Tag Archives: face of war

Smokin and jokin

Posted on by Leave a comment

Official caption:

“These American tankmen have just completed a hazardous trip back to the American lines near Cisterna, Italy, after the loss of their M-4 Sherman tank, 26 May 1944.”

L-R: Front row; Pvt. Floyd W. Shelton, Wichita, Kan., and Pvt. Vassar Nance, Leahville, Ark., and back row; Pvt. Donald Jones, Dexter, NY, and Cpl. Earl L. Larson, of S. Minneapolis, Minn.

For reference, the above men are likely of the 751st Tank Battalion, who led the breakout from the Anzio Beachhead in the Italian campaign. Notably, the 751st had already seen action in the African Campaign and Salerno. They would go on to be one of the first Allied units to enter Rome and be the first armored unit to reach the Po Valley and cross it. In all, they would spend 581 days in combat.

Haunting Pictures from Syria

Posted on by One comment

In fighting since March of last year against Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s regime, more than 26,000 civilians, including a small but couuragoiuse group of freefom fighters, have been killed. Its a war of T-72s main battle tanks and Mi-24 attack choppers against rebels with AKs and the occasional RPG. Dirty street to street fighting in a part of the world known for brutality. The Daily Mail has a ghostly series of photographs taken at the time of one of these battles.

Global Post photographer Tracey Shelton caught this haunting picture of three soldiers the Moment they died: The photographer captures the split second the tank shell hit the check-point killing three men as it detonates

Read more:

Another Casualty of World War Two

Posted on by Leave a comment

Modern Wars will continue to take lives for generations after the last shot has been fired and the ink has long since dried on the yellowing treaties that closed it. Along the battlefields of Napoleon, nearly two hundred years ago, farmers continue to dig up live shells. In Vicksburg recently a contractor building a house had to get assistance from an Ordinance Disposal group from Camp Shelby to disarm unexploded rounds from its siege in 1863. Agents Orange, Purple and others are calling for their butcher’s bill from the veterans of South East Asia on both sides of the ocean. Depleted Uranium is being investigated for its link to Gulf War Syndrome.

On New Years Eve 2006 in Great Britain an elderly pensioner, Mr. Leslie Croft died of broncho-pneumonia at age 86. In 1943 Mr Croft was a 19 year old British soldier and a part of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regimen. He served with the regiment in Italy and there, fighting the Axis forces, he received a wound from shrapnel. The wound was healed and then Corporal Croft eventually returned to service. The effects of the wound however would come back to haunt him years later. The shell fragment that remained in his body was linked by the coroner who examined him as being the cause of his pneumonia.

And the history books change……..Rest in Peace Corporal Croft.