No, it’s (second picture) well before Downfall was planned.
And they’re not training.
That would make’em leggings, wouldn’t it?
Maybe, but if they cover the bootlaces they’re gaiters.
Trust the Yanks to pervert English. 
Sorry, I didn’t see this post before I responded to pdf27 and others.
You’re correct on both pictures so far, except for the Borneo bit.
Ok, how about another theory - since we know they’re Australians, could they be at one of the Chemical Warfare Test Camps near Sydney? I know the Australian army used four abandoned tunnels for testing: Glenbrook, Marrangaroo, Picton and Clarence as well as various other depots (Talmoi, 88 mile, Darra, etc) from 1942 to 1946.
Alternatively, it could be one of the live-gas tests carried out by the Australian Chemical Warfare Research and Experimental Section or the Australian Field Experimental Station (same outfit, reorganized 44).
That’s near enough.
Australian Chemical Warfare Research and Experimental Section members collecting samples after mustard gas bombing of Brook Island, March 1944. http://www.sandgate.net/~pdunn/brook%20island%20trial.htm Photo is from this collection http://mustardgas.org/photos.htm
For those interested:
More info at http://mustardgas.org/The-Big-Secret-Our-Mustard-Gas-Conspiracy.pdf
Plan for use of chemical weapons in the SWPA
http://www.ozatwar.com/chemicalwarfare/chemicalwarfareplan.htm
wingsofwrath, well done. You have the next two questions.
Ok, I found the exact description on the photo: “Volunteers wear full protective clothing and breathing apparatus to test their effectiveness against mustard gas in experiments being conducted at North Brook Island in early March 1944. Photo: War Memorial”
I don’t know about you, but volunteering to get mustard gas dropped on me is something I would never, ever consider doing…
Coming back to this week’s enigma, rather than exactly when and where, which might be a bit hard to ascertain from the picture, try to guess the exact nationality of this soldier:
As an alternate mystery, try to do the same thing with this other group of soldiers. As above, the only thing that interests me is their nationality:
I’m not sure about that.
If you look at the photo I posted there is a collection jar in front of the bloke on the left who is either taking something off the plant or just having an ecstatic moment of oneness with nature, which is unlikely to be induced by an anticipated, current, or recent gas attack. The other two seem to be doing something other than just waiting to get burnt by gas.
The photos I’ve seen of people kitted up like the ones in the photo are generally described as being to do with taking samples following gas bombing etc.
The volunteers generally weren’t as well protected as they were there to test field uniforms, with or without various impregnations and other improvements, and other reactions to gas etc.
The volunteers often ended up with terrible burns and in some cases life long disabilities which, like most governments, our government chose to ignore.
Me neither.
But armies being what they are I wouldn’t guarantee that they actually knew what they were volunteering for. Or even that some of them volunteered.
There’s a story, mentioned in one of the links in my last post, about 50 US military prisoners volunteering in the belief they would be freed after the experiment which in fact killed them all. Possibly an apocryphal story.
There seems to be mix of Caucasian and Asians there.
The Asians could be Koreans conscripted into or serving with the IJA and captured by the Soviets at Nomonhan in 1939 and later captured by the Germans after battles with the Soviets from mid-1941 onwards.
Chinese.
Nationalist.
On the basis that the Chinese Nationalists used German pattern helmets.
If I knew something about guns I’d have a better idea if I was correct.
Turkmen (german: Turkmenische or Turkestanische) Wehrmacht volunteers.
The gun would be a Mauser pistol, which would support your case…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96
*It seems the Mauser was locally produced by the Kuomintang Chinese…
Thanks.
But I seem to recall the Japanese and others having something similar where a pistol could be attached to a butt. Although quite possibly, or maybe probably, Mauser copies.
At the risk of being unfairly accused of being politically incorrect, they all look the same to me.
You could be correct.
They looked more Central Asian / Mongol than Korean to me, but I didn’t know about the Turkmen volunteers so I went for the only Asians I knew to be in the Heer.
I congratulate both Mr Rising sun and Mr. Flamethrowerguy for their correct answers!
This Mauser tooting individual is indeed a Chinese Nationalist and those soldiers are all volunteers of the “Turkistanische Legion” in France during 1943.
That being the case, I beg each of you to post an enigma so that this thread might move forward.
I know having dual enigmas might be the beginning of utter chaos on this thread, but let’s just see where this gets us.
War is just semi-organised chaos, so why should this thread be any different? ;)
I’m sure FTG and I will come up with something.
This is more a who is he and why is he important quiz, but to know that you have to know where he was and when and what he did there.
My dear, the man in the photograph is no other than [b]Consul-General Chiune Sugihara [/b] who, while being stationed in Kaunas in 1939, rescued countless Jews by giving them Japanese visas, at the peril at his own life.
EDIT: Added link.
Correct. Your turn.
This is my little offer, a rather rare colour photo depicting German soldiers.
As usual, I shall require the date and location of this urban scene:
