Wartime Kangaroos

A special edition of the wartime pets series! As we've seen in past posts, soldiers are very, very fond of keeping pets and mascots of all kinds, from the expected dogs and cats to pigs, goats, and foxes. Out of all the unusual pets, perhaps the most surprisingly popular was the kangaroo (or wallaby). Australian soldiers played with them at home, then took them along on journeys to far-off fronts. Foreign troops stationed in Australia were also keen to seize their chance of kangaroo adoption. I don't know if they do make good pets, but these fellows certainly seem thought so!

An Australian soldier with a pet kangaroo near the Pyramids, Egypt, about 1915. Source

Soldiers with a kangaroo in Malaysa, 1941. Source

A soldier with "Joey" the kangaroo in Malaya, 1941. According to the caption, he was smuggled in a box labelled "Medical Supplies." Source

Australian Soldiers Playing in the Snow

Though it certainly does snow in Australia, and the country even has ski hills, the majority of Australians don't grow up with snow. Particularly in the days before long-distance travel was commonplace, a lot of Australians never even saw snow. So when Australian soldiers were posted abroad to places like Northern Europe, Canada, and Korea, they tended to have an awful lot of fun with it. 

Snowball-armed soldiers and their prizewinning kangaroo snowman at a Convalescent Camp in England, 1917. Source

Australian soldiers having a snowball fight at a camp in southern England, 1916. Source

Nurses and convalescent Australian soldiers have a snowball fight at a hospital in southern England, WWI. Source

Soldier Singalongs

Back in the days before recorded music was easily portable (or even extant), getting a group together to sing around the piano was a popular form of entertainment. In accumulating photographs of this activity (which will probably still be in a future post), I was struck to see just how many there were of soldiers having a good sing at the piano. In the earlier twentieth century, pianos were, of course, much more ubiquitous than they were today, and a common feature of recreational spaces. Even today, an open piano seems to be pretty irresistible--how much more so to fellows who really need a chance to unwind. And, of course, wartime photographers, particularly official ones, tend to flock to the more reassuring types of images, ensuring the capture of some of these spontaneous moments of fun amidst the turmoil and uncertainty of war. 

© IWM (C 107)

RAF men sing around a piano in a billet in France, December 1939. Source

© IWM (A 1431)

Officers sing after dinner onboard the battleship HMS Rodney, 1940. Source

Trainee airmen singing at a piano, WW2. Source

Soldiers Peeling Potatoes

Armies, unsurprisingly, used lots of  potatoes in their cooking, and soldiers, unsurprisingly, were often set the task of peeling them. What is rather surprising is just how regularly photographers captured this event on film....

© IWM (SE 2022)

British soldiers peeling potatoes, Burma, 1945. Source

Library and Archives Canada

Canadian soldiers peeling potatoes, 1916. Source

Library and Archives Canada

Canadian soldiers peeling potatoes, 1916. Source

Wartime Tea Breaks

When I first posted on soldiers drinking tea ("Tea, the Soldier's Drink"), I noted that this theme was so common in British wartime photographs that it would need two parts. Finally, almost two years later, here is that part two!

© IWM (NA 11770)

A British and an American soldier share tea in a dugout in Anzio, Italy, 1944. Source

© IWM (MH 32677)

British and Australian officers have an end of the day cup of tea in Korea, 1950-1953. Source

© IWM (NA 14569)

Soldiers get tea from a YMCA tea car, Anzio, Italy, 1944. Source

Wartime Pets Part Five

I feel I've said everything I have to say on the topic in the last four posts from this series; essentially, I absolutely adore photographs depicting men (and sometimes women) at war with the pets and mascots that were more common than we realize. I feel it is so humanizing and so touching--tender moments in difficult times. 

Walter Sanders, LIFE © Time Inc.

A sergeant holding the puppy mascot of the 36th jet fighter group, Germany, 1948. Source

Library and Archives Canada

Nanny, the pet goat of a Canadian Mobile Veterinary Section, takes a cigarette from an officer, 1917. Source

© IWM (TR 2145)

One of the RAF's top aces in WW2, Johnny Johnson, with his pet lab Sally, 1944. Source

More Soldiers Sleeping

A sequel to this post (from almost two years ago now-- where does time go?). I always find photographs of soldiers asleep very touching. This photograph of a young soldier asleep in a WWI trench, in fact, is partially responsible for getting me so into old photographs. The emotional effect, for me, comes partly from the sense of sheer exhaustion you get from the men's poses, conveying the physical pressures of war, but even more so from the contrast between relaxed, sleeping, usually very young faces, and the context surrounding them-- the conditions and military apparel you see in the photographs as well as the wider wartime context the photograph fits into. Asleep, these men don't look like hardened soldiers off to fight for their lives; they look like young men who should be sleeping somewhere much better, not caught up in a war at all. 

© IWM (TR 1520)

A British lieutenant sleeps in the hay during fighting in Italy, 1944. Source

Larry Burrows, LIFE © Time Inc.

An American soldier asleep in Cambodia, 1970. Source

LIFE © Time Inc.

British soldier sleeping in a shallow foxhole in the Libyan desert, 1941. Source

Canadian Army Women of WW2 (in Colour!)

The Canadian Woman's Army Corps (CWAC), was the women's branch of the Canadian military founded in WW2, similar to the American Women's Army Corps (WAC). Though CWACs had strictly non-combatant roles, many served outside the country in the United States, the UK, Italy, and northwest Europe. The CWAC was disbanded in 1964, when women in service were merged into the main Canadian army. 

The majority of these photographs seem to have been taken during or just after World War Two, probably mostly for promotional and/or recruitment purposes. Thanks to the format of Kodachrome transparency, the colours are just about as bright now as they were then. 

(Unrelated note-- after almost three years I finally realized how/why to make jump breaks, so posts will now appear shorter on the blog main page (a big plus if you, like me, have a crummy computer/internet connection that doesn't like too many images!). Don't forget to click "read more", though-- still as many images per post as ever!)

Credit: Canada. Department of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada

CWACs in Holland. Source

Credit: Canada. Department of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada

A CWAC with flowers in Holland. Source

Credit: Canada. Department of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada

CWACs salute. Source

Backdrops of the Civil War

Another journey into the backdrops used by photographer's studios, this time in a certain context. During the American Civil War, ambrotype and tintype portraits of soldiers were made in great numbers by photographers who set up temporary studios at military camps (this blog has featured quite a few). While the majority of photographers just went with the plain canvas backdrop, painted backdrops were also in common use. Backdrops depicting camp scenes--usually with a prominent American flag-- were popular, along with a variety of landscapes, from the realistic to the somewhat fanciful. It is very interesting to see the kinds of scenes these young men wanted to be placed in (or the photographer though they might want to be placed it, at least). 

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a landscape backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a checkered terrace backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a military camp backdrop. Source

Wartime Barbering

Hair doesn't stop growing just because there's a war on, after all. 

© IWM (Q 19051)

The barber of the American Submarine Chaser Depot, WWI. Source

© IWM (Q 4029)

A barber of the Black Watch Regiment during the Somme, 1916. Source

© IWM (A 6223)

The ship's barber of the HMS Cochrane, WW2. Source

Soldiers Drinking

All right, time for the blog to get back on track! I apologize for the extended absence--last month of the first year of grad school! (in photographic history and preservation, of course). Thank you to all my wonderful followers for your patience, tons of great stuff to come!

--

 We've had a post on soldiers drinking tea; sometimes--especially during or at the end of a war-- something stronger is needed.

© IWM (SE 4758)

Recently released British prisoners of war have drinks at an officer's bar in Rangoon, Burma, 1945. Source

 © IWM (BU 714)

British troops have a drink at a cafe in Brussels, 1944. Source

© IWM (CL 1138)

Airmen on leave have a beer in Brussels, 1944. Source

Letters From Home

Soldiers reading and writing home, from World War One to Korea.

© IWM (B 15363)

A British soldier reads a letter in his dugout, Germany, 1945. Source

© IWM (BF 522)

A soldier writes a letter home from Korea, 1951-53. Source

LIFE/© Time Inc.

American soldiers read letters (and make fudge!) during a quiet moment, Italy, 1944. Source

Life in a London Hospital

A series of photographs capturing the experiences of workers and patients at a busy hospital in London, 1941.

From the Imperial War Museum.  

© IWM (D 2312)

Stretcher bearers carry a casualty into the hospital, while a 'tally man' (usually a student doctor) assigns a number. Source

© IWM (D 2322)

A view of the hospital reception ward, with a doctor in the foreground preparing to take a x-ray with a mobile machine. Source

© IWM (D 2317)

A doctor and nurse tend to a patient, while an almoner takes personal details. Source

Americans in World War Two

Part Two of a Memorial Day weekend series. "Americans in World War Two" is about as broad as you get, and I haven't even tried to encapsulate it; rather I've selected a collection of compelling photographs in the general spirit of remembering those who fought and what they had to go through.

A medic gives blood plasma to a wounded soldier, Sicily, 1943. Source

Wounded soldiers await evacuation on Omaha Beach, France, 1944. Source

Infantrymen firing mortars ( holding their ears as they do) after crossing the Rhine, Germany, 1945. Source

Returning

A series of photographs following newly repatriated New Zealander prisoners of war as they arrive back in Britain (specifically the town of Margate, Kent, England), April 1945.

From the Imperial War Museum

The New Zealander ex-POWs (NZPOWs, as I shall refer to them) jump from a truck upon arrival at the Grand Hotel in Margate. Source

The men climb the steps of the Grand Hotel, being used as a reception centre. Source

Source

Tea, the Soldier's Drink

Sometimes even-- or especially-- in the midst of war, you just need a cup of tea. (Especially when you're British.... so much so, in fact, that this will be a two-parter, thanks to the Imperial War Museum!).

© IWM (IB 1882)

A solider drinking a tea next to a Red Cross mobile tea wagon, Calcutta, 1944. Source

© IWM (B 5349)

Members of a parachute battalion have a well-earned cup of tea after a three day fight back to their own lines, Normandy, 1944 Source

© IWM (Q 2309)

British troops have tea in Belgium, 1917. Source

Allied Soldiers Like London and London Likes Them

A nice set of photos from the Ministry of Information capturing some of the non-British Empire troops in London, 1940. They came with the title. 

From the Imperial War Museum.

Czech soldiers walk down a London street. Source

A policeman gives directions to a group of Free French soldiers. Source

Czech soldiers and airmen buy tobacco. Source