General Eisenhower and Allied Officer Shaking Hands
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in the European Theater during World War II, is greeted by an unidentified officer. Eisenhower toured several Nazi Concentration Camps immediately after they were liberated in order to personally testify to the heinous Nazi war crimes.
German Rail Center Blasted By Allied Air Attacks, Heilbronh, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information with the photograph, "A lone soldier of the 100th Infantry Division, Seventh U.S. Army, walks through the ruins of Heilbronn, Germany, cleared of the enemy April 12, 1945. Forty miles southeast of Mannheim and the Rhino, Heilbronn, an important road and rail center was blasted by Allied Planes. U.S. Signal Corps Photo."
Information included with the photograph,"Debris spilled from bombed buildings of Mainz fills a street of the ancient Rhine River city captured by troops of the 80th Division, Third u.S. Army, March 23, 1945. Mainz, birthplace of Johannes Gutemberg, credited with the development of printing in the 15th Century, was a strategic Nazi manufacturing center of machinery and chemicals."
U.S. Army troops pushed through German resistance in the Spring of 1945. Many towns such as this were bombed from the air and assualted by ground forces.
Dead Horses and Wrecked Vehicles of German Convoy, Lus, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "Dead horses and wrecked vehicles of German convoy are strewn along road in vicinity of Lus, Germany. Following attack on convoy by American Dive Bombers. Germans were trying to escape from encirclement by troops of the 3rd and 7th U.S. Armies." (U.S. Signal Corps).
U.S. Bombs and Shells Leave German Town in Ruins, Duren, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Part of the information included on back: "German town near Duren on the Roer River, important junction point of the road leading to Cologne and the Rhine lies shell-wrecked and bombed to ruins February 21, 1945 as U.S. troops advanced deeper into Germany."(U.S. Signal Corps).
Part of information included on back: "A knocked-out American tank stands behind a small, leveled building in captured Heilbronn. German industrial city which was virtually demolished prior to its occupation . . ." (U.S. Signal Corps).
German Girls in Captured Town, Rittersdorf, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "Two young women of captured Rittersdorf, Germany, step over an abandoned Nazi rifle as they carry water in the Reich town, seized by troops of the Third U.S. Army February 26, 1945. The town was cleared by American soldiers driving to Bitburg, last important German road center west of the Rhine in the Third Army battle sector."
Blasted Gun in Snow Swept Belgium; Manhay, Belgium
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information included on back: "A wrecked 105mm gun stands by the side of a road near Manhay, Belgium, where troops of the 83rd U.S. Infantry Division are advancing against the northern flank of the Nazi wedge. Manhay was wrested from enemy control December 28, 1944, by Allied forces driving toward the German St. Vith-Laroche supply road which was severed in several places by January 8, 1945, when 15 miles of the vital highway was under U.S. and British control. The Germans were thus left with only one major supply highway into their salient." (U.S. Signal Corps).
SAAR Town Destoryed By U.S. Advance, Zweibrucken, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of picture is torn, but partial info reads: "This is a scene in Zweibrucken, hammered by Allied air and U.S. artillery attacks before Seventh U.S. Army troops captured the town March 20, 1945."
Soldiers Taking Cover During Battle of Hurtgen Forest Near Belgian-German Border
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
A series of intense battles were fought here between the U.S. and German force from 1944/09/19 to 1945/02/10, over barely 50 sq mi. east of the Belgian–German border.
Belgian Civilian Moves Through Rubble, Laroche, Belgium
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of picture reads: "A civilian picks his way through the rubble littering the streets of Laroche, Belgium, formerly an important enemy communications center on the northern flank of the Ardonnes Salient. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force announced January 12, 1945, that Allied troops had taken the Belgian town. Only a little over a month after the launching of the unsuccessful Nazi counter-thrust December 16, 1944, front lone correspondents made it clear by midnight January 22, 1945, that the Battle of the Ardonnes was practically over."
Caption on back of photo reads: "German civilians from the small farming community of Tenholz are received by an American soldier in a shattered house serving as a reception center in Lovenich. The 102nd Infantry Division of the Ninth U.S. Army captured Lovenich February 25, 1945."
Caption on back reads "Civilians of Plauen, Germany, make their way through rubble filled streets in search of what articles they can salvage from their wrecked homes and shops. The city was captured by the 3rd U.S. Army following a devastating attack by Allied bombers."
Caption on back of photo reads: "German woman (left) stands before the wreckage of her home and explains to a neighbor how a heavy Nazi shell leveled the building. Several civilians were injured by the enemy action against the town after its capture by American troops."
Germans Blow Up Autobahn Bridge, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "This bridge, part of the German autobahn highway near Kaiserslautern, was blown up by fleeing Nazi troops during the advance of American forces inside the Saar bulge. Kaiserslautern, road junction town in the area, was entered by the Third U.S. Army troops March 20, 1945. The autobahn is the many-laned concrete highway designed to link up most of Germany in a network. The system had not been entirely completed by the Nazis at the outbreak of the war."
German Tire Plant Reduced to Rubble, Hanau, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Rubble and bombed out buildings are all that remain of the plant of the Dunlop Company at Hanau, which was Germany's second largest tire plant. This factory specialized in aircraft tired before it was mombed out of existence by Allied air attacks. Twenty-eight miles east of the Rhine and eight miles east of Frankfurt, Hanau was cleared by troops of the Third U.S. Army March 27,1945."
Information on back of photo reads: "Clutching a few personal belongings, German civilians pass through the blazing streets of Aachen en route to the safety of First U.S. Army lines. Most of the 3,000 civilians who managed to leave the Reich border city by October 14, 1944, were old men, weeping women, and children. American bombs and shells began turning Aachen into a blazing inferno when the surrounded Nazi garrison refused to surrender under penalty of destruction of the city."
Allied Air Attacks Knock Out Nazi War Plant, Fallersleben, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on the back of photo reads: "This is all that remained of the famous Nazi Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, Germany, when U.S. Army ground forces captured the town following four daylight attacks on the plant by bombers of the Eighth U.S. Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. Prior to the attacks, 18,000 employees worked here but this figure fell to 7,000 after the first Allied visits. Later, work in the factory came to a complete halt. Only 40 workers were killed during the bombings because of air raid shelters. The plant was originally built by the Deutsche Arbeiter Front (German Labor Part) in 1938-39 to produce the "people's car", or Volkswagen, for sale to the German people at about 900 marks ($360). After it was completed, the German High Command converted it to jeep and mine production. Before the Allied air attacks, the plant was capable of monthly production of 1,800 kubelwagen (jeeps), 1,000 amphibious jeeps, 1,200 V-1 bombs, 100,00 Teller mines and the repair of 30 Ju-88 aircraft wings."
German Citizens Walk Through Rubble, Weifall, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "German civilians look over the ruins of their home which was shelled by American troops in the attack on Weifall, Germany."
American Infantrymen in Battle Scarred Rohrwiller, France
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Caption on back of photo reads: "American infantrymen of 36th Division run through rubble littered street of battle-scarred Rohrwiller, France. Town is under enemy attack."
Captain Philip Staples Receives Egg Omelette From French Civilians
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Capt. Philip Staples; Ardmore, Pennsylvania enjoys a fresh made egg omelette that was presented to him by grateful French civilians who had just been liberated from German hands, near Champagne."
Information on the back of photo reads: "Infantrymen of the Fourth Armored Division, Third U.S. Army, advance through rubble in a battered street in Worms, Germany, as they clear out Nazi snipers in the captured city March 20, 1945. Worms is on the west bank of the Rhine River nine miles north of Ludwigshafen."
German Civilians Greet U.S. Troops With Flags, Weilheim, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
information on back of photo reads: "Smiling civilians of the Bavarian town of Weilheim, Germany, greet troops of the 12th Armored Division, Seventh U.S. Army, with American, British, and Bavarian flags April 28, 1945."
United States Army Infantryman Raymond M. Young of Oak Hill, W. Va.
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Young was also a combat photographer and attached tothe 361st Engineers Special unit and at times attached to Third Army commanded by George Patton during the push into Germany. Note the friendly dog sitting next to Young is a German Shephard.
Information on back of photo reads: "Debris litters the interior of a ruined church in Germany, one of the many buildings destroyed during the bitter fighting which marked the Allied thrust into the Reich."
The photograph was most likely taken in Holland, which had been under Nazi control for several years until portions of the country was liberated by the Allies in the Fall of 1944 during Operation Market Garden.
A large port and industrial center that includied u-boat pens and oil refineries was bombed throughout the war. An air attack in July 1942 created one of the largest firestorms of WW II, killing 42,600 civilians, wounding 37,000 and practically destroying the city.
Information on back of photo reads: "German civilians sit with their children outside of a house in a Reich town captured by troops of the Ninth U.S. Army advancing to the Rhine River. The civilians have been lined up for questioning by an American officer. Units of the Ninth Army reached the Rhine March 2, 1945, when they captured Neuss opposite the industrial center of Dusseldorf."
Information on back of photo reads: "Private Thomas H. Olsen of Chicago, Illinois, checks over the baggage brought by one of the German Army women to the prisoner-of-war enclosure of the 83rd Infantry Division, Ninth U.S. Army. The women surrendered after receiving leaflets. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force reported May 1, 1945, that nearly three million German prisoners had been taken by the Allies in the West since "D-Day" (June 6, 1945)."
Allied Officers Attend Show Given By Freed Russians, Lippstadt, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Colonel H.A. Forlong (left) of Pontiac, Michigan, Surgeon of the 18th Corps, Ninth U.S. Army, sits beside a Russian Army officer at a stage show given in Lippstadt, Germany, May 20, 1945, by liberated Russian soldiers and former slave workers. Lippstadt is 70 miles northwest of the Rhine River city of Duisburg.
Russian Prisoners of War Liberated By Advancing U.S. Troops
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Liberated Russians cluster around a Ninth U.S. Army soldier, carried high on their shoulders, for cigarettes, which they had not seen in many months. When the American finally convinced the Russians that he had no more, they "chaired" him and carried him around the yard before their former prison, the Nazi Stalag 326, south of Bielefeld. The first U.S. troops reached Stalag 326 April 2, 1945. Nine thousand Russian prisoners of war were liberated but thousands were at the point of starvation. Tubercular patients numbered 1,350. in vast mounds all around the camp, 30,000 Russians, most of them starved to death, were buried in heaps of 500. Major Gregory Matviev, who was captured in Sebastopol in 1942, reported that hundreds died daily of starvation and "about 50 were shot every other day for no reason at all.""
Information on back of photo reads: "Russians and Americans toasting each other after the link up at Torgau. Ann Stringer, U.P. Correspondent can be seen in the picture. Also man with beard on right, who is Correspondent Jack Thompson, of Chicago Tribune."
Information on back of photo reads: "Firm contact has been established between ground forces of the First American Army and those of the Russian Army. The historic meeting took place in the town of Torgau, on the Elbe River, 75 miles south of Berlin, when First Army troops met forward elements of the Russian Guards Division."
German Civilians March Through Newly Captured Zulpich, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "German civilians march through newly captured Zulpich, Germany, to receive instructions on their conduct from military government unit with 9th Infantry Division of 1st U.S. Army. Town was hard hit by U.S. bombers blasting path to Rhine."
German Civilians Evacuated From Battle Area, Schaffhausen, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "German civilians are rounded up for evacuation from Schaffhausen, occupied by Seventh U.S. Army troops March 14, 1945. The German town, six miles north of the frontier of Alsace, is under constant enemy shellfire."
