ILLUSTRATED HISTORY: RELIVE THE TIMES

Great History Books: IVAN'S WAR Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 By CATHERINE MERRIDALE

2011-10-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
By CATHERINE MERRIDALE
BUY THE BOOK
3.87 avg rating — 212 ratings — published 2005
(Goodreads)

This highly readable book tells us about the Eastern Front during the Second World War from a Russian viewpoint.

Like the United States, the Soviet Union has its greatest generation. Between 1941 and 1945, 30 million men and women served in the Soviet military, facing almost certain defeat at the outset but eventually rolling on to victory in Berlin. The toll was catastrophic, the numbers almost impossible to fathom: two and a half million soldiers captured in the first five months of the war, more than eight million killed by war's end. "They called us, they trained us, they killed us," one veteran put it succinctly.

What was life like in the armed services for a typical Soviet soldier? Catherine Merridale, a British historian, set out to find the answer, tape recorder in hand, interviewing veterans and their relatives, and digging deep in previously unavailable sources like diaries and field reports. Her goal was to get beyond the Soviet myth of inevitable victory achieved in the name of the Communist Party, motherland and Stalin, a myth that has obscured the harsher realities of the war, the multiple failures of government officials and the often needless sacrifices of millions who fought, as the book's title has it, "Ivan's War."

New York Times

"Ivan" is the ordinary Russian rifleman, the equivalent of the British Tommy or German Fritz. Their stories are gleaned from letters and journals preserved in newly accessible archives, and from many hours of interviews with veterans. The result is impressive: a significant contribution to understanding what the war meant to Soviet soldiers.

The Independent

The book covers operation Barbarossa and the debacle of the Soviet troops in Belarus, Ukraine, Western Russia and south-western Russia; the battle of Stalingrad is seen by Merridale as the first turning point of the war; the battle of Kursk, which gave a definite blow to the image of invincibility of the German troops; operation Bagration (the second turning point of the war) which turned the Soviet military endeavour from a war of liberation into a war of revenge; and finally, the end game, the battle of Berlin. Yet she chooses not to focus simply on the purely military - strategic and tactical aspects of these events but also to concentrate on the experiences of the Russian soldier in the frontline, the so-called frontovniki. Hence she arrives at a social-cultural history of the Russian soldier.

Source

They died in vast numbers, eight million men and women driven forward in suicidal charges, shattered by German shells and tanks. They were the soldiers of the Red Army, an exhausted mass of recruits who confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it. For sixty years, their experiences were suppressed, replaced by patriotic propaganda. We know how the soldiers died, but nearly nothing about how they lived, how they saw the world, or why they fought. In this ambitious, revelatory history, Catherine Merridale uncovers the harrowing story of who these soldiers were, and how they lived and died during the war.

Good Reads

Thirty million men and women served in the Red Army during WWII. Over eight million of them died. Living or dead, they have remained anonymous. This is partly due to the Soviet Union's policy of stressing the collective nature of its sacrifice and victory. It also reflects the continuing reluctance of most Soviet veterans to discuss their experiences—in sharp contrast to German survivors of the Eastern Front. Merridale, professor of history at the University of London, combines interviews, letters and diaries with research in previously closed official archives to present the first comprehensive portrait of the Red Army's fighters. She carefully details the soldiers' age and ethnic diversity, and she puts a human face on a fact demonstrated repeatedly by retired U.S. officer and Soviet military expert David Glantz: the Red Army learned from the experience of its near-collapse in 1941, and by 1945 its soldiers were more than a match for their Wehrmacht opponents. Most poignantly, Merridale reveals that frontline soldiers increasingly hoped their sacrifices would bring about postwar reform—"Communism with a human face." What they got instead was a Stalinist crackdown—and a long silence, broken now by this outstanding book.

Publisher's Weekly

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

Excerpt from Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939‐1945 by Catherine Merridale (NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2006): 2‐4

In June 1941, when the conflict began, about six million soldiers, German and Soviet, prepared to fight along a front that wove more than a thousand miles through marsh and forest, coastal dune and steppe. The Soviets had another two million troops already under arms in territories far off to the east. They would need them within weeks. As the conflict deepened in the next two years, both sides would raise more troops to pour into land‐based campaigns hungry for human flesh and bone. It was not unusual, by 1943, for the total number of men and women engaged in fighting at any time on the eastern front to exceed 11 million.

The rates of loss were similarly extravagant. By December 1941, six months into the conflict, the Red Army had lost four and a half million men. The carnage was beyond imagination. Eyewitnesses described the battlefields as landscapes of charred steel and ash. The round shapes of lifeless heads caught the light like potatoes turned up from new‐broken soil. The prisoners were marched off in their multitudes. Even the Germans did not have the guards, let alone enough barbed wire, to contain the two and a half million Red Army troops they captured in the first five months. One single campaign, the defense of Kiev, cost the Soviets nearly 700,000 killed or missing in a matter of weeks. Almost the entire army of the prewar years, the troops that shared the panic of those first nights back in June, was dead or captured by the end of 1941. And this process would be repeated as another generation was called up, crammed into uniform, and killed, captured, or wounded beyond recovery. In all, the Red Army was destroyed and renewed at least twice in the course of this war. Officers – whose losses ran at 35 percent, or roughly fourteen times the rate in the tsarist army of the First World War – had to be found almost as rapidly as men. American lend‐lease was supplying the Soviets with razor blades by 1945, but large numbers of the Red Army’s latest reserve of teenagers would hardly have needed them.

Surrender never was an option. Though British and American bombers continued to attack the Germans from the air, Red Army soldiers were bitterly aware, from 1941, that they were the last major force left fighting Hitler’s armies on the ground. They yearned for news that their allies had opened a second front in France, but they fought on, knowing that there was no other choice. This was not a war over trade or territory. Its guiding principle was ideology, its aim the annihilation of a way of life. Defeat would have meant the end of Soviet power, the genocide of Slavs and Jews. Tenacity came at a terrible price: the total number of Soviet lives that the war claimed exceeded twenty‐seven million. Most of these were civilians, unlucky victims of deportation, hunger, disease, or direct violence. But Red Army losses – deaths – exceeded eight million of the gruesome total. This figure easily surpasses the number of military deaths on all sides, Allied and German, in the First World War and stands in stark contrast to the losses among the British and American armed forces between 1939 and 1945, which amounted to fewer than a quarter of a million for each. The Red Army, as one recruit put it, was a “meat‐grinder.” “They called us, they trained us, they killed us,” another man recalled. The Germans likened the process, dismissively, to mass production, but the regiments kept marching, even when a third of Soviet territory was in enemy hands. By 1945, the total number of people who had been mobilized into the Soviet armed forces since 1939 exceeded thirty million.

Nohum

PAGE 9

"The Russian," continued the pamphlet, "is subject to moods which to a westerner are incomprehensible; he acts by instinct. As a soldier, the Russian is primitive and unassuming, innately brave but morosely passive when in a group." At the same time, "his emotions drive the Russian into the herd, which gives him strength and courage." Hardship was no deterrent for these primitives. The Red Army's wartime endurance at Stalingrad was explained as a side effect of culture and those Asiatic genes. "It is no
exaggeration to say that the Russian soldier is unaffected by season and terrain. ... [He] requires only very few provisions for his own use." Finally, the Red Army could not be trusted to play by the rules. "The Germans found," the summary concluded, "that they had to be on their guard against dishonesty and attempts at deception by individual Russian soldiers and small units. ...
An unguarded approach often cost a German his life."

BUY THE BOOK

HISTORY OPINION POLL 5: Who Were The Best Soldiers During WW2?

2011-10-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

The disciplined German? The stubborn British? The cow boyish American? The deeply loyal Japanese? Or the Mother Russia-loving Russian?

Who were the best and toughest soldiers during World War Two?

We are not talking of individual soldiers here. Collectively. Motivation. Bravery. Will to win. Who fight on despite overwhelming odds. But collectively

A tough question to answer.

What do you think?

Just vote in the poll on this site.

The majority often is right.

Let us find some answers.

Write in your ideas,views and reasons. Just click on "Post a Comment" below.

(These two history forums have raised the same topic
warhistoryfans
stormfront)

HISTORY OPINION POLL 4: Men Of Waffen SS: Criminals or Elite Warriors?

2011-10-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

As the Nazi Reich collapsed in May 1945, Hitler’s finest soldiers continued with desperate resistance amidst the ruins of Berlin.Throughout the great sphere of conflict created by the Nazis,there was one band of elite units, known and feared across Europe and beyond. In an existence of only twelve years, they won a unique reputation for immense fighting spirit and unfailing professionalism in combat. Yet, despite their undoubted bravery,they established a culture of fear and loathing. In many of the most signal triumphs of German arms and military strength, they played a role far disproportionate to their small numbers. As the Axis powers retreated in the face of the advancing Allies, despite repeatedly sustaining horrific casualties, their discipline remained unbroken, their fighting ability unimpaired. As the crimes of the regime were unearthed, they were burdened with the blackest crimes of the Nazi regime. For all their undoubted bravery, they bear a reputation which will be forever shrouded in infamy. They were the Waffen SS, and, to me, they were the greatest fighting force of the Second World War, and perhaps even of all military history.

The Waffen-SS were the best equipped units in the Second World War. They were the elite of the elite in Hitler’s Reich. I feel that no Allied or German can touch the lofty position which the Waffen SS occupy in the military history of WWII. Despite their animalistic crimes, the Waffen SS seldom retreated and resisted surrender until the last possible moment of the war. In some of the most famous actions in history, the SS units were always at the front line. The greatest fighting force, in my mind, can only be the unit which, although only in service for six years, served with a gallantry and courage which was near fanatical: the Waffen SS.

Source: Scribd

ALSO READ "Waffen SS: Elite Fighting Machine Of WW2"

Guido Knopp, sums the Waffen-SS perfectly in his documentary “Waffen SS – Hitler’s Elite Fighting Force”: “Had that marvellous courage and unflinching endurance,the blood so freely shed been devoted to a cause in anyway honourable, the Waffen SS would have assured themselves of eternal. But it was not. They served and were inextricably interlinked with a system unutterably evil in any conception.Nurtured by lies, upheld by corruption, impelled by avarice,ambitions and naked lust for power. And thus, although the ranks of the Waffen SS included many who were blameless, its arms will be forever stained with the darkest hues of infamy.”

What do you think is the truth? That the men of Waffen SS were the best and noblest warriors history has ever seen? Or were they just bigoted fanatics? Or does the truth lie somewhere between?

FINAL RESULT OF THE POLL

Greatest Warriors	624(46%)
Mere Fanatics	312(23%)
Something Between	398(29%)

Also do write in your views. Just click on "Post A Comment" below...

Unseen Rare Images From Battle Of Stalingrad: Large Pictures: Part 2

2011-09-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

A German soldier fastens the Nazi flag onto a building in Stalingrad. October 1942

VIDEO CLIP: "STALINGRAD" THE FILM

Germans fire with the machine-gun MG 34

VIDEO CLIP: "STALINGRAD" (1993)

Nikita Khrushchev (right) with other top officers of the Soviet Military Tribunal for the South-Western Front

VIDEO: "STALINGRAD" (1993)

1943. Stalingrad. Russian engineers work on a captured German Messerschmitt BF 109

VIDEO CLIP: "ENEMY AT THE GATES"

October 1942. Russian soldiers fire away from a building in the "Red October" Factory. Stalingrad.

The corpse of a German soldier at the direction sign at Stalingrad. February 1943.

Stalingrad. 1943. After it was all over. German POW made to work as laborers. Here they are clearing the rubble.

German prisoners loading a lorry with bricks in Stalingrad. 1947.

German soldiers using the light infantry gun 7,5 cm LeIG 18 change the position of the gun during the battle of Stalingrad. September 1942.

MORE ABOUT LEIG 18>>>>

German tanks in the great bend of the Don. July 1942.

German troops in the great bend of the Don. July 1942.

The famous mill after the battle of Stalingrad, July - August 1943.

Commander of the 6th Army, Friedrich von Paulus at the headquarters of the 76th Infantry Division. Stalingrad, 1942.

The commander of the 4th Air Force V. Richthofen (with binoculars) and the commander of the 16th Armored Division H. Hube watching the bombardment of Stalingrad August 23, 1942.

Stalingrad six months after the end of hostilities. Summer 1943.

The man who broke the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad. The commander of the 62nd Army, Lieutenant General VI Chuikov at the command post.

A German tank Pz.Kpfw. III. and other military trucks lie destroyed in Stalingrad. 1943.

A German non-commissioned officer with captured Soviet sub-machine gun PPS hiding behind a bunch of plant debris. Stalingrad, September-October 1942

German soldiers with a MG 34 machine-gun prepare for battle. Stalingrad. September-October 1942

RELATED

Large Rare Images From Battle Of Stalingrad: Part 1

Unseen Pictures From Battle Of Stalingrad: Large Images: Part 1

2011-08-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

Stalingrad. The word will, perhaps, will always remain synonymous with hardest war fighting. Never was the war so brutal, so inhuman and fought so desperately. However many images we see of the Battle of Stalingrad, one hungers for more...

Below are some pictures which have never been seen before....
(All the images are large. Please click on them to see the larger size)

German soldiers take position in the factory "Red October" in Stalingrad. Fall, 1942

Dead German soldiers in a foxhole. Frozen to death in the bitter winter cold of Russia....

Text Source: theeasternfront.uk

In the Autumn of 1942, the German Army had again succeeded in making large Territorial gains in Russia. However it had not captured the considerable amounts of men and material as had been the case in 1941. The German advance had again reached its limits and the Red Army was preparing to deal a series of counter offensives against it.

However before this could come about, a titanic struggle would ensue that would be centered on the city of Stalingrad.

Hitler had become obsessed with the capture of the city that bore Stalin's name. Not only was the city an important armaments production center, river port and transport hub, but encapsulated all that Bolshevism stood for. Stalin meanwhile declared that the city should be held at any cost, issuing his infamous 'Not one step back' order in August.

The Soviet soldiers celebrate after the German Sixth Army surrenders

Once 6th Army's 51st Corps had crossed the Don River at Luchinsky and Vertyachy, only the beleaguered 62nd and 64th Armies, retreating back towards the city, lay between it and Stalingrad. On Sunday the 23rd of August the Luftwaffe carried out its first air raids against the city.

The raids were devastating, with over 1000 tons of bombs dropped on the first day, destroying the city's telephone exchange, waterworks, the power station at Betovka, the oil storage site on the Volga and part of the main hospital, as well as large parts of the city's residential areas. The bombing continued for five days.

The 16th Panzer Division advanced almost unopposed towards the city until it reached Gumrak where resistance began to stiffen. However the division managed to reach the Volga on the evening of the 25th of August at Rynok, to the north of the city. Meanwhile the Russians rapidly began to form Militia Battalions to help defend the city.

These are hooves of horses. A starving German Sixth Army and its allied armies took to eating horses after the army encircled by the Russians, started running out of food

To the south of the city the advance of the 4th Panzer Army, under Hoth, was facing more determined resistance from Russian forces around Lake Sarpa and in the Tundutovo Hills. However, Hoth moved the 48th Panzer Corps to his left flank and it made rapid progress across the Kalmyk Steppe. By the evening of the 31st of August, units of the 24th Panzer Division had reached the Stalingrad-Morosovsk railway line to the southwest of the city.

On the 3rd of September, Russian forces of the 1st Guards, 24th and 66th Armies were assembled on the northern flank of 6th Army in preparation for a counter attack. The Luftwaffe made concentrated attacks against the assembly areas, disrupting preparations for the offensive. When it finally began on the 5th, the 14th Panzer Corps was prepared to meet it. The 1st Guards Army only managed to advance a few miles while the 24th Army was eventually pushed back to its start line. However despite the offensives failure, it did allow time for the 62nd and 64th Armies to withdraw back to the edge of the city.

The Russians fire with a 75mm gun in Stalingrad

On the 10th of September the 62nd Army withdrew back into the city and was cut off from the 64th Army in the south by the advancing 29th Motorized Infantry Division, which reached the Volga at Kuporosnoye on the southern edge of the city. On the 11th of September the Front HQ was withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Volga. On the 12th, General Vasily Chuikov was appointed as the new commander of the 62nd Army.

On the 13th of September, the German 6th Army made its fist attempt to break into the city. In the north of the city the 295th Infantry Division attacked the Mamayev Kurgan, a dominating height also known as hill 102, which overlooked the city. Meanwhile the 71st and 76th Infantry Divisions attacked towards the main railway station and the central landing stage on the Volga. In the south of the city the 14th and 24th Panzer and the 94th Infantry Divisions attacked towards the area of the grain elevator. The attack was preceded by a sustained air bombardment and artillery barrage. The 71st and 76th Infantry Divisions made good progress, despite becoming bogged down in heavy fighting around the main railway station which changed hands several times that day. By late afternoon they had captured the waterworks and reached the Volga to the north of the station. Meanwhile the 29th Motorized and 94th Infantry Divisions attacked from the Yelshanka suburb, also in the direction of the Kurgan.

Soviet soldiers use the 45mm artillery

Stalin ordered that the 13th Guards Rifle Division was to cross the Volga and reinforce the city on the night of the 14th, the situation so desperate that it had to be introduced piecemeal as soon as units disembarked from the ferries. In the mean time, Chuikov moved militia Battalions under NKVD command to occupy key buildings in the city and hold them to the last man. A regular NKVD Battalion was sent to reinforce the Mamayev Kurgan and two Rifle Regiments ordered to block the German advance towards the river.

The 13th Division crossed on a mixture of gunboats, tugs, barges, comandeered fishing vessels, even rowing boats. The first wave of troops across, the 42nd Guards Regiment, managed to push the Germans back towards the main railway station, while the 39th Guards Regiment captured a large mill and then pushed towards the Mamayev Kurgan. The 95th Rifle Division reinforced the badly weakened 35th Guards Rifle Division to the south of the Tsaritsa Gorge and a Brigade of Marine Infantry were sent to fortify the grain elevator. Meanwhile the NKVD Regiment on the Kurgan was struggling to hold on to the summit following repeated attacks by the 295th Infantry Division. They were finally reinforced on the 16th of September by the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment.

Russian soldiers in Stalingrad. In the background is the Central Department

On the 18th of September the German 94th Infantry Division began to assault the grain elevator. Despite continuous bombardment and ten separate attacks from the 94th Infantry Division, the elevator was held until the 20th, when the few survivors broke out and fought their way back to the Russian lines. The Univermag department store on Red Square and the warehouse known as the nail factory also saw desperate close quarter fighting before they fell to German forces. However despite the staunch defense of the Russian troops the Germans still managed to reach the central landing stage. The main station was also finally captured the same day after five days of heavy fighting. With the central landing stage under German control the Russians were dependent on the factory ferry crossing to the north. By the 21st only the 92nd Infantry Brigade was left fighting south of the Tsaritsa Gorge.

That night the 284th Rifle Division crossed the river to reinforce the city. The Division was held in reserve behind the Kurgan until the 23rd when it counter attacked the central landing stage without success.

The Russian soldiers find this Nazi flag

On the 27th of September German forces launched yet another attack to destroy the Russian salient which reached westwards from the Volga in the industrial sector in the north of the city. The capture of the Red October steelworks, the Barrikady armaments factory, the Lazure Chemical works and the Dzerzhinsky tractor plant were the objectives of this new attack. However Russian forces pre-empted the German offensive with spoiling attacks in the area of the Mamayev Kurgan. The 389th Infantryivision attacked the Barrikady workers apartments, while the 24th Panzer Division advanced towards the Red October factory.

Further south 100th Jager Division recaptured the summit of the Mamayev Kurgan. On the 28th of September, yet another Russian counter attack on the Kurgan threw German forces off of the summit. That night two Regiments of the 193rd Rifle and 39th Guards Rifle Divisions crossed the river to help reinforce the city.

On the 29th of September, German forces began to reduce the Russian salient in the north of the city. The village of Orlovka was attacked by the 389th Infantry and 60th Motorized Divisions simultaneously. In addition the 94th Infantry and 14th Panzer Division's were also moved up from the south of the city to support the attack. That night the 39th Guards Rifle Division crossed the river to reinforce the Red October steelworks.

Hauptmann Friedrich Winkler (Friedrich Konrad Winkler) of the 305th Infantry Division in the area of Stalingrad factory. Winkler was taken prisoner and died shortly thereafter in a POW camp in Beketovka.

On the 1st of October, units of the 295th Infantry Division infiltrated the northern flank of the 13th Guards Rifle Division along the Krutoy gully and reached the Volga. They then turned south and attacked the rear of the Russian Division. Every unit that could be spared was thrown into a desperate counter attack which finally halted the German advance. On the 2nd of October the Luftwaffe attacked the Oil storage facility, almost totally destroying it.

Meanwhile in the factory district, German attacks against the Barrikady Factory, defended by the 308th Rifle Division, and the Red October plant by the 414th Anti Tank Division, were making little progress.

On the 6th of October the Germans renewed their efforts against the factory district. The 60th Motorized and 14th Panzer Divisions attacked the Tractor factory. At the same time the 16th Panzer Division attacked the northern industrial suburb of Spartakovka, pushing back the remains of the 112th Rifle Division and the 124th Special Brigade.

These Germans are amused to find an old Russian woman living in the ruins of the city

The Volga crossings were becoming increasingly vulnerable, constantly under fire from German artillery. On the 11th of October the 84th Tank Brigade and the 37th Guards Rifle Division counter attacked the 14th Panzer Division on the southwestern side of the tractor plant. The second week of October saw a lull in the fighting as the Germans prepared for yet another offensive against the northern industrial sector.

The Germans began their offensive on the 14th of October. The objective again was the northern industrial sector. The main thrust against the tractor plant began at midday after a heavy arial bombardment of the Russian positions by the Luftwaffe. German forces of the 14th Panzer Division broke through the Russian defences and cut off the 37th Guards and 12th Rifle Divisions, reaching the Volga near the oil tanks. Further south on the 15th, the 305th Infantry Division reached the rail line by the brick works.

The offensive petered out towards the end of October due to a lack of ammunition and exhaustion of the troops. An attack on the 1st of November by the 79th Infantry Division against the Red October factory collapsed following a series of heavy artillery bombardments by Russian artillery. The 94th Infantry Division attacking the northern pocket at Spartakovka also floundered in the face of stiff Russian resistance.

Russian nurses carry away wounded Soviet soldiers

THE LAST PUSH

On November the 9th the harsh Russian winter arrived in earnest, as the temperature dropped to -18°C. The Volga, one of the last rivers in Russia to freeze began to clog with ice flows. On the 11th of November the final German assault began. Battle groups assembled from the 71st, 79th, 100th, 295th, 305th and 389th Infantry Divisions attacked the remaining pockets of resistance. An airel bombardment opened the offensive, which thrust towards the Lazur Chemical factory and the Mamayev Kurgan. While the Russian 138th Infantry Division fought desperately to hold on to their position to the east of the Barrikady plant the 95th Rifle Division counter attacked to the plants south east, but was halted by heavy German shelling.

Within 48 hours the main thrust of the attack had disintigrated into a series of isolated battles. Small groups of German infantry reached the Volga, but were then cut off themselves as Russian forces infiltrated their rear. By the 18th exhaustion and a lack of ammunition saw the attack come to an end.

Russians fire mortar shells at German positions. The fighting happened at close quarters in Stalingrad

THE TRAP CLOSES.....

On the 19th of November Russian forces of three Fronts begun Operation Uranus, the encirclement of German forces in Stalingrad. The reaction of the German forces in the pocket was slow. General Paulus, commander of 6th Army sought freedom of movement to break out of the pocket, but instead was ordered by Hitler to hold and await relief, while in the meantime the pocket would be re-supplied by air. On the 23rd of November Von Seydlitz, commander of 50th Corps, ordered the 60th Motorized and 94th Infantry Divisions to withdraw from their positions on the northern edge of Stalingrad to a new defence line further back into the pocket.

A Russian sniper takes position in Stalingrad

LAST HOPE: LUFTWAFFE

The first supplies were flown into the pocket on the 24th of November. The forces in the pocket realistically required a minimum of 770 tons of supplies per day. Despite the requirements of the army, the Luftwaffe was instructed to deliver was a mere 300 tons per day, but even this amount was never achieved. The first three weeks saw an average daily tonnage of 70 tons being delivered. Every possible type of aircraft was employed by the airlift to try and achieve the tonnage's required. The aircrews flew in atrocious weather conditions, through heavy anti aircraft fire and trying to avoid a heavy Red Air Force presence.

Despite their efforts the highest daily amount of supplies, 289 tons, was achieved on the 19th of December. The next day the forward airfield at Millerovo was lost and Tatsinskaya four days later on the 24th. This increased the flying distance into the pocket to 330km, leaving most transport aircraft at the edge of their range and without fighter cover. On the 16th of January the Pitomnik airfield inside the pocket was captured and this only left the hastily prepared field at Gumrak. The daily average of supplies brought in dropped to a meager 100 tons, about 33% of the minimum requirement.

The airfield at Gumrak was overrun on the 23rd of January and the last aircraft remaining in the pocket flew out that day, with all supplies thereafter being air dropped. In support of the airlift from mid November to the end of January, the Luftwaffe flew 18,500 sorties, carried a total of 6100 tons of supplies, flew out about 25,000 wounded and lost a total of 488 aircraft.

The Soviet soldiers fighting in one of the shops of the plant "Red October". Inch by inch the men occupy the factory area. January 1943.

THE NOOSE TIGHTENS....

During the first week of December, Russian forces made a determined effort to split the pocket. The 16th Panzer Division counter attacked a hill in the area of Baburkin. Despite capturing the hill the Russian's counter attacked and forced them back inflicting heavy casualties. By the 7th of December it was clear that the airlift would not be able to provide sufficient supplies of food, fuel and ammunition. Rations within the pocket were cut by half and shortages of fuel and ammunition were seriously hampering 6th Army.

Manstein's relief attempt to free 6th Army from the pocket began of the 12th of December. However by the 19th of December the 57th Panzer Corps was held on the Myshkova River by the 2nd Guards Army, only 40 miles short of reaching the pocket. The worsening situation along the entire Don River saw the relief attempt abandoned on the 23rd of December, effectively ending any chance of 6th Armies escape. The following day the German forward airfield at Tatsinskaya was over run and the Luftwaffe aircraft attempting to re-supply German forces in Stalingrad were forced to fly from further afield and from makeshift airfields.

A week earlier the Volga had finally frozen over and the Russians had begun to pour reinforcements and supplies into the city and evacuate the wounded. The Germans no longer had sufficient artillery ammunition to shell the crossings.

On the 7th of January an offer of surrender was made to 6th Army. A draft of the surrender proposal, written by Voronov and approved by Stalin was sent via the Don Front HQ. The previous night leaflets were dropped over the German lines and Red Army radio stations also broadcast the message. Despite the Russian envoys reaching German lines and being received by the Company HQ there, they were ordered to leave once the Battalion commander had phoned the Army Group HQ for instructions. They were not allowed to hand over the ultimatum and were returned unharmed to their own lines.

This Russian performs a very vital duty. Gun in hand and a food tiffin on his back the man crawls through the ruins of Stalingrad to give food to the Soviet soldiers fighting at the "front line"

THE END OF THE SIXTH ARMY.....

The Russian's began their final assault on the pocket, 'Operation Koltso' (Ring), on the 10th of January. It commenced with a ferocious bombardment using 7000 artillery pieces, which lasted for an hour. The south western tip of the pocket bore the brunt of the first Russian attacks as the bombardment subsided. The 3rd and 29th Motorized and 44th Infantry Divisions were rapidly forced to retreat towards Karpovka station under the overwhelming assault of the 21st and 65th Armies supported by ground attack aircraft from the 16th Air Army. Meanwhile the northern flank of the pocket defended by the 16th Panzer and 60th Motorized Divisions, was attacked by the 66th Army.

German forces here fared better, holding the initial Russian assaults. On the southern flank, 64th Army almost broke through a gap as a Romanian Regiment attached to the 297th Infantry Division collapsed under the initial bombardment. The Division managed to seal the gap and the defences held for two days.

On the western side of the pocket Marinovka and Karpovka were captured on the 11th of January. On the 12th, Russian forces reached the Rossoshka River. German forces, despite their resolute defence were now desperately short of ammunition and fuel. Bread rations had been cut to a mere 75g per man per day. The 29th Motorized Division had been almost totally destroyed and the remains of the 3rd Motorized Division had been forced to abandon their vehicles and heavy weapons due to a lack of fuel and continue the retreat on foot. The northern edge of the pocket had also been beaten back with the 16th Panzer and 60th Motorized Divisions suffering heavy losses. In the city itself, 62nd Army had launched attacks against the 100th Jager Division forcing it to lose ground. On the southern flank the 376th Infantry Division was cut off and then destroyed by advancing Russian forces.

German infantrymen watch the planes of the Luftwaffe in the skies of Stalingrad, which bombed the Soviet building, paving the way for the ground troops to move into the command outpost of the Soviet 13th Guards Division.

On the 16th of January Russian forces over ran the airfield at Pitomnik, destroying many aircraft on the ground as they tried to escape.

By the 17th of January, 6th Army had been pushed into the eastern half of the pocket. The next four days remained relatively quiet as the Russian forces redeployed for the final push. On the morning of 20th January, the Russian offensive began again. The 65th Army broke through north west of Gonchara and pushed towards the airfield at Gumrak. Russian forces were within artillery range of the airfield the following afternoon. Evacuation of the airfield that evening descended into chaos. The only remaining airfield available within the pocket was Stalingradsky, a snow strip incapable of taking large aircraft. Only a few aircraft managed the hazerdous landing there and the air bridge all but ceased to exist.

Despite the collapse of the pocket, isolated German units offered dogged resistance. On the 22nd of January the remnants of the 297th Infantry Division were pushed back from the Voroponovo sector towards the southern outskirts of the city.

The pocket now centered on the city itself. The Army had all but run out of food, fuel and medical supplies. The men were weak and exhausted, many thousands of sick and wounded packed into cellers in the center of the city. The Stalingrad theater was turned into a dressing station, but without supplies there was little the doctors could do for the wounded. Another dressing station was set up in the caves of the Tsaritsa Gorge. Cases of dysentery, typhus, jaundice and of course frostbite were rife.

T-34 tanks in the central area of Stalingrad on the day of the surrender of German forces in Stalingrad. January 31, 1943.

On the 26th of January tanks of the 16th Tank Corps, attached to 21st Army linked up with infantry of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, of the 62nd Army, to the north of the Mamayev Kurgan and the German pocket was split in half. The smaller pocket in the south of the city contained Paulus and the Army HQ in the Univermag Department store. The larger pocket in the north in the area of the tractor factory, containing 11th Corps and commanded by General Strecker.

The southern pocket was reduced rapidly and by the 30th of January Russian forces had reached the center of the city.

On the morning of the 31st Russian forces approached the Univermag Store and the city's red square came under heavy bombardment. At 09:30 a Russian officer entered Paulus's HQ and accepted the surrender of the forces in the southern pocket. However Strecker's 11th Army Corps still continued to hold out in the northern pocket. Finally, Strecker's divisional commanders convinced him of the futility of further resistance. On February 2nd, Strecker surrendered.

German soldiers on the outskirts of Stalingrad. September 1942.

The Russian high command had lured the German 6th Army into a carefully laid trap at Stalingrad. While it assembled its striking forces for Operation Saturn, it drip fed supplies and reinforcements into the city over the vital river crossings, in order to tie down the German Army as it attempted to capture the prize that Hitler wanted so badly. Russian shock combat groups and snipers turned the destroyed city into a fortress, where every room of every house on every street had to be cleared in vicious hand to hand combat, which swayed constantly back and forth. Once the trap had closed and 6th Army failed to break out at the earliest opportunity, its fate was sealed.

The impossibility of keeping the Army supplied by air soon became apparent and it was left to bleed, starve and freeze to death in the rubble of the city. The fact that it fought on and tied down sufficient forces to allow a partial restoration of the situation on the German southern wing, may in some way justify the sacrificing of the Army on the Volga. However this was a disaster of uncompromising magnitude and the strategic balance in the east had passed almost completelyoon became apparent and it was left to bleed, starve and freeze to death in the rubble of the city. The fact that it fought on and tied down sufficient forces to allow a partial restoration of the situation on the German southern wing, may in some way justify the sacrificing of the Army on the Volga. However this was a disaster of uncompromising magnitude and the strategic balance in the east had passed almost completely to the Russians.

Spring 1943. After the Germans had lost. Russian soldiers tow away German tanks for repairs

German machine-gun crew fire away rapidly in the ruins of Stalingrad

Men of the 389th Infantry Division in the ruins of the factory "Red October". November 2, 1942

German soldiers during an assault on a Soviet position. November 6, 1942

Men of the 389th Infantry Division get orders for an attack. September, 1942

October 1942. German soldiers fire at a building where a Russian sniper lies ensconced

Russian general Vasily Chuikov (with stick) with other top Soviet officers in Stalingrad

Russian soldier cautiously move forward in a wrecked house in Stalingrad

N S Khrushchev of the Soviet Military Council commanded the 64th Army in Stalingrad. February 1943.

August 1942. Stalingrad during a devastating German Bombing raid. The Luftwaffe bombed the city into bits. The thinking was it would submit quickly. The Russians did not surrender and the ruins of the city greatly hindered German tank movement. Hence the familiar Blitzkrieg tactics could not be applied here. Street-by-street fighting occurred; the Germans were not very adept at that.

A Russian gun fires at German positions. Winter 1942.

Winter 1942-43. The Russians attack....

February 1943. Dead German soldiers piled up in the snow.

These soldiers froze to death. The Germans had run out of ammo, food and arms. They had inadequate clothing in the harsh winter of Stalingrad. The trickle of supplies by the Luftwaffe too stopped after the airfield fell into Russian hands

In better times. A German assault team ready for attack

The remnants of the German Sixth Army after the surrender. Starving, broken men were once formidable soldiers of the Wehramcht

German soldiers who surrendered in February, 1943. Listless, defeated faces... Starving. There were dark rumors of cannibalism...

Street fighting in Stalingrad

Axis generals captured at Stalingrad : Brigadier General Dimitrau (Romanian), German Lieutenant-General von Daniel, Lieutenant-General Schlemmer, General Moritz Drebber and General Otto Rinaldi

December 1942. Romanian POW walk silently in the snow

A German soldier frozen to death in Stalingrad

A German Heinkel bomber shot down in Stalingrad

German prisoners walk in the 'Square of Fighters' in Stalingrad

German tanks lie around on the outskirts of Stalingrad. In the last stages there was no fuel to run them.

A bit premature. German soldiers hoist the Nazi flag in Stalingrad

Romanian POW file past as beady-eyed tough Russian soldiers keep watch

General Strecker's men of the 11th Infantry Corps. They surrendered at the Stalingrad tractor factory

Winter 1942-43. The road into Stalingrad

The German 12th Panzer Division moves to Stalingrad. August 22, 1942

1942. German Messerschmitts fly to bomb Stalingrad

Two Russian soldier fire away with a German MG-34 machine-gun. The former owner of the gun lies nearby, dead

German war photographer Benno Vundshammer with German officers. October 1942

The German FW 200 "Condor" Long range reconnaissance bomber that was taken by the Russians at Stalingrad airfield

The German 2nd Army advancing to Stalingrad. August 1942

The German 3rd Motorised Division crossing the River Don. August 1942 and moving towards Stalingrad

Stalingrad after the Germans capitulated. A broken, devastated city

Abandoned German ACS Marder 2 in Stalingrad

Marder 2 with 76.2mm guns lie strewn around in Stalingrad. The German defeat was apocalyptic

Russian children peer out fearfully from their hideouts and watch German planes as they roar above the skies of Stalingrad

Russians. The one in the front is a sniper

Dead German soldiers in Stalingrad

Lake Barmatsak. Stalingrad. Dead Romanian soldiers lie strewn around

General Paulus with Major-General Moritz von Drebberom of the 297th Infantry Division. Paulus is feeling the strain. He has lost weight

Pathetic figures. German POW

A Russian keeps watch over German POW on the River Volga

Italian POW in Stalingrad. They seem cheerful

The Russians over-runs the last airfield under German control in Stalingrad

Captured top officers of the Wehrmacht in Stalingrad

A German plane shot down in Stalingrad

German Army Group "Don" withdraws after it failed to relieve the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad. The Sixth Army was doomed.

Russian soldiers examine a German multi-barrelled mortar; the "Neberlwerfer"

Germans take cover in a ditch. August 1942

A German assault team in a factory in Stalingrad. October 1942

The first bombing by Luftwaffe on Stalingrad. The Russian anti-aircraft gun fires away

A German team led by a NCO with a MG-34 machine-gun

Firing a Pak-38 anti-tank 50mm artillery

General (or rather Field Marshal} Paulus with Russian officers after he surrendered

German POW in Stalingrad

...

RELATED

RARE LARGE IMAGES FROM STALINGRAD: PART 2

Germany Invades Poland: September 1939: Some Rare Images (LARGE PICTURES)

2011-08-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Within days the Polish army was finished. Poland never knew what hit it. Britain and France declared war on Germany but could do little else. There was no way it could help the Poles. The brave Poles put up a brave fight but its cavalry was no match to the mechanised Nazi juggernaut.

Below are some images from the war.

German soldiers break the Polish border post. September 1, 1939

German soldiers at the Polish border post

German tanks move into Poland

VIDEO

Two Germans pose against a destroyed Polish tank

A Polish bomber P-37 never left the hangar. The Germans had already reached.

Germans in a destroyed Polish PZL 23 fighter

This Polish nurse was captured too

VIDEO: GERMAN INVASION OF POLAND: GERMAN NEWSREEL: PART 1

Germans examine a downed Polish air force plane. The Polish planes were no match to the German Stukas

VIDEO: PART 2

Germans in a cheerful mood

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Posing with two Polish POW

***********************

The Polish guns could do little to stop the German Blitzkrieg

********************

A Polish soldier waits patiently for the German onslaught

*****************

Polish cavalry. Horses against tanks? Could not go on for too long.

**************

The German planes pulverized this Polish armored train

********************

Germans examine a downed Polish plane

*******************

Polish gunners wait for the Germans

The Germans used horses too. Moving into Poland.

The first major battle during the invasion of Poland. Westerplatte.

BATTLE OF WESTERPLATTE

The Battle of Westerplatte was the very first battle that took place after Germany invaded Poland and World War II began in Europe. During the first week of September 1939, a Military Transit Depot on the peninsula of Westerplatte, manned by fewer than 200 Polish soldiers, held out for seven days in the face of an overwhelming German attack. The defense of Westerplatte served as an inspiration for the Polish Army and people as the successful German advances continued elsewhere and today is still regarded as a symbol of resistance to the invasion.

The Polish officers surrender after the Battle of Westerplatte

Polish surrender at Westerplatte

General Friedrich Eberhardt accepts the surrender from Major Henrik Suharsky (Sukarski).

Sukarski again (with the baton)

Polish officers surrender at Westerplatte

German Nazi flag flies at Westerplatte

**********************

Shocked Poles watch as German soldiers on bicycles move into Warsaw

German bomber He 111 flies over Poland

A touching scene. The wife of a Polish soldier puts something in his pocket as he prepares to leave to fight the invading Germans

German soldiers in the burning Polish countryside

The remains of the Warsaw garrison of the Polish army in Warsaw. September 27, 1939

As the Germans invaded from the west, the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east. Here Russian soldiers examine arms seized from Polish soldiers

********************

Top Polish military brass surrender to German officers

*************************

A triumphant Wehrmacht welcomes the Fuhrer to the parade in Warsaw

Germans check out a destroyed Polish tank

Polish machine gunners firing at the approaching Germans

German Soldiers In Russia

2011-08-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

German soldiers in Kharkov. 1942

German troops in the Ukrainian town of Alexandria

Alexandria again

The French did not like it then and they do not like it even today. The fact that many Frenchmen fought in the Wehrmacht. This man is from the French Legion in Russia. 1941.

Incidentally the French soldiers in the German army during WW2 proved to be some of the best fighters in the war. As the Russians closed in on Berlin in April 1945, the last and most tenacious resistance was put up BY FRENCH SOLDIERS IN THE SS

A Frenchman again in the Wehrmacht. Russia 1941

A French Legion soldier. November 1941. USSR

More French Legion soldiers

German soldiers firing at Russians. Summer 1944

June 1943. Eastern Front

Wehrmacht infantrymen. 1943. Russia

The man looks very hassled. The Russian rain and the following slush took the goat of most German soldiers

This pic is from Stalingrad

Stalingrad again

November 1942. Stalingrad. Things were not very bad then. Hence the smile on his face.

Early days of Barbarossa. 1941. Germans move into Russia

Germans talk with a captured Russian soldier

These men have found Russian girlfriends!

These German soldiers prepare for an attack. Stalingrad. 1942

Stalingrad again

Helping an injured comrade

Summer 1941. Eastern Front

German soldiers scour a Russian village

Men of the Grossdeutschland Division . Eastern front.

WHAT WAS THE GROSSDEUTSCHLAND DIVISION?

The Großdeutschland Division was a Heer combat unit of the Wehrmacht often portrayed by the Nazi press and media during World War II. For this reason the Großdeutschland was one of best-equipped unit of the German Armed Forces, receiving equipment before all other units.
More on Wikipedia

December 1941. A German tank trundles through a Russian village near Moscow. The Germans never reached Moscow. Their supply lines were too stretched. The harsh Russian winter struck the ill-prepared German army. And the Russians counter-attacked hard.

Germans with captured Russian partisans

Mail from home!

This German patrol stumbles upon a Soviet partisan camp

A German handles a captured Russian Maxim anti-aircarft gun

This German soldier has his meal

1941. Eastern Front. German soldiers dig a foxhole

Stalingrad

This is near Moscow. 1941. Germans chat with captured Russian soldiers

Grim fighting in Stalingrad. Autumn 1942

Having a drink

Germans fire away at Russians. March 1944

On the way to Moscow. 638th regiment. 7th Division. French Legion

Fighting in Narva. 1941

8.8 cm self propelled artillery unit (SAU) PaK 43/1 Pzkpfw 4

Pzkpfw 3

Ready for a Russian assault

Stalingrad. November 1942

Fighting on street of Zhimotir. Summer 1941

American History's Dark Chapter: Japanese-Americans Interned During WW2

2011-08-18T00:42:00.000-07:00

The sending off of Japanese Americans to internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor is a blot on American history. It was then that America, under attack, partly forgot its core values and gave way to fear. It happened again sixty years later when the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001.

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, while in Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the territory's population, 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned. Of those interned, 62% were American citizens. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington, except for those in internment camps. In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion orders, while noting that the provisions that singled out people of Japanese ancestry were a separate issue outside the scope of the proceedings. The United States Census Bureau assisted the internment efforts by providing confidential neighborhood information on Japanese Americans. The Bureau's role was denied for decades but was finally proven in 2007.
In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation said that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs.

Waiting to board the train that would take them to the internment camp

Children at the Japanese internment camp

The internment camp

New arrivals to the camp

Distributing food at the camp

The barracks at the internment camp

The clothes of the Japanese American internees had special tags

Personal belongings being checked by soldiers

This Japanese-American shop-owner had to loudly proclaim where his loyalties lay

Japanese American fishermen have their papers checked by a Canadian soldier

Waffen SS In Action

2011-08-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

Men of the SS 'Viking' Division enjoy a smoke after some heavy fighting. Eastern Front

Ace Panzer commander of the SS, Michael Wittmann

WHO WAS MICHAEL WITTMANN?

Michael Wittmann (April 22, 1914 – August 8, 1944) was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. Wittmann would rise to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and was a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holder.

He was credited with the destruction of 138 tanks and 132 anti-tank guns, along with an unknown number of other armoured vehicles, making him one of Germany's top scoring panzer aces, together with Johannes Bölter, Ernst Barkmann, Otto Carius and Kurt Knispel who was the top scoring ace of the war with 168 tank kills.

Wittmann is most famous for his ambush of elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, during the Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. While in command of a single Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger he destroyed up to 14 tanks and 15 personnel carriers along with 2 anti-tank guns within the space of 15 minutes.

Eastern Front. Men of the SS 'Totenkopf' Division

Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler addresses the Volkssturm. October 1944

Battle hardened Waffen SS men during the Battle Of Kursk

Eastern Front. 1941. Men from the SS 'Viking' Division

Men of the 'Das Reich' Division with a captured Soviet banner

Waffen SS 'Leibstandarte Adoph Hitler' Division in Belgium. June 1944

2nd SS Mountain "Nord" Division

Waffen SS men in 1941. Eastern Front

Theodor Eicke, commander of the 3rd SS Panzer 'Totenkopf' Division

Theodor Eicke again. 3rd SS Panzer 'Totenkopf' Division

Men of 'Totenkopf' prepare for an assault

SS men prepare to attack

SS men during Operation Citadel. 1943

Posing for a group photograph

SS man with a MG 42 machine gun during Operation Citadel (Battle of Kursk)

Mine-sweeper of the 5th-SS Panzer 'Viking' Division

'Viking' Division in Hungary. 1944

SS guards at Heydrich's office in Prague

Color Pictures Of German Soldiers During WW2

2011-08-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Some Pictures Of ADOLPH HITLER

2011-08-14T00:54:00.000-07:00

The more we see of Hitler the better we understand him as a man. Below are some images. Some rare, some very common. They tell us more.....

Hitler with his Alsatian bitch, Blondi. Eva Braun never like that dog. Hitler loved her.

Hitler as a rising star of German politics

Hitler as a little baby

Hitler as a German soldier when the Great War ended

Hitler as a German soldier during WW1

Hitler at Leonding School. 1900

Hitler with German girls

Hitler with young Nazis. 1933

Hitler in prison. 1923

With Blondi

Charming the little boy

Winning over the baby and its mother

The great orator in full flow

Hitler with Leni Riefenstahl

WHO WAS LENI RIEFENSTAHL?

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendship with Adolf Hitler thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but released without any charges

Hitler the popular leader

In a sombre mood after allied bombings

1945. Seeing the damage done by bombings on Berlin

Before the end. The last official photograph of Hitler

The German Army Moves Into Russia: 1941: The Early Successes

2011-08-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

"I therefore decided today to once again lay the fate and future of the German Reich and our people in the hands of our soldiers."
from the Fuhrer's speech to the German people, June 22nd, 1941.

Early morning. June 22, 1941. German soldiers cross over the border into the Soviet Union. Barbarossa had begun.

Luftwaffe planes rush into the Soviet Union

German infantry crosses the border. A heavy machine gun fire covers them

June 23rd, 1941. Grodno falls. German soldiers move into the burning town.

June 24th, 1941. The fortress of Brest-Litovsk is under siege by the Germans

INCOMPLETE....WORK IN PROGRESS

Waffen SS In France 1940: Part 2

2011-08-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

The following images are of a Waffen SS division as it moves into France in 1940. The Pictures are by German war photographer Friedrich Zschäckel

RELATED: WAFFEN SS IN FRANCE 1940 PART 1

Waffen SS In Action In France: Pictures By War Reporter Friedrich Zschäckel: Part 1

2011-07-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

Below is a huge collection of Waffen SS soldiers in action on the western front, most probably in France in 1940. A front line photo gallery by German war reporter Friedrich Zschäckel, What is striking is look at American soldiers in Vietnam or Afghanistan and look at the pictures here. Hardly different. These men were soldiers too....

SEE ALSO WAFFEN SS IMAGES PART 2

Lots Of Pictures Of JU-87: Stuka Dive Bomber

2011-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Junkers Ju 87 (German name "thing") (German Sturzkampfflugzeug - dive-bomber) - single-double (pilot and rear gunner) dive-bomber and attack aircraft of World War II. Design Machine - Herman Pollman (Hermann Pohlmann). First flight - in 1935, operational use - in 1936 as part of the Condor Legion in Spain. The most famous pilot of S-87 was Hans Ulrich Rudel, received the highest awards of the Luftwaffe pilots. Despite the low speed aerodynamics and a mediocre (non-retractable landing gear were), was one of the most effective weapons of the Luftwaffe for its ability to dive-bombing.

Ju-87 ("Stuck") - the most famous German dive-bomber of World War II. It was manufactured from 1935 It was one of the most reliable, robust and powerful fighting machines Luftwaffe. Speed, agility, four machine guns, including in the rear hemisphere, making it difficult to target for fighters. Ju-87 had a high precision bombing in nearly a vertical dive. Range and bomb load allowed him to make a very effective raid on the enemy's rear.

From the very beginning of World War II, in full German air superiority in the air squadron "Junkers" became one of the main problems of the Soviet command. They bombed the city and transportation arteries, railway stations and communications nodes, the location of military units and industrial plants. It was the German bombers that caused confusion in the operations of the Soviet troops in the summer of 1941, largely to ensure the promotion of Wehrmacht into the Soviet territory.

During this period the "Junkers" and often flew to the fighting positions defended by the Red Army, paving the way for German tanks and infantry.

Yet Junkers-87 aircraft could not act in direct support of ground troops. To this end it lacked the speed, and most importantly, almost completely lacked armor protection. Therefore, if the operations were storming the German bombers suffered heavy losses from the fire of not only anti-aircraft artillery, but also from small arms. And from 1943 "Yaki" and "shopkeepers" began to successfully attack squadrons of Ju-87 and at medium altitudes. Since then, the "Junkers" preferred to operate in small groups to apply sudden shocks and try to escape the Russian fighters.

Plane	Ju-87 ("Stuck")
Year	1935
Engine power, hp	1 x Jumo 21F, 1400 hp..
Rate	408 km / h
Ceiling	7320 m
Crew	2 pers.
Range	1000 km
Wingspan	15 m
Overall length	11,13 m
Wing area	32 m ²
Maximum gross weight	5720 kg
Bomb-load	1800 kg
Armament: gun	4 machine guns 7.92 mm
Total production	5 000

Brutal American Soldiers In Vietnam: Conversations

2011-07-26T01:24:00.000-07:00

The Vietnam War brought out the sordid side of American soldiers. The goody-goody image that had been created during World War Two was shattered during the Vietnam war. It is a fact that American soldiers often went berserk and did things that made the Geneva Conventions a joke book. Hollywood did its share in puking out the poison that entered American consciousness with Vietnam. Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Oliver Stone's Platoon are films that come to mind.

Not many books have been written about the dark side of the American soldier in Vietnam. Mark Lane's Conversations With Soldiers is one of the few books. It has been maligned for not being very loyal to facts but such hard-hitting books invariably invite sharp criticism. It is up to you to make your own judgement about Lane's book. Below are some excerpts from the book.

"I do not know if I should talk about it, but the fact is that once I had killed with his own hands a few prisoners. In the bunker ... After they killed my friend. I was not myself. I was sent for psychiatric treatment. Said it was simply tired of fighting and the shock of the fact that the friend was killed before my eyes. And that all this happens quite often. (...)

+ + + + +

The prisoners were kneeling with his hands tied behind their backs. And we were pushing them. Lean on your hands and they could not easily fall. And so many times. During interrogation, they were on their knees, and sometimes - well, more accurately, I have seen how they were beaten with fists and feet. I was told that this happens more often after a particularly brutal battle where the Americans suffered losses. Then those who are questioning is not to sentimentality, and it's effect on interrogation techniques. (...)

But the most important thing to say about the center of the inquiry, is that in the period following the first onset during Tet (...) and the May offensive, or about 2 thousand were executed in the center. Sure, by way of reprisals, or to maintain their reputation after losses. Incurred during the New Year's offensive. (...)

And for small children, we had blue pill designed for heating briquettes with food. Outwardly, they looked very much like candy. If they ignite, the flame is not, but they are heated to very high temperatures. So we lit them and threw the children. By selecting them, they burned his hands ... We all did, because after his return from Ke San, where so many of our boys were killed, I could not see the Vietnamese. Well, what if I wanted to be angry. If on the street I met an old man or old woman, I'm sure they were searched and hit on the butt or ordered to follow on, or required to produce documents, and those who did not have documents, were shot. "

+ + + + +

Q: Let's Have you ever been ordered not to take prisoners?
Answer: Yes.
V. Who gave it to you?
O. Lieutenant. The brigade commander.
V. And more than once?
O. Yes.
VI what happened?
O. We did not take prisoners.
V. What do you mean?
O. we killed all those captured.
V. wounded?
O. And also wounded.
V. You killed them?
O. Yes.
V. How do you kill them?
O. Pistols, M-16 machine guns and slaughtered with bayonets.
V. Even lying wounded?
O. Yes. And those who could not defend himself. They have nothing we could not do much harm, and indeed have been little in the can.
V. You saw it with my own eyes?
O. I am in this part.
V. Why?
A. You know, there comes a point when you become a real beast and begin to act instinctively, without thinking about what you're doing.
V. How many prisoners and wounded you killed? Can you name the approximate number?
O. Personally?
B. Yes.
O. I would say about two hundred and fifty.
V. So you kill them yourself?
O. Yes.
V. A number of people killed by you?
O. Well, two or three thousand.
V. Among the wounded, who finished off?
O. Yes, the wounded, and another civilian, which are generally killed for some unknown reason. Men, women, children, anyone.

+ + +

"One day, a patrol led captive. He had been wounded. The soldiers threw him and crowded around him. The sergeant shouted: "Well, guys, who wants to beat cross-eyed?". The prisoner knew only two words in English - "Geneva Convention" - and incessantly, repeating them. He was very young. Maybe he was a Viet Cong. The soldiers began to shoot him. First were aiming near him. And then began to fall at his feet. Nobody wanted to finish it, but in the end someone did it. "

+ + + + +

Q: How many people have you collected?
Answer: A man forty or fifty. They were herded into the center of the village - have something like an island in itself ... and ... Seredka
B. What kind of people: men, women and children?
O. Yes.
V. And among them were babies?
O. And babies, too. All were herded together and forced to squat. And then came the Lieutenant Kelly said, "You know what we should do?" I replied, "Yes", thinking that it was only on the protection of these people. Kelly is gone, but. Returning fifteen minutes later, he asked me "how? You have not yet killed? "I told him that I understood him correctly, and thought that I ought just to protect the prisoners. And he told me: "Not at all! I want you here to me it's all cleared. " Well, ...
B. Kelly appealed to all military personnel, or just you?
O. It so happened that I was standing right in front of him. But three or four people around me, too, had heard what he said. Kelly went to four or five yards and started shooting. He told me: "Do as I am." Well, I began to do as he shot four stores shop in the crowd. (...)
B. How many people you killed in that time?
O. Shooting a machine gun, it is impossible to say ... you do that you release the queue into the crowd, killing several and already, who knows. Everything happens too fast. Well, maybe ten or fifteen (...)
B. And then?
O. We began to collect those who were still alive, and they turned out about seven or eight, to push them into the pit and throw a grenade. Then someone came out of the ravine and told us to go our prisoners were taken. When we arrived, there were already 70-75 prisoners. We've added our place. Kelly told me: "There has to have a job." He walked over to the prisoners, began to push them around and shoot them ... We also began to shoot, shoot and pushed, until none remained alive. Then we fired on the spot a few bursts of automatic fire. Then ...
V. Who was there? Men, women and children?
O. Yes.
V. Babies, too?
O. Too. We first shot bursts, and then someone said that the need to switch to single shot to save bullets. Well, we were to alternate with single shots bursts ...
V. Why are you acting this way?
O. Why? I have also been ordered, well, frankly, at that moment I felt that way and we must act, because, as I mentioned, among the dead on our side was a couple of my friends and my best friend too. I suffered from this cool. While we are finished with it, I felt better, but by the end of the day the incident disturbed me.

+ + + +

"We talked about the murders of prisoners, torture, rape. And each of them had photos showing them the most terrible acts. Nevertheless, the reaction of "recruits" was positive: they obviously liked the idea, because the Marines are only volunteers. And they could not wait to go to Vietnam, and apply in practice all the things they learned. Many of them volunteered to serve in Vietnam. Sergeants have such a service attractive, playing on the unhealthy motives: "What a luck - you can kill" ... and all that."

"I talked a lot with the (...), who returned from Vietnam. And they told me how they killed people simply because of scorn. Well, you know how it happens, "Squint, and some people can not be considered. Kill them - a trifling matter. " One type of tell me that their last invention was to travel around the roads in a truck or SUV, competing, and who has to shoot the Vietnamese."

+ + + + +

"Some areas are regularly subjected to bombing and shelling, without regard for human life, on the population. Entire areas were designated as vetkongovskie. However, their population consisted mainly of farmers and fishermen. Most of them do not engage in politics. Their main concern was obtaining their daily bread. Many were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. "

+ + + + +

THE FACE OF AMERICAN BRUTALITY IN VIETNAM

Lt. William Laws Kelley

He was accused of killing 109 Vietnamese.He was convicted and sentence to life imprisonment with hard labor. It was later lessened to 20 years than 3 years of house arrest and later pardoned completely. At the trial Calley said, "I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women and children. They were all classified as the same, and that's the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so."
Wikipedia

---------------------------------

Conversations with Americans: Testimony From 32 VietnamVeterans
by MARK LANE

(BUY BOOK)
1ST EDITION
2ND EDITION

WW1 Soldiers: Rare Images:Part 2

2011-07-20T00:26:00.001-07:00

SEE ALSO......WW1 Soldiers: Rare Images: Part 1

WW1 Soldiers: Rare Images:Part 1

2011-07-19T01:08:00.000-07:00

We are less familiar with WW1 then we are with WW2. One of the reasons is that technology was less developed then, hence its chronicling was less. Fewer photographs, film reels etc. But the Great War was no less significant and riveting. Below are some pictures that show the different armies involved. Each image is pregnant with lessons; they tell the history of those times well.

German soldiers fish for carp on the Russian-Poland border

VIDEO

A hastily evacuated Russian artillery position in Poland

A German colonel with his men at an observation post on the Russian-Polish border

VIDEO

German communicate with a radio from the front

Scottish soldiers in action

A French motorised column

German soldiers have breakfast at an Polish farmhouse

A Catholic mass before battle in Russia

Captured Russian soldiers

The Germans transport heavy artillery

The effect of heavy German guns. A Russian factory destroyed which was bitterly defended by the Russian army

Germans prepare a hot meal. Western front

An Austrian armored train in the Carpathian

The King of Saxony with von Hindenburg and Ludendorf

Bathing and cleaning in the canal

Turkish artillery firing in the Suez Canal

Wounded Russian soldiers brought in from the battle of West Galicia

General von Emmich

Russian soldiers captured at Galicia

German guns ready to shoot down enemy planes on the Polish-Russian border

SEE ALSO PART 2: WW1 SOLDIERS:RARE IMAGES

WW2: Unseen Pictures Of German Soldiers

2011-07-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

German soldiers of the Hermann Goering Division walk past a destroyed "Elephant" tank near the Italian town of Nettuno

German soldiers look at the body of a Russian soldier. Eastern front.

Germans with a converted Soviet armored car BA 11

German tank trundle into position for an attack

Eastern Front. February 1944. Germans aboard a Pz.Kpfw IV tank

Loading 7.92 mm bullets on a German fighter plane

German soldiers bewildered, look at a skull on the turret of a T 34 tank

Germans at work with an Enigma machine

WHAT WAS A ENIGMA?

An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I. This model and its variants were used commercially from the early 1920s, and adopted by military and government services of several countries — most notably by Nazi Germany before and during World War II. MORE>>>>

A Luftwaffe trainee learns to fire the MG 15 machine gun

THE MG 15 MACHINE GUN

The MG 15 was a German 7.92 mm machine gun designed specifically as a hand manipulated defensive gun for combat aircraft during the early 1930s. By 1941 it was replaced by other types and found new uses with ground troops.
MORE>>>>

The commander of the 3rd battalion of motorized regiment "Der Fuhrer" SS Division "Das Reich" SS Hauptsturmführer Vinzenz Kaiser (right) with officers on the Kursk Bulge, near a captured Soviet tank (A British-made "Churchill")

WHO WAS VINZENZ KAISER?

Vinzenz Kaiser was a Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel), in the Waffen SS during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. It was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during World War II. READ MORE AT WIKIPEDIA

A SS Totenkopf soldier at work with an artillery range-finder

Finnish colonel (second from left) and officers of the Luftwaffe, the German high-speed landing barge in the waters of Ladoga. Also visible in the picture is a 20-mm German anti-aircraft gun FlaK 38.

German soldiers at a Swiss border post

East Prussia. 1945. January. German soldiers with assault rifles and a Stug-3 tank share a smoke.

Hitler would have frowned at this. German soldiers socialise with Russian women. Occupied Soviet Union.

Men of the First German Mountain Division ("Edelweiss") enjoy a vacation

A German motorcyclist rides past tanks moving deeper into Soviet territory. 1941.

German general Von Kleist welcomes an Italian general at the opening of the ferry services on the Dnieper river. Russia.

Two Wehrmacht officers play with a dog in Warsaw, Poland. 1941

German tanks move towards Stalingrad

August 1941. Freshly laid graves of slain German soldiers in the Smolensk area. Soviet territory.

Narva. Soviet Union. Germans moves alongside Tiger tanks.

Highly decorated German Major General Willy Langkeit with his men

WILLY LANGKEIT

Willy Langkeit (2 June 1907 – 27 October 1969) was an Generalmajor in the Wehrmacht during World War II, and one of only 882 recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Willy Langkeit was taken prisoner by American troops in May 1945 and transferred to British custody later that month. He was held until 1947 and later joined the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guards) in 1951, retiring in 1967.

Hungary. December 1944. A SS man chats with a Hungarian soldier. Surprising they are so cheerful. The Russians were moving in. Standing in the background is a Tiger 2 tank

Stalingrad. A German soldier raises the Swastika over a captured building

German with the Wurzburg FuMG 62 radar on the French coast

WURZBURG RADAR

The Würzburg radar was the primary ground-based gun laying radar for both the Luftwaffe and the German Army during World War II. Initial development took place before the war, entering service in 1940. Eventually over 4,000 Würzburgs of various models were produced. It took its name from the city of Würzburg as the project leader liked geographical names.

Germans in Brest, Belarus. One of them seems interested in the lady standing afar

German soldiers march on the eastern front, cheerfully, it seems

Gathering solemnly around the graves of two fallen comrades

In the last last stages of the war. Outskirts of Berlin. Two battle-hardened SS men duck as the Russian artillery fires. One of the men has a Panzerfaust 60.

VIDEO: Panzerfaust

German soldiers look at the remains of a T-20 Komsomolet tractor artillery. Also seen are the remains of a Russian soldier who died desperately trying to extricate himself from the burning vessel

A German in action with a Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifle

Soviet Union. 1941. Smolensk area. A German soldier has his head shaved by a comrade

The remains of a 122 mm howitzer. A dead Russian soldier lies alongside

1945. The last 4000 soldiers of the once formidable "Great Germany" division cross into Pillau, the last Wehrmacht stronghold in East Prussia. They defended the town till April 25, 1945, until they were overrun by the Soviet army.

Images Tell A Story: VIETNAM WAR

2011-07-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

The Vietnam War.... The name evokes failure, tragedy.... Synonymous perhaps with Stalingrad. Below are some images of the war that tell the story of Vietnam better than any prose could have ever told....

Perhaps this images encapsulates how the Americans were feeling about Vietnam in 1968. A sense of helplessness. (Khe Sanh, Vietnam War. Image by Robert Ellison 1968)

Clutching helmet and weapon, a Marine winces as North Vietnamese mortar rounds fly overhead during enemy shelling, Khe Sanh, South Vietnam (Image by Paul Stephanus)

American soldiers had a real hard time in Vietnam. 1968 (Image by Toshio Sakai)

A contemplative mood. Not only the soldier but the country too.

A South Vietnamese soldier escorts a suspected Vietcong . brothers torn apart by a civil war

The tragedy of Vietnam. America was propping an unpopular South Vietnamese regime

Innocent victims of war

The South Vietnamese soldiers treated Vietcong prisoners brutally. It was "you or me". Survival.

Great propaganda!

Public opinion had turned against the war

Victims of the Tet Offensive

The Americans were totally taken by surprise by the Tet Offensive

This South Vietnamese soldier had good reason to brood. he was on the losing side.

War is no picnic

A South Vietnamese soldier and a captured Vietcong. No affection for the prisoner.

1971. Vietnam. (Image by David Kennedy)

Tet Offensive

A war photographer

As The Germans Waited For The Allied Invasion Of France......

2011-07-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Germans had been expecting an Allied invasion of France since a long time. It came finally on June 6, 1944. D-Day. But that is another story. Here are some images showing the German army preparing for the invasion. The Wehrmacht was weak in France as bulk of its armament and its best soldiers were in Russia fighting a losing battle against the inexorable Russian army.

Rare Unseen Images From WW2: Part 5

2011-06-04T01:27:00.000-07:00

A dead Waffen SS soldier in northern France

Italian torpedo bomber in action

Battle of Normandy

Top British general, Montgomery

The "Screaming eagles". Men of the 101 Airborne Division of the Americans

Caen is taken!

American soldiers relish food offered by the French ladies

German soldiers in Ukraine. 1942

Germans set up a artillery position

Crack German mountain troops, EDELWEISS take some rest

An American plane flies over the pyramids in Egypt

A German column takes a break in the USSR

The famous Russian partisans in Yalta

German soldiers on an operation against partisans in Italy take a break

German tank firing a machine gun MG-34 mounted on self-propelled artillery (cannon shturmovovom) StuG III Ausf. G.

A captured American pilot is led away by Japanese soldiers

Indian soldiers from the "Free India" Legion (Initiative of Indian nationalist Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose) in the Wehrmacht. The German officers smile benignly.

June 1944. France. A SS soldier of the Hitler Youth Division fires away with his MG 42 machine gun

German Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel inspects army coastal defense of Normandy. In January 1944, Rommel was appointed commander of Army Group "B" in northern France. He tried to make the "Atlantic Wall" a serious obstacle to the Allied forces. However, due to strategic differences with the commander of the entire German army group in France - Field Marshal Rundstedt, a single plan to defend the western border of the Reich has not been developed, which led to the slow and inconsistent actions of the German troops during the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Awarding medals in Novgorod, USSR. Winter 1941

A SS soldier in Ukraine

An American warship hunts a German U-Boat with depth charges
The view from the deck of the USS Coast Guard ship, "Spencer" (USS Spencer) on the explosions of depth charges, which hit the German submarine U-175. After these explosions, the boat surfaced, becoming an easy target for naval artillery. After severe damage from the shells of guns, "Spencer" sank. In the background - the convoy ships NX-233, which accompanied "Spencer".

SEE MORE WW2 IMAGES