In 1939, thousands of German soldiers, many of them conscripts, were dispatched across Europe. They went armed not only with weapons but with cameras – the famous German Leica and Rolleiflex – in their bags and orders to capture what they saw.
As Britain, France and the Allied countries mark the 77th anniversary of the Normandy landings on D-day this weekend, a recently released book All at War: Photography by German Soldiers 1939-45, is a compilation of these photographs taken from a vast collection held by the Archive of Modern Conflict in London. Here are some of the photographs from the book
@jimpowell2002 Main image: A group of refugees in the Rahachow area, close to the Dnieper river, which was briefly occupied by German forces in the summer of 1941.
Sat 5 Jun 2021 05.52 EDT Last modified on Sat 5 Jun 2021 06.28 EDT
A soldier getting a shave in France, summer of 1940. The photographer, in Panzer-Regiment 10, often took fleeting pictures of conversations and encounters Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
A driver from Stuttgart took this picture through his windscreen on the Lithuanian frontier in June 1941 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Jews in Lipsko, a town 65 miles south of Warsaw and to the west of the river Vistula. Its wooden synagogue was burnt down in 1939 with 60 of its congregation still inside. Photograph from the 53rd Infantry Regiment Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Bruno Schröder, like other Germans in the summer of 1940, noted this monument to the French air ace Georges Guynemer at Malo-les-Bains near Dunkirk Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
A prolonged game of skat played by Adam Diemer and Adolf Fischer to the west of Bryansk, Russia, in the summer of 1941. The photograph was taken by a soldier from the 18th Panzer Division Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
A group of refugees in the Rahachow area, close to the Dnieper river, which was briefly occupied by German forces in the summer of 1941 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
This sign pointed to the hardships of the Volkhov area in Russia: ‘Here begins the arse of the world!’ There was a capable modernist letterer in the area. Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
‘Oh, this careworn face.’ Taken in August 1941 near Tula, to the south of Moscow, by a junior officer in Infantry Division 23 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Accordionist. The artilleryman photographer spent two winters in the USSR, in the central region to the south-west of Moscow. This picture was taken in the second winter, 1942-43 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Radom in south-east Poland. The photographer was in the motorised Infantry-Regiment 53, in the 14th (Saxonian) Infantry Division Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
By the autumn of 1942, the 394th had become Panzergrenadier-Regiment 394 and was active in the Caucasus area of Russia, around Pyatigorsk and the Lenin Canal. Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Soldiers resting after fighting against the retreating British on the River Scheldt in southern Belgium, May 1940 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
This is the first of three pictures of burning buildings taken during the retreat of February 1944. The full caption reads: ‘We even march at night, and the roads present a ghostly and terrible picture.’ Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
