DSO, DFM & Bar, survived the war and retired
from the RAF in 1961 as a Wing Commander.
He died of natural causes on the 28th June 2006 at the age of 93.
"US troops aboard the USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145) reverse their route back to NY, the Pacific far away now"
New York, 18th August 1945.
Part of the 3,212 troops line the decks as the vessel docks in NY at the end of what originally started out as a voyage to the Pacific.
The ship sailed from Marseille, France on 7th August bound for the Pacific Front but was diverted to New York when it was two days off the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, following the announcement of Japan's surrender.
A US soldier says farewell at Penn Station (Pennsylvania Station, New York), before being posted abroad in December 1943.
(Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt)
Eisenstaedt when speaking of the time he photographed American soldiers saying farewell to their wives and sweethearts in 1943 on assignment for 'Life' Magazine: “I just kept motionless like a statue.” he said. “They never saw me clicking away. For the kind of photography I do, one has to be very unobtrusive and to blend in with the crowd.”
Junkers Ju.87 D-5 'Stuka' of I./Schlachtgeschwader 3 - I./SG3 being hand crank started in Immola, Finland.
June/July 1944.
"Tuskegee" airman Edward Creston Gleed from Lawrence, Kansas, Class 42-K, with two unidentified crewmen adjusting an external seventy-five gallon drop tank on the wing of a P-51/D Mustang, "Creamer's Dream" (generally flown by 1st.Lt.Charles White) 301st FS, 332nd Fighter Group air base in Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945.
US Marines and Navy corpsmen give first aid to a Japanese girl who suffered a slight leg wound during the battle of Saipan in the Pacific.
July 1944.
1st Battalion, 24th US Marine Regiment, report:
"The civilians were running out of places to hide, and started surrendering more frequently: one here, a couple there. 1/24 rescued an unprecedented eight civilians during the day’s advance; then, whenpreparing night positions, a scouting team reported hearing “the crying of wounded women and children” from a collection of shacks out in front. “The men pleaded for a chance to go out and bring them back,” wrote Stott. “The memory of the ruse which had killed fellow Marines had not vanished, and permission was refused. Yet the men, fully realizing the possibilities of deception, continued to beg for a chance to go. Finally we relented, and another patrol went out cautiously and retrieved the wounded.” Fortunately, this patrol met with greater success, returning with no less than 47 civilians."
It has been confirmed that this photo was taken on Tuesday 9th December 1941, by one of our researchers, John Winner, by magnifying the front page of the middle news paper in the pic.
A news stand on the corner of Sutter and Kearny Street, San Francisco,
Ardennes Offensive 1944 - 45
A group of refugees make their way through the war torn city of Bastogne, Belgium where elements of the 101st Airborne Division remain.
(photo taken 30 Dec 1944)
The town square was later to be named after General Anthony McAuliffe (Place Général McAuliffe) commander of the 101st Airborne who defended the town and when confronted with a written request from German General Luttwitz for the surrender of Bastogne, his reply was one word: "NUTS!"
4./ Fallschirmjäger-Division at Nettuno, Italy. (late 1943-early 1944)
The 4./Fallschirmjäger-Division was formed in Venice, Italy, in November 1943 from elements of 2. Fallschirmjäger-Division with the addition of volunteers from the Italian parachute divisions 184. Parachutist Division Nembo and 185. Parachutist Division Folgore.
It was sent into action against the Allied landings at Anzio (Operation Shingle) as part of I. Fallschirm-Korps in January 1944. It fought the Allied forces in Italy until the surrender in May 1945 in the area between Viacenza and Bozen.
U.S. Army Pvt. Gordon Conrey from Milford, New Hampshire, stands in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (Château de Versailles) shortly after the liberation of Paris by Allied troops in 1944.
This is the hall where the treaty that ended WW1, and set in motion the process that led to WW2, was signed on the 28th June 1919.
"A US Marine with his good luck charm, a '40s pin-up pic by the famous Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas"
1st Battalion, 8th Regiment, 2nd Division USMC aboard (LVTs) landing craft speeding away from the attack ship USS Sheridan (APA-51). They were part of the task force headed toward the Japanese held Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands in the early morning of the 21st of November 1943 (D+1)
The Battle of Tarawa (US code name Operation Galvanic) was a battle in the Pacific Theatre, fought from November 20th to November 23rd, 1943.
The 4,500 Japanese defenders were well-supplied and well-prepared, and they fought almost to the last man, exacting a heavy toll on the United States Marine Corps
There were an estimated 1,000 Japanese alive and fighting on the night of D+2, 500 on the morning of D+3 and only 50-100 left when the island was declared secure at 13.30 D+3. 2nd Marine Division suffered 894 killed in action, 48 officers and 846 enlisted men, with another 84 of the survivors later succumbing to their wounds.
An unidentified Royal Romanian Airforce fighter pilot climbing aboard a (Industria Aeronautică Română) IAR-80 at an airfield in the Ploiești area, 35miles (56kms) north of Bucharest. c.1943.
The 10th of June 1944 proved to be the last glory day of the IAR-80 and of 'Grupul 6 vânătoare' (the 6th Fighter Group). The US 15th Air Force decided to make another low-level attack on the Ploiești refineries, similar to the one on 1 August 1943, this time with the US 82nd Fighter Group and the US 1st Fighter Group providing the escort. 'Grupul 6', raised 23 IAR-81Cs in the air, at 12:30 am. At about 2500 m ground station signalled that "two feathered Indians" (the code name for P-38 'Lightnings') were attacking the airfield. Capt. av. Dan Vizanti then gave the order: "Paris to Paris 1,2,3. We attack! Follow me!" The entire group dived on the unsuspecting pilots of the 71st Fighter Squadron (1st Fighter Group). The dogfight took place at an altitude of a few hundred meters and it lasted four minutes. The nimbler IAR-81C proved to be more than a match for the Lightning at that altitude. Within this short time span, 14 P-38s were shot down. The Romanian pilots claimed 23, but this is easily explainable due to the confusing circumstances. The 'Grupul 6' lost four men, two because of a mid-air collision. Cpt. av. Dan Vizanti added three P-38s to his score.
Bell P-400 Aircobra "Sun Setter", 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th FG., Fifth US Airforce at Milne Bay, New Guinea.
September 1942 - February 1943.
The P-400 was an unusual design: a 20mm cannon fired through the propeller hub in the nose: the engine was located behind the cockpit and it featured a tricycle landing gear. The central location of the heavy Allison V-1710 engine helped to stabilise the plane.
Standing on the wing is Captain Philip Rasmussen.
On the morning of 7th of December 1941, as a Second Lieutenant of the 46th Pursuit Squadron based at Wheeler Field on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, he was one of the few pilots to get off the ground during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was awakened by the air-raid, and ran from the officers mess strapping on his .45 Colt, clad only in his purple silk pyjamas, he jumped into a surviving Curtiss P-36 Hawk and taxied to a revetment at the edge of the airfield, where he joined three other pilots also preparing undamaged P-36 fighters. The pilots took off under fire, and were directed by radio toward Kaneohe Bay where they engaged 11 Japanese fighters in battle.
After shooting down one Japanese aircraft, Rasmussen was attacked by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. Gunfire and 20mm cannon shells shattered the canopy, destroyed the radio and severed the P-36's hydraulic lines and rudder cable. Rasmussen sought refuge in nearby cloud cover and began flying back toward Wheeler Field. He landed the P-36 without brakes, rudder or tailwheel, and with more than 500 bullet holes.
Major Rasmussen would go on to fly P47s over the Pacific earning Oak leaf clusters to his Silver Star (awarded at Wheeler Field), and continue serving with the air-force until retiring in 1965 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Sadly Philip M, Rasmussen passed away on April 30th 2005.
Messerschmitt Bf.109G-6/R-6 ("Rote/Red 29") of 1/JG 302, Malmi Airfield, Finland.
March 1944.
On 6/7th of February 1944 the Soviet Long-Range Bomber Force (ADD) launched a series of large scale air raids against Helsinki. Thus, early in 1944 elements of I./JG 302 were temporarily transferred North to Nachtjagd-Kommando Helsinki to assist in the city's defence. On the 12th of February 1944, 12 Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R6 night-fighters of I. Gruppe arrived at Malmi airfield from Jüterbog in Germany. Using the "Wilde Sau" method, I./JG 302 shot down two Soviet aircraft on 16/17th of February. On 26/27th of February the unit shot down another four bombers. In April 1944 I./JG 302 lost three planes in flying accidents and had had just seven fighters operational. The unit returned to Germany for Reich defence duties on 15 May 1944.
A USMC M4A3 'Sherman' medium flame tank of Company 'C', 4th Marine Tank Battalion, firing its POA-CWS H1 flamethrower during the fighting in March 1945 on Iwo Jima. The battalion had four of these main armament flamethrower tanks (NARA)
When the Marines took Iwo Jima in 1945, they used more than bullets and resolve to clear the enemy from his warrens of caves and defensive positions – they used flame tanks, horrific but effective weapons born of ingenuity and grim necessity.
“To the Marines on the ground, the Sherman M4A3 medium tank, equipped with the Navy Mark I flamethrower, seemed to be the most valuable weapon employed in the battle of Iwo Jima”, wrote retired Col. Joseph Alexander in “Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima.”
Infantry men of 'B' Company, 44th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th US Armored Division while crossing the street, pass the body of Pfc. Robert Vardy Wynne (aged 19 from Texas) who had just been shot dead by a sniper. This took place on April the 4th 1945 in Oberdorla, Mühlhausen/Thüringen, Germany.
Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on a Mk 12 quadruple mount firing on board USS Hornet CV-12 (a US Navy aircraft carrier of the Essex class), circa February 1945, probably during gunnery practice. The original picture caption identifies the photo as having been taken during Task Force 58's raid on Japan, 16 February 1945. However, helmetless members of the gun crew, and rolled up shirt sleeves, strongly indicate that the occasion was in warmer climes and not while in combat. View looks aft on the port side, with the carrier's port quarter 5"/38 guns just beyond the 40 mm mount. Note ready-service ammunition and spent shell casings at right; men passing 4-round clips to loaders at left.
XI Flieger Film Korps photographer Erwin Seeger posing in the nose of a Heinkel-111 which was towing a Gotha Go-242 transport glider between Sicily and Tunisia. c.1942/43
An Infantryman of the 301st Regiment, 94th Infantry Division, US Third Army, guards a group of German prisoners in a house in Schillingen, Germany. 15th of March 1945.
In preparation for the D-Day invasion, US artillery equipment is loaded aboard LCTS at Brixham harbour in Devon, England,
1st of June 1944.
LST-499 (second from left) was involved in 'Operation Tiger' the pre D-Day training exercise in Lyme Bay which was to culminate in landings on Slapton Sands on 27/28th April 1944. It was a disaster for the American forces involved.
On the 27th, US troops were landed on the beaches under live ammunition shelling and due to a lack of communication were hit by 'Friendly Fire'.
The following morning the exercise was blighted when a convoy of follow-up troops was attacked by nine German E-boats in Lyme Bay.
Lessons were learned but the appalling loss of life had little or no compensating benefit to the allied landings at Normandy.
The total number of Americans killed and missing was 10 times the actual losses on Utah beach on June the 6th 1944.
(638 servicemen were killed:441 United States Army and 197 United States Navy personnel.)
Wehrmacht troops on the Eastern Front (c.1942)
They are seen here carrying the Maschinenpistole MP.40.
"Although the MP 40 was generally reliable, a major weakness was its 32-round magazine. Unlike the double-column, dual-feed magazine insert found on the Thompson M1921-28 variants, the MP 38 and MP 40 used a double-column, single-feed insert. The single-feed insert resulted in increased friction against the remaining cartridges moving upwards towards the feed lips, occasionally resulting in feed failures; this problem was exacerbated by the presence of dirt or other debris. Another problem was that the magazine was also sometimes misused as a handhold. This could cause the weapon to malfunction when hand pressure on the magazine body caused the magazine lips to move out of the line of feed, since the magazine well did not keep the magazine firmly locked. Soldiers were trained to grasp either the handhold on the underside of the weapon or the magazine housing with the supporting hand to avoid feed malfunctions."
By 1942 the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) on the Eastern Front consisted of many volunteers from other countries, such as,
Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Croatia the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasus.
'Invasion'
1st September 1939 at 05:45 on the Polish-German border.
German soldiers, assisted by border police from Danzig, break open the gate at a Polish checkpoint. The German bid for domination of the European continent had begun.
The German soldiers obviously posed for the photograph: they break the barrier from the Polish side of the border as is indicated by the Polish national emblem.
"At 4.45 the German battleship "Schleswig-Holstein" started shelling of Westerplatte, Military Transit Depot in the Free City of Danzig, defended by the crew under the command of Major. Henry Sucharskiego and Cpt. Francis Dabrowski. 7 days heroically resisted she repeated attacks of German sea, land and air, becoming a symbol of Polish resistance. A photograph that can say that without a doubt symbolises aggression in the Second Republic. Wehrmacht crosses the boundaries Polish - breaking the barrier of entry and the destruction of the Polish state symbols by German soldiers, photo taken at the border crossing in Sopot, 1 September 1939. Two weeks later, the Second Republic is attacked from the east by the Soviet army. So begins the greatest of wars that claimed millions of lives."
Soldiers of either the 1st or 3rd Battalion of the 338th Infantry Regiment, 85th US. Infantry Division inspecting a German machine-gun nest, consisting of two MG.42 machine guns and some radio equipment, on 'Hill 926' which was part of the Gothic Line on Monte Altuzzo in the North Apennine Mountains of Italy.
17th of September 1944.
'Hill 926' had been defended by members of the 1st Battalion/12th Fallschirmjäger Regiment and this is an extract from the 338th Inf. Regt., 3rd Platoon's report:
"As soon as Pte.Lightner returned, both he and Sgt.Fent went inside the bunker, there to discover a large store of German equipment;
weapons, radios, telephones, and rations. A telephone rang while they were investigating. Fent answered, but the German at the other end of the line, evidently recognising the American accent, slammed down the phone. Sure that the incident had tipped off the Germans that Americans were in the bunker, Fent and Lightner shot holes in the radios and ripped up the telephone wires, so that the enemy could not use the communications if he reoccupied the position.
Fent and Lightner found fresh bread and cans of sardines, and ate greedily, for neither had tasted food since the day before. Gathering up other spoils, Lightner slipped several watches on his wrist and stuffed his belt full of knives. The two men spent about twenty minutes in the bunker before rejoining Company 'C' on the southern slope of Hill 926
A crew member rests during an engine refit of his Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf.E 'Tiger' (tactical number 141) - 1.Kompanie/schwere Panzer Abteilungen (s.Pz.Abt.) 501. Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK) in Tunisia. Some time between Summer 1942 and Early 1943.
Following the Allied landings in northwest Africa, Germany quickly sent troops to Tunisia to block access to Libya and deprive the Allies of bases within easy striking distance of Italy. One of those units was the schwere Panzer Abteilung 501, which was one of the two 'Tiger' units that had been promised to Rommel and prepared for tropical deployment. Originally, sPzAbt 501 was to have been outfitted with the Porsche-Tigers, but due to the delays and subsequent cancellation of Porsche-Tiger production, the sPzAbt 501 was issued with normal Henschel-Tigers.
US Combat Engineers wearing USAAF flak jackets in the area of the Siegfried Line in Germany. 3rd December 1944.
'The Battle of the River Plate'
The 'Admiral Graf Spee' was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser ('pocket battleship') commissioned in 1936. The Graf Spee was more heavily gunned than any other cruiser.
The Graf Spee had sunk several merchant ships in the Atlantic before being attacked by a British search group consisting of the cruisers 'Exeter', 'Ajax', and 'Achilles'. The damage on the 13th of December 1939 to the 'Graf Spee' forced her to seek refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay for several days to make repairs.
The Uruguayan authorities followed international treaties and, although granting an extra 72 hours stay over the normal 24 hours, required that Admiral Graf Spee leave port by 20:00 on the 17th December or else be interned for the duration of the war.
As it was thought that a large fleet of British ships awaited them out at sea, the commander of the Graf Spee, Kapitän zur See (Captain) Hans Langsdorff made the decision to scuttle the ship, largely to spare his crew further casualties. At the limit of Uruguayan territorial waters she stopped, and her crew was taken off by Argentine barges. Shortly thereafter, planted charges blew up 'Admiral Graf Spee' and she settled into the shallow water.
Hans Langsdorff committed suicide three days later on the 20th December in his hotel room in Buenos Aires. He lay on the Admiral Graf Spee's battle ensign and shot himself.
German soldiers of the Waffen-SS, link 7.92 mm ammunition belts for a single Maschinengewehr MG.34 recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun during the Siege of Leningrad.
Near Leningrad (now, Saint Petersburg), Russia. September 1942.
Waffen-SS involvement in the battles around Leningrad was initially small, but grew during 1942 and by the winter of 1943 they were committed to holding a key sector of the siege lines around the city.
The Camouflage of the M40 smock depicted here is the 'variegated leaf' pattern.
Sous-Lieutenant Pierre Clostermann (left) congratulates Flight Lieutenant Ken L. Charney in the cockpit of his Supermarine Spitfire Mark IXc, on their return to B11/Longues-sur-Mer, Normandy (7 kilometres north of Bayeux.), after an evening sortie in which they each shot down a Focke Wulf Fw 190. Both pilots were serving with Nº602 (City Of Glasgow) Squadron.
Late June, early July 1944.
Pierre Clostermann was a French Flying Ace born in Brazil and Ken Charney was from Argentina, they were both awarded the DFC for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy."
Both survived the war, P.Clostermann retired as a colonel in the Reserves and died in 2006 aged 85.
D.Charney retired as a group Captain Captain in 1970 and died in 1982 aged 62.
German troops, accepting a drink from a French villager somewhere in Normandy.
Mid. June 1944, after the commencement of the allied invasion.
The soldier on the left is carrying a Sturmgewehr (STG.44) and in the centre is carried a Panzerschreck (RPzB.54 - anti-tank rocket launcher) and front right are the Gr.4322 heat rockets used with the launcher.
Members of the US 4th Infantry Division and some of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, crowd aboard an LCT on the way to Tare Green Sector, Utah Beach, Normandy.
D-Day - June 6th, 1944.
In this photo can be seen a 101st shoulder sleeve badge of the 'Screaming Eagles' top left and to the lower right is a 4th Division badge of the 'Ivy Leaf' that the censor has tried to disguise.
In June 1944, the decision to drop both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions simultaneously into Normandy reduced the number of available aircraft to tow the gliders for a glider assault. The 327th Glider Infantry Regiment was ordered to land across Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division on D-Day. Its mission was to move to Carentan to cut off the fleeing Germans. Although causalities were high, the mission was accomplished and the Regiment moved back to England to prepare for its next mission.
Soviet soldiers sit on the throne of the Last Chinese Emperor, Pu Yi. September 1945
Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China.
Aged 19 in 1924, with China in turmoil, he escaped to the international settlement at Tientsin to take shelter in the welcoming arms of the Japanese. They found a use for him and, when they took control of Manchuria in 1931, they proclaimed Pu Yi as Emperor of Manchukuo.
He remained titular emperor all through the Second World War, but he was never more than a Japanese puppet. In 1945, with the war turning against the Japanese, he considered fleeing to Japan, but when the Japanese surrendered he renounced his title and announced the area’s restoration to China. Pu Yi now tried to fly to Korea and on to Japan, but he was caught by Soviet troops at Mukden airport and flown to Siberia where he was kept captive, though in comfortable circumstances, until 1950 when the Russians handed him over to the Communist regime in China. Pu Yi was sure he would be executed but the Chinese put him in a management centre for war criminals along with some of his family and ex- Manchukuo officials and army officers. He was Prisoner No 981 and tended the prison vegetable garden.
After several years of ‘rehabilitation’ he was accepted as a genuine convert to Communism and a loyal Chinese citizen and was formally pardoned. He worked part-time as an assistant gardener at the Beijing botanical gardens and in 1962 married his fifth and last wife, a hospital nurse, who survived him. He was sometimes trotted out and shown to visiting foreign dignitaries as an interesting curiosity until his death at the age of 61 in 1967
An American Douglas A-20G 'Havoc' bombs the forest near the village of Le Molay-Littry, a municipality in the region of Lower Normandy on the 7th June 1944.
The area and it's V-1 and V-2 rocket launches were under the control of Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss of the 352nd. Infantry Division.
The district was finally liberated on June 10th, 1944 by the US 2nd Armored Division
Easy Red Sector', Omaha Beach - approx. 0700 on the 6th June 1944.
Another 'shaky' image from the Robert Capa D-Day collection.
Only 11 of the 108 original frames were salvaged.
This photograph is from contact screen frame 1 #29
Photographer Robert Capa landed at Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach with the men of Easy Company, the 2nd battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, US Army 1st Division.
Capa was known to say, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." On D-Day, he came close once again. With Capa standing in the very stern, his landing craft mistakenly came ashore at the section of Omaha Beach dubbed "Easy Red." Then the ramp went down.
"The flat bottom of our barge hit the earth of France," Capa remembered in his book, 'Slightly Out of Focus'. "The boatswain lowered the steel-covered barge front, and there, between the grotesque designs of steel obstacles sticking out of the water, was a thin line of land covered with smoke — our Europe, the 'Easy Red' beach.
"My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return. The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion. The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear. The water was cold, and the beach still more than a hundred yards away. The bullets tore holes in the water around me, and I made for the nearest steel obstacle. A soldier got there at the same time, and for a few minutes we shared its cover. He took the waterproofing off his rifle and began to shoot without much aiming at the smoke-hidden beach. The sound of his rifle gave him enough courage to move forward, and he left the obstacle to me. It was a foot larger now, and I felt safe enough to take pictures of the other guys hiding just like I was."
Capa was squeezing off photographs as he headed for a disabled American tank. He remembered feeling "a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face." With great difficulty his trembling hands reloaded his camera. All the while he repeated a sentence that he had picked up during the Spanish Civil War: "Es una cosa muy seria" ("This is a very serious business").
Greek soldiers fend off the Fascist Italian invasion in the mountains of Albania during the Italian Primavera Offensive.
Near Berat, Albania. Early March 1941.
Greece entered the war on 28 October 1940, when the Italian Army invaded from Albania, beginning the Greco-Italian War. The Greek Army was able to stop the invasion and was even able to push the Italians back into Albania, thereby winning one of the first victories for the Allies. The Greek successes and the inability of the Italians to reverse the situation forced Germany to intervene in order to protect their main Axis partner’s prestige. The Germans invaded Greece and Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, and overran both countries within a month, despite British aid to Greece in the form of an expeditionary corps.
US Marines of the 29th Regiment, 6th Division securing Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. 25th May 1945.
US Navy pilots, (in front) Lieutenant (jg) Henry H. Dearing of Cleveland, Ohio, Ensign Charles W. Miller of Houston, Texas and Lieutenant (jg) Bus Alder of San Mateo, California walking toward their Grumman F6F-3 'Hellcats' aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) on the 5th November 1943.
The Italian Battleship 'Conte Di Cavour' - 1940.
On the 9th of July 1940 it participated in the 'Battle of Calabria' which was the first conflict between Italian and British and Commonwealth Naval Powers.
During the Night of the 'Battle of Taranto' 11-12 November 1940 'Conte di Cavour' was sunk in shallow waters by a torpedo dropped by a British Swordfish torpedo bomber from the British aircraft carrier 'HMS Illustrious' during the attack on the naval base of Taranto. She was deliberately grounded, with most of her hull underwater.
In late 1941 she was transferred to San Marco shipyard in Trieste to complete repairs and undergo modernisation work with particular emphasis on air defence. She never returned to active duty.
The 'Conte di Cavour's' repair work was approximately 85% completed at the time of the Italian armistice in September, 1943. She was unable to flee, and was seized at her moorings by the Germans. They considered continuing her repairs or alternatively removing some of her heavy guns for use as shore batteries, but in the end nothing more was done with her.
The Battleship came under further attack by bombers of the US. Army Air Force in February 1945, and sank at her moorings.
She was finally marked for scrap in February 1947, but was not recovered and scrapped until 1952
Grenadiers of possibly the 267th Grenadier Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the 6th Army, manoeuvre in the rubble surrounding the Barrikady factory in Stalingrad. October 1942
The grenadier on the right carries on his back the Lafayette tripod for the MG.34 machine gun.
During the Case Blue offensive, the division was sent with the 6th Army as a component of LI Corps to capture the industrial Russian city of Stalingrad, which was considered important in crushing Soviet morale. The 94th Infantry Division was cut off from supplies and reinforcements outside of Stalingrad in the beginning of the "Russian winter", as a Soviet pincer-movement left the 6th Army surrounded.
Commandos of HQ 4th Special Service Brigade, 48th Royal Marines coming ashore from LCI(S) landing craft at 'Nan Red Sector' Juno Beach, Saint-Aubin-sur-mer, Normandy, France, at approximately 0845 on D-Day, 6th June 1944.
A French 75mm field gun (Canon de 75 modèle 1897) in position and ready for the arrival of the German 9th and 10th Panzer Divisions during May 1940.
At the Battle South of Amiens on June 5th-9th, 1940.
The Germans launched almost 300 tanks (not counting all the armoured personal carriers) and roughly about 60,000 men against approximately 15,000 French troops supported by only 26 tanks.
The Panzer Divisions lost about 135 tanks in that battle (destroyed or transiently damaged), including many destroyed against French artillery batteries firing directly on the enemy tanks. The 2 French divisions nonetheless lost 60-70% of their strength and manpower but they had blocked the advance of a Panzer Korps, which was finally directed against a neighbouring part of the front. The isolated strongholds fought generally until the end or until the exhaustion of all ammunition. These units were not even peace time units but only reserve units.
The 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece (capable of firing 6 shells a minute) and was first adopted in March 1898.
Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Normandy. A group of American soldiers stand at the village fountain on June 12, 1944. A woman is walking away with two pitchers while three children are watching the scene, and an old man is fetching water next to a GI expected to wash his dishes.
Sainte-Marie-du-Mont was liberated by a group of paratroopers of the 501st and 506th Regiments of the 101st Airborne Division.
Located at the first major road intersection inland from Utah Beach, Sainte Marie du Mont was one of the main D-Day objectives for the 101st Airborne Division. This village was the first large settlement on the main advance route to Carentan for the sea-borne forces, but because of the very scattered night drop, Sainte Marie du Mont was not finally secured until the afternoon of D-Day. The fighting in the town on D-Day was mostly the American and German paratroopers in the vicinity vying for the best position until reinforcements arrived to help. Once the US Paras held the village they had denied to the Germans the best observation point that they had had down to Utah Beach. Luckily for the American Forces, the American reinforcements coming from the beach arrived quickest, mainly thanks to the work done by other American Paratrooper units further south, west and north in stopping the Germans from being able to plan any properly organised attacks against any American positions until after the Utah Landing Beach Head was already secure.
Cretan partisans (from the Greek Island of Crete), pose for a photograph following the Axis invasion of the island. Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it began on 20 May 1941 when Axis forces invaded the island in the Battle of Crete. This was the first occasion in the war that the Germans encountered widespread and unrestrained resistance from a civilian population, and for a period of time, it unbalanced them. Civilians on Crete: men, women and even children, picked off Axis paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes, clubs or even bare hands in a show of resistance that would become legendary. Although largely subdued by the Germans, the civilians harried the occupying Germans until 1945.
(Photograph taken in Crete during May 1941)
The Cretans soon supplemented their makeshift weapons with captured German small arms taken from the bodies of dead paratroops (Fallschirmjäger) and glider troops. However, once they had recovered from their shock, the German paratroopers reacted with equal ferocity, killing many Cretan civilians in reprisal.
Furthermore, as most Cretan partisans wore no uniforms or identifying insignia such as armbands or headbands, the Germans felt free of all of the constraints implied by the Hague conventions and killed both armed and unarmed civilians indiscriminately.
Two examples of such extreme brutality towards Cretan civilians are the Holocaust of Viannos and the Massacre of Kondomari. The Holocaust of Viannos was a mass extermination campaign launched by the German forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages located in the areas east of Viannos and west of Ierapetra provinces on Crete. The killings, with a death toll in excess of 500, were carried out on 14–16 September 1943 by Wehrmacht units. They were accompanied by the burning of most villages, and the looting and destruction of harvests.The massive loss of life amounted to one of the deadliest massacres during the Axis occupation of Greece. It was ordered by Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, in retaliation for the support and involvement of the local population in the Cretan resistance. Müller, who earned the nickname "the Butcher of Crete", was executed after the war for his part in the massacre.
Infantrymen of Company "I", 35th. Regt./ 25th. US Inf.Div. await the word to advance in pursuit of retreating Japanese forces. The Vella Lavella Island Front, in the Solomon Islands, Southwest Pacific.
13th of September 1943.
The Battle of Vella Lavella was fought from the 15th of August to the 9th of October 1943 between Japan and the Allied forces from New Zealand and the United States. Vella Lavella is an island located in the Solomon Islands that had been occupied by Japanese forces. The Allies successfully recaptured the island.
Flight Lieutenant James "Ginger" Lacey DFM & bar, being congratulated by other members of RAF Squadron 501 (Hurricanes) based at Gravesend in Kent sometime in July 1941.
He had been made a gift of a silk scarf and a brand new parachute from girls at a factory in Sydney, Australia in recognition of his actions on the 13th of September 1940 when he shot down a Heinkel 111 that had earlier bombed Buckingham Palace in London.
James Harry "Ginger" Lacey DFM & Bar
was one of the top scoring Royal Air Force fighter pilots of the Second World War and was the second highest scoring British RAF fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain, behind P/O Eric Lock of No. 41 Squadron RAF. Lacey was credited with 28 enemy aircraft destroyed, five probables and nine damaged.
(1 February 1917 – 30 May 1989)
A French boy showing his disinterest in General Charles de Gaulle's speech after the Liberation of the city of Chartres, 96 km (60 miles) southwest of Paris, on the 23rd of August 1944.
He is sitting on top of a French Hotchkiss 39 tank (modified for German use with a hatched copula) which would have had the Free French markings and Tricolor in the sides and an American encircled star on the front under the drivers hatch.
The "Hôtel du bon Laboureur" can be seen in the background.
(This photo is often wrongly portrayed as being in Paris, where General de Gaulle made a further speech on the 25th of August)
An Indian infantry section of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment, 4th Indian Infantry Brigade, 26th Indian Infantry Division about to go on patrol on the Arakan front in Burma. May 1944
The 2nd Battalion was in the Arakan area and a number of actions were fought by it. The capture of Point 551, also called Rajput Hill was the most important. The Japanese holding this feature had turned back repeated attacks by other battalions but the Rajputs carried the day winning an IOM, five MC's and two MM's for this action. (Indian Order of Merit, Military Cross and Military Medal)
Finnish soldiers drive through the burning streets of Petrozavodsk in a captured Soviet T-26E light infantry tank during the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War.
1st of October 1941.
Petrozavodsk, Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Republic of Karelia), Russia, Soviet Union.
Image taken by M. Manninen. (SA-kuva)
Petrozavodsk, along with the rest of East Karelia, was occupied by Finnish troops for nearly three years before it was retaken by Soviet forces on 28 June 1944.
'Easy Red Sector', Omaha Beach - approx. 0700 on the 6th June 1944
Photographer Robert Capa landed at Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach with the men of Easy Company, the 2nd battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, US Army 1st Division.
After completing his task of photographing the landings, Capa’s survival instincts took over. Seeing another craft approaching the beach, he fled towards it. After he was hoisted aboard, the vessel took a direct hit from a German shell and several men on board were killed. Capa survived and transferred to a troop ship for the return journey to England.
On arriving in Weymouth, Dorset, Capa put the four rolls of 35mm film in a courier’s pouch together with several 120mm rolls that he had shot before the invasion. He also included a note to John Morris, Life’s London office picture editor, that stated, ‘John – all the action’s in the 35mm.’ With his films safely on their way, Capa boarded the first boat returning to France.
When the courier arrived at the Life office, Morris urged his staff to develop the films quickly in order to meet the publication deadline. They were given to 15-year-old darkroom assistant Dennis Banks to develop.
The incident that followed has become as famous as Capa’s images. A few minutes later, Banks returned to Morris’s office in tears, saying, ‘They’re ruined! Capa’s films are all ruined!’ In the rush to process and dry the films, Banks had placed them in a wooden drying cabinet and closed the doors. The heat had been so intense that the emulsion had melted and all that was left, as Morris discovered as he examined the films, was ‘a brown sludge in frame after frame’.
Only 11 of the 108 original frames were salvaged.
This photograph is contact screen frame 7/neg. 35
A partial colourisation of General der Panzertruppe Erwin Rommel visiting Italian gun emplacements in the area of Tobruk during September 1941.
There is a story that Erwin Rommel met with a group of Italian officers in the early stages of the war and during the social part of the visit, one of the Italian Officers, apparently unaware of Rommel's career, asked where he had earned his 'Pour le Mérite' (Blue Max), to which (according to the story) Rommel responded in a matter of fact sort of way, "Caporetto."
(referring to the Battle of Caporetto on the Italian Front of 1917)
A US 3rd Armored Division M5A1 "Stuart" Light tank crosses through "La Vauterie," a hamlet of St Fromond a village situated on the left side of the Vire river in Normandy. This village was liberated on the 7th of July 1944 by the 117th U.S. Inf. Rgt. under the command of Colonel Henry E. Kelly of the 30th U.S.I.D.; the engineers of the 105th and 247th Engineer Battalion repaired the old stone-bridge and built another one (on dinghies) under German artillery fire + a pontoon-bridge and a foot-bridge for infantry. 3 days were necessary to resolve the traffic jam and organise the continuation of the assault progression towards "Pont-Hébert" and "St Jean de Daye".
On the wall there are two "séances récréatives" (small country shows) placarded, many bullet holes and shrapnel impacts are visible. In front, a doll abandoned by her little owner is lying on a stone in sitting position.
Members of the 'Hagakure-Tai' , a ramming division of the 244th Sentai, pose for a group photo at Chofu airfield, Tokyo in November 1944.
These pilots are, from left to right,
1st Lt. Toru Shinomiya (leader), Cpl. Masao Itagaki, M/Sgt. Takao Yoshida and Cpl. Tadashi Abe.
(They flew Kawasaki Ki-61'Hien' but are seen here in front of parked up Nakajima Ki-84-1a "Hayate")
(Promoted, Major Shinomiya was KIA 29 April 1945 during a 'kamikaze' mission in defence of Okinawa)
(Cpl. Itagaki survived the war as one of only two known double Bukosho recipients)
(M/Sgt.Yoshida was KIA 27 December 1944 when attempting to ram the B-29 'Uncle Toms Cabin Nº2' of the 498th BG)
(Promoted Sgt. Tadashi Abe survived a crashed landing at Kikaiga Shima off of Okinawa in 1945)
The tactic of using aircraft to ram American Boeing B-29 Superfortresses was first recorded in late August 1944, when B-29s from Chinese airfields attempted to bomb the steel factories at Yawata.
Sergeant Shigeo Nobe of the 4th Sentai intentionally flew his Kawasaki Ki-45 into a B-29; debris from the explosion severely damaged another B-29, which also went down. Other attacks of this nature followed, as a result of which individual pilots determined it was a practicable way of destroying B-29s.
On 7 November 1944, the officer commanding the 10th Hiko Shidan (Air division) made ramming attacks a matter of policy by forming ramming attack flights specifically to oppose the B-29s at high altitude. The aircraft were stripped of their fuselage armament and protective systems in order to attain the required altitudes.
Although the term "kamikaze" is often used to refer to the pilots undertaking these attacks, the word was not used by the Japanese military. The units assigned to the 10th Hiko Shidan included the 244th Hiko Sentai (Fighter group), then commanded by Captain Takashi Fujita, who organised a ramming flight called "Hagakure-Tai" ("Special Attack Unit"), which was composed out of volunteers from the three Chuatai (squadrons) of the 244th: the 1st Chutai "Soyokaze", 2nd Chutai "Toppu", and the 3rd Chutai known as "Mikazuki".
First Lieutenant Toru Shinomiya was selected to lead the Hagakure-Tai. On 3 December 1944 Shinomiya, along with Sergeant Masao Itagaki and Sergeant Matsumi Nakano, intercepted a B-29 raid; Shinomaya rammed one B-29, but was able to land his damaged Ki-61, which had lost most of the port outer wing, back at base. After attacking another B-29, Itagaki had to parachute from his damaged fighter, while Nakano rammed and damaged B-29 'Long Distance' of the 498th BG and crash-landed his stripped-down Ki-61 in a field. Shinomaya's damaged Ki-61 was later displayed inside Tokyo's Matsuya department store while Nakano's Ki-61 was displayed outside, alongside of a life-size cut-away drawing of the forward fuselage of a B-29. These three pilots were the first recipients of the Bukosho, Japan's equivalent to the Victoria Cross or Medal of Honor, which had been inaugurated on 7 December 1944 as an Imperial Edict by Emperor Hirohito (there are 89 known recipients, most of whom fought and scored against B-29s).
The existence of the ramming unit had been kept confidential until then, but it was officially disclosed in the combat results announcement and officially named "Shinten Seiku Tai" ("Body Attack Detachment") by the Defense GHQ. On 27 January 1945, Itakagi survived another ramming attack on a B-29, again parachuting to safety, and received a second Bukosho; he survived the war as only one of two known double-Bukosho recipients. Sergeant Shigeru Kuroishikawa was another distinguished member of the unit. However, these pilots gained no reprieve and despite their successes they were obligated to continue these deadly and dangerous ramming tactics until they were killed, or else wounded so badly that they could no longer fly. They were regarded as doomed men and were celebrated among the ranks of those who were going to certain death as Tokkotai (kamikaze) pilots.
Some other Ki-61 pilots also became well-renowned, among whom was Major Teruhiko Kobayshi of the 244th Sentai, who was credited by some with a dozen victories mostly due to conventional attacks against B-29s.
The Hiko Sentai, usually referred to as Sentai, was the basic operational unit of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, composed of three or more Chutai (companies or squadrons). A Sentai had 27 to 49 aircraft, with each Chutai having 16 aircraft and pilots plus a maintenance and repair unit. Several sentai had other units under their operational control, most notably the Hagakure-Tai ("Special Attack Units") of the 244th Sentai. By 1944, with the depredations of Allied attacks on supply lines and airfields, as well as the loss of pilots and aircraft through combat attrition and accidents, few sentai were able to operate at full strength.
(info extracted from the publication of Osprey Aviation Elite -5 "B-29 Hunters of the JAAF")
French children surround a U.S. Army soldier as he lets them rummage through his rucksack for sweets following the U.S. victory of the Battle of Carentan and the liberation of the village from German forces. Carentan, Manche, Lower Normandy, France. 15 June 1944.
In the immediate aftermath of the landings, the priority for the Allies at Utah Beach was to link up with the main Allied landings further east, and this job was tasked to the 101st division, who had landed in the area and had been conducting raids against inland targets—mainly artillery emplacements helping secure and cut off the landings from such threats as well as reinforcements. On June 9, the 101st Airborne Division had reorganised sufficiently from the haphazard scattering of its component units and managed to cross the flooded Douve River valley exploiting their superior training and utilising the few causeways passing through the flooded fields, and they captured Carentan the next day after a dawn attack in the all-day hard fought house to house fighting in the Battle of Carentan, where the German troops fought from strong prepared positions amongst the stone houses of the town. The capture of the town gave the Allies a continuous front joining Omaha to Utah Beach and the other three lodgements to the east of Utah. Possession of the town was maintained despite a German armour reinforced counterattack just to the south-west of town on the 13th known as the Battle of Bloody Gulch.
A captured Panzergrenadier of 2.SS-Panzer-Division 'Das Reich' being searched by a US soldier during the German counter offensive near Mortain (Operation Lüttich), Normandy on August 7 – 13th 1944.
The German high command saw an opportunity of driving westwards to Avranches with the hope of cutting-off the American spearheads.
Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge was given the task and developed a hasty plan to counter-attack through Mortain and on to Avranches. Time was not on the side of the Germans, so the attack went ahead before all the planned forces were assembled. 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' led the attack during the early hours of the 7th August.
Allied aircraft inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops. In the open ground the Panzers became exposed targets and by the 13th of August the counter offensive had halted. Over 150 Panzers involved in the counter attack were lost to Allied air strikes, over half of those committed. Nevertheless, the offensive would continue around Mortain for several more days.
(Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge committed suicide on the 17th August 1944, after having been recalled to Berlin for a meeting with Hitler in the aftermath of the failed coup and attempted assassination of the Fuhrer on the 20th July.
Stanisław Skalski DSO, DFC and two Bars (27 November 1915 – 12 November 2004) was a Polish fighter ace of the Polish Air Force in World War II, later rising to the rank of Generał Brygady. Stanisław Skalski was the top Polish fighter ace of WW II and the first Allied fighter ace of the war, credited, according to official list, with 18 11/12 victories and two probable. Some sources, including Skalski himself, give a number of 22+ victories.
During his time with RAF 501 Squadron he was shot down on the 5th of September 1940, this is his later account of the incident:
"I was flying in S/L Harry Hogan's Hurricane V6644, squadron code SD-B. I got one He-111 and two Me-109s and still had ammunition, so I went off to do some hunting by myself. I didn't know who shot me down until he made a slow roll in front of me--by then I was already on fire. He had come up from below and behind me. He hit my reserve tank, located behind the engine, but I would have been even less fortunate if he had hit my main tank. I preferred to use the main tanks first; if I used up the fuel in the reserve tank, there would be fumes left in it, and if a bullet hit it, it could have exploded and I would have been killed. As it was, I was on fire, including my tunic and other clothing. I used to fly without goggles--I put my hands over my eyes and opened the cockpit, but the pressure kept me in my seat. I used my right hand to try to get out while the plane dove from 28,000 feet at 600 mph. Once my head was out of the cockpit, the wind pulled me out. I probably collided with the right fuselage or tail. My hand is still injured--I can't play tennis--and my knee also hurts. I was probably unconscious after hitting the airplane, but a sixth sense told me not to open my parachute until the fire was out. Three years ago, I found out in a medical journal that when you are between life and death, something in your head tells you what you have to do. When I opened my eyes, I was floating 200 feet above the ground. I landed in a field, and a police car came from the bushes. The policemen asked me, "German?" "No," I said, "I'm from Poland." They took me down to a hospital with a Canadian unit. A few weeks later, I was visited by a squadron mate, Sergeant James H. "Ginger" Lacey, who would become a 28-victory ace. I asked him to fill out a report on my claims that day for the intelligence officer, which he promised to do, but for some reason the three victories I scored that day were not officially confirmed." (After six weeks in hospital, he returned to action).
After the war he returned to Poland in 1947 and joined the Air Force of the Polish Army. In 1948 however he was arrested by the communist regime under the false charge of espionage. Sentenced to death, he spent three years awaiting the execution, after which his sentence was changed to life imprisonment in Wronki Prison.
After the end of Stalinism in Poland, in 1956 he was released, rehabilitated, and allowed to join the military.
Infantry of the 2nd Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment, 5th Division supported by "Churchill" tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, British Second Army, clear a pocket of resistance south of Lübeck, the largest German port on the Baltic Sea, 50 Km. NE of Hamburg.
2nd of May 1945. (hostilities ended 6 days later on the 8th of May.)
A German Kriegsmarine Bootsmann wielding a machete knife taken from the immobilised and deserted Churchill tank ("Boar" T32049) of Sgt. J Sullivan, B Squadron, 8 Troop Calgary Regiment (14th Canadian Tank Regiment). Taken on the Puys beach at Dieppe shortly after the failed raid. August 1942
Operation 'Jubilee' - Wednesday, 19th August 1942
The raid took place on the northern coast of France at Dieppe. The assault began at 05:00 and by10:50 the Allied commanders were forced to call a retreat. Over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, were supported by a Canadian Armoured regiment and a strong force of Royal Navy and smaller Royal Air Force landing contingents. It involved 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British troops, and 50 United States Army Rangers.
The plan called for thirty Churchills to be landed (the last Churchill to exit towing out a support vehicle) the remaining twenty-eight tanks to stay on board their LCTs as a floating reserve. Twenty-nine tanks successfully exited the LTCs, unfortunately two into water deeper than the six-foot wading depth for which they had been modified, the Calgary's Commanding Officer, Lt. Colonel J.G.Andrews' tank being one of them. The third Churchill, commanded by Major J. Begg Second-in-Command, was unable to disembark and subsequently returned to England.
The climb up the beach was not an easy one, especially on chert. However, of the twenty-seven Churchills that made it ashore, fifteen managed to climb up and over the seawall on to Dieppe's promenade. Due to the many road blocks (which the Engineers failed to blow-up as planned) further progress was impossible, thus ten of the tanks returned to the beach. One of those left behind had fallen into quite a deep hole and was abandoned after attempts to tow her out had failed.
However, despite the problems, encountered by the Calgary Regiment at Dieppe, the Churchill tank proved itself to be a not only safe tank to crew, but one capable of ascending to places not expected by the enemy, amply proven later when Churchills went into full-scale operation in North Africa and Italy.
A total of 3,623 of the 6,086 men (almost 60%) who made it ashore were either killed, wounded, or captured. The Royal Air Force failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle, and lost 96 aircraft (at least 32 to flak or accidents), compared to 48 lost by the Luftwaffe. The Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and one destroyer. The events at Dieppe influenced preparations for the North African (Operation Torch) and Normandy landings (Operation Overlord).
Soviet Army Sgt. Fyodor Konoplyov and his crew fire a DShK M1938 anti-aircraft gun at strafing German Luftwaffe bombers during the Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia, Soviet Union.
The Fortress and Cathedral of Saints. Peter and Paul can be seen on an island in the Neva River.
9th of October 1942.
The 872-day Siege of Leningrad, Russia, resulted from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front of World War II. The siege lasted from September the 8th 1941 to January the 27th 1944 and was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, causing considerable devastation to the city of Leningrad.
Two young German soldiers armed with Panzerfausts (anti-tank weapons) and Mauser rifles, march along Bankowa street in Lubań (Lauban), Lower Silesia. Towards the end of the war, German boys as young as fourteen and fifteen were often sent into battle to augment the dwindling numbers of able-bodied men. March 1945.
M-10 tank destroyers of "A" Company, 634th TD Battalion, 1st. Infantry Division firing their 3-inch guns at defenses in Aachen, Germany
October the 14th 1944.
(Signal Corps photo from the National Archives.)
634th. Battle Report.
The Battalion worked to close all roads leading to Aachen to cut off all supplies and reinforcements to the Germans garrisoned there. The Tank Destroyers and the Infantry bombarded the enemy occupied buildings and pillboxes. With the support of the 634th, the strongholds were softened up enough for the Infantry to move in and take the areas with minimal casualties.
On the 10th. of October an ultimatum was delivered to the German Garrison Commander, allowing him 24 hours to surrender. No answer was given and on the 11th. the battle for Aachen began. By midnight on the 17th of October the ring around Aachen was closed to sever all supply lines to the defenders in the city. The Germans were mounting numerous attacks against the roadblocks to try to relieve the encircled troops in Aachen. Companies 'C' and 'B' held the lines from Stolberg to Haaren.
Aachen was taken by the Americans on the 21st. of October 1944.
A twin engined Fighter Bomber - Messerschmitt Bf 110D-0/B (S9+CK) W.Nr.3341 - 2.Staffel, Erprobungsgruppe 210 on public display in Garnault Place, Finsbury, London EC1. Late August 1940.
The pilot Oblt. Alfred Habisch and Wireless Operator Uffz. Ernst Efner had left Denain aerodrome, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France on the 15th August 1940 on a bombing mission over Southern England.
They bombed Croydon aerodrome prior to being attacked by fighters, the wireless operator being wounded and the undercarriage damaged. The pilot managed to make a forced landing at Hawkhurst in Kent at 19.10 hrs., damaging the engines and airscrews. Both the crew survived and were entered into captivity.
The aircraft was exhibited at Hendon and in a London street, to raise money for the Spitfire Fund. It was later shipped to Los Angeles, aboard the SS Montanan in April 1941, where it was reassembled and evaluated by the Vultee Aircraft Company.
(Ultimate fate of the airframe not known)
A U.S. infantryman of the 331st Infantry Regiment., 83rd Inf. Div. takes aim at a sniper during street fighting in Rue de la Gardelle in Paramé, Saint-Malo, Brittany, France.
8th of August, 1944.
Eleanor Lettice Curtis, a British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) climbs into a Spitfire (probably a Mk IX) ready to ferry it to a front line squadron.
She learned to fly in 1937/8 earning a B class licence. In early July 1940 she became one of the first women pilots to join the ATA, remaining with the unit until 30 November 1945, when the organisation was closed down.
In 1942, she became the first woman to fly a four-engined bomber, a Halifax, and went on to ferry a total of 1,467 aircraft.
This included 364 four-engined bombers, 162 Spitfires and 125 Mosquitoes. She even survived an emergency landing in a Hawker Typhoon.
She flew continually during World War II from various Ferry Pool locations delivering all types through all weather to various destinations. According to one source, she flew "thirteen days on, two off, for sixty-two consecutive months", between July 1940 and September 1945.
After the war, she worked as a technician and flight-test observer at Boscombe Down and then with Fairey Aviation at White Waltham.
'Lettice' took part in air racing and raced planes including a Spitfire and a Wicko G-AF JB.
In 1991, aged 76, she obtained a helicopter licence.
The pilot is also known for her 1971 book, 'The Forgotten Pilots'.
She passed away on Monday, July 21st 2014 aged 99.
Ensign Robert "Bob" T. King in his damaged TBM-3 'Avenger' White 113 of VT-82, USS Bennington (CV-20), 18th of February 1945.
(Standard early 1945 colours were blue overall with the Bennington 'Christmas tree', or arrowhead, repeated on the upper starboard wing, overlapping the aileron.)
This Avenger was subject to one of the most dramatic aircraft photos of World War 2.
A mid-air collision resulted in the loss of nearly half the port wing, in addition to a five foot section of fuselage decking immediately aft of the turret. Bob King skilfully retained control of his doomed TBM long enough to make a successful water landing.
On February 18,1945 his squadron was to attack shipping and waterfront installations at Chi Chi Jima in the China Sea. (240 kilometres/150 miles north of Iwo Jima).
As they were approaching the waterfront installations they came under heavy anti-aircraft fire. An Avenger in a flight above them got hit by the anti-aircraft fire and it's right wing was blown off, it went into a spin and crashed into Bob King's plane. The propeller took off about four feet of the left wing and damaged the fuselage. The first Avenger crashed into the sea with no known survivors.
Starting to lose control of his plane, Bob King ordered his crew to bail out. As he started to lose altitude he was able to regain some control of his plane and was able to make it back to the task force and made a water landing and was rescued.
His crew of (Gunner) Grady Alvan York and (Radio) James Wesley Dye landed safely but were captured by the Japanese and both executed in captivity, on the orders of Japanese Navy Captain Shizuo Yoshii, who in 1947 was tried as a war criminal on Guam, found guilty, hanged and buried in an unmarked grave.
An unknown Soviet Female Corporal (ефрейтор)
There were 800,000 women who served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the war. Nearly 200,000 were decorated and 89 eventually received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Some served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles.
On 21 May 1943, a formal decree established the Central Women’s School for Sniper Training. In a matter of only two years, that school was able to turn out 1,061 snipers and 407 instructors, and these women snipers are credited with having killed or wounded thousands of Wehrmacht officers and men.
If these women were captured, they were subject to violations and atrocities while being imprisoned that made being executed seem a better option. This explains why many Soviet women combatants saved their last bullets for themselves, and only 500 (of the original 2,000) women Soviet snipers survived the war.
Three US infantrymen advance at a crouching run using a Bocage hedgerow and embankment as cover. This picture shows to advantage the close nature of fighting in Normandy bocage country where the Germans became adept at digging into these hedgerows turning each field into a potential ambush.
June/July 1944.
The Battle of Stalingrad, September 1942.
In September 1942, the German commander of the Sixth Army, General Paulus, assisted by the Fourth Panzer Army, advanced on the city of Stalingrad. His primary task was to secure the oil fields in the Caucasus and to do this, Paulus was ordered by Hitler to take Stalingrad. The Germans final target was to have been Baku.
Stalingrad was also an important target as it was Russia’s centre of communications in the south as well as being a centre for manufacturing.
In early September 1942, the German Army advanced to the city. The Russians, already devastated by the power of Blitzkrieg during Operation Barbarossa, had to make a stand especially as the city was named after the Russian leader, Joseph Stalin. For simple reasons of morale, the Russians could not let this city fall. Likewise, the Russians could not let the Germans get hold of the oil fields in the Caucasus. Stalin’s order was "Not one step back".
British Army Indian soldiers inspect a captured Italian Semovente self-propelled gun (Nr. 201 Semovente da 75/18) with German markings (from Pz.Jg.Abt 278 of 278 Infanterie Division) at an Allied exhibition of enemy equipment in Forli, Emilia-Romagna, Province of Forlì-Cesena, Italy.
30th of January 1945.
For the liberation of Italy, 5773 British Indian Soldiers died in Italy, mostly Sikhs, along with the Allied forces. Besides Forli, Sikhs had also fought in Cassino, Florence, Ravana and Sangro River during World War II (1943-45).
Major David V. Currie (left with hand gun) of the 29th Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Regt. (The South Alberta Regiment), is in conversation with R. Lowe of 'C' Company, at the time that members of 2.Pz.Div., commanded by Hauptmann Siegfried Rauch are surrendering to Sgt.Major G. Mitchell in Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, Calvados.
Library and Archives Canada, pa-111565)
(Colourised by Doug)
Major Currie's original citation was for a Distinguished Service Order but the commanding officer of the SARs, Lt.-Col. Wotherspoon, changed it to a Victoria Cross on or about the 26 August 1944. The citation is reproduced in it's entirety below. While the SP M-10s are noted as being in Currie's task force, they in fact ended up with RHQ on Hill 117 and were not in the village of St. Lambert itself.
From the time he was awarded the Victoria Cross, Major Currie himself stressed the fact that any of the SAR squadrons could have done the same job he did in St. Lambert. He took pains to ensure that the battle in St. Lambert was viewed in it's proper context; that being as only a single part of the whole regimental battle.
On 18th August 44 C Squadron 29 Cdn. Regt. (SAR) with under command B company A & S H of C and one troop 17 pounder self-propelled antitank guns was ordered to advance to Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives to cut the Trun-Chambois escape route. Major D. V. Currie was in command of this force, the strength of which was 175 all ranks, 15 tanks and 4 self-propelled anti-tank guns.
By 2000 hrs. the armoured element of the force, moving in advance of the infantry, had reached the outskirts of the village where it was engaged by strong enemy forces. The two leading tanks had entered Saint-Lambert but had been knocked out by 88 mm guns. Their crews were unable to get out of the village. Major Currie realised that only by immediate infantry attack could the village be captured that night, and, since the supporting infantry had not yet arrived, requested permission to dismount his squadron and attack the enemy position on foot. This request was not granted.
At last light Major Currie was given permission to proceed into the village to reconnoitre the enemy defences and to extricate the crews of the disabled tanks. Although his approach route was under heavy mortar fire, he proceeded into the village on foot through enemy outposts, made his reconnaissance, personally directed the evacuation of the tank crews, remained until they were clear and then returned to his headquarters.
On his return, the supporting infantry and anti-tank guns had arrived and Major Currie personally visited their positions to co-ordinate their defences and re-site their weapons to cover all possible enemy approaches to his position. He then reported to his Commanding Officer and was ordered to attack the village at first light the following morning.
At 0535 hrs. 19 Aug. ten minutes before the attack was to start, he was advised that the expected artillery support would not be available since the guns were out of range. Nevertheless Major Currie personally led the attack in the face of intense opposition by enemy armour, artillery, and infantry, and by noon succeeded in reaching a point approximately half-way into the village. Here, realising his attack was losing its impetus in the face of increasing enemy reinforcements, he decided to consolidate this position before proceeding further. He organised the position accordingly, and again made a tour of weapon pits, gun sites and tanks, encouraging the men by his calmness, his sound orders and his complete disregard for the numerical superiority of the enemy.
The enemy promptly counter-attacked this position but so skilfully had Major Currie's defence been organised that the attack was repulsed with severe casualties to the enemy. During the following 36 hours a series of further counter-attacks increased in strength and ferocity throughout the period they were successively beaten off in very heavy fighting by the stubborn resistance of Major Currie's force.
At dusk on 20 Aug., from the squadron position, enemy infantry could be seen massing for an attack which later proved to be the final effort on the enemy's part. Major Currie personally sited one troop of tanks to engage this force and directed their fire so effectively that the attack was never mounted. The destruction of this attacking force was the turning point in this action. During the morning of 21 Aug. 800 all ranks from this force alone surrendered; by noon the German morale was broken and Major Currie's force had completed the capture of the village. As a result the Trun-Chambois escape route was completely denied to the remnant of two German armies.
Throughout the three days' action Major Curries' conduct and self-sacrifice were a magnificent example to all ranks of the force under his command. On one occasion he personally directed the fire of his command tank onto a Tiger tank which had been harassing his position and succeeded in knocking it out. During another attack, while the guns of his command tank were taking on other targets at longer ranges, he used a rifle from the turret to deal with individual snipers who had infiltrated to within fifty yards of his headquarters. On the one occasion when reinforcements were able to get through to his force, he led the forty men forward into their positions and explained the importance of their task as a part of the defence. When, during the next attack, these new reinforcements withdrew under the intense fire brought down by the enemy, he personally collected them and led them forward into position again, where, inspired by his leadership they held for the remainder of the battle. His employment of his artillery support, which became available after his original attack went in, was typical of his cool calculation of the risks involved in every situation. At one time, despite the fact that short rounds were falling within fifteen yards of his own tank, he ordered fire from medium artillery to continue because of its devastating effect upon the attacking enemy in his immediate area.
During this operation the casualties to Major Currie's force were very heavy. However, he never considered the possibility of failure or allowed it to enter the minds of his men. In the words of one of his non-commissioned officers. "We knew at one stage that it was going to be a fight to the finish but he was so cool about it, it was impossible for us to get excited." Since all the officers under his command were either killed or wounded during the action he had virtually no respite from his duties and in fact obtained only one hour's sleep during the entire period. Nevertheless he did not permit his fatigue to become apparent to his troops and throughout the action took every opportunity to visit weapon pits and other defensive posts to talk to his men, to advise them as to the best use of their weapons and to cheer them with words of encouragement. When his force was finally relieved and he was satisfied that the turnover was complete he fell asleep on his feet and collapsed.
There can be no doubt that the success of this force's task on and stand against the enemy at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives can only be attributed to this officer's coolness, inspired leadership and skilful use of the limited weapons at his disposal.
The courage and complete disregard for personal safety shown by Major Currie will forever be an inspiration to his regiment; his conspicuous bravery and extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy an example to the Canadian Army for all time.
The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory In Stalingrad.
November 1942 - February 1943.
An MG.34 team with a Soviet Mosin rifle in the foreground.
An M4 Sherman named 'Lucky Legs II' of 754th Tank Battalion leads the attack with infantrymen following close behind with fixed bayonets on the perimeter of the 129th Infantry, 37th Division, Bougainville (Papua New Guinea, in the Solomon Sea).
16th of March 1944.
Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley share a laugh as they leave General Ira Wyche’s 79th Division headquarters in Huanville, Normandy, France, July 4, 1944.
(US National Archives)
A German mortar team operating an 8 cm. Granatwerfer 34 close to a 'knocked out' T-34/76 Soviet tank near Stalingrad.
c. September 1942
US Medics attend to a wounded soldier following the liberation of the village of La Haye-du-Puits in Normandy by the U.S. 79th Infantry Division from German occupation on 9th of July 1944.
This was the 79th Division's last battle in Normandy, after which they were withdrawn back to England.
Around La Haye du Puits there was fought a very bloody battle for Montgardon, referred to as 'Hill 84'.
The Division fought for this area for five days at a cost of 1,500 casualties.
When added to the casualties who fell in the battle for 'Hill 122' Montre Castre which was just to the east of the town, the number rose to 5,000 killed or injured.
The wounded GI wears a "Clearance Station Tag". Besides bandaging, splinting, applying tourniquets, administering sulfar, and injecting morphine, Aidmen were supposed to fill out an Emergency Medical Tag for each casualty. This provided the basic records of the patient’s identity and initial treatment.
Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf.G (Sd.Kfz.161) Nº 633 of 3.Zug / 6.Kompanie / SS-Panzer-Regiment 2 / 2.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Das Reich".
Photo taken on the 7th of August 1943, with a new crew during a refit after the Battle at Kursk,
Left to right: Tank commander, SS-Unterscharführer Gustav Schinner gunner Rottenführer SS-Kurt Bunzeck; driver-mechanic Rottenführer SS-Georg Colemonts; Loader SS-Schütze Zülcke; MG.gunner/radio operator SS- Heinz Wentzel.
Lieutenant Robert Boscawen on the left with radiophones, commander of 2 Troop, 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, Guards Armoured Division, XXX Corps, in a Sherman Firefly IC Hybrid with a 17-pounder anti-tank gun as it's main armament,
Patrolling the river Muese at Namur in Belgium.
Monday, December 25, 1944
US Army M1919 Browning machine gun crew (possibly the 2nd Battalion, 26th Inf.Regt.) in action against German defenders in the streets of Aachen on the 15th October 1944.
The German city of Aachen, located near the Belgian border, was a pivotal battleground for American soldiers breaching the fortified Siegfried Line during the latter part of 1944.
The defenders of Aachen were made up of elements of the 3rd Panzer Division and a few Waffen SS. Kampfgruppen. The ancient city was hallowed ground for Germany, as the birthplace and site of the coronation of Charlemagne, Aachen was the home of the Holy Roman Empire. As the first major city on German soil to face invasion from the Allies, Hitler personally directed that Aachen be held — at all costs.
In the thickest of the fighting were the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, supported by the 745th Tank Battalion. They attacked from the southern suburbs, with the 30th Infantry Division moving into the city from the north. But resistance was fierce; in a matter of days the 30th Infantry Division sustained more than 2,000 casualties. Elements of the 29th Infantry Division had to be called in to help. When the last remaining defenders surrendered on October the 21st, the Germans had lost over 5,000 casualties and 5,600 prisoners. U.S. losses were put at 5,000 killed, wounded or missing.
In spite of more than 170 tons of bombs and nearly 10,000 rounds of artillery shells fired into the city, the City's great cathedral that housed the tomb of Emperor Charlemagne emerged intact.
U-553 Type VIIC U-boat.
U-553 returning to Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique, France from its second combat patrol on the 19th of July 1941, she came home with two combat pennants and a badly-damaged attack periscope.
During her 2nd Patrol on the 12th of June 1941 and after five days at sea, Kapitänleutnant Karl Thurmann came upon stragglers from the westbound convoy 'OG-64' north of the Azores. At 01.22 hours Thurmann sank the British steamer "Susan Maersk" (2,355 tons), which went down in 90 seconds with a loss of all of her 24 crew. Because of the darkness and the speed with which the ship sank, only a rough tonnage estimate was possible, thus the gross registered tonnage on the sinking pennant is incorrect. Later that same day, at 15.05 hours U-553 attacked the Norwegian tanker "Ranella" (5,590 tons). A torpedo struck the ship, but it didn't sink, a further shot was attempted at 1536 but also failed. After that attempt, Thurmann turned away in the direction of the steamer, passing under the bow of the "Ranella", which was now stopped. The periscope, which was not fully lowered, struck the tanker and and the top two metres were bent backwards. Finally, at 1635 hours, a third torpedo struck its target, causing the ship to break in two. It still didn't sink, however 100 rounds from the 88-mm deck gun were needed to finally sink the two parts of the wreck. The 29-man Norwegian crew had already left the ship and safely reached the Azores, 300 miles away after 12 days at sea.
U-553's tenth and final sortie began with her departure from La Pallice, La Rochelle on the 16th of January 1943. On the 20th, she sent a radio message: "Sehrohr unklar" (periscope unready for action), and was never heard from again. She had suffered no casualties to her crew until this date but all hands were lost. She most probably sank because of technical problems and was officially declared missing on 28 January 1943.
This image is regularly posted on the internet as;
Private First Class Alvin C. Dunlap (see the name on the helmet cover) US 5th Marines Division, 27th Regiment, directing artillery and mortar fire against Japanese positions on Iwo Jima, 20th February 1945.
We think, because the soldier (Marine) in this image is holding a map and giving the orders, he is more than likely an officer and not a Private. We suggest therefore, that he is in fact;
Captain Robert Hugo Dunlap, US Marine Corps Reserve, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Iwo Jima 20-21st February 1945.
This his Medal of Honor Citation:
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, on 20 and 21 February, 1945. Defying uninterrupted blasts of Japanese artillery. mortar, rifle and machine gun fire, Capt. Dunlap led his troops in a determined advance from low ground uphill toward the steep cliffs from which the enemy poured a devastating rain of shrapnel and bullets, steadily inching forward until the tremendous volume of enemy fire from the caves located high to his front temporarily halted his progress. Determined not to yield, he crawled alone approximately 200 yards forward of his front lines, took observation at the base of the cliff 50 yards from Japanese lines, located the enemy gun positions and returned to his own lines where he relayed the vital information to supporting artillery and naval gunfire units. Persistently disregarding his own personal safety, he then placed himself in an exposed vantage point to direct more accurately the supporting fire and, working without respite for 2 days and 2 nights under constant enemy fire, skillfully directed a smashing bombardment against the almost impregnable Japanese positions despite numerous obstacles and heavy marine casualties. A brilliant leader, Capt. Dunlap inspired his men to heroic efforts during this critical phase of the battle and by his cool decision, indomitable fighting spirit, and daring tactics in the face of fanatic opposition greatly accelerated the final decisive defeat of Japanese countermeasures in his sector and materially furthered the continued advance of his company. His great personal valor and gallant spirit of self-sacrifice throughout the bitter hostilities reflect the highest credit upon Capt. Dunlap and the U.S. Naval Service."
'Mission Albany'
Taking off just after midnight 6th June 1944 over 2000 airborne troops would spearhead the D-Day landings by dropping behind enemy lines 5hrs before the first troops got their boots wet on the Normandy beaches.
'The rear gunner in his position in a Vickers Wellington bomber'.
Probably of Nº 149 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall in 1941.
The slang term for a tail gunner was "Tail-end Charlie"
He was subject to the most violent movements of the aircraft. Squeezed into the cramped metal and perspex cupola, the Rear Gunner had so little leg space that some had to place their flying boots into the turret before climbing in themselves. Many rear gunners removed a section of the 'plexiglas' to improve their view, so with temperatures at 20,000 feet reaching minus 40ºF, frostbite was a regular occurrence. Through the entire operation, the Rear Gunner knew that the Luftwaffe fighter pilots preferred to attack from the rear and under the belly of the bomber, so he was often 1st in line for elimination. During World War II - 20,000 air gunners were killed while serving with Bomber Command."
"During an operation, the only sounds the gunner would hear, aside from the constant deafening roar of the engines, would be the hiss of the oxygen and the occasional crackling, distorted voices of other crew members in his earphones. From take off to landing, at times for as long as 10 hours, the air gunner was constantly rotating the turret, scanning the surrounding sky, quarter by quarter, for the grey shadow that could instantly become an attacking enemy fighter. The air gunner's closest friends were likely his crew members in the forward section of the bomber and the relaxation of his vigilance for even a moment could mean death for them all."
'Snaking' on take off or when taxiing may have been seen as 'normal' and 'under control' by the Pilot and other Crew up front, but in the solitude of the Rear Turret, sitting almost over the tail wheel it was something different! It sometimes felt as if the tail wheel was made of wood everything at the back end strained, banged, shook and rattled, and it was a tense 'hold on to everything' few moments, including the stomach. Ammunition jostled and rattled in the fuselage as the Turret swayed shook and vibrated it was the closest one could get to being airsick on the ground. When the Tail of the aeroplane lifted into the air, one could then 'relax............'.
SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk of SS Aufklärungs Kompanie 15, III Zug, SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25.
Pictured at Rots near Norrey-en-Bessin, Normandie. 9th June 1944
He is seen here wearing an Italian Camo coverall.
Right of centre in the photo, is SS-Schütze Klaus Schuh (KIA 26.06.1944).
Otto Funk was wounded near Cheux on June 26 1944 but continued to fight till the bitter end. On May 8 1945, the survivors of 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the U.S. 65th Infantry Division, 7th Army, near Enns in Austria. In a final act of defiance, the division refused to drape their vehicles with white flags, as the Americans had ordered.
He died on the 11th. September 2011
June 1944, England by the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Signal Corps, U.S. Army
Caption reads, "Pvt. Clarence C. Ware, 438 W. 15th St., San Pedro, Calif., gives a last second touch to Pvt. Charles R. Plaudo, 210 N. James, Minneapolis, Minn., make-up patterned after the American Indians. Somewhere in England."
The direct inspiration for the Dirty Dozen, the Filthy Thirteen was a demolitions unit in the 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Known for ‘going the extra mile’ in combat missions, the units exploits were made famous when this iconic image of Ware and Plaudo was printed in The Stars & Stripes, the official American Armed Forces newspaper. The origins of the name referred to the units aversion of cleaning themselves, with the mohawks inspired by Acting Sergeant Jake McNeice’s Native American heritage.
Tangmere, Sussex, July 1944: in front of a Spitfire IX of 332 (Norwegian) Squadron, a standard 45 gallon Typhoon/Hurricane ‘Torpedo’ jettison tank modified for use on the Spitfire (because of an expected shortage of 45-gallon shaped or slipper tanks) is filled with PA ale from two wooden casks supplied by the Chichester brewer Henty & Constable, for flying over to Normandy while an RAF ‘erk’ writes a cheery message on the tank. The pilot sitting on the wing is wearing a Norwegian Air Force cap-badge.
Here is an account of 270 gallons of beer that was flown in drop tanks slung under three Spitfire Mk IXbs from Tangmere to an airfield at Bény-Sur-Mer in Normandy, some 110 miles south of England and three miles from the sea, on June 13 1944, D-Day plus seven: the first known landing of beer during the invasion.
One of the pilots was Flight Lieutenant Lloyd Berryman of 412 Squadron, 126 Wing, Second Tactical Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force. The airstrip at Bény-Sur-Mer would not, in fact, be finished officially for another two days when Berryman’s boss, Wing Commander Keith Hudson, singled him out at a briefing at the wing’s Tangmere base to deliver a “sizeable” beer consignment to the airstrip, known as B4. Berryman recalled:
“The instructions went something like this, ‘Get a couple of other pilots and arrange with the officers’ mess to steam out the jet [jettison] tanks and load them up with beer. When we get over the beachhead drop out of formation and land on the strip. We’re told the Nazis are fouling the drinking water, so it will be appreciated. There’s no trouble finding the strip, the battleship Rodney is firing salvoes on Caen and it’s immediately below. We’ll be flying over at 13,000 [feet] so the beer will be cold enough when you arrive.’
“I remember getting Murray Haver from Hamilton and a third pilot (whose name escapes me) to carry out the caper. In reflection it now seems like an appropriate Air Force gesture for which the erks (infantrymen) would be most appreciative. By the time I got down to 5,000 the welcoming from the Rodney was hardly inviting but sure enough there was the strip. Wheels down and in we go, three Spits with 90-gallon jet tanks fully loaded with cool beer.
“As I rolled to the end of the mesh runway it was hard to figure … there was absolutely no one in sight. What do we do now, I wondered, we can’t just sit here and wait for someone to show up. What’s with the communications? Finally I saw someone peering out at us from behind a tree and I waved frantically to get him out to the aircraft. Sure enough out bounds this army type and he climbs onto the wing with the welcome: ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Whereupon he got a short, but nevertheless terse, version of the story.
“‘Look,’ he said, ‘can you see that church steeple at the far end of the strip? Well it’s loaded with German snipers and we’ve been all day trying to clear them out so you better drop your tanks and bugger off before it’s too late.’ In moments we were out of there, but such was the welcoming for the first Spitfire at our B4 airstrip in Normandy.”
German SS gunners (probably 1st SS-Pz.Div. LSSAH) man a 7.5cm le.IG 18 Light Infantry Gun (7,5-cm-leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18, or 7,5 cm le.IG 18) during the Battle of Uman; the German and Axis allied encirclement of the 6th and 12th Soviet armies south of the city of Uman during the initial offensive operations of German Army Group South. Near Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine, Soviet Union. 18 August 1941.
Group Captain Adolph Gysbert "Sailor" Malan in the Spitfire Mk IX (FY-F) of Australian Squadron Leader Hugo 'Sinker' Armstrong, CO of 611 Squadron RAF at Biggin Hill on the 2nd January 1943.
Armstrong was shot down and killed in this Spitfire a month later, on 5th February. He was 'bounced' by eight Fw 190s of 5/JG26 over Boulogne.
'Unteroffizier im Kampf'
A posed propaganda photo of a Stielhandgranate-24 being thrown.
Axis forces captured Gambut on the 17th June 1941, after the Battle of Tobruk. This was a significant blow to the Allies as the airfield had been used to provide air-support to the Allied forces besieged at Tobruk. The airfield saw use by the German Luftwaffe until its recapture by the New Zealand 4th Infantry Brigade on the 25 November '41.
A 76mm M4A1 Sherman tank of the 67th Armor Regt., 2nd US Armored Division passes through Saint-Sever-Calvados, Normandy. August 1944.
