In August 1961, a daring East German soldier defied orders to aid a young boy's escape across the newly built Berlin Wall.


In August 1961, a daring East German soldier defied orders to aid a young boy's escape across the newly built Berlin Wall.

 The picture capturing this act likely dates back to when the wall was first erected. The boy was caught on the wrong side, separated from his parents who were in West Berlin visiting relatives.

Despite the stern commands of the East German government prohibiting passage, the soldier chose to help the boy cross the barbed wire to rejoin his family. 

As this moment was captured, his superior reportedly noticed him, leading to his removal from the unit. His fate remains unknown.

Speculation ranges from him possibly being reassigned away from the wall if fortunate, to serving a prison sentence for insubordination if not. 

It is unlikely he was executed, as capital punishment was generally reserved for those guilty of high treason.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BAZOOKA

Image
THE BAZOOKA Immediately recognizable and with a name that everyone remembers after the first mention, the bazooka is one of the most iconic weapons of all time. Developed in the early 20th century, this recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher, nicknamed also "stovepipe", was first introduced widely during World War II.  Although it had its flaws, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force mentioned the bazooka among the four "tools of victory" in WWII along with the atomic bomb, the C-47 Skytrain transport plane, and the Jeep. Today, bazooka has become a generic term for shoulder-fired rocket launchers in the public.  The development of the bazooka entailed two separate technologies: rocketry and shaped-charge warheads. Like many weapons of World War II, it was a high-powered weapon that was scaled down for increased mobility and ease of fire.  The concept behind the bazooka was to create a handheld weapon that could inflic...
Read more

A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians.

Image
A young German soldier (pictured center left, without helmet) refuses to participate in the execution of 16 Yugoslav civilians.  He positioned himself within the group and was executed for disobeying his NCO. He choose death instead of killing hopeless civilians. His name was Josef Schulz. Josef Schulz, also spelled Joseph Schultz (Serbian: Jozef Šulc), was a German soldier of the 714th Infantry Division stationed in the Balkans, Serbia during World War II. He died in 1941, allegedly executed after refusing to take part in a partisan execution. The German High Command recorded him as killed in action. The plot of the Yugoslav short movie Joseph Schultz (1973) is based on the incident. Based on a Bundesarchiv study, the incident was dismissed as a legend by scholars in the 1990s. Josef Schulz was born in 1909[citation needed] and lived in Barmen, Wuppertal, Germany. During World War II, he served as a corporal in the 714th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He is officially recorde...
Read more

A Tunnel Dug by a Giant Ground Sloth in Brazil Over 10,000 Years Ago

Image
A Tunnel Dug by a Giant Ground Sloth in Brazil Over 10,000 Years Ago Known as Paleoburrows, these enormous tunnels can measure up to 2,000 feet long and over six feet tall. It is believed that the Brazilian tunnels were created by giant ground sloths. How were they discovered? In the early 2000s, Professor Heinrich Frank of the University of Rio Grande do Sul was driving by a construction site when something caught his eye. There was a strange hole that had been revealed by the site's excavators, and Frank wondered where it led. A few weeks later, he made his way back and entered the hole. Crawling down the 15-foot-long opening, he noticed claw marks across the ceiling of the cave. Given his expertise, he knew that no natural phenomenon would create a cave with those characteristics, and that it must have been done by a large animal. The animal would have been what is known as a Megatherium, an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America. Twitter Cre...
Read more

Battle of Verdun, impressions of the fight in the Reduce of Thiaumont

Image
Battle of Verdun, impressions of the fight in the Reduce of Thiaumont Testimonial passages of German soldier Wilhelm Hermanns of the 67th Infantry Regiment, who was destined in the abusive structure of the Thiaumont Reduce, at the end of October 1916, within the scope of the colossal battle of Verdun: "The entrance was a simple hole in the desolate field of the countryside" battle, and the silhouettes of men shrunk with fear, constantly going out and in cramped, looked like giant ants in the middle of darkness. I went down an iron staircase to that concrete cave about twelve feet deep. It was a huge place, filled with hundreds of soldiers. Some were in their bunk beds, sleeping, snoring or whining.  Others crowded the hallways between the bunk beds, chatting or writing letters. And some were sitting or kneeling in a corner, picking up their stuff or pulling it out of the ditches. The reflection of a lantern or that of a candle, a match or a lit cigarette flashed the darkness ...
Read more

Seeds of Future Wars

Image
Drawing depicting the victorious nations from the First World War sowing the "Seeds of Future Wars" following the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. Today 104 years ago, on June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending Germany's participation in the First World War. On November 11, 1918, the Germans had effectively surrendered to the Allies in the Armistice of Compiègne, ending over 4 years of war on the Western Front. On January 18, 1919 the Allies began their Paris Peace Conference in the Versailles palace to draft the peace terms for post-war Europe, the same place the Germans had forced the French to sign the 1871 Treaty of Versailles, ending the Franco-Prussian War. By June 1919 the Allies, led by the 'Big Four' - France, Britain, Italy and the U.S.A, had drafted a final treaty, which they handed over to Germany, giving them 5 days to accept the terms of the treaty, threatening to invade Germany if refused. The treaty was composed of 15 diffe...
Read more

Lieutenant Bill Heptinstall's M4 Sherman from New Zealand's 20th Armoured Regiment

Image
Lieutenant Bill Heptinstall's M4 Sherman from New Zealand's 20th Armoured Regiment, lays knocked out down the side of a road next the Tiger I tank that destroyed it.  The Tiger has been self-destroyed and abandoned by its crew, possibly leaving it there as a road block. Florence, Italy. August 4th, 1944. From the 13th of June to the 13th of July 1944, the New Zealand 20th Armoured Regiment was given a rest period in the Liri Valley, after its part in the push to Rome. It was a time of training and refitting for the Sherman equipped unit. On the morning of the 13th the Regiment began its march back to the war, this time it was to be part of the attack on Florence. By the 17th the Regiment was in position near the front for a brief rest at Lake Trasimene. Then on the evening of the 22nd the Regiment moved again some 70 miles to Siena, and finally to Tavarnelle on the 26th. The 27th was the day the war returned, a reconnaissance patrol dodged enemy mines but was halted by a blown ...
Read more

Remember The Heroes The Battle of Bologna was fought in Bologna

Image
The Battle of Bologna 09-21.04.1945 Remember The Heroes The Battle of Bologna was fought in Bologna, Italy from 9–21 April 1945 during the Second World War, as part of the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy. The Allied forces were victorious, with the Polish II Corps and supporting Allied units capturing the city on 21 April. In March 1945 the Allies were preparing a new offensive, Operation Buckland, in Northern Italy. The capture of Bologna, an important regional communication hub, was set as a part of that offensive. The Allied forces tasked with this were composed of the US 5th Army (II Corps, South African 6th Armoured Division) and the British 8th Army (which for that part of the theatre, was composed of the V Corps and the Polish II Corps). The German units defending the area were composed of the German 26th Panzer Division of the XIV Panzer Corps, the 1st Parachute Division and the 4th Parachute Division of the I Parachute Corps. German defenses in that region were part of the Army...
Read more

These 4 WWII planes were armed with literal tank cannons

Image
Military History of the Day: These 4 WWII planes were armed with literal tank cannons The idea of using planes to destroy tanks is not a new one. Although the concept has been perfected with modern aircraft like the popular A-10 Warthog, tank-killing planes flew not long after the invention of both vehicles.  In WWII, tank and plane technology advanced rapidly. As tanks became more survivable with thicker armor, planes began carrying heavier and heavier ordnance to kill them. Eventually, armies decided that the best way to kill a tank and other ground targets with a plane was with a tank cannon. Here are four of those planes. Note that planes armed with flak guns like the German BK 3,7 3.7cm gun are not included. 1. de Havilland Mosquito FB Mk XVIII — QF 6-pounder (57mm) The DH Mosquito was one of the most capable planes of WWII. Famously made mostly of wood, the Mosquito was used as a fighter, bomber, pathfinder, and reconnaissance aircraft. It was said that the only problem with ...
Read more

This is the Legend of Anna Maria Stockhausen.👻

Image
This is the Legend of Anna Maria Stockhausen.👻 "This is Anna Maria Von Stockhausen’s corpse, strapped to keep her coming back from the dead. She was accused of being a witch during the Middle ages and Black Plague. This folklore about Anna was that she was killed about 6 times. She was first hanged and later clawed herself out of the grave. The town people captured her in a nearby town and quickly drowned her in a lake, by tying her to a plank. The townspeople said they checked her several times after dragging her lifeless body out of the water.  They buried her again, only to see an empty grave 2 days later! It was said they found her rotting corpse dwelling in her old place, with worms, dirt and water spitting out of her. So the townspeople dragged her out, drove a stake in her heart and once again buried.  They placed a guard at her grave and felt she was finally buried for good. The guard failed to check in for 4 days, so a local priest went to find him, it was said that ...
Read more

On The Eastern Front At Seventeen' An excerpt from a newly translated memoir of a Red Army soldier who just managed to survive the German attack into the Caucasus in August 1942

Image
On The Eastern Front At Seventeen' An excerpt from a newly translated memoir of a Red Army soldier who just managed to survive the German attack into the Caucasus in August 1942 Just translated and published in English for the first time is On The Eastern Front At Seventeen. This is a fresh and immediate memoir of the experiences of a young man suddenly thrust into service with the Red Army. With no military training he very soon experiences the ruthlessness of Soviet discipline, the horrors of combat - where so many of his comrades were killed only days after joining up - and appalling treatment as a POW of the Germans. He managed to escape and vividly describes life in the Red Army up to 1944 when he was wounded. Sergey Drobyazko lived in the city of Krasnodar on the banks of the Kuban river in the northern Caucasus. He had just left school and was working in a weapons factory in August 1942 when it became apparent that the German offensive of 1942 was headed their way. His gener...
Read more