Picture of the day.

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots guys!

 

[michaelmaltby]

Charlemagne Division .....? Can someone confirm ...

My mistake ... Hungarian pilots ... Iron Cross winners

 

[Capt. Vick]

Looking at the wrong side of the uniform for that, no?

Is anyone else constantly amazed at the expressions on people's faces just before they are going to meet their death? Look at those guys in the pictures above. They could be waiting for a bus.

 

[vikingBerserker]

That always amazes me. I would think (and hope) I would still be fighting like hell to the end.

 

[Wurger]

Russia, 1942 ...

 

[michaelmaltby]

U boat crew in Royal Navy hands ...,.

 

[michaelmaltby]

.... re-fueling

 

[yulzari]

.... hedge cutters welded up front.

For the benefit of those unfamiliar with Norman hedges. Like Cornish hedges they begin with a stone wall mortared with turf and earth. Then a hedge is planted on top. In time the hedge grows to hide the internal wall entirely. Now infantry can only go through by going over after cutting down the hedge bit, through the gates or an extended period digging through the wall itself. All of which identifies where you are. The 'hedge cutter' is rammed into the wall penetrating the earth gaps between the stones then the AFV lifts it up and carries it to fall off on the other side all in one move. Without the cutter the AFV just rams the wall and stops. Some of those hedges can have been there since the days of William the Bastard if not before and all interlinked by secondary growth and roots.

I know of some that are on a different alignment to the Roman roads and are field boundaries from at least the Iron Age if not before. If they put the hedge up then those are about 3,000 years old. Many are Romano-Gallic but usually only 300 to 500 though so about as old as my house and that is made of earth/clay bonded stones and still standing in good order so far.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I could not think of a tougher job than being on a U-Boat crew.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Flowers for the U boat captain from a beautiful Norwegian, 1943

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[Wurger]

 

[michaelmaltby]

... good dog, fetch.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Paris ...

 

[Wurger]

The Dora camp .. and V-2 parts ...

 

[michaelmaltby]

George Patton ...

 

[Capt. Vick]

I think those are V-2 parts....

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[michaelmaltby]

France, 1940