Poignant Photos from Both Sides of the War

While it’s quite common to find posed portrait photographs of soldiers (from both wars), all too often the identity and fate of the subject is unknown.

Not so with these examples. In the first a member of the Parachute Regiment, Private Sadler, poses for a photo taken in Italy. The note on the back of the photo reveals that he was killed during the ill fated Arnhem expedition of September 1944.

On the other side of the lines was a young German airman who gave this photo of himself to a friend in October 1941. The recipient noted that he was killed in a bombing raid in Tobruk on 15th November 1942. A British serviceman later obtained the photograph and made the note ‘Killed in Italy. Rest in Peace’. However, it seems quite likely that he wrote this about the person carrying the photograph rather than the person it features.