GALLEY SLAVES

Diorama of convicts on galley benches at the Museu Maritim, Barcelona. Slaves were used as oarsmen by all the main galley powers of the Mediterranean. The Ottomans preferred free oarsmen because they doubled as marines once a boarding action began. Often, these were Christian mercenaries from Greece and the Balkans who dropped oars and took […]

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Baltic Auxiliary Units

Schuma graduates from Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia attend a trip/conference in Germany. Lithuanian schuma, police and TLR members. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were independent nations on the eve of World War II. These former provinces of Russia had been independent only since 1920. Unfortunately, the Nazi-Soviet pact of August 1939 […]

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Collaboration of British POWs

Two early recruits to the BFC:SS-Mann Kenneth Berry and SS-Sturmmann Alfred Minchin, with German officers, April 1944. Collaboration has always been a topic that arouses fierce emotions, and those POWs who went over to the other side or in some way supported the Axis cause have received much coverage. But their numbers were minuscule, and […]

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British Home Guard and Their Weapons

A group of Home Guard are trained in the use of a Northover Projector near the factory at which they work, somewhere in England, 1941. Home Guard soldiers load an anti-aircraft rocket at a ‘Z’ Battery on Merseyside, 6 July 1942.H 21135Part ofWAR OFFICE SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTIONTaylor (Lt)War Office official photographer On May […]

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4th Indian Division at Keren

The 4th Indian Division began disengaging from the Italians near Sidi Barrani on 12 December 1940. Sixteen days later, the division’s 7th Indian Infantry Brigade – the garrison force at Matruh – embarked on the short voyage to Port Sudan. The 11th Indian Infantry Brigade followed on New Year’s Day 1941, while the 5th Indian […]

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Coldstream Guards 1940

When war was declared on 3 September 1939 the 1st Coldstream was training at Pirbright, while the 2nd Battalion was at Albuhera Barracks, Aldershot. The 3rd Battalion was in Egypt, serving in the Canal Brigade, and based in Mustapha Barracks, Alexandria. The outbreak of war was greeted (in 1st and 2nd Coldstream) by some with […]

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British Engineers 1813

The crossing of the Adour In the days leading up to 7 October 1813, Wellington tried with evident success to convince the French that his attack, when it came, would be inland, probably around Maya. Soult therefore placed the bulk of his troops in this area, leaving the mouth of the Bidassoa virtually undefended, believing […]

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Mountain Troopers WWI

Austrian mountain troops scaling a rock face on the Italian front. Italian alpine units climbing a steep slope during World War I. Italian troops congregate around a mountain refuge. During WWI, for the first time in history, men brought modern technology up the highest mountains. German Alpenkorps soldiers posing on a mountain; ca. 1915 The […]

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