World War II Album: October 2025

American troops who took part in fighting on Guadalcanal stand with bowed heads at gravesides of their fallen comrades, on June 29, 1943.

With his helmet liner as a pillow and the coral ground as his bed, Private John W. Emmons, Sheffield, Alabama, and his “friend” take a well earned rest in front of a 105mm howitzer on Okinawa on June 27, 1945. The tired artillery man is with the Sixth Marine Division and his friend is a unit mascot.

General George Smith Patton Jr.

The original 29 Navajo "code talkers" and their officers at Camp Pendleton in 1942.

A code talker is the name given to American Indians who used their tribal language to send secret communications on the battlefield. Most people have heard of the famous Navajo (or Diné) code talkers who used their traditional language to transmit secret Allied messages in the Pacific theater of combat during World War II.

A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. In particular, there were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was to transmit secret tactical messages. Code talkers transmitted messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formally or informally developed codes built upon their native languages. The code talkers improved the speed of encryption and decryption of communications in front line operations during World War II.

First Negro contingent of Women's Army Corps (WACs).

GI with a captured Japanese Type 89 Grenade Projector in Buna, New Guinea, 1943. Here we see why Americans incorrectly called it the "knee mortar". It is hoped he didn’t actually fire it that way as it could result in a broken thigh.

General Douglas MacArthur (C) and Gen. Richard Sutherland (L) and Col. Lloyd Lherbas waded ashore during the American landing at Lingayen Gulf on January 9, 1945.

A Marine making friends with Okinawans.

A Navy pharmacist’s mate with the 1st Marine Division comforts a child found in a cave where Japanese soldiers were killed on Okinawa.

A Marine approaches fearful members of an Okinawan family.

A Marine with an Okinawan girl.

A destroyed Kawanishi N1K1-J at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, May 1945. Marines are using the shell hole in the foreground for bathing.

General view of the Hightstown, New Jersey training area, October-November 1940. Free descent tower in left foreground, captive tower in left background.

Captured German rifles taken by the 11th Armored Division are examined by American soldiers, in Andernach, Germany. Note that some of the rifles are likely secondary-reserve, nonstandard arms issued to the Volks Sturm civilian conscripts, and that the soldier on the left is armed with an M3 Grease Gun. March 13, 1945.

Survivors of the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division, gather for a group portrait after the end of a one-week siege in Bundenthal, Germany that resulted in brutal fighting against attacking German forces, December 1944.

US 45th Infantry Division camp. Venafro, Italy, December 1943.

Company M, 45th Inf Div, Anzio.

Colonel William O. Darby, seen here as a regimental commander in the 45th Division in April 1944.

M101 105mm howitzer.

Group of Army nurses of the 10th Field Hospital posing in front of a ¼-ton truck.

The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was only one of three battalions comprised mostly of Japanese Americans.

Standing in the backyard of an abandoned house in the outskirts of the besieged city of Leningrad, a rifleman of the Red Army aims and fires his machine gun at German positions on 16 December 1942.

A scout of the 325th “Dvina” Infantry Division, Guard Sergeant Alexey Frolchenko (1905-1967), who was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his action at the Battle of Kursk.

After having occupied a village on the Leningrad sector in 1942, Soviet forces discovered 38 bodies of Soviet soldiers that had been taken prisoner by the Germans and apparently tortured to death.

Russian trench, Neva River, Leningrad.

Soviet partisans from the Pskov region of Soviet Russia are sent on a combat mission.

12 snipers from the Soviet 3rd Shock Army with a total of 775 kills.

Soviet female sniper.

Soviet infantry dog handler.

Red Army machine gunners with a M1910 machine gun at the Battle of Kursk.

Russian cavalry entering a liberated town.

Soviet dog handler.

Soviet infantry in winter uniforms.

Soviet mortar crew.

Soviet soldiers get some rest.

Soviet infantrymen move through a village.

Soviet troops breaking from cover to attack German strongholds. Note the German MG 34 machine gun in the foreground being used by Soviet soldiers.

Soviet ski troops by the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.

Roza Yegorovna Shanina, the female sniper died in World War II after having 54 confirmed hits, she is still remembered due to her skill as a sniper and her beauty.

Women members of Sydir Kovpak’s partisan formation in Ukraine.

British and Soviet officers inspect tanks of the 8th Hussars in Berlin. At the front, with Montgomery, are Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky, whom the British field marshal had just invested with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, respectively.

Russians driving the Germans out of Rostov.

Three Soviet female guerrilla fighters.

Local militia in the streets of Leningrad during the siege.

Soviet soldiers inside Leningrad unload supplies brought across Lake Ladoga.

Rapidly advancing German forces encountered serious guerrilla resistance behind their front lines. Here, four guerrillas with fixed bayonets and a small machine gun are seen in action, near a small village.

Soviet infantrymen with a variety of weapons, including rifles, a machine gun, PPSh submachine guns, and a German MP 40 submachine gun (used by soldier in foreground).

A female Russian medic renders aid to a soldier in the field.

Another female Russian medic renders aid to a soldier in the field. Note the PPSh submachine gun in the foreground.

Russian troops house fighting, Breslau.

Soviet soldiers are moved up to the front lines prior to the start of the attack on Leningrad.

Mass grave of Soviet POWs, killed by Germans in prisoner-of-war camp in Dęblin, German-occupied Poland.

AVS-36 7.62mm automatic rifle.

“A battalion commander.” Soviet officer (probably A. G. Yeremenko, Company political officer of the 220th Rifle Regiment, 4th Rifle Division, killed in action in 1942) leading his soldiers to the assault. Voroshilovgrad region, Ukraine.

F1 fragmentation grenade.

M1914/39 stick grenade.

PPD-34/38 7.62mm submachine gun with drum magazine.

PPD-34/38 7.62mm submachine gun with 25 round box magazine.

PPD-40 7.62mm submachine gun.

PPS-43 7.62mm submachine gun.

PPSh1941 7.62mm submachine gun.

RG-41 grenade.

RG-42 grenade.

RG-42 Grenade and cutaway.

Fragmentation grenade RG-42.

RGD-33 stick hand grenade with the optional fragmentation jacket in place.

RGD-33 is an anti-personnel fragmentation stick grenade developed in 1933.

A diagram of a RGD-33 grenade (and fragmentation jacket), and a cutaway showing it's workings.

37mm Spade Mortar ready for action.

37mm Spade Mortar ready for use as a spade.

The head of the Central Women’s School of Sniper Training’s political department talks to women snipers before they leave for the front. The school graduated 1,885 snipers and instructors during the war.