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Thread: Pics from the War.

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    Pics from the War.

    As some of you may have read, I was granted permission to post here some pictures I recently found in the inheritance of my mother.
    These pictures illustrate some of my fathers, Walter Heinrich Müller, experiences during WW II.
    He was part of the German armies that invaded Belgium, Netherlands and France. Accroding to the pics it seems there he reached the rank of Hauptfeldwebel (master sergeant). In 1940 he was transferred to Northern Africa where he stayed until the very End of the Afrikakorps. I know that he subsequently fought in Sicily, Italy and then again in France (albeit going in the opposite direction) until he ended somewhere in Bavaria in 1945 where he was taken prisoner of war by the Americans. The bulk of pictures is from Africa and before, just a handful, if any from after 1943. I don't know why.
    Actually, looking at these pictures I realised how desperatly little I know. Not even the name of his unit, because he hated to speak about the war and kept these pictures well locked up. I had only a handful of photographs before and posted them some years ago in the german 'http://forum.sturmovik.de/' but I just found out they are deleted.
    In total there were 331 pictures. Very few of them with any information written on the backside, and if so mainly things like 'film 4, picture 3'. Other information had been blackened, obviously when these pics were send home by post. At least about 80 of them were in an album, giving me hopefully some kind of chronological order.
    Of all this I chose 123 of which I hope they might find some interest here. I tried to arrange them in a time line as far as possible, but I am sure I made a lot of mistakes.
    July 15th this year would have been his 100. birthday.

    His military 'career' started in the mid/late 30s when he had finished his apprenticeship as a taylor (he had hated it and later refused to do anything with needles and thread) and as all unemployed young men was transferred to the Reichsarbeitsdienst RAD.
    Here (on the right) a picture of this time together with one of his elder brothers, who already was a 'real' soldier.
    comp_001.jpg

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    Manual Creation Group DerDa's Avatar
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    comp_002.jpg

    The RAD was th Naizs clever idea to get all unemployeds from the streets, keep them busy and at the same time have autobahns build for nothing but food and lodging.
    comp_003.jpg
    This looks very much like the Heidelberg Mainstreet. If you ever read Erica Jongs 'Fear of Flying' you may know that the dignitaries of Heidelberg tried to brownnose Hitler by building a ridiculous 'Germanic' amphitheater up in the hills and inviting him to the opening. He never came and up until today the thing is a nice place for students to do barbecue and get drunk.
    comp_004.jpg

    Besides marching and playing dreadful music
    comp_005.jpg
    they were mainly digging in the dirt, building roads or drying out swamps, thereby destroying thousands of waterlogged archaeological sites.
    comp_006.jpg
    comp_007.jpg
    In 1937 or 1938 he, as all fit youngsters, was transfered from RAD to the army. I hve some postcards of 'Panzer-Abwehr Abteilung 35' This would fit, because this unit was created in the region and later used for the war in the West.
    comp_008.jpg
    Last edited by DerDa; Jan-04-2023 at 14:12.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Up to know all fun and games
    comp_009.jpg
    and exciting high technology
    comp_010.jpg
    And, as we all know, all these weapons were just neccesary to defend the fatherland.
    comp_011.jpg
    comp_012.jpg
    comp_013.jpg
    comp_014.jpg
    comp_015.jpg

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    Manual Creation Group DerDa's Avatar
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    The next three pics must have been taken in winter, so I suppose they are from the 'phoney war' period.
    comp_016.jpg
    comp_017.jpg
    comp_018.jpg

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    And now its getting late and tomorrow morning will come much too soon.
    I will continue tomorrow.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    This looks set to be an incredible thread. Looking forward to seeing this archive. Brilliant and thanks for sharing

    Cheers, MP
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mysticpuma View Post
    This looks set to be an incredible thread. Looking forward to seeing this archive. Brilliant and thanks for sharing
    +100!!

    Is a rare view into the "normal" life of a soldier.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    thanks so much for sharing your part of history : great stuff


    Asus Z390 MB, 32 GB Corsair RAM, 850 W Power Supply, Intel Core i7 9700K GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8 G and about a dozen squirrels running on a wheel that I sometimes forget to feed !

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Thanks DerDa - looking fwd to some more unique photos whenever you get the time to do some more.

    Ezzie

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Thank you for sharing DerDa, please keep them coming
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Thank you very much indeed for all the 'likes' you clicked.
    So let's continue the story. Trees got green and the war no longer phoney:
    comp_019.jpg

    A break after harvest
    comp_020.jpg

    Here a picture of Gien (Loiret), or what Luftwaffe left over from this beautiful town.
    comp_021.jpg
    15th of June 1940 the bridge was bombed to cut of french troops from retreat. The resultingfire destroyed most of the historical town.
    comp_022.jpg
    In many history books the war in the West in 1940 is described as something like a walk in the park for the Wehrmacht. Maybe it was for the Generals. For most of the fighting troops it wasn't.
    comp_023.jpg
    Especially the troops of Rommel who owned his fame there suffered the heaviest casualties. Also this is at Gien.
    comp_024.jpg

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    It seems my father was stationed for several weeks at Gien. Enough time to have a rest

    comp_025.jpg
    I wonder what the french boys thought about the drunken 'boches', well I can imagine.
    Maybe here someone high up decided that he would go overseas. In April 1940 the Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 35 had been re-named as Panzerjäger-Abteilung 35. They stayed in France until June 1941 then were sent to the east for operation Barbarossa, where they commited some of the worst crimes of war. But obviously already in 1940 some parts of the troop were chosen to go to Africa. Maybe is why my dad got his master sergaent training in Gien.
    Learning to do what sergeants do:
    comp_026.jpg
    But hiding the grin still needs some practice.
    Combat training:
    comp_027.jpg
    comp_028.jpg
    And 'Training Course Gas':
    comp_029.jpg

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    But Wehrmacht Tours also cared about cultural education.
    Trip to Paris:
    comp_030.jpg
    comp_031.jpg
    comp_032.jpg
    comp_033.jpg
    comp_034.jpg

    On the back of the following picture is written:
    'In der roten Mühle, Paris'
    comp_035.jpg
    Translating literally: 'In the Red Mill, Paris' better known as the Moulin Rouge.
    Daddy, Daddy what did you do there?

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by DerDa View Post
    Translating literally: 'In the Red Mill, Paris' better known as the Moulin Rouge.
    Daddy, Daddy what did you do there?
    Wonder how the dancers felt!

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Already in summer or early autumn the unit (I no lnger know which one) was transferred to the coast. On the pictures the place is called Home sur Mer if I read it correctly. Did not find the place on a map.
    comp_039.jpg
    and further trained. I don't know whether for 'Sea Lion' or already for Africa.
    comp_041.jpg
    Testing british machine guns, most probably left at Dunkirk:
    comp_040.jpg
    Flamethrower trainig (maybe already earlier at Grien):
    comp_042.jpg
    And a lot of shipping training:
    comp_045.jpg
    comp_044.jpg
    comp_043.jpg
    Inspection by a General Jansen:
    comp_046.jpg

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by DerDa View Post
    Testing british machine guns, most probably left at Dunkirk:
    comp_040.jpg
    That's not a British Bren which I assume you meant, but a Czech zb26, adopted into the Wehrmacht as the MG26(t) after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. It is a direct ancestor of the Bren design though.

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    Combat pilot \Hawk/'s Avatar
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    DerDa thank you so much for sharing these personal photographs.
    It is totally amazing to see through the eyes of a soldier from the ground up.

    Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk


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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by SoW Reddog View Post
    That's not a British Bren which I assume you meant, but a Czech zb26, adopted into the Wehrmacht as the MG26(t) after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. It is a direct ancestor of the Bren design though.
    Well I have no idea at all about this kind of weapon. It's just written on the back of the picture:
    'Scharfschießen mit engl. MG bei Home s/ Mer'
    ('Sharp shooting with engl. MG near Home s/ Mer')
    that's all I know.
    But please, if you have comments, questions, information whatever about these pictures feel free to discuss them here. I can only learn more by this. For example I dearly would like to know where this Home sur Mer is.

    Cheers


    DerDa

    PS: Tomorrow we'll go to the med.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by DerDa View Post
    For example I dearly would like to know where this Home sur Mer is.
    I think this is a mis-spelling of an actual French seaside town. There are dozens of towns with "...sur Mer", or 'by the sea', in their names.

    Anyway it is obviously a town on the French coast opposite to where the invasion areas were to be in southern England. And the soldiers are training for Unternehmen Seelöwe.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Sorry DerDa, should have said this thread is awesome and the pictures are very clear and interesting.

    Maybe the lmg was taken from the British then, I'm not aware of us deploying any but then I'm not an expert.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Hi DerDa....got to say...these pictures are truly amazing....a real treasure trove!

    They are not the sort of photo's you find in a history book because they are so personal! It is so lucky, too, that they have survived, there are so many of them and that they can be sorted into some sort of chronological order. Fantastic!
    Thanks for sharing and I look forward to visiting the Med with your Dad.

    Salute!

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by SoW Reddog View Post
    Sorry DerDa, should have said this thread is awesome and the pictures are very clear and interesting.

    Maybe the lmg was taken from the British then, I'm not aware of us deploying any but then I'm not an expert.
    No need to apologize at all.
    As I said: I realised how desperately little I know and all comments help me to learn a bit more.

    @Buzzsaw
    Most probably you are right about a misspelling (or my inability to decipher the handwriting).
    The curious thing is that this is one of the very few placenames that turn up, and amongst them it is one of the most frequent. Also the unit seems to have spent quite some time there.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Wonderful pieces of history, thanks for sharing!

    Quote Originally Posted by DerDa View Post
    His military 'career' started in the mid/late 30s when he had finished his apprenticeship as a taylor (he had hated it and later refused to do anything with needles and thread) and as all unemployed young men was transferred to the Reichsarbeitsdienst RAD.
    Here (on the right) a picture of this time together with one of his elder brothers, who already was a 'real' soldier.
    comp_001.jpg
    Just to throw the cat among the pigeons, the uniform on the left (your uncle?) looks decidedly like that of Luftwaffe issue, for a Gefreiter or Unterfeldwebel (2 guill wings and shoulder epaulets)
    http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/image.php?type=sigpic&userid=4036&dateline=1382347  940

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by DerDa View Post
    Well I have no idea at all about this kind of weapon. It's just written on the back of the picture:
    'Scharfschießen mit engl. MG bei Home s/ Mer'
    ('Sharp shooting with engl. MG near Home s/ Mer')
    that's all I know.
    But please, if you have comments, questions, information whatever about these pictures feel free to discuss them here. I can only learn more by this. For example I dearly would like to know where this Home sur Mer is.

    Cheers


    DerDa

    PS: Tomorrow we'll go to the med.
    Quote Originally Posted by SoW Reddog View Post
    That's not a British Bren which I assume you meant, but a Czech zb26, adopted into the Wehrmacht as the MG26(t) after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. It is a direct ancestor of the Bren design though.
    It doesn't really even look like a vz 26. Look at the big box thing underneath the magazine, and the forwards location of the bipod. A quick google shows most pictures show the bipod further back, and no box underneath it . . .

    Could just be an odd modification or variant. Definetley not a Bren though.

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by ATAG_Flare View Post
    A quick google shows most pictures show the bipod further back, and no box underneath it . . .
    however... a lot of info has been changed on google since the 40's.

    for one thing that lady on the switchboard... Cortana... she used to be called Vera

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by ATAG_Flare View Post
    It doesn't really even look like a vz 26. Look at the big box thing underneath the magazine, and the forwards location of the bipod. A quick google shows most pictures show the bipod further back, and no box underneath it . . .

    Could just be an odd modification or variant. Definetley not a Bren though.
    Good spot. I actually hadn't looked at it that closely, forgetting I could enlarge the image. I also assumed the bipod was a clip affair and could be relocated anywhere along the gas tube.

    On further inspection I believe it's a captured french MAC 1924/29 as seen here http://world.guns.ru/machine/fr/mac-m1924-e.html and

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_2...ht_machine_gun

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vlerkies View Post
    Just to throw the cat among the pigeons, the uniform on the left (your uncle?) looks decidedly like that of Luftwaffe issue, for a Gefreiter or Unterfeldwebel (2 guill wings and shoulder epaulets)
    Jes, that was my uncle, believe it or not, Fritz. The second of three brothers, my Dad was the youngest.
    What I know about them during WW II goes close to zero. He might well have been in the Luftwaffe, but certainly not as a pilot. He was the one in the family, who took things easy. Let's just say I would not need to ask what he would have done in the Moulin Rouge.
    I just know that in spring 1945 the two brothers managed to meet somewhere in Bavaria and surrendered themselves to the Americans. Fritz very soon made friends with American officers (and their wifes, when they came to join their husbands). He very soon got released and worked as a driver for said officers (and their wifes). He stayed down there in Bavaria, even adopting their horrific dialect and opened a driving school.
    The oldest, Kurt, was in the east. He also survived.

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  33. #28
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    Re: Pics from the War.

    It's getting interesting about these machine guns.
    What about the bigger gun on the other picture?
    I have two more photographs of the same thing that I could not fit into the timeline.
    Here they are anyway:
    comp_121.jpg
    comp_122.jpg

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    Almost looks like a Solothurn

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    Re: Pics from the War.

    The Kompanie had their christmas celebration still in northern France.
    comp_036.jpg
    comp_037.jpg
    But in spring they were moved to Italy.
    Here 'Trip to Sorrent'
    comp_049.jpg
    Now here is something that surprised me:
    This picture shows on the back:
    'Neapel. M. erste Betretung des Schiffes' (strange kind of expression by the way, translating to: 'Naples. My first entering the ship')
    comp_047.jpg
    But from Naples they did not go directly to Africa, but just to Sicily for a while. The next pictures caption reads 'Messina, (Sizilien) am 29. 4. 41'
    comp_048.jpg
    They must have stayed quite some time, because they made trips to a lot of sight seeing places or just the beach
    comp_050.jpg
    The great big world for a village boy. He must have loved it and felt really well there. In the sixties he dragged the whole family to Italy, whenever we could afford it and a car was available. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of puking on St. Gotthardt.
    They even made tours back to the mainland:
    'Marsch zur Fähre, Aufflug Messina'
    (Marching to the ferry, trip to Messina)
    comp_051.jpg
    This is some official place showing on several pictures:
    comp_052.jpg
    At least for some time they camped on the beach
    comp_053.jpg
    and made preparations for shipping:
    'My carpenters at work. Catania May 41'
    comp_054.jpg

    Remember those boxes ...

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