Public domain World War II pictures

The tall man w/o a helmet in the middle is James Doyne Farmer who just celebrated his 100th bday in Ft. Smith AR.

Great pic. I've visited and can't wait to go back. SO much history there still.

Hi T-bolt. The Greek resistance was very stiff for the Italians and exposed the overall fundamental weaknesses in Il Duce's Army. In fact, there instances where the Germans allowed Greek soldiers to march out with their arms as a sign of respect for the ferocity of their fighting metal. But I disagree that it had much impact on Barbarossa, whose delay had more to do with positioning of fuel dumps and other logistical issues and with the deployment of the Luftwaffe in forward airfields. If anything, the unsuccessful and ad hoc British defense of Greece may have starved the Eighth Army in the Western Desert of much need men and materials. IMHO

The applique armour which was meant to protect the ammunition stored on that area, hasn't helped much.
The German gunners have seemingly used the white star as an aiming point. This danger was well know by this time and most crews overpainted them to reduce their prominence.

Due to the Greek army's spirited defence which stopped the Italian attack in its tracks, Hitler was obliged to send troops to assist in Mussolini's endeavours.
This assistance was at the cost of delaying Operation Barbarossa for several weeks.
As we all know, the Wehrmacht failed in its bid to capture Moscow in the initial year of the campaign, one reason being that the weather closed in when they had just reached the suburbs of the city.
We don't know if an earlier start to Barbarossa would have resulted in the capture of Moscow and it's unlikely that occupation of the city would have resulted in the defeat of Russia.
However, it would have changed the course of the war and probably prolonged it significantly.
So these Greek soldiers represent a chain of events much larger than the capture of a single tank.

This image is a still from a German weekly show (Wochenschau) in 1944. It shows vehicles of schwere Panzerabteilung 503 lined up for an inspection. At full strength, a battalion had three companies (each with 14 tanks - three platoons of four tanks and two company HQ tanks) and three battalion HQ vehicles for a total of 45 tanks.
King Tiger Battalion: Staff and Staff Company
Supply Company
Repair Company
1st Tank Company
2nd Tank Company
3rd Tank Company
Personnel: 29 Officers, 267 NCOs, 594 other ranks = 897

Reenactement picture from a des years.

Only about 135 of these vehicles were produced, seeing action in three divisions. A battery consisted of 6 vehicles divided into three 2-gun platoons. Note the three "kill" rings on the barrel.

A full dump truck indicates that construction of a an access ramp might be underway to overcome the difficulties of getting through the churned up sand.

There is a small group of Australian Diggers in their distinctive "slouch hats" in the foreground.