As a respite from all those frequently republished photographs from September 1939 of German tanks romping it up over Polish Cavalry units, it would be nice just one time to see some photographs from
Poland taken at the exact opposite end of the war - April 1945.
By this point the Germans were making more, and better, tanks than they had ever done previously - but to what end ?
They were out of tank fuel.
So they demanded Polish farmers cover the tank transporters with hay and hitch them up to their teams of horses and oxen.
Then slowly, very slowly, the panzers would be moved up to the west bank of the Vistula River, to await the final Russian offensive across the river from the east bank and straight into Berlin.
The tanks would be buried, hull down , at the bottom back side of slight hills , their turrets pointed at the most likely crossing points.
The very opposition of Lightning War or Blitzkreig.
Now there was no more fuel dumps, but the Polish horses did pause frequently, for a leisurely
refueling of grass and and equally leisurely dump of ( ooops ! - can't say more - this is a family blog !)
For once, the Germans couldn't simply shoot the Poles, at least not the Polish horses, in an effort to make them move faster.
At long last, war for the Germans Overmen moved at the speed of Nature, not Man.
Now I call that poetic - and I think it is worth a photo.
Funny those German amateur photo snappers, usually so omnipresent at scenes of martial triumph or whenever partisan children are being hung, seem not to have churned up any photos of tanks disguised as hay rides plodding down the road to Gotterdammerung at the speed of ox....
Does sound like 'poetic justice'.
ReplyDeletePoetic justice yes - but without photographs,this fact will never be POPULARLY known - never seen as photographic justice.
ReplyDeleteOne gruesome photograph from inside Auschwitz's death chamber, smuggled to the West, might have done what thousands of accurate, credible verbal reports could never do during WWII - move hearts to action.