A four-star general’s personal photos of the battlefields of France and Germany from World War II are being published for the first time, shedding new light on the bloodshed and violence that darkened Europe during the Nazi era.
General Charles Day Palmer spent most of the war fighting on the Western Front, and took photos of the bombed-out cities and lifeless bodies he witnessed along his European march.
After sitting in his personal files for years, the photos were shared for the first time by his grandson Daniel Palmer earlier this month, on the website Argunners.com. See the photos after the caught:
Forest burial: An American soldier decorates the grave of an unknown U.S. soldier, who was buried by the enemy before retreatingDecimated: General Palmer wrote on the reverse of this photograph, ‘Remains of a friendly little town, that was “scorched”Fort: A pill box located on the edge of a fort bears damage probably caused by American tank fireUp in flames: A French truck burns ferociously after its cargo of 800 gallons of gasoline explodes and catches fireGruesome: The bodies of two German soldiers lie on together in a gutter in FranceThe other casualties: Troops string wire past four German artillery horses that were killed along with five German soldiers in this streetOn patrol: An American tank is seen driving down a battle-ravaged street in Rohrwiller, France, on February 4, 1945Out of action: A knocked-out American tank sits beside a similarly wrecked German tank on a street on the Western FrontNew territory: A tank moves through the ruins of a freshly retaken French town, while two medics attend to a fallen soldier on the roadsideAmerican soldiers father around the aftermath of a shelling. General Palmer wrote: ‘Shell from Railway did this. Not far from where I live. Five bigger ones hit about 150 yards from my place the others .. (?). One blew the door in on my caravan. The place was a mess.Hunt for the enemy: American soldiers raid a building where German soldiers were thought to be hiding out and holding prisoners at the end of a three-day battleLast fight: Three dead German Waffen-SS Troops lay on the ground after trying to stop an advance of an American armored column
