A StuG.III Ausf.G “Initial” (Sd.Kfz. 142/1) having survived long enough to be wearing camouflage from the February 1943 issued Olivegrün RAL 6003 with stripes of Dunkelgelb RAL 7028.
This “steed” has been retro-fitted with a folding shield for the loader’s MG24. The main identifying feature of the initial versions is the two openings over the driver’s visor for his periscopes, these were soon deleted on the next production batch of Ausf.Gs
A StuG.III Ausf.G “Mid Production” (Sd.Kfz.142/1) passes a pair of Soldaten armed with the Panzerschreck Raketenpanzerbüchse 88cm.
The name “Sperber” is painted on the Topfblende mantlet, it is wearing the waffle-style zimmerit which makes it an Alkett production Sturmgeschütz, also of note is the two cast engine covers attached to the glacis plate over the transmission hatches for added protection.
British soldier, RSM Evans of the 12th Devonshire Regiment examines captured German helmets in Hamminkeln, Germany - 25 March 1945
Photo by Sgt. Christie of the No. 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit
Fallschirmjager:
Oh I see you over there Mr. M42 Luftwaffe stahlhelmm looking at me all Lufty-eyed…
May I Please Touch Your Scar
Celtic women were distinct in the ancient world for the liberty and rights they enjoyed and the position they held in society. Compared to their counterparts in Greek, Roman, and other ancient societies, they were allowed much freedom of activity and protection under the law. The Iron Age Celts were nevertheless a patriarchal people and for the most part men had the ultimate power in politics and the home.
Despite this, ancient Celtic women remain an inspiring example of womanhood from the past.Roman author Ammianus Marcellinus wrote (which confirmed by some other Roman authors) that the Gaulish women combined an extraordinary beauty with remarkable courage and great physical force; they participated in armed combat. He gave this description of a Gaulish woman: “A whole band of foreigners will be unable to cope with one Gaul in a fight, if he calls in his wife, stronger than he by far and with flashing eyes; least of all when she swells her neck and gnashes her teeth, and poising her huge white arms, begins to rain blows mingled with kicks, like shots discharged by the twisted cords of a catapult”.
Just in case you weren’t already enrolled in this Harvard course…
The course World War and Society in the Twentieth Century: World War II is a thematic exploration of the war and its time through feature films, primary sources, and scholarly interpretations.
It seeks to provide a means for analyzing and evaluating what one reads or sees about World War II in terms of historical accuracy and for gaining a broader understanding of different perspectives. Themes include the impact of war on soldiers and civilians, on the home front, women in war, the Japanese and German viewpoints, and postwar issues. Films include Mrs. Miniver, The Pianist, The Winter War, So Proudly We Hail, Taking Sides, The Hiding Place, and The Cranes Are Flying.
He put down his half-empty glass of whisky, paused, and began to philosophize.
“You know, I had an unfortunate need to visit a shopping mall the other day. It was absurdly crowded ― I mean, packed!
“I really, truly hate crowds. Where there’s a crowd, there’s a war of the wills. And where…
German TV broadcast, 1930’s…specifically mentions shipping dissidents off the concentration camps…could the presenter be any creepier?
Rick Mercer is great and this is PROOF!
Unity Valkyrie Mitford
This somewhat misunderstood and mysterious Woman
has always held my attention at one point or another since I was a very young lad. I first remember seeing her on a show about British Fascism along with her sister Diana. And I shall tell you folks why she will ALWAYS be a part of me and my heart.
Early Life
Unity Mitford was born in London, England to David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario where her family had gold mines. She came from a large family with five sisters and one brother and found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters which made it somewhat hard to assert her individuality, and I think through the experience of trying to force her way forward among the sisters and in the family. Educated at St Margaret’s School, she began to feel suffocated and tried many times to assert her independence not only from her family, but from the societal norms then in place in Britain.
Around the the early 1930s she had found Adolf Hitler and Mussolini, due in part to her sister Diana’s affair to Sir Oswald Mosley with whom she would later be married to.
This lead to conflict early in her life: Her younger sister, Jessica, with whom she shared a bedroom, was a dedicated communist. They had many times argued over political views and as such, the two drew a chalk line down the middle. One side was decorated with hammer and sickles and pictures of Vladimir Lenin, and the other decorated with swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler. Mosley’s son, Nicholas, stated that: “Unity became a very extrovert member of the party, which was her way of breaking out of her shell. She joined my father’s party and she used to turn up, she used to go around in a black shirt uniform, and she used to turn up at communist meetings and she used to do the fascist salute and heckle the speaker. That was the sort of person she was”
Her Arrival in Germany
Mitford returned to Germany in the summer of 1934, enrolling in a language school in Munich close to the Nazi Party headquarters. There she had became obsessed with meeting Hitler, to the point of stalking the Osteria Bavaria, a place often frequented by Adolf Hitler and some of his close supporters. When finally her day of destiny arrived, after ten months of stalking Hitler, he asked her audience. Struck by her middle name and her beauty, as well as her knowledge of ‘Germanic culture’.
Hitler was extremely superstitious, and he believed that Unity was sort of sent to him, it was destined. Mitford subsequently received invitations to party rallies and state occasions, and was described by Hitler as “a perfect specimen of Aryan womanhood.
This meeting would change her life and set her on the path to inevitable destruction.
She would become part of his inner-circle for 5 years and would appear at various events such as the 36 Olympic, the Anschluß and the Bayreuther Festspiele, where Adolf Hitler had warned her and her sister Diana of Germany and her home country’s inevitable conflict was inevitable within weeks. Diana returned to England where she was arrested and imprisoned, while Unity chose to stay.
Her family pleaded with her in letters, to which she replied: If there was a war, which of course we all terribly hoped there might not be, I will kill myself because I in my heart cannot bear to live and see these two countries tearing each other to pieces, both of which I love and hold dear.”
The English Garden
This is one of my all time favorite Unity Valkyrie Mitford stories. One of her favorite haunts was the English Garden in Munich, which was located across from her apartment. One day some of the folks who also lived in her apartment came home to find their radios where missing, around 10 to 15 radios. Upon the realization of this, they then heard a dirge coming from the English Garden where to their discovery had found Unity laying in the sun with all the radios tuned to different frequencies making a cacophony of noise. This more or less puts her FAR beyond NON and Throbbing Gristle and countless other Industrial music and Noise bands. Unity Mitford is the first known noise musician, so take that and shove it up your wazoo boys!
When it was realized by Unity Mitford that war between her countries was a reality, Unity went to the English Garden in Munich, took a pearl-handled pistol, given to her by Hitler for protection, and shot herself in the head. Surviving the suicide attempt she was hospitalized in Munich, where she was visited by Hitler, despite the on-going war. He paid her bills and arranged for her return home.
The Return Home
While not jailed due to her injuries, she was not the same person. The injury which could not be treated had devastated all who knew her and in 1948 she had succumbed to her injuries and passed away. She was mourned “Her sisters, even those who deplored her politics and hated her association with Hitler, mourned her deeply.” She was buried at Swinbrook Churchyard. Her gravestone reads, “Say not the struggle naught availeth.”
Fallschirmjager:
Oh my goodness this made me so happy, thank you fuckyeahhistorycrushes for posting this, you’ve made a rough day into one of gold and for this I cannot show my appreciation enough.
