Photos WW2 Axis Forces

Bulgarian troops re-entering Yugoslavia.October 12, 1944

Commander of the 5th Walloon Volunteers SS Sturmbannführer Leon Degrelle and the Supreme Head of the SS and Police in Belgium and Northern France SS Gruppenführer Richard Jungklaus, 1943.

Two photos of the Hungarian Zrinyi II assault gun. The first shows 3 of the crew members (out of 4), while the second is an original color photograph showing a camouflage scheme.
The StuG had a profound impact on the way Germany's allies managed their armored tactics and devised new tanks, as was seen on the Eastern front. It was easier to discard the turret in order to fit heavier guns onto an existing platform than to design an entirely new platform to fit the guns. The Royal Hungarian Army, desperately needing better firepower in their armored vehicles, decided in 1943 to take their domestic Turan chassis and convert it into an assault gun - while at the same time developing their own "Tank Hunter".
The first Zrinyi, the 44M Zrinyi I, was meant to be armed with a 43-caliber, high-velocity long-barreled 75mm gun, developed from a German Pak40 - the same antitank gun the armaments of the Panzer IV G and StuG III G had been developed from. It was hoped that the Zrinyi I could fulfill the same role as German assault guns.
It was intended to also be fitted with a coaxial 8mm Danuvia 34/40 machine gun. The development of the vehicle took a very long time, mostly due to vibration issues, and the only prototype was completed and tested in late 1943. The vehicle was ordered in January 1944 (hence 44M) but production was scheduled for mid-1944. The Soviet occupation of Hungary ended this prospect.
The 43M Zrinyi II was the assault howitzer version, also based on the Turan chassis. It retained the same hull, engine, drive train, and other components, but a small casemate was mounted instead of the turret, with sloped armor. The front of the casemate was given extra armor. The 105mm gun was fitted with a muzzle brake; its traverse and depression/elevation were hindered somewhat by the massive recoil tube under the barrel. The driver, gunner, and commander all had their own periscopes, and a radio set was mounted in the rear of the vehicle's superstructure. The 43M started trials in January of 1943, and was accepted in service in March of the same year, while production was set up to start as soon as possible. Only 66 Zrinyi IIs left the factory before the Soviet occupation -- later versions were fitted with Thoma armored skirts, similar to some of the later Panzer IV variants.
It was hoped that these vehicles could be formed into units like the German four-vehicle batteries at the armored division level but there were never enough Zrinyis for this. They were deployed with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Rohamtuzer Osztaly (assault battalions) and mostly fought in Galicia during the summer of 1944 against the Soviet offensive. After survivors retreated from Transylvania during September-October 1944, many were captured and used for some time by Romanian troops. The only surviving example of a Zrinyi was confiscated by the Red Army and is currently on display at the Kubinka museum.

The Waffen-SS elite SS-Skijeger Bataljon Norge, a volunteer Norwegian ski battalion formed in February 1942, fought alongside the 6. SS Gebirgs Division Nord in the far north of the Eastern Front, in Karelia, Finland. Photographed here during a training exercise, they will take the fight directly to the Soviets with a mission to locate, disrupt and destroy the enemy.

1944.Hungarian honveds with german RPzB 54 Panzerschreck.

Hungarian 40.M Turán I

Italian CV-33 in Bulgarian service near Dobruja.

Hungarian troops posing for a photograph - unsure of a date or location on this one. Note the two rather interesting weapons in this photograph, in the foreground the indigenously-designed Danuvia 39M submachine gun and to his left the soldier holding the light machine gun of several names: in Austrian service as the MG30, Switzerland as the Solothurn S2-200, and Hungary as the Solothurn 31.M.
Actually designed by Louis Stange of Rheinmetall, design production was blocked by the Treaty of Versailles, so Rheinmetall outsourced the production of the weapon to the Waffenfabrik Solothurn firm in Switzerland. Solothurn, in turn, purchased the Steyr factory in Austria and produced the gun there. Production began in 1930 and although it was never adopted by the German army as intended, Solothurn was able to export the weapon to several countries including Bolivia, El Salvador, and Bulgaria. In 1931 it was adopted by the Hungarian army as the 31.M and the Austrian army as the MG30. After the annexation of Austria the Waffen-SS pressed numbers of them into service and used them during WW2. Production ceased in 1940. A belt-fed version called the S3-200 was also produced, and the S2-200 also served as the basis for the German MG15 aircraft machine gun.

Cossack trooper in German service with his MG42 in Yugoslavia.

Axis troops abandoning the Italian troopship Oceania as she sinks after being torpedoed by HMS Upholder, 18 September 1941

Neptunia and Oceania were two motor passenger liners built in 1931 for the Cosulich Line, one of Italy’s largest shipping companies, which was soon after merged into the new Italian Line. With a tonnage of over 19,000 GRT, they could reach a top speed of 22,5 knots and carry over 1,500 passengers. After Italy’s entry in World War II, both liners were requisitioned and converted into troop transports, sailing for several months between Italy and Libya in fast convoys that delivered tens of thousands of troops to the North African front. On 16 September 1941 the two ships, together with a third, slightly larger liner, Vulcania, sailed from Taranto for Tripoli, escorted by the destroyers Nicoloso Da Recco, Emanuele Pessagno, Antoniotto Usodimare, Antonio Da Noli, and Vincenzo Gioberti.

At 4:15, the famous submarine HMS Upholder, commanded by Malcolm David Wanklyn, attacked the convoy and hit Neptunia and Vulcania with a torpedo each. Neptunia was fatally damaged by the torpedo, that exploded under her keel at the center of the ship, and she finally went down at 6:50. Oceania, on the other hand, seemed salvageable; it was decided to have the destroyers take off the troops, and then to attempt to tow the ship to Tripoli. While this operation was underway, HMS Unbeaten tried to approach to attack Oceania, but was driven off by the destroyers; Upholder, however, was able to attack again at 8:51, hitting Oceania with two more torpedoes. She sank in seven minutes.

There were overall 5,818 troops and crew aboard the two troopships at the time of Upholder’s attack; the massive rescue effort undertaken by the escorting destroyers allowed 5,434 of them to be rescued, whereas 384 perished. Pessagno, a destroyer whose normal complement was about 250 men, crammed aboard 2,083 survivors, Da Recco (the escort leader) rescued 1,302 men; Da Noli, Gioberti and Usodimare picked up 682, 582, and 485 men, respectively. More survivors were rescued by the torpedo boats Clio (163), Perseo (131) and Circe (three) and by floatplanes (three).

Neptunia and Oceania were the largest ships lost on the route between Italy and North Africa.

Italian cavalry in Ukraine, 1941.

Austrian machine gunner of the Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 144 at the eastern front. USSR, 1943

Hungarian forces on the eastern front

German child soldiers(guys on the last photo are 16-17,but still) captured by western allies in France

SamWell said:

German child soldiers(guys on the last photo are 16-17,but still) captured by western allies in France

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September 1942, Stalingrad.
Off the zone behind the lines on the Stalingrad front, these less well-equiped Romanian soldiers do what they can, being drawn by a camel.

A Cossack Volunteer stands between Soldiers apart of Nazi Germany’s “Free Arabian Legion”, a unit in the Wehrmacht that consisted of volunteers from middle eastern and north African countries. They are known for serving in the campaign in Tunisia and against partisans in Greece and Yugoslavia.

The Slovakian army firing of ZB-26 at aerial targets during WW2. TheZB26 was a precursor of BREN.