La Segunda Guerra Mundial en Color

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Fotos Ineditas de Operación barbarroja, tomadas por los soviéticos

http://mil.ru/files/files/camo/gallery_2.html

 

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Men of “E Squadron” Glider Pilot Regiment photographed at RAF Down Ampney shortly before 'Operation Market Garden' in September 1944.
The men pictured here piloted Horsa Gliders in to the operational area on the 17th & 18th of September 1944. Once on the ground many of E Squadron defended the Divisional HQ at Oosterbeek. The Regiment suffered 60% casualties during ‘Market Garden’ and never recovered from the losses.
Brigadier Hackett, commanding 4 Parachute Brigade said of the these men that “they were the finest body of soldiers that the British Army produced in WW2”

 

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Lt. Col. Robert Wolverton, C/O 3 Btn, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, checking his gear before boarding the C-47 "Dakota", 8Y-S, "Stoy Hora" of the 440th Troop Carrier Squadron at an airfield in Exeter, England.
The evening of the 5th of June 1944.

On that evening in June 1944, he gathered his men in an orchard adjacent to what is now Exeter airport, and said:

"Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do.

"God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.

"We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.

"Oh Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you."

Sadly, within hours, the orator himself was dead; a cruel twist of fate meant his feet never touched French soil.
Lt Col Robert L Wolverton (aged 30), was killed by ground fire and left suspended by his parachute from an apple tree in an orchard just north of the hamlet of St Côme du Mont in Normandy.

 

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'Stalag 13-C'

US troops from Combat Command B of the U.S. 14th Armored Division entering the Hammelburg Prison in Germany by opening the main gate with bursts of their M3 "Grease Guns". Hammelburg, Germany. April 6, 1945.

Hammelburg was a large German Army training camp, set up in 1893. Part of this camp had been used as a POW camp for Allied army personnel in World War I. After 1935 it was a training camp and military training area for the newly reconstituted German Army.

In May 1940 the camp was established in wooden huts at the south end of the training ground. The first prisoners included Belgian, Dutch and French soldiers taken during the Battle of France. In May–June 1941 Yugoslavian, predominantly Serbian prisoners arrived from the Balkans Campaign, and soon after in June–July 1941 Australian and other British Commonwealth soldiers arrived, captured during the Battle of Crete.

American soldiers that had been captured during the Battle of Normandy arrived in June–July 1944, and more from the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. In March 1945 a large group of prisoners arrived in deplorable condition after marching the 500 miles from Stalag 13-D in severe winter conditions.

"It seems the opening of the gates with machine gun fire is most likely symbolic and a show for the camera's.
There are other photos of this POW liberation that show Sherman tanks rolling easily through the fences - which is far safer IMO than the method used in photo."

 

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Soldiers from the US 89th Infantry Division cross the Rhine River from St.Goar to St.Goarshausen in assault boats under German fire, 26th March 1945.

Photographer's note: "I drew an assault boat to cross in - just my luck. We all tried to crawl under each other, the lead was flying around like hail."

 

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Pz. IV (L/43) Ausf.G Nº812 of Panzer-Regiment 25/7.Panzer-Division at the harbour of Toulon in France, during 'Operation Lila'. Friday 27th of November 1942.
(In the background is the French Dunkerque-class battleship 'Strasbourg')

On November 27, the Germans commenced "Unternehmen Lila" with the goal of occupying Toulon and seizing the French fleet. Comprising of elements from the 7. Panzer-Division and SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Das Reich", four combat teams entered the city around 04:30. Fort Lamalgue, along with Admiral André Marquis, was captured swiftly.
The attack came as a complete surprise to the Vichy officers, but Contre-Admiral Dornon transmitted the order to scuttle the fleet to Admiral de Laborde aboard the flagship 'Strasbourg'. Laborde was taken aback by the German operation, but repeated orders to prepare for scuttling, and to fire on any unauthorised personnel approaching the ships.
Advancing through Toulon, the Germans occupied heights overlooking the harbour and air-dropped mines to prevent a French escape. Reaching the gates of the naval base, the Germans were delayed by the sentries who demanded paperwork allowing admission. By 05:25, German tanks entered the base and de Laborde issued the scuttle order from his flagship 'Strasbourg'. Fighting soon broke out along the waterfront, with the Germans coming under fire from the ships. Out-gunned, the Germans attempted to negotiate, but were unable to board most vessels in time to prevent their sinking. German troops were successful in boarding the cruiser 'Dupleix' and closed its sea valves, but were driven off by explosions and fires breaking out in it's turrets. Soon the Germans were surrounded by sinking and burning ships.
By the end of the day, they had only succeeded in taking three disarmed destroyers, four damaged submarines, and three civilian vessels. In the fighting of November 27th, the French lost 12 killed and 26 wounded, while the Germans suffered one wounded.
In scuttling the fleet, the French destroyed 77 vessels, including 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, and 13 torpedo boats. Five submarines managed to get underway, with three reaching North Africa, one in Spain, and the last was forced to scuttle at the mouth of the harbour. The surface ship 'Leonor Fresnel' also escaped. While Charles de Gaulle and the Free French severely criticised the action, stating that the fleet should have tried to escape, the scuttling prevented the ships from falling into Axis hands. Salvage efforts begun but none of the larger ships saw service again during the war.
After the liberation of France, de Laborde was tried and convicted of treason for not trying to save the fleet. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death. This was soon commuted to life imprisonment before he was granted clemency in 1947.

 

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"Lucky Strike" c. 1944

The United States was the only country to equip its troops with an auto-loading rifle as the standard infantry weapon of WWII. It gave their troops a tremendous advantage in firepower, and led General George Patton to call the M1 Garand, “The greatest battle implement ever devised.”

After several years of testing, on 3 Aug 1933, United States Army's Springfield Armory's weapon designer (Canadian born) John C. Garand received official designation "M1" for his prototype semi-automatic rifle design T1E2. In May 1934, 75 of them went to field trials; 50 were given to the infantry, and 25 to the cavalry. After initial problems were addressed, the M1 Garand rifles were ordered in large numbers. Initial production difficulties meant the first delivery was not done until Sep 1937, but by the time the European War began in Sep 1939, 100 rifles were made each day. By 10 Jan 1941, 600 rifles were being built per day. By the end of the year, the US Army considered its ranks fully equipped with M1 Garand rifles.

The M1 Garand rifles were semi-automatic, meaning that although each trigger pull resulted in a single round being fired just like their bolt-action contemporaries, between each shot there was nothing that needed to be done in order to load the next round. This design allowed the Americans the ability to fire more shots against their German and Japanese counterparts, who continued to use bolt-action rifles as the standard infantry weapon. Another advantage of the design was the rifles' simple construction. In the field, a soldier could disassemble his rifle using only a rifle sound, therefore allowing him to easily clean and maintain his weapon between engagements. General George S. Patton referred to the M1 Garand design as "the greatest implement of battle ever devised."

The M1 Garand rifles were clip-fed. When the last round of a clip was fired, a metallic pinging noise was made as the clip was ejected. The sound would become an unique characteristic of these rifles.
(Source - World War II Database)

 

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The strain and fatigue of 23 days on the line is shown by Marines of Combat Team 'C', 2/7th US Marines, 1st Marine Division seen here displaying Japanese battle flags captured during the Battle of Cape Gloucester. 14-15th January 1944.

New Britain was defended by the Imperial Japanese Army's 17th Division, under Major General Iwao Matsuda; reinforced by the 65th Independent Mixed Brigade and elements of the 51st Division, known as the Matsuda Force.
The 7th Marines, were relieved after taking Hill 660. They trapped the Japanese between 60mm mortar fire in front and 81mm and artillery fire in back, then overlapped the impact areas; over 100 Japanese were caught in the open and killed.
Later the 5th Marines attacked and neutralized Matsuda's Command Post. New Britain cost the reinforced 1st Marine Division 310 killed in action and 1,083 wounded. The remains of the Matsuda Force were ordered back to Rabaul to defend the base. For the rest of the war, 40,000 Japanese starved and were harassed by a much smaller Allied force.
1st Marine Division was relieved by the US Army's 40th Infantry Division and prepared for the Peleliu operation.

 

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Marine Pfc. Douglas Lightheart (right) cradles his .30 caliber M1919 Browning machine gun in his lap, while he and Marine Pfc. Gerald Thursby Sr. take a cigarette break, during mopping up operations on Peleliu on 14th September 1944.

A mystery that was decades in the making ended with just one glance.
The daughter of the World War II Marine took one look at her computer screen and recognized him.
"Oh, my God, that is my dad," said Becky Thursby Cardarella.

She knew right away that the man in the iconic black-and-white photo was her father, Marine Pfc. Gerald Paul Thursby Sr., crouching next to another Marine during the battle of Peleliu on Sept. 15, 1944.

Historians have been working to identify her father. All they had had to go on was a caption that identified the man in the photo as Pfc. Gerald Churchby of Akron.
But historians were stumped, because they could not find any Marine named Churchby who lived in Akron.
The other Marine was correctly identified as Pfc. Douglas Lightheart, who died in Michigan in 2006 at the age of 86.

The Akron Beacon Journal ran an article in August laying out the mystery and asking for help in finding Churchby.

Jason McDonald, the Web master for a World War II multimedia database, wanted to settle once and for all who was Churchby, whose photograph is now in the National Archives.

This week, three months after the story was published, McDonald said he was contacted by Michael Conrad, who had found the name "Gerald Thursby" onAncestry.com.
McDonald said he then was able to locate an obituary for Thursby's wife, Cleo, who died eight years ago.
That led to Gerald Thursby's obituary. He died of complications from pneumonia on July 19, 1999, in Dallas. The search ended this week with the Facebook find of his daughter, Becky Thursby Cardarella of Afton, Minn.
"If you saw other pictures of my dad, you would immediately see it was him," she said.

The photo shows a young Gerald Thursby, a Marine who happened to be photographed shortly after landing on Peleliu Island. He is holding a cigarette and an M1 Garand rifle across his lap.

"He was a very easygoing, loving man," said his 55-year-old daughter.

He and Cleo were married in 1946. They had six children, one of whom, Linda, died in childhood. They had twin sons, Don and Dan, born in 1960. Don Thursby lives in Wyoming, Mich., and Dan Thursby lives in Ferris, Texas.
The remaining children are Kitty Thursby Reese, who lives in Geneva, Ohio, and Gerald Thursby II, of Ferris, Texas.

After graduating from Coventry High School, the family says, Gerald joined the Marines in early 1942, less than a month after Pearl Harbor was attacked.

While he was at war, his mother, Minnie Thursby, died at the age of 51 of an asthma attack, said his sister, Barbara Mc-Kissick, 80, of Phoenix.

"Oh, my goodness, that is Jerry," she said this week as she looked at a computer image of the mystery photo. "That is my brother."
She said her brother never spoke of the war.

McDonald said it is terrific that the correct name of the Marine has been discovered.

He said he still hopes to compare a family photograph of Thursby to the Peleliu photo to verify that it is indeed Thursby.

But he said he's confident the mystery has been solved based on a review of the Marine's discharge papers.

"There are all sorts of Peleliu researchers who always wondered who it is," said McDonald, a middle school teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y.
He said he had gotten to the point where he had given up hopes of finding out the answer to the mystery.
"I figured we weren't going to find him," he said.

It appears the error started with the photographer, who misspelled Thursby's name after the photograph was taken.

Cardarella said her father's discharge papers say he served on Peleliu Island.

"It is amazing," she said, to see the photograph of her father that has been admired by others for nearly 70 years. "What is remarkable about the whole thing is I never even saw that photo (before)."

She said her father spoke little of the battle."I think it was a memory that he wanted to forget," she said.

 

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A British Crusader tank passes a burning German Panzer IV tank during 'Operation Crusader'. Cyrenaica (the eastern province of Libya). Winter 1941.

Operation Crusader:
was a military operation by the British Eighth Army between 18 November–30 December 1941 during the Second World War. The operation relieved the 1941 Siege of Tobruk. The Eighth Army's initial plan to destroy the Axis armoured force before advancing its infantry came apart when, after a number of inconclusive engagements, the British 7th Armoured Division were heavily defeated by the Afrika Korps at Sidi Rezegh. Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel's subsequent advance of his armoured divisions to the Axis fortress positions on the Egyptian border, failed to find the main body of the Allied infantry, which had bypassed the fortresses and headed for Tobruk, so Rommel had to withdraw his armoured units to support the fighting at Tobruk. Despite achieving some tactical successes at Tobruk, the need to preserve his remaining forces prompted Rommel to withdraw his army to the defensive line at Gazala, west of Tobruk and then all the way back to El Agheila. It was the first victory over the German ground forces by British-led forces in the Second World War.

The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VI or A15 Crusader:
was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the early part Second World War and perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign.
The Crusader's mobility made it a favourite of British tank crews and once upgraded with the Ordnance QF 6 pounder main gun made it more than a match for the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks it faced in combat. Retained in service because of delays with its replacement, by late 1942 the lack of armament upgrade combined with the presence of Tiger I Tanks among the Afrika Korps and reliability problems due to the harsh desert conditions, led to the Crusader being replaced in the main line of battle by US-supplied M3 Grant and Sherman medium tanks. The next British cruiser to see combat would be the Cromwell heavy cruiser.

 

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"Soviet artillerymen transporting a 76-mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) during the forced crossing of the Oder River, Germany, c. December, 1944."

The Vistula-Oder Offensive commenced on the 12th of January 1945 , so it's possible that this photo may represent an earlier training exercise or the date of the caption should be later.

Gun facts;
Weight combat: 1,116 kg(2,460 lbs) travel: 2,150 kg
(4,730 lbs)
Crew - 7 (the seventh crew member is just off camera, extreme left)
Caliber - 76.2 mm (3 in)
Rate of fire - up to 25 rounds per minute
Maximum firing range - 13.29 km (8.25 mi)

Photograph by Dmitri Baltermants. (During World War II, Baltermants covered the battle of Stalingrad, and the battles of the Red Army in Russia and Ukraine. He was twice wounded.)

 

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"An American Marine aiming his Garand M1 rifle, whilst perched on Japanese ammunition crates (empty ?) on the Island of Iwo Jima." c. February/March 1945

(Note the WW1-style M1917 trench knife tucked in behind his canteen.)

The Marine is Platoon Sgt. Rinaldo Martini (MCSN: 306732), of the 27th Marines, 5th Division. He received the Silver Star for service on Iwo Jima.

Silver Star Citation;
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant Rinaldo Martini (MCSN: 306732), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Machine Gun Section Leader of Company C, First Battalion, Twenty-seventh Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 19 February 1945. Acting on his own initiative when his company was halted in its advance by an enemy blockhouse, Sergeant Martini took his machine gun and worked his way forward to a shell hole in front of the hostile emplacement. Standing up and firing from his hip, he managed to pin down the Japanese occupants until a demolitions man could move forward and destroy it. His courageous devotion to duty was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
General Orders: Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Pacific: Serial 47152

 

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Girls working on shell caps in a munitions factory, somewhere in England. 25th of May 1940.

(Nb. The photographer, Paul Popper covered the Dunkirk evacuation in May/June 1940, so this could well be somewhere in Southern England)

One and a half million women toiled in dirty and dangerous factories to provide troops on the frontline with vital ammunition.
Acid burns were part and parcel of the work and many received much more serious injuries while the plants they worked in were key targets for Hitler’s Luftwaffe bombers.

War historian Simon Fowler says: “Britain could not have emerged victorious in 1945 without the help of the many who selflessly worked all the hours they could to provide the materials the British Army and Allied troops used to defeat the Germans.

“Workers could often be identified by the yellow skin they had because of the dangerous chemical compounds they came into contact with and were known to many as ‘canaries’.

"People were injured or killed while making munitions every day."

 

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Flying Officer Philip Ingleby 137140, the navigator of an Avro Lancaster B Mark III of No. 619 Squadron RAF based at Coningsby, Lincolnshire, seated at his table in the aircraft.
February 1944.

Taking off at 10.50 hrs on the 7th August 1944, the de Havilland Mosquito VI (s/n NT202) AJ-N of No. 617 Squadron, was on a training exercise from R.A.F. Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.
It had completed three runs over the Wainfleet bombing range and at 11.12 hrs. whilst pulling up in a climbing turn to port the starboard engine failed, followed immediately by structural failure of the starboard wing. Out of control, the Mosquito plunged into shallow water by the foreshore.
The Pilot F/O. Warren Duffy (aged 21) and Navigator P. Ingleby (Aged 23) were both killed.

 

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Crew members of Nº537 Soviet IS-2 tank of the 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment take a break in Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland) 27th April 1945.

Commander - Lt. B.I.Degtyareva (alt. Diegtiariew)
The musician is B.W. Kalyakin

There is another photo showing, what we believe, to be the same tank destroyed in a nearby street

("....the names of the crew were not in the lists of the dead, so it can be assumed that they were able to leave the destroyed tank.")

The IS ("Iosif Stalin") tank, with its 122 mm gun, was an unpleasant surprise for the Wehrmacht. Produced from October 1943 through to June 1945, with a total of 107 of the IS-1 vehicles and 3,483 of the IS-2 version manufactured.