Photos WW2 German Forces

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The synchronization of a Messerschmitt BF 109 E being adjusted in 1941. A wooden disk attached to the propeller is used to indicate where each round passes through the propeller arc.

 

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Hetzer on the "Ostfront"

 

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Jagdpanthher, date and location are unknown. My best guess would be that the picture was taken in Summer of 1945.

 

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Field graves of four Wehrmacht soldiers on the eastern front. In the background lies a destroyed Soviet T-25 tank.

 

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On this day 76 years ago while evacuating German civilians from Courland and the Polish Corridor, the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed three times by the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea. Just forty minutes after being struck, the Gustloff rolled onto her side and plunged to the bottom of the ocean. Over 9,400 men, women and children were lost in the freezing water. To this day, the sinking, though widely unknown, remains the deadliest in maritime history.
Image © Hans Sönnke/German Federal Archives

 

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Loading the 6 Wurfköper (rockets) on m.gep.M.T.W. (Sd.kfz. 251) Ausf. A or B outfitted with schwere Wurfgerät. The vehicle is from 16. Panzer-Division. 2/2, 1943

 

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German "Pionier"- engineers working on a destroyed bridge near Fargnier, France. Summer of 1940.

 

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The German cruiser Admiral Scheer.
Ref. Natmus/FHM

 

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At Wilhelmsplatz in Berlin, a "little soldier" wants to pay tribute to the Führer.
Ref. Natmus/FHM

 

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January 27th 1945
A German pilot hurtling through the air, legs outstretched, high above the frigid landscape of Belgium after hastily exiting his damaged plane.

 

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General Hasso von Manteuffel. Kirovograd. 1944.
Manteuffel was appointed commander of the Grossdeutschland Division on 1 February 1944. The division engaged the Red Army west of Kirovograd, then retreated across Ukraine. In late July Großdeutschland was ordered to East Prussia, following the collapse of Army Group Centre in Soviet Operation Bagration. The division failed to break through to the Army Group North in the Courland Pocket.
On 1 September 1944, Manteuffel was promoted to General of Panzer Troops and given command of the 5th Panzer Army on the Western Front, which took part in the Ardennes Offensive. Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army achieved one of the deepest penetrations of Allied lines during the offensive, almost reaching the Meuse River, and engaging the U.S. forces at the Battle of Bastogne. On 10 March 1945 Manteuffel was made the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front, attached to Army Group Vistula. His army was assigned to defend the banks of the Oder River north of the Seelow Heights. On 25 April the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front broke through Third Panzer Army's line, forcing a German retreat. On 3 May 1945 Manteuffel surrendered his troops to the British Army at Hagenow, Germany.

 

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A German Panther tank lies among the ruins of Argentan, France (21 August 1944).

 

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German Opel Blitz used by the Wehrmacht as a mobile operating theatre at the front.
Ref. Natmus/FHM

 

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4th Panzer Division near Hannut, 12 May 1940. On that day the biggest tank battle of "Fall Gelb" took place near the little Belgian town.

 

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Leon Degrelle on the eastern front in 1942.

 

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After joining the Kriegsmarine Kurt Diggins served on the square-rigger school ship Gorch Fock and the light cruiser Karlsruhe.
He was Captain Langsdorff's Flag Lieutenant on the Admiral Graf Spee from April 1939 (Grove, 2001). After the Graf Spee was scuttled on 17 December, Diggins escaped from Montevideo to Buenos Aires by stowing away in a river ferry, and from there made his way back to Germany.
Oblt. Diggins commanded the 6th and 5th Minesweeping Flotillas for two years before transferring to the U-bootwaffe (U-boat arm) in April 1940. He commissioned U-458 on 12 Dec. 1941, and commanded her until her sinking by Greek and British destroyers in the Mediterranean off Pantelleria on 22 Aug 1943.
Kptlt. Diggins was a POW at Camp 18 at Haltwhistle, UK, not being released until late 1947.
Kurt Diggins joined the Bundesmarine (Federal German Navy) in 1957, and eventually retired with the rank of Kapitän zur See.

 

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Tanks of the "4. Panzer Division" near Gmbloux, Belgium. May 14th 1940.

 

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Foreign Minister Ribbentrop greets the Romanian dictator Antonescu on his arrival at Munich Airport.
Ref. Natmus/FHM
No date.

 

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Images from a single film that was handed over to one of our BRIXMIS military teams back in the 1970’s, somewhere in East Germany. It has just re-surfaced.
The images are a strange mixture including German war graves (indicating Regiment 411 & 30, possibly 1942/3), U-boats (likely pre-war), a senior Nazi motorcade, winter manoeuvres and town parades.

 

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