British Soldiers Going to the Front

Image size: 1600 x 1074 pixel. 362 KB
Date: Friday, 29 September 1939
Place: Somewhere in England
Photographer: Unknown

Pictured above are British soldiers from the BEF (British Expeditionary Forces) preparing to ship out to France for the newly begun Second World War, September 29th, 1939. From September 1939 to April 1940 there was a period of time known as the "Phoney War." After the outbreak of war in September 1939, France and Britain had declared war on Germany but made no real action except sending French troops to the border and British Expeditionary Forces to the Belgian, Luxembourg, German, and Italian borders. The French and British adopted a mainly defensive strategy and relied pretty much on the Maginot Line and BEF forces on the Belgian border. During this period of time the British and French began air raid drills and conscription into their armies. Britian, expecting that it's cities would be devastated by bomb attacks, began a massive evacuation of children from areas considered to be at high risk of being bombed (i.e. major cities.) Hospitals were emptied to free beds for bombing casualties. Entertainment venues were closed. The snakes in the London Zoo are even killed for fear that a bomb might free them to roam the devastated capital! When bombing failed to materialize, life went back to a relatively normal way but the Allied citizens were still weary and reluctant about a new world war as a vast majority had seen or heard of the carnage during World War I. Civilians were issued gas masks, ration cards, and other essentials in the event of a bombing or even invasion. The French sent probes over the border but this was the most aggressive action they took on the Western Front, and this would be one of their gravest mistakes. In May 1940 the Germans invaded the Low Countries and then in June they overran France.

Source :
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg2J2D3HVw4/

Adolf Hitler Inspecting Gustav

Image size: 1600 x 1233 pixel. 601 KB
Date: Sunday, 4 April 1943
Place: Reichswerke Hermann Göring, Linz, Germany

Photographer: Walter Frentz

This picture was taken by Walter Frentz in 4 April 1943 at Reichswerke Hermann Göring, Linz (Germany), when Hitler visited the Eisenbahngeschütz 80 cm Kanone Schwerer Gustav. FLTR: Generalleutnant Walter Buhle (Chef vom Heeresstab im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), Ingenieur Erich Müller (Wehrwirtschaftsführer), Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel (Chef des Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), Reichsleiter Martin Bormann (Stabsleiter im Amt des Stellvertreters des Führers), Adolf Hitler (Führer und Reichskanzler), Prof.Dr.-Ing.Albert Speer (Reichsminister für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion), and SS-Gruppenführer Julius Schaub (not visible in this picture, Chefadjutant des Führers Adolf Hitler). Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustaf or Great Gustaf) was the name of a German 80 cm K (E) railway gun. It was developed in the late 1930s by Krupp as siege artillery for the explicit purpose of destroying the main forts of the French Maginot Line, the strongest fortifications then in existence. The fully assembled gun weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes, and could fire shells weighing seven tonnes to a range of 47 kilometres (29 mi). The gun was designed in preparation for the Battle of France, but was not ready for action when the battle began, and in any case the Wehrmacht's Blitzkrieg offensive through Belgium rapidly outflanked and isolated the Maginot Line's World War I-era static defenses, forcing them to surrender uneventfully and making their destruction unnecessary. Gustav was later employed in the Soviet Union at the siege of Sevastopol during Operation Barbarossa, where among other things, it destroyed a munitions depot buried in the bedrock under a bay. The gun was moved to Leningrad, and may have been intended to be used in the Warsaw Uprising like other German heavy siege pieces, but the rebellion was crushed before it could be prepared to fire. Gustav was destroyed near the end of the war in 1945 to avoid capture by the Red Army. It was the largest-calibre rifled weapon ever used in combat, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built in terms of overall weight, and fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece. It is only surpassed in calibre by the British Mallet's Mortar and the American Little David mortar (both 36 inch; 914 mm).


Source:

http://elektra.bsb-muenchen.de/servlet/Top/frames/hitsframe#bildarc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav

Panoramic View of the Battle of Vyazma

Image size: 1600 x 981 pixel. 286 KB
Date: Thursday, 2 October 1941
Place: Vyazma, Smolensk Oblast, Soviet Union
Photographer: Helmut Ritgen

A distant but fascinating photograph of the fighting of 2 October 1941, which repays close study. In the right foreground is a Soviet freight train overrun on the tracks - note two locomotives, one facing forward, the other to the rear. In the background several buildings are on fire, and the sky is black with smoke from an oil dump. In the left and centre background, Panzerkampfwagen 35(t) tanks in company strength may be seen advancing under fire. Following the Battle of the Ukraine, the German High Command was ready to resume the offensive against Moscow. General Hopner's Panzer Gruppe had been sent from Leningrad and General Hoth and General Guderian's Panzer armies were ready to challenge the last of the USSR's great armies: the Thirty-Second and Third. The Panzers had no trouble breaking through. Guderian took Orel in the first week of October and Hoepner forced Konev's Western Front into the path of the infantry of Generals Kluge and Strauss. In the north of this sector Hoth broke through to the south and took Vyazma. This meant that there were two pockets and 650,000 men were trapped. After some fierce fighting the Soviet Third Army at Vyazma surrendered on the 14 October and the Thirty-Second at Bryansk surrendered on the 20 October.

Source:

Helmut Ritgen photo collection
Book "The 6th Panzer Division: 1937-45" by Oberst a.D. Helmut Ritgen

http://www.warhistory.ie/world-war-2/battle-of-vyazma-bryansk.htm

Reichsbahn Personnel Wearing Camo

Image size: 1053 x 1600 pixel. 379 KB
Date: August 1944
Place: Verona, Veneto, Italy
Photographer: Walter Hollnagel

This particular photograph takes place somewhere at or around the bombarded railway staton at Verona (Italy) in August 1944 by a well-known German photographer, Walter Hollnagel. The man on the right is German DRB (Deutsche Reichsbahn) official whose wearing the edelweiss cap mixed with Reichswehr-Splittermuster 31 camo jacket (It's a particularly odd jacket, too, what with the collar, cuffs, buttons and full insignia of a regular railway tunic attached!). After the war, Hollnagel made many photographs related to the German railroad. This picture itself is an original color photograph (Hollnagel photographed often in color at the end of the war). The same individuals are pictured on page 395 of the Andreas Knipping / Richard Schulz book: "Die Deutsche Reichsbahn 1939-1945 Zwischen Ostfron und Atlantikwall". The book photo is in black and white and they are both standing in front of a Locomotive (not in front of the building like depicted above). BTW, if this tunic came on the market today, it would be derided as a fantasy item!

Source:

Askold photo collection

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=609158262441981&set=gm.478184145603530&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/cloth-headgear-3-reich/dont-tell-me-they-wouldnt-have-worn-it-146333-6/

14th Engineers (Philippine Scouts) Wire Railroad Bridge For Demolition

Image size: 1236 x 1600 pixel. 648 KB
Date: Thursday, 1 January 1942
Place: Luzon, Philippines
Photographer: Unknown

Philippine soldiers of the 14th Engineers, Philippine Scouts, United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), prepare a railroad bridge for destruction. Lieutenant Colonel Hugh J. Casey (July 24, 1898 – August 30, 1981), USAFFE Chief Engineer, on December 18, 1941, ordered Lieutenant Colonel Narciso L. Manzano (February 20, 1897 - September 15, 1986) to assist Lieutenant Colonel Harry A. Skerry (May 25, 1888 - October 16, 1978) commander of the 14th Engineer Regiment (Philippine Scouts). They jointly led civilian miners, Bureau of Public Works employees and the Philippine Army in preparing all major highway bridges from the Agno River to the Tarlac River and Cabanatuan. This is probably the special detail consisting of a Second Lieutenant and three miners that Casey sent to the North Luzon Force to prepare the large railroad bridges for destruction. After the Japanese landed in Lingayen Gulf on December 22, 1941, North Luzon Force began retreating to the Bataan Peninsula. Because there were few planes left to interfere with the enemy's progress and because the untrained Philippine troops could not withstand the powerful Japanese onslaughts, Wainwright had to rely heavily on his engineers. It was they who had to keep open roads and bridges ahead of the retreating columns—not an easy task in view of the Japanese supremacy in the air. It was the engineers, too, who had to prepare all bridges for demolition and assure their destruction after friendly troops had passed over. By December 31, Manila was abandoned; as civil engineers blew up stores there to deny them to the enemy, Wainwright's forces were retreating across the Calumpit Bridge. The last units of the USAFFE's two corps crossed by 0500 Hours on January 1, 1942. Skerry delayed blowing the bridge as Manzano's engineer elements were dispersed between Calumpit and Manila. At 0615 Hours North Luzon Force Commander Major General Jonathan M. "Skinny" Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 - September 2, 1953), who was on site, ordered the Calumpit Bridge to be blown. Manzano was behind the lines working to destroy six bridges between Manila and Bataan. An American engineer, Captain A. Mitchell Major (January 8, 1893 - August 28, 1942) attached to the 202nd Engineer Regiment (Philippine Army) was slightly wounded by Japanese machine gun fire as the sixth bridge blew. Manzano, who was born in the Philippines, could have abandoned Major and blended into the civilian population, but he stuck with the wounded man. They stripped off their uniforms and folded them; carrying them on their heads, they requisitioned a Filipino boat in Manila to get back to American lines. After three months of clearing roads, building fortifications, and fighting the Japanese, Manzano and Major were captured when the Bataan garrison surrendered. Major survived the Bataan Death March but died at Cabantuan. Manzano was trucked to Camp O'Donnell as part of MacArthur's command staff and was appointed Personnel Officer of the Filipino camp at O'Donnell. He risked his life falsifying records to hide large numbers of escaping Filipinos. When he was paroled, he set up an intelligence network in Manila. On January 25, 1944, as Manzano was delivering documents to Mindanao, the Japanese Kempeitai arrested Manzano's wife Rosario G. "Charo" Manzano (October 2, 1906 - October 14, 2001) imprisoning her for the rest of the war. Manzano himself avoided capture and gathered intelligence on Mindanao. His operations assisted MacArthur, with whom he linked up when the Americans landed on Leyte in Octber 1944. Manzano was instrumental in gathering intelligence for the Americans when they landed in Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. After the war, Charo and Narciso Manzano moved to the United States. Special thanks to Allen Manzano and Chris Schaefer for their assistance with this photo. 

Source:

Library of Congress LC-USZ62-106361 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1454

Panther Ausf.D Medium Tanks on Rail Cars Waiting to be shipped to the Front

Image size: 1600 x 1080 pixel. 383 KB
Date: Between April - May 1943
Place: Nürnberg, Mittelfranken, Bavaria, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausf.D medium tanks on rail cars waiting to be shipped to the front, April - May 1943. The D model can best be recognized by the drum cupola. During the summer of 1943 the Wermacht began taking delivery of a brand new medium tank - the Panzer V or "Panther". Though a new tank design, the Panzer V owed much to the superb T-34 that had spurred the Panther's development. That said, the effort to produce a new medium tank to replace the Panzer III and IV had actually started in 1938. However, the developmental process had been hamstrung by a variety of problems. These included a lack of urgency, changing parameters which continually caused the proposed vehicle to increase in size and complexity; as well as the fact that the chief engineer in charge of the project lacked the talent and vision of men such as his Soviet counterpart - Mikhail Koshkin. Thus, in spite of the long developmental history of the German army's next generation medium tank, it would prove hardly ready for operational use by the time it was first deployed during July 1943, and would fight against teething problems throughout its initial year in deployment. That said, the new Panzer V possessed several notable features that offered tremendous battlefield potential, and would make it a formidable main battle tank. For instance, it was armed with a long barreled high-velocity 75mm L/70 gun designed by Rheinmetall-Borsig which was capable of penetrating well over 100mm of armor at 1000 meters. The Panther, like the Tiger, also featured excellent optics, providing German tank gunners a huge advantage over their opponents. Panther production had started in December1942, at MAN, Nurnberg, Daimler-Benz, Berlin, Maschinefabrik Niederachsen Hannover, and Henschel (Kassel), but given the Panther represented an entirely new design many developmental problems plagued the project. In particular, the front wheel transmission and engine, designed for a lighter tank, labored under the enormous strain produced by the tank's heavy petrol engine and overall weight - which had climbed to 45 tons with a May 15, 1942 decision by Hitler to increase the vehicles frontal armor to 80mm in thickness - a requirement made after the engine and drive had been already selected based upon a lighter weight vehicle. Ironically, in spite of the insistence on thicker frontal armor than the Panzer IV, and thus huge increases in weight over the tank it was meant to replace, the vehicle still had been fitted with comparatively weak side armor offering hardly better protection than that offered by the newest mark Panzer IVs. With such minor differences in protection the Panther therefore featured a huge weak point in a design that had ostensibly traded off the Panzer IV's better reliability and mobility for greater battlefield survivability. The problems with the Panther were so great that in June the first 250 produced earlier in the year had to be rebuilt, and on June 16, 1943 Guderian declined to certify the tank as combat ready. The Panther program was one of the most important in the German armaments industry. Although the Panzer VI Tiger tank was a harder hitting better protected tank then the T-34 and M-4 Sherman, it was too expensive and time consuming to build to ever make it onto the battlefield in anything other than modest numbers. Both the Panzer III and Panzer IV could hardly stand up to the T-34, and thus the Panther was designed to not only be a superior weapons system to the T-34; but also built in a manner consistent with that of a main battle tank to be widely fielded by Germany's panzer arm. The Panther, in being technically superior to either the T-34 or M-4 Sherman in terms of its optics, main gun and armored protection; would define a late war German approach to combating quantity with a newfound qualitative superiority in categories in which previous German tanks had lagged their primary antagonists. That said, both the Red Army and Allied army's held onto not just the pursuit of quantitative superiority but qualitative as well - in the sense of mechanical reliability, fuel economy. and the corresponding streamlined logistics that supported such tanks. Thus, both sides enjoyed varying qualitative advantages over the other in the comparative tank designs fielded by the Second World War's major combatants; a fact all too often overlooked by those focused on the raw number of vehicles each army took delivery of during the war.

Source:

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26258

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-H26258,_Panzer_V_%22Panther%22.jpg

http://www.globeatwar.com/media-gallery/detail/41/361