Best posts made by captainwalker

January 18, 1944. Monte Cassino
In Italy the assault on the Cassino lines continues. The days following the 17th January saw some of the deadliest fighting of the campaign as first the French, then the British – a term which encompasses the Canadians, the Indians and the New Zealanders – and then the Americans, tried to break through.
Photo: British 5.5 inch medium artillery in action during the night barrage which opened the assault on the Garigliano River by the British 10th Corp
Source: WWII Today

@barnee another pic of that engagement…

January 20, 1942. Eastern Front

180 miles west of Moscow, Soviet 11th Cavalry Corps pushes south from Rzhev towards Vyazma, attempting to isolate German 9th Army at Rzhev. 50 miles further west, Soviet 4th Shock Army finally reaches the German supply dumps at Toropets after several days without food. They attack and capture 6 tanks, 723 trucks, artillery with 450,000 shells, small arms with millions of rounds of ammunition, 1000 drums of fuel and much food.

Source: worldwar2daybyday

On this day in 1944, Allied troops landed at the Italian town of Anzio in an attempt to outflank the defences of the Gustav Line.

January 24, 1945

M4 Sherman medium tanks of the 40th Tank Battalion, Combat Command R, 7th Armored Division, take up defensive positions in a field near St. Vith after retaking the village from the Germans.
(Photographed, Wednesday, January 24, 1945)

The 7th Armored, in a less famous but equally heroic stand than Bastogne, was cut off from reinforcements (except for scratch units of the 106th Infantry Division, 9th Armored Division and 28th Infantry Division) in St. Vith on December 17, 1944.
Faced with intermittent radio contact and a lack of supplies and reinforcements, the 7th Armored denied St. Vith from the Germans for five vital days. After regrouping and re-equipping in early January 1945, Combat Command B of the 7th Armored retook St. Vith on January 23.

(Caption from - worldwar2database.com)

(Photo source - United States Army Archive)

Messerschmitt 109 shot down during a night raid on the Anzio bridgehead. January 25, 1944

US B-17F Fortress “All-American” of 414th BS, 97th BG collides with a German fighter over Tunis, Tunisia, 1 Feb 1943.

February 3, 1941. Germany

Hitler appoints Erwin Rommel to command the newly-created Deutsches Afrikakorps which will soon be sent to Libya. Hitler considers Erich von Manstein before deciding on Rommel to replace Hans von Funck who is already in Libya making preparations but lacks attacking spirit.

Source: worldwar2daybyday

February 4, 1940. Finland

Consistent with Timoshenko’s small unit tactics, Soviet artillery, aircraft and tanks bombard Finnish positions in the Summa gap but Red infantry only advance on Summa village. Above Lake Ladoga, Colonel Dolin’s Siberian ski battalion arrives near the village of Kuhmo and counterattacks Finnish 9th division. After a week of pressure, Finnish IV Corps completes the destruction of west Lemetti motti, capturing 4 field guns, 2 antitank guns, 1 mortar, 32 tanks, 6 machineguns, 120 rifles and 26 trucks. Orders for the attack are notable for the first official use of the term “motti”.

Photo: Destroyed Soviet tanks after motti battles in Lemetti. SA-kuva.

Source: worldwar2daybyday

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

This iconic photograph was taken by Joe Rosenthal 74 years ago on this day, February 23rd 1945. It depicts 6 US Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi, during the fierce Battle of Iwo Jima, Japan.

Colourised by Marina Amaral

February 25, 1945

USMC 5th Division Marines grouped behind their Browning M1919 .30 calibre machine gun, display Japanese battle flags captured during the first few days of the bloody fight for Iwo Jima.

It was the men of the Fifth who fought their way to the top of Mount Suribachi to raise the American flag on the rim of the crater.

The 5th Division landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, southeast of Mount Suribachi. The division sustained heavy initial losses, so much so that by that afternoon, the 26th Marine Regiment had to be released as the division reserve.

On February 23, two American flags were raised on Mount Suribachi by members of the 28th Marine Regiment. The 5th Division would fight on Iwo Jima from February 19 until March 26 where they would sustain 2,482 killed in action, 19 missing in action, and 6,218 wounded in action. This was the highest casualty rate among the three Marine divisions involved in the invasion.

(U.S. Navy Official photograph)

April 30, 1941. North Africa

Rommel gets Paulus’ permission to attack Tobruk. At 2000 hours, German tanks break through the perimeter under cover of dark and an artillery barrage, Overnight, German infantry overrun several Australian gun posts but some hold out, preventing a complete collapse of the defences. To their right, Italian Brescia Division fails to break in.

Photo: German infantry assault party with tank support on its way through the wire obstacles in front of Tobruk.

Source: worldwar2daybyday

Panorama of German and Italian prisoners in Tunisia after the capitulation of the African Corps on May 13, 1943.

Royal Navy have stayed too long in the daylight hunting troopships: Luftwaffe dive-bombers have sunk 3 British cruisers, over 1000 dead; sky over Crete now black from burning ships.

Front page of the Syracuse Herald-Journal, 27 May 1941.

Kittyhawk fighters of the American Volunteer Group flying near the Salween River Gorge on the Chinese-Burmese border, 28 May 1942

On this day in 1944. Countdown to D-Day. Pathfinders, the first men to drop and mark drop zones. Men from 22 Independent Parachute Company, British 6 Airborne Division.
Source: RG Poulussen

Paratroopers of Easy Company, 506th PIR, “Band of Brothers”, in the square of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, D+1.

On this day in 1944. More of 7th Armoured Division arrive on Gold. Cromwell ‘T121766W’ from ‘A’ Squadron, 4th County of London Yeomanry leads the way. The ‘W’ indicates a welded tank with armour up to 100mm thick!

Imperial War Museum

No particular date on this one but here’s a cool pic of a camouflaged German Bf 109 on flight above the Libyan desert, Summer 1941.