WEHRMACHT: German Soldiers. Rare Images: Part 12

Watchful on the Russian Front. 1942

With a 7.92 mm machine gun MG-13 Dreyse

MORE ABOUT THE MG-13 MACHINEGUN

The MG 13 (shortened from German Maschinengewehr 13) was a German general purpose machine gun obtained by rebuilding a World War I water-cooled machine gun into an air-cooled version.

The MG 13 was introduced into service in 1930, where it served as the standard light machine gun. It was superseded by cheaper, faster firing models: the MG 34 and then later the MG 42. It was officially withdrawn from service in 1934, most of the machine guns sold off to Portugal, who used it into the late 1940s as the Metralhadora Dreyse m/938. Those MG 13s that were not sold were placed into storage instead, and these later saw use in World War II by second line German units.

The MG 13 was designed to work with both a 25 round box magazine and a 75 round saddle drum. It was also equipped with a folding butt stock and a carrying handle. It was also used for the tail gunner's position in the Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber.

In action against Russian tanks

This man is filming the war. Probably from Goebbels' department.

 Inside a Sd.Kfz. 251

WHAT WAS A Sd.Kfz. 251?

The Sd.Kfz. 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was an armored fighting vehicle designed and first built by Nazi Germany's Hanomag company during World War II. The largest, most common, and best armored of the wartime half-tracks, the Sd.Kfz. 251 was designed to transport the panzergrenadiers of the German mechanized infantry corps into battle. Widely known simply as "Hanomags" by both German and Allied forces, they were widely produced throughout the war, with over 15,252 vehicles and variants produced in total by various manufacturers.

Narva, 1944. The exhaustion of the men is evident. It was a losing war.

 German machinegunners in action with a MG-08/15

With a MG-08/18

WHAT WAS A MG-08/18?

An air-cooled and thus water-free and lighter version of the MG08/15, designated as the MG08/18, was battlefield tested in small numbers during the last months of the war. The MG08/18's barrel was heavier but it could not be quick-changed, thus overheating was inevitably a problem. It would take the much later MG34, yet to come, to achieve that indispensable flexibility.

With a MG-08

With a MG-34 mounted on a mobike

Germans take shelter against a destroyed Russian T-34 tank.

German infantry at Stalingrad. Autumn 1942

Paulus and von Zeydlitts-Kurtsbah at Stalingrad. November 1942.

Keitel, Hitler, Speyer. Spring 1943.

A German paratrooper

German machinegunners

21.06.1940. The Germans are rolling out from the museum that same rail-car, in which was signed a truce at the end of  First World War. Which had very humiliating conditions for a defeated Germany. A few days later in the Compiegne Forest in this car the French were made a sign their surrender.

The trenches were very narrow.

 Summer of 1941. German tanks roll into Russia

 Romanian soldiers being sent to Odessa. November 1941


MORE WEHRMACHT IMAGES