6th Army soldiers marching to Stalingrad, 1942
These kids had no idea what kind of hell was about to be unleashed on them. Literally marching to hell. It’s kind of eerie looking at the men in this picture and realizing that statistically speaking, they most likely never saw 1944. Those sunglasses are privately owned, probably pretty expensive. Sunglasses were only issued for Afrika Korps troops and for motorcycles, but not for infantry.
Marching to hell.
Preparing for an assault on a warehouse in Stalingrad, 1942
By September 1942, a brutal hand-to-hand battle was being waged inside Stalingrad. As they fought from house to house and street to street, the Germans found that all of the tactical advantages they had possessed in fighting across the steppes were lost in the close confines of the city. Tanks and the mechanized strategy of Blitzkrieg counted for nothing in an urban warfare. Because of the close proximity of the large city, the maneuverability of the tanks was impossible and not effective. Paradoxically, a sniper was more effective than a tank. Many times the soldiers used knives and bayonets to kill each other. The lack of supplies, harsh elements, and stubborn Soviet resistance eventually led to the defeat of the German Army.
A German soldier with a badge on his chest in Stalingrad, 1942
Looks like this man has seen some horror, a little bit like one thousand yard stare. Note silver badge on his chest, that badge represents Infantry Assault Badge which was awarded in Bronze and Silver. Silver for soldiers that participated in 3 or more close combat infantry assaults. The Bronze version had similar requirements but was designated for motorized Infantry. It was, by many frontline soldiers, regarded as more prestigious than an Iron Cross especially when acquired on the eastern Front.
German soldier lighting his cigarette with a flamethrower, 1940s
Somewhere on the Eastern Front. Flamethrowers had two fuel lines. The line he is lighting his cigarette with is sort of like a pilot line. It is a smaller fuel line that stays lit and can produce a bit of a larger flame when its trigger is pressed. The second line is for the big fire. This contains a thicker gelatinous type of fuel. So the flamer will pull the first trigger making the pilot flame larger, then pull the second trigger emitting the thicker fuel which gets lit by the pilot flame raining hellfire upon anyone in its path.
A German prisoner of war escorted by a Soviet soldier with a PPSh-41, Stalingrad, 1943.
In this photograph, a Red Army solider is seen marching a German solider into captivity after the Battle of Stalingrad. The Germans were being rounded up prior to being marched to their death. The Battle of Stalingrad was amongst the bloodiest battles ever fought in the history of warfare with more than 2 million casualties.
Stand to Death, 152 mm howitzer battery fires during Operation Bagration, 1944
Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation (operation “Bagration”) resulted in complete destruction of German Army Group Center. In 2 months the 1,100 km front-line moved 600 km west. During this operation, the Soviet armies in Belarus completely destroyed Army Group “Center” of the Wehrmacht, losing five times fewer people than the Germans. This photo was taken in the summer of 1944 by Emmanuel Yevzerikhin. In the Soviet photo album this photo is called “Stand to Death”, the soldiers and the guns look so futuristic.
57,000 German prisoners march to Moscow after defeat at Belarus during “Operation Bagration”, 17 July 1944
Operation Bagration – the Soviet destruction of German Army Group Center – was, arguably, the single most successful military action of the entire war. This vital Soviet offensive was launched just after Allied troops had landed in Normandy, and it is symptomatic of the lack of public knowledge about the war in the East that whilst almost everyone has heard of D-Day, few people other than specialist historians know much about Operation Bagration. Yet the sheer size of Bagration dwarfs that of D-Day. Operation Bagration (named after a Georgian hero in the war against Napoleon 130 years earlier) was not just one of the largest military offensives of the war, it was one of the most sophisticated.
German prisoners, 17 July 1944
German prisoners, 17 July 1944
German prisoners, 17 July 1944
German prisoners, 17 July 1944
German prisoners, 17 July 1944
German POWs packed into the Nonant le Pin prisoner camp, 1944
They were captured in the Falaise Pocket battle, almost 30 000 Germans captured. The guard soldiers would get in a jeep, circle around the camp, and every so often they’d yell “Halt!” and shoot their guns in the air to give the impression escaping soldiers were being shot. But the escapes were rare, none actually, because these prison camps were protecting the prisoners just as much as they were containing them. Anyone who escaped that camp would likely have been recaptured by Allied forces, or caught and executed by Resistance or Resistance-friendly citizens. Most if not all of those men knew their chances were much better inside those fences.
Simone Segouin, the 18 year old French Résistance fighter, 1944
18 year old French Résistance fighter, Simone Segouin, with war name Nicole Minet. She had come from Chartres to help liberate the capital. Paris, August 19, 1944.
Members of the French Resistance are photographed in the midst of battle against German troops. We see a man in makeshift army fatigues to the left and a young man on the right. Then, most strikingly, we see a woman in shorts, a patterned top, and a military hat in the center. The photograph of this young female fighter would become a symbol of women’s involvement in the Resistance.
Simone Segouin in a rare color photo.
Simone Segouin poses with a German MP 40 with which she is most proficient.
Goebbels congratulates a young recruit after receiving the Iron Cross II, 1945
Joseph Goebbels awards 16-year old Hitler Youth member Willi Hübner the Iron Cross for the defense of Lauban. March 9, 1945.
Allied soldiers mock Hitler atop his balcony at the Reich Chancellery, 1945
The final victory over Nazi Germany achieved, soldiers and allies of the British, American and Russian armies mimic and mock Adolf Hitler and his ideas on Hitler’s famous balcony at the Chancellery in conquered Berlin. The photo is taken on 6th July, 1945 (about 2 months after Germany’s surrender, 1 month before Hiroshima and the day after the Phillipines were liberated). Corporal Russell M. Ochwad, of Chicago, plays the part of Hitler on the famous balcony of the Chancellery, in Berlin, from which the former Nazi leader had proclaimed his 1,000-year empire. A British and Russian soldier stand on each side of Cpl. Ochwad, while American and Russian soldiers cheer at the little get-together.
Hitler standing on the same balcony.
German soldiers react to footage of concentration camps, 1945
The image shows the faces of German POWs, captured by Americans, watching a film about a concentration camp. This forced confrontation brought Germans face-to-face with the worst works of the Third Reich. It must be really hard to go through what they did and look back knowing that everything that happened to them, all of their friends who were killed or maimed was in the name of something horrific, something totally repugnant to their own values.
The caption reads: “German prisoners of war in American camps watch the documentary/presentation about German concentration camps.” (Image held by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)
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