The coasts of France had been made allegedly impregnable by the germans: The ''Atlantikwall'' with pillboxes, barbed wire circuits, obstacles and minefields. But the walls' possibilities of resistance were limited, too long was the coasts the germans were forced to protect from an allied invasion. Another fact was the limited amount of battle-capable divisions the germans has based in the west. One whole division consisted of dyspeptics only, then there was the &quot;Ohren-Division&quot; (ear-division) consisting of hearing impaired and soldiers with other auricular ailments. With them a true mixture of jestingly called ''loot-germans'': armenians, azerbaijanian, turkestans and Volga-tartars, altogether 75000 men.

French beaches

German soldiers return from russian war captivity to the debris of Berlin, late 1945. In contrary to their comrades in american captivity these men returned with nothing and mostly to nothing. On the other hand the soldiers on the picture could consider themselves lucky for returning in 1945, the last german POWs returned from Russia in autumn of 1955.

Coming home

A german field chaplain, watch the gothic cross on his cap just under the eagle. You can tell by the ribbons above his legt chest that he was awarded the War Merrit Cross 2nd class with Swords and the Russian Front Medal 1941/42, the so-called &quot;Frozen meat-medal&quot;.