High quality color photographs. British side

[Gildwiller1918]

To the victor go the spoils: Sergeant Gerard Alderic Durocher - of Canadian Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal - displaying twenty-nine German medals which he acquired as souvenirs. The picture was taken by photographer Michael M. Dean at Schmargendorf , Berlin, Germany, on 19 July 1945. The "booty" aside, Sergeant Durocher wears two wound stripes and the ribbon for the Military Medal (MM) for Gallantry in the field. 

[Fritz]

He must have been well off after the war, could have started a militaria business. In the German army, "plundering" or taking prisoners property was strictly prohibited.

[Fritz]

Many new photos added, see under 25. February 2019

[Kenny Andrew]

On 25/12/2019 at 19:35, Gildwiller1918 said:

To the victor go the spoils: Sergeant Gerard Alderic Durocher - of Canadian Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal - displaying twenty-nine German medals which he acquired as souvenirs. The picture was taken by photographer Michael M. Dean at Schmargendorf , Berlin, Germany, on 19 July 1945. The "booty" aside, Sergeant Durocher wears two wound stripes and the ribbon for the Military Medal (MM) for Gallantry in the field. 

That's what I call good provenance 

[Fritz]

Balham, London, 15. October 1940

Removing casualties from the rubble, 1940

Clearing up, 1940

Aldwych Underground, 1940

London, 10. October 1940

The Barbican, London, 1940

St. Peter's Hospital, East London, 1940

London-Battersea, 16. December 1940

London, 1943, unexploded bomb

St. Paul's Cathedral seen from Cannon Street.

An Anderson Shelter, 1939-45

London, September 1939

Portland Street, Marylebone, London, 1940

Avranches, Normandy, August 1944

Children in slit trenches watch aerial combat

Gasmask fitting, 1940

Wartime fashion, 1943

 

 

[Fritz]

Black Watch, South Coast of England, 1940.

[Fritz]

 

Stretcher bearer of the Durham Light Infantry, 50th Div., attending wounded.

[Fritz]

Prisoners of War - dramatic impressions

Prisoners of war, an early photo

[Fritz]

When American troops entered the city of Cologne in Germany on March 6, 1945, one of the only buildings left standing was the Cologne Cathedral. As the US 3rd Armored Division’s Shermans and Pershings faced off with German Panthers from the Panzer-Brigade 106th Feldhernhalle, US cameramen from the 165th Photo Signal Company had cameras rolling. The Gothic masterpiece in the ancient Roman city of Cologne became the backdrop for one of the most famous tank battles between American and German forces. The western part of the city was in US hands by the afternoon as the Germans retreated to set up a stronghold on the eastern side of the Rhine River which they would continue to occupy for another month.
Picture and text source: National WW2 Museum

 

The Ludendorff Bridge on March 17, 1945, approximately four hours before its collapse. (US) National Archives and Records Administration

The German Field Marshal Kesselring conferred on March 10, 1945 with senior Luftwaffe commanders, urging them to knock out the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen and any auxiliary bridges the Americans might construct. From 8 through 16 March, 1945 the Luftwaffe tried. The German planes struck at the railroad bridge, at the ferries, and at the tactical bridges, but with no success. Even when the German pilots got through the fighter screen, they ran into a dense curtain of antiaircraft fire. American antiaircraft units estimated that during the nine days they destroyed 109 German planes and probably eliminated 36 others out of a total of 367 that attacked. From 12 through 17 March 1945 a rocket unit with weapons emplaced in the Netherlands fired eleven V-2's (Vergeltungswaffen, for vengeance) in the direction of the bridge, the first and only tactical use of either of the so-called German V-weapons during World War II. One rocket hit a house 300 yards east of the bridge, killing three American soldiers and wounding fifteen. That was the only damage. The night of 16 March, the Germans tried another method, seven underwater swimmers in special rubber suits and carrying packages of plastic explosive compound - but from the first the Americans had anticipated such a gambit. When the German swimmers first tried to reach the bridge, American artillery fire discouraged them from entering the water. On the next night, the 17th, they moved not against the railroad bridge but against tactical pontoon bridges, only to be spotted by the American searchlights. Blinded by the lights, the seven Germans, one by one, surrendered. On March 17, 1945 the Ludendorff Bridge finally collapsed while two hundred soldiers from the 276th Engineer Combat Battalion and 1058th Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group were still desperately working to maintain it. The bridge collapse ultimately killed twenty-eight soldiers and injured sixty-three others. By that time, however, the Allies had gained a true foothold deep in German territory.
Source: The last Offensive by Charles B. MacDonald

[Fritz]

Normandy D-Day landings. Objects stated as Hobart's Funnies, of which there were a lot of varieties. Function of these particular objects was not stated in photo description.

[Kenny Andrew]

Looks more like the battle of Hoth. Gildwiller will be able to fill you in on the WW2 connections, from memory , lots of MP44's and of course the battle is named after the famous Winter Storm General. 

  

[Fritz]

"Der eine sagt Hott, der andere sagt Hü" -

- Das Sprichwort bezieht sich auf die Sprache der Fuhrmänner: Diese setzten bestimmte Kommandos ein, um ihren Zugtieren anzusagen, in welche Richtung sie ziehen sollen und wann sie losgehen und anhalten sollen. Wenn der Fuhrmann "hü" ruft, sollen die Tiere nach links und bei "hott" nach rechts laufen.

With an actual application:

[phantom]

Fritz images in posts seven and eight above no longer work 

[Fritz]

Will check at next opportunity

[Fritz]

Could you show exactly where you mean? I tried counting posts till 7 and 8 from beginning of this article, but could not find anything missing. I notice on page 2 of article that some of the pictures have gone, just the captions remaining, perhaps I can re-find these, otherwise I'll delete the captions.

[phantom]

sorry seven or eight posts from end of article, also page 2 as you say. probably easier to delete and re-add at leisure

[Fritz]

Monuments men Babcock and Swenson with the Reichsinsignien, 1945

[Fritz]

[Fritz]

Bremen, 25. April 1945. Troops are said to be K.O.S.B.

Torgau/Elbe, 25. April 1945

Bremen, 26. April 1945

[Fritz]

Mailand/Milano, 27. April 1945 - the tragic end of a diva

Claretta Petacci, photo from 1940

Photo from 1944

and her Duce in better times

Mussolini, Clara Petacci and two others were shot here, on the outskirts of the city of Mailand, 28. April 1945

Attacked and mutilated by an angry mob

The end, 29. April 1944, a petrol station at Piazzale Loreto in Mailand

[Fritz]

Kronach, 27. April 1945

[Fritz]

Jagdpanther and Panther, end of production, May 1945

[Fritz]

The End , Wehe dem Besiegten - 8. May 1945 -

Demonstrators: "Befreiung and Nie wieder Deutschland!" is written on this banner.

Today white flags were raised in Kiel and other parts of Schleswig-Holstein to commemorate the end of the war.

Local populations, including women and children were forced to witness these scenes

Der Leipziger Stadtkämmerer und Nationalsozialist Kurt Lisso vergiftete sich im April 1945 gemeinsam mit seiner Frau und seiner Tochter mit Zyanid

Demmin, April 1945, hundreds chose suicide.

Leipzig, April 1945

Mass suicides throughout Germany, entire families took their own lives

However, the end was not entirely without resistance, Leipzig, 18. April 1945, a careless GI is shot by a sniper on the balcony of an occupied house. Photo by Robert Capa

The end came in Berlin on the 2. May

Karlshorst, 9. May 1945

Flensburg, 23. May 1945

Flensburg, Admiral von Friedeburg took his own life

Marineschule Flensburg, May 1945

Internment

Fraternisation

Fraternisation and the spoils of war

[Fritz]

Chingford Home Guard was formally known as the 51st Battalion of the Essex Regiment. Royal Forest Hotel. 1942
(Photo via Trevor Porter)

[Steve S.]

On 04/11/2018 at 05:26, Kenny Andrew said:

Found the caption for your third picture Brodie and updated it. Here's another couple of nice photos this time of our Canadian allies, could not find a date unfortunately.  

Basic training in Lansdowne Park, Ottawa

That would be a great photo in 3D. Unusual to see a Canadian soldier apparently dressed for the desert. Did any Canadian soldiers serve in the North Africa campaign? My Grandfather (British) fought there and in Greece, alongside Aussies (and presumably Kiwis). He advised my parents to emigrate to Australia just before they learned I was on my way - which kept that from happening.