Men of Wehrmacht

Sunday, October 15, 2017

DKiGträger Hauptmann Walter Schaefer-Kehnert

Hauptmann der Reserve Walter Schaefer-Kehnert (born 1918) received Deutsches Kreuz in Gold in 5 December 1943 as Hauptmann der Reserve and Kommandeur II.Abteilung / Panzer-Artillerie-Regiment 119 / 11.Panzer-Division "Gespenster Division" / III.Panzerkorps / 8.Armee / Heeresgruppe Süd. Schaefer-Kehnert, a reservist from the town of Kehnert on the Elbe, had been serving with his division since its inception in late 1940. A veteran ofthe Battle of France, the invasion of Yugoslavia, and the Eastern Front, he had been commissioned in 1940 as a signals officer. Wounded during the Battle for Moscow in January 1942, he was wounded again in the hip during von Manstein's abortive offensive to relieve Stalingrad in December 1942, recovering in time to take part in the Battle of Kursk and the retreat to the Dnieper. He had earned the Deutsche Kreuz in Gold (German Cross in Gold) for his repeated bravery in action, an award he referred to jokingly as the "Party Badge for the Nearsighted," because of the large swastika it bore in its center. Nevertheless, its wearers were highly respected. About the type of war in the Eastern Front, he commented: "The Russians were cruel. At the start of the Russian campaign of 1941, we had to retreat rapidly. We were unable to take our wounded with us. When we retook the area, we discovered that they had been murdered. The Russians had smashed their skulls with their pioneers' shovels. Our men were furious and didn't take any more prisoners. All the Russian soldiers were shot, even the ones who wanted to surrender. As a reprisal, the Russians naturally also decided to take no prisoners. This situation continued for several weeks until both sides realised that it was counter-productive."."The Russians, who had already been taken prisoner, were never harmed although an exception was made for the political commissars. Hitler had given an order that all commissars were to be summarily executed. Our division also received this order but with the verbal addition that it contravened the laws of war and should therefore be ignored. So we let the commissars live. I once watched our soldiers arrest a truck full of Russians. The Russian soldiers were told to surrender. One man stood up and shot himself through the head. It was the political commissar."

Source :
Book "Hell's Gate; The Battle Of The Cherkassy Pocket" by Douglas E. Nash
https://felixfeatures.photoshelter.com/image/I0000l2epcCwmOck

Monday, October 2, 2017

Danish SS-Untersturmführer Ellef Henry Rasmussen

Danish SS-Untersturmführer Ellef Henry Rasmussen photographed in 1944 on the Narva front, Estonia, just after graduating from SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz officer training school. Rasmussen joined Waffen-SS in 1940 and served in the Wiking Division. In 1943 he was assigned to the newly formed 11. SS Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, where in the final phase of the war become the commander of II./SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark. He took part many important campaigns and battles: Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union; Operation Blau, the advance into the Caucasus; Battle of Narva and Battle of Berlin. Ellef Henry Rasmussen wrote his autobiography with the help of an historian in danish Troskab - Dansk SS-frivillig E.H. Rasmussens erindringer 1940-45. He passed away in 2016.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/165903612932/danish-ss-untersturmf%C3%BChrer-ellef-henry-rasmussen

Monday, April 10, 2017

Oberleutnant Richard Grimm in Stalingrad

Oberleutnant Richard Grimm, one of the company commander from Pionier-Bataillon 305 / 305.Infanterie-Division, at Goroditsche, 13 October 1942. The picture was taken by Rudolf Freigang

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

Monday, April 3, 2017

Reichswehr Artillery Team

A gun team mans a 7.5cm Feldkanone (field gun) NA, during a pre-war Reichswehr exercise. Although the light artillery piece was used in World War I, it was extensively used to equip escort batteries, which were

established in 1939 to assist the attacking infantry.

Source :
Book "Sturmartillerie: Spearhead of the Infantry" by Thomas Anderson

Reichswehr MG Crew During Manoeuvre

Soldiers of the Reichswehr man a Maschinengewehr (MG) 08/15, during an exercise in the interwar years. The largescale introduction of the machine gun by all combatants before outbreak of World War I totally changed infantry warfare.

Source :
Book "Sturmartillerie: Spearhead of the Infantry" by Thomas Anderson

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

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

Monday, October 31, 2016

Great Display of Firepower by LSSAH

Great display of firepower from the soldiers of Leibstandarte Division along fenced area of a Ukrainian farmhouse during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. If the sniper fire is not adequate, a few bursts from the MG 34 machine gun will suppress any enemy activity.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/147862177882/great-display-of-firepower-from-the-soldiers-of

War Crime of Soviet NKVD

A member of the Leibstandarte Division photographed with a distraught crowd of women after seeing the piles of corpses of murdered people by NKVD in Lviv, late June 1941. From 22 June 1941 to 28 June 1941 before the German advance arrived, the Soviet NKVD brutally massacred over 4,000 of Ukrainian and Polish civilians and political prisoners in the city of Lviv. The NKVD committed many massacres in Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was retreating in 1941.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/147866015232/a-member-of-the-leibstandarte-division

SS Wiking Officers

Wiking Division officers at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in Ukraine, 1941. The man in the foreground is an SS-Hauptsturmführer, while on his right is an SS-Obersturmführer.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/147908936532/5sswiking-wiking-division-officers-at-the

The Greatest Fighter Ace in the World

During the Second World War, one German Luftwaffe pilot compiled a combat record so remarkable that he earned the distinction of becoming the most successful fighter pilot in the history of humanity. Erich Hartmann, called the Blond Knight of the German Luftwaffe, achieved the staggering total of 352 confirmed kills. Hartmann’s incredible combat record earned him the coveted diamonds to his Knight’s Cross from Hitler personally. He was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/149147882742/5sswiking-during-the-second-world-war-one

SS Car Passing Russian POWs

A Kfz. 15 medium cross-country personnel carrier from the Das Reich Division move past Red Army prisoners during Operation Barbarossa, area of Smolensk in the summer of 1941. The white letter ‘G’ indicates it belongs to Panzergruppe Guderian.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/149195267632/a-kfz-15-medium-cross-country-personnel-carrier

Puppies of SS Soldier

During Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941, a Das Reich Division member makes new friends: two puppies!

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/150000281492/during-operation-barbarossa-in-the-summer-of-1941

Das Reich Division On The Way to Smolensk

An advance party from the Das Reich Division en route to Smolensk pass through a Soviet village during Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941. The vehicle with the Das Reich Wolfsangel symbol and tactical sign on the front left is a Sd.Kfz.10 towing a 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun. The division was part of Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock’s Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Centre) and took part in the great encirclement battles during the first weeks of Soviet campaign.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/150141395887/an-advance-party-from-the-das-reich-division-en

Das Reich Soldiers Marching Through the Burning Soviet Village

Das Reich Division soldiers photographed marching through a Soviet village with their two 7.5 cm leIG 18 light howitzers during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Stalin’s scorched earth policy can be seen in the background.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/150186588847/das-reich-division-soldiers-photographed-marching

SS Reich Soldiers Seeking Cover in Russia

On leaving the Soviet village near Yelnya, the SS-Division "Reich" troops were fired on. forcing the men to seek cover in a ditch near the road. This photograph was taken during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The battle around Yelnya (30 August - 8 September 1941) was the first substantial reverse that the Wehrmacht had suffered during Barbarossa. Nazi propaganda presented the retreat as a planned operation. For its part, Soviet propaganda hailed the offensive as a major success and wanted to draw worldwide attention to it. Thus, the Yelnya battle was the first occasion on which foreign correspondents in the Soviet Union were allowed to visit the front. Seven of eight of them visited the area between 15 and 22 September 1941. In the words of British war correspondent Alexander Werth, the battle was built up in the Soviet Press "out of all proportion to its real or ultimate importance".

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/150187757932/on-leaving-the-soviet-village-the-das-reich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelnya_Offensive
http://histomil.com/viewtopic.php?t=3918&start=4010