New Zealand Soldiers Drinks Tea in Cassino

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Date: Wednesday, 5 April 1944
Place: Cassino, Frosinone, Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

New Zealand soldiers belonging to the 22nd Battalion / 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force, take a break during a lull in the fighting and drink tea during the bloody battle for Cassino, Italy, 5 April 1944. In 1943 the Allies took Sicily and began to land into Italy. They met little and patchy opposition throughout most of their advance northward but small pockets of fierce German and Italian resisters still remained here and there. Just a few miles outside of Rome now, the Allies were preparing for the final push into the heart of Italy. In early 1944 they began to advance and then some hit shocking happen. The radios lit up with a chaotic rabble basically all about the same issue: We have hit heavy resistance and are taking heavy casualties. What the Allies had just hit in Italy was what would soon become deadliest sector on that front, the Gustav Line. The Gustav Line was a line of fortifications in the mountains that stretched from west to east Italy. It was the last large obstacle blocking Rome from the Allies and it had to be broken through. For months and months Allied soldiers fought through the mountains, taking thousands of casualties every week, and seemingly making no gains. As casualties mounted the Allies knew they had to try something new, land a small American force at Anzio as a distraction to the Germans. As soon as the Americans landed they would charge towards Rome since they landed in Anzio which is behind the Gustav Line and in theory this would distract the Germans. The American commander at Anzio instead landed and waited a full 9 days to prepare which was more than enough time for the Germans to regroup and hold off the Americans. Now you have the invasion forces bleeding out and not even crawling towards Rome, in other words; the situation was not looking good. Finally, after months of hard fighting, the Germans began to ran out of supplies and pulled back to the Italian Alps in the northern area of Italy. The Americans at Anzio broke through the German defenses and pushed on, and the Allies at Cassino finally, after months of ferocious fighting, advanced towards Rome.

Source :
Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
http://historyinphotos.blogspot.co.id/2015/04/george-frederick-kaye.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg3Rl7YnoL4/

Eichenlaub Award Ceremony for Panzer Ace Otto Carius

Image size: 1600 x 1154 pixel. 304 KB
Date: Tuesday, 2 January 1945
Place: Outskirts of Salzburg, Austria
Photographer: SS-Kriegsberichter Ege

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #535 to Oberleutnant der Reserve Otto Carius from schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502. The picture was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Ege on 2 January 1945 at the outskirts of Salzburg (Austria). The ceremony was quite extraordinary because Carius had already received the announcement of his award from 27 July 1944, but the ceremony was postponed until five months later! This is because the panzer ace was seriously injured by a multiple shot in the seven parts of his body (including the neck!) only a few days before he suppsosedly received the Eichenlaub, so he had to be taken to the intensive care for months at Feldlazarett (Field Hospital). Carius received the news of his award through newspapers when lying weak on the bed, and was only able to walk with his feet in September 1944. When this photograph was taken, he was no longer in charge of schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 but had already been transferred to Panzer-Ersatz- und Ausbildungs-Abteilung 500. Another interesting fact is that the handed-over ceremony was performed by Himmler, whereas the Eichenlaub-grade medal ceremony and above was usually attended by Hitler directly. This is because from the end of 1944 the Führer began to restrict his public activities - along with the deterioration of the war situation - so that such activities were then represented to his closest confidants such as Himmler and Göring. Carius dedicated a chapter about this moment in his book 'Tigers in the Mud': "My first impressions of this man, whom his opponents called a 'bloodhound', had really pleasantly surprised me. I wasn't apprehensive about the upcoming 'cozy' conversation anymore. I described my visit with Heinrich Himmler in such detail, because he really surprised me. After the conversation in his staff headquarters , I gathered some hope for a successful conclusion to the war. That was after I had already considered a defeat almost certain."

Source :
https://ritterkreuztraeger.blogspot.co.id/2018/03/eichenlaub-award-ceremony-for-panzer.html

Japanese Troops Passing The Chinese City of Peiping

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Date: Friday, 13 August 1937
Place: Peiping, China

Photographer: Unknown photographer from Associated Press

First pictures of the Japanese occupation of Peiping (Beijing) in China, on August 13, 1937. Under the banner of the rising sun, Japanese troops are shown passing from the Chinese City of Peiping into the Tartar City through Chen-men, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the Forbidden City. Just a stone's throw away is the American Embassy, where American residents of Peiping flocked when Sino-Japanese hostilities were at their worst. It was yet another sign that the confrontation between China and Japan, which had started three weeks earlier at Marco Polo Bridge near the city, had reached a new, dangerous stage. For the past decade, after the city of Nanjing further south had been made the capital of China, Beijing had no longer been the nation’s political center. But it remained a powerful symbol of past Chinese might, having been the seat of the emperors since the 13th century. It was no longer possible to argue that the Japanese empire was nibbling away at the fringes of China. This was Chinese heartland, and had been so for centuries. The actual combat taking place in Beijing proper in the last days of July 1937 was relatively limited, but a much larger and bloodier battle erupted a few miles south of the city, as described in this extract from the book "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze": Once the Japanese reinforcements were in place at the end of July, an imperial order was issued instructing the local commanders to “chastise the Chinese Army in the Beijing-Tianjin area.” The well-equipped Japanese units unleashed a series of coordinated attacks, with extraordinary bloody results in some places. Chinese soldiers manning a barracks south of Beijing were nearly wiped out, and when a thin column of survivors tried to flee north through the fields towards the city, they were chopped to pieces by Japanese heavy machine guns places in advance along the escape route.  The injured soldiers were left to die slow agonizing deaths under the scorching sun, as unfeeling peasants collected bayonets and other equipment useful for their work. Also on July 29, Chinese auxiliary police ostensibly working for the Japanese rebelled in Tongzhou, a town east of Beijing that was home to 385 Japanese and Koreans at the time. Of these, 223 were murdered, many of them women and children. When the Japanese retook the city, they exacted terrifying retribution, as described in Shanghai 1937: Japanese soldiers bent on revenge beheaded all the men they managed to capture, whether rebels or not, and raped the women. When they were done with Tongzhou, they swept the surrounding countryside searching for anyone who looked like a fleeing police officer, hard to determine at a distance, a gunned them down too. Finally they set the town on fire. It created a dense column of black smoke that could be seen by the horrified residents of Beijing in the following days. Now they knew what life and death under Japanese rule would be like.

Source :

http://www.chinaww2.com/2014/07/29/fall-of-beijing-1937/

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-before-the-war/100089/

Ritterkreuz Award Ceremony of Wilhelm Knetsch at Stalingrad

Image size: 1600 x 1111 pixel. 376 KB
Date: Thursday, 15 October 1942
Place: Stalingrad, Soviet Union
Photographer: Unknown

Major Wilhelm Knetsch (Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 545 / 389.Infanterie-Division) receives the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight’s Cross of the Iron Crosses) from General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus (Oberbefehlshaber 6. Armee). Stalingrad, 15 October 1942. Knetsch already received the radio news about his award from 8 October 1942. During the attack on Stalingrad, Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Knetsch (26 February 1906 - 27 March 1982) was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold and the Ritterkreuz with a fortnight of each other, and the proud Paulus said that Knetsch was the best battalion commander in his entire army! Because of a severe illness, on 15 November 1942 he left the Stalingrad cauldron.

Source :

"Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the Operation to Rescue 6th Army" by Hans Wijers

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68997

Three German Commanders in St.-Lô area

Image size: 1600 x 1094 pixel. 434 KB
Date: Sunday, 16 July 1944
Place: Villebaudon, St.-Lô, Normandy, France
Photographer: Unknown

Three senior German commanders in the Battle against Allied troops in St.-Lô area, Normandy, 16 July 1944. From left to right: General der Fallschirmtruppe Eugen Meindl (Kommandierender General II. Fallschirmkorps), SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Paul Hausser (Oberbefehlshaber 7. Armee), and Generalleutnant Dipl.Ing. Richard Schimpf (Kommandeur 3. Fallschirmjäger-Division). Behind Schimpf is SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl-Heinz Boska (Adjutant Oberbefehlshaber 7. Armee). In this meeting Meindl told his commander, Hausser, that the German defense position at St.-Lô was untenable any longer due to the superiority of the Allied forces on land and in the air. The next day Hausser forwarded this message to his commander, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel (Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe B). Unknowingly, on the same day Rommel was badly wounded by Allied air strikes and went to the intensive treatment at the hospital! This photo is most likely taken at Villebaudon which is the base of II. Fallschirmkorps.

Source:

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=29879&p=2124764&hilit=schimpf#p2124764

http://www.specialcamp11.co.uk/General%20der%20Fallschirmtruppe%20Eugen%20Meindl.htm

Lieutenant Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare in His Cockpit

Image size: 1600 x 1600 pixel. 317 KB
Date: Friday, 10 April 1942
Place: Kaneohe, Hawaii, United States of America
Photographer: Unknown

Lieutenant Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare seated in the cockpit of his Grumman F4F "Wildcat" fighter, 3 April 1942. The plane is marked with five Japanese flags, representing the five enemy bombers he was credited with shooting down. On 20 February 1942, "Butch" O'Hare became the US Navy's first flying ace when he single-handedly attacked a formation of 9 Japanese heavy bombers approaching his aircraft carrier in Rabaul, and brought down 5. At that time, O'Hare and his wingman were the only U.S. Navy fighters available in the air when a second wave of Japanese bombers were attacking his aircraft carrier Lexington. O'Hare was on board the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which had been assigned the task of penetrating enemy-held waters north of New Ireland. While still 450 miles from the harbor at Rabaul, at 10:15, the Lexington picked up an unknown aircraft on radar 35 miles from the ship. A six-plane combat patrol was launched, two fighters being directed to investigate the contact. These two planes, under command of Lieutenant Commander John Thach shot down a four-engined Kawanishi H6K4 Type 97 ("Mavis") flying boat about 43 miles out at 11:12. Later two other planes of the combat patrol were sent to another radar contact 35 miles ahead, shooting down a second Mavis at 12:02. A third contact was made 80 miles out, but reversed course and disappeared. At 15:42 a jagged vee signal drew the attention of the Lexington's radar operator. The contact then was lost, but reappeared at 16:25 forty-seven miles west and closing fast. Butch O'Hare, flying F4F Wildcat BuNo 4031 "White F-15", was one of several pilots launched to intercept the incoming 9 Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers from 2nd Chutai of 4th Kōkūtai; at this time five had already been shot down. At 16:49, the Lexington's radar picked up a second formation of Bettys from 1st Chutai of 4th Kōkūtai only 12 miles out, on the disengaged side of the task force, completely unopposed. The carrier had only two Wildcats left to confront the intruders: Butch and his wingman "Duff" Dufilho. As the Lexington’s only protection, they raced eastward and arrived 1,500 feet above eight attacking Bettys nine miles out at 17:00. Dufilho’s guns were jammed and wouldn’t fire, leaving only O'Hare to protect the carrier. The enemy formation was a V of Vs flying very close together and using their rear-facing guns for mutual protection. O'Hare's Wildcat, armed with four 50-caliber guns, with 450 rounds per gun, had enough ammunition for about 34 seconds of firing. O'Hare's initial maneuver was a high-side diving attack employing accurate deflection shooting. He accurately placed bursts of gunfire into a Betty's right engine and wing fuel tanks; when the stricken craft of Nitō Hikō Heisō Tokiharu Baba (3rd Shotai) on the right side of the formation abruptly lurched to starboard, he ducked to the other side of the V formation and aimed at the enemy bomber of Ittō Hikō Heisō Bin Mori (3rd Shotai) on the extreme left. When he made his third and fourth firing passes, the Japanese planes were close enough to the American ships for them to fire their anti-aircraft guns. The five survivors managed to drop their ordnance, but all ten 250kg bombs missed. O'Hare's hits were so concentrated, the nacelle of a Betty jumped out of its mountings, after O'Hare blew up the leading Shōsa Takuzo Ito's Betty's port engine. O'Hare believed he had shot down five bombers, and damaged a sixth. Lieutenant Commander Thach arrived at the scene with other pilots of the flight, later reporting that at one point he saw three of the enemy bombers falling in flames at the same time. In fact, O'Hare destroyed only three Bettys: Nitō Hikō Heisō Tokiharu Baba's from 3rd Shotai, Ittō Hikō Heisō Susumu Uchiyama's (flying at left wing of the leading V, 1st Shotai) and the leader of the formation, Shōsa Takuzo Ito's. This last (flying on the head of leading V) Betty's left engine was hit at the time it dropped its ordnance. Its pilot Hikō Heisōchō Chuzo Watanabe tried to hit Lexington with his damaged plane. He missed and flew into the water near Lexington at 1712. Another two Bettys were damaged by O'Hare's attacks. Ittō Hikō Heisō Kodji Maeda (2nd Shotai, left wing of V) safely landed at Vunakanau airdrome and Ittō Hikō Heisō Bin Mori was later shot down by LT Noel Gayler ("White F-1", VF-3) when trying to escape 40 miles from Lexington. With his ammunition expended, O'Hare returned to his carrier, and was fired on accidentally but with no effect by a .50-caliber machine gun from the Lexington. O'Hare's fighter had, in fact, been hit by only one bullet during his flight, the single bullet hole in F-15's port wing disabling the airspeed indicator. According to Thach, Butch then approached the gun platform to calmly say to the embarrassed anti-aircraft gunner who had fired at him, "Son, if you don't stop shooting at me when I've got my wheels down, I'm going to have to report you to the gunnery officer." It is calculated that O'Hare had used only sixty rounds of ammunition for each bomber he destroyed; an impressive feat of marksmanship. In the opinion of Admiral Brown and of Captain Frederick C. Sherman, commanding the Lexington, Lieutenant O'Hare's actions may have saved the carrier from serious damage or even loss. By 19:00 all Lexington planes had been recovered except for two F4F-3 Wildcats shot down while attacking enemy bombers; both were lost while making steady, no-deflection runs from astern of their targets. The pilot of one fighter was rescued, the other went down with his aircraft. The Lexington returned after the New Guinea raid to Pearl Harbor for repairs and to have her obsolete 8-inch guns removed, transferring some of her F4F-3 fighter planes to the USS Yorktown (CV-5) including BuNox 4031 "White F-15" that O'Hare had flown during his famous mission. The pilot assigned to fly this aircraft to Yorktown was admonished by O'Hare just before take off to take good care of his plane. Moments later, the fighter unsuccessfully took off, rolling down the deck and into the water; the pilot was recovered, but "White F-15" was lost.

Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O%27Hare
http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/429652-a-century-of-war-in-photos-rare-interesting-photo-compendium/page__st__20
https://navypilotoverseas.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/lt-edward-butch-ohare-of-vf-3-april-1942/