Captured German Paratroopers – Fallschirmjäger POWs in Cerisy-la-Forêt, Normandy, France, 1944

This striking original WWII silver gelatin press photograph, taken on July 26, 1944, in Cerisy-la-Forêt, France, captures a group of captured Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger (German paratroopers) sitting against a stone wall under U.S. guard. The exhausted expressions and disheveled uniforms reveal the immediate aftermath of fierce combat during the Allied advance across Normandy following D-Day.

Identified on the verso, U.S. Military Policeman Corporal Everett Paw of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, is shown watching over these prisoners of war as they await interrogation. The photograph was taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps (Cook, 5th Signal Corps Photo) and bears an original Field Press Censor stamp dated July 27, 1944, certifying it was cleared for wartime publication.