80 years ago today. 30 December 1944 – Alsace. Gunners hide “Orléans,” an M7 HMC Priest self-propelled gun of the Free French 1re division blindée (1st Armored Division)’s 68e régiment d’artillerie, under a camouflage net. The outfit at the time was under the command of Maj. Gen André Zeller, a future chief of staff of the army and one of the later leaders of the Algiers coups in 1961.
Germaine Kanova/ECPAD/Defense, Ref. : EARTH 10043-R4
The photograph is by Germaine Kanova (Kahn), born Germaine Sophie Osstyn, a well-known pre-war commercial photographer who pivoted from snapping images of actors and politicians to working with the Resistance– taking photos of sensitive German equipment for review by various Allied intelligence services in London. At age 42 in November 1944, she volunteered to follow the line as an official war photographer– the first female war correspondent of the French army– with the Section cinématographique de l’Armée française (SCA) chronicling the liberation of Alsace and then the invasion of Germany to include the liberation by French troops of the Vaihingen concentration camp outside of Karlsruhe.
Her wartime service was capped with putting down her camera in late April 1945 to fight on the line against German holdouts at Futzen alongside the “black feet” of the 2e bataillon de zouaves portés (2e BZP). These feats would earn her a Croix de Guerre, with a bronze star, in 1945.
Germaine Kanova, SCA, 1944-45
Returning to cinematic photography during the French Nouvelle Vague period in the ’50s, Germaine passed in 1975, aged 72.