View attachment 416662
German soldiers photographed during the Battle of the Bulge. Possibly the photograph was taken on December 18, 1944 near Poteau, in Belgium. The men were photographed smoking American cigarettes, and may be from the 1st SS Panzer Division, Kampfgruppe Hansen, although the soldier on the right appears to be a Luftwaffe ground soldier. The pistol held by the SS soldier on the left is an FN Browning High Power, of North American origin, but finished in Belgium, a country that adopted it for its army in 1935. After invading the Belgian region of Herstal, the Germans seized of the production of the FN pistol, thus, hundreds of thousands of units of this mythical weapon were equipped. The Germans even went so far as to rename the High Power, calling it the 9mm Pistole 640. He also wears a 7.92 mm caliber ammunition belt from the MG-42 machine gun around his neck.
