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The 12 photos you are about to see are all real. They are from or related to wars in the past, and none of them have been altered or Photoshopped for effect. War sucks, but it does produce some pretty incredible photographs. (via Cracked)
U.S. Soldier Stands in WWII Rubble
This photo was taken near the end of WWII, after the U.S. attacked the city of Leipzig, Germany and forced SS troops to surrender. What you see is a soldier standing in the ruins of what looks like a movie set. However, the huge monument was actually one commemorating the defeat of Napolean in 1813.
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Command Center at Tan Son Nhut Air Base
What looks like a futuristic, high-tech control center of a sci-fi movie is actually the American flight command center for South Vietnam. What's even more amazing is that this photo is from 1966.
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Sea of POWs
In 1941, Hitler stormed the Russian border and took them by surprise, and ultimately captured around 5.5 million prisoners of war. Yes, you read that right. With nowhere to put them, the Nazis basically just herded the Russian POWs into large outdoor camps with no food or shelter, and approximately 60 percent of them died.
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Statue of Liberty Made of Soldiers
This photo of the Statue of Liberty was used as an ad to sell war bonds during WWI. But that is no ordinary Statue of Liberty, because it is formed by 18,000 soldiers standing in formation. The really cool part, though, is that because of the angle in which this photo was shot, there were exponentially more soldiers needed to fill the sections of the statue far away from the front. For instance, 12,000 soldiers were needed just to fill the flame of the torch.
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Air Raid Aerial View
This view of an air raid on an Axis plane base at Martuba, Libya on July 6, 1942 was made from one of the South African planes which took part in the raid. The four sets of white streaks in the lower half show the dust of Axis planes speeding along the ground to escape as bomb bursts appear near them and in upper center (theatlantic.com).
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Korean War Cleanup
What you see here is part of the aftermath of the Battle of Outpost Harry, taken on June 18, 1953. This pileup of artillery shells came to be when the U.S. threw an insane amount of explosives at Chinese forces.
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Donkeys of War
The invasion of Sicily in 1943 was a major WWII campaign in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis. Part of this campaign was an actual military unit known as the donkey corps, which used donkeys as a mode of transportation through the poor streets and rugged conditions.
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Grenade Face
Yes, this is an x-ray of a soldier from the Vietnam War with a grenade in his face. How did it happen? Well, this unlucky SOB stepped on a landmine, which blew the grenade he was wearing around his neck up into his head. War is cruel.
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War's Largest Camera
This is a normal sized (adorable) dog sitting in front of a humungous camera used in old war times to take photos at night from a distance of several miles. It is called the K-19B, and for some reason they made it look like a regular camera a tourist would use at Disneyland.
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So Long, Huey
Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians from Saigon, South Vietnam during the final days of the Vietnam War. Part of the operation included Vietnam Air Force pilots ditching their huey helicopters at sea once they had dropped off their rescued passengers so they could then be picked up by rescue boats. What you see here is a VNAF pilot ditching his huey in style.
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Missile Rays
The streaks of light you see beaming up are actually coming down, as this is a photo of a test of the MIRV Peacekeeper missile being conducted just off the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific.
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12 of 12Next: Crazy Photos That Are Real
Roller Skate Girl in Northern Ireland
This photo is from 1969, when the streets of Northern Ireland were very mean, as Protestants and Catholics fought to no end and conflicts and riots became commonplace. So commonplace, in fact, that little girls in roller skates weren't afraid to approach men in the streets with guns.