A famous photograph of Officers and Enlisted Men with Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division “guarding” the Kehlsteinhaus, Hitler’s mountain-top residence, “The Eagle’s Nest”, near the town of Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria. The capture of the Eagle’s Nest was considered a high-prestige objective for American troops at the end of the war, and with Berlin falling to the Soviets, American national pride was also at stake. In a 3-way race between the US 3rd Infantry Division, the French 2nd Armored Division, and the US 101st Airborne Division it ended up being Easy Company which scored one of the biggest propaganda wins of the war…

May your Fathers’ Day weekend be full of relaxation, and if you want to read a more detailed history of what really went down in the days leading up to these photo, check out this article: https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-race-to-seize-berchtesgaden.htm

Photo credit:  US Army, Public Domain. Colorized by Sanna Dullaway.