Original Title/Caption:  “U.S. soldiers take cover under fire somewhere in Germany.”

Description: In this black and white photograph, numerous soldiers take cover in a snowy trench in Germany.  A line of trees is visible in the background.

Source: “U.S. soldiers take cover under fire somewhere in Germany.” Photograph, n. d.  From the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum Photos of World War II Public Domain Collection.  http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/23-0469a.gif (accessed March 26, 2007).

Historical discussion: Of fighting in Europe in the winter of 1944, General Patton wrote, “The most serious menace confronting us today is not the German Army, which we have practically destroyed, but the weather which, if we do not exert ourselves, may well destroy us through the incidence of trenchfoot,” a condition of the feet caused by dampness and cold that could cause infection and in the worst cases need amputation (Cowdrey 266-67).

See Albert E. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II (New York: The Free Press, 1994).