Famous , Iconic Photos.....

[JackRT]

OK, its not a photo:

This is one of those events that led to the celebration photo in the previous post. For history buffs this is the landing of the Regina Rifles on Nan Green sector of Juno beach on D-Day 1944.

 

[JackRT]

Indulge me a bit. I served in that regiment some 15 years later. A bit of their history:

On 6 June 1944 the Regina Rifle Regiment (RRR) took part in the D-Day landings. They were part of the 7th brigade of the 3rd Canadian division. They were brigaded with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Canadian Scottish Regiment. They landed in Mike sector of Juno Beach. After a bitter fight on the beach with heavy casualties they broke through and ended up making the deepest penetration of any unit on D-Day. This excludes the airborne units of course! To avoid being exposed and cut off they were ordered to withdraw somewhat.

The following day (D+1) General Kurt Meyer of the 12th SS Panzer Division assembled his unit for a counter attack. This was a veteran, well-tested, well-equipped elite division. His objective was to split the Normandy invasion beachhead into two smaller beachheads each of which to be dealt with individually. In the late evening hours of D+2 his division attacked Bretteville l’Orueilleuse. This position was occupied by the Regina Rifles. During the night the 12th SS Panzers virtually over-ran Bretteville. The 900 prairie boys of the RRR never retreated. At point blank range these young men who had exactly two days of combat experience fought back. They opposed the Panzers with anti-tank guns, sticky-bombs, grenades, and PIAT projectors. Throughout the night the battle cry was “ They shall not pass!” In the morning the badly battered 12th SS Panzers withdrew to fight again another day. The prairie boys had defeated the elite of the German Army and the Normandy beachhead survived.

Although on a smaller scale, this battle ranks with the Battle of the Bulge as a pivotal encounter of WWII. Canadians are perhaps too modest with the result that this battle is almost unrecognized beyond those who fought it. In writing the battle history of the 12th SS Panzer Division General Kurt Meyer certainly recognized his defeat and honoured those who defeated him.

It is also worth noting that the Regina Rifles sustained the highest regimental casualty rate of the Canadian Army in WWII. In eleven months action they suffered 1946 casualties including 458 dead.

 

[Colin]

Athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos created an international controversy by raising their fists in the air on the medal podium in a black power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

The image is now seen as a symbol of defiance and equality in the face of adversity.

 

[Armoured]

Speaking of Mussolini , do you notice any resemblance between these two ?

Mussolini looked better in jodhpurs, and didn't have the freakishly tiny hands...

 

[Armoured]

Throughout the night the battle cry was “ They shall not pass!”

 

[Armoured]

Athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos created an international controversy by raising their fists in the air on the medal podium in a black power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

The image is now seen as a symbol of defiance and equality in the face of adversity.

Third guy there was an Australian, Peter Norman
"In the semi-finals, Peter Norman finished the race in second place at 20.06 seconds, his best performance ever. This is an Australian record that still stands today.

On the morning of 16 October, U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 metre final with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds.[9][10] Norman finished second in a time of 20.06 s, and U.S. athlete John Carlos was in third place in 20.10 s. Norman's time was his all-time personal best[1] and an Australian record that still stands.

After the race, the three athletes went to the medal podium for their medals to be presented by David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter. On the podium, during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner", Smith and Carlos famously joined in a Black Power salute.

Norman wore a badge on the podium in support of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). After the final, Carlos and Smith had told Norman what they were planning to do during the ceremony. As journalist Martin Flanagan wrote; "They asked Norman if he believed in human rights. He said he did. They asked him if he believed in God. Norman, who came from a Salvation Army background, said he believed strongly in God. We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat. He said, 'I'll stand with you'." Carlos said he expected to see fear in Norman's eyes. He didn't; "I saw love."[11] On the way out to the medal ceremony, Norman saw the OPHR badge being worn by Paul Hoffman, a white member of the US Rowing Team, and asked him if he could wear it.[12] It was Norman who suggested that Smith and Carlos share the black gloves used in their salute, after Carlos left his pair in the Olympic Village.[4] This is the reason for Smith raising his right fist, while Carlos raised his left."

 

[Armoured]

The last great cavalry charge in history, that directly led to the fall of Turkey, and subsequently Germany, in the First World War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beersheba_(1917)#Light_Horse_charge

(My regiment)

 

[Colin]

‘Wait for Me, Daddy’, is the touching photograph of young Canadian Warren Bernard running after his father who had just signed up to the war effort during WWII.

It might look like a haunting snapshot of war’s ability to tear families apart, but at the time Claude P Dettloff’s photo was used as a propaganda tool to sell war bonds.

 

[Colin]

Perhaps the most heartbreaking image ever taken, Kevin Carter’s picture of a starving girl in Sudan, taken in 1993, sparked much controversy.

Carter would commit suicide a year after taking the photo, at the age of 33.

It is unknown if the girl in the image survived.

 

[tadoflamb]

The stuffed body of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon, on display at the Smithsonian in 1956.

 

[brinny]

Sophie Scholl's last words before her death by guillotine:

 

[Colin]

A photo of the Cinema Rex in Antwerp after it was destroyed by a V2 rocket on December 13, 1944, which killed more than 600 people (including 296 allied soldiers). The highest death toll caused by any V2 rocket .

My dad used to talk about it . He had been in the cinema on the previous evening .

 

[Colin]

Nelson Mandela walks free from prison on February 11, 1990, having spent 27 years behind bars.

Many feared his release and the end of apartheid would spark a civil war in South Africa, however Mandela became a symbol of peace of reconciliation, and is now known as the father of a modern and peaceful South Africa.

 

[Colin]

Neil Armstrong, pictured moments after stepping back into the lunar module on Apollo 11, having just become the first human being to walk on the moon.

His face betrays a man who doesn’t know if he wants to laugh or cry having just been at the forefront of one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

 

[tadoflamb]

A PLO terrorist at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

Goyathlay (meaning "one who yawns"), a great warrior of his people and of my ancestors, and still a hero of Native Americans today. He is better known as Geronimo. He was a great leader of the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache. He was born June 16, 1829 and he passed on February 17, 1909. Photograph by Frank A. Rinehart, 1898.

 

[Colin]

Timothy O’Sullivan’s “Harvest of Death” features dead Union soldiers strewn about the Gettysburg battlefield.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

One of the mass graves dug for the fallen and slaughtered Lakota, including men, women and children, after the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.

 

[Colin]

After Tropical Storm Hannah ripped through Haiti in 2008, a young boy rescues a pushchair .

 

[Colin]

In June 1963, Thích Quảng Đức lights himself on fire in protest of the oppressive Diem government in South Vietnam.