Pants Gallery

Ancient Germanic warrior with heads of his victims

Ancient Germanic warrior on horseback, in short cape and pants, with severed heads of his victims impaled on his lance and hanging from his waist. He has a topknot and is armed with lance, sword and shield. From Philipp Cluver's Germania Antiqua. Guerriere Germano. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Migliavacca from Giulio Ferrario's Costumes Ancient and Modern of the Peoples of the World, Il Costume Antico e Moderno, Florence, 1837

© Florilegius

Man and woman of Persia, 1818

Man and woman of Persia, 1818. The man wears a turban, cloack, tunic, harem pants and scimitar, the woman wears a turban with veil, cloak and dress. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Mary Anne Venning's A Geographical Present being Descriptions of the Principal Countries of the World, Darton, Harvey and Darton, London, 1818. Venning wrote educational books on geography, conchology and mineralogy in the early 19th century

© Florilegius

508th PIR, Devils in Baggy Pants, Memorial, Beek

The Memorial was designed by H. J. Guse and was erected on 17 September 1981. It commemorates the liberation of Beek on 17 September 1944 by the 508th who were known as the Red Devils'. It was the first day of Operation Market Garden. In C Company of the Regiment was First Sergeant Leonard A. Funk who would return to Pennsylvania as the most decorated American paratrooper of the war. The bas relief of a baggy-panted devil originates from an entry in the diary of a German officer who fought against American paratroopers (actually it was the 504th, not the 508th) at Anzio. It read, American paratroopers - devils in baggy pants - are less than 100m from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere'. Date: 2001

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans