Photographs

Damaged US Coast Guard landing craft approaching the beaches in Normandy on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. Smoke can be seen coming out of the boat, reportedly caused by a soldier’s hand grenade being set off by German machine gun fire! Despite the eventual success of the landings in Normandy, and …

Katyusha rockets firing on June 22nd 1941, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Only 40 such mobile rocket launchers were built and ready to be used by the Soviet Army at the start of Operation Barbarossa. It was the first self-propelled artillery piece to …

Heavy cruiser Lützow (aka pocket battleship) with a snapped off stern in Kiel harbor sometime after April 13th, 1940. Commissioned by the Weimar government, Lützow was completed in 1933 as the leading ship of the heavy cruiser class “Deutschland”. It was renamed Lützow in January 1940. Damage was caused by …

This rare World War 2 image shows guests of Adolf Hitler on the Berghof terrace sometime in 1942. The Berghof was Hitler’s vacation residence in the Bavarian Alps at Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden. He would often entertain visitors there, whether it was for official business or simply leisure. The picture was …

View of Juno beach on D-Day from a German antitank casemate in Courseulles-sur Mer, France. On June 6th, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, on the day now known as D-Day. Although the Allied managed to weaken German resistance in Normandy with deception tactics, misleading the Germans about the date …

Adolf Hitler in uniform after World War I, likely in 1921, when he was 32 years old. This image was used on his government issued card which allowed him to carry weapons. Hitler was a decorated lance corporal in the First World War. He learned about Germany’s defeat while hospitalized …

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber of the US Air Force is pictured in flight with the trail of a German V-2 missile in the background. The date and location of the image are unknown, but it must be sometime between late 1944 and early 1945, as that was …

Panzer III tank from the 15th Panzer Division pictured after being destroyed in August 1942, North Africa. An anti tank projectile or a shaped-charge blast penetrated the hull and caused an ammunition explosion, which blew up the turret. This is known as the “Jack in the box” effect. In the …

German Waffen SS soldier looking at a nervous Red Army POW, somewhere on the Eastern Front during September 1941. At that time, Operation Barbarossa was in full swing, as Germany was quickly gaining ground in the East. Book suggestion ⤵️ 📖 Eastern Inferno: Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the …

Flower class corvette HMCS Timmins navigates in rough waters during North Atlantic Patrols, 1941. HMCS Timmins was a small warship (corvettes are usually the smallest vessels to be rated as warships) which served for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic, between 1942 and 1945. She was …