World War 2 In Review: May 2025

The War in View

The man in charge of D-Day, General Dwight D Eisenhower and his senior commanders at Supreme Allied Headquarters in London, February 1944.

Omaha Beach secured shortly after D-Day, dozens of ships unload hundreds of vehicles and thousands of troops, June 1944.

Three ships in Darwin Harbour just prior to the first Japanese raid on 19 February 1942. Identified from left: the sloop HMAS Swan; the US transport ship SS Mauna Loa, which was sunk during the Japanese air raid; the sloop HMAS Warrego. Both sloops survived the war and are seen here camouflaged.

View of part of a harbor on the French Moroccan coast through a hole blasted in the wall of a building by attacking Allied forces during the invasion.

General Douglas MacArthur confers with President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines on Corregidor as the campaign was coming to a close.

Allied soldiers wade out to rescue vessels, Dunkirk, May 1940.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, following a conference at the Allied commander's advance headquarters in Normandy, August 1944.

Commanders of SWPA land, sea and air forces, assembled at Alamo Force HQ, Goodenough Is., New Guinea, 12-16 December 1943, for a discussion of operations against the Admiralties. Left to right: ?, Brig. General Edwin D. Patrick, MacArthur, Kenney (in back, ?), Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, ?.

En route to England, the men of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry found and rescued this pup, Smokey, seen here in Iceland. At right, is a member of the British 1st Airborne Division to which the 2nd Battalion was attached for training. The 2nd Battalion was later redesignated as the 2nd Battalion of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Canadian postage stamp issued in 1992 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Alaskan Highway.

Numerous tests were made to increase the range of German heavy artillery. The projectiles ranged from rocket-assisted to pre-rifled shells to cut down the friction. The drawing shows a shell with disintegrating rotating bands. The bands drop off when the projectile leaves the bore. The remaining projectile has a much better aerodynamic shape than conventional projectiles.

As the shortage of brass and steel became acute in Germany, other means of making infantry ammunition was explored. A caseless or combustible cartridge was developed and tested. The case was made of solidified gun powder and totally consumed when the gun was fired.

German caseless 7.92-mm cartridge.

Japanese propaganda leaflet dropped on Bataan.

Japanese propaganda leaflet dropped on Corregidor.

Propaganda leaflet dropped by the Japanese on Bataan in early 1942.

Soviet propaganda poster, 1941: “The Motherland Calls!”

Prisoners at Dachau concentration camp cheer as the US 42nd Division pass by after they liberated the camp, 3 May 1945.

President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Admiral Ernest King, and General George C. Marshall, meet at the Trident Conference in Washington D.C., May 1943.

Gen. Carl Spaatz, Gen. George Patton, Gen. James Doolittle, Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, and Maj. Gen. O. P. Weyland at a meeting in Europe.

Three U.S. soldiers look at bodies stuffed into an oven in a crematorium in April of 1945. Dachau concentration camp.

A U.S. soldier inspects thousands of gold wedding bands taken from Jews by the Germans and stashed in the Heilbronn Salt Mines, on May 3, 1945 in Germany.

Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton view a pyre where corpses were burned at the Ohrdruf concentration camp, April 12, 1945.

Lving skeletons at the Ebensee concentration camp, a sub-camp of Mauthausen.

Mauthausen survivors cheer the soldiers of the 11th Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army one day after their actual liberation (the vehicle the American troops are on is an M8 Armored Car). The banner, written by Spanish inmates, reads, “The Spanish Anti-Fascists Salute the Liberating Forces.”

Document, "Instructions To All Persons of Japanese Ancestry," Civilian Exclusion Order posted by the Western Defense Command, 1942. (Pages 1 and 4)

Document, "Instructions To All Persons of Japanese Ancestry," Civilian Exclusion Order posted by the Western Defense Command, 1942. (Pages 2 and 3)

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, a presidential executive order that authorized the deportation of Japanese-Americans and Italian-Americans to prison camps. Shortly following this, orders were issued to Japanese Americans for their forced relocation.

This is Civilian Exclusion Order No. 69, issued by the Headquarters of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army to all persons of Japanese ancestry. It is dated May 12, 1942, and Lieutenant General J.L. DeWitt signed off on the order. This Order contains instructions for the "evacuation" and relocation of people of Japanese ancestry.

This Order was pursuant to the provisions of Public Proclamations dated March 2, 1942, and March 16, 1942, which established Military Areas No. 1 and No. 2, which encompassed parts of Washington, Oregon, and California, along with some parts of Arizona. It stated that any residents of Japanese ancestry were to be excluded from the areas for the purposes of national security, and included lists of areas where Japanese residents were not allowed to go.

This Order contained instructions to citizens on how to proceed with their "evacuation". The Order stated that from and after 12 o'clock noon, P.W.T. of Monday, May 18th, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry (alien and non-alien) were to be excluded from Military No. 1, which affected the County of Colusa and the Counties of Yuba and Sutter in the state of California. Anyone found in the area after the stated date or anyone who refused to comply with government instructions were liable to criminal penalties.

In this Order, individuals and families was advised to arrive at the Civil Control Station in Yuba County between the hours of 8 A.M. and 5 P.M. on Wednesday, May 13, 1942, and Thursday, May 14, 1942. From there, the individuals and families were given instructions and provided transportation to a temporary living center.

The Order instructed that "evacuees" bring a list of items to the Civil Control Center, which contained bedding and linens (but no mattresses) for every member of the family, toilet articles for every member, extra clothing for each member, and essential personal effects for every member of the family.

The Civil Control Station was equipped to assist in the "evacuation" by giving advice and instructions, providing services with respect to management, leasing, sale, storage, or other disposition of most kinds of property (real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles, livestock, etc), provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family groups, and transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment to their new residences.

American soldiers pose alongside a PzKpfw V Panther tank with a captured German flag, Normandy, June 1944.

Allied prisoners of war at Aomori camp near Yokohama cheered as US Navy and other Allied personnel arrived to rescue them, 29 August 1945.

US Marines showing their appreciation to the US Coast Guard during the invasion of Guam, Mariana Islands, August 1944.

American light machine gun .30 caliber T-66.

Baseball game, Saipan, 1945.

Army nurses, Saipan.

Boris Hagelin’s M-209 cipher machine, showing the mechanism, used by the U.S. Army during the war.

Göring, sixth from right, and other German officers look out across the English Channel towards Dover on 1 July 1940. It was as close as they would get to invading.

Soldiers of the U.S. 28th Infantry Division are welcomed by the people of Bastogne, as they arrive there in September 1944.

General Lewis A. Pick, the Ledo Road’s ingenious architect, rides in the first convoy that reaches Kunming via the Ledo Road.

A U.S. Army WAC looks over Cairo.

Home is where you hang your helmet. An American soldier shaves in front of a mirror hung from a palm tree in the North African desert.

Scenes from a War: Ground Power

US Army soldier throwing grenade during training.

View of a paratrooper just about to jump from the side door of a warplane. He is wearing the full kit and is carrying a rifle. It is likely that this is a posed image for YANK, the Army Weekly magazine. On two sides of the negative is the text, "HANLEY-YANK" and "Pvt. Johnny Jump." Circa 1944.

US Army paratrooper on a training jump.

US soldier inspecting a German Panzerschreck (right) and a US 2.36" Bazooka (left).

An American infantryman pausing in his advance through the forest. During the first ten days of the battle confusion reigned as hastily shifted troops arrived to reinforce the efforts of the isolated units attempting to halt the enemy attack. December 1944.

Soldiers on the beach of Normandy assist survivors of a landing craft sunk off shore.

Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., assistant commander of the 1st Infantry Division, seen here at the Tunisian front. An accomplished author, diplomat, businessman, and soldier, he was erudite and valorous; but in tattered fatigues and wool cap, he could be mistaken for a battalion cook.

British LCA landing craft with American soldiers, Operation Torch, November 1942.

Rangers from 2nd Ranger Battalion demonstrate the rope ladders they used to scale Pointe du Hoc. 1944.

Finnish machine gun nest near Syväri power plant area, April 23, 1944. Note that the spring thaw has flooded the position.

Finnish soldiers man trenches during the Winter War.

German troops in the suburbs of Leningrad, 24 November 1941.

German troops await the order to make their move. Eastern Front.

German graveyard, North Africa.

German soldiers marching through Oslo on the first day of the invasion.

Afrika Korps soldiers with captured Bren guns and Boys anti-tank rifle.

Generalfeldmarschall Paulus after surrender in Stalingrad 1943.

MG 42 machine gun position of the Waffen-Grenadier Division 33 "Charlemagne" during the summer of 1944 on the Eastern Front. The unit was formed by French volunteers in the Waffen-SS.

Waffen-SS soldiers with magnetic mines.

The crew of a 17 cm Kanone 18 rush to their weapon on February 2, 1944, near Berdichev, Russia.

German soldiers return fire, crouching in a ditch after being shot at by a sniper during the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941.

From 1943 to 1945, Matthäus Hetzenauer terrorized Soviet troops on the Eastern Front with his keen eye. He personally shot and killed 345 men, though Hetzenauer’s biographer believes the kill count could even have been twice that. The decorated sniper was wounded and captured all before his 30s, but he persisted in becoming one of the deadliest snipers in all of Germany. He received the Iron Cross First and Second Class for his numerous sniper kills and lack of fear for his own safety under artillery fire and enemy attacks, the Sniper Badge in Gold which he alone was awarded, the Close Combat Bar in Gold, the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver, the Black Wound Badge, and the German Cross in Gold. In May of 1945 Soviet forces captured him. Life as a prisoner wasn’t pleasant. He spent five years in a Soviet prison camp and was released in 1950. Matthäus Hetzenauer returned home where he became a carpenter. He married Maria, who outlived him by two years. He ultimately died in 2004 at the age of 79 after several years of deteriorating health.

A staff officer points to a location among the German defenses in Italy in October 1944 as Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of German forces in Italy, looks on during an inspection tour.

German sailors in winter camouflage man a position on the hills overlooking Narvik.

A heavy mortar, nicknamed “Thor,” was among the German artillery weapons used in the siege of Leningrad.

Reinhard Heydrich.

Surrendered German weapons, equipment and munitions.

Disarming Waffen-SS officer.

German POWs searched for weapons.

When American troops liberated prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp, Germany, in 1945, some German SS guards were killed by the prisoners who then threw their bodies into the moat surrounding the camp.

Under the watchful eyes of U.S. troops bearing bayonets, members of the Italo-German armistice commission in Morocco are rounded up to be taken to Fedala, north of Casablanca, on November 18, 1942. Commission members were surprised in American landing move.

As a horse-drawn German field howitzer moves along the road, two of its crew try to get some rest. Note the unit's sword insignia painted on the weapon's shield.

Despite the lack of rail resources in Russia, the Germans also employed heavy artillery in their siege of the larger cities.

German railway artillery gun firing.

Two members of the Free Arabian Legion and a Cossack Wehrmacht volunteer.

German infantry, Leningrad, 1941.

Field Marshal Albert Kesselring is accompanied by staff officers during an inspection of defensive positions in Italy in 1944.

German paratroopers in Normandy gather captured American weapons as they prepare to shift to a new defensive position as the Americans advance.

A German paratrooper accompanied by two SS soldiers advances through the rubble of the train station in Carentan.

Near the Orne Estuary, a British soldier (foreground) lies dead while German troops prepare to repel another assault.

German Fallschirmjägers and paratroopers from an independent Italian parachute battalion attacked Allied troops near the Anzio beachhead.

Accused of being a traitor, this Greek guerrilla is questioned extensively concerning information supplied to the Germans. The prisoner was later executed by the Evros Andartes.

Preparing to destroy a bridge, Greek soldiers move through extensive brush while wary of being discovered by the Germans.

Japanese troops advance swiftly past burning installations of the American military base at Subic Bay in the Philippines.

Japanese soldiers stand at attention on Wake Island during a ceremony to honor their comrades who fell in the brief but vicious battle to take control of the small spit of land.

Faced with the task of maintaining order in Vietnam south of the 16th parallel after the Japanese defeat, the British Major General Douglas D. Gracey made use of former enemies. Here a Japanese soldier posts the British declaration of martial law in Saigon, September 1945.

Disarmed then rearmed for police work, a Japanese guard greets HMS Waveney at Saigon, 4 October 1945.

Admiral Shigimatsu Sakaibara surrendered Wake Island to U.S. forces on September 4, 1945. Subsequently, he confessed to the murder of 98 American prisoners on the island. He was subsequently sentenced to death and on June 19, 1947, he was executed by hanging along with five other Japanese war criminals on Guam.

A Soviet sniper uses a periscope in the ruins of Stalingrad in September 1942.

Soviet soldiers in SSh-36 helmets.

Soviet soldiers in SSh-39 and SSh-40 helmets.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the deadliest female sniper in history. As a sniper for the Soviet Red Army, she killed 309 German soldiers, including several snipers. At just 24 years old, she had joined a group of 2,000 female snipers in the Red Army, only 500 of whom would survive World War II.

After the war, she attended a tour of the Allied countries. When she arrived in Washington D.C., she became the first Soviet citizen to be welcomed at the White House. While there, she struck up a friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko on her American tour.

High-intensity fighting in the Kharkov railway station in March 1943.

Swiss army performing anti-gas training. From L'Illustrazione Italiana, Year LXVII, No 4, January 29, 1940.

“May 9, 1940, Ankara, Turkey: With the spotlight of war showing indications of swinging towards the Eastern end of the Mediterranean, Turkey is beginning to feel the tension that has been the rule in other parts of Europe for the past half-year. The Turkish army is almost at full war strength and in the event of trouble probably would cooperate with the Allied army of the Near East. Above are Turkish infantryman, shown squatting in a strange position during a ‘fall-out’ on a long march during recent war games.”

After the surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia in May of 1943, Allied forces took more than 275,000 prisoners of war. Shown here is one roundup of thousands of German and Italian soldiers in Tunisia seen in an Army Air Forces aerial view, on June 11, 1943.

French troops on their way to the fighting lines in Tunisia shake hands with American soldiers at the rail station in Oran, Algeria, North Africa, on December 2, 1942.

Maj. Gen. Stanley E. Reinhart (center), commander of the 65th Division, meets with his Russian counterpart, commander of the 7th Guards Parachute Division, after their units linked up at Erlauf, Austria, and they learned of Germany’s surrender.

M1 75mm Pack Howitzer being loaded into a Waco CG-4A glider during training in the U.S.

Medic Elwin Armitage, 120th Med Bn, 45th Infantry Division (Thunderbirds) enjoying some rare sunshine during a lull in the battle for Anzio, Italy in April 1944. Armitage survived World War II, and passed away 9 October 1981.

US Army soldiers move across tank obstacles of the Siegfried Line.

US Army soldier in chemical warfare suit.

National Guard Troops at a campsite, August 1940.

Two US 1st Army medics give first aid to an injured French dog they had found amid the ruins of Carentan in Normandy, France, 1 July 1944.

Paratroopers at a drome (airfield) near Port Moresby, preparing to take off for a landing at Nadzab near Lae. One soldier is checking the gear of another. 5 September 1943.

Axel Olson, father of Sgt. Truman O. Olson, deceased, receiving the Medal of Honor from Col. W. Lutz Krigbaum on behalf of his son, who was killed at Anzio, Italy, during World War II. 1 February 1945.

U.S. Marines, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, 1943-1944.

A barber shop set up by an American Marine on Peleliu, Palau Islands, 11 October 1944.

A regimental command post at Iwo Jima, 1945.

Men of US 101st Infantry Regiment running past a burning fuel trailer in square of Kronach, Bayreuth, Germany, 14 April 1945.

Men of US Army 2nd Infantry Division advancing into Brest, France under German machine gun fire, 9 September 1944.

US Marine dirty after two days of fighting on Eniwetok, February 1944.

US Marines and sailors resting at the base of a Japanese war memorial, Okinawa, Japan, 12 April 1945.

US Marine mortar team, Iwo Jima, 1945.

Marine with captured Japanese machine gun on Saipan Island in the Pacific where some of the bloodiest battles of World War II took place.

US Marine Private Francis Hall and his Doberman war dog, Iwo Jima, March 1945.

Browning M1919 machine gun crew of 2nd Battalion, US 26th Infantry in the streets of Aachen, Germany, 15 October 1944.

US Marines in a stream on Guam, summer 1944.

Douglas MacArthur received the Medal of Honor for his service during the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, and the only man ever to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army.

Japanese-American troops of the 2nd Battalion, 442nd Regiment, US 34th Infantry Division awaiting transport, 14 October 1944.

Watching artillery fire hitting Japanese positions, Saipan, 8 July 1944.

Marines, with M1 carbines, Saipan, 8 July 1944. M4 medium tanks are in the background.

A Marine on the crest of a hill looks at artillery fire impacting on the last Japanese line of resistance in the north of Saipan, 7 July 1944.

Marines use grenades to flush out Japanese troops from underground positions, Saipan, 8 July 1944.

Marines examine the body and papers of a Japanese soldier, Saipan, 8 July 1944.

Marines bring in Japanese prisoners, Saipan, 4 July 1944.

Marines during a lull in the fighting, Saipan, June 1944.

Cat nap in a Normandy shelter. The infantryman’s helmet makes a pillow. Only visible signs of his buddy, stretched alongside in reverse, are his shoes. Grenades, ammunition, canteens, and supplies, lightly camouflaged, are within easy reach. These sleepy doughboys had been at the front continuously since their arrival in France on D-Day. Their unit is in reserve; so they are getting a rest.

Private Robert Steinmetz, Pittsburgh, found this mule on an Italian farm, more dead than alive. He bought it for five dollars, doctored it, and now has what he boasts is the hardest working and most faithful mule on the Italian pack trails.

Lieutenant Colonel William O. Darby, commander of the 1st Ranger Battalion, outside Arzew, Algeria. No one who met him ever doubted that he was born to lead other men in the dark of night.

Troops of the 32nd Infantry Division practice ascending and descending cargo nets prior to taking part in the offensive up the northern coast of New Guinea. U.S. naval base, Nelson’s Bay, New South Wales, Australia.

81mm mortar team, Tunisia, 1943.

American soldiers, Tunisia, 1943.

C-rations, Tunisia, 1943.

American soldiers, Tunisia, 1943.

155mm Gun firing on German positions, Tunisia, 1943.

A shelled building behind an Italian gun position, Tunisia, 1943.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 41st Engineers on parade with Sergeant Franklin Williams in color guard. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 41st Engineers on parade ground. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Williams at lunch. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Williams in the barracks. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Williams polishing his shoes in the barracks. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Franklin Williams on obstacle course. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Franklin Williams of the 41st Engineers. March 1942.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Sergeant Franklin Williams with 41st Engineers at pistol practice. March 1942.