16 June 2019

U.S. Assault Team Landing at Omaha Beach


Image size: 1600 x 1600 pixel. 519 KB
Date: Tuesday, 6 June 1944
Place: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France
Photographer: Robert F. Sargent

In what has become one of the most famous photographs of D-Day, Chief Photographer’s Mate Sargent captures the men of the same assault boat team seen in his previous photograph as they wade through the surf in front of the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach at approximately 7:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944. These E Company / 16th Infantry Regiment /1st Infantry Division ("The Big Red One") troops are assaulting the area between Exit E-1 and Exit E-3 under fire from Widerstandsnest 62 and Widerstandsnest 65. On the beach directly ahead of the ramp can be seen M4 Sherman tank Number 9 from A Company, 741st Tank Battalion.While capturing an iconic moment of the twentieth century, this photograph is also perhaps one of the most frequently incorrectly attributed. Often it is credited as part of the series of eleven shots taken by the famous Life magazine photographer, Robert Capa. The photograph was in fact taken by Robert F. Sargent, Chief Photographer’s Mate, United States Coast Guard. Landing craft operated by the Coast Guard continuously ferried soldiers from ships to the Normandy shore: the photograph was titled 'Taxis to hell – and back – into the jaws of death'. The combat photographs taken at Omaha beach by Sargent and Capa have become symbolic of something bigger than just a single moment in time. They have come to represent, in the words of Churchill, “much the greatest thing we have ever attempted”.


Source :
U.S. Coast Guard Collection in the U.S. National Archives 26-G-2343
"The Americans on D-Day: A Photographic History of the Normandy Invasion" by Martin K.A. Morgan
https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/66/Capa

14 June 2019

Private Jim Flanagan with Captured Nazi Flag in the Morning D-Day


Image size: 1600 x 1155 pixel. 454 KB
Date: Tuesday, 6 June 1944
Place: Fontenay-le-Marmion, Calvados, Normandy, France
Photographer: Unknown

The famous image of Private James "Jim" Flanagan (14 March 1923 - 8 December 2005) of 2nd Platoon / C Company / 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) / 101st Airborne Division holding a captured Nazi flag was taken at Marmion, Normandy (France), in the morning of D-Day. Flanagan parachuted into Normandy hours before the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division was to land at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. He and his fellow airborne soldiers came down in the middle of the night, charged with removing any German resistance along the vulnerable causeways that led inland from the beach. They would be the prelude to the largest amphibious invasion in history. After landing near Ravenoville, France, the first vehicle that the paratrooper saw later in the morning while mopping up near a captured farm complex was coming from the beach and carrying two men, one an International News Service photographer. It was 9 a.m., about three hours into ‘the longest day’ in history. The soldiers took a brief timeout so that the photographer could record the event. Flanagan, in the center, smiled while clutching the Nazi flag that had been ‘liberated’ from the enemy command post headquarters in the farm complex they now occupied. The German helmet at his feet in the bottom of the picture was still lying where it had fallen from the German who had died while defending the place. When this picture was wired back to the States, it became one of the most widely distributed newspaper photos taken from the events of June 6. The flag was kept by Flanagan for years, before donated to the General Donald Pratt 101st Airborne Museum in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on 10 June 1986, where it is today. From left to right: Private First Class Arthur A. Justice (B/502), unknown, Private Justo Correa (A/506), Private First Class Arthur J. Barker (B/502), Private Joe E. Ridgeway (B/502), Private James "Jim" Flanagan (C/502), Private Norwood B Newinger (B/502), Jerry Giarritano (with machete), Corporal Earl H. Butz (HQ/502), and Sergeant Smith C. Fuller (B/502).


Source :
"101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles in World War II" by Mark Bando
https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-interview-with-101st-airborne-trooper-james-flanagan-about-d-day.htm
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/triggertimeforum/marmion-farm-german-flag-where-is-it-t7394.html

13 June 2019

Finnish StuG Crew


Image size: 1600 x 1132 pixel. 779 KB
Date: Friday, 7 July 1944
Place: Viipuri (Vyborg), east of Ihantala, Finland
Photographer: Oswald Hedenström

Finnish Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G "Bubi" and its crew near Vyborg, sitting in the summer sunshine in a brief moment of happiness, 7 July 1944. From left to right: Staff Sergeant Börje Brotell (Commander, former member of Waffen-SS), Private Armas Launikko (Loader, 19 year old from Turku), Lance Corporal Olli Soimala (Gunner, credited with 11 tank kills), and Lance Corporal Sulo Kauppi (Driver, car mechanic from Tampere). The StuG is loaded with wooden logs for extra protection against enemy guns. Stu-40 Ps.531-10 "Bubi" destroyed 11 Russian tanks during June-July 1944. After the war it serviced until 1960's and after that was placed to Niinisalo shooting grounds a shooting target. It almost got destroyed there, but were saved in 1980's. Today it is placed in front of the Army barracks in Häme Armoured Battalion. This picture was taken by Finnish war photographer Oswald Hedenström.











Source :
http://www.andreaslarka.net/sturmi.html
https://live.warthunder.com/post/393804/en/
http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneo_image_large&lang=ENG&imgid=7aa7d22560254d13e00992506e9e168e&docid=7aa7d352216b0553;&ddocid=7aa7d352216b0553&archive=

10 June 2019

Three High Ranking German Officers Captured at Ruhr Pocket


Image size: 1600 x 1313 pixel. 491 KB
Date: Sunday, 15 April 1945
Place: Ruhr, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

Lieutenant Byron Hansford, a Military Police from the 99th "Battle Babes" Division, interrogated three high-ranking German officers arrested in the Ruhr Pocket, 15 April 1945. Four months earlier, the same U.S. infantry division had been fighting desperately to resist the last major German offensive in the West, which happened in the Ardennes region. How the situation has changed now! The three VIP prisoners are, from left to right: Generalarbeitsführer Paul Hoppenrath (Gauarbeitsführer Alpenland), Generalmajor Maximilian Jais (Kommandeur Abschnittskommando / Kampfgruppe Jais in Westwall), and Generalmajor Robert Eimler (XXI Festungs-Pionier-Kommandeur). The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in April 1945, on the Western Front near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. Some 317,000 German troops, consisting mostly of unarmed Volksturm militia and Hitlerjugend units were taken prisoner along with 24 generals. The Americans suffered 10,000 casualties including 2,000 killed or missing.


Source :
"Images of War: Victory in Europe" by Andy Rawson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr_Pocket
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14230&start=10350

01 June 2019

Neville Chamberlain's 'Peace of Our Time'


Image size: 1600 x 985 pixel. 594 KB
Date: Friday, 30 September 1938
Place: Heston Aerodrome, London, England
Photographer: Unknown

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain holding the paper containing the resolution to commit to peaceful methods signed by both Hitler and himself on his return from Münich, Germany. He is showing the piece of paper to a crowd at Heston Aerodrome, west of London,  in front of G-AFGN, a British Airways Lockheed 14, on 30 September 1938. He said: "...the settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine (waves paper to the crowd - receiving loud cheers and "Hear Hears"). Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you ...". Later that day he stood outside Number 10 Downing Street and again read from the document and concluded: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time." The last phrase ('Peace for our time') echoed Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the Congress of Berlin in 1878, stated, "I have returned from Germany with peace for our time". It is primarily remembered for its ironic value: less than a year after the agreement, continued pressure for return of the Polish corridor by Hitler, and subsequently the invasion of Poland was followed by declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. It is often misquoted as "peace in our time", which had appeared long before in the Book of Common Prayer as "Give peace in our time, O Lord", probably based on the 7th-century hymn "Da pacem Domine! in diebus nostris, Alleluja". It is unknown how deliberate Chamberlain's use of such a similar term was. 







Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/on-this-day-1938-peace-for-our-time-was-a-hollow-boast-by-neville-chamberlain/