Wehrmacht (German Army): Rare Pictures: Part 21

Arms for the Volksstum. In the later stages of the war. The Volkssturm got very basic and little arms

 APCs from the German 116 Panzer (116.Pz.Div.). In the background - the destroyed remains of an American tank M-10. Area Saint Vith, The Ardennes.

 German soldiers with magnetic mines

A German checks out a captured Russian soldier. In 1941

Men of the Das Reich Division with a captured Soviet banner

Dead German soldiers at Stalingrad

Seems like a massacre occurred here in Stalingrad after the Germans lost the town

Germans examines a French tank. 1940. No wonder France was overrun so easily. I mean the tanks look primitive!

A German ambulance at the Eastern Front in late 1941. A lot of bullet-holes

German propaganda pamphlet in occupied Russia

Hitler visits an armament factory

Arnhem Garrison commander Major-General Kussin was killed by men of the 3rd Parachute Battalion as he sped towards his headquarters. It is alleged that the man was scalped and his decorations torn off by British soldiers

Matthäus Hetzenauer (December 23, 1924 in Tyrol, Austria - October 3, 2004) was a German sniper in the 3rd Mountain Division on the Eastern Front of the World War II, who was credited with 345 kills. His longest confirmed kill was reported at 1100 metres.
Hetzenauer trained as a sniper from March 27 through July 16, 1944, before being assigned to the 3rd Gebirgsjäger Division, issued both a K98 rifle with 6x scope and a Gewehr 43 rifle with 4x scope.
On November 6, 1944, he suffered head trauma from artillery fire, and was awarded the Verwundeten-Abzeichen three days later.
On multiple occasions he served with fellow sniper Josef Allerberger. The two of them killed many Soviet soldiers with speed and ease.
Gefreiter Hetzenauer received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 17 April 1945. Generalleutnant and Divisions commander Paul Klatt had recommended Hetzenauer because of his numerous sniper kills, which in sum defeated two strong enemy companies without fear for his own safety under artillery fire and enemy attacks. This recommendation was approved by General der Gebirgstruppe Karl von Le Suire and General der Panzertruppe Walter Nehring.
Hetzenauer was captured by Soviet troops the following month, and eventually served 5 years of routinely appalling conditions in a Soviet prison camp.
He died on October 3, 2004, after several years of deteriorating health.

A German SS officer with Ukrainian girls

A German assault team prepares to leave for an attack in Stalingrad

Stalingrad again

A shell scooped out a bit of steel from this Tiger tank

A 16 year Volkssturm boy in late 1944

Going to bury a dead comrade

Here is mail!

A car or a boat?

Determined to prepare dinner!

A Russian women gives flowers to German soldiers. Stalin would have foamed at the mouth!

Leningrad is near!

German women give bread to boy soldiers departing for the front

In the last stages of the war a desperate Hitler was sending boys to fight the Soviet army

The industrious Wehramcht used this too for transport!


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Wehrmacht (German Army): Part 20

RAD (German Labor Front)

WHAT WAS RAD?

(Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD), a mandatory national service for all able-bodied citizens of the Third Reich.  Shortly before coming to power in one of his speeches, Hitler promised that he would be able to eradicate unemployment in the country, and the easiest way: first, from the number of unemployed labor battalions will be formed, which then swell the ranks of the armed forces.Act of June 26, 1935 declared labor service compulsory for all German citizens aged 19 to 25 years in the framework of the established Imperial Service Labour.  Twice a year, all young Germans (each group of up to 200 thousand people) were sent to work in labor camps, mostly for agricultural work.  Within 6 months the men worked on farms and fields, while women helped with the housework.

 In the labor camps under the supervision of the Nazi commissars strictest discipline was maintained in accordance with an elaborate statute.

 Hitler considered compulsory labor as a necessary step for a successful program of rearmament of Germany. . According to him, men who shoulder a shovel, will be able to wear and weapons.  In addition, the labor service provided labor market lots of cheap labor and reduced unemployment in the country.  In September 1936 at the Party Congress, Hitler announced that the number of unemployed in the country has fallen from 6 million to 1 million The statement added the Hitler's popularity in a country which for years has been burdened by unemployment.

Later during the war men from RAD were trained to use arms

An Italian soldiers stands guard as the German general walks in

 German infantry assault weapon StuG33B passes by destroyed Katyusha.

 A SS man watches as a Russian tank burns

 Evacuation of the wounded. July 1942

 A German tank trundles on in the Baltics. 1941

Grenadiers Panzer SS Division Totenkopf  during the Battle of Kursk

This man clearly hates the army food

SS men on motorcycles

The Germans take the first steps into Soviet occupied Poland. June 21, 1942

Trouble in Russia

In Kharkov in 1942

German soldiers march towards Paris

The German soldier checks the papers of the Russian woman

Acting against the Warsaw Uprising

Tending to his wounded comrade

German paratroopers in action

He died in the early days of Barbarossa

 Raupenschlepper Ost, literally "Crawling Tractor - East", is more commonly abbreviated to RSO. This fully tracked, lightweight vehicle was conceived in response to the poor performance of wheeled and half-tracked vehicles in the mud and snow during the Wehrmacht's first winter on the Soviet Front. The RSO may have been inspired by very similar full-tracked small tractors in use in other armies, mostly originated from the pre-war light to medium series of Vickers artillery tractors


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