WW2 Daily Pic

The British Free Corps (German: Britisches Freikorps) was a unit of the Waffen SS during World War II consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The unit was originally known as the Legion of St George. Research by British historian Adrian Weale has identified 54 men who belonged to this unit. In March 1945, a BFC detachment was deployed with the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland under Brigadeführer Joachim Ziegler, which was composed largely of Scandinavian volunteers and attached to the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps under Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. On March 22, as the company was entrenching, it was partially overrun by an advance element of the Red Army which had blundered into its position by accident. Although taken by surprise, the SS troopers, including the BFC volunteers, quickly regained their wits and launched a vigorous counterattack, driving off the Soviets.

The Legion of French Volunteers was mainly made up of right-wing Frenchmen and French prisoners of war; the latter who preferred fighting to forced labor in Nazi Germany. Many Russians who fled the Bolshevik Revolution (1917–1922) and who were enrolled in the Légion étrangère (Foreign Legion) joined the LVF. Created in 1941, the LVF received 13,400 applicants, but many were weeded out and 5,800 were placed on the rolls.
The LVF while in France wore a French army style khaki uniform, while outside France they wore the standard German Army uniform with an LVF shield on the right upper arm with the colors of the French flag with the word France or LVF. Both German and French decorations were worn.
By October 1941, there were two battalions of 2,271 men which had 181 officers and an additional staff of 35 German officers. They fought the Soviet Union Red Army as part of the foreign contingent of the German Army. They were sent into combat near Moscow in November 1941 as part of the 7th Infantry Division. The LVF lost half their numbers in action or through frostbite. In 1942 the men were assigned to anti-partisan duties in the Byelorussian SSR (Belarus). At the same time, another unit was formed in France, La Légion Tricolore (Tricolor Regiment) but this unit was absorbed into the LVF six months later.[6]
During the spring of 1942, the LVF was reorganized with only the 1st and 3rd battalions. The LVF's French commander, Colonel Roger Labonne, was relieved in mid-1942, and the unit was attached to various German divisions until June 1943 when Colonel Edgar Puaud took command. The two independent battalions were again united in a single regiment and continued fighting partisans in Ukraine. In early 1944, the unit again took part in anti-partisan duties. In June 1944, the LVF was called into action when Army Group Centre's front collapsed under the Red Army's summer offensive. The LVF was attached to the 4th SS Police Regiment and fought in a delaying action.
A new recruiting drive in Vichy France attracted 3,000 applicants, mostly members of collaborationist militia and university students. The new formation was known as the 8th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France. On 1 September 1944, the Legion of French Volunteers was officially disbanded. A new unit, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne", was formed out of the remnants of the LVF and French Sturmbrigade, which was also disbanded. In February 1945, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade was officially upgraded to a division and became the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French). At that time it had a strength of 7,340 men.

men of 442nd regiment of US Army.

almost wholly made out of Japanese American, volunteers from interment camps. Served in Western Europe. Most decorated regiment of the war.

One famous battle was about "Lost Battlion" (WW2) where ~250 men from a Texan battalion got cut off and 442nd was tasked to break in. Mission accomplished after 160 dead and ~2000 wounded from 442nd. Alleged, when the 442nd charged at the end (which led to German lines finally breaking), they screamed 'Banzai".

The Focke-Wulf Triebflügel (Triebfluegel if the ü-umlaut is not used), or Triebflügeljäger, literally meaning "thrust-wing hunter", was a German concept for an aircraft designed in 1944, during the final phase of World War II as a defence against the ever-increasing Allied bombing raids on central Germany. It was a vertical take-off and landing tailsitter interceptor design for local defense of important factories or areas which had small or no airfields.
The Triebflügel had only reached wind-tunnel testing when the Allied forces reached the production facilities. The design was particularly unusual. It had no wings, and all lift and thrust were provided by a rotor/propeller assembly 1/3 of the way down the side of the craft (roughly halfway between cockpit and tailplane). When the plane was sitting on its tail in the vertical position, the rotors would have functioned similarly to a helicopter.[2] When flying horizontally, they would function more like a giant propeller.

This ISU has afterwar plate above track. I think it is from Hungary uprising (1956)

This ISU has afterwar plate above track. I think it is from Hungary uprising (1956)

Yes, it's ISU-152M - Hungary 1956

I would not rely too much on this documentary series. It has some harsh critics and very debatable 'information' and 'truths'.

I would not rely too much on this documentary series. It has some harsh critics and very debatable 'information' and 'truths'.

Lol.
We - germans - call it "Knopp-Propaganda"
Guido Knopp had a special point of view on history. Sometimes he is a real problem e.g. when he is cutting down his hours of veteran interviews or "expert interviews" to get only a single sentence out of the context. He was too obsessed with his one-side focus.

Lol.
We - germans - call it "Knopp-Propaganda"
Guido Knopp had a special point of view on history. Sometimes he is a real problem e.g. when he is cutting down his hours of veteran interviews or "expert interviews" to get only a single sentence out of the context. He was too obsessed with his one-side focus.

Lol sounds about right xd. Google'ed him, his books seem right int he lane of the WW2 fairytales.

keep the thread exclusively about the pics and stories about the pics.

when it comes to documentaries (and some photos), i am sure any people with human IQ will take any docs with a pinch of salt. so you dont have to scream which one is true and which one is not.

Soon after Otto Carius graduated from school, World War II broke out. Carius enlisted in the army and first served in the infantry, before volunteering for the Panzer branch. In 1943, Carius transferred to the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion (Tigers). He became commander of a Jagdtiger company of the 512th Heavy Antitank Battalion at the beginning of 1945. On 8 March 1945, 2nd Company was directed to the front line near Siegburg, where it took part in the defense of the River Rhine. He surrendered to the United States Army on 7 May 1945 and was released on 21 May 1945. After the war, Carius set up a pharmacy which was aptly called "Tiger Apotheke". Carius died on 24 January 2015 at age 92. The news coverage around his death described him as a "panzer ace credited with destroying more than 150 enemy tanks, mostly in Tigers while on the Eastern Front. Awards
Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (15 September 1942) & 1st Class (23 November 1943)
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Knight's Cross on 4 May 1944 as Leutnant of the Reserves and platoon leader in the 2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502
Oak Leaves on 27 July 1944 as Leutnant of the Reserves and leader of the 2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502
Panzer Badge in Silver 2nd Grade (15 July 1944) & 3rd Grade (1 September 1944)