As this thread has re-appeared, I thought I might update the information on the Chindit in the photograpgh: The soldier was Peter Beer an officer from the Wilitshire Regiment. To read more, click the link below and scroll down alphabetically: Roll Call A-E
How about this one. Not exactly knackered but certainly replete. My father wrote on the back of this " Pte. Bennett in recumbent position with Rum and Beer" Dated December 1945. The war is finally over, and Pte. Bennett and his colleagues having fought their way through Burma and finally after Operation Zipper have seen the Japanese surrender in Malaya. The 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex can finally relax as they look forwards to returning home. They have been away for years and can only dream of their future life.
THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-45 (B 10156) Catalogue number B 10156 A universal carrier crew of 4th Wiltshire Regiment's anti-tank platoon, 43rd (Wessex) Division, 21 September 1944.
Shared by the excellent Pike Grey on Twatter. Pike Grey 1914-1918 (@PikeGrey1418) | Twitter A First War Austrian chappie. Though just 'knackered' seems somehow insufficient...
This received today would seem appropriate: Extracted from: WO 169/14735 4 Indian Division General Staff Jan-Dec 1943 Interestingly, the technique of tensing and relaxing each muscle in turn, from head to toe (para 3), is what I was taught years ago in yoga, only in reverse. The fourth paragraph is quite possible when you're in good shape (I wake before my alarm for anything urgent), but more like wishful thinking when you're cream-crackered.
Which one suspects he might be holding by the strap as it's just too bloody cold for his un-gloved hand...
He's trying to gather the energy to tell the photographer, who is probably dry, if not clean, where to put his camera.
Erich Walther, seen here after the Battle for Heraklion in May 1941. Walther later went on to command a Kampfgruppe during Operation Market Garden around the Neerpelt Bridgehead and later in the Battle of Overloon.
From the excellent 'Greece at WW2 Archives' FB page. https://www.facebook.com/GreeceAtWw2Photostory/photos/a.283310068445518/4560260010750481/ "June 1941. New Zealand soldiers who managed to evacuate from Crete to Egypt are transported by train. Fatigue from the afflictions is evident on their faces. (David McKenzie Collection)"
IWM HU 128129 An exhausted soldier of the Independent Podhalan Rifles Brigade asleep on a bench with a loaf of bread for a later meal, 15 May 1940. Photograph taken in the area south of Bjerkvik during the link up operation with the French.