http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/category/ww2/

 

Really nice stuff here.

Some of those photos are extremely intense.

 

Speaking only for myself -

 

It seems easy sometimes to look back at events 70+ years in the past, and marvel at the technology of war.... while at the same time, forgetting about the horrors and atrocities that that technology made possible.

 

I think it's a pitfall that all historically minded people fall into sometimes.

 

As a result, I'm very glad that photo collections like that exist.  While they are hard to look at, it reminds us of the human cost of conflict

As I get older, closer to beyond military age, and now that I have a son that could very well follow the footsteps of myself, his grandpa, or two of his great-grandfathers: I see war footage and news in an vastly different way. I wonder about their families, what they were like as kids, what their goals were and why they fought.

 

Plus, with all my friends I've been reconnecting with lately that stayed active for many years later than I did and aren't the same: I also wonder how the guys in the photo were if they did make it through, how society treated them, and how they have moved on.