Story From Everyday

Three Soviet POWs, one who looks like a civilian, stand in their own grave moments before their execution by German Wehrmacht forces. Eastern Front, 1942. Some examples from an interrogation report of *U-490*, sunk 12 June 1944: >The captain, Oberleutnant z. S. d. R. Wilhelm Gerlach, was 39 years of age.  For many years before the war, he had served in the merchant marine and had won his master’s certificate.  At the outbreak of war, he was drafted to the U-boat arm as an enlisted man.  He served for a time under Kapitänleutnant Johann Mohr on U-124, first as quartermaster and later as executive officer.  U-490 was his first U-boat command.  His men were rather scornful of Gerlach.  They felt that he was too timid and resembled a clerk in a shoe store more than a naval officer.  He was pleasant and polite but very secure with his interrogators.  They were astonished to find that a man of his age and worldly experience had succumbed so comp...

Germans capture Soviet soldiers, 1942 The small emblems on the sleeves of the two Germans just to the right of center of the pic indicate that they're signals troops. I'd guess this was happening well behind the front lines, and the surrendering troops (one emerging from the cellar, plus two at right of the picture) had been cut off and hiding out for awhile. That or it was staged after the fact with pow's and troops that were available behind the lines. That came out rather cynical-sounding, I don't mean to disparage the picture itself and staged war photographs have historical and sometimes artistic merit as well. It is also possible it was not staged, it just comes across as a possibility to me. (some people always get very irate when it is even presented as a possibility for some reason) Click Here To See More Photos You Can Click Here to Watch The Video

The Japanese began to move Australian prisoners of war to Thailand and the hell that would be the Burma-Thailand Railway on May 15, 1942. The first group, A Force, was 3,000-strong and commanded by Brigadier A. L. Varley. About 13,000 Australians were to be used as slave labour on the railway's construction, with about 2,800 dying there and many more later passing away as a result of the inhuman working conditions. Overall, a staggering 61,811 British, Dutch, Australian and American POWs and 177,700 civilian slaves from Malaya, Burma, Java and Singapore were to lose their lives. May you all rest in peace. Photo: Mess parade for POWs of the Japanese, at a camp on the Burma-Thailand railway. In theory the Japanese ration scale for POWs on the railway included 680 grams of rice, 520 grams of vegetables and 110 grams of meat or fish per man per day. In practice, these figures were seldom achieved during the railway construction period. Those unable to work because of illness were reduc...