This 1917 field portrait depicts four soldiers wearing heavy fleece coats, steel helmets, and late model gas masks. The bitter 1917 winter was the coldest in living memory for soldiers on both sides of the front. Soldiers suffered from frostbite and exp…
The image shows the faces of German prisoners of war, captured by Americans, watching a film about a concentration camp. This forced confrontation brought Germans face-to-face with the worst works of the Third Reich. It must be really hard to go through…
These American soldiers probably got ambushed by German machine guns when they were attempting a routine street crossing at the wrong time. They're at a crossroads, a good spot to ambush an advancing army. This photo is taken during the early hours of t…
Fifteen pensive-looking faces, each man contemplating his fate as they await the enemy barrage to lift and prepare to repel an enemy assault. The original text on reverse: "Real photo taken of German infantry in a dug out. This is a typical dug out, and…
Every time this image gets posted on the internet a caption from the book "The K98k Rifle" gets attached to it which claims that these soldiers are fresh out of a firefight. However, the original Bundesarchiv caption reads: “Frankreich.- Erschöpfte Sold…
Full military honors were granted by the Luftwaffe at the funerals of RAF sergeants Butlin and Holden who were shot down over Jersey, Channel Islands. It is thought this was to try to pacify the local population. The Luftwaffe behaved much differently t…
Looks like a handover of some sort, based on the satchels, the two officers saluting each other, etc., so it's possible this would be a unit being shipped out of where ever it has been garrisoned. Judging by the flowers in one of the soldier's uniforms, th…
The cheerful German soldiers in the trenches filled the autumn rains spread the food for their comrades. Water is pumped out of the trench using a mechanical pump. Photo taken during Battle for Velikiye Luki, October 1943. With the advent of mechanized …
The Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Karfreit as it was known by the Central Powers) took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid (now in Slovenia), on the Austro-Italian front…
Many animals were used during World War One. Horses, mules, dogs, and pigeons were vulnerable to poison gases so that special protection was necessary for them. Horses were equipped with gas masks over their muzzles and were protected from inhalation of…
Soviet soldiers openly sexually harass a passing German woman near the West Hall section of the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof central railway terminus. As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of the war, mass rapes took pla…
Two American soldiers inspect a destroyed German King Tiger tank and at the same time admire the three beautiful passing girls. Photo was taken near the village of Corenne, Belgium, 1944. The tank in the photo is Tiger II number 312, of the 3rd company …
This is Second Chechen War, shot from Kirovo, near Grozny. They are not marines, just motorized infantry. Regarding the helmet, the German Nazi helmet was seen as a talisman, as a good omen sign. These soldiers' drab-olive gear and black beanies look ju…
These soldiers are part of the Russian Fifth Army of World War One. They are preparing a chemical attack against the German positions in Ilukste area (modern Latvia). Chlorine gas was first introduced on the battlefield by the German Army in 1915. It wa…
The act of saying goodbye is always an emotional one, especially when it's to loved ones who are going to war. The vintage photos of soldiers kissing their girlfriends, wives, or even kids before getting deployed or going to war capture the human side of war. …
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel famously declared and predicted: "The war will be won or lost on the beaches. We'll have only one chance to stop the enemy and that's while he's in the water... struggling to get ashore... everything we have must be on the coast... t…
These images were taken in German-occupied Paris by André Zucca for the German propaganda magazine Signal using rare Agfacolor film supplied by the Wehrmacht. The shots depict fashionable young women and commuters mixed with German soldiers on the bustling …
These photographs taken in early and mid-20th century Germany show anonymous people posing alongside actors dressed as polar bears. The pictures, part of a TeddyBär collection, were compiled between the end of the First World War and the late 1960s by Jean-…
On August 25, 1914, the German army ravaged the Belgian city of Leuven (Louvain). Virtually the entire city center was systematically destroyed by the German occupying forces. The fire destroyed more than two thousand buildings and 248 citizens were killed…
After Germany’s annexation of Austria in March 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain traveled twice to the continent hoping to appease Hitler’s aggressive intentions, and to prevent another destructive European war, but with a distinct lack of success. …