Red Army soldiers Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria of the 756th Rifle Regiment raising the Flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag building during the Battle of Berlin, April 30th, 1945. Note that Stalin decided that the true persons on the photo, Kovaliev and his comrade, were not politically correct. So they became Milton Kantaria (Georgian like Stalin) and the Russian Mikhail Iegorev. The true protagonists of the photo emerged only after 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR. Photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei (1917-1997). Public Domain.
Raising the first flag
The famous picture taken by Rosenthal actually captured the second flag-raising event of the day. A U.S. flag was first raised atop Suribachi soon after it was captured early in the morning f February 23, 1945. Captain Dave E. Severance, the commander of Easy Company (First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier to take a patrol to raise an American flag at the summit to signal to others that it had fallen. After a fire-fight, flag was raised, and photographed by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery,
Raising the second flag
The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt realized the picture would make an excellent symbol for the upcoming 7th war bond drive.
Most people are unaware that the flag raising Rosenthal photographed was the second that day. This led to resentment from those marines who took part in the nearly-forgotten first flag raising. Charles W. Lindberg, who participated in the first flag raising (and who as of 2006 is the last living person depicted in either flag raising complained that he "was called a liar and everything else.
So how many of these do you think there is fake ?
