Commandos of 2/3rd Independent Coy wear groundsheets as raincoats, but bare their heads as a mark of respect for three of their NCOs, just buried in a dangerous ceremony near Timbered Knoll in 1943. Four of these mourners would be dead within a month.
(Australian War Memorial 127986)
One of Australia’s most renowned soldiers, Lt Tom Derrick, VC, DCM (right), congratulates his friend Lt Reg Saunders following their graduation from an Officer Cadet Training Unit in 1944.
This photo shows clearly the proper appearance of the slouch hat and service dress, with various national, rank and unit insignia including colour patches. Unusually, both Derrick and Saunders returned to their original units (2/48th and 2/7th Bns, respectively) on receiving their commissions. Saunders was the first Aboriginal commissioned in the Australian Army, where he reported encountering less prejudice than in civilian life. By law the Army was not supposed to recruit Aborigines, but a large number enlisted in the AIF early on.
Like Saunders, Tom Derrick was a superb fighter and natural leader who rose from humble origins through merit; the Second AIF gave opportunities for many recruits to exercise leadership. On 25 November 1943, Sgt Derrick already a hero of North Africa, who earned his VC by clearing ten Japanese posts on the Sattelberg heights in New Guinea - famously raised the Australian flag on that summit. Lieutenant Derrick would be killed at Tarakan in May 1945 - a loss that epitomized the waste of that bitter and unnecessary campaign, which has justifiably been called ‘an Australian tragedy’.
(Australian War Memorial 083166)
So…like does that make me a gay Hitlerite? TOTALLY GIVING IT UP!
RV Burgin: I met her in Australia in 1943. I guess I immediately fell in love with her.
fyeahhistorymajorheraldicbeast:
I have plastic soldiers of the Franco-Prussian War. I always make sure he has the right soldiers on each side.
Fallschirmjager:
Seriously as a kid if people did not have the correct soldiers in proper order they were explicitly NOT allowed to play with me or my green and gray WWII toy soldiers. Alles ist in ORDNUNG!
Time to do some German posts, my bread and butter…
The Recapture of Kharkov
After the destruction of the 3rd armored army, despite reinforcements sent by the Stavka south of Kharkov, the Soviets can no longer contain the 4.Panzerarmee offensive towards the Donets basin city. The town falls into the hands of the Germans on the 15 or 16 of March (the date of the end of the battles in the town cannot be determined precisely, as a few isolated groups of Russian soldiers tried for several days to rejoin their lines), that is a month after being abandoned by Paul Hausser.
Photo: the only division troops fighting in the Kharkov itself are from Kampfgruppe “Kuntsmann”. 7.Kp./SS-Pa.Regt.3 is part of it. Its chief SS-Oberturmführer Behr, is on the left with the headphones. One of his section chiefs share a brief respite with him.
A battery of assault guns of the SS-StuG.-Abteilung “Totenkopf” stopping on a road north of Kharkov.
Grenadiers from 1.SS-Division “Liebstandarte” and tanks of Kampfgruppe “Kuntsmann” fighting side by side in Kharkov. In the background is Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.M from the 5.Kp./SS.-Pz.Rgt.3.
We tend to suffer from the illusion that we are capable of dying for a belief or theory. What Hagakure is insisting is that even in merciless death, a futile death that knows neither flower nor fruit has dignity as the death of a human being. If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile.-Yukio Mishima
EXHIBIT A: German soldiers, bellies full from having eaten babies.
Just kidding, it’s just Waldermar Reifkogel with two of his Kameraden from 1. Komapnie/SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 enjoying brief respite before the Kursk offensive.
Exhibit B: Germans just after crucifying kittens to the church doors in Belgium.
Not really, here we have SS-Hauptsturmführer Erwin Meirdress proudly wearing his Iron Cross 1. He is now in charge of 1. Abteilung/SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 with two of his staff officers.
German camouflage porn series one: A Grenadier from 3.SS-Division ‘Totenkopf’ in an early pattern Palmenmuster tarnhemd.
German camouflage porn series 2: Memebers of the 3.SS-Division ‘Totenkopf’ wearing M44 Erbenmuster camouflage tunics and trousers while on the retreat from the Ost.
German camouflage series 3: SS-Platanenmuster as seen on these Pak crew belonging to the 3.SS-Division ‘Totenkopf’ in the early days of the Ostfront.
I think I identify with Jim Moriarty the most out of the BBC Sherlock characters.
I don’t see him as necessarily “evil” per-se but as a mischievous misanthrope who is utilizing his natural place in the order of things, in a social-Darwinist sort of way.
The Kaiser (third from left) views the prototype A7V with its wooden body at the Daimler works in Marienlelde. Oberleulnant von Kichsted, P/Kraftwagen MG.Abt.l, conducts the display on June 19, 1917.
