Picture of the day.

[v2]

...

 

[michaelmaltby]

Japanese cavalry ...

 

[Shinpachi]

Fabulous pics

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots guys!

 

[michaelmaltby]

 

[Wurger]

 

[v2]

...

 

[michaelmaltby]

family values ....

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[michaelmaltby]

... bucolic

 

[Wurger]

 

[Snautzer01]

ultra short landing strip...

 

[michaelmaltby]

 

[Shinpachi]

A lot of rare pictures

 

[michaelmaltby]

.... when you combine the efforts of the Party ... Germans after all, who were camera-crazy .... and the countless military personnel who sent pictures home ... it isn't surprising that the Eastern Front, in particular, was so well and so candidly photographed, IMO. And photos immortalize ordinary, everyday people in a wonderful way. This thread, in its randomness and photographic precision has become a kind of walking tour, a ramble of the entire conflict-period 1933-1945 .... every picture offers a surprise.

 

[michaelmaltby]

 

[Wurger]

 

[Robert Porter]

Very true! And it illustrates a historical issue. Life magazine back in the 70's appealed to the public to contribute private photos from their collections to be cataloged and preserved. Photos are rather perishable. IIRC based on the response to that appeal they estimated that less than 2% of those holding "significant" photos from the 30's and 40's responded and that we were loosing on the order of a 1000 photos a week to age and poor storage. Most of this is from memory so I don't really recall but the point is a lot of photos are disappearing forever every day. And there is so much history in those collections. People tend to underestimate the importance of seemingly casual snapshots taken by soldiers and others just prior, during, and after the war years. I love collections like we have here!