'British Prepare For Big Push', 1945

Photograph, World War Two, North West Europe(1944-1945), 1945.

British armour and infantry moved into position for the offensive across the Rhine under cover of one of the biggest smoke screens witnessed during the war. Up and down the banks of the Rhine thousands of troops kept the smoke curtain going. This picture shows how the smoke was made - by hand canisters lit by fuse and by mechanical smoke generators mounted on special vehicles.

One of 37 British Official photographs relating to the liberation of North West Europe.