In publication here for the first time, this collection of 110 high-quality photographs printed on heavy art paper capture the capture the humanity of those who served in their moment - bringing sharp relief to a history now nearly lost with the passage of those who knew them, yet increasingly relevant to our current age.

As Division Surgeon of the Second Armored Division, Col. Dr. RP Johnson MC took what little time he could to document what he saw in these candid images, some of which depict active combat on the battlefield, others of tankers sharing rare moments of 'down time' - none of which are posed.

• Seen here for the first time in print are images of the broken borderlands of the Siegfried Line, and exchange of artillery as tanks meet in battle at Puffendorf and Gereonsweiler in the drive to the Roer under Operation Queen.
• Reproduced on these pages in color facsimile are a battle log covering that advance, mimeographed hand-drawn maps covering the lightning advance on Ardennes in the Battle of the Bulge the next month, and surrender orders issued as the 2Δ rolled across Lower Saxony the following April.
• The faces in these images show the humanity of the tankers in their rare moments of rest and preparation for battle, the abject defeat of the surrendering enemy, and the relief and joy of the liberated prisoners of war as they greet the liberators and make their way back to freedom.
• The images convey the armored might of the invasion of Germany - crossing the Weser River to Hamelin, cruising the shattered remnants of Hildesheim, and rolling on across Germany to the final tank assault on Magdeburg.

With a B.Sc. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis and an MBA from the University of Liverpool, Eliot Masters is a specialist in the biodiverse and resilient agroforestry food systems of the tropics. Born in 1963 at Yale New Haven, Eliot studied Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University before dropping out to see the world during the 1980s, while supporting himself as a housepainter on the Lower East Side of New York (where he was a regular at Danceteria) and later on Martha's Vineyard (where he painted houses with the Atwood brothers). After extended travel in Asia and Africa, in 1988 he founded the US 501 (c) (3) nonprofit Cooperative Office for Voluntary Organizations of Uganda (COVOL Uganda) and began what would later become the Shea Project for Local Conservation and Development (The Shea Project) bringing Nilotica shea butter to the global consumer.

After more than a decade of independent work for other donor agencies and NGOs, in 2011 he joined Abt Associates as Senior Scientist, project technical director and STTA in support of projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. Departing Abt in 2014 to pursue a postgraduate diploma in Sustainable Aquaculture from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand, Eliot stayed on there for a decade as a lecturer, course developer and research supervisor within the Master of Applied Management. He departed the classroom in 2024 to resume full-time engagement on international development. Dividing his time between California and the South Island of New Zealand, Eliot has been working in recent years on the photographic archive of his maternal grandfather, Col. Dr. Richard P. Johnson, who served in the Second World War as commanding officer of the 45th Evacuation Hospital, and later as Division Surgeon of the Second Armored Division (known for its motto Hell on Wheels).