WW2 Photo Album - Collaborative research Thread

Morlar

WW2 Photo Album - Collaborative research Thread


Some of you may know I collect WW2 militaria photo albums, I usually re-photograph them and put them online, often with some background information about which unit went where, when etc. Basically some attempt at adding background information to the photographs. This can merit results, from getting emailed by the current owners of a certain house, to being contacted by people who have family interest in particular units and so on. Also military researchers and authors get in touch from time to time to add information (sometimes years down the road) or to ask for permission to use photographs etc Currently there are about 4 books in the works which will feature some of the pictures.

This album I have had for about 5 months and have not gotten around to it yet. It is not a very high quality or a very valuable one, but parts of it are interesting in my opinion.

So . . . .. I thought it might make an interesting thread to post up this photo album page by page and see if other members were interested in assistance in the research of it ? I will add a few pages to this every few days to keep things ticking along.

This is one of those threads that could sink without a trace and if that happens then I will just research it myself - no great loss, but I thought it might make an interesting thread for regular members or anyone with a passing interest so here goes.

This one like many of them starts off fairly tame, RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) days of a German youth.

It ends up with a decorated combat veteran with reference to Prague, Belgium, Paris, Dunkirk, maneouvres for the invasion of England, Stalingrad, hanged partisans & cossacks, downed fighters and tanks, Panzer division and Gebirgsjager units.










In this case it starts off with the man in his wartime RAd unit, and so no longer a voluntary, if you were male and of age and not in the armed forces you were forced to do your RAD service. As this is a wartime one they were also deployed outisde Germany (not all were but some).






Here above are the first pages, can anyone find more information on the RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) Abteilung (group) 5/260 ? Where they were raised, based, what were they involved in ? Any other translation, location, unit or relevant info to add then fire away.

arnhem44

Hi Morlar,I just put in a search for Rad 5/260 and there is reference to them in this site as to what they were attached to(I think),a heavy anti aircraft division.Might be worth having a looking but doesn't go into individual unit history.

http://www.ww2.dk/ground/flak/abt/s241.html

Morlar

Cheers Arnhem, I think those dates apply to this exact unit but at a later period as he seems to move onto to regular Wehrmacht in the next couple of pages (1939-1940).

Looks like the unit he left behind was later amalgamated into schwere Flak-Abteilung 241 in 1944 which was then partially destroyed later in the war :

In 7.44 incread to 9 Batterien:

5./s.241 from 1./906
6./s.241 from 2./906 (RAD 4./260)
7./s.241 from 3./906 (RAD 5./260)
8./s.241 from 4./906 (RAD 8./260)
9./s.241 new(?) (destroyed 8.44 in Romania)


I also found this:

http://www.heimatsammlung.de/topo_unter/71_ab_02/71_02/sulzbach.htm

AK Sulzbach / Murr, Reichsarbeitsdienst-Abteilung 5 / 260 "Wilhelm Maybach"

&
http://www.ak-ansichtskarten.de/ak/index.php?menu=90&shop=671&card=1959420&alte-ansichtskarten=AK_Sulzbach___Murr__Reichsarbeitsdienst-Abteilung_5___260__Wilhelm_Maybach_&tabsessfilltab=4b1fcdf123afbe10d46e5b9f33c9dcd4&tabsessfilltab=4b1fcdf123afbe10d46e5b9f33c9dcd4

These kinds of postcards were custom made and sold to certain units whose men bought them in the town or barracks to send back to relatives. Going from this & the album notes they were raised in Sulzbach Murr & I believe this postcard shows their barracks building :



I think 'Wilhelm Maybach' refers to the name of their barracks building rather than a common name for the numerical unit (5/260).

Here is where the town is :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulzbach_an_der_Murr

"Sulzbach is located about 40 km northeast of Stuttgart in the middle of the Nature Park Swabian-Franconian Forest between the Löwenstein Mountains and the Murrhardter Forest."

http://www.sulzbach-murr.de/data/index.php

Morlar

Just as additional background it looks like the town of Sulzbach was also the home of an 'Arbeiterkolonie' (called 'Arbeiterkolonie Erlach'), a sort of workers colony that were phased out in the early 1930's with the introduction of the Nsad/ RAd.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeiterkolonie

There is also this newspaper link to a man from that area who had been in the RAd then wounded in Russia though no clear connection to 5/260 it's likely he also passed through this unit :

http://www.suedkurier.de/region/linzgau-zollern-alb/sauldorf/Die-Liebe-begann-im-Lazarett;art372571,2589618

Morlar

Here is the next batch of pictures for this. The pickings for these one may also be a bit sparse before it moves onto more interesting items. As usual if anyone can add ancillary information to units locations etc fire away.

These are all being presented in sequence, the album later moves onto Operation Sealion, Kharkov, Stalingrad etc

batch2 -A

batch2 -B

batch2 -C

batch2 -D

batch2 -E


I will add some closeups later.

Morlar

Enroute to the Westwall/Siegfried line during it's construction


Westwall bunker


The Deutsche Wehrmacht armband



La Porta Nigra Trier (Germany, roman ruin)




Porta Nigra Trier Today

Morlar

Batch 3a

From the caption on this page this nco is now transferred into 9th Company, Infantry Regiment 109, of 35 Infantry Division (9.IR,109, 35 Inf div). These pictures cover their arrival at Dunkirk and subsequent preparations for the Invasion of England (He does not stay with this regiment for very long).



here are some additional sources for this division :

Lexikon der Wehrmacht:
35th Infantry Division :

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Infanteriedivisionen/35ID.htm

Infantry Regiment 109 :

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Infanterieregimenter/IR109-R.htm

(15 October 1942 this IR was to be renamed to Grenadier-Regiment 109).

Here is an interesting thread about their course from the German border to Belgian-French frontier – May 1940

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=226656

Batch 3b)


Batch3c)

Morlar

Here is some more information about the 35th Infantry division (particularly relating to 'Invasion of England 1940: The Planning of Operation Sealion, author Peter Schenk')

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=3268

(A lot of this information is used by wargamers for this scenario).

16th Army Area of Operations
• A 131-man commando team with 50 light motorcycles consisting of two platoons of the 1st Company of the I. Battalion would cross the channel with the 35th Infantry Division—one platoon with the division’s advanced detachment and one with Tauchpanzer Battalion D. The team had the mission of taking out British bases on the coast and along the Royal Military Canal and suspected artillery positions to the north.
. . .
FIRST WAVE

XIII Army Corps: General der Panzertruppe Heinrich-Gottfried von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel (First-wave landings on English coast between Folkestone and New Romney) – Luftwaffe II./Flak-Regiment 14 attached to corps
• 17th Infantry Division: Generalleutnant Herbert Loch
• 35th Infantry Division: Generalleutnant Hans Wolfgang Reinhard
. . .


Also here

http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=14949&start=135

Transport Fleet “B” (Dunkirk): Vizeadmiral Hermann von Fischel – transporting the first echelons of the 17th and 35th Infantry Divisions and the staff and corps troops, including Panzer Battalions B and D (less one company from the latter), of the XIII Army Corps.
Tow Formation 1 (Dunkirk): Vizeadmiral von Fischel (as well as being the transport fleet commander)
Tow Formation 2 (Ostend): Kapitän zur See Walter Hennecke
Convoy 1 (Ostend): Kapitän zur See Wagner
Convoy 2 (Rotterdam): Kapitän zur See Ernst Schirlitz

__________


I have been looking for more photos of German troopers Operation Sealion landing practice and can not find any at all.

If anyone knows of any books or online locations which show photos similar to the landing craft ones above please let me know.

Morlar

Also this - seems to be based on official documentation/schenk book :

http://www.kretsen.nu/bytebattler/documents/SEALION%20OOB.pdf

FIRST WAVE
XIII Army Corps: General der Panzertruppe Heinric h-Gottfried von Vietinghoff genannt
Scheel (First-wave landings on English coast between Folkestone and New Romney) –
Luftwaffe II./Flak-Regiment 14 attached to corps
• 17th Infantry Division: Generalleutnant Herbert Loch
• 35th Infantry Division: Generalleutnant Hans Wolfgang Reinhard
. . .
16th Army Area of Operations
• A 131- man commando team with 50 light motorcycles of the 1st Company of the I.
Battalion would cross the channel with the 35th Infantry Division—one platoon with the
division’s advanced detachment and one with Panzer Battalion D. Another commando
team from the I. Battalion with three reconnaissance tanks would also land with the 17th
Infantry Division. Upon landing, the “Brandenburg” company would link up with a combat
group led by Oberst Edmund Hoffmeister, the commander of Infantry Regiment 21 of the
17th Infantry Division. Composed of elements of the 17th Infantry Division, the 7th
Flieger-Division, corps-level support troops and Panzer Battalion B, Hoffmeister’s battle
group would push up the coast to Dover. The “Brandenburg” company would assist by
taking out British positions on the coast and along the Royal Military Canal as well as
suspected artillery positions to the north.
• Another commando team consisting of elements of the regimental intelligence unit and
most of the 4th Company of the I. Battalion would land with the first wave and attack
Dover directly to prevent the sinking of block ships in the harbor entrance and to
neutralize the coastal batteries on the Dover heights. (An alternative to landing this
commando team with the first wave troops might have been the use of about 25 fast
motorboats, i.e., customs authority and police boats, under command of
Korvettenkapitän Strempel. Author Peter Schenk notes that Strempel was never informed
of his objective, but it was likely Dover.)

. . .
Transport Fleet “B” (Dunkirk): Vizeadmiral Hermann von Fischel – transporting the first
echelons of the 17th and 35th Infantry Divisions and the staff and corps troops, including