50 Amazing Vintage Portrait Photos of British Army Soldiers From the Late 19th Century

The British Army during the Victorian era served through a period of great technological and social change. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, and died in 1901. Her long reign was marked by the steady expansion and consolidation of the British Empire, and industrialisation and the enactment of liberal reforms (by both Liberal and Conservative governments) within Britain.

The British Army began the period with few differences from the British Army of the Napoleonic Wars that fought at Waterloo. There were three main periods of the Army's development during the era. From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the mid-1850s, the Duke of Wellington and his successors attempted to maintain its organisation and tactics as they had been in 1815, with only detail changes. In 1854, the Crimean War, and the Indian Rebellion of 1857 highlighted the shortcomings of the Army, but entrenched interests prevented major reforms from taking place. From 1868 to 1881, sweeping changes were made by Liberal governments, giving it the broad structure it retained until 1914.

On Victoria's death, the Army was still engaged in the Second Boer War, but other than expedients adopted for that war, it was recognisably the army that would enter the First World War. The Industrial Revolution had changed its weapons, transport and equipment, and social changes such as better education had prompted changes to the terms of service and outlook of many soldiers. Nevertheless, it retained many features inherited from the Duke of Wellington's army, and since its prime function was to maintain the expanding British Empire, it differed in many ways from the conscripted armies of continental Europe.

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56 Haunting Photos of World War II Taken by James Allison

It's hard to imagine what World War II was really like if you were born long after it ended. As more veterans die every day, fewer people are alive that can remember it. While books can teach you everything there is to know about the war, nothing can capture the reality as well as photos of the real people who were affected by it.

During World War II, James Allison, a sports writer working for the Houston Press, noticed that many photographs not printed in the daily newspaper were routinely discarded. He received permission to save these images, and by war's end he had amassed a collection of more than 4,600 photographs. In August 1977, Allison donated his collection to the Arkansas Museum of Science and History, located in the historic Arsenal building in MacArthur Park. Today, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History owns and preserves these images.

A Bit of Chiselling for Der Fueher

A Nazi Souvenir

American Dead in Italy

Behind Wires of a Nazi Camp

Bombs rain on London's west end

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Touching Picture of American Soldiers Paying Tribute to All the Horses That Lost Their Life in World War I

It’s not just human soldiers who fought for their country. Millions of horses and other animals also served during wartime, and one special photo shows just how much their human counterparts appreciated the war horses and their sacrifice.

This touching black and white photo is believed to have been taken by officers of the Auxiliary Remount Dept. No.326 in Camp Cody, New Mexico in 1919.

650 officers and enlisted men of Auxiliary Remount Depot No. 326, Camp Cody, N.M., in a symbolic head pose of "The Devil" saddle horse ridden by Maj. Frank G. Brewer, remount commander. (Image: Library of Congress)

The image shows about 650 soldiers standing in a formation that, from above, resembles a cavalry horse’s head, neck, and bridle — a true tribute from the soldiers to the many horses who fought, and often died, by their side in the Great War.

While horses have served in many other wars, the large number of horses killed in WWI was staggering; about eight million horses, and countless mules, and donkeys were lost in the war. The U.S. Army and the British Army both used mounted infantry while Germany stopped sending them to the Western Front early on in the war. The horses suffered terrible conditions, and were killed most often on the front lines by machine gun fire and gas attacks.

Horses and their counterparts also helped carry food, water, ammunition, gas masks and medical supplies in supply wagons over long distances and rough terrain to the allied forces on the front lines. Their bravery inspired the book “War Horse,” by Michael Morpurgo, which was later adapted into a film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg.

(via Wide Open Pets)

Pancho Villa Expedition: Rare and Amazing Photographs From the 1916 Mexican Border Campaign

At 2:30 on 9 March 1916, several hundred troops under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa crossed the border separating the United States and Mexico and attacked the small Army garrison at Columbus, New Mexico. The raid was a surprise to the still sleeping men of the 13th Cavalry, who were responsible for patrolling the border around town.

After about two hours of fighting, and a brief pursuit of Villa's men into Mexico by Major Frank Tompkins, the attacking bands dispersed into the deserts of Chihuahua. Due to the work of a telegraph agent in town, the public heard about the raid almost as it was happening, and within twenty four hours, President Woodrow Wilson decided to send the U.S. Army into Mexico. Known as the Punitive Expedition and led by Brigadier General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, the goal of the campaign was to capture Pancho Villa and those men responsible for the raid.

The Columbus raid was a minor skirmish in a much bigger conflict. The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 as a revolt to remove Porfirio Díaz, the aging dictator of Mexico, from power, but as revolutionary factions fractured, the war became a large scale political and social revolution that transformed the republic. Villa was the head of one of the most powerful of these factions, but his fortunes declined after breaking from the Constitutionalists, led by General Venustiano Carranza. When Wilson recognized Carranza as the legal president of Mexico in October 1915, Villa became enraged. This resentment boiled over into a series of attacks on U.S. citizens in Mexico by Villa's forces, culminating in the attack on Columbus.

The Punitive Expedition was comprised of 4,800 men from the 7th, 10th, and 13th Cavalry, 6th Field Artillery, the 6th and 16th Regiments of Infantry, the 1st Aero Squadron, and medical personnel. The 10th Cavalry was an African American regimen. Known as buffalo soldiers, these troops were mostly led by white officers, with the exception of Major Charles Young, who was one of only three African American officers in the U.S. Army. The expedition entered Mexico on 15 March 1916 in two columns, one led by Pershing that crossed the border at Culberson's Ranch and a second that crossed near Columbus.

Pershing's column arrived first at Colonía Dublán and then split into three provisional squadrons, all of which went south on different paths to pursue Villa and his forces. One of these provisional squadrons composed of soldiers of the 7th Cavalry and led by Col. George A. Dodd rode to the town of Guerrero on the hunt for Villa. Left without reliable guides, the 7th Cavalry spent the night of 28 to 29 March traveling a circuitous route to the town, arriving at about 0800. Villa had been shot in the leg during a skirmish in Guerrero on 27 March and was taken to a home in the area, where he stayed before leaving in the direction of Minaca at daybreak on 29 March. Dodd skirmished with retreating Villistas, but did not see Pancho Villa himself. The expedition was never closer to capturing Villa.

While the three provisional squadrons pursued Villistas, the column that entered Mexico from Columbus was divided into four "flying columns," so named because they were small, highly mobile, and expected to provide for themselves materially in the field. As these squads combed Chihuahua, Pershing moved his main base of operations further south to San Geronimo and then to Satevó to be closer to the cavalry. These columns were assisted by the 1st Aero Squadron, which was mostly tasked with delivering messages and doing reconnaissance. This was the first major Army operation in which planes were used in the field, and the expedition revealed serious deficiencies in the eight Curtiss JN-3 biplanes that the squadron brought to Mexico. Besides their inadequate number, the planes had difficulties flying in Chihuahua's high elevations, heat, wind, and sand. By April, all of the planes had been grounded.

On 12 April, one of these flying columns under the command of Maj. Tompkins, supported on each flank by squadrons riding further north, decided to go to the town of Parral after contracting for supplies and fodder. Upon their arrival, General Ismael Lozano, who was in charge of local Mexican government forces, requested that Tompkins depart, while a mob of civilians formed. Tompkins refused, and asked Lozano to provide him with a spot to camp. On the way to this camp, his squad skirmished with government forces, called Carrancistas, and with civilian members of the mob. This clash precipitated a diplomatic crisis that led Wilson to order Pershing to move his headquarters back north to Colonía Dublán and give up the active pursuit of Villa. Flying columns were replaced by squads that patrolled a grid around Dublán.

Still, small skirmishes between Pershing's forces, Villistas, and Carrancistas continued even after the end of active pursuit. After another raid north of the border on the tiny settlement of Glen Springs, Wilson ordered the National Guard to mobilize to protect the border. Units from Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico came first, but when their numbers proved small, Wilson ordered the National Guard to send troops from the rest of the nation. Eventually, over 100,000 National Guard spent the next several months training along the border. In Mexico, a patrol squad led by Captain William T. Boyd was ordered to do reconnaissance in the area of Ahumada. On the way there, Boyd insisted on passing through the town of Carrizal even after being denied permission by Carrancistas. This led to a skirmish in which nine troops were killed and twelve were wounded. In addition, twenty three soldiers were taken prisoner.

The fallout from this action led to the establishment of a joint Mexican-U.S. commission to negotiate Pershing's withdrawal and orders for the expedition to stay in the vicinity of Colonía Dublán. The soldiers of the Punitive Expedition ceased patrolling, but they kept busy until their withdrawal on 5 February 1917 drilling and training. In the end, Pershing did not capture Villa, but he did receive valuable experienced that served him in his role as leader of the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI.

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23 Candid Color Snapshots of Vietnamese Bar Girls During the Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, a whole sex industry sprung up around American servicemembers. Prostitutes would congregate at bars where service members would frequent, and offer their services. Sometimes, the prostitutes and women who had intercourse would get pregnant. The resulting Amerasian children, of whom there were estimated to be about 50,000, were ostracized and given the derisive name bui doi ("dirt of life"). Often, these children were themselves forced into prostitution.

During the war, hooch maids would often clean up after the soldiers in their dwellings. One soldier described the maids as being, "...good Catholics who might flirt with you but would never date an American soldier." At the same time it was not unheard of for maids to "keep the plumbing clean" for soldiers in order to earn some extra income.

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22 Rare Photographs That Capture the Brutal Life of American Troops During the Battle of Buna-Gona

From mid-November 1942 to the end of January 1943 the Australians and the Americans reduced the Japanese base in the Gona-Buna-Sanananda area. Called the Battle of Buna-Gona this three month struggle had the characteristics of a siege...

The Battle of Buna–Gona was part of the New Guinea campaign in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. It followed the conclusion of the Kokoda Track campaign and lasted from 16 November 1942 until 22 January 1943. The battle was conducted by Australian and United States forces against the Japanese beachheads at Buna, Sanananda and Gona.

From these, the Japanese had launched an overland attack on Port Moresby. In light of developments in the Solomon Islands campaign, Japanese forces approaching Port Moresby were ordered to withdraw to and secure these bases on the northern coast. Australian forces maintained contact as the Japanese conducted a well-ordered rearguard action. The Allied objective was to eject the Japanese forces from these positions and deny them their further use. The Japanese forces were skillful, well prepared and resolute in their defence. They had developed a strong network of well-concealed defences.

American troops, Buna, New Guinea Campaign, World War II.

An American soldier stands over a dying Jap whom he has just been forced to shoot. The Jap had been hiding in the landing barge, shooting at U.S. troops. New Guinea Campaign, 1942.

A wounded Jap lies in a destroyed pillbox at Buna Mission. A minute later, he rose up, tried to throw a grenade which he had hidden in his left hand.

Over Jap-built bridge walk Americans on patrol. It connects Entrance Creek Island with Buna Mission and one end of it was blown by Japs. Americans repaired it.

Lieut. General Robert Eichelberger fires a tommy gun at the Japs.

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27 Amazing Color Photographs That Capture U.S Nuclear Tests From the Mid-1940s to the Early 1960s

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that developed nuclear weapons tested them.

The first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site on July 16, 1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of engineer device, codenamed "Ivy Mike", was tested at the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 (local date), also by the United States.

In 1963, three (UK, US, Soviet Union) of the four nuclear states and many non-nuclear states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space. The treaty permitted underground nuclear testing. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980. Neither has signed the treaty.

21kt, Bikini, 24.Jul.1946

225kt, Nevada Test Site, 8.May, 1951

14kt, Nevada Test Site, 30.Oct.1951

“Buster Charlie”, 14kt, Nevada Test Site, 30.Oct.1951

“Buster Dog,” 21kt, Nevada Test Site, 1.Nov.1951

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French Man Found a Box of 35mm Film Rolls in the Trash That Capture Life Inside Nazi POW Camp for Polish Officers

It was a winter night in 1999 and Olivier Rempfer, then 19, was walking back to his town of Cagnes-sur-Mer in southeastern France after an evening spent with friends in the neighboring town of Saint-Laurent-du-Var, when a wooden box on top of a trash container caught his eye. Curious, he opened the box and saw a number of cylindrical objects wrapped in paper.

Rempfer waited until he was back home to unwrap the objects. When he did, they turned out to be rolls of black and white 35mm film. Holding the filmstrips up to the light, he saw uniforms, barracks, guard towers -- and men in costume onstage. Assuming the pictures must have been taking during the filming of a war movie, and the men in them to be actors, Rempfer set the box aside and forgot about it.

Years later his father, Alain Rempfer, came across the box. The elder Rempfer, a photographer, was also unsure what the film negatives showed -- until 2003, when he bought a film scanner and eventually found the time to take a closer look at the images, around 300 of them. “I quickly realized that these were real, historical photos, taken during the war in a prisoner-of-war camp,” said Rempfer. “The brand name 'Voigtländer' was written on the edge of the film. That name wasn't familiar to me from movies, but I knew Voigtländer was a German camera manufacturer.”

Rempfer looked for some clue as to where the pictures might have been taken. One showed a truck with several men seated on its bed. On the back of the truck, Rempfer made out the words “PW CAMP MURNAU” in white letters, then the letters “PL.” A little research showed that from 1939 to 1945, the German town of Murnau was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish officers.

Father and son studied the photographs closely and with fascination. “All these young men looked right at us through the camera, during the time they lived in the camp,” Alain Rempfer said. “And we don't know their names or what their daily life was like there, we don't know anything about their hopes, their feelings.” It was a strange experience as if someone had turned off the sound and left him watching a silent film.

The father and son decided a website would be the best way to show the pictures to the world. They hoped the images would reach anyone who might be interested in them, but especially family members of the former prisoners of war who might be looking for information, or might recognize someone in the photographs.

The Polish officers imprisoned in Murnau were allowed to put on plays and operettas as entertainment. Since there were no female inmates at the camp, men took on the women's roles in drag, apparently having much fun with it.

The eyewitness Tom Wodzinsky, who got in touch with the Rempfers after the publication of the pictures, said this photo likely shows the accommodations for junior officers and regular soldiers in blocks E, F, G, H and K in the camp.

A scene from a marionette theater.

An orchestra was also part of the officers' camp Oflag VII-A in Murnau. The officers' audiences were composed of German soldiers at the camp, who occasionally brought their families with them to the shows.

A group of officers poses on the stage of the camp theater, with the orchestra in the foreground.

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"Three Dead Americans on the Beach at Buna" – The First Image of Dead U.S Troops to Appear in Media During WWII

Photo That Was Hard to Get Published, but Even Harder to Get

LIFE photojournalist George Strock captured an iconic image of three American soldiers lying on the sand of Buna Beach, New Guinea. The small wave breaking provides a stark contrast to the stillness of the men and the half-submerged landing craft behind them.

Bodies of three dead American soldiers in the sand on the shore of Buna Beach, New Guinea, after a Japanese ambush attack. 1943. (George Strock—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

As the Office of War Information has a strict policy about images of the dead being dispatched by the media, LIFE Washington correspondent Cal Whipple argues the case to publish Strock's photograph. The battle of censorship would escalate from an army captain all the way to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who finally gives approval.

The photo would finally be published in the September 20, 1943 edition of LIFE magazine, helping to steel American resolve in the war effort, as well as earning the distinction of being the first image of dead U.S. troops to appear in the media during World War II. The accompanying editorial is a fitting complement for such an image:

Here lie three Americans [the editorial began].

What shall we say of them? Shall we say that this is a noble sight? Shall we say that this is a fine thing, that they should give their lives for their country?

Or shall we say that this is too horrible to look at?

Why print this picture, anyway, of three American boys dead upon an alien shore? Is it to hurt people? To be morbid?

Those are not the reasons.

The reason is that words are never enough. The eye sees. The mind knows. The heart feels. But the words do not exist to make us see, or know, or feel what it is like, what actually happens. The words are never right. . . .

The reason we print it now is that, last week, President Roosevelt and [Director of the Office of War Information] Elmer Davis and the War Department decided that the American people ought to be able to see their own boys as they fall in battle; to come directly and without words into the presence of their own dead.

And so here it is. This is the reality that lies behind the names that come to rest at last on monuments in the leafy squares of busy American towns.

15 Found Photos That Show Pin-Up Bombshell Nose Art of World War II Bombers

The inscription of art work on military planes dates to World War I, when paintings were usually extravagant company or unit insignia. However, regulations were put in place after the war to stymie the practice.

As the United States entered World War II, nose art regulations were relaxed, or in many cases totally ignored. WWII would become the golden age of aircraft artistry.

Artwork was typically painted on the nose of the plane, and the term "nose art" was coined.

Nose art was a morale booster, and those in daily combat needed that boost. Facing the prospect of death on every flight, the crew deserved all of the encouragement, and smiles, available to them.

The art on the plane unified the crew, and identified it, and made it unique from all of the aircraft in their unit or on their base.

These photos from profkaren were found in an old photo album belonging to someone who was in the 99th Bomber Squadron, 9th Bomber Group during WWII.

Adam's Eve

Ball of Fire

Celestial Princess

Dangerous Lady

Dragon Lady

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D-Day in Color: Stunning Retouched Photos of Brave Allied Troops Landing Normandy Beaches in June, 1944

Some 156,000 Allied troops landed on five Normandy beaches during the operation on June 6, 1944, which would ultimately lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history and saw 4,400 allied troops lose their lives.

Striking shots show men storming French beaches under ominous grey skies for the invasion, glider pilots on landing craft, and British Airborne Pathfinders at Harwell checking their watches on the night of June 5, 1944, hours before the battle commenced.

The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colorized by electrician Royston Leonard, with each snap taking between four and five hours to complete.

“As time goes by I find I am doing more World War Two pictures and giving them a bit of colour helps the younger generation to connect and not just see them as something that happened long ago,” he said. “In the images I see a world that has gone mad and men and women pulled from their lives to sort out the mess. World War Two shows people at their best and at their worst. We must look and learn and not let it happen again.”

The astonishing scale of the invasion can be seen in this image taken of the American forces arriving on Utah Beach.

U.S. troops from the USS Joseph T. Dickman wait to disembark from their landing craft as they approach Utah Beach on June 6 1944.

A craft from the USS Samuel Chase lands troops of the US Army First Division on Omaha Beach.

Glider pilots take the opportunity for a quick cigarette as they are crowded onto a landing craft.

Royal Marines descend from landing craft with their heavy backpacks, weapons and equipment on Juno beach.

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