War in Vietnam, part one

During the Vietnam War (1961-1975) the United States and the South Vietnamese armies fought against the combined forces of the North Vietnamese regular army and the irregular Viet Cong (or 'VC') guerrillas. Much of the fighting took place in the jungle or on rice 'paddies' (fields) run by local farmers. The land was lovely to look at, with mountains, green rice paddies, and beautiful tropical scenes; but that same terrain was treacherous to those who did not know their way about. The Viet Cong often planted explosives around the perimeter of rice fields, and the U.S. Infantrymen learned that it was usually safer to walk through the paddies, which were always flooded with water. Even there, however, it could be dangerous, as we will see in this following post.

My brothers and I took these pictures in our back yard behind our garden, where the grass was tall and shaggy--making a perfect tropical climate backdrop for these pictures.



A patrol of two U.S. Infantrymen moving across a rice paddy

A Viet Cong irregular guerrilla; note he wears civilian clothing, and his weapon is imported from the Soviet Union.

A guerrilla, after waiting in his concealed position for hours, takes aim at the patrol...

And fires.

Returning fire; a direct hit!

World War One: The Western Front

In the year 1918, the United States of America entered the First World War, deploying troops overseas to Europe. At that time, most of Europe's and North America's armies were using trench warfare; fighting by digging ditch-like trenches for battle positions and means of protection.

My brothers and I made these pictures not to long ago, making the "trenches" out of sticks and small-scale sandbags. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did making them!



This is how the American soldier, often known by their nick-name "doughboys" looked in the muddy farmland of France. Note how his rifle is fixed with a bayonet, a knife-like weapon that fitted onto the end of gun barrel for close combat.

Here, a soldier fires from his 'rifle pit'. Note that he wears a blanketroll on his back.

When charging the enemy, a soldier tried his best to find the most cover from enemy bullets and mortar shells.

Here a U.S. infantryman comes upon an abandon enemy machine gun nest; they had to take caution when doing this.

Allied Airborne Troops On D-day

On the early morning of June 6th, 1944, U.S. paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions dropped out of the sky by parachute, landing in the countryside of Normandy, France, behind German lines to surround them from the rear in order to make way for the Allied amphimbious assualt that would land on the beaches of the Normandy in a few hours. Most of them, however, did not land in their designated landing zones. The wind scattered many of them throughout the French coutryside, where they landed in trees, roads, fields, and even on rooftops! Once on the ground, many soldiers could not find their own units, and paratroopers from different companys and regiments had to fight the enemy together.

My brothers and I enjoyed making these pictures; we got our best G.I. Joe paratroopers together, and one of us would toss up a parachute in the air with G.I. Joe attached, while another one of us would be standing below on the ground, snapping away on our camera. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as we did making it.

A paratrooper steadily floats down after being dropped out of a U.S. paratrooper aircraft.
Heading torwards the ground About to land
The German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel flooded fields with water to make the French farmland a bad place for a landing zone in preparation for any airborne invasion. The Allies overcame this obstacle, however, and they were soon moving inland.

World War Two Urban Combat

During the second World War, during and after the D-day invasion, combat in urban areas became very common as Allied forces battled the Nazis to liberate Northern Europe and to end Hitler's reign of power. Many towns and villages throughout France, Holland, and Belgium became battlegrounds as stone and brick buildings, shelled and bombed to rubble, gave excelent cover for enemy soilders, machine-gunners, and snipers. The Allies had to fight their way from building-to-building in a deadly game of hide-and-seek, employing hand grenades, sub-machine guns, and any weapon that could be used. My brothers and I re-created these scenes after researching old books, looking at old photographs, and having been to a couple museums....

This Allied soldier is from the 82nd Airborne Division, one of two American Airborne units to drop out of the sky by parachute on the early morning of June 6th behind Nazi lines in Normandy (Northern France).A U.S. Infantryman blasts away at a German Nazi defender with his M3 "Grease Gun" a submachine gun called by this name due to the fact it highly resembles a grease gun.Grenades, light-weight bombs that could be thrown by hand, were used freely in street fighting, as they could be thrown quickly around a corner of a building to clear out any machine gun nest or rifle pit that might be on the other side.

G.I. Joe Live

Welcome to the world of pretend, where toys come alive.