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The most famous photographs of the Second World War. Germans during the Second World War: people as they were, as people as they are

The Second World War was the most brutal and bloody in the history of mankind. It pulled dozens of countries and peoples into its deadly cycle. And, seeing with your own eyes the documentary evidence, pictures of the deaths of people, dispassionately recorded by a camera, it is impossible not to shudder. It's hard to say what's scarier in this collection - the images of mass slaughter or the terrible, unstoppable moment of death of a single person.

Katyn

Removing bodies from a mass grave in the Katyn Forest. According to documents, more than 21 thousand Poles were shot here - both captured officers and political prisoners. Only several decades after the tragedy, Russia officially admitted the guilt of the NKVD in this atrocity.

Warsaw ghetto

Residents of the Warsaw ghetto before execution. Murders in the ghetto took place every day: the old and infirm, children and women were killed... In addition, terrible overcrowding and hunger reigned in the ghetto. Not wanting to meekly wait for death, the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto rebelled. From April 19 to May 16, 1943, fierce battles took place in the ghetto. The Germans brought Jewish units into the ghetto and, cutting off block after block, brutally suppressed resistance. In total, more than 7,000 rebels were killed during this time.

Malmedy massacre

During the fighting in the Ardennes near the Belgian village of Malmedy, 84 American soldiers were captured. The SS men shot them all right there in the field. Several prisoners managed to escape. They brought the news of the massacre in Malmedi to the American command.

Shark attack on the Indianapolis crew

On July 28, 1945, the American warship Indianapolis left the port towards Japan, having some parts on board atomic bomb, which was planned to be dropped onto enemy territory. However, a day later, the Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank. But this was only the beginning of the nightmare. The sailors caught in the water were attacked by a school of hungry sharks. According to very rough estimates, up to 150 people died from the teeth of hungry predators. The death of the Indianapolis sailors is considered the largest mass death in history from the teeth of sharks. In the picture, a doctor examines the terrible wounds from shark teeth on one of the survivors.

Nanjing massacre

Murder on the streets of Nanjing in 1938. When the Japanese captured Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese War, they, irritated by the stubborn resistance of the Chinese, behaved with unprecedented cruelty. Almost one hundred thousand soldiers who surrendered were shot. Soldiers attacked civilians and beat, tortured, maimed and killed them. The number of women raped and then killed numbered in the thousands. In total, up to 600 thousand Chinese died during the Sino-Japanese War.

Leningrad blockade

During the siege, corpses on the street were such a familiar part of the landscape that no one paid attention to them.

Bombing of Dresden

The persistent bombing of Dresden in 1945, which practically razed the city to the ground, is still considered by many to be a humanitarian crime by the Anglo-American allies. In Dresden, culture in general, which, alas, did not have strategic and military enterprises, but there were many masterpieces of world architecture and culture, which, alas, humanity had to say goodbye to forever.

Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad is considered the largest land battle in the history of warfare. The losses of the Red Army in killed and wounded amounted to more than a million people. The Germans had similar losses. There seems to be nothing human left in the eyes of this German prisoner.

Kamikaze

At the end of the war, in 1945, the first detachments of kamkaze pilots appeared in Japan, heeding the call of Emperor Hirohito to die with honor for their homeland. As a rule, young, often poorly trained suicide pilots flew their machines at Allied bases and ships in Pacific Ocean. The bitter irony is that kamikaze strikes did not always reach their target - both because of the Allied air defenses and because of their own poor preparation. Young fanatics died in vain.

"Sea Wolves"

During the Battle of the Atlantic, “Sea Wolves” were the name given to detachments of German submarines that roamed the ocean and sank both military and merchant ships with equal ruthlessness. During the war years, "sea wolves" sank about 4,000 ships, on which approximately 75 thousand people died, because there was practically no salvation for people in the open ocean. In the photo, a ship torpedoed by one of the “sea wolves” goes under water.

Italians in Ethiopia

Even before the outbreak of World War II, in 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on Ethiopia. Mussolini deliberately chose the weakest opponent. For example, the Italian army had 1,400 units of tanks and aircraft, while the Ethiopian army (pictured) had only two dozen units of equipment, and a large part of the army was still armed with spears. About a million Ethiopians died during the fighting.

Polish cavalry against German tanks

Desperate and suicidal attacks by the Polish cavalry on German tanks led to mass death Polish soldiers. In the photo: the consequences of such an attack.

Massacres in Odessa

A few days after the capture of Odessa, a powerful mine planted by retreating Soviet troops exploded at the headquarters. This explosion was the signal for the beginning of the massacre carried out by the Romanians in Odessa. The repression primarily affected Roma and Jews. Over the course of several weeks, over 15 thousand Roma and more than 34 thousand Jews were killed in the city. The picture shows one of the places of mass executions.

Crocodile attack on Ramri Island

During the battle on Ramri Island, about a thousand Japanese survivors, pressed by British troops, decided under the cover of darkness to escape from the pursuing enemy through the swamps. It was a fatal decision. Witnesses say that wild screams and gunshots were heard from the swamp all night. By morning, only about 50 survivors came ashore. According to them, the rest were dragged under the water by voracious local crocodiles.

Tragedy in the village of Stavelot

The command of the SS unit that occupied the Belgian village of Stavelot accused its residents of hiding American soldiers. The Americans were not found in the village, but the angry SS men, confident that the locals had deceived them, shot all the village residents - 67 men, 47 women and 23 children. The photo shows the execution site in Stavelot.

Second World War (September 1, 1939 - September 2, 1945) - the war of two world military-political coalitions, which became biggest war in the history of mankind. 61 states out of 73 existing at that time participated in it (80% of the population globe). The fighting took place on the territory of three continents and in the waters of four oceans. This is the only conflict in which nuclear weapons were used.

At the top: 1941. Belarus, a German reporter eats a cucumber offered by a peasant woman

1941. Artillerymen of the 2nd battery of the 833rd heavy artillery battalion of the Wehrmacht are preparing to fire a 600-mm self-propelled mortar “Karl” (Karl Gerät 040 Nr.III “Odin”) in the Brest area.

1941. Battle of Moscow. Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism or LVZ (638 Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment)

1941. Battle of Moscow. German soldiers dressed for the weather during battle

1941. Battle of Moscow. German soldiers captured Russian prisoners of war in a trench

1941. Waffen-SS

1941. Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili among prisoners of war during the battle for Smolensk

1941. Leningrad, Colonel General Erich Hoepner and Major General Franz Landgraf

1941. Minsk, German soldiers in an occupied city

1941. Murmansk, Mountain Riflemen made a stop along the way

1941. German artillerymen inspect the remains of the heavy artillery tractor “Voroshilovets”

1941. German prisoners of war guarded by Russian soldiers

1941. German soldiers in position. Behind them in the ditch are Russian prisoners of war.

1941. Odessa, Romanian soldiers inspect captured property of the Soviet army

1941. Novgorod, awarding of German soldiers

1941. Russian soldiers inspect trophies taken from the Germans and discover potatoes in a gas mask case

1941. Red Army soldiers studying war trophies

1941. Sonderkraftfahrzeug 10 tractor and soldiers of the Reich SS division drive through the village

1941. Ukraine, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler talks with peasants

1941. Ukraine, column of Russian prisoners of war including women

1941. Ukraine, Soviet prisoner of war before execution on charges of being an agent of the GPU

1941. Two Russian prisoners of war talk with German soldiers from the Waffen-SS

1941.Moscow, Germans in the vicinity of the city

1941.German traffic controllers

1941.Ukraine, a German soldier accepts an offered glass of milk

1942. Two German sentries on the Eastern Front

1942. Leningrad region, a column of German prisoners of war in a besieged city

1942. Leningrad region, German troops at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city

1942. Leningrad region, one of the first Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger

1942. German troops cross the Don

1942. German soldiers clear the road after a snowfall

1942. Pechory, German officers are photographed with clergy

1942. Russia, corporal checks documents of peasant women

1942. Russia, a German gives a cigarette to a Russian prisoner of war

1942. Russia, German soldiers leave a burning village

1942. Stalingrad, the remains of a German He-111 bomber among the city ruins

1942. Terek Cossacks from self-defense units.

1942. Non-commissioned officer Helmut Kolke of the 561st Wehrmacht Brigade with the crew on his Marder II self-propelled gun, the next day he received the German Cross in gold and the Honor Buckle

1942. Leningrad region

1942. Leningrad region, Volkhov Front, a German gives a piece of bread to a child

1942. Stalingrad, a German soldier cleans a K98 Mauser during a break between battles

1943. Belgorod region, German soldiers talk with women and children

1943. Belgorod region, Russian prisoners of war

1943. Peasant woman talks Soviet intelligence officers about the location of enemy units. North of the city of Orel

1943. German soldiers have just caught a Soviet soldier

1943. Russia, two German prisoners of war

1943. Russian Cossacks in the Wehrmacht during a blessing (priests in the foreground)

1943. Sappers neutralize German anti-tank mines

1943. Snipers of the unit of senior lieutenant F.D. Lunin is being led salvo fire against enemy aircraft

1943. Stalingrad, a column of German prisoners of war on the edge of the city

1943. Stalingrad, column of German, Romanian and Italian prisoners of war

1943. Stalingrad, German prisoners of war pass by a woman with empty buckets. There will be no luck.

1943. Stalingrad, captured German officers

1943. Ukraine, Znamenka, the driver of the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger looks through the hatch of the car at a tank stuck in the mud on the river bank

1943.Stalingrad, city center on the day of the surrender of German troops

1944. Commander of the 4th Air Command, Luftwaffe Colonel General Otto Desloch and commander of II./StG2, Major Dr. Maxsimilian Otte (shortly before his death)

1944. Crimea, capture of German soldiers by Soviet sailors

1944. Leningrad region, column of German troops

1944. Leningrad region, German prisoners of war

1944. Moscow. Passage of 57,000 German prisoners of war on the streets of the capital.

1944. Lunch of captured German officers in Krasnogorsk special camp No. 27

1944. Romania. German units evacuated from Crimea

1945. Poland, a column of German prisoners of war crosses the bridge over the Oder towards Ukraine

Without date. Two Soviet partisans inspect a captured German MG-34 machine gun

Without date. German soldiers clean their personal weapons. One of the soldiers has a captured Soviet PPSh submachine gun

Without date. German court martial

Without date. The Germans are taking away livestock from the population.

Without date. A Luftwaffe non-commissioned officer poses with a bottle while sitting on the head of a bust of I.V. Stalin

A fresh selection of photographs with descriptions.

1. A British soldier grins at German prisoners captured at El Alamein.
The famous gesture shown by the fighter has a double meaning: in the UK, if the hand is turned with the back of the hand, it also means the female genital organ.

2. The flight deck of the aircraft carrier Ryuho, damaged by hits from American 227-kg aerial bombs as a result of the raid on March 19, 1945.

3. The first ever jet bomber Arado Ar-234 "Blitz" ("Lightning")

4. A group of German Ju-52 transport aircraft perishes under American machine gun fire in the Strait of Sicily
The Junkers, flying at low altitude, were unlucky to run into a group of B-25s and the P-38s escorting them. The Junkers, not covered by anyone, suffered big losses: Americans shot down 25 out of 35 planes. In general, this was one of the main reasons for the defeat of the Germans in Africa - the inability to provide reliable supplies, partly due to huge losses in transport aviation(which inevitably had the most detrimental effect on almost all subsequent Wehrmacht operations), partly due to the threat to shipping.

5. III./Jg54 pilot, non-commissioned officer Gerhard Reimann with his damaged Bf-109F-4

6. Red Army soldiers disembark from boats

7. Captured garrison of Koenigsberg. 3rd Belorussian Front

8. Japanese transport ships under attack by American bombers in Simpson Harbor
The photo, taken from a B-25D Mitchell from the 3rd Bomb Group, showed a direct hit.

9. The Germans are testing an unusual defensive weapon - an aircraft flamethrower
In practice, the weapon turned out to be quite stupid, and its use was abandoned.

10. Pretty rare photo, depicting the results of the use of Soviet anti-tank cumulative aerial bombs PTAB 2.5 kg caliber
And the rarity is this: despite the obvious effectiveness of this type of ammunition and its active introduction into attack air units, mass use on the battlefield and rave reviews from pilots, very few photographs of damage from the PTAB-2.5 were taken, specifically close-up- practically none. Moreover, for some reason, even the accounting of equipment destroyed specifically by PTABs was not carried out - all of it was counted as destroyed by aerial bombs without taking into account the type of ammunition. Therefore, now the effectiveness of this interesting aerial bomb can only be assessed indirectly - from the memoirs of pilots and secondary documents.

11. Damage to the tail of the German He-111N night bomber from being hit anti-aircraft shell

12. German 88 mm captured by the Americans FlaK gun 36/37 on the streets of Cologne

13. Famous German aircraft designers, Ernst Heinkel and Claude Dornier, at Hitler's residence "Berghof"

14. A German paratrooper prepares to jump from a Ju-52
Probably a staged photo. France, 1944. The pose is a pleasure, although it undoubtedly has good reasons: due to the design of the German parachute, you had to jump head down, with your legs spread apart.

15. 51st Army on the approaches to Rostov. February 1943
The author of the photo is Leonid Isaakovich Yablonsky.

16. A series of photographs taken by the Americans during the assault on Cologne

The famous "Panther" near the station building behind the Cologne Cathedral, destroyed American tank M26 "Pershing" March 6, 1945.

17. The pilot of the damaged “superfortress” lost control while making an emergency landing at a base on Iwo Jima and rammed a fighter parking lot, damaging 9 Mustangs. April 24, 1945

18. Polish bombers PZL P-37 Los captured by the Germans

19. German Fw-190A-4 fighter emerges from an attack over the Via Balbia road, Libya

20. American Marines on the way to Omaha Beach. Operation Overlord

21. American Marines overcome Japanese defenses in the Battle of Okinawa. A bunker blew up

22. A little acceleration for captured Germans. Leipzig, 1945

23. Search for those who are still alive. Operation Overlord

24. A Frenchman from the 2nd Commando Shock Battalion captures a German soldier hiding in a ditch under a wrecked car.

25. "Okinawa minibus." American Marines on the Sherman armor. Battle of Okinawa

26. Soldiers of the Australian mounted troops move on the Bren Carrier armored personnel carrier. Africa, January 7, 1941

27. German two-seat training fighter Fw-190A-8/U1 moves around the airfield using horse-drawn transport

28. Red Army soldiers fight in Stalingrad

29. German armored personnel carrier Sd.Kfz.251 from the 14MK drives past a column of Pz.Kpfw II tanks in the Serbian city of Nis, Yugoslavia

30. Ju-86K bombers with Hungarian identification marks in flight

31. German soldiers wash their armored personnel carrier from winter camouflage

32. T-34-85 of the 3rd Belorussian Front in Königsberg

33. Remembering the Volyn massacre, Poles tend to forget about the actions of their nationalists
On June 6, 1944, the village of Verkhovyna was attacked by militants of the NSZ (“People’s Forces of Zbrojny”), a far-right underground organization that competed with the AK. 194 Ukrainians were killed. In the photo, the village of Verkhovyna, Soviet officers (Eastern Poland at that moment was already occupied by the Red Army) are investigating massacres Ukrainians in the village.

34. Everyday life of British Fairey Swordfish pilots and deck crew

35. Columns of British troops march across the Acropolis in liberated Athens

36. A minute of German humor
Well, I have to admit, there are still plenty of people who want to be photographed with weapons in their hands and looking stupid.

37. British airfield technicians service the Hurricane fighter

38. Panther turret, cracked after three 75mm hits high-explosive fragmentation shells

39. Lieutenant Edwin Wright demonstrates damage to the propeller blade of his P-47 caused by an anti-aircraft shell.

40. Assembly shop of plant No. 18 named after. Voroshilov. Il-2 is being assembled
Workers in the foreground prepare to hang test bombs.

41. Japanese heavy cruiser"Atago" (type "Takao")

42. Hawker Typhoon fires unguided rockets at railway station. 1944

43. Damaged F4F Wildcat on Midway Island, June 1942.

44. When the topic of France in 1940 comes up, very often there is a photograph of a crying French man.
This photograph always goes around with the caption in various variations: “French citizens as the Nazis enter Paris.”
Even the American NARA archive signed it as: A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France." 208-PP-10A-3

Although not everything is so clear:
1. If you open Life magazine dated March 3, 1941 (https://books.google.ru/books?id=IUoEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), then on pages 28 and 29 you can find the column "Photo of the week" with a story about the evacuation of banners and standards of French units in North Africa from Marseille on February 19, 1941. And under it is this photograph with the caption: “The Frenchman, out of patriotic feelings, mourns the banners of the lost regiments of his country leaving for Africa.”
2. In the French newspaper dated March 30, 1941, there is also an article about this event with a similar caption.
3. Very often this photo is cropped on the left. The fuller one shows the woman on the left applauding. Quite a strange gesture when your capital is occupied by an enemy. (although you can always say that she sympathizes with the Germans)
4. This is not a photo, this is a frame from a chronicle. For example, it appears in the third part of Frank Capra's film "Why We Fight" called Divide and Conquer at 54:45. A woman can be seen applauding, and her lips read Vive la France - Long live France. In the same chronicle you can see other people applauding and saying this line.
5. In the book Lucien Gaillard - Marseille sous l "occupation, the name of this Frenchman is even given: Jerome Barzetti (this point is the most unfounded)

Of course, no one denies the possibility of finding sobbing Frenchmen on the streets during the occupation of Paris, but this particular photograph most likely does not correspond to the caption with which it is being distributed on the Internet.

45. "Royal Tiger" captured by the Americans

46. Several photographs on the subject of experiments by German designers in the field aviation weapons
"Rohrbatterie" block of 32 single-shot 30-mm Mk 108 cannons, intended for installation on the Ba-349 "Natter" jet. Also, within the framework of the same project, the option of installing 7 blocks of 7 barrels each (Sonderger?t SG 119) was considered. However, the tests showed unsatisfactory results (the spring-loaded platform did not provide sufficient recoil mitigation from a simultaneous salvo of 49 large-caliber projectiles), and the project was closed.

As one of the means being developed to combat Soviet tanks The SG 113 system was being developed, which consisted of two 75-mm recoilless guns mounted vertically in the wings of the fighter. Should have been used as ammunition sub-caliber shells with a 50 mm steel core. It was assumed that the shot should have been fired automatically, without the participation of the pilot, at the moment when the plane passed over the target. The idea was good, but a lot of problems arose during the implementation of the program. Firstly, a very low flight altitude was required - from 3 to 8 meters, to ensure reliable operation of the magnetic release device and accuracy of hitting the target. This alone imposed restrictions on the level of the pilot. Secondly, the reliability of the magnetic release device itself left much to be desired: distinguishing the tank from any other metal structure was problematic. Thirdly, there was complete confusion among the many contracting companies participating in the program, which led to long delays when it was necessary to correct one or another flaw in the system. This whole stream of problems led to the fact that the SG 113 was approved for production only on March 14, 1945, but even then it was planned to refine the system in parallel with production.

And this is the SG 116 system of three modified 30-mm Mk 103 guns, installed in the fuselage of the fighter. The system was tested in two versions: for firing upwards, at aircraft, and downwards, at tanks. Despite the fact that, in principle, the tests were successful, they also did not have time to implement the system - the war was heading towards its logical conclusion.

A block of 7 recoilless versions of the 30 mm Mk 108 cannons, which were supposed to be installed behind the fighter cockpit at an angle of 85 degrees back upward (SG 117 / SG 118). After the first shot, which was initiated by an electric fuse, the entire block began to move downward under the influence of the recoil of each subsequent shot, thus compensating for the load on the aircraft structure, until each barrel was fired. The system was supposed to be activated automatically from a special photocell. 6 Fw-190s were converted for testing, only 4 of them managed to reach the troops. In addition, there were plans to install the system on the He-162.

47. Technicians are shooting 75-mm underwing guns anti-tank guns installed on the Ju-87G-1 tank destroyer

48. Direct hit by bombs dropped from Il-2 attack aircraft of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet Air Force on the German auxiliary vessel Franken

And this is what remains of the Franken after the attack by Soviet attack aircraft.

49. Commander of the T-34-76 tank from the 51st Army

50. A German submarine is attacked by an American B-24 Liberator patrol aircraft in the Atlantic.

51. Remains of a German tank Pz.IV ausf. J, destroyed by an American P-47 fighter-bomber

52. French partisan posing with a Bren machine gun in Eray-et-Lure

53. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front reach the Dniester

54. Soviet patrol boat of project MO-4 No. 1012 “Sea Soul”
The boat was built during the war years with funds from the marine painter L. A. Sobolev, received from the Stalin Prize for the book “The Soul of the Sea.”

55. Deceased Japanese tankman

56. Non-162 "Salamadra" being tested in the USSR

57. Heavy german tank"Tiger" with several direct hits on the frontal armor without a single penetration

58. American soldiers near an M4 Sherman tank that sank in the mud near the Italian town of Lattoria

59. "Owl" in the forest. Downed German reconnaissance aircraft Fw-189

60. “Tiger” stuck in the mud

67. British aircraft carrier HMS "Victorious" after being hit by a kamikaze. May 9, 1945

68. Ruins of the royal castle in Königsberg

69. The moment of death of a private of the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd infantry division US Army Jack Rose
Jack Rose was shot in the head by a German sniper in the Belgian village of Bien as he ran across a heavily targeted intersection. In the photo, Private Rose is already dead.

70. A Finnish junior sergeant fires from a captured Soviet anti-tank rifle PTRD-41

71. The remains of the French tank Char B1-bis No. 309 Rhone, blown up by its own crew on the street of the city of Beaumont. May 16, 1940
Vehicle from the 1st platoon of the 1st company of the 37th tank battalion of the 1st tank division. While driving through the city streets, it stopped due to lack of fuel, and the crew had no other choice but to destroy the tank.

72. The crew of the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious extracts a wounded observer from the deck torpedo bomber Fairey Albacore. March 9, 1942
A group of British torpedo bombers attacked the German battleship Tirpitz off the Norwegian coast. The attack did not have positive results - the target did not receive a single hit, while the British lost two aircraft.

A selection of rarely seen photos, some of them are associated with interesting stories.

In March 1974, 29 years after the end of World War II, an intelligence officer and officer Japanese army Hiro Onoda surrendered on Lubang Island, Philippines. Having been relieved of his duties by his commander, he surrendered Samurai sword, a rifle with 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades. Onoda was sent to Lubang in 1944 with the task of joining the reconnaissance group operating on the island and leading guerrilla warfare against the Americans. The Allies captured the island, three of Onoda's comrades died in the battle, and the four surviving members of the group went into the jungle and carried out raids from there. Several times they received leaflets and letters from relatives, but they did not believe the “propaganda.” In 1950, one of Onoda's comrades surrendered. By 1972, two more soldiers were killed in clashes with Philippine patrols, leaving Onoda alone. In 1974, Onoda came across the Japanese naturalist Norio Suzuki, from whom he learned about the end of the war and through whom Onoda was found by his commander and ordered to surrender. Behind long years The guerrilla group killed 30 Filipinos and wounded about a hundred, but President Marcos pardoned Onoda, and he returned to Japan. Hiro Onoda died on January 17, 2013 at the age of 91.

A shell hit a boat with Australians.

The result of a 152-mm ISU-152 projectile hitting the Pz.IV turret.

German Ju-87D dive bomber on an assembly line.

British Beaufighter attack aircraft attack German destroyers with missiles at the mouth of the Gironde River.

A homemade mirror mounted on the canopy of a German Bf-109E fighter is a British solution that allows pilots of German fighters to control the rear hemisphere. So, by the way, for some reason it did not go into production until the end of the war.

The falling torpedo bomber B5N2 "Kate" is captured by the gunner of a naval bomber PB4Y "Liberator" over the sea near Truk. In the rear cockpit you can see the gunner of the torpedo bomber, who, according to the Liberator pilot, Lieutenant Commander William Janeshek, first tried to get out of the burning car, then suddenly returned, sat down in his seat and died along with the plane.

Gunner of the tail point of a heavy German bomber He-177.

The tail cone of the German Fw-189 reconnaissance aircraft.

German technicians are servicing the heavy twin-engine fighter Me-410. A remote-controlled barbette with its casing removed and a heavy 13-mm MG 131 machine gun installed is clearly visible.

Cabin of the largest transport aircraft of that time - the German Me-323.

A Japanese bomb explodes on the deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise during the battle off the Eastern Solomon Islands. The author of the photo, Robert Reed, died the second he pressed the shutter button.

Lieutenant A.I. Gridinsky (far left) and his comrades in the 144th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment near the Il-2 attack aircraft.
Deputy commander of the guard squadron, Lieutenant Alexander Ivanovich Gridinsky (09/14/1921 - 06/07/1944) on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since June 1942. In less than 2 years at the front, Gridinsky made 156 combat missions, saved the life of his commander, personally destroyed 20 enemy aircraft, 35 tanks, 3 anti-aircraft batteries, 90 vehicles, 4 gas tanks with fuel, and crossed the Dnieper.
06/07/1944 Gridinsky’s lone plane was attacked over its airfield by four German fighters. As a result of the battle, having shot down one of the attackers, Gridinsky himself was shot down and his attack aircraft fell on the edge of the airfield. By Decree of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR on May 6, 1965, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown, Alexander Ivanovich Gridinsky was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Flagship (of the regiment commander's aircraft) air gunner of the Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft, Sergeant Major P. Shulyakov. In the foreground is a 12.7 mm UBT (universal Berezina turret) machine gun.

Inside the hull of the Geschutzwagen (GW) VI Tiger self-propelled gun (World of Tanks players pee with boiling water).

Hull of Geschutzwagen (GW) VI Tiger.

Technicians are firing the wing cannons on the tropical version of the Emil.

Pearl Harbor, 1945

Actor Damian Lewis ("Band of Brothers") and Major Richard Winters.

Inside a B-17.

An aerial view of bomb explosions during a bombing raid over Poland in September 1939.

One of the few photos of a really shot down B-29. The plane was attacked by a Japanese Ki-45, lost two engines, on the way to the base over the ocean the wing tank caught fire, and the crew bailed out and were rescued in full.

Preparing the Comet for departure.

B-24J-150-CO Liberator, 854th BS, 491st BG, 8th AF, September 18, 1944. He was dropping food and ammunition to the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and was hit by anti-aircraft guns. The pilot tried to land the plane on its belly, but at the last moment both right engines failed and the plane hit the ground. The pilot managed to level it, but the plane hit the trees at the end of the field and exploded. One person survived, all the others died.

A battery of Soviet guards mortars fires at enemy positions in Budapest. 1945

The cruiser "Mikuma" after an American air raid.

The sinking of the aircraft carrier Zuikaku.

A bomb hits the battleship Yamato.

"Haruna" under bombs.

Direct hit by a B-25 bomb on a Japanese patrol ship.

Western Ukraine.

Damaged and dismantled for spare parts "Royal Tiger".

A leaflet issued in the USA with possible changes in Hitler's appearance.

38 cm RW61 auf Sturmmörser Tiger.

Hungarian soldiers captured by units of the 144th rifle regiment 49th Guards rifle division. Veteran of this division V.V. Wojciechovich in his interview mentions an exceptional case that occurred at the beginning of 1945 in Hungary. According to him, units of the 144th Infantry Regiment captured a group of about sixty Hungarian soldiers and officers who turned to the regiment command with an unusual request. In exchange for being immediately released, these Hungarians offered ... to recapture from the Germans either a village or a town that was located in front of the positions of the 144th regiment.
The proposal was so unusual that even division commander Vasily Filippovich Margelov, known for his independence in decision-making (later the legendary commander Airborne troops USSR) did not dare to approve this, and turned to the command. The request went up the chain, and only the commander of the 46th Army, Petrushevsky, personally gave permission for this. And these Hungarians really took over this locality, destroying a lot of Germans... I had to keep my word, and these Hungarians were immediately sent home.
The photograph shows these same Hungarians before that battle.

P-47D-10 (No. 42-23038) from 73 Squadron 318 Group 7 air fleet (pilot l-t Eubanks Barnhill) takes off from the deck of the Manila Bay to intercept 4 Japanese dive bombers attacking a group of ships. January 23, 1944. Thanks exclusively to a fortunate combination of circumstances (headwind, half-empty deck, practically empty tanks and only a few dozen rounds of ammunition in the outermost machine guns of the vehicle), the Thunderbolt managed to take off and even shoot down one D3A and damage the second. Under normal circumstances this would be impossible.

Trophy "Ferdinand".

February 14, 1945 62 B-17 bombers of the Eighth American air army"accidentally" dropped 152 tons of bombs on Prague.

Consequences of ammunition detonation.

Jet Jumo-004, installed on the Me-262.

Main battery salvo from the battleship Missouri. The fired shells are visible.

Dornier Do 217 with Henschel Hs-293 glide bomb.

A Soviet self-propelled gun completely destroyed after an ammunition explosion artillery installation ISU-152. The self-propelled gun was destroyed during the battle of Tali-Ikhantala (June 25 - July 9, 1944) on the Karelian Isthmus.

A torpedo hit the British escort destroyer Berkeley.

Soviet soldier with a Czech child in his arms. The kid examines the Order of Glory on the soldier’s chest. Prague, May 1945

"Royal Tiger" with a 75-mm gun from the "Panther" installed, in the absence of an 88-mm cannon.

Ceremonial formation personnel 144SP 49SD, May 1945. The photograph is notable for the fact that many soldiers are wearing German helmets, because their own were lost in battle.

Replacing the rollers of the Panther chassis. Most accurately, this operation can be described as violent and prolonged sex, accompanied by loud and, characteristically, completely sincere wishes addressed to the designer.
"Nevertheless, the Tigers were an extremely dangerous opponent, but, fortunately, they still had one weak point. This point was their chassis... There are countless epithets that the brutal German mechanics awarded engineer Kniepkamp while changing the rollers on the monstrous colossus. Since it took up to a day to replace one roller from the inner row, many could not stand it, foamed at the mouth and rushed at the Tiger with a crowbar, beating the innocent car with anything necessary. It is known that the tankers who fought on the Tigris could not only eat from the plates, but also see them until their deaths. The sight of a stack of plates could give a seasoned warrior who had lived through the Russian campaign and prison camps a heart attack. A fight, monstrous in size and cruelty, between Luftwaffe and Panzerwaffe officers, which took place in May 1944 in the Drei Ferkels und Sieben Gnomen Bar in Berlin, a fight that put two Geschwaders and one Schwerepanzerabtelung out of action for three months, happened because of a seemingly completely innocent joke. The SS Standartenführer, who was drinking with the pilots, sent on their behalf a pile of plates stacked in a checkerboard pattern to the tankers' table... The investigation did not establish the identity of the Standartenführer. The Luftwaffe officers in the hospital recalled that his name was Otto, Otto von... they could not remember further. However, everyone agreed that he reminded them of someone. As a result, the tankers and pilots were separated with the help of fire hoses, and the fighters did not even notice the raid of thousands of American bombers.

A little more "German porn".

American 914 mm (36-inch) recoilless mortar "Little David". Created to fight Japanese fortifications. Firing was carried out with 1678 kg shells at a range of up to 8.7 km. It passed the tests successfully, but was not used in real combat.

Transport Junkers under attack by an allied bomber.

The Allies used German prisoners to clear minefields, which was contrary to the Geneva Convention. We did not treat prisoners in this way, although, it should be noted, not at all because of considerations of humanity.

A Japanese prisoner of war listens to a broadcast of Emperor Hirohito's speech announcing Japan's surrender.

And again some real German porn.

Nibelwerfer salvo in Warsaw.

V-1 reached the target.

The Japanese "pecked" an American tank.

"Tirpitz" on its side. The picture was taken from a British reconnaissance aircraft.

"Betties" come in for a torpedo attack.

Firing the wing armament of a Ju-87 "Stuka" dive bomber.

Captured Red Army soldiers. 1941.

A captured Red Army soldier from an assault detachment.

Non-111 at the exit from a torpedo attack.

Trophy Pe-2 in Finnish Air Force, bought from Germany.

The death of the British landing fire support ship LCG (M) 101. 1944.

American mast ships sink a Japanese Kaibokan S-class patrol ship.

Cruiser "Red Caucasus", December 29, 1941
A 150-mm shell pierced the frontal armor of the 2nd main battery turret and exploded inside. Despite the death of the crew and the resulting fire, the cruiser remained in battle. The tower returned to service after an hour and a half.

A burnt out and dismantled German Pz.Kpfw.III tank on Tigris Street in Budapest.

A 600 mm Karl Gerät 040 "Ziu" mortar shell hit the Prudential building, Warsaw, 08/28/1944. The shell exploded outside, otherwise the skyscraper would have collapsed. After the war, the building was rebuilt and since 1954 it has been known as the Warsaw Hotel.

The Sherman crew desperately wants to live by welding pieces of Panther armor onto their tank. The car became monstrously heavy.

In fact, one would be enough. But the Germans, apparently, were just training.

In the photograph, a Lithuanian self-defense fighter finishes off wounded Jews with a crowbar. A young man, approximately 16 years old, with his sleeves rolled up, was armed with an iron crowbar. They brought a person from a nearby group of people to him, and he killed him with one or several blows to the back of the head. Thus, in less than an hour, he killed all 45–50 people... After everyone was killed, the young man put the crowbar aside, went for the accordion and climbed onto the bodies of the dead lying nearby. Standing on the mountain, he played the Lithuanian national anthem. The behavior of the civilians standing around, including women and children, was incredible - after each blow with a crowbar they applauded, and when the killer played the Lithuanian anthem, the crowd took him up.

A prisoner from the assault squads. The protective breastplate shows traces of bullets fired from a submachine gun. Protected me from bullets, but didn’t save me from captivity...

The photo shows General Patton angry about his conversation with the tank commander. Patton was against mutilation appearance tanks with foreign objects, they say, everything should be uniform in the army. And the tank commander answered him that, with all due respect, sir, it’s up to me to fight on it. Patton had nothing to say and this infuriated him.

The first day of the war and the first dead invaders. Przemysl. 06/22/1941

The unit is fighting with the enemy in captured trenches

Dead German soldiers. Apparently a direct hit from a shell or mortar mine

After the battle near the village of Panskoye Kursk region. 12/20/1941

A damaged German Pz.38 tank and the bodies of German soldiers

Ju 87, which made an emergency landing. Leningrad area

After the retreat of German troops. 1942

Dead German mortar crew. Stalingrad 1943

Unsightly

Frost-covered bodies of German soldiers. Stalingrad area. 1942

German soldiers who died from hunger and cold near Stalingrad. 1943

After the Battle of Stalingrad

Dead German soldiers next to a damaged captured Soviet ZIS-5 truck

On the Eastern Front. 1943

"Commander of the German army group“Nord” addressed its Krauts with the following order: “Ilya Ehrenburg calls on the Asian peoples to “drink the blood of German women.” Ilya Ehrenburg demands that the Asian peoples enjoy our women: “Take fair-haired women - this is your prey.” Ilya Ehrenburg awakens the base instincts of the steppe. The scoundrel is the one who retreats, for the German soldiers are now protecting their own wives.”

Once upon a time the Germans falsified documents national importance. They have gone so far as to falsify my articles. The quotes that the German general attributes to me betray the author: only a German is capable of inventing such a dirty trick.

The Krauts are professional rapists, they are fornicators with considerable experience, they are hereditary baboons. They polluted all of Europe. It is in vain that the general insists that we are going to Germany for German females. We are not attracted to Gretchen, but to those Krauts who insulted our women, and we say bluntly that there will be no mercy for these Germans. As for German women, they evoke one feeling in us: disgust. We despise German women because they are mothers, wives and sisters of executioners. We despise German women because they wrote to their sons, husbands and brothers: “Send your doll a nice fur coat.” We despise German women because they are thieves and hipsters.
We don't need blond hyenas. We go to Germany for something else: for Germany. And this blond witch is in trouble.

I. Ehrenburg "Blonde Witch"

Dead Germans near a damaged self-propelled gun