Smile for the Camera!

Wehrmacht boys on the way to Stalingrad, 1942.

World War II was not exactly a barrel of laughs. Most soldiers during the conflict, or one reason or another, kept a pretty straight face for the cameras. Unlike today, when everyone mugs for the camera, back in the day photographs were considered very serious indeed. There was an unwritten rule that you did not smile for such a serious and permanent experience.

But not always.

Here we have a collection of photos of smiling World War II participants. The one thing they have in common? They are all smiling. Or, at least as close as they probably got. I'm not looking for "the best smiles." Some of these folks perhaps aren't even smiling at all, by technical standards. Instead, I am looking for real emotion, a real outburst beyond the confines of a soldierly, stolid appearance that was the preferred appearance in a, you know, serious conflict. Or at least a smile that says something. Or, is just a really good smile.

I must warn you - a smile is not always a sign of good-hearted feeling. At least, a smile does not always convey an emotion that you wish to share. Or, to put it yet another way - what someone else finds funny, you may not. I have one or two instances of that here.

So, there are some famous people, and some minor celebrities, some that you might know the name of if you really are into World War II, and a handful whose names you'll probably never know. Just people, enjoying a moment.

This page is meant to be taken lightly, kindly don't get offended at its lack of seriousness.

This is top Soviet sniper Maxim Passar. Now, this obviously is posed, but I include it because Passar is making a bit of an in-joke of his own and so the smile is at least in part real. If you are an expert, you spotted it straight off. Hint: that's not a sniper rifle that he's holding.

The Germans in the cart headed toward Stalingrad thought the skeleton left by the Russians on the side of the road was amusing.

Waffen SS Major Otto Kumm, perhaps 1941. Okay, he's only kind of smiling. For an SS Major - that's a big ol' smile.

German Army Lieutenant General Heinz Guderian and Russian Army Brigadier General Semyon Krivoshein during the joint victory parade in Brest, Poland, 22 September 1939. It's always time to smile when the Soviets are on your side.

Soviet sniper girl Roza Shanina. Yes, this apparently is a real picture.

I know this shot of Clark Gable is posed - but this has to be one of the top military smiles of World War II. Heck, don't limit it to just World War II, either.

A soldier with the SS Totenkopfverbande shaves a Polish Jew. I warned you that not all of these pictures would be light and amusing, just that they would feature smiling. Smiling can be done for many reasons and stem from many motivations. Let's never get carried away with the idea that World War II was light comedy.

Reinhard Heydrich finds something quite amusing. Heinrich Himmler is looking quite dapper.

Ilse Hirsch, BDM pinup girl and leading lady of Operation Carnival in 1945.

Nothing lightens the mood like a little mud.

This picture shows some Wehrmacht boys and DAF (Labour Front) women chatting up a Falange lady, apparently in Spain.

Friedrich Konrad Winkler, Stalingrad 1942. Winkler probably had to work hard to gin up this smile for the propaganda man. Note the broken combat pin on his tunic, something Stalingrad soldiers did to show they had really earned it. Winkler survived the battle, but died soon after in Soviet captivity.