A German mortar crew during a lull in the fighting on the Eastern Front during the early winter of 1942. They are all wearing the two-piece snowsuit and their steel helmets have received an application of whitewash for extra camouflage protection. The troops who fought in the first winter in Russia made many sacrifices, and those who managed to survive the great ordeal got a medal to prove that they had been there. Troops nicknamed the decoration the ‘Frozen Meat Medal’, as many of them experienced uncovering the frozen corpses of their dead comrades and giving them proper burials.