Poland, France, Romania & Russian Front Wehrmacht album

Morlar

Here are some shots from an Album I picked up a while ago as part of a 4-album 700 picure set.

http://www.militaria-archive.com/albumsII/ostfront%201942/index.html

This album covers one man through France (Nancy, Nantes & Strasbourg) Poland and then into Romania and Russia. Featuring many vehicles, motorcycles, staff cars, trucks, Raupenschlepper Ost (Steyr RSO), early panzer mockups/armoured cars as well as a Russian front Tiger tank picture.

Officer inspection/ceremony in Nancy, France 1941

Morlar

Marching through occuppied France



Field gun exercises





Traffic accident

Morlar

Operation Barbarossa

Morlar

Repairs










Dancing with civilians

Morlar

Features photographs of Wehrmacht field testing a captured Karabing przeciwpancerny wzór 35 (kb ppanc wz. 35 or anti-tank rifle, model 35. A Polish 7.92 mm anti-tank rifle used in small numbers by the Polish Army during the September 1939 invasion of Poland & also at least once in ghetto uprisings. Code name, kb Urugwaj (kb Ur) & renamed by the Wehrmacht the Panzerbüchse 35 (polnisch) (PzB 35(p)) I read somewhere that in one of the Gheto uprisings an SS man was shot in the head from a distance with one of these leading the germans to think some kind of new weapon had been dropped by the allies.






Early mock panzers

Morlar

Raupenschlepper Ost (Steyr RSO)



RSO towing a truck





There are lots more here if anyone wants to check them out.

arnhem44

Thanks for posting those Morlar,some great shots there,I love post no.5.Thats one serious looking rifle.

Morlar

I like that one too, if you look closely at #5 you will see they are wearing ear protectors & one guy is doing a double take at the size of the round!

Here are a couple more of that rifle;





There is also an article on wikipedia about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wz._35_anti-tank_rifle



Secrecy and confusion

The weapon was initially a top secret of the Polish Army, and was also known by various codenames. Until mobilization in 1939, the combat-ready rifles were held in closed crates enigmatically marked, "Do not open; surveillance equipment."

One of the rifle's cover names was "Urugwaj" (hence "Ur"), the Polish name for Uruguay, the country to which the "surveillance equipment" was supposedly being exported.

After the fall of Poland, the German army captured large numbers of the kb ppanc wz.35 and used it as "Panzerbüchse 35 (polnisch)" (abbreviated "PzB 35(p)"). The Italian army also benefited from the booty and used it under its own designation as "fucile controcarro 35(P)." Both names translate roughly as "Anti-tank Rifle 35 (Polish)."

In early 1940, one of the rifles, its stock and barrel sawed off, was smuggled out of Poland across the Tatra Mountains into Hungary for the Allies by Krystyna Skarbek and Polish fellow couriers. The rifle never saw service with the Allies, however, because the drawings and specifications had been destroyed by the Poles during the invasion of Poland; reverse engineering would have required too much time.
[edit] Description

........

Panzerbüchse 35(p)

Despite well-established opinion, the Karabin przeciwpancerny wz.35 was extensively used during the Invasion of Poland of 1939 by most Polish units. After Poland was overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union, large quantities of this weapon were captured. The Germans pressed it into service as Panzerbüchse 35 (polnisch) (PzB 35(p)), and sped up work on their own simplified, one-shot anti-tank rifle Panzerbüchse 39 (PzB 39). According to some sources, however, the Germans replaced the DS bullets in the captured ammunition with their own 7.92 mm hardened-steel-core bullets from the PzB 39.

Also, several features of the Polish rifle, most notably the lock, were used in developing the Soviet PTRD, 14.5 mm anti-tank rifle.

In 1940, Germany sold some 800 Polish antitank rifles to the Italian armed forces, which used it in combat until the end of World War II.

arnhem44

I hadn't noticed the ear protectors until you pointed them out,looking more closely quite a few have them in.For a standard sized round it really packed some punch.Its interesting looking at the difference in the butt compared to the photo's from Wiki.You must have a fantastic photo collection built up now,its great to see them,thanks.

Morlar

arnhem44 wrote: »

I hadn't noticed the ear protectors until you pointed them out,looking more closely quite a few have them in.For a standard sized round it really packed some punch.Its interesting looking at the difference in the butt compared to the photo's from Wiki.You must have a fantastic photo collection built up now,its great to see them,thanks.

I think your right about the stock being different ! It certainly is & I have been going through some reference sites & now think that it's the Panzerbüchse pzb 39 not the 35.

I had originally looked at that one but some of the photos on the web show it with a loading cartridge attachment thing which is missing from mine - but this one here shows what looks to be the closest match ;



http://www.achtungpanzer.com/articles/pzb.htm

Going from the stand and where the bolts are this seems to be the one. Cheers for catching that.

arnhem44

I think the second one in that picture is definitely closer to home,the Panzerbuchse PzB 39,the more I look at it makes me wonder about the guy's carrying them,must of weighed quite a bit

Morlar

I figured rather than start a new thread I would put some of these up here instead.

These pictures are from a WW2 Wehrmacht Cavalry France & Russia album.

This album was not expensive (€95) or all that rare but I though it may be interesting to some here.

107 picture album of a cavalry unit showing horsedrawn wagons, field/anti-tank gun exercises and covering France and Russia. This includes a knocked out T-34 with KIA, SdKfz 263 8-Rad Panzerfunkwagen tavelling in convoy through burned village and several 7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18. Multiple pictures of Wehrmacht travelling by horse and with wagon & wagons by train. Russian Prisoners of War are shown marching back from the front while the army advance. It also features a set of pictures showing several troops marching from their barracks to the Stabsarzt Kommandant Luftschutzraum (bomb shelter) to present him with a flower.

http://www.militaria-archive.com/albums2.html

http://www.militaria-archive.com/cavalry/index.html

Knocked out T34 with KIA in foreground

Morlar

Unknown tank in front of Orthodox



Panzer and Heer briefing in the forest



Convoy

Morlar

SdKfz 263 8-Rad Panzerfunkwagen in convoy



SdKfz 263 8-Rad Panzerfunkwagen passing through a burning village

Morlar

Train-riding to the Russian front



Field/anti-tank gun exercises



(Probably) 7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 & crew on field exercises

Morlar

Wehrmacht Field stove



Horse Carriage



Pianos for the war effort

Morlar

Wagons into Russia



Russia





Wehrmacht horse drawn wagons & destroyed vehicles

citizen_p

Morlar wrote: »

Unknown tank in front of Orthodox

The Cathedral is in smolensk
theres two tanks
heres two photos(one terribly out of focus)

1 a view of your tank, terrible focus

2 taking a bit further back with tthe second tank in view


id say your guy was later (more glass missing from the circular windows)

Morlar

Mousey- wrote: »

The Cathedral is in smolensk

Hi Mousey

Thanks for the info - You are correct !

Looks like the tanks are gone and the trees have grown;

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1037113863015638233pcvUmc



Found this entry on wiki which I thought was interesting :

According to local legend, when Napoleon Bonaparte entered the temple after Smolensk had fallen to the French army in 1812, he looked up at the altar wall and proclaimed that if any one of his soldiers dared to steal anything from it he would personally kill that man. The cathedral sustained enormous damage during the WWII fighting, when the 11th-century miraculous icon of Theotokos of Smolensk perished in a great fire.

FiSe

Brilliant pictures. Amazing...

Just to fill some spots:
The German AT guns are mostly 3.7cm PaK 35/36 /4th, 8th, 18th and 19th picture from the start/ and half picture of 7.5cm PaK 40 /12th/.
Then StuG IIIG Early version /14th/, my favorite 'tank'.
The Knocked out Soviet tank is T-26 and those 2 monsters in front of Smolensk cathedral are some of the Mk.? British WWI types as can be clearly seen on the last picture /from Mousey/. Remnants of the Russian civil war I'd say...

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

Brilliant pictures. Amazing...

Just to fill some spots:
The German AT guns are mostly 3.7cm PaK 35/36 and half picture of 7.5cm PaK 40.
Then StuG IIIG Early version, my favorite 'tank'.
The Knocked out Soviet tank is T-26 and those 2 monsters in front of Smolensk cathedral are some of the Mk.? British WWI types as can be clearly seen on the last picture. Remnants of the Russian civil war I'd say...

Hi again and cheers for the info.

I am not too sure about the 3.7cm anti-tank (Pak 36) though. If you look at this one (sorry about the watermark - but have had to start using them):



The reason being the proportion of the men to the gun, also the spoked wheels doesnt seemt o match the 3.7cm pak (when compared to say - the one on the wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.7_cm_Pak_36)

Also the barrel is a lot shorter (more like a stub -nosed one if you know what I mean)



The closest match I could find was the 7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.5_cm_leichtes_Infanteriegesch%C3%BCtz_18

but even that is difficult to be precise - note the absence of spoked wheels there. I was thinking mine were an later/earlier variation perhaps ? I also referred to a book called conveniently enough 'German WW2 Anti-tank Guns' though even with that reference it is hard to be precise due to the angles of the pictures and the numbers of variations.

You definitely hit the nail on the head with the T-26, I took one look at that and thought - T-34 and left it that - so cheers for the info on that one.

Can you confirm which pic you are referring to as being the Stug III ? I am confused because the one I most recently posted is indeed the SdKfz 263 8-Rad Panzerfunkwagen, ie this one



- on a reference site for comparison

http://www.panzer-reich.co.uk/panzerfunkwagen-sdkfz263-8-rad.htm

Cheers

FiSe

You are right about those guns. Pak 35/36 is in the photographs before.
PaK 35/36: http://www.worldwar2aces.com/panzer-tank/pak37-antitank/

I have edited my previous post, have counted pictures from the start of this thread...

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

I have edited my previous post, have counted pictures from the start of this thread...

Yep - after I posted that I figured you may be talking about the first album. So 'Le Tigre' is actually the Stug III variant G
I went by the writing there to be honest it looked like it said 'Tiger' in the caption !

I also found this :

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VE42S792L.jpg

Thanks again for checking those & clarifying that.

FiSe

Morlar wrote: »

Yep - after I posted that I figured you may be talking about the first album. So 'Le Tigre' is actually the Stug III variant G
I went by the writing there to be honest it looked like it said 'Tiger' in the caption !

I also found this :

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VE42S792L.jpg

Thanks again for checking those & clarifying that.

No worries.
That's the latter version with thicker frontal armour and different gun housing /Saukopfblende/ anyway, the 'Le Tigre' could be the name of the gun as the author would know the type. Just my thought...

If someone could reckognize the lorries, that would be great too.

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

No worries.
That's the latter version with thicker frontal armour and different gun housing /Saukopfblende/ anyway, the 'Le Tigre' could be the name of the gun as the author would know the type. Just my thought...

If someone could reckognize the lorries, that would be great too.

I believe they are a mixture of Mercedes Benz type G3 Survey Truck &
Maschinefabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) diesel. I got hold of a couple of reference books 'Trucks of the Wehrmacht' and so on and have been going through those in reference to a Poland Werkstatt zug photo album that isn't online yet. Also going back over the above 2 Russian ones too.

FiSe

Checked that symbol on the RSO, it looks like it belongs to 282.Inf.Div. during Zitadelle, 1943.
But could be wrong...

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

Checked that symbol on the RSO, it looks like it belongs to 282.Inf.Div. during Zitadelle, 1943.
But could be wrong...

Can I ask where you found that ?

That's been bugging me for weeks and online all I could find were the tactical symbols, ie square for infantry, Column number on the side ie this kind of thing



Also
http://www.smallscaleafv.com/Novinky5/72_Archer72046_02.jpg

http://www.tracks-n-troops.com/shop/images/archer/ART72045W.jpg

A lot of which stem from the modelling community. I would love to find a comprehensive resource that covered unit emblems online or in print.

Just on the offchance there is one more unit emblem I am trying to ID at present (have posted on Axis history about it too but so far no joy).

FiSe

Here:

http://www.wwiidaybyday.com/emblems/emblemsmain.htm

brilliant page, unfortunately there was 100s and 100s of different units and subunits using different symbols and lots of them aren't known or isn't known which unit they belong to.