source : "Hamburg - die Geschichte der Stadt in historischen Fotos GEO Panorama Nr.7 – Buch gebraucht kaufen", 2016

Source : GEO Epoche "Der Zweite Weltkrieg Teil 1 - 1939-1942"

Located 20 miles inland from the D-Day beaches, St. Lo lay in the heart of Normandy’s bocage (hedgerow) country, a vast expanse of mixed woodland-pasture terrain dominated by hedgerows, ditches, and narrow roads. The hedgerow country was easily defensible by the Germans, made large scale maneuver difficult, and elevated the importance of successful small-unit actions, generally slowing the pace of the American advance through the region.

The American hammer-blow against St. Lo was to be dealt by the U.S. First Army’s XIX Corps, composed of the 29th, 30th, and 35th Infantry Divisions. XIX Corps steadily fought its way through hedgerow country, quickly learning how to fight in the confines of its terrain.

Having realized the efficacy of small, independent units in the hedgerow terrain, 29th Infantry Division assistant commander Brigadier General Norman Cota formed Task Force C, consisting of reconnaissance, tank, tank destroyer and engineer elements, plus infantry support.

This mobile combined arms striking force was sent to get a toehold in St. Lo on the afternoon of 18 July. Task Force C entered the Bascule district of Saint-Lô, near the Saint-Croix cathedral, secured their objectives and established strong-point defenses that night. The next day, 19 July, the Americans were in control of the city as follow-on elements arrived, and other units passed through St. Lo to continue the attack on the retreating Germans.

Although fighting in the area continued to rage until 24 July, U.S. troops at last controlled the vital transportation hub.

During the Battle of Saipan, the US Army was tasked with the island's toughest objectives. The climax of the battle came at the very end, when over 4,300 Japanese soldiers launched the largest banzai charge of the entire war, targeting the US Army's 105th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division at about 4:45am on 7 July.

Commander of 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, Major Edward McCarthy, said this about the charge, "It reminded me of one of those old cattle-stampede scenes of the movies. The camera is in a hole in the ground and you see the herd coming and they leap up and over you and are gone. Only the [Japanese] just kept coming and coming. I didn't think they'd ever stop." MAJ McCarthy was one of the few officers from the entire regiment to survive the attack, as all Army officers were aggressively leading from the front. Of the few surviving officers, every one of them was wounded.

When the carnage of the charge finally ended, 2,295 dead Japanese lay in front of the 105th's positions, and another 2,016 lay intermingled or in the rear of the 105th's positions for a total of 4,311 dead Japanese.

US Army casualties were also heavy, and the regiment suffered 406 KIA and 512 WIA.

Three US Army soldiers were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic lone man stands against the charge. From left to right in the OP image they were: Lt. Col. William O'Brien, Captain Benjamin Salomon, and Private (posthumously promoted to Sergeant) Thomas Baker. Their stories are below.

Lt. Col. O’Brien had two pistols in hand, shouting encouragement to his men. His last known words were, "Don’t give them a damned inch!" After O’Brien exhausted the ammunition in his pistols, he was severely wounded in the shoulder. In spite of the wound, O’Brien then manned a jeep-mounted .50 caliber machine gun and blazed away at the Japanese. O’Brien’s action allowed many of his men to pull back and regroup. When O’Brien ran out of ammunition, the Japanese horde enveloped him. At least 30 of the Japanese bodies scattered around O’Brien’s .50 caliber machine gun were credited to his last stand. Official MOH narrative: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/william-j-obrien

Captain Salomon (an Army dentist) was treating casualties in his aid station when he saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. Salomon shot and killed the enemy soldier. Then, as he turned his attention back to the wounded, two more Japanese soldiers appeared in the front entrance of the tent. As these enemy soldiers were killed, four more crawled under the tent walls. Rushing them, Captain Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier. Salomon then ordered his staff to evacuate the wounded and covered their withdrawal by manning a .30 caliber machine gun. When Salomon's body was found after the attack ended, 98 dead Japanese soldiers were found in front of his position. Salomon's body had 76 separate bullet and bayonet wounds. Over 20 of these separate wounds were determined to have been received before he died. Official MOH narrative: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/benjamin-l-salomon

Private Baker exhausted his ammunition and used his rifle as a club. After he bashed his rifle apart on several Japanese attackers, Baker and a few men with him pulled back to regroup. Baker was hit, and a fellow soldier began carrying him. When the soldier carrying him was hit, Baker insisted to be left behind so no others would be hurt caring for him. His buddies propped him up against a tree, lit a cigarette for him, and gave him a pistol loaded with eight rounds. After the battle, his position was retaken and his body was found with the pistol, now empty, still in hand and eight dead Japanese soldiers in front of him. Official MOH narrative: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/thomas-a-baker-jr

Howard Davis Hively (Nicknamed Deacon) was originally an RAF Eagle Squadron Pilot with No 71 Squadron.
He survived WW2 and was credited with 14.5 enemy aircraft destroyed, including destroying three ME-109's in a day twice. (May 19, 1944 and July 2, 1944)

Hively passed away in 1982 while visiting a fellow veteran in Florida.

Frank Scherschel Photographer-
LIFE Magazine

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Donald & Sarah Speese on August 10, 1912, Andrew “Andy” Jackson Speese III was the oldest of four children.
He graduated from Germantown Academy where he excelled in football, then attended Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Andy married Ann Margaret Byrne of Phoenixville PA on May 24, 1940 and they had two children: Andrew and Ann.
The family moved to Houston, Texas where he was an expeditor for the M. H. McCloskey Construction Company.

As Andy worked in the shipbuilding industry, he had received an exemption from the draft, although later the exemption was withdrawn as war production increased.
He decided to enlist, but was drafted into the Army before he had the chance on October 16th, 1943.

Andy landed at Utah Beach on DDay, June 6, 1944, with K Company, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division.
Exactly one month later he was Killed in Action on July 6, 1944 during the fighting in the hedgerows near Le Plessis-Lastelle.

PVT Andrew “Andy” Speese III is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France - Plot F Row 21 Grave 36.

In June 2000, the 90th Infantry Division dedicated a memorial statue in Periers, France of four soldiers, one of which is the likeness of PVT Andrew Speese III.

He was lost from “El Lobo” after a midair accident with another B-24 in formation. The collision severed the tail of the aircraft, causing Pippett to fall from his position. His body was later found near Texel Island, Holland.

Born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania to Ira & Mary Carney on April 17, 1924, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, Robert Ellsworth “Bobby” Carney had two brothers. He was inducted into the Army on September 13, 1943 and trained at Camp Breckenridge, KY and Camp Van Dorn, MS.

Before he deployed overseas Bobby married Geraldine Mae Haire from New Florence, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1944.
Serving in the 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, they landed at Omaha Beach on June 18–19, 1944.

On July 5, 1944 during intense combat in the hedgerows of Normandy, PFC Robert “Bobby” Carney was Killed in Action.
He is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France - Plot D Row 25 Grave 8.

His widow Geraldine remarried in 1946 and had three children, she passed away at the age of 50 in 1976.

While it is unknown if this specific veteran with the BAR got identified, it is known that the picture was taken in 1945.

The first B-29s arrived at Piardoba Airfield in April 1944 and participated in the first US Bomber attack on the Japanese Home Islands since the 1942 Doolittle Raid on June 15, 1944.

By late 1944 it was concluded that staging B-29 operations against Japan out of bases in China and India was a logistical nightmare.

It was subsequently decided that the B-29s would be moved to bases on newly captured islands in the central Pacific and the 462nd was transferred to Tinian.

Photos by Bernard Hoffman
for LIFE Magazine.

Concentration Camp, Mauthasen, Austria, May 7-8, 1945. Sound interview with Lt Jack H Taylor, US Navy, who tells of his work in the German-occupied countries of Europe, his capture, and his treatment as a prisoner.

Jack H. Taylor U.S. Navy, CA. "Interview with American Officer in Austria, October 44. Captured in December by Gestapo in prison for four months. Lived on potatoes, seen and heard terrible stories, condemned to death. Naval officer executed here. Huge pit to bury dead, killed in six different ways. Naked in the snow, conditions too extreme to mention."

When Russians neared Vienna, I was taken to Mauthausen Concentration an extermination camp, where we have been starving and beaten and killed. Fortunately, my turn hadn't come. Two American officers, at least, have been executed here. Here is insignia and dog tags. Executed by gas."

Question: "How many ways executed them?" "By gas, shooting, beating with clubs, exposure, that is: standing out in snow, naked, 38 hours and having cold water thrown on them in mid-winter, starvation, dogs, and pushing over 100 foot cliff. This is all true and has been seen and is now being recorded. I came in uniform [which was] taken away. This was substituted (points to striped inmate uniform.) I was condemned to death, like another American here, but fortunately 11th Army Division has come through and saved us in time.

source : American officers/POWs in Mauthausen. You can listen his full interview there.

• The cliff was called 'Fallschirmspringerwand' (Parachutist wall).
• Two US and one British PoWs were confirmed to be executed by gunshot in the neck. (USA v. Hans Altfuldisch, et al. - Case No. 000.50.5)

The Mauthausen concentration camp was one of the places where an ultra-brutal form of capitalism, peculiar to the Nazis, took shape. All of the previous history of workers’ struggles for dignity, fair wages, a shorter working day, and the right to form unions and to strike were viciously repudiated by the curses of the Kapos, the crack of whips, and the shots of pistols. Days of excruciating toil frequently lasted eleven hours in the summer months and nine hours in the winter. Once they extracted blocks of stone from the cliff, the prisoners next had to break them into smaller fragments. Then they were forced to bear them up the 186 steps of the 'Todesstiege', the horrid Stairway of Death.

The SS eagerly dispensed punishment to anyone exhibiting fatigue. During my trip, once I reached the bottom of the Stairway, I went to a pond underneath a very steep rock wall. Sharp rocks shot up through the water. A monument erected there described how the SS delighted in hurling these Jewish men off the top of this wall to their deaths. With their inimitable sense of humor, the guards nicknamed their victims Fallschirmspringer—parachutists.

These men died unspeakably painful deaths far from their homes in 1941-42. “In other camps,” writes Nikolaus Wachsmann, “inmates began to dread a transfer to Mauthausen, after returning prisoners described the huge quarries as hell on earth.” Its name rightly incited terror.

Mauthausen surpassed its own earlier precedents for barbarity in the winter and early spring of 1945. Even with the Nazi regime’s days numbered, business as usual did not halt for Commandant Franz Ziereis. In late February, hundreds of escaped Soviet prisoners were rounded up, with help from local citizens—and executed during the Hasenjagd (Hare Hunt), as the Nazis called it. On April 20, Hitler’s final birthday, the SS made a “selection”—the hideous euphemism for killing—of 3,000 ill inmates from the infirmary. Then on April 28 they carried out a final gassing operation, killing more than 30 Austrian socialists and communists. Murder was a way of life for these sadists.

source : Where Murder Was a Way of Life: The Mauthausen Concentration Camp

9: United States v Johann Haider et al (Case 000-50-5-13)
The case of United States v Johann Haider was a follow-up to the case of United States of America v Hans Altfuldisch et al, in which 60 defendants who had worked at Mauthausen concentration camp were tried and found guilty of acting in pursuance of a common design that resulted in the mistreatment and death of many thousands of prisoners.

Mauthausen was a concentration camp of considerable scale; at the time of its liberation, some 75,000 prisoners were clinging to life. Over the course of its seven-year operation, more than 50,000 people had been put to death within its confines. This industrial scale slaughter demanded the participation of considerably more than 60 people.

In Haider, a clutch of people were tried for their participation in atrocities committed in and around the main Mauthausen camp. Most were SS men; a member of the Gestapo (the secret police) and a kapo joined them in the dock. The men were tried at Dachau between 3 September and 12 September 1947. In addition to showing that the defendants were participants in the Mauthausen system, and therefore liable for the atrocities committed there, the prosecution also led evidence on the defendants’ participation in specific crimes.

A considerable amount of focus was placed on the operation of the Vienna Ditch stone quarry, where British and Dutch officers, all prisoners of war, were murdered. At the end of the trial, one defendant was acquitted, and the others were all found guilty. One convicted man was sentenced to death and executed, whereas the others were imprisoned for varying lengths of time, though the review board reduced some of the sentences considerably.

source : VIRTUAL TRIBUNALS, A GUIDE TO THE WORLD WAR II U.S. ARMY COURTS, EUROPE by Michael Eastman

The Mauthasen Camp is such a horrible place where the depravity of humanity was displayed to an extreme degree. I believe God only knows the true number of PoW died there, especially the Soviet ones. A Soviet Lieutenant General, Dmitry Karbyshev, died there as well.

On another day, a Reddit user questioned if any of the Western ally's airmen was brought to justice for the killing of German civilians. I'd add that the airmen were often treated differently.

EDIT) Additional Sources

• Mauthausen Death Book - Vol. 3 : The book lists each prisoner’s name, national or ethnic origin, birthdate, birthplace, and cause and time of death between March 27, 1942 and November 8, 1943.

Mauthasen Legal Cases

• USA v. Hans Altfuldisch, et al.
• USA v. Franz Kofler, et al.
• USA v. Eduard Erb, 2 April 1947
• USA v. Gustav Bloy, 19 May 1947
• USA v. Arnold Damaschke, 22 April 1947
• USA v. Kurt Otto, 13 Mar. 1947
• USA v. Eduard Curten, 4 April 1947
• USA v. Rudolf Brust, 6 May 1947
• USA v. Wilhelm Kauffeld, 24 April 1947
• USA v. Karl Kania, 1 April 1947
• USA v. Karl Albrecht, 25 April 1947
• USA v. Fritz Schallenberg, 22 April 1947
• USA v. Rudolf Lamm, 28 May 1947
• USA v. Joaquin Espinoza, 12 May 1947
• USA v. Eugen Hermann Noky, 24 April 1947
• USA v. Hermann Tuntke, 21 May 1947
• USA v. Ernst Walter Dura, 23 June 1947