13-330 Garand Picture of the Day

[Snafu]

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[CINDERS]

Possible sniper engagement, I limbing it here but would that be the rear end of an M-10 tank destroyer probably got the ID wrong but heck I do try (probably everyone's patience)
Thing with sniping out of a tower makes shoot and scoot almost impossible.................?

[WarPig1976]

Thing with sniping out of a tower makes shoot and scoot almost impossible.................?

Your a deadman walking, they knew it was a one way ticket up those steps.

[mil-surp60]

yep, back then men were men and knew it was 1 way ticket most times, but thats just how the american infantry man is, do or die , salute,thanx for sharing. Looks to be some sort of self propelled gun i would say as well.

[RT Ellis]

IMO it's a posed scene that the viewer is supposed to believe is an "action" shot.

[ABPOS]

IMO it's a posed scene that the viewer is supposed to believe is an "action" shot.

I second that.

[CINDERS]

Cannot say posed or not but given the destruction and the soldier huddling the armoured vehicle we can guess and procrastinate about posing all we wish to, BUT! the thing to remember is the allied nations won the conflict that I believe got rid of @50 million people between 1939 - 1945 so probably just under say 10 million casualties of all types per year food for thought.

I would just like to thank Snafu for posting these pics to give personnel some idea of what the battle field soldier faced in their daily lives in the kill-eat-kill-sleep-kill-eat....... world that they lived in so we as a free people could enjoy the life that we wish even though Govt's try as others to break the people who like to collect and shoot military weapons. (sorry about Govt thingy but we suffer badly here in Australia with the Govt.)

Mind you a Russian Typhoon class sub or a USA nuclear sub could wipe us all out in a blink of an eye that's even more scary food for thought

[Mark in Rochester]

13-150 Garand Picture of the Day - Oberhoffen, 1945

[browningautorifle]

The last time we had that photo, I looked at the town church and could not for the life of me find that angle...

[RT Ellis]

Since I started a minor controversy over my opinion of this image I offer the following explanation:

There were three or maybe four people involved in the creation of this image - the German(s), the subject soldier, the photographer, and possibly the editor that wrote the cutline for the image although that may have been the photographer.

Assuming the placement of the photographer he was in the open and in clear view of the church spire, which to me means he would have been a target for the sniper. In my estimation at best this image was taken a few minutes after the sniper threat was neutralized and either staged (posed) or the soldier in the image was prudently staying under cover and remaining alert.

Because of the nature of the film camera equipment the photographer very often didn't process the film or print the images, and sometimes the cutline was written from the photographer's notes after the image was printed. It was not uncommon for the person writing the cutline to misinterpret the image and notes, or to do some creative writing to make the image more interesting or dramatic.

A case in point is two of the images taken by Correspondent Joe Rosenthal on Mt. Suribachi. Shortly after the famous image of Marines raising a flag was taken, Rosenthal gathered nearby Marines and staged them in a sort of victory celebration photograph. Later after the film had been developed, printed, and the flag raising was recognized for the dramatic event it conveyed someone asked Rosenthal (who was not yet aware of the sensation the flag raising image was causing) if the image was posed. Rosenthal thought the person was asking about the staged image and said that it was. As a consequence the myth got stated that the flag raising image was staged.

Another image more closely related to the image in this post is the famous image of a Spanish soldier at the moment he was hit taken by Joe Capra during the Spanish Civil War. There is much controversy about whether the image was staged by Capra or a bona fide combat image. Without going into a long discussion here it appears that the image was most likely taken during training in a secure area under Capra’s direction, and not in combat. My own take on the image is that Capra would have had to expose himself to small arms fire to have captured the image (just as the photographer that took the image subject to the post had to).

In the course of the book project I am working on I have examined thousands of images and found that the cutline information is not always accurate, and in some cases wildly inaccurate as to subject, place, event, and date. The more remote from the event the cutline writer was, very often the more inaccurate the information. I have also recognized cutlines that were written in a way that was intended to more dramatize the image, or at best make the image "representative" of the event. I think that is the case with the subject image, it was most likely taken after the event was secure and intended to convey the drama of the event.

The reason why so many images of soldiers in combat are taken from behind or below is the photographers were prudently keeping as much cover as possible; it was not their job to lead the assault camera in hand. On the other hand it was their job to capture images of soldiers doing their jobs and quite a few correspondents and military photo journalists were KIA and WIA trying to get images that would tell the story.

I invite you to assume the position of the person that captured the images you are viewing for a different perspective of the event.

Beside indulging in creative writing to dramatize an event journalists in an endeavor to sell their writing are known to be inaccurate in their reporting. I have been involved in incidents that when printed in the local prominent newspaper I didn't recognize as the same incident I was involved in. I was also in my last assignment in the U.S. Army Reserve the CO of a public affairs detachment, and completed the Defense Information School course where integrity in reporting was discussed. In the course of these experiences I have looked at many photo images, read many cutlines, and created both (doing my best to be accurate in my descriptions).