Photos WW2 German Forces

Color photos from the album of a soldier of the heavy flak division 390, Luftgau XVII, Bremen-Vegesack, 1943 / Source PIXPAST by Ian Spring
The schwere Flak-Abteilung 390 was formed April 1943 in Luftgau XVII in Vegesack as Flakuntergruppe Vegesack with 4 batteries.
Anti-aircraft protection in the greater Bremen area :
Bremen was also an important port and industrial city during the Second World War. Due to the location in northwest Germany, there was a particular risk from the beginning of the war. On flights from Great Britain, the city was one of the quickest major targets of attack. In the course of the war there were 173 air raids on Bremen by Allied air force bombers. As a supplement to the topic of air defense dealt with here, the Air Protection in Bremen page also offers relevant information.
At the beginning of the war, some air defense units were available in Bremen. On May 18, 1940, the British Royal Air Force carried out the first air raid on the Hanseatic city. In response, the establishment of the Bremen flak zone was pushed ahead, with numerous flak divisions being relocated here.
In May 1941 a top structure was adopted that lasted until June 1944. The areas of responsibility of the regiments are as follows:

• Flak Zone Bremen: Initially led by Flak Brigade VIII, on June 5, 1941, Air Defense Command 8 took over command of all air defense units in the greater Bremen area. The large association was named 8th Flak Division in October 1941. The command post was set up at Osterdeich 29. In the autumn of 1942, they moved to the protected command post bunker Bürgerpark.
• Flak group Bremen-Nord: In February 1941 the Flak Regiment 26 was reorganized. The command post was set up in the Flak barracks in Grohn. The main objects of protection in the area of the group were: The Refinery Vacuum Oel and the Norddeutsche Hütte in Werderland, the Weserflug works airfield in Lemwerder, the wool combing plant in Blumenthal, and the Wifo tank farm in Farge. The Bremer Vulkan shipyard in Vegesack was also in the area. The construction project of the submarine bunker shipyard "Valentin" was added later.
• Flak group Bremen-Mitte: The flak regiment 89 was in Bremen from February 1941. The command post was initially in the Talstrasse school, but in May 1943 they moved to the Strom flak bunker. The main objects of protection in the area of the group were: The Deschimag shipyards - A.G. Weser and Atlas-Werke, operations of the "Weser" aircraft construction, as well as the areas of industrial ports and commercial ports. In addition, Delmenhorst fell into the area with the German linoleum works, the North German wool and worsted spinning mill (north wool) and the Delmenhorst-Adelheide air base. On June 8, 1944, after the Allies landed in Normandy, the staff was withdrawn to northern France. The area of the Flakgruppe Bremen-Mitte has now been divided between the remaining groups North and South.
• Flak group Bremen-Süd: In May 1941 the Flak Regiment 13 arrived in Bremen. A building at Osterdeich 56 was initially used as the command post, but in mid-1943 the Achterdiek motorway access was relocated to the command post bunker. The main objects of protection in the area of the group were: Bremen-Neuenlander Feld airport with the Focke-Wulf plant, the Hastedt / Hemelingen industrial area, as well as the Borgward vehicle production facility and the Reichsbahn repair shop in Sebaldsbrück.

The flak headlight regiment 160 was responsible for the entire area. The association was set up on December 15, 1940 in Bremen. The Lyceum in the Straße Lange Reihe was used as a command post. In spring 1943 they moved to the Villa Roselius in Oberneuland.
Below the top structure, there have been numerous relocations and restructuring over the years. At first it was mainly about increasing the number of anti-aircraft positions in the Bremen area. Soon, however, associations also had to be relocated to other hotspots of the war. The occupancy information for the positions presented at the bottom of this page gives an impression of the fluctuation.
The greatest strength of the flak in the greater Bremen area was reached in December 1943. At the time there were:
8 batteries with guns 12.8 cm, 5 of which were railway flak batteries on wagons

• 27 batteries with guns 10.5 cm
• 1 battery with guns 8.8 cm / 41
• 27 batteries with guns 8.8 cm / 36
• 2 batteries with guns 3.7 cm
• 12 batteries with guns 2 cm

The whole thing was staffed with around 27,000 men, presumably including the numerous young flak helpers from schools in Bremen and the surrounding area, as well as volunteers. “Hiwis” were employed in almost every position. These were mostly Russian prisoners of war who had volunteered to be used by the flak in order to escape the torments of the prisoner-of-war camps.

The Germans pacified over 800 Polish villages during World War II
Tens of thousands of people died in the pacifications. Tens of thousands lost their possessions. The pacification of the Kielce village of Michniów is a symbol of these actions.
The symbol of German cruelty is Michniów in the Świętokrzyskie region. It was there, on 12 July 1943, that at least 204 people fell victim to the occupying forces. Applying the principle of collective responsibility, the Germans spared no one, murdering the elderly as well as women and children. The youngest victim was nine-day-old Stefan Dąbrowa, who was thrown into a burning barn by a German gendarme...
Between 1939 and 1945, on the territory of Poland within its current borders, there were over 800 such actions, of which in 84 cases the majority of the village population was murdered and their buildings were completely or partially destroyed. On the territory of Poland during the German occupation more than 10 thousand villages were affected by various forms of repression, in 900 of them from several to several hundred inhabitants were murdered.

Polish Campaign September 1939. German horse cavalry.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-343-0679-14A, Belgien-Frankreich, Flugzeug Dornier Do 17 Z.
Belgium / France.- a bomber Dornier Do 17 Z of the Kampfgeschwader 3 (KG 3, identification of the front engine SK + F) in flight; KBK Lw 3
Date: September - Oktober 1940.
Photographer: Gentsch.
Propagandakompanien der Wehrmacht - Heer und Luftwaffe (Bild 101 I)
Source: German Federal Archives.

WWII. Russia. August 1942. A column of German 6th Army StuG III assault guns prepare to advance on Stalingrad.

Feldgendarmerie with Zundapp motorcycle. Russia 1941.

Carrying out repair work to replace the Maybach HL210 engine of the Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger I" Ausf. E (turret No. 141) of the s.Pz.Abt.501.
The work uses a 3-ton Kfz.100 truck crane (Büssing-NAG 4500 A Bilstein-Kran). 1943.
Source: cefius.blogspot

German Pz.Kpfw.VI "Tiger I" No. 141 of the s.Pz.Abt. 501 on the road in Tunisia. 1943.
Source: tiif.de

WWII. c 1942-45. German troops and their hound hitch a ride on a Sd. Kfz. 233 armoured reconnaissance vehicle.

German Landsers with Polish POWs at the Westerplatte, September 7th 1939.

The "Reichskriegsflagge" is raised over the Westerplatte.

A crew member prepares the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I, Sd.Kfz. 181, Ausf. E (turret number 332) of the S.Pz.Abt. 503 for towing.
The "Tiger I" got stuck in the mud on the bank of a rivulet near the town of Znamenka in the Kirovograd region of Ukraine, 10-04-1943.
Source: waralbum.ru

Tankers of the 1st company of the Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 501 with the received new Tiger I tanks, Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H1.
Before being transported by rail, two rows of outer track rollers were dismantled by vehicles and transport tracks were installed.
Mailly le Camp, France, October - November 1943.
Source: waralbum.ru

Rouen, Quai Jean de Béthancourt 25- 26 August 1944, after the bombardment on this sector by the Allies