Ingo von Collani in the Beach with his Children

 

The later Generalmajor Ingo von Collani in the beach with his children.

Source :
https://www.bild.de/wa/ll/bild-de/unangemeldet-42925516.bild.html

Hans Graf von Kanitz with His Wife

 

Hans Graf von Kanitz with his wife and on their wedding day. His last rank is Generalmajor (1 December 1942).

Source:
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalmajor2/KANITZ_HANS.html

Bio of General der Infanterie Karl von Roques

Generalleutnant der Luftwaffe Karl von Roques with his spouse.

Karl von Roques (7 May 1880 – 24 December 1949) was a German general and war criminal during the Second World War, who commanded the Army Group Rear Area behind Army Group South. Following the war, Roques was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the High Command Trial. He died in 1949 while serving his sentence.

Karl von Roques was born in a German noble family of Huguenot descent. He entered the German Imperial Army in 1899. During the First World War, Roques served in staff roles in several divisions. By the end of the war he was promoted to major. After the armistice, Roques remained in the Reichswehr, serving in the Ministry of War, and then in staff and command roles in the army. Starting in 1934, Roques served as chief of staff and then the president of the Reichsluftschutzbund. In October 1938 he was recalled to active duty and in the Luftwaffe with the rank of lieutenant-general. In June 1939, Roques left the Luftwaffe with the rank of general.

During the Second World War, Roques served as an active officer in the Wehrmacht. In December 1939, he was given command of the new 142nd Infantry Division. From 15 March 1941 to October 1941, he was commander of the rear areas of Army Group South. On 1 July 1941, Roques was promoted to General der Infanterie.

As commander of the rear areas, Roques carried extermination policies against the Soviet partisans, Slavic and Jewish population. In October 1941, Roques was transferred to the Führerreserve. In June 1942 he assumed command of the rear areas of Army Group South, and after the dividing of the army group in Army Group A and Army Group B, he commanded the rear areas of the former. On 1 January 1943, Roques was again placed in the Führerreserve and on 31 March 1943 he was again pensioned off. In August 1943 he went to Warsaw as a representative of the German Red Cross.

After the German capitulation, Roques was arrested and tried in the High Command Trial. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Moved for reasons of bad health from the Landsberg prison to a hospital in Nürnberg, he died there on 24 December 1949.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Roques

https://www.sammlermarkt-nord.net/shop/generalleutnant-karl-roques-with-german-social-welfare-decor-p-13193.html?language=en

Karl von Roques with His Spouse

Karl von Roques (7 May 1880 – 24 December 1949) was born in a German noble family of Huguenot descent. He entered the German Imperial Army in 1899. During the First World War, Roques served in staff roles in several divisions. By the end of the war he was promoted to major. After the armistice, Roques remained in the Reichswehr, serving in the Ministry of War, and then in staff and command roles in the army. Starting in 1934, Roques served as chief of staff and then the president of the Reichsluftschutzbund. In October 1938 he was recalled to active duty and in the Luftwaffe with the rank of lieutenant-general. In June 1939, Roques left the Luftwaffe with the rank of general.

During the Second World War, Roques served as an active officer in the Wehrmacht. In December 1939, he was given command of the new 142nd Infantry Division. From 15 March 1941 to October 1941, he was commander of the rear areas of Army Group South. On 1 July 1941, Roques was promoted to General der Infanterie.

As commander of the rear areas, Roques carried extermination policies against the Soviet partisans, Slavic and Jewish population. In October 1941, Roques was transferred to the Führerreserve. In June 1942 he assumed command of the rear areas of Army Group South, and after the dividing of the army group in Army Group A and Army Group B, he commanded the rear areas of the former. On 1 January 1943, Roques was again placed in the Führerreserve and on 31 March 1943 he was again pensioned off. In August 1943 he went to Warsaw as a representative of the German Red Cross.

After the German capitulation, Roques was arrested and tried in the High Command Trial. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Moved for reasons of bad health from the Landsberg prison to a hospital in Nürnberg, he died there on 24 December 1949.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Roques
https://www.sammlermarkt-nord.net/shop/general-infanterie-karl-roques-luftwaffendegen-p-13192.html

Leutnant August Ségur-Cabanac with his wife

Leutnant August Ségur-Cabanac (June 1, 1922, Mödling near Vienna - March 4, 2011, Vienna) with his wife in 1944

August Ségur-Cabanac was born on June 1, 1922 in Mödling near Vienna.

His great-great-grandfather August Franz Graf Ségur-Cabanac (1771–1847), who came from an old French family with a long military tradition, found refuge in Austria during the French Revolution and became the progenitor of the Austrian branch of the family. He started his career as a second lieutenant, distinguished himself as a major at Wagram in 1809, and in 1844 he achieved the rank of major general. His great-grandson August Ségur-Cabanac (1881-1931), lawyer and financial specialist, was Minister of Finance of the Republic of Austria from May to November 1922.

August Ségur-Cabanac graduated from Vienna in 1941 and was called up to the German Armed Forces immediately afterwards.

After his front assignment in spring and summer 1942, he graduated from the Dresden War School in the fall of that year.

This was followed - after being promoted to lieutenant in December 1942 - in the first months of 1943 by a company leadership course at the Döberitz infantry school. From April 15 he was deployed as a platoon leader and soon also as a company leader in the 156th Infantry Regiment in the southern section of the Eastern Front. On July 21, 1943, he was seriously wounded at Stalino. Reasonably restored after almost a year in hospital, he took part in the retreat in northern France and Belgium as far as Aachen as a company commander in the 116th Panzer Division in autumn 1944. Wounded again in the battle in the Hürtgenwald, he experienced the end of the war as a first lieutenant in a hospital.

As early as October 11, 1944, he had married Christine Bennier during a short front vacation.

In 1946 he got a job with the American occupation forces, but already in 1954 he registered for the B-gendarmerie. On October 1 of this year he was assigned to the Gendarmerie Oberleutnant at the Gendarmerie School Upper Austria III. From May 1955 he worked at the Gendarmerieabteilung K, which would later become the Military Academy, in Enns. As class officer, he took over class B until it was retired in January 1957, then class 13, which was retired in December of that year. Finally, he led the 3rd company of the Academic Battalion until its retirement in March 1959, which already took place in the old home of the Military Academy, in the castle in Wiener Neustadt. In these years he had already earned an army-wide reputation as a demanding but nevertheless popular instructor for his officer candidates as a first lieutenant. After he had taken over another year in 1959, he was called up for the 3rd general staff course in December of that year. He completed this course with rank 1.

Already during his practical use in the training department of the Federal Ministry of Defense in 1962, he was commissioned to publish a specialist magazine. He founded the "Troop Service" working group to publish the magazine with their support. He thus became the founder of the training magazine "Troop Service", which soon became one of the most renowned publications in the field of military training.

After he was taken on as a major of the general staff in the higher service on December 15, 1962, he was assigned as a tactics teacher at the Theresian military academy. Relocated to the operations department on May 15, 1965, he worked on seven possible operations there. That happened for the first time in the second army and decisively determined the deployment planning of the army for the following years. On December 12, 1967 he was transferred to Group Command I as G 3. Under the chief of the Colonel, Colonel Karl Wohlgemuth, he was involved in the planning of the security measures during the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, as well as in the preparation and execution of the largest military maneuver to date known as "Bärentatze" in the autumn 1969.

As early as 1968 he was promoted to colonel of the general staff. From March 22, 1971 to March 19, 1973, he was chief of staff of the Vienna Military Command and then deputy head of the organization department of the ministry. On March 19, 1973, he became head of the training department, during which he took numerous initiatives in all areas of military training and further education over the following eight years. In 1980 he became a brigadier. As his last assignment in active service, he assumed command of the 1st Panzer Grenadier Division in Baden, now as a divisional. He led this association from November 1, 1982 until his retirement on November 1, 1987. Shortly before, he was promoted to general in recognition of his services to the army.

August Ségur-Cabanac died on March 4, 2011 and rests in the family grave in Mödling.

His sons Christian Ségur-Cabanac and René Segur-Cabanac also opted for a military career, as did his grandson Philipp.

Source :
https://austria-forum.org/af/Biographien/S%C3%A9gur-Cabanac%2C_August
http://kultur-pool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=124554826150&kupoContext=default
http://kultur-pool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=124554826151&kupoContext=default

SS-Obersturmführer Jacques Leroy, a Ritterkreuzträger from Belgium

Jacques Leroy, on the left of the photo, after having lost his right arm and right eye in the battle for the Cherkassy Pocket (he wears a glass eye). On the right is his younger brother Claude Leroy, then 17, who would also join the Waffen-SS “Wallonien” Division and be killed in action, along with hundreds of other European volunteers, in March 1945 in the fighting for the Oder River Bridgehead

 Jacques Leroy was born on 10 September 1924 in Binden, Belgium. In 1943 he joined the 5.SS-Sturmbrigade “Wallonie” to battle communism on the Eastern Front. His two brothers would follow suit in the next year for the same reason. They saw the Soviet Red Terror as the greatest threat to Western Civilization. After completing an officer’s training course, SS-Untersturmführer Jacques Leroy arrived on the southern part of the Eastern Front with the “Wallonie” Assault Brigade in November 1944. During the difficult battle to escape from the encirclement around Cherkassy in February 1944, SS-Ustuf. Leroy was severely wounded, losing both his right arm and right eye. Fortunately his comrades were able to assist him out to safety.

Following an extensive convalescence, Leroy returned to his old unit, which was now the 28th SS Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division “Wallonien” and in early 1945 he accompanied the “Wallonien” battlegroup, (SS Regiments 69 and 70 and SS Artillery Detachment 28) to the Pomeranian front where he was to serve as a liaison officer between the headquarters staff and the combat elements and was not supposed to see action. However after the I. Battalion of SS Grenadier Reg. 69 lost its commander and sustained heavy losses, the now SS-Obersturmfürer Leroy assumed command of the unit and personally led it in several fierce close-combat engagements.

In March 1945, with a task force of 40 surviving members of the battalion, Jacques Leroy led them in the defense of Altdamm at the mouth of the Oder River. For three days and nights this band of Walloon volunteers held off sizable enemy assaults, even turning back an attack by 19 Red tanks on 17 March 1945, destroying many of them in the process. When they were finally relieved, only 8 of the defenders were still alive; 32 of them had been killed in action, including Jacques Leroy’s younger brother Claude. His other brother, a platoon leader, would fall in defense of the Finkenwalde railroad station, three days before the Soviet offensive on the Oder sector temporarily halted.

On 20 April 1945, SS-Ostuf. Jacques Leroy was decorated with the Knight’s Cross to the Iron Cross for his personal heroism and the performance of his command at the Altdamm Bridgehead in March 1945. At the end of the war he went into British captivity and was soon transported back to Belgium to face a long imprisonment and much ill-treatment at the hands of the new leftist Belgian authorities. Deprived of his basic rights in Belgium, Leroy moved as soon as he could to Bavaria and became a German citizen.

The after effects of his severe war wounds would plague him for the rest of his life. In 1992 he had to seek the assistance of state provided medical care. It was soon obvious that the doctor sent to him was actually more interested in making a “political statement” than in helping him. This individual immediately accused him of “fighting against his country”, to which Leroy replied: “That was not the case, I only fought against Bolshevism!” The physician responded by saying: “I hope you are now as much an anti-Nazi as you were an anti-Bolshevik.” Jacques Leroy was too astounded to respond to this as he only sought medical help and not a political confrontation from an expert “care giver”. In any event he always remained true to his comrades and was always proud of his service in the Waffen-SS.

Source :
'Siegrunen 80' by Richard Landwehr

German Soldier Watching the Drawing of His Wife

German soldier with his wife watching the drawing of the wife. He is wearing the chevron sleeve for Obergefreiter rank. Translated as "senior lance-corporal", in World War II the rank was normally given to soldiers who had command over small squads or to those soldiers who held the rank of Gefreiter and had performed a significant feat of achievement. An Obergefreiter was not considered a non-commissioned officer (Unteroffizier). In this picture, we can see also the ribbon for "Medaille Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42" (Ostmedaille), so we can safely assume that this picture was taken in the period of 1942-1945.

Source :
https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/obraz/36772/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergefreiter

German Soldier Otto Lanz with his Family

German soldier Otto Lanz with his family. Otto Lanz of the 305. Infanterie-Division wrote in one of his field post letters before he went missing at Stalingrad: “Three days in the hell of Stalingrad. One has no idea what is happening there. This surpasses everything experienced so far. Every day our aviators attack; 500 to 600 have been committed. The city is continually getting smaller and the ruins are getting bigger. Now the fighting is for the big factories. Every house must have been destroyed, and often battles are fought for mounds of rubble. The artillery is smashing into it, tanks and infantry comb the streets, and this is the toughest work. Everyone who gets out of this alive may thank God.” When the 305th Infantry Division reached the northern part of Stalingrad on 13 October 1942, the battle in the city that was gradually being pulverized by aerial bombardment and artillery fire had already been raging for five weeks. Despite all efforts and sacrifices, there had been no success so far. Although the southern half of the city was almost entirely held by the Germans, the Russians clung on in the silenced industrial works in the northern part, supported and fed from the other bank of the Volga. From now on, the fight essentially was waged with assault troops. The taking of individual housing blocks again and again required time-consuming regroupments of the few remaining combat-ready assault troops.

Source :

Book "Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the Operation to Rescue 6th Army" by Hans Wijers

The Kam brothers in the Waffen-SS

The Kam brothers in the Waffen-SS (from left to right): Poul, Søren and Erik. The Danes were photographed in 1943 and they fought in the ranks of the Wiking Division.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/138570281717/the-kam-brothers-in-the-waffen-ss-from-left-to