Partisans Smolensk
Soviet sappers conducting clearance in Smolensk, September 1943
Soviet pilots and civilians shelter from Luftwaffe bombing in the Kerch catacombs during the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, an offensive by German and Romanian armies against the Soviet Crimean Front forces defending the Kerch peninsula in the eastern part of the Crimea. It was launched on 8 May 1942 and concluded around 18 May 1942 with the near complete destruction of the Soviet defending forces. The Soviet Army lost over 170,000 men, either killed or taken prisoner, and three armies. The city of Kerch was eventually liberated from the Axis forces on 11 April 1943. Kerch, Crimea. May 1942. Image taken by Anatoliy Garanin.
Disarmed Imperial Japanese soldiers, the officers still carrying their swords, are marched out of Singapore towards prisoner of war camps while guarded by Indian soldiers of the 5th Infantry Division following Operation Tiderace; the British aim to retake Singapore from Japanese occupation. Singapore, British Straits Settlements (now, Republic of Singapore). September 1945.
Injured Soviet soldiers rest on a Soviet T-34 85 medium tank during the last throes of the Battle of Berlin. Beginning on 12 January 1945, the Soviets breached the German front as a result of the Vistula-Oder Offensive and advanced westward as much as 40 km (25 miles) a day through East Prussia, Lower Silesia, East Pomerania and Upper Silesia, temporarily halting on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin along the Oder river. When the offensive resumed, two Soviet fronts attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin culminating in a defiant last ditch effort by the Germans to hold onto the city. Berlin, Germany. May 1945. Image taken by Anatoly Morozov.
