Fake - Staged WW2 Photos

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 9:08 am

Being a war photographer can be a dangerous job, unless the photos you take are staged...

"American paratroopers cross a field under German artillery fire."

Vanguard of the Crusade wrote:

Life at Dodewaard
Southeast of Opheusden, elements of the 502nd held the southwest flank of the division line near Dodewaard. Action in the area was mostly limited to patrolling, and many men were killed or wounded by the thousands of German land mines planted in the area.
A press photographer visited this sector during October and told Schuyler Jackson that he wanted to get a great action photo. At a loss for what to do, the men decided to "stage" a picture. They planted some C-2 explosive rigged with a remote detonator in a nice pile of mud and positioned one trooper to the rear of it. The trooper struck a pose with his weapon at the ready and at a given signal, the charge was detonated. The photographer snapped a still photo of the explosion and the photo was later published in many books, newspapers, and magazines. The caption said the pictures showed an American paratrooper near Arnhem, advancing under 88mm fire. It was hailed as one of the great action shots of WWII.

"US paratroopers fight in Veghel to keep Hell's Highway open."

Battledetective.com wrote:

Description:
This photograph is evidently intended to depict the struggle of the American airborne troops to keep the Corridor, which they dubbed 'Hell's Highway', open.
The photograph shows four soldiers of the 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion moving forward on Hoog Straat in Veghel. They pass a burned-out American GMC truck of quartermasters of the 101st Airborne Division. This truck had brought gasoline in jerry cans and had come to Veghel in the division's so-called 'seaborne tail'; meaning not transported by air but driving from the Belgian border up the corridor. The truck was hit by a German Jagdpanther attacking Veghel in an attempt to cut the corridor .
Date: September 23rd 1944
Location: The Netherlands, Veghel, Hoog Straat,
Cameraman: Unknown cameraman, the credits for this photograph are always for the US Army Signal Corps.
Details about staging: These airborne engineers appear to move forward cautiously but the cameraman is in front of them with his back to the 'enemy'. Also, the fighting on the 23rd of September in the Veghel area took place on the countryside, South of the town.

"British glider pilots fighting in the perimeter around the Hartenstein hotel in Oosterbeek."

Battledetective.com wrote:

Description: This photograph appears in almost every book about the Battle of Arnhem. Captions under this photo all refer to the heroic battle of every soldier in the British 1st Airborne Division, even of the ones bringing them to the battlefield. Although their uniforms do not give clues to their specific units, these men are almost always identified as glider pilots. British army regulations prescribed that glider pilots, after landing their aircraft, would serve as infantry soldiers. Because all glider pilots carried the rank of Sergeant, units made up of glider pilots were referred to as the 'Army of Sergeants'.
Details about staging: It has never been much of a debate that the troopers in the photograph posed for the camera. Again, the cameraman is with his back toward the enemy. One soldier even looks into the camera.

http://www.battledetective.com/battlestudy15.html

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:56 pm

Description: Here's a very famous staged/faked photo that was widely used as propaganda (featured in a 1937 Issue of LIFE), and is still extensively used today as factual evidence.
The photo is often captioned as a "baby who is the sole survivor of a train station bombing in the Battle of Shanghai".

Details of the Shoot: What they fail to mention is that this was shot at an exclusively military train/supply depot with no civilian access (ie no kids would be there in the first place).
The "shoot" involved placing the baby in the aftermath a day after the bombing, and setting off a smoke pot (located behind the baby, evidenced by the white smoke) to scare the baby into crying, completing the shot.

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:21 pm

They even devised one before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which they had a miniature naval battle with the testing of their torpedoes.