A selection of wartime photos.
Crying woman at a ruined house, 1941
Citizen soldiers are digging out antitank ditches near Moscow, June 1941
Foreign journalists are inspecting a Nazi plane disabled during the attack of Moscow, November 1941
Before going to the front, Leningrad, November 1941
Russian women are digging out antitank ditches, Leningradf 141
Soldiers crossing the river, 1941
Russians used special rollers for cleaning out snow. It let prepare airfields in the shortest possible time, 1941
Soviet troops fighting German troops, March 3rd, 1942
German prisoners captured by the Russians not far from Moscow, 1942
German soldiers didn’t bear the severe winter and Soviet attacks and are yielding themselves prisoners. November, 1942
Killed German soldiers, 1942
Soldiers in camouflage cloaks, 1942
Soviet soldiers ready for winter conditions of the war, 1942
via humus
Some of those photos are clearly posed the 8th photo with the troops crossing the river they are acting as if they are under fire yet you can clearly see a an M1910 Maximum MG and they are crossing in front of it line of fire he’d shoot his own men from that line of sight.
The “cover” photo I would also say was posed you would not simply allow enemy troops to get so close to you even if they appear to be surrendering with out aiming your weapons at them and making them stop and then covering some of your men while they are searched simply letting them approach like that is asking for several hidden grenades to get tossed into your lap.
I’ll be the first one to agree the russians did pose a lot of photos. But I don’t think the one crossing the river looks like they’re under fire. Looks like they’re just crossing, with their weapons held up.
But, yeah, that guy is going to kill them if he shoots. So, is he there to protect them?? OR, is he there to shoot them if they DO NOT cross the river?? They did a lot of that too.
And you’re right about allowing POW’s to get near you. But maybe these guys haven’t found that out yet?
Hard to say really.
They’re not crossing shit as if they were under fire, they’re walking in water.
ER won’t post this, but truth is that many war photos “posed” or re-enacted because no cameramen in close action – too dangerous. If an action was successful, and a war cameraman could be found, often the action was restaged. Same with Americans in WW II. House-to-house fighting in Stalingrad particularly hazardous to photograph. But folks back home wanted pictures.
I wonder was those antitank ditches useful. Don`t feel wise use of labour.
Most people think that anti-tank ditches are meant to have a tank drive in to the ditch (thus disabling it).
Not quite. The most effective use of anti-tank ditches are as choke-points, to hold up the enemy. To slow them down (while they look for a way around, or while they are looking for something to enable the tanks to cross).
Those rollers pack down the snow, level windrows and pressure ridges. That makes a usable landing field in just hours.
Same technique is used by todays Pistenbullies, to prepare ski-pistes in the alpes.
Photos often were “reenacted” or posed simply because photographers either were not at whatever event at exactly the right time, or for safety reasons. Does not distract from the truth of the event. Soviet flag on the Reichstag was “posed” more than once, as was the US flag on Iwo Jima.
Scenes from the war had to be “posed” or “reenacted” simply because photographers were not on hand when the event, often very dangerous, occurred. Makes sense. Some “reenactments” involved hundreds of troops: The successful Soviet Operation Uranus which captured Nazi 6th Army included no cameramen plus it was very foggy, so one of the big field operations was re-staged later.