![“Hun Humour” - German graffiti on the wall of a ruined building on the Western Front. To the left it reads, ’ ..ier gehts fur Kaiser und Reich’ which could be translated as ‘For king and country’. To the right, partly hidden by the wall, are the words, ‘Gott straf[e?] Engl.’, which could mean, ’ May God punish England’. An iron cross shape is also visible in the upper left corner.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4l2187s1T1r6y3vao1_500.jpg)
“Hun Humour” - German graffiti on the wall of a ruined building on the Western Front. To the left it reads, ’ ..ier gehts fur Kaiser und Reich’ which could be translated as ‘For king and country’. To the right, partly hidden by the wall, are the words, ‘Gott straf[e?] Engl.’, which could mean, ’ May God punish England’. An iron cross shape is also visible in the upper left corner.
Russian WWII propaganda poster. “A sniper’s shot comes from afar, but it is always true.”
The majority of historians consider the bitter Russian winters to have been one of the biggest factors in Hitler’s failure in the Battle of Stalingrad. However, recent studies have revealed two other significant reasons for that unlikely victory on the part of the Russians. Winter certainly had a lot to do with it - the Russian army was far better dressed than the metal-helmet-wearing Germans, among other things.
Another reason was the physics of German shelling. The damages to the buildings in the first round of the blitz were severe, but the carcasses of structures that were left standing were not as susceptible the second time around, which created the perfect environment of barricades, tunnels, alleys and hiding places for urban guerrilla warfare.
And the third reason? Snipers. In the majority of Western countries, including Germany, snipers were regarded as the lowest rung of the armed forces. The very nature of their job, no matter how necessary, was considered dishonorable, and thus not a lot of men signed up for sniping training. Whereas in Russia, sniping was a survival technique. In Siberia, it was the most efficient way to hunt, and snipers were trained indiscriminately of gender and lauded as highly prized and skilled forces in the army. Thus, the German army was no match for the Russian BAMFs with rifles who came out of nowhere and vanished with no trace, terrorizing in what the Nazis thought was an already defeated city.
I highly recommend the History Channel’s Battlefield Detectives: Stalingrad documentary for more information on this topic.
This one is interesting because I found these two photos independently of each other and only after I was sifting through my folder did I realize they were the same picture. It looks like the first is the original photograph taken in the field (source), which was then altered into a German propaganda postcard (source). The caption on the second photo reads: “British pilot shot down near Douai in July 1918.”
Red Army soldiers raising a Soviet Union flag over burning Berlin in 1945, photographed by Yevgeny Khaldei.
The Russians’ behavior in Berlin was, by any standard, less than exemplary - their treatment of women alone is enough to chill the blood. Feeling justified because of the horrors the Eastern front suffered at the hands of the Nazis, the Red Army unleashed a vicious backlash once it got to Germany. Rape and looting were widespread, and this particular photo, so well-known and iconic, has been altered to remove a small but very telling detail - the extra watch around the wrist of the soldier helping the one hoisting the flag. In the original, he is sporting a watch on each wrist - a luxury not easily obtained in the Soviet Union - and in the more dramatic airbrushed version, there is only one watch.
(Source.)
I heard this was done to promote Soviet domination and power even more so, by making the ruins, smoke, and destruction more awe inspiring. This makes more sense, seeing as how if it was only about the watch, why not just take that out and leave the rest? Not that it can’t be both.
It was, in fact, both (the article I sourced mentions the swelling of the flag and the more awe-inspiring smoke). I just found the watch bit especially interesting!
United States Army Air Force propaganda, 1945.
Remember how WWII was won entirely with the force of chiseled American cheekbones? Well, it appears that the laurels should be equally shared with penis bomb visual metaphors.
The tag that improves 100% of all shell-related posts.
I could be wrong guys but I think the cloud is his penis. The bomb is just a penis he’s holding at the moment.
Just bringing this back with all the relevant commentary.
A blog about the history of WWI and WWII, and the inter-war period.
My art blog: fyodorpavlov.tumblr.com
My inspiration and beautiful things blog: moika-palace.tumblr.com
Parable of the Old Men and the Young
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
Wilfred Owen
