Ready for a quick summer campaign, wearing boots with iron heels. These men are perfectly equipped to freeze to death in a few months.
Their commanders knew full well that the Russians did not hesitate to sack Moscow when Napoleon came marching in, and they had no reason to believe things would be any easier this time around.
At first glance, this looks like a picture of soldiers advancing rapidly and successfully. In reality it shows the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.
and they had no reason to believe things would be any easier this time around.
Ah but you see, Napoleon wasn’t an infallible Aryan! That’s where he went wrong
Those tracks up ahead in the distance look pretty muddy. They might not be running into any military resistance, but they are already facing off against an enemy that will soften them up for General Winter and Marshall Zukhov to break them: Rasputitsa.
Grass is green. Weather is nice. Feeling really good about this.
No phone in sight. People living in the moment.
#squadgoals
Jokes on you, color didn’t exist when this photo was taken. Life was just grayscale.
Unless you’re in Mexico, where everything is still sepia to this day.
I would like to know, how many of the men in this picture (including inside the tanks) went on to survive the war
That’s the fun part. They didn’t.
Yeah that’s kind of what I figure given how well the invasion went
Take this with a grain of salt but I think it might be a picture of the 6. Panzer-Division.
That Division was in the Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group North) at the start of Operation Barbarossa and after the siege of Leningrad started it was relocated to the Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Middle) where they took part in the attack on Moscow. They then had to be taken out of the front to be rearmed and retrained after heavy casualties, so I assume most of the soldiers shown in the picture where either dead or incapacitated at that point.
Later they were used in the Heeresgruppe Don/Süd (Army Group Don or later/before Army Group South) for the failed relief attack of Stalingrad and Operation Zitadelle.
They came back to Germany for replenishment shortly before Operation Bagration started and came back to Heeresgruppe Mitte when it ended.
Then they were sent to Hungary and later capitulated to the Red Army in May 1945.
Interestingly enough Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the officer who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb, was in that Division for a while.
Cheers i appreciate the effort
No problem, after reading your comment I wanted to know myself.
They’re riding a Panzerkampfwagen IV.
Looks like a nice day for a picnic
