Heartbreaking Photographs of Child Soldiers from WWI and WWII

Japanese youth during military training, 1916. warhistoryonline

Lviv Eaglets, young defenders from Polish-Ukrainian War and Polish-Soviet War, 1918-1920. warhistoryonline

Momčilo Gavrić joined Serbian Army at the age of 8, 1914. The youngest soldier in the First World War. warhistoryonline

Momčilo Gavrić, Korfu, 1916. warhistoryonline

Momčilo Gavrić and another soldier reporting to major Stevan Tucović, 1916. Wikipedia

Onni Kokko, a Finnish boy soldier, died in 1918 after Battle of Tampere. warhistoryonline

Serbian young partisans, Yugoslavia, 1945. warhistoryonline

U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Hart H. Spiegel tries to communicate with two Japanese child soldiers captured during the Battle of Okinawa. June 17, 1945. worldwartwo

Unknown young German anti-aircraft gunner ‘flakhelfer’ on position with devyatikilogrammovym projectile antiaircraft gun 8.8 cm FlaK 18:41 in the German city of Hagen. worldwartwo

Volodya Tarnowski puts an autograph on a column of Reichstag, Berlin, 1945. warhistoryonline

Volodya Tarnowski with comrades in Berlin, 1945. warhistoryonline

Young Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw during Uprising, Poland, 1944. warhistoryonline

German youth in uniform surrender to Allied troops in Snamont, Belgium. New Years, 1945. worldwartwo

Child “soldiers” caught during the Battle of Berlin, April-May 1945. Most of them were ordered to ditch the uniform and go home. Behind them appears to be a column of their elders headed toward a processing center, these boys have been pulled out. worldwartwo

A teenage German soldier, who served with the Hitlerjugend division, is taken prisoner by US troops near Forbach (Alsace), March 1945. worldwartwo

A Red Army child soldier serving in a front-line line unit, 1942. The presence of children as young as 12 in Soviet army units was routine. They all received the same weapons and kit as adult soldiers, slightly adjusted for size. This boy is carrying the standard issue PpsH SMG and anti-personnel grenades. Worldwartwo

16-year-old Wilhelm Hübner proudly accepts the Iron Cross Second Class from Joseph Goebbels. worldwartwo

A 13-year-old POW from a Hitler Youth unit captured by the US Army in Martinszell-Waltenhofen, May 1945. worldwartwo

A child soldier in China during the 1930s. worldwartwo

As many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 served in the British Army during World War One. BBC