Picture of the day

No, my friend, it does not. Glad we seem to avoid going to war more than throwing off the gloves. That fact helps me maintain some faith in our species. :)

Here's an odd one: the "Borgward B IV Ausführung mit Raketenpanzerbüchse 54".

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That's a wee tracked utility (futility?) vehicle, armed with six Panzershrecks. Extra-large crew compartment for the accommodation of testicles the size of grapefruit. Found this lil' weirdo at http://www.oocities.org/augusta/8172/panzerfaust3.htm if anyone's interested in more info.

Here's one in happier times:
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points said:
Back to tanks and WW2 Top picture is my grandfather third from left standing
Bottom is my father third from left foreground. He was Polish attatched to the Brits.
I'm glad they never met untill after the war, or I might not have been here
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I have a similar situation. My grandfather was Prussian and German officer while my father was Polish. He was captured by the Russians as he was going home on leave. Long story short, he was with the Second Polish Corp attached to the 8th Army. He did Africa and Italy driving a jeep. Once the war stopped, he drove a truck similar to the ones pictured. he looked a lot like the guy second of the right! I can't see if the guy had corporal stripes like my father.
Henry
 
These are fascinating stories. I have German/Polish heritage. My Great-Great Grandfather and his family came to Canada in the 1880s during the land giveaway in Eastern Ontario to encourage people to settle here rather than the American West. My Great-Grandfather and his brothers would've had to make a decision whether they were going to fight for the Kaiser or the King in WWI. They mostly chose to do neither. Some joined up in 1917, but never made it to the front lines. I don't envy them their conundrum.
 
I have a similar situation. My grandfather was Prussian and German officer while my father was Polish. He was captured by the Russians as he was going home on leave. Long story short, he was with the Second Polish Corp attached to the 8th Army. He did Africa and Italy driving a jeep. Once the war stopped, he drove a truck similar to the ones pictured. he looked a lot like the guy second of the right! I can't see if the guy had corporal stripes like my father.
Henry[/QUOTE]

You should read the book "For your freedom and ours" by Margaret Brodniewicz-Stawiki. The story of the Polish forces in WW2. The Poles are the most under rated military of WW2. They fough on every front and in huge numbers. Politics post war made it so that their contribution was down played.
http://www.amazon.com/For-Your-Freedom-Ours-Polish/dp/1551250357
 
The horse on the bottom wasn't dead: lifting its head, and the fellow in the trench is probably wearing a nice pair of Made in USA (or Canada) boots. Notice the canteen cup just above the PPSH mag.
 
RRCo. said:
The horse on the bottom wasn't dead: lifting its head, and the fellow in the trench is probably wearing a nice pair of Made in USA (or Canada) boots. Notice the canteen cup just above the PPSH mag.
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The picture with the horses looks like it could be one of those drills the cavalry and other animal-based units used to run, where they got the animals to lie down and used them as a protected shooting position. In this case, perhaps a metropolitan mounted police unit?
 
screwtape said:
The picture with the horses looks like it could be one of those drills the cavalry and other animal-based units used to run, where they got the animals to lie down and used them as a protected shooting position. In this case, perhaps a metropolitan mounted police unit?
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Gentleman in the foreground looks pretty outgunned (and silly), and if the bottom horse gets wounded the rest aren't going to have any kneecaps or ankles left.


Picture of the soldier in the foxhole/trench makes me want to know the whole story? Did he die wounded curled up in the fetal position? Sleeping and trench wall collapsed burying him alive? Really brings home the sacrifice made. - to me anyways
 
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This picture was taken during the first day of the Spanish Civil war in 1936. The photographer was Agusti Centelles and the title of the picture is titled "The Barricade of Dead Horses".
 
My heart always goes out to those draft animals. They are the real innocents that paid the highest prices. Men can make their own choices.
 
That bottom horse could be dead. Likely is in my opinion. If the horse had died with it's head in that position, and then was moved into that barricade after rigor mortis had set in, it's head would stay in that position. In any case, no live horse that I ever met would consent to being on the bottom of a pile like that. Not without being drugged anyway, in which case it would not be holding it's head up.
 
screwtape said:
The picture with the horses looks like it could be one of those drills the cavalry and other animal-based units used to run, where they got the animals to lie down and used them as a protected shooting position. In this case, perhaps a metropolitan mounted police unit?
Click to expand...

The shooters do look somewhat posed, but what sometimes happened was during a "real event" a photographer would appear and the principals would then strike suitable poses on their own initiative or at the suggestion of the photographer.

The fellow in the foreground is obviously a civilian with whatever he had for a weapon; if this was a drill of some kind he would not be there with his pocket pistol and his open-tongue loafers! ;)

Notice that there is at least one more horse and a cross-bar visible, and from the rifle scabbard on the horse in the center, this must have been a military or police team of horses.

As for the horse being dead, personally I doubt it. When a burst of fire hits a team in harness they drop in a pile and as many soldiers memoirs comment it was hell to untangle them. The horse on the bottom might also have been wounded and unable to stand even without the weight of the apparently dead horse in the center on top of his back.
 
The horse is dead. The rein on the right side is taut through the guide, likely wound up in another horses legs etc. You can see the bridle is twisted as the head is held in place.

Historically horses were the main implement of war until the 1900. Many were raised and died for mankinds battles, but now we have better ways to kill each other, so we just don't raise as many horses.
 
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