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.
Battered Bamberg Cleared of Enemy, Bamberg, Germany
Date:
1945/04/14
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Civilians move about on a street in a shell-torn Bamberg, Germany, after occupation of the city by troops of the Seventh U.S. Army April 14, 1945. Enemy forces withdrew from the medieval city, 30 miles northwest of Nurenberg, after a short fight. The retreating Nazis blew up the bridge across the Main and Renitz Rivers, leaving Bamberg an island."
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."
Abandoned Nazi Vehicles Fill Paris Courtyards, Paris, France
Date:
ca. 1944
Description:
Information back of photo reads: "Looking down on some of the wrecked and abandoned Nazi equipment left in the courtyard of the City Hall in the 10th District of Paris after the French capital's liberation August 25, 1944. The Nazis used the building as a telephone center and fortress. Their resistance was strong here and many members of the Maquis were massacred and buried in the courtyard."
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."
Information on back of photo reads: "In Stalag 326 - 6K were nine thousand prisoners - all Russians. The U.S. 9th Army liberated them when they broke through to Eseslheide, s.east of Munster and n.east of Hamm. When the Russians realized that they were free they went wild. The Russians told us that 30,000 of their comrades died at the camp through privations, and 70 died of starvation each day." Picture shows: "American soldiers "chained" at Stalag 326 - 6K by Russians who were overjoyed when they found that they were free."
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."
German Refugees Move Through Ruins of Regensburg, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "German refugees with a cart move through the ruins of bombed Regensburg, captured by the 65th Division of the Third U.S. Army April 23, 1945. General George Patton's Third Army struck into the Southern German segment from the northwest to capture the Danube River town, which is about 70 miles from Munich."
Humiliated German Women Pass Through Canadian Lines to Evacuation Center
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Shame, guilt, and humiliation cloud the faces of these German women as they pass through the Canadian lines to an evacuation centre. They put guns before butter in the years between the wars; they lived on the loot of conquered Europe, and clothed themselves in furs from Russia and fine clothes from Paris. Now it is their turn to be homeless, and the watching troops, who saw grim evidence of German ruthlessness in the countries they liberated, show no sympathy."
U.S. Soldier Introduced Russian Lad to Chewing Gum
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of the photo reads: "Puzzled but curious, a little Russian boy accepts a stick of chewing gum from his new friend, a U.S. Air Forces solider at the Russian terminus of Italy-Russia shuttle missions flown by heavy bombers of the U.S. Fifteenth Army Air Force. Since June, 1944, Allied bombers from England and Italy, escorted by fighters, have flown to bases in Russia, and return, attacking enemy targets in occupied Europe en route."
Information on back of photo reads: "If German divisions no longer retreat according to plan, part of their difficulties can be traced to the destruction of Deutsche Dunlop A.G. tire and rubber factory at Hanau, Germany, east of Frankfurt - a priority - one target for R.A.F. and the U.S. Eighth Air Force. When American Air Force observers surveyed the second most important rubber plant on the Continent, they found ruin and destruction widespread. Despite this the enemy's need for rubber products is so great, there was evidence of clearance and repair work to restore partial production, said surveyors. Elsewhere in Hanau the locomotive roundhouse had been destroyed by Allied air attacks. The town's gas works was a shambles. in the marshalling yard sidings and through lines were pocketed with bomb craters, some filled - in attempts to keep the rails open. In one typical Hanau attack last December, the Eighth sent 303 heavy bombers to drop in one-ton (U.S.) bombs, 1,112 one-thousand pounders, 176 five-hundreds, and 3,420 hundred-pound bombs."
Information on back of photo reads: "American Sergeant Vivian L. Rees of Wingfield, Iowa, lights the cigar of Soviet Lieutenant Sergi Biernikov during the visit Red Army Day February 25, 1945, to liberated Soviet prisoners of war by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel who had served in the U.S.S.R. The American airmen collected tobacco and candy at their base in England as a gift to the Russians, also stationed in the British Isles."
Third U.S. Army Troops Go Aboard LCVP, Nierstein, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "3rd U.S. Army Troops go aboard LCVP prior to first crossing of the Rhine River by soldiers of the 3rd Army at Nierstein, Germany. Soldiers are members of the 5th Infantry Division."
Information on back of photo reads: "If German divisions no longer retreat according to plan, part of their difficulties can be traced to the destruction of Deutsche Dunlop A.G. tire and rubber factory at Hanau, Germany, east of Frankfurt - a priority - one target for R.A.F. and the U.S. Eighth Air Force. When American Air Force observers surveyed the second most important rubber plant on the Continent, they found ruin and destruction widespread. Despite this the enemy's need for rubber products is so great, there was evidence of clearance and repair work to restore partial production, said surveyors. Elsewhere in Hanau the locomotive roundhouse had been destroyed by Allied air attacks. The town's gas works was a shambles. in the marshalling yard sidings and through lines were pocketed with bomb craters, some filled - in attempts to keep the rails open. In one typical Hanau attack last December, the Eighth sent 303 heavy bombers to drop in one-ton (U.S.) bombs, 1,112 one-thousand pounders, 176 five-hundreds, and 3,420 hundred-pound bombs."
Information on back of photo reads: "Tarnopal, bastion of Hitler's eastern front, turns a scarred face to the camera after its fall with its 12,000 man garrison to Soviet troops. Fighting in and around Tarnopol was prolonged and bitter, and German losses in men and material were heavy."
Civilians Gather Firewood in Munchen-Gladbach, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Civilians who have returned to captured, war-torn Munchen-Gladbach fill carts with sticks for firewood outside a bomb-shattered broom factory. Munchen-Gladbach, first big industrial city in the Ruhr area to fall to advancing American forces, was taken March 1, 1945, by troops of the Ninth U.S. Army after heavy air and artillery bombardment. It is 10 miles from the Dutch border."
Parisians Line Champs Elysees to Cheer American Army, Paris, France
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information on back of photo reads: "Parisians line the Champs Elysees to cheer the massed infantry units of the American Army as they march in review towards the Arc De Triomphe, celebrating the liberation of the capital of France from Nazi occupation."
