German soldiers during the Second World War. Archival photographs of the Second World War. Gorgeous series

Wow. We continue to look at extremely rare photographs and fascinating stories associated with them. The post is long, there are a lot of photos. Enjoy!

1. Searchlights over Gibraltar during a drill. November 20, 1942
2. The side of the heavy cruiser HMS Sussex with a print left after a Japanese kamikaze hit a Ki-51

3. Captured Japanese equipment on the deck of the aircraft carrier Barnes (CVE-20)


4. A tug pulls the USS Barnes (CVE-20) through the Panama Canal. Captured Japanese equipment is displayed on the flight deck.




In the foreground is the experimental J5N Tenrai naval interceptor.




5. On the restored border of the USSR
Corporal Gureev I.A. on the border with East Prussia. 1944.

6. German submarine U-156 dies under attack by an American Catalina flying boat.
The boat completed 5 combat cruises, during which it sank 20 ships with a total cargo capacity of 97,504 GRT.


7. British light bomber Fairey Battle


8. German aircraft technicians examine holes in the side of the Bf-109 fighter
The pilot was very lucky: between the place where the aircraft number was written and the cockpit of the Messer there was the main fuel tank.


9. German heavy tanks are crossing a shallow river


10. A group of “fortresses” blindly bombs a German radar near Bremen


11. Reconnaissance aerial photograph showing a group of transport aircraft at a German airfield
The photo is notable for what kind of aircraft they are: a twin He-111Z (marked with the letter A), a Me-321 glider (letter B) and six heavy transport aircraft Me-323 “Giant”.


12. Waffen SS infantryman with a Panzerwaffen grenade launcher in his hands. A Soviet T-34 is burning in the background. 1944

13. Explosions of phosphorus Japanese anti-aircraft bombs over a formation of American B-24 bombers in the Iwo Jima area, 1944
The bombs turned out to be completely useless. Structurally, in addition to the phosphorus filling, they were equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation part. The effective radius of destruction with phosphorus was only about 20 meters, with a land mine - even less, and the fragments themselves were ineffective due to the small caliber of the bomb. But you still had to approach the group and accurately drop bombs on the planes, which in itself is very difficult. However, the Japanese, with their characteristic senseless persistence, continued to use these bombs from the moment they were put into service in 1942 until the very end of the war.




14. A battery of German 88-mm anti-aircraft guns fires at an illuminated target
I don't know how real the photo is. The target is very low, and the gun was somehow very successfully caught at the moment of the shot...


15. Life of the soldiers of the 2nd Guards Army in the location of their units. Operation to liberate Crimea, 1944


16. Killed German machine gun crew. The helmet didn't save...


17. Soviet soldiers kindly return the weapons they lost to the Wehrmacht


18. "Comet" in the parking lot


19. Warrior


20. Dead soldiers of the Red Army.

21. Post-war photo. Artist on the ruins of Stalingrad. 1945

22.


23. Corporal Bodger reads a poster warning of the possibility of coming under enemy fire. April 1945
The photograph is notable for the fact that it was taken against the backdrop of the famous Panther, which was shot down on Komödienstraße in Cologne. And this car became famous thanks to the battle with American tanks, which was captured on film by Sergeant Bates.


24. Soviet sappers are establishing a crossing across the Oder River. 1945


25. American B-24 Liberator from the 15th Air Force bombs a synthetic fuel plant in Bratislava. January 1945


26. Soviet troops cross Sivash. Liberation of Crimea, 1944.


27. Tanks of the 6th Guards Motorized Corps at the railway junction. Dresden, 1945


28. American paratroopers with a group of prisoners of war. 1944
The camouflage uniform attracts attention. Due to the similarity with the equipment of SS units, after some time the Americans were forced to abandon it.


29. Soviet tanks with troops on board in attack


30. Bf-110C from the 6th group of the 76th heavy fighter squadron over the English Channel during the Battle of Britain. 1940


31. Still respect
The inscription on the cross is in German: “Here lies an unknown Russian soldier.” Summer of 1941.

32. 7th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht fights Russian roads


33. Soldiers of the 82nd US Airborne Division train on cats. The damaged Royal Tiger No. 213 is under distribution


34. Part of the cockpit with windshield and hood of the Il-2 attack aircraft, demonstrating the “boot targeting” system


35. T-34, crushing a German light tank Pz.II


36. Janusz Korczak with children before execution in the gas chamber
Janusz Korczak is an outstanding Polish teacher, writer, doctor and public figure. On August 6, 1942, he entered the gas chamber at Treblinka, telling fairy tales to unsuspecting children.


37. Canadian Air Force Supermarine Strander flying boat with survivors on the left wing.
During a rescue operation while landing in the open sea, the boat lost its right float. Trying to balance the plane, several people positioned themselves on the left plane.


38. Equipment of a German soldier from the Afrika Korps

39. M3A1 tanks from the 241st Tank Brigade on the attack. Don Front, September 1942
In a few hours the brigade will be completely destroyed.


40. Antonina Lebedeva (1916-1943), fighter pilot


41. A pilot of the 332nd Guards Transport and Combat Helicopter Regiment is photographed against the background of the remains of a German Ju-87 bomber. Murmansk region, 80s
Not a military photo, I know, but still...


42. The crew of the IS-2 tank from the 62GvTTP fires from safe distance according to revealed calculations with faust cartridges. Danzig, 1945


43. Ceremony for accepting the surrender of the Empire of Japan on board the battleship Missouri. September 2, 1945


44. The first and only successful landing of an amphibious seaplane on the deck of an aircraft carrier. 1940
In the photo, the Swordfish floatplane from the English battleship Valiant, which did not have time to return to the ship (Valiant went after the French Strasbourg when the British attacked the French fleet in Mers-el-Kebir so that it would not fall to the Germans), is not having the opportunity to be picked up from the water, makes an emergency landing on the deck of the Ark Royal. Pilot John Edward Breeze.


45. British experimental analogue of the German Schrage Muzik multiple launch rocket system, installed on the fuselage of the Mosquito heavy fighter


46. ​​German paratroopers parachute from a DFS-230 glider


47. American A-20 light bomber parked at a field airfield
Judging by the nose section, which has been converted to accommodate 12.8 mm machine guns, this is an assault version of the vehicle.


48. "A little

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 Malmedy to the American command.

Shark attack on the Indianapolis crew

On July 28, 1945, the American warship Indianapolis left the port towards Japan, carrying 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 suffered 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. Typically, young, often poorly trained, suicide pilots flew their aircraft against Allied bases and ships in the Pacific. 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 gun shots 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.

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A series of documentary photographs for Victory Day in the Second World War 1941-1945. Rare photo And unique shots WWII times. Black and white photos military equipment and combatants. Photos from the scenes of events, in memory of the defenders of the Motherland - your feat is not forgotten. We look at online documentary photos of the Second World War 1941-1945.

The commander of the 3rd battalion of the motorized regiment "Der Fuhrer" of the SS division "Das Reich", SS Hauptsturmführer Vinzenz Kaiser (right) with officers on the Kursk Bulge.

The commander of the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division, Standartenführer Johannes-Rudolf Mühlenkamp with a fox terrier in the Kovel area.

Commander of the Red Banner Partisan Detachment named after Chkalov S.D. Penkin.

The commander of the K-3 submarine, Lieutenant Commander K.I. Malafeev at the periscope.

The commander of the rifle battalion Romanenko talks about the military affairs of the young intelligence officer - Vitya Zhaivoronka.

The commander of the Pz.kpfw VI "Tiger" tank No. 323 of the 3rd company of the 503rd heavy tank battalion, non-commissioned officer Futermeister, shows the mark of a Soviet shell on the armor of his tank.

Tank commander, Lieutenant B.V. Smelov shows the hole in the turret of the German Tiger tank, knocked out by Smelov’s crew, to Lieutenant Likhnyakevich (who knocked out 2 fascist tanks in the last battle).

The commander of the Finnish 34th squadron (Lentolaivue-34), Major Eino Luukkanen, at the Utti airfield near the Messerschmitt Bf.109G-2 fighter.

Squadron commander from the 728th IAP I.A. Ivanenkov (right) listens to the report of the I-16 fighter pilot Denisov on the completion of a combat mission. Kalinin Front, January 1943.

The commander of a squadron of Soviet American-made A-20 Boston bombers, Major Orlov, puts combat mission flight crew. North Caucasus.

Commanders of the 29th Tank Brigade of the Red Army near an armored car BA-20 in Brest-Litovsk.

The command post of the 178th artillery regiment (45th rifle division) of Major Rostovtsev in the basement of the calibration shop of the Red October plant.

Komsomol card of the deceased Red Army soldier Kazakh Nurmakhanov No. 20405684 with the entry on the pages “I will die but not a step back.” 3rd Belorussian Front.

Krasnaya Zvezda correspondents Zakhar Khatsrevin and Boris Lapin question the German defector. Both correspondents died while trying to break out of the Kyiv pocket on September 19, 1941.

Red Army signalman Mikhail Usachev leaves his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag.

Red Army soldiers capture a German Pz.Kpfw tank that was knocked out on the battlefield near Mozdok. IV Ausf F-2. The tank does not have a front-mounted machine gun.

Red Army soldiers in position with a captured German MG-34 machine gun. On the right is machine gunner V. Kuzbaev.

Red Army soldiers inspect the German trench they captured on the Panther line. The corpses of German soldiers are visible at the bottom and parapet of the trench.

Red Army soldiers surrender to the soldiers of the 9th motorized infantry company of the 2nd SS Reich Division on a village street.

Red Army soldiers at the grave of a friend. 1941

Levi Chase is one of three pilots who achieved aerial victories over aircraft of three Axis powers - Germany, Japan and Italy. In total, Chase shot down 12 enemy aircraft during the war.

The light cruiser Santa Fe approaches the damaged aircraft carrier Franklin.

German soldiers inspecting a damaged Soviet T-34 tank.

German soldiers inspect a Soviet Ar-2 dive bomber shot down near Demyansk. A very rare car (only about 200 were produced).

German soldiers near the remains of a Soviet KV-2 tank destroyed as a result of the detonation of ammunition.

German tanks Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 505th heavy tank battalion near the city of Velikiye Luki.

German Admiral Karl Dönitz (center). Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces from April 30 to May 23, 1945.

German ace Heinz (Oskar-Heinrich) "Pritzl" Bär inspects the American B-17 bomber he shot down.

A German paratrooper looks at a pile of captured weapons captured in the city of Corinth (Greece). In the foreground and to the right of the paratrooper are captured Greek officers.

A German paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) poses with a captured English Bren machine gun.

German fighter Messerschmitt Bf.109G-10 from 6.JG51 at the Raab airfield in Hungary. This plane was flown by Lieutenant Kühlein.

The German battleship Tirpitz is under attack from British aircraft. Operation Tungsten April 3, 1943. A direct hit to the tower is clearly visible.

A German Oberfeldwebel prepares a site for demolition railway in the Grodno region. At the moment of the photograph, the Oberfeldwebel inserts the fuse into a stick of dynamite. July 16 - 17, 1944

German field uniform repair point. From the album of a private (from 1942 a corporal) of the 229th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Light Infantry Division.

German crew inside an assault gun.

German prisoners of war are led through the Majdanek concentration camp. In front of the prisoners on the ground lie the remains of death camp prisoners, and the crematorium ovens are also visible. Outskirts of the Polish city of Lublin.

German General Anton Dostler, sentenced to death on charges of executing 15 surrendered American saboteurs, is tied to a stake before being shot.

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Incredible facts

1. This demonstration was organized in connection with the Thanksgiving Day celebration (Reichserntedankfest), which took place in the city of Buckeberg in 1934.

The number of participants was estimated at 700,000 people.

According to the stories of Germans who did not support the Nazis, even they were shocked by the scale of the event.

Until this moment, no one had seen anything like it.

Witnesses and participants of this event spoke of a feeling of national unity, emotional uplift, incredible delight and a mood for change for the better.

When the Germans headed to their tents after the demonstration, they still observed huge lightning in the sky.

2. Nazi stormtroopers in Berlin sing near the entrance to the Woolworth Co. branch. March 1, 1933. On this day, an action was organized to promote the boycott of the presence of Jews in Germany.

As soon as the Nazis came to power, they began calling on all German citizens to boycott Jewish organizations and businesses. A long propaganda campaign began.

On April 1, Minister Joseph Goebbels gave a speech in which he explained the need for a boycott in retaliation for the "conspiracy against Germany by the Jews of the world" in the foreign media.

The store pictured here was owned by Woolworth, whose management later fired all of its Jewish employees.

In this regard, the company received a special distinctive sign “Adefa Zeichen”, which meant belonging to a “purely Aryan business”.

3. SS soldiers rest near the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in August 1936. These SS men served in a guard battalion designed to provide personal protection for Hitler and his escort during public events.

Some time later, the battalion was named the elite first division "Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler" (Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler"). The unit was very large and accompanied Hitler wherever he went.

IN war time The division took part in the fighting, proving itself to be one of the best units during the entire war.

4. Parade of fascists in 1937 in the “Temple of Light”. This structure consisted of 130 powerful spotlights, standing 12 meters apart from each other and looking vertically upward.

This was done in order to create light columns. The effect was incredible, both inside and outside the columns. The author of this creation was the architect Albert Speer, it was his favorite masterpiece.

Experts still believe that this work is the best that Speer created, whom Hitler ordered to decorate the square in Nuremberg for parades.

5. Photo taken in 1938 in Berlin. On it, soldiers of the Fuhrer's personal guard pass drill training. This unit was located in the Lichterfelde barracks.

The soldiers are armed with Mauser Kar98k carbines, and lightning bolt emblems on their collars are the hallmark of the SS unit.

6. "Hall of Bavarian commanders" in Munich, 1982. The annual oath taken by the SS troops. The text of the oath was as follows: “I swear an oath to you, Adolf Hitler, to always be a brave and faithful warrior. I swear an oath to you and the commanders who will be appointed for me to be loyal until death. May God help me.”

7. The SS slogan read: “Our honor is our loyalty.”

8. Greetings from the Fuhrer after the announcement of the successful annexation of Austria. The action takes place in 1938 in the Reichstag. The most important tenet of the Nazi ideology was the unification of all Germans who were born or live outside the borders of Germany to create an “all-German Reich.”

From the moment Hitler came to power, the Fuhrer announced that he would achieve the unification of Germany with Austria by any means.

9. Another photo from a similar event.

10. The frozen body of a Soviet soldier, which was put on display by the Finns in 1939 in order to intimidate the Soviet troops going on the attack. The Finns often used this method of psychological influence.

11. Soviet infantrymen frozen in " fox hole"in Finland in 1940. Troops were forced to transfer to the Finnish front from remote regions. Many soldiers were not at all prepared for the extremely harsh winter, having arrived in Finland from the southern regions.

Moreover, Finnish saboteurs regularly monitored the destruction of rear services. Soviet troops experienced enormous difficulties due to lack of food, winter uniforms and proper training.

Therefore, the soldiers covered their trenches with branches and sprinkled them with snow on top. Such a shelter was called a “fox hole”.

World War II: photos

12. Photo of Joseph Stalin from the police archive, taken during his arrest by the secret police in 1911. This was his second arrest.

The Okhrana first became interested in him in 1908 because of his revolutionary activities. Then Stalin spent seven months in prison, and after that he was sent to the city of Solvychegodsk for two years, into exile.

However, the leader did not spend the entire term there, as after some time he escaped, disguised as a woman and went to St. Petersburg.

13. This unofficial photo was taken by Vlasik, Stalin's personal bodyguard. In 1960, when this and some other works of Vlasik were first published, they all became a sensation. Then one Soviet journalist took them out of the Land of the Soviets and sold them to foreign media.

14. Photo taken in 1940. It shows Stalin (right) and his double Felix Dadaev. For a very long time, there were unconfirmed rumors in the USSR that the leader had a double who replaced him under certain circumstances.

After several decades, Felix finally decided to lower the veil of secrecy. Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler, was invited to the Kremlin, where he was offered the job of Stalin's understudy.

For more than 50 years, Felix remained silent because he feared death for violating the treaty. But when he turned 88 years old, in 2008, naturally with the permission of the authorities, Dadaev published a book in which he described in great detail how he had the opportunity to “play” the leader at various demonstrations, military parades and filming.

15. Even Stalin’s closest associates and comrades could not distinguish them.

16. Felix Dadaev in the dress uniform of a lieutenant general.

17. Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin’s eldest son, was captured by the Germans back in 1941. According to some historians, Jacob himself surrendered. There are still many conflicting rumors and legends about the life of the leader’s son.

18. After receiving a package from Germany, Stalin learns about his son’s capture. Then Vasily, the leader’s youngest son, heard from his father: “What a fool, he couldn’t even shoot himself!” They also said that Stalin reproached Yakov for surrendering to the enemy like a coward.

Photos of the Second World War

19. Yakov wrote to his father: “Dear father! I am in captivity. I feel good. Very soon I will end up in a camp in Germany for prisoners of war officers. They treat me well. Be healthy. Thank you for everything. Yasha.”

Some time later, the Germans received an offer to exchange Jacob for Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, who was captured at Stalingrad.

It was rumored that Stalin refused such an offer, saying that he would not exchange an entire field marshal for an ordinary soldier.

20. Not long ago, some documents were declassified, according to which Yakov was shot by camp guards after he refused to obey the established procedures.

During the walk, Yakov received an order from the guards to return to the barracks, but he refused, and the guard killed him with a shot in the head. When Stalin found out about this, he noticeably softened towards his son, considering such a death worthy.

21. A German soldier shares food with a Russian woman and child, 1941. His gesture is in vain, because his role is to condemn millions of such mothers to starvation. The photo was taken by photographer of the 29th Wehrmacht division Georg Gundlach.

This photograph, along with others, was included in the album collection “The Battle of Volkhov. Documentary horror of 1941-1942.”

22. The captured Russian spy laughs, looking into the eyes of his death. The photo was taken in November 1942 in Eastern Karelia. Before us are the last seconds of a person's life. He knows that he is about to die and laughs.

23. 1942. Neighborhoods of Ivanograd. German punitive units execute Kyiv Jews. In this photo, a German soldier shoots a woman with a child.

The rifles of other punishers are visible on the left side of the photo. This photograph was sent from the Eastern Front by mail to Germany, but was intercepted in Poland by a member of the Warsaw resistance, which was collecting evidence of Nazi war crimes around the world.

Today this photo is kept in Warsaw, in the Historical Archives.

24. Rock of Gibraltar, 1942. Beams of searchlights that helped anti-aircraft gunners shoot at fascist bombers.

25. 1942, suburb of Stalingrad. Marching 6th Army. The soldiers do not even imagine that they are heading to a real hell. Most likely, they will not see next spring.

One of the soldiers is wearing his own sunglasses. This is an expensive item that was issued exclusively to motorcyclists and soldiers of the Afrika Korps.

26. Going to hell.

Photos from the Second World War

27. Stalingrad, 1942. Preparations for the assault on the warehouse. German soldiers were forced to fight to recapture every building and every street. It was then that they discovered that the tactical advantage they had at their disposal open spaces, has sunk into oblivion due to the overcrowding of the city.

Tanks could not prove themselves in street battles. Oddly enough, in such conditions snipers played a much more important role compared to tanks and artillery.

Severe weather conditions, lack of adequate supplies and uniforms, as well as the stubborn resistance of our soldiers led to the complete defeat of the Nazi army at Stalingrad.

28. 1942, Stalingrad. German soldier with Silver Infantry Assault Badge. This insignia was awarded to soldiers of infantry units who took part in at least three assault operations.

For soldiers, such an award was no less honorable than the Iron Cross, which was established specifically for the Eastern Front.

29. A German soldier lights a cigarette from a flamethrower.

30. 1943. Warsaw. The bodies of murdered Jews and Ukrainian policemen. The photo was taken in the Warsaw ghetto during the suppression of the uprising. The original German caption for the photo reads: “Police also took part in the operation.”

31. 1943. Ending battle of Stalingrad. A Soviet soldier with a PPSh-41 assault rifle escorts a captured German. Hitler's troops at Stalingrad, having been surrounded, were completely defeated.

This battle is considered one of the most brutal and bloody in the history of all wars. It claimed the lives of more than two million people.

32. Summer 1944. Belarusian strategic offensive operation "Bagration". As a result of this operation, the German Army Group Center was completely defeated.

The front line of 1,100 kilometers was moved 600 kilometers to the west during two months of fighting. German troops in this battle lost five times more people than Soviet troops.

Photo of World War 2

33. July 17, 1944. Streets of Moscow. March of tens of thousands of captured Germans. Operation Bagration is considered the most successful during the entire period of the war.

The offensive on the Eastern Front began immediately after the landing of allied troops in Normandy. Few people know about this operation, especially in the West. Only a few historians are familiar with its details.

34. 1944. Nonant le Pin camp, German prisoners of war. In France, during the Falaise operation of the allied forces, more than thirty thousand German soldiers were captured.

The camp guards regularly drove along the barbed wire and shot in the air to pretend to stop another escape attempt. But there were no attempts to escape, because even if they managed to escape from the guards, they would still not be able to avoid execution.

35. 1944. France. 18-year-old resistance movement member Simone Segouin. Her nickname is Nicole Mine.

The photo was taken during the battle with German troops. Appearance The girl in the center is certainly surprising, but this particular photograph has become a symbol of the participation of French women in the Resistance.

36. Simone in a color photograph, rare at that time.

37. Simone with her favorite weapon - a German machine gun.

38. March 9, 1945. The young Hitler Jugend fighter received the Iron Cross award for his services during the defense of the city of Lauban in Silesia, Goebbels congratulates him.

Today Laubana is the Polish city of Luban.

39. 1945. Balcony of the Reich Chancellery. Soldiers of the Allied armies ridicule Hitler. Soldiers of the American, Soviet and British armies celebrate their joint victory.

The photo was taken on July 6, 1945, two months after the surrender. There was a month left before the bombing of Hiroshima.

40. Hitler speaking on the same balcony.

41. April 17, 1945. Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, liberation. British soldiers forced the SS guards to dig up the graves of the prisoners and load them into cars.

42. 1942. German soldiers watch a film about concentration camps. The photo shows the reaction of prisoners of war to documentary materials from the death camps. This photo is in the United States Holocaust Museum.

43. Last rows cinema hall, the same scene.