Wehrmacht troops posing with a burnt out T-34-76 Model 1941 Operation Barbarossa - Summer 1941

Flamethrower Operators Move Back Up The Line After Refilling Their Tanks With Fuel, Iwo Jima, 1945

Flamethrower Operators Move Back Up The Line After Refilling Their Tanks With Fuel, Iwo Jima, 1945

US troops use dead cows as cover on road to Perriers 1944

In the breakout from the Normady beachhead on the road to Perriers, two US GI's take cover behind dead cows.  In an exposed position like a road, any cover can be the difference between life and death.

U.S. Third Army troops crossing the Rhine March 1945

Crouching Low In A DUKW For Concealment And Protection, Men Of The 89th Division, U.S. Third Army, Cross the Rhine River at Oberwesel, Germany. March 26, 1945

Point of View from a Tiger I turret

Here's a gif for you today, a camera mounted on the turret of a Tiger I traverses across an open field with another four Tiger I's in the foreground.

One has to remember that all of these images and videos that provide us with a glimpse into the past; in this case the second world war, were captured by men and a few women on the front lines of combat.  Many of whom paid for their footage with their lives.

A Russian Scout - 1944

Sergeant M. Katasonov scout 372nd Infantry Division, wielding a PPSh-41 sub-machine gun - one of the approximately 1.5 million produced by the Soviet Union during WWII.

The PPSh-41 is a classic example of a design adapted for mass production (other examples of such wartime design are the M3 submachine gun, MP40, PPS, and the Sten). Aside from the barrel, its parts could be made by a relatively unskilled workforce with simple equipment available in an auto repair garage or tin shop, freeing more skilled workers for other tasks. The PPSh-41 uses 87 components and could be manufactured with an estimated 7.3 machining hours.

Barrel production was often simplified by using barrels for the 7.62mm M1891 Mosin–Nagant rifle, cut in half and two PPSh barrels were made from it after machining the chamber for the 7.62mm Soviet submachine gun cartridge.

Merry Christmas! Have a safe and happy holiday!

GI's of the 84th Infantry Division trim their Christmas tree in a bunker 1944.

German Troops Enjoying Their Fire - Ardennes Forest 44/45

Deep in the Ardennes forest a Panther crew and some German infantry enjoy the warmth of their fire during "Operation Watch on the Rhine" - Hitler's last gamble to halt the Allies in the west, hoping to force them to the negotiating table.

Despite early successes, the battle of the bulge failed in almost all of its objectives.  Running out of fuel a kilometer before the largest fuel dump in Europe, not being able to dislodge the US troops at Bastogne - all of these small failures compounded and ended up costing the German's deeply, by the time the bulge was squeezed out many precious tanks and vehicles had been abandoned, countless lives had been wasted and nothing had been gained.

Abandoned Flak 41 inspected by American soldier at Magdeburg - 1945

The Flak 41 was a Rheinmetall improvement on the famous Krupp "eighty-eight", resulting in a more powerful version than any of the previous ones.  Only very few numbers were produced, but this prompted Krupp to respond with another prototype which ended up becoming the feared Pak 43 & KWK 43 - mounted on the Elefant, Jagdpanther and the Tiger II.

US Hellcat & Sherman Tanks with an abandoned King Tiger

Looming in the backgroiund the massive hulk of a knocked out or abandoned King Tiger sits while numerous Sherman tanks and Hellcat tank destroyers from the 6th Armoured Division rest for a moment.

Panzergrenadiers about to commence an attack - Eastern Front 1944

Untersturmführer Gerhard Mahn, commander of 11th company, 9th regiment "Germania" of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" directs the actions of the division of armored personnel carriers Sd.Kfz.251.   They are about to mount an attack against the Red Army during the battles east of Warsaw in the summer of 1944

8.8cm flak mounted on a Vomag Omnibus 7

An interesting photo as the Vomag Omnibus 7 was a civilian transport vehicle.  There isn't a lot of information available about the Omnibus 7.

The variant is known as the Vomag 88mm Flak 18 Waffentrager.  It is an example of the need to get such an excellent but horribly immobile weapon into battle and as maneuverable as possible.

U.S. soldier in the Ardennes Forest (Belgium 12-19-44)

A British soldier engaged in the street fighting around Caen, shortly after the D-Day landings.

Canadian soldier with a captured German MP 40 submachine gun (Caen, France - July 1944)

88mm Flak Ambush - Holland 1944

German paratroopers in a trench, supported by a StuG III

SS Totenkopf MG34 crew w/ full head camo - Battle of Kursk -Summer 1943

Often mis-labelled as "sniper's veils", this full face camouflage face mask is worn by a Waffen SS MG-34 team at the battle of Kursk - Totenkopf was deployed around Prokhorovka.

The Waffen SS and Wehrmacht used camouflage more than any other armed forces in the second world war.

Captured Soviet soldier dressed in SN-42 body armor - 1944

Stalnoi Nagrudnik - the steel bib, designed to stop the 9mm pistol round and potentially even a round from a rifle as long as it did not hit directly front on.

In this photo three non-penetrating bullets have hit the front of the vest and have been successfully stopped, saving this young soldiers life.

German soldier armed with a Luger P08 (Crimea, Russia - 1942)

British troops fire a captured Pak 40 near Monte Cassino

The Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of four costly assaults by the Allies in the Italian campaign.

The defending German forces held the Winter Line series of three defensive lines across Italy, centered around the town of Monte Cassino - Highway 6 ran through here all the way to Rome.

The plan was to break through and drive onto Rome, it took 123 days, 55,000 casualties to finally dislodge the German defenders.

Polish resistance fighters rest by the fire during the Warsaw Uprising (Poland - c. Sep/Oct 1944)

The Warsaw uprising was the largest single operation undertaken by any resistance movement during World War Two.  The Armia Krajowa - The Polish Resistance Home Army were aiming to liberate the city of Warsaw from the occupying forces of Nazi Germany.

Ultimately the uprising failed when the Soviet armies halted their advance short of Warsaw - allowing the German forces breathing room to regroup and demolish the city and quell the uprising.

The only real outside support came from the nightly drops of supplies from the RAF, other commonwealth air forces and of course units of the Polish Air Force.

There was no difficulty in finding Warsaw. It was visible from 100 kilometers away. The city was in flames but with so many huge fires burning, it was almost impossible to pick up the target marker flares. — William Fairly, a South African pilot, from an interview in 1982

A grave for fallen comrades

A German panzer crewman stands over the grave of two fallen panzer crewmen - potentially from the Panzer I in the background.

Most likely this photo is taken in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, as the black panzer beret - the schutzmütze - was phased out and production had ceased in 1941, however it continued to be worn after that date for a while.  The surviving crewman is wearing the newer style of panzer crew headgear which was introduced in early 1940.

U.S. Army Ranger training with a Colt .45 M1911 - Scotland - Pre D-Day 1943/1944

"A date that will live in infamy" - Dec 7th 1941

The USS Arizona burns during the attack on Pearl Harbor

A double post today - It's the 8th down here in NZ but for our American readers it is the 7th.

"The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona (BB-39) were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.

The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

A Douglas A-20 making a bomb run on D-Day, 6 June 1944

Assigned to the Ninth Air Force the 416th Bombardment Group, they were equipped with Douglas A-20 Havoc aircraft, seen here wearing the invasion stripes - alternating black and white bands on the wings and fuselage - an attempt to increase recognition and thereby reducing friendly fire incidents.

D-Day invasion stripes were removed from the upper surfaces of aircraft a month later, and by the end of 1944 they were completely removed.

US Infantry, German POW's and a ruined Half track

France 1944, US infantry and German POW's march past the remains of a US M3A1 torn apart.

The M3A1 was a M3 with the improved M49 machine gun ring mount over the right hand front seat. All M3 halftracks were continually upgraded to M3A1 versions throughout the course of the war.

Another King Tiger

As with yesterday's post, here is another two King Tigers, this time a year later and on the Eastern Front.

After it had received forty-five new Tiger IIs in December 1944, the detachment was attached to IV SS Panzer Corps, which was preparing an attempt to relieve the encircled garrison of Budapest. Launched on 18 January 1945, the operation was ultimately a failure. During the operation, the 509th had lost forty of its forty-five Tiger IIs, with ten being total losses.  The road signs indicate that they're  45 kilometers from Budapest, and this is tank #300.

Two Tiger II tanks on a Paris street 1944

The heaviest tank on the battlefield, the Tiger II or Königstiger was a formidable foe, but it had its fair share of shortcomings.  From over-complicated engineering, not enough power for the weight of the beast and the lack of quality raw materials led to this monster not being able to perform to its fullest.
However that being said, wherever this tank was deployed, it devastated its opponents.

In this photo two King Tigers of the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion are passing through a Paris street on the way to the Normandy front in August 1944, ultimately however nothing the German's threw at the invading Allies was enough to halt their advance, and once Operation Bagration was launched it was really only a matter of time before the war for Germany was over.

German POW's - July 1944

These six "Landser" from 353. Infanterie-Division, are observed by two GIs of the 4th Armored Division during the Operation Cobra, and lined up in front of a ruined house in Coutances, 29 Km West of Saint-Lô, Normandy. 29 July 1944.

American mortar crew in action

From the WWII firepower documentary "How good is a gun?" this gif shows an American five man crew loading and firing their mortar.

M3A1 Half-track from the "Ghost Army" 1944

M3A1 half-track with 500 pound speaker, capable of projecting sounds as far as 15 miles. Used by the US 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka the Ghost Army, for sonic deception, 1944

Read more about the Ghost Army

Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger's wave at a Stuka overhead - May 1940

Near Venlo, Limburg the Netherlands in May 1940, a group of German Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) waive to a passing Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber, the Stuka, during the Battle of the Netherlands.

Heinkel He162 Plane Factory in a Salt Mine near Schönebeck 1945

The He 162 Volksjäger - Peoples Fighter, primarily made of wood due to the short supply of metals at this late point in the war.

It was the fastest of the first generation of jet fighters produced during the second world war.

American M7 - Priest

A self-propelled howitzer M7 Priest of the 14th Armored Field Artillery Battalion of the 2nd Armored Division at the intersection of Holgate Street and the railway line Paris-Cherbourg. Carentan, France

A row of destroyed "Hanomags" - France 1944

The "Hanomag" or Sd.Kfz 251 series of vehicles was a half tracked armored fighting vehicle of Nazi Germany.  Over 15,000 were built during the war, there were 22 variants of the base vehicle.

These particular half tracks were knocked out by Allied air power between Carrouges and Rânes - an area below Caen and roughly a 12 km stretch of road.  There were two other attacks around the same time which eliminated the entire group.

Jagdpanther!

The imposing hulk of the Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 654 Jagdpanther

British forces preparing to come ashore on D-Day - June 6th, 1944

Sherman DD and Sherman BARV vehicles aboard a LCT approaching the coast of France

On June 6th 1944  Sherman tanks and vehicles of 13th/18th Royal Hussars, 27th Armoured Brigade, aboard LCT 610 approaching the coast of France.

The Sherman tank in the foreground (T147161 ’10’ ‘Balaclava’) is a Regimental Head Quarters tank. In front of it is a Sherman BARV (Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle).

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/normandy/rep1318hussars.htm

RAF Pilot receiving a haircut in between sorties

With a pipe and a good book, this young pilot receives a haircut in between sorties.  Knowing that each time they went out it could be their last mission, keeping mentally busy is key.

Saying Goodbye

An American soldier says goodbye to his wife and child before shipping out to serve in WWII.  Pennsylvania Station. New York City, 1943

Wounded German Soldier sitting atop a German 38(t) tank

Two Panzer 38(t) tanks passing a knocked out Soviet T-34/76 in 1942, on the front of the first tank a wounded German soldier is hitching a ride.

Ju 88G W7+ N of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 100

Hungary 1944

Nachtjagdgeschwader 100 (NJG 100) was a Luftwaffe night fighter-wing of World War II.

Nachtjagdgeschwader 100

Romanian Panzerschrek Operator

A young looking Romainian Panzerschreck operator with a destroyed Soviet SU-85 in the background.

This is the improved Raketenpanzerbüchse 54, it has the blast shield which avoided needing a full face protective mask and poncho.

Panther D 1944 - Snow

Two Panther Ausf. D from III. Panzerkorps in Northern Ukraine

III Panzer Corps was formed in June 1942 from III Army Corps and attached to Army Group A, the formation tasked with capturing the Caucasus as a part of Fall Blau. After the loss of the 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad, III Panzer Corps took part in the battles around Kharkov as part of Army Group Don. During Operation Citadel, the Corps was the striking force of Army Detachment Kempf as they attempted to protect the right flank of the 4th Panzer Army. It was involved in the retreat from Belgorod to the Dniepr.

At the beginning of 1944, the Corps participated in the relief of the forces trapped in the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket. In March the Corps was encircled in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket, along with the rest of the 1st Panzer Army. III Corps drove the breakout and escape. Due to heavy losses, from November 1944 to January 1945, the corps was redesignated as Gruppe Breith, after its commander General der Panzertruppen Hermann Breith.

In late 1944, III Panzerkorps participated in Operation Konrad, the failed attempts to relieve the German and Hungarian garrison at Budapest. The corps then took part in Operation Spring Awakening in Hungary. After its failure, the corps retreated through Austria, surrendering to the U.S. Army on 8 May 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/III_Army_Corps_(Wehrmacht)#III_Panzer_Corps

Knocked Out Soviet KV-1 Tank

Axis forces pose next to a knocked out KV-1 tank

The KV series of tanks in the Soviet arsenal took the invading Germans by surprise, finding their anti tank weapons to be totally ineffective against these heavily armored monsters.

Anecdotally the 37mm Pak Gun became known as the doorknocker as you could sit there all day and it would have no effect on the tank or the crews inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_encounter_of_Soviet_T-34_and_KV_tanks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliment_Voroshilov_tank

Nebelwerfer Batteriy Firing

Nebelwerfer - "Smoke Mortar"

The Nebelwerfer was originally developed as a method of delivering poison gas and smoke shells, it was developed for the "Nebeltruppen" or smoke troops, this was all part of a disinformation strategy to fool the League of Nations.

In combat it was given the nickname by the allies of "Moaning Minnie" or "Screaming Mimi", one of it's main disadvantages was the huge plumes of smoke left behind pinpointing the firing location, once fired the crew must relocate almost immediately to avoid devastating counter artillery fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebelwerfer#Comparable_systems