Rare Images From Stalingrad: 1942-43: Initial Stages

Here are images from the Battle of Stalingrad in the early stages when the Germans were sure of eventual victory and the Russians were fighting desperately to maintain their tenuous foothold.

German soldiers watch as Soviet positions are bombarded. 1942 (Apiimages)

VIDEO: GERMAN NEWSREEL SEPTEMBER 1942: LUFTWAFFE BOMBING STALINGRAD

VIDEO: GERMAN NEWSREEL, OCTOBER 1942: STALINGRAD

An eerie sight. A cemetery for German soldiers in the Stalingrad area

VIDEO: GERMAN NEWSREEL NOVEMBER 1942 : STALINGRAD

No. This is not a scene from the Hollywood film, "Enemy At The Gates." This is Stalingrad in 1942. The Russians are ferrying men and supplies into the city by boat over the Volga. The Luftwaffe bombers are hammering them. Crossing the river was very hazardous.

As the German Sixth Army moved in, Richthofen's boys of the Luftwaffe pulverised Stalingrad into bits. Later that bombing went against the Germans, as the Russians used the ruins to fight a city guerrilla warfare for which the Germans were not prepared.

German soldiers after the surrender on February 2, 1943.

This is what a once bustling city was reduced to by the Battle of Stalingrad.

Russians crossing the River Volga as the German planes hunt them.

Graves of dead German soldiers in Stalingrad

Stalingrad, autumn 1942. German soldiers besides a Russian T-34 tank (Bundesarchiv)

German soldiers bring a Pak-38 anti-tank gun to the battle-field

Men of the German Sixth Army on the way to Stalingrad

German soldiers walk on the streets of Stalingrad (bpkgate.picturemaxx.com)

Germans fire a Pak-38 anti-tank gun (ullsteinbild.de)

A German soldier on the eastern bank of the Don with a MG-34 machine gun during the attack on Stalingrad. (Stalingrad - Eine Chronik in Bildern)

German soldiers drink water in Stalingrad  (Stalingrad - Eine Chronik in Bildern)

A German Panzer 4 tank in an attack position (bpkgate.picturemaxx.com)

German soldiers pose with a destroyed Soviet T-26 tank with a dead Russian soldier

German tanks at Stalingrad. September 1942

Stalingrad 1942. Soviet soldiers capture a German sniper. The poor guy is in a bad shape. Stalingrad was a rough place to be in.

German soldiers of the 389th Infantry Division at the :Red October" factory

August 1942. Stalingrad burns after the furious bombing by Richthofen's Luftwaffe.  In the foreground is the famous "Children dance" fountain  Notice the balloons in the sky to thwart the Luftwaffe bombers 

A German officer briefs his men  from the 389th infantry division before a mission

A German officer with a Soviet PPSh-41 sub-machine gun

Long before the tragedy. Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans in Stalingrad.

Nikita Khrushchev, member of the Military Council with Soviet commanders in Stalingrad

German soldiers with a MG 34 machine gun ready to assault a Soviet position in Stalingrad

German fighters on way to Stalingrad

Alexander Rodimtsev, a top Soviet commander in Stalingrad

Benno Wundshammer, the famous German journalist and photographer with German officers at Stalingrad

 German soldiers question a captured Soviet soldier in Stalingrad

 Kindness in hell? A German soldiers tends to a wounded Russian girl in the ruins of Stalingrad

A German soldier fires at the Soviet position in Stalingrad

Suggested Film

"Problem is not many people have seen it"

TRAILER OF "STALINGRAD"

BUY DVD OF THE FILM

Rare Pictures From The Vietnam War

A North Vietnamese militia fighter girl smiles triumphantly as she passes by a downed American B 52 bomber.

Last days: South Vietnamese enjoy their momentary victory as they beat off a North Vietnamese attack  at Xuan Loc in 1975.

A Vietcong fighter uses a flame-thrower against American troops

"The Hanoi Hilton". The North Vietnamese prison for American POW in Hanoi.

A South Vietnamese oil depot burns after an attack by the NVA in the dying moments of the Vietnam War

Glum American POW at the "Hanoi Hilton"

A South Vietnamese Army soldier threatens a Vietcong prisoner to prise some information out of him

North Vietnamese militia  escort an injured American prisoner in a cart

SOUTH KOREAN SOLDIERS TOO FOUGHT ALONGSIDE THE AMERICANS IN VIETNAM

In total, between 1965 and 1973, 312,853 South Korean soldiers fought in Vietnam; Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Communications estimated they killed 41,400 North Vietnamese Army soldiers and 5,000 civilians. South Korean troops were hampered by their lack of command of any of the major languages in the country or among their allies. They were also accused of war atrocities, and are known to have left behind thousands of children of mixed Korean and Vietnamese descent.-------------------------------------------------
A South Korean Soldier in Vietnam....

Kim Young Man fought alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam. While American forces provided artillery backup, Korean soldiers like Kim were stationed on the front lines. His job was to keep allied forces alive by killing as many of the enemy as possible. 

Today, interviewed by telephone, Kim struggles to talk about killing Vietnamese during the battle.

"War is not a game," he says. "We fought. We killed people, what else should I say?" Kim speaks softly, gets choked up, breaks off the conversation several times and then calls back.

Living with decades of guilt, Kim says it took him a long time to admit Korean soldiers had massacred thousands of Vietnamese, including civilians.

"We had the pride of joining the war for a long time," says Kim. "That's why most veterans exaggerate or boast the Vietnam War experience rather than reflect that war is fundamentally wrong and we did something wrong there."

Vietnamese-Korean mixed children

The fathers include both members of the South Korean military and Korean workers who were stationed in Vietnam during the War. The children were usually abandoned by their fathers. South Koreans kidnapped young Vietnamese girls to sell them as a "Comfort Women" or also known as "Lai Daihan" or "Sex Slaves". The Viet Cong registered a complaint during the war that South Koreans were abducting and raping large numbers of Vietnamese women.

A South Korean soldier (White Horse Division) in an attack north of Bong Son with the wife and family of a suspected Viet Cong 

 Koo Soo-jung, a graduate student in a Vietnamese university, reported  that she had uncovered verifiable proof of Korean soldiers' human rights atrocities on Vietnamese civilian population during the Vietnamese War. She had dug government documents, searched official archives, met the victim's relatives and survivors, and recorded their testimony.
http://www.peoplepower21.org/English/37779

Troops from South Korea level a village in Bong Son

South Korean military headquarters - Ninh Hoa, Vietnam

Rare Stunning Images Of The Tet Offensive

We have mainly seen images of the Tet Offensive shot by Americans; hence an American tint comes in. Presented below are some images taken by a Japanese lens man, Ishikawa Bunyo. They capture the drama of the critical period of history; a view not American.

The term "Tet offensive" usually refers to the January–February 1968 NLF offensive, but it can also include the so-called "mini-Tet" offensives that took place in May and August.

The Main Tet Offensive Jan-Feb 1968

Mini Tet Offensive in May 1968

South Vietnamese soldiers with Vietcong prisoners during the Tet Offensive. Dakao. May 1968

South Vietnamese with a frightened Vietcong prisoners. Both the Communists and the South Vietnamese fighters  treated prisoners brutally. Threw the Geneva Conventions rule-book out of the window

South Vietnamese soldiers in action. May 5, 1968

Saigon. 1968

In any war, the civilians suffer the most. Vietnamese people flee from the fighting

A member of the 7th ABn. Bn, 1st ARVN Abn Div, takes up his position near the wall of the French National Cemetery.

Dead Vietcong fighters

This American soldier shields these Vietnamese children from the firing

Image Source
These images On Flickr

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SUGGESTED READING

BUY THE BOOK

Chien Tranh Giai Phong Viet Nam 
By ISHIKAWA, Bunyo
 466 pp.
Text entirely in Japanese. Riveting documentary images of the Vietnam War, many in color, shot over the course of the war, with some images from other, earlier books. A comprehensive survey seen from a non-American perspective.