Funeral of Gauleiter Alfred Meyer

Nazi party member holds a wreath of SA-Obergruppenführer Alfred Meyer, who was the Gauleiter of the North Westphalian District and the General of the Sturmabteilung (Stormtroopers). Meyer was found dead on 11 April 1945, by the River Weser. The cause of death was suicide, most likely prompted by Germany's impending defeat in the war. By the time of his death, he was a State Secretary and Deputy Reichsminister in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die Besetzten Ostgebiete or Ostministerium).

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Meyer
https://twitter.com/atakiguchi/status/1711226010023411989/photo/1

German Soldiers Visiting Cemetery in Channel Islands

Channel Islands, German officers visiting the graveyard of their comrades, circa 1940. The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two island countries and British Crown dependencies in the English Channel, near the coast of Normandy. The Channel Islands were the only de jure part of the British Empire to be occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. However, Germany's allies, Italy and Japan also occupied British territories in Africa and Asia, respectively. Anticipating a swift victory over Britain, the occupying German forces initially experimented by using a moderate approach to the non-Jewish population, supported by local collaborators. However, as time progressed the situation grew gradually worse and ended in near starvation for both occupied and occupiers during the winter of 1944-45. Armed resistance by islanders to the German occupation was nearly non-existent. Many islanders were employed by the Germans, and Germany imported thousands of captive workers to build extensive defensive works on the islands. Island leaders maintained some authority, independence, and freedom of decision from the German occupiers.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands
https://forum.axishistory.com/index.php

Funeral of General Hans Kamecke

Funeral of Generalleutnant Hans Kamecke, the second commander of 137. Infanterie-Division, who was severely wounded in the battle against the Red Army at Ostrowy / Lojew, Belarus, on 15 October 1943. He then died because of his wounds in the field hospital near Kolpen the next day, 16 October 1943. Kamecke would posthumously awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 27 October 1943.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/ww2soldiers/posts/funeral-of-lieutenant-general-hans-kamecke-the-second-commander-of-the-137th-inf/2596754230582882/

Burial of Russian Civilian

Funeral of a Russian civilian. The body was taken from the coffin and placed in a blanket of the earth. The picture was taken by an unknown German photographer in the period of 1941-1943.

Source :
Bundesarchiv Bild 169-0339

Wreckage of Ju 52 and Fallschirmjäger Graves

The wreck of a crash-landed Junkers Ju 52 on the Maleme airfield with the grave of two Fallschirmjäger. At 08:00 on 20 May 1941, German paratroopers, jumping out of dozens of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft, landed near Maleme Airfield and the town of Chania. The 21st, 22nd and 23rd New Zealand battalions held Maleme Airfield and the vicinity. The Germans suffered many casualties in the first hours of the invasion: a company of III Battalion, 1st Assault Regiment lost 112 killed out of 126 men, and 400 of 600 men in III Battalion were killed on the first day. Most of the parachutists were engaged by New Zealanders defending the airfield and by Greek forces near Chania. Many gliders following the paratroops were hit by mortar fire seconds after landing, and the New Zealand and Greek defenders almost annihilated the glider troops who landed safely. Some paratroopers and gliders missed their objectives near both airfields and set up defensive positions to the west of Maleme Airfield and in "Prison Valley" near Chania. Both forces were contained and failed to take the airfields, but the defenders had to deploy to face them. Towards the evening of 20 May, the Germans slowly pushed the New Zealanders back from Hill 107, which overlooked the airfield.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Crete

President Franklin Roosevelt Funeral

President Franklin Roosevelt’s casket proceeds down Constitution Avenue toward the White House during his funeral procession on April 14, 1945.

The death of President Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, took the world wholly by surprise. Although those close to him had feared that since his reelection campaign that his time was near, the public was not aware of the seriousness of his condition even though photographs from Yalta showed his physical deterioration. The president secretly left for the Yalta Conference after his inauguration on January 20 and later reported on that trip in a speech to Congress on March 1. Legislators were shocked by his worn and frail appearance. Six weeks later President Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia.

The Ferdinand Magellan train returned the president to Washington on April 14 and his coffin was carried on a caisson in a military procession from Union Station to the White House. At least a 500,000 people watched silently in the hot April sun. The coffin was brought into the East Room where it would remain for about five hours. Hundreds of mourners gathered in the East Room where he lay in state. Thousands more gathered outside along the iron fences. After a simple funeral service the caisson returned to Union Station and the coffin was placed aboard a train to be taken for burial at Hyde Park, New York.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration 80-G-K-3997
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/franklin-d-roosevelt-funeral

Grave of Alois Hitler, Hitler's Father

 

 

Grave of Alois Hitler, Adolf's father in the Leonding cemetery, Austria, 1938. Photos by Hugo Jaeger.

Alois Hitler Sr. (born Alois Schicklgruber; 7 June 1837 - 3 January 1903) was an Austrian civil servant and the father of the dictator of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler. Alois Hitler was born illegitimately, and his paternity was never established. This led to claims that his wife Klara (Adolf's mother) may have been his cousin. It also meant that Adolf Hitler could not prove who his grandfather was and thus prove his own "Aryan descent". When Alois was promoted in the Customs service, he applied to be legitimised in the name of his stepfather Hiedler, which was entered in the register as 'Hitler', for unknown reasons.

In February 1895, Alois Hitler purchased a house on a 3.6-hectare (9-acre) plot in Hafeld near Lambach, approximately 50 kilometres (30 mi) southwest of Linz. The farm was called the Rauscher Gut. He moved his family to the farm and retired on 25 June 1895 at the age of 58, after 40 years in the customs service. He found farming difficult; he lost money, and the value of the property declined.

On the morning of 3 January 1903, Alois went to the Gasthaus Wiesinger (no. 1 Michaelsbergstrasse, Leonding) as usual to drink his morning glass of wine. He was offered the newspaper and promptly collapsed. He was taken to an adjoining room and a doctor was summoned, but he died at the inn, probably from a pleural hemorrhage. Adolf Hitler, who was 13 when his father died, wrote in Mein Kampf that he died of a "stroke of apoplexy". In his book, The Young Hitler I Knew, Hitler's childhood friend August Kubizek recalled, "When the fourteen-year-old son saw his dead father he burst out into uncontrollable weeping."

On 28 March 2012, by the account of Kurt Pittertschatscher, the pastor of the parish, the tombstone marking Alois Hitler's grave and that of his wife Klara, in Town Cemetery in Leonding, was removed by a descendant. The descendant is said to be an elderly female relative of Alois Hitler's first wife, Anna, who has also given up any rights to the rented burial plot. The plot was covered in white gravel and a tree which has since been removed. It is not known whether the remains of Adolf Hitler's parents are still interred there.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Hitler?fbclid=IwAR1N_77NDrlQcUmdbhaU-Rkf7mY--krsa6D3rSOTTjA73UwlHRBjhqm2jwc
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1636903149828435/?__cft__[0]=AZU5q1b3O7oRHekJaIminlikQ6YJGb5IrYgRf9Uw-Hm9dPwhhc8eB5FCshZjIT7AelUXxp62dnsdtkAXMiXzvHV9zehH56-8nVcMvPzZLzcfflaR0c8RhsBiaIVbvc228Jt67CsBLo_5HXYS6g3qKaG9yRZLQRc-30LNcisWAWc8CmbrOf12BPiYNq6R9p_q2mI&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Graves of German Fallschirmjäger at Crete

 

Balkans, Greece, Corinth.- War cemetery for fallen German Paratroopers who were killed at Operation Merkur (1941). The picture was taken in 1942. / Source Theodor Scheerer's estate.

 

The Battle of Crete was fought during the World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began in the morning of May 20th 1941, when Nazi Germany activated the airborne invasion of Crete. Greek forces and other Allied forces, along with the people of Crete, defended the island. After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered appalling casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation and German offensive operations, Maleme Airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north-west of the island. After a few more days of fighting, Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance. The defense of Crete evolved into a costly naval engagement, the Royal Navy’s eastern Mediterranean strength had been reduced to only two battleships and three cruisers.

The Battle of Crete was the first occasion where Fallschirmjäger (German paratroops) were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from decrypted German messages from the Enigma machine, and the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. Due to the number of casualties and the belief that airborne forces no longer had the advantage of surprise, Adolf Hitler became reluctant to authorize further large airborne operations, preferring instead to employ paratroopers as ground troops. In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form airborne-assault and airfield-defense regiments.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1631273513724732/?__cft__[0]=AZVsjirq_HR7Tg37ZG0IklLD7zsQK5ggx5UqFU8id3GCH6HCkYfBZjCM8cxBw_-3l2kTAtJCUqXHoFiq_E6w9al6qiYzQ7nxY-Ovi0oIW3X43ydkkfObGzjluNLs0wquHafE6OGt9GCpYjEuLgFdSSXbTeyisKKbtlLnR6z2Vv5tOfk9rG89stSQeDFPl_Uqmz4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Generalmajor Friedrich Heyl

Generalmajor Friedrich Heyl in the funeral procession of NSKK-Korpsführer Adolf Hühnlein, 21 June 1942.

Friedrich Heyl (26 August 1881 - 24 December 1957) was born in Bayreuth in 1881. He joined up the Army in July 1900 and attained officer rank in the artillery in March 1902. He was an Oberleutnant and battery commander at the start of World War I and was promoted to Hauptmann in December 1914. He was later a brigade adjutant and a battalion commander before joining the general staff. He ended the war as IIa of an army. Heyl was selected for the Reichsheer and commanded a mortar company before assignment as a mortar instructor. He was promoted to the rank of Major in February 1924 and retired as an Oberstleutnant in April 1929. In October 1933 Heyl returned to the army as a staff officer at Wehrkreis VII. He was promoted to Oberst in October 1936 when he assumed command of Wehrbezirkskommando München IV. The following month he transferred to head Wehrbezirkskommando München II and he remained there until his retirement at the end of August 1943. He was promoted to Generalmajor rank on 1 October 1941. Friedrich Heyl died in Munich on Christmas Eve 1957.

 

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=228524&hilit=friedrich+Heyl
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalmajor/HEYL_FRIEDRICH.html
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/hugo-jaeger?family=editorial&phrase=hugo%20jaeger&sort=mostpopular#license

OT (Organisation Todt) in Norway

These pictures showing the activity of Organisation Todt (OT) in the occupied Norway. They were made by photographer Franz Guthausen.

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1076685392516883/

Wehrmacht Funeral on the Eastern Front

After the first major German losses in the Eastern Front in 1941, divisional cemeteries were set up behind the front lines. Here the dead were brought for burial, with the Divisionskommandeur and other officers attending to pay their respects. A total of 2.7 million German soldiers died on the Eastern Front, and 1.4 million German civilians were killed. These numbers are dwarfed by the 11.4 million missing and killed Soviet soldiers, including 3.5 million prisoners of war who died in captivity. Soviet civilian losses were even higher at 15.2 million. One can justifiably describe the German-Soviet war as the bloodiest war in history!

Source :

"The Onslaught: The German Drive to Stalingrad Documented in 150 Unpublished Colour Photographs" by Max Hastings

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-to-open-last-wwii-war-cemetery-in-russia-a-914093.html

German Soldier Lay Flowers in the Military Cemetery

German Kriegsberichter (war correspondent) from Kriegsmarine, Horst Grund, honors a fallen comrade on the Soldatenfriedhof (military cemetery) at Gadshikov on the Crimea peninsula/Ukraine in summer of 1942. "And I will show you the field where the Iron Crosses grow..." (quote from the movie 'Cross of Iron'). On 4 July 1942, German troops captured the Russian port of Sevastopol. The Soviet Separate Coastal Army was annihilated, with 118,000 men killed, wounded or captured in the final assault and 200,481 casualties in the siege as a whole for both it and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. Axis losses in Störfang amounted to 35,866 men, of which 27,412 were German and 8,454 Romanian. With the Soviet forces neutralized, the Axis refocused their attention on the major summer campaign of that year, Case Blue and their advance to the Caucasus oilfields.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sevastopol_(1941%E2%80%9342)
http://www.ww2incolor.com/german/_n_1603_bild-261_501x0_0_22.html

The State Funeral of Hugo Bruckmann

The state funeral of Hugo Bruckmann (13 October 1863 - 3 September 1941) which was held in Münich, 6 September 1941. Bruckmann and his wife Elsa Bruckmann were among the early and highly influential promoters of Adolf Hitler, and they helped him with gaining access to, and acceptance within, upper-class circles in Münich. Just behind the woman in black veil (sitting third from right) is SS-Brigadeführer Leopold Gutterer (Staatssekretär im Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda), while the back row behind Gutterer were, from left to right: SS-Brigadeführer Anton Vogler, SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich "Karl" Freiherr von Eberstein, two unknown Heer generals, SS-Brigadeführer Hans Dauser, SA-Obergruppenführer Ludwig Siebert, SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Fiehler (his head is shown under an outstreched hand behind Gutterer), Reichsstatthalter Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp (wearing brown party uniform), and SA-Obergruppenführer Hans-Georg Hofmann

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Bruckmann
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=183350&hilit=anton+vogler

The Grave of Hauptmann Erwin Aichele

It was a standard practice for markers to be placed at a crash site when a successful or experienced pilot was killed. These markers often consisted of a propeller blade and spinner. This photograph shows the grave of Hauptmann Erwin Aichele of Stab I.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51) who was killed on 29 July 1940 during operations over the English Channel. Aichele's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 was damaged in combat and he was forced to make an emergency landing on the coast in Calais area. The aircraft overturned and he was killed. At 39 years of age, Aichele was one of the oldest German fighter pilots.

Source :
Magazine "Luftwaffe im Focus Spezial" No.1 2003

Men of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 Erect Temporary Grave Crosses for the Dead

Men of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" erect temporary grave crosses for SS-Oberscharfuhrer Helmut Belke along the walls of Abbaye d'Ardenne (Ardenne Abbey) during the first days of the Normandy Invasion. Those who fell were generally buried first at site in the blood-drenched soil of Normandy. During the few pauses in the battle, members of the division cared for the graves of their fallen comrades. Belke himself was the driver for the Regimentskommandeur, SS-Standartenführer Kurt "Panzermeyer" Meyer. He was killed in action in the attack on Bretteville on June 9, 1944. As you can see the soldier on the left is wearing Italian camo (M1929, "telo mimetico"), the right one has a smock in Rauchtarn-Muster (blurred edge, spring version). Photo by Propaganda-Kompanie photographer (SS-PK) Wilfried Woscidlo

Source :
https://knightsandsteel.wordpress.com/

The German Pilots of the Bombers Heinkel He-111 and Symbolic Funeral

It is extremely unusual photograph of World War II in color. The German pilots of the bombers Heinkel He-111 and symbolic funeral. At a coffin inscription in German: “Dein leben – dein gewinn” – your life – your reward. And “mich auch” – for me, too. Picture was taken by Siegfried Lauterwasser at Tatsinskaya airfield (Stalingrad), fall of 1942

Source:
http://albumwar2.com/he-111-pilots-and-symbolic-funeral/