German soldiers return to Berlin after the French campaign in July 1940 .

A German soldier jumps over a trench with an MG34 machine gun in his hand.

On September 1, 1939, one and a half million Germans crossed the Polish border and conquered the country in just four weeks with the help of their Soviet allies.

German soldiers of the 1st Skijäger Division , armed with StG 44 assault rifles , in Pripyat, Ukraine (February 1944).

Members of the Volkssturm training with an MG-42 machine gun (November 1944).

In the photo, volunteer soldiers from Turkestan are checking a defensive position of the Atlantic Wall .

Sand tables like this were crucial in overcoming language barriers between troops of different backgrounds.

The commanding officer clearly displays the Turkestan unit emblem .

In the photo, a German messenger rider is sitting on a BMW R75 motorcycle (summer 1941).

A French policeman greets a German officer in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (January 31, 1941).

The photo shows a German soldier in the center of Berlin (1939).

In the photo, German soldiers perform acrobatics on a BMW motorcycle with a sidecar .

Luftwaffe ace Josef “Sepp” Wurmheller paints another kill mark on the tail of his Fw 190 .

Wurmheller is credited with 102 enemy aircraft shootdowns before being killed on June 22, 1944 , in a collision with his wingman during a dogfight between a USAAF P-47 and an RCAF Spitfire .

The photo shows German soldiers of the Großdeutschland Division in a street battle in Rostov-on-Don (1944).

The photo shows a German soldier buying a newspaper on the Place de la Concorde in Paris (1942).

The photo shows a German sergeant major resting during the third battle of Kharkov ( April 1943 ).