Two Fantastic New Image Archives

Lately two incredible new image archives have become available on the web that are going to prove themselves to be invaluable to people interested in history, and especially military history. Let's walk through them.

LIFE Magazine Photo Archive
First up, LIFE Magazine recently reached an agreement with Google to post over 10 million images from the archives of LIFE on Google Image Search. The LIFE Photo Archive contains so many images that 97% of them have never been seen before. Google is busy adding all these photos to the archive now, and over the next few months all 10 million will be available online for free. The pictures go from present day all the way back to the 1750s, and contain a large mix of black-and-white and color photos that are available in their full sizes. This is an amazing resource.

Now I've spent some time using it, and there's a few things I learned that can help you. There are two issues I have with the index as it's currently arranged. The first is when you look at the index, the images appear to be arranged by date. So it appears if you're looking for a particular time period, you can simply browse the archive. However this doesn't really work that well, as if you look at the URL constructed for each decade you'll see there is an additional search term in there that limits the search. So what is misleadingly labeled "1940s" really "1940s and Hawaii". If you want just the 1940s then you have to change the search after the fact to remove "Hawaii" out of it. I don't understand why this is presented in this manner, but it is. Very misleading.
The second and bigger issue I have with the archive is broad search terms like the above give you a paged listed of results, which is typical for a Google search. However unlike normal searches the results are artificially stopped at 10 pages of results. So if you did actually want to browse the 1940s, you can look at the first 200 pictures and that's it. Again very unfortunate and really seems an arbitrary design decision since nothing else in Google's results presentation works this way.

OK enough discussion of what doesn't work, let's talk about what does. The key to searching the archive are the tags, or "labels" as they are called, attached to each picture. Let's bring up a few pictures and see. OK knowing this is LIFE, these pictures will be primarily US-oriented. So my first go-round I figured I'd search World War 2 pictures, so I typed in "World War 2" (with quotes to make it a phrase) and got nothing. "WW2" also got nothing. This leads us to a key aspect of image search - finding the right label to use. But how do you find out what the editor chose for labels? Here's how I did it. After a few rounds of poor results, I went for something more specific, The Battle of the Bulge. Not wanting to be too specific in my search, I typed in "Bulge", and what do you know we have 100 results. Good, but I expected more. Now click on an image and we see more details about it - when and where it was shot, the photograper, etc. We also see the tags associated with this image, in this case "Ardennes, Fog, Winter Warfare, Wars, Wwii, Belgium, Weather, Action, 1940s". Now we know the magic tag for World War 2 - "Wwii". Click on that link and we get our maximum 200 results. You will also see "Related Images" tied to each image. Usually these are pretty good at finding more pictures taken at the same time as the one you're looking at, as well as others related to the subject. So as it turns out this is the key to going around the archive. Use very specific terms to zero in on a particular battle/location/person, then use the related images and labels associated with the image to broaden your search back out to find other associated images. This "inside-out" search method is the first key to success in searching the LIFE archive.

However there are a few gotchas even here. Let's go back to our earlier scenario where I've searched for "Bulge". This turns up an interesting picture of US GI's advancing over snow-covered fields. However if you look at the labels, you see a mistake. Rather than "Wwii" as before, we see the tag here is "Ww Ii". Clicking on that label gives us the maximum 200 results again, so clearly there are a lot of photos using this alternative form of the WW2 label. So this leads us to the second factor in successful seaching of the archive - use more than one label to find what you're looking for. In other words, approach your target from different directions using different labels, and collectively you will get the maximum results.

By combing the methods of inside-out searching and multiple label approach, you'll have the best chance of success in finding what you're looking for in the LIFE Photo Archive.

The German Federal Archive
On December 4, 2008 the German Federal Archive donated 100,000 images to Wikipedia, images that touch on the history of Germany dating from 1860 to the present day. Apparently this is the first step in a process that would release approximately 11 million photos to the public. Of primary interest to military historians are the periods of the Great War, World War 2, and the Cold War. As with the LIFE archive, we have another stunning resource to dig into including many pictures that have not been widely viewed before.

I spent some time digging into the images of the German Federal Archive as well. This archive is much more sensibly organized, and is indexed several ways including date, location, country, and topic. This gives you an fairly easy way to dive into your subject matter. Personally I found it easiest to use by date, as some of the other metadata like location for example are hit-and-miss.

The quality and breadth of the pictures themselves is amazing. I chose to dig around in 1941-43 for pictures of the battle for Stalingrad, since I have an interest in that topic and am very familiar with it. Quickly many pictures surfaced, including some of areas I've never been able to obtain before. This overhead picture shows the central area of the city, including Train Station #1, the Univermag Department store (site of the final surrender of Generalfeldmarschall Paulus), Fallen Heroes Square, the Volga river, Pavlov's House, The Grist Mill, and other famous locations. This is clearly taken early in the battle as the buildings are all still intact - yet it appears there is snow on the ground! Another fascinating picture is one which appears to have been taken from the heights of Mamayev Kurgan towards the factory area. Again I've never seen any photos like this before, and clearly the photographer is doing his best to stay low to the ground. Still another photo shows a battle raging around one of the factories in the northern section of the city, and you can see the bluffs along the river the Russians never gave up, well-worn trails going down to the river for resupply of their beleaguered forces, and what appears to be mortars or artillery going into the battle zone - a facinating photo indeed.

The only negative for me was the descriptions are all posted in German. This is easily solved by using Google Translate however, so it's a minor criticism. The descriptions themselves are the original descriptions given to them, and you will see a mix of detail, propoganda (both German and Russian it appears), and accuracy/inaccuracy. The policy seems to be to display the original description no matter how inaccurate or inflammatory, and allow others to post updates alongside, which I think is absolutely the correct approach from a historical perspective.

Both of these archives will be an incredible resource for many years to come, and I look forward to what we will find as millions more photos are added. I'd love your reactions to the release of these historical archives, as well as any particularly interesting photos you find as you begin exploring. Just drop them into the comments please.

Nov 1965 - The Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam - Part I

I've just completed reading We Were Soldiers Once... And Young by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway. The book covers a series of fierce battles that took place in November 1965 - the very first large battles between the US and the North Vietnamese Army, and also the first tests of the newly-developed air mobility concept. The book itself was later adapted into a surprisingly good movie, "We Were Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson. You can interpret the phrase "surprisingly good" as "Hollywood didn't totally screw this up", oh say like Pearl Harbor.

Setting the Scene
In the fall of 1965 the North Vietnamese began an offensive in the Central Highlands, specifically targeting several Special Forces bases the US had established there, and eventually the capture of Pleiku city. The US 1st Cavalry Division, based in An Khe was there to meet the threat. The 1st Brigade of the division deployed westward to Plei Me Special Forces Camp after a major attack on the camp was thrown back in October, later to be replaced by 2nd Brigade including the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 7th Cavalry and the attached 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry. After several days of patrolling with little contact, the Brigade commander was ordered to probe westward toward the Cambodian border in search of the PAVN forces. And that's exactly where they were, refitting after the earlier failed attack on Plei Me and preparing for another try. And Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore, Jr's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry was about to drop right into the hornet's nest.

Prior to the assault into the valley, the Brigade first established a firebase at LZ Falcon, approximately 5 miles ENE of the intended assault area. Not much can be seen at this location today, and in fact the LZ itself appears to have become somewhat overgrown in the years since. But from here the artillery was to take a terrible toll on the PAVN forces.

Into The Valley
Early on the morning of November 14, 1965, the understrength 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry dropped into a small clearing called LZ XRay, hard against the Chu Pong massif. They came looking for a fight and did they ever find one. For up on the mountain next to the landing zone was the equivalent of a division of North Vietnamese Army regulars - over 2,000 troops. Over the next 3 days a near-constant battle erupted, as the encircled battalion fought for its life against a much larger PAVN force right in its own back yard.

The satellite coverage in the area is hit-and-miss, and unfortunately LZ XRay ends up being just yards out of a better quality shot. Because of this it took me a while to find the clearing that is LZ XRay, but here it is. It's hard to tell given the resolution that this is actually the clearing, but I've cross-referenced a number of maps online and am pretty confident this is the spot. This overview shows the mountain, LZ XRay, and another LZ Victor, which was used to ferry in reinforcements during the battle, with the river Drang just north. You can see there are dirt roads crossing the area today, roads which did not exist in 1965. The area is also dotted with tea or rubber fields, which you can see in higher quality photos just to the east.

I won't go into a lot of detail on the battle itself, as you can read that in Moore's book or other online sources (see links below). The book is absolutely great, and well worth the read. There's a followup book out as well, which I've listed below. After reading a lot of additional material online and spending some time reflecting on it, the thought that struck me was how extraordinary of a man Mr. Moore is. Being a WW2 nut of course I've read many of the books around E Company, 2/506th and what an outstanding leader of men Dick Winters was and still is. I see so many of the same qualities in Hal Moore the more I learn about him. He is an amazing individual, simply amazing. Spend some time and see for yourself.

OK now here's where the fun part comes in (hopefully). I've got a few links and sources below. If you have any other interesting material, I want to know about it and I'll update this post with the good stuff. Participation counts!

Materials, Links, and Other Sources
BOOK: We Were Soldiers Once... And Young
BOOK: We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam
MOVIE: We Were Soldiers - (reviews on IMDB)
VIDEO: The Fight for LZ XRay (YouTube)
SITE: lzxray.com. This is Moore and Galloway's website, and contains many pictures, maps and background info not contained in the book.
SITE: Fight at Ia Drang - US Army Center of Military History
SITE: Joe Galloway's US News & World Report story
GOOGLE EARTH: Google Earth KMZ File - Google Earth placemarks, maps, and overlays.

OK So What's This Blog All About?

I've been interested in military history for as long as I can remember. Like many boys I grew up reading books, watching war movies, playing games, and generally immersing myself in all things military. It's been a life-long passion. With the Internet and all the tools and information that can be obtained now, it makes exploring history even more interesting. So with that background, I've found myself these past few years reading a memoir or historical narrative on some particular battle, and wanting more. More information, more maps, more stories, more pictures, and more of an ability to see how things were, and how things are today. That's what this blog is all about. I have these dreams of visiting these sites one day, of going to Iwo Jima and Peleliu, of walking along the factory area of the Volga in Stalingrad, of visiting Bastone, the Seelow Heights, and so many other places. But the reality is that work, family, finances and finally the sheer number of them make that impossible. So in place of visiting them myself, the next best option is to use the web and a community of like-minded people to do the next best thing. My hope is to develop some interest and a community around this idea, and get people who are local to these areas or who are going on a trip to provide very targeted, on-the-ground pictures and narrative of the terrain as it exists today. This vision then explains the seemingly contradictory title of my blog - Military History Today.

So how is this going to work? Well that remains to be seen somewhat, but here's my thoughts so far. I find when I'm reading a book I also take time to research the battle on the web, look at the terrain in Google Earth, overlay maps, pictures, in it as well to get a sense of the terrain and where key locations are situated (yes I'm a geography geek as well as a history geek), and that leads me to pictures, and other places. It really fills out the story and provides so much more depth to it. So I decided to start this blog to post the information I'm already digging up, and encourage others to contribute. I know too many other mil-geeks like me who would enjoy this. So I see picking a topic and then diving in for a while to see what we can find - kind of like exploring. It should be fun and certainly interesting.

Just so folks know, while I'm a history geek in general, I take my WW2 history really seriously. Like probably not healthy seriously. So expect a lot of focus in that area. That being said, I'm currently reading a Vietnam narrative, so that might just be my first post. We'll see how this works out. I'll be fun for me anyway, and I hope for you as well.