Painting Luftwaffe Helmets

 

From shiney helmets into a Matt finish: nice photo showing a Luftwaffe flak unit (circa 1940/41) painting their helmets to come in line with the 1940 order on helmet paint and decals. The sprayers is wearing HBT reed green Luftwaffe worksuits. It is also a very good photo depicting depot repaints of helmets.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/LuftwaffeFD/photos/a.114470297207428/314601447194311/

German Actor and a Luftwaffe Pilot Hannes Stelzer

This is a movie picture of the Austrian actor Hannes Stelzer (1910-1944). He played a highly decorated war pilot hero in the 1941 movie 'Stukas'. By 1943 the meanwhile jobless Hannes is forced to enlist in the German Army. He becomes a fighter pilot at the Luftwaffe, and between film roles he took on combat missions in World War II! On 27 December 1944, Stelzer died in a plane crash over the village of Zemné, Slovakia (not in Hungary as is often stated) in a snowstorm, according to a Wehrmacht report. He was 34 years old. His wife actress Maria Bard - who was married twice before - committed suicide earlier earlier at Berlin on April 1944.

Source :
http://www.germanfilms.net/hannes-stelzer/

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

SS-VT Gunners Chalks up an Anti-British Drawing on the Side of a Shell

This photograph show a heavy artillery unit from the SS-Verfügungstruppe carrying out manoeuvres somewhere on the French coast in October 1940. "Good German joke - ja!" More for the cameraman than for the benefit of anyone else, one of the SS-VT gunners chalks up an anti-British drawing on the side of a shell. The umbrella and top hat is a dig at Sir Neville Chamberlain, the former British Prime Minister.