German Soldier with a Cat

Cats unburden all the stress we have... A Nachrichten-unteroffizier from 225. Infanterie-Division. The picture was taken on Northern Russia.

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220570510326210&set=gm.1427743760744376&type=3&theater&ifg=1

The photographer Franz Grasser posed as a Wehrmacht soldier with a machine gun in a foxhole. The picture was taken in the Russian front, 1943-1944.

Source :
http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/89006233

A Swiss Army Sergeant Firing with MG

Heavy infantry weapons of the Swiss army in 1940, photo by Theodor Strübin. A sergeant (Wachtmeister) firing with the M25 light machine gun. In addition to the target made of grass bricks, there is also a replacement barrel with a leather case and replacement magazines. Picture before 1943 (smooth green steel helmet).

Source :
Tobi Moll photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=235325211069644&set=gm.1424037791114973&type=3&theater&ifg=1
https://www.kimweb.ch/sammlungen/objekt/f6f93ac8-40de-3398-aaa3-da8d41a6635f

Red Army Victory Parade in 1945

The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 (Russian: Парад Победы, tr. Parad Pobedy) was a victory parade held by the Soviet Armed Forces (with the Color Guard Company representing the First Polish Army) after the defeat of Nazi Germany. This, the longest and largest military parade ever held on Red Square in the Soviet capital Moscow, involved 40,000 Red Army soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and other military hardware. The parade lasted just over two hours on a rainy June 24, 1945, over a month after May 9, the day of Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders. Despite 800 000 women serving in the Soviet armed forces, no woman was allowed to march during the parade.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Victory_Parade_of_1945
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCWVM5bUZmE

Pokryshkin, Zhukov and Kozhedub

Three times Hero of the Soviet Union, from left to right: Air Marshal Alexander Pokryshkin, USSR Marshal Georgy Zhukov, and Air Colonel-General Ivan Kozhedub. The picture was taken in Kremlin, 1949.

Source :
Tobi Moll photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=235344477734384&set=gm.1424061501112602&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Wehrmacht Soldiers After the Battle

After a battle.No further details known

Source :
Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart
Franz-Paul Peterka photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2938475636191277&set=gm.1423507071168045&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Soviet Driver with German Car

This wonderful photo was shot with a Contax Carl Zeiss camera on Agfacolor color film, somewhere in Berlin. Germany, 1949. The photo shows the personal driver of the commandant of Berlin, Major General Pyotr Akibovich Dibrov, at the Horch 853A Sport Cabriolet official car.

Source :
Tobi Moll photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=233507697918062&set=gm.1422290471289705&type=3&theater&ifg=1

The First Spitfire Captured by the Germans

The first Spitfire captured by the Germans. On the 15th August 1940 Pilot Officer Richard Hardy's Spitfire mk.1a was damaged in combat and he was forced to land near Cherbourg where it fell into German hands. The damage behind the cockpit occurred when Hardy used his demolition charge to destroy sensitive electronics. Notice the man in the light colored jacket painting a German Balkenkreuz over the the British roundel. As per Jochen Prien in book " Jagdgeschwader 53 " he claims that " ...Oberleutnant Georg Claus brought Spitfire AZ-H to Cherbourg Airfield - He caught it in the midle of Channel , Tommy ( P/O Hardy of 234 SQN RAF ) made off to the south but Oblt. Claus improved each of his turns with a brief burst of tracer fire. So it went all the way to Cherbourg Airfield.There Tommy ( F/O Hardy ) lowered his undercariage and luckily the 20 mm flak failed to hit him (actualy single 20mm shell did hit Spitfire behind cockpit - there is picture in the book ). Then he landed safely and taxied in..." Leutnant Karl Leonhard from 3 staffel JG 53 claims: "...The English pilot slid back the cockpit hood and immediately raised his hands - he obviously expected to be shot at once othervise. He was just as surprised when I asked him to lower his hands and instead to climb out and come to to the pilot's mess to have glass of champagne with pilots of JG 53..." There was a single hit to Spitfire which was caused probably by German flak canon when Spitfire was aproaching landing strip at Cherbourg - just behind cokpit ( page 141-142 of Jagdgeschwader JG53 by Jochen Prien ) There are claims that RAF pilot detonated demolition charge in order to destroy radio IFF system but In my opinion P./O. Richard Hardy had no time. IFF systems were not fitted to Spitfires until September 1940, that damage looks to be a flak damage.

Source :
Filip Seidl photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2808413665924544&set=gm.1421404568044962&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Ritterkreuzträger Martin Hrustak

Oberfeldwebel Martin Hrustak (born October 17, 1913 at Tschechen/Sudetenland), platoon leader in 7th Company/Grenadier-Regiment 162 of the 61st (East Prussian) Infanterie-Division. Knight's Cross awarded December 11, 1943, for distinguishing himself while commanding a Zug of infantry during the Third Battle of Lake Ladoga, near Mga. He and his men repeatedly gave a good account of themselves at the focal points of the fighting; Oakleaves awarded May 14, 1944. During the fighting on the Narva front in February 1944, Oberfeldwebel Hrustak was able to ensure that the Soviet bridgehead at Kriwasoo could be contained. Over the course of several counterthrusts and patrols, he succeeded in preventing the expansion of the bridgehead with the few soldiers available to him and thereby made a decisive contribution towards the holding of the Narva front. Martin Hrustak (nicknamed "Der Kleine" -the small one- since he was of comparatively small size) died on August 18, 1944 in a military hospital at Riga/Latvia of the wounds he received during a successful counter attack on a Soviet AT position the same day. The photo shows Hrustak on the day of the Oakleaves bestowal from Adolf Hitler.

Source :
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/47725/Hrustak-Martin.htm
http://waralbum.ru/361513/

Briefing by a Gebirgsjäger Commander

Briefing by the commander of a Gebirgsjäger company in Italian Front, 1944.

Source :
Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart
Courtesy of Franz-Paul Peterka at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2920081871363987&set=gm.1417480991770653&type=3&theater&ifg=1

MG Squad of SS Wiking Division

MG squad of SS-Infanterie-Division "Wiking" (motorisiert) in a village in the area of ​​Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South), 1942.

Source :
Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart
Courtesy Franz-Paul Peterka at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2928069343898573&set=gm.1420020851516667&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Blackburn Firebrand Aircraft in the Sky

The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the allocation of its Napier Sabre piston engine by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the Hawker Typhoon caused it to be redesigned as a strike fighter to take advantage of its load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953.

Source :
Courtesy of Huseyn Balta at:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1495041680659709&set=gm.1418604498324969&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Escort Carrier "Fly Control" Scene

Escort Carrier "Fly Control" Scene. The aircraft carrier's Air Officer surveys flight deck operations as his "talker" stands by, circa 1944. Note Signalman using a blinker lamp at right and a lookout at work at left. Photographed prior to October 1944.

Source :
US Navy photo
Courtesy of Tobi Moll at:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=230534774882021&set=gm.1418437475008338&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Pre-War Moscow in 1939

Recently, a series of color slides of pre-war Moscow in 1939 was discovered on the University of Wisconsin website. The author of the shooting is an American photographer Harrison Foreman.

Courtesy of Tobi Moll at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/?multi_permalinks=1417889091729843%2C1417733995078686%2C1417730435079042%2C1417856261733126%2C1417754108410008&notif_id=1586869239841471&notif_t=group_activity

Generalmajor Carl Böttcher Wearing Tropical Cap

Generalmajor Carl Böttcher (Kommandeur 21. Panzer-Division) wearing an early model, factory-made, General officers' tropical peaked cap. The soutache and the officers' braid are gold-coloured, and the eyelets green. The ends of the soutache appear to be folded between the base of the cap's brow and its peak.

Source :
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figure-A13-Carl-Boettcher-wearing-an-early-model-1-G-factory-made-General-officers_fig2_334746682