The War in View #47: Ground Power

 

British commandos seek cover from German snipers in Normandy.

David Stirling, left, with British Army officers during maneuvers.

Between 1941 and 1944, British scientists were working on a top secret project to develop a projectile bomb that released darts tipped with poison. A recently de-classified document entitled ‘Research Into Use of Anthrax and Other Poisons for Biological Warfare’ revealed that sewing machine needles would be used in the weapon and tipped with a lethal poison, which would probably be either anthrax or ricin. According to a 1945 memo about the project, light darts could be used as the poison ensured slight penetration would be lethal and there was no need to hit vital organs. It also had the added advantage, according to the memo, of making it so that medical treatment would be unlikely to prevent the victim’s death. The bombs could carry 30,600 needles and if they hit, you were likely to be dead within half an hour. However the chances of hitting someone varied and while they would have had great effect against troops out in the open, they were virtually useless when there was any type of cover. This made them unlikely to cause mass damage frequently and therefore uneconomical and as a result, they never made it passed the planning stage.

RAF Regiment personnel being inspected outside Jerusalem, 1945. Note the pistol lanyards looped up to the rear of the waist belts to make them less easy to steal. Short puttees are worn; and there is no sign of any shoulder titles.

Women trained for combat (and saw it) in people-drained England during World War II. Ladies became excellent Lewis gunners during the Battle of Britain.

To keep the German occupation forces off balance, the British devised a special Commando force, small units that made hit-and-run raids on Occupied Europe, resulting in the destruction of German supplies, the taking of prisoners, and tying up of German troops.

Sappers of the Royal Engineers sweeping for mines. Tapes are laid across a minefield, making a lane wide enough to take a vehicle. Then the lane is swept for mines with these detectors, the mines being dug up when found.

The BEF arrives in France, 30 September  1939: Men of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards marching through Cherbourg.

Manning the Lewis gun, men of the LRDG watch for German fighters in Egypt, October 1941.

David Stirling, SAS.  Sir Archibald David Stirling DSO OBE (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a Scottish Officer in the British Army, a mountaineer, and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS). He saw active service during the Second World War.

25-pdr field guns and 'Quads' being unloaded from a ship into a landing craft for transport ashore, 9 February 1942. (Imperial War Museum E8161)

Lieutenant General Neil Ritchie, C-in-C of Eighth Army standing by his command caravan in the Western Desert, 23 March 1942. (Imperial War Museum E9572)

The Axis retreat and the Tunisian campaign 1942-1943: Forward patrols of the British First and Eighth Armies meet in the Gabes-Tozeur area. A wireless operator of the Special Air Service, Eighth Army with men of the 6th Armoured Division, First Army. (Imperial War Museum NA684)

A wounded German officer, found in the Egyptian desert during the first two days of a British offensive, is guarded by a sentry while awaiting backup, on November 13, 1942.

As the men of one Waco (CG-4A) Hadrian glider disembark and gather their gear, another is coming in for a landing. Southern France, Operation Dragoon. 15 August 1944.

Japanese 20mm Type 98 anti-aircraft gun.

Japanese 20mm Type 98 anti-aircraft gun on tripod mount.

Japanese twin 25mm Type 96 multi-purpose anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun on mounting.

Japanese triple 25mm Type 96 multi-purpose anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun on mounting; Guadalcanal.

American Marine with captured Japanese single 25mm Type 96 anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun.

Japanese single 40mm anti-aircraft gun on wheeled mount.

Captured Dutch twin 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun removed by the Japanese from sunken ships for use on shore installations.

Japanese 75mm Type 88 anti-aircraft gun.

Japanese 75mm Type 88 anti-aircraft gun being set up by Japanese troops.

Japanese 75mm Type 88 anti-aircraft gun captured by Americans on Guam.

Japanese 75mm Type 4 anti-aircraft gun.

Japanese prototype 75mm Type 5 tank gun at the test site. Intended to equip the Type 5 Chi-Ri medium tank and the Type 5 Na-To tank destroyer.

Japanese 76.2mm Type 3 universal gun.

Japanese 76.2mm Type 3 universal gun, captured by Americans on Guadalcanal.

Japanese German 88mm SK C / 30 naval gun. The Japanese captured several of these weapons in Nanking in 1937.

Japanese 99mm Type 88 anti-aircraft gun. This was based on the captured German 8.8cm SK C / 30 naval gun.

Japanese 100mm Type 14 anti-aircraft gun.

Japanese 100mm Type 98 universal gun captured by Australian troops at Balikpapan, Borneo.

Japanese 100mm Type 98 universal gun.

Japanese 120mm Type 10 universal gun.

Japanese 120mm Type 10 universal gun on Guam.

Polish wz.36 anti-tank gun captured during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Captured British Ordnance QF 25-pounder in use by the Deutsches Afrikakorps in 1941.

Fallschirmjaeger with a captured Bren gun in Italy.

"American troops of the 28th Infantry Division march down the Champs Elysees, Paris, in the `Victory' Parade." Poinsett, August 29, 1944. US Signal Corps #111-SC-193197. National Archives Identifier: 531209

Canadian Infantry of the Regiment de Maisonneuve, moving through Holten to Rijssen, Netherlands. Lt. D. Guravitch, April 9, 1945. Photograph #306-NT-1334B-11. National Archives Identifier: 541912

"American howitzers shell German forces retreating near Carentan, France." Franklin, July 11, 1944. US Signal Corps #111-SC-191933. National Archives Identifier: 531199

Original Caption: “Down the ramp of a Coast Guard Landing barge Yankee soldiers storm toward the beach-sweeping fire of Nazi defenders in the D-Day Invasion of the French Coast.  Troops ahead may be seen lying flat under the deadly machine gun resistance of the Germans. Soon the Nazis were driven back under the overwhelming Invasion forces thrown in from Coast Guard and Navy amphibious craft.” Photographer: CPhoM. Robert F. Sargent, June 6, 1944. 26-G-2343. National Archives Identifier: 513173.

A group of U.S. Army soldiers, rifles in hand, wears gas masks during a training exercise in California related to chemical attacks. 1943.

U.S. soldiers with guard dogs walk patrol on a beach in Los Angeles, California, in order to spot possible Japanese attackers. 1943.

A U.S. landing craft filled with troops approaches the French coast for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

U.S. Army soldiers are engage in combat with German forces near the cathedral in Cologne. April 1945.

A camouflaged American serviceman holds his pistol while making a call on a walkie-talkie. Circa 1943.

Major General Harry C. Ingles decorates Private First Class Mary Jane Ford, Signal Corps, with the Soldier’s Medal, in recognition of her attempts to save the life of a drowning soldier. She was the first WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) to receive the decoration. 25 July 1944.

A US Army mortar team fires on advancing German forces during the Battle of the Bulge, near St. Vith, Liege, Belgium. 1945.

Tenth Mountain Division soldiers at Camp Hale, Colorado, 1943 or 1944. All have M1943 mountain rucksack and are carrying Garand rifles.

Tenth Mountain Division soldier at Camp Hale, Colorado during the war. The division practiced rock climbing in preparation for the invasion of Italy. Camp Hale was active for just three years; it was deactivated in November 1945 and the 10th Mountain Division moved to Texas.

A rare photo of Captain Ronald Reagan as a Cavalry officer during World War II.

Sniper falls, Italy, 1944.

A 2-pdr anti-tank gun being manned by members of 2nd Rifle Brigade, 24 March 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 9610)

A British 17-pdr anti-tank gun. (Imperial War Museum NA665)

Infantry charge over an obstacle on an assault course, 31 May 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 12083)

Infantry practice unarmed combat, 31 May 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 12089)

A dummy is bayoneted during a demonstration at Sarafand in Palestine, 11 November 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 19278)

Military Police at the training depot in Tehran learning how to salute correctly, 28 September 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 17489)

Railway gun rests at Halwill Junction before proceeding to Ashbury Station area to fire a live shell into Okehampton Artillery Range impact area - over the heads of many people and houses!

A stagnant pool being sprayed with Paris Green to kill the larvae and pupae of mosquitos in an effort to prevent Malaria being contracted in Syria, 11 May 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 11626)

British troops talk to Orthodox Greek priests outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, 11 August 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 15534)

Tests being carried out in the cutting of a new type of barbed wire called "Barblock", 11 May 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 11645)

Troops making their way inland after landing at Algiers during Operation Torch, November 1942. Here some men are pulling and pushing a trailer of equipment over the sandy beach, and in the background two soldiers are manhandling a motorbike. (Imperial War Museum A 12708)

Men of the Leicestershire Regiment man a Bren gun near Tobruk, 10 November 1941. (Imperial War Museum E 6436)

100 British and 100 hundred Egyptian convalescent soldiers were entertained at the Industrial Exhibition at Gezira, Lady Lampson, wife of His Excellency the British Ambassador in Egypt. Lady Lampson helping the soldiers to tea, 30 May 1940. (Imperial War Museum E 105)

Although in the midst of battle, it is most difficult for these men to get accurate news of the fighting. They are RASC drivers who bring up ammunition and petrol to the fighting troops, a difficult and highly dangerous job. They eagerly crowd around a portable radio set to hear the latest news of the fighting in Libya … from London via the BBC! (Imperial War Museum E 12950)

Soldiers wearing gas masks while peeling onions at Tobruk, 15 October 1941. (Imperial War Museum E6034)

A South African sapper carrying a stack of mines, Egypt, 2 July 1942. (Imperial War Museum E13901)

British troops stop to look at a portrait of Mussolini which was found in Derna, 3 February 1941. (Imperial War Museum E1871)

Vickers machine gun team of 10th Battalion The Rifle Brigade, training near Bou Arada, Tunisia, 30 April 1943. (Imperial War Museum NA2407)

British troops manning a sandbagged defensive position during the First Battle of El Alamein, 17 July 1942. (Imperial War Museum E14575)

A British 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun in the Western Desert, 27 June 1941. (Imperial War Museum E3870)

British Army reinforcements arrive in the Middle East having been transported by the liner QUEEN ELIZABETH, 22 July 1942. (Imperial War Museum E14706)

An alfresco lunch taken by Prime Minister Mr Winston Churchill, together with General Sir Bernard Montgomery and other senior officers of the Eighth Army, during Churchill's visit to Tripoli, 7 February 1943. (Imperial War Museum E22267)

The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill with military leaders during his visit to Tripoli. The group includes: General Sir Oliver Leese, General Sir Harold Alexander, General Sir Alan Brooke and General Sir Bernard Montgomery, 7 February 1943. (Imperial War Museum E22271)

Canadian soldiers disembark at Juno Beach in Normandy, France during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

Canadian 6-pdr anti-tank gun, Operation Totalize.

Canadian soldiers hold a Nazi flag that they had captured south of Hautmesnil, France on August 10, 1944.

Dutch prisoners of war in Japanese hands.

French soldiers during their advance through the Apennine mountains, Italy 1944 .

General Jean Leclerc.

Marshal Alphonse Juin.

Marshal Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny (2 February 1889 – 11 January 1952) was a French général d'armée during World War II and the First Indochina War. He was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1952.

Early in World War II, from May to June 1940, he was the youngest French general. He led the 14th Infantry Division during the Battle of France in the battles of Rethel, Champagne-Ardenne, and Loire, until the Armistice of 22 June 1940. During the Vichy Regime he remained in the Armistice Army, first in regional command posts then as commander-in-chief of troops in Tunisia. After the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942 the Germans invaded the unoccupied portion of France; de Lattre, Commander of the 16th Military Division at Montpellier, refused the orders not to fight the Germans and was the only active general to order his troops to oppose the invaders. He was arrested but escaped and defected to Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces at the end of 1943. From 1943 to 1945 he was one of the senior leaders of the Liberation Army, commanding the forces that landed in the South of France on 15 August 1944, then fought up to the Rivers Rhine and Danube. He commanded large numbers of American troops when the US XXI Corps was assigned to his First Army during the battle of the Colmar Pocket. He was also the French representative at the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender in Berlin on 8 May 1945.

General Charles de Gaulle reviewing a Free French commando unit in England.

French reservists called up to fill the ranks during a national mobilization during the Phony War.

French Colonial troops man a machine gun post in a forward part of the line, 16 February 1942. (Imperial War Museum E8400)

Adolf Hitler and several Nazi officials survey the Great Gustav, the largest artillery cannon ever built at 155 feet long, 1350 tons in weight, with 11-foot shells weighing seven tons each. Date unspecified.

German coastal artillery in Lapland, Finland, 1942-1943. (Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-102-0894-23)

37mm PaK anti-tank gun.

German railway gun in action.

Two German Flak 38 crewmen have been cut down by fire that destroyed their gun. Both Germans are missing their boots – the very first item that was preferred by looters and scavengers robbing the dead.

German infantry, Leningrad, 1941.

German troops make a hasty advance through a blazing Leningrad suburb, in Russia on November 24, 1941.

German troops arrive in Lithuania, June 1941.

German soldier with R35 Lebel carbine - these were made from existing guns and leftover parts in the few years right before WWII broke out, by a French government looking for a quick and cheap source of usable carbines. As you see here, some of them found their way into German service in occupied France.

A lone German survivor of an anti-tank unit virtually wiped out at Kursk. Almost certainly a posed Soviet propaganda photo.

German troops lie concealed in the undergrowth during the fighting prior to the capture of Kiev, Ukraine, in 1941.

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel during Nuremberg trial.

German soldier cleaning Mauser 98k rifle.

Field Marshal Jodl.

German coastal gun in armored turret, Pas de Calais.

German coast artillery gun in armored turret.

German gunners on an island on the North Sea coast traverse their gun. The position is draped with camouflage nets, a precaution which became necessary as the Allies gained air superiority.

60cm Karl-Gerät mortar firing.

One of the Karl-Gerät mortars on its special trailer.

One of two 24-inch Karl-Gerät mortars used against Sevastopol.

“Thor,” one of the Karl-Gerät series of mobile fortification-busting mortars.

German soldier cutting barbed wire during training.

An American soldier inspects German artillery captured or destroyed in the battle of El Guettar, April 1943.

Indian soldiers of the Waffen-SS Free India Legion man an artillery piece.

Army troops line the parade route on Hitler’s birthday on 20 April 1939.

21cm gun ready to be fired. The gunner is holding the firing lanyard taut with his left hand, and he will strike it with his right when the order to fire is given.

German 15cm Kanone 39 abandoned on the snow-covered steppes as Soviet troops march past.

British troops examine a German 10.5 cm K 18.

Gerhard Boldt (January 24, 1918 – May 10, 1981) was an officer in the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) who wrote about his experiences during World War II. He wrote "Hitler's Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account". His book was used for the film "Hitler: The Last Ten Days". "Hitler's Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account" was also used for the German-Austrian 2004 drama film "Downfall" (Der Untergang).

German Dora railway gun.

Tiergarten Flak Tower (Flakturm Tiergarten) with twin 12.8cm Zwillingsflak 44, Berlin, 1945.

Anti-tank ditch and dragon’s teeth of the Panther Line. The Panther-Wotan Line was a defensive line partially built by the German Wehrmacht in 1943 on the Eastern Front. The first part of the name refers to the short northern section between Lake Peipus and the Baltic Sea at Narva.

PaK 40 7.5cm anti-tank guns  in front of an Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant" transport.

Germany at war, Signal magazine, 1940. Battle of Norway 1940, German infantry in action, May 15, 1940.

Fallschirmjäger, Norway.

An abandoned German 3.7cm anti-tank gun as a Russian T-34 moves past in the back ground.

German horse-drawn artillery unit moves past  a knocked out and burning T-26S tank.

A captured German 28mm sPzB 41 anti-tank gun, 6 March 1942. (Imperial War Museum E 9090)

Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen von Arnim welcomes General der Panzertruppe Gustav von Vaerst. Rades near Tunis, North Africa, 7 May 1943. (Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-787-0502-34A)

Italian troops charging in the desert, 1941.

105/28 gun, Africa.

Lieutenant Colonel Hatsuo Tsukamoto and infantryman attacking Kokoda village and airfield in Papua New Guinea, July 1942.

Dead Japanese amid the wreckage on Kwajalein.

Dead Japanese soldier, Guam, August 1944.

Soldiers of the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifles Brigade unloading their kit and equipment on arrival at their camp site. The Poles joined the British only five days earlier after General Eugene Mittelhauser, a commander of French forces in Syria which the Brigade was part of, decided to support the Vichy regime. Photograph taken in the village of Samakh along the Sea of Galilee, 4 July 1940. (Imperial War Museum E331)

Romanian soldiers in Constanta, Romania, circa October 1941.

Soviet soldiers charge during the Siege of Leningrad, January 1, 1943.