FRONTLINE PHOTOS OF GERMAN SOLDIERS

[sebastian]

very nice pics indeed,thx for sharing

[Domen123]

Thx, Klaus_Arzt .

No, only the first one (the one from Zakroczym) and the one with "ausgebrannte" armoured cars from 20. Aufklarungs Abteilung are, the rest are either from ebay.de (old auction with photo album of Infanterie-Regiment 76.) or Historical Media or Polish forum odkrywca (where people post historical photos found in the net / in history books / albums or from their own collections).

There is also a very nice thread in forum odkrywca with photos taken during Polenfeldzug by Polish soldiers - I also posted some photos there:

http://www.odkrywca.pl/wrzesien-1939-w- ... tml#190415

For example this one (from my post 2009-01-18 20:09:29) was taken during street combats in Łęczyca - on 9th of September 1939 - during the Polish offensive at the Bzura:



69. Infantry Regiment:



OK - enough - let's come back to frontline photos of German soldiers :

But one more Polish photo at the beginning:

Wounded German soldier in Polish captivity:



PS - the majority of photos taken by Polish soldiers during the Polish Campaign, were later captured either by the Germans or by the Soviets.

Those photos were captured by the Germans mainly because they very often did not respect the 4th one of their "10 Gebote für die Kriegsführung des deutschen Soldaten":

"4. Kriegsgefangene dürfen nicht mißhandelt oder beleidigt werden. Waffen, Pläne und Aufzeichnungen sind abzunehmen. Von ihrer Habe darf sonst nichts weggenommen werden."

Most probably the majority of Polish frontline photos captured by the Germans / Soviets (for example the ones which were showing destroyed German or Soviet tanks / captured German or Soviet POWs, etc.) were destroyed. But - fortunately - at least some of them were developed. In many cases probably we don't even know that a particular photo from the Polish Campaign which we found in some German or Soviet source and we are looking at, was in fact taken by the Poles .

[Domen123]

One more Polish photo - Polenfeldzug 1939 - observation outpost of Polish 10. Motorized Brigade during combat with German Panzer Korps:



And now a very unique frontline photo taken by the Germans in Poland in 1939 - it is said to be showing a unit of Selbschutz (Selbschutz was part of so called "V Column") acting in southern part of Greater Poland (former Provinz Posen when it was under Prussian occupation) - Polenfeldzug 1939:

[Domen123]

Some frontline photos of German soldiers - Polenfeldzug:

"Polen 06.09.1939 Kloster der schwarzen Madonna":







"We are changing side and joining the Polish army and the Polish circus!":



Fortunately love is stronger than war:



"Hey!, shoot me in the ass!":



- "Hello, Russian comrade! What a crappy tank, where the hell did you get this @#%?! Our Panzer Is are far better!":



"They ordered me to smile to you, but wait a bit - we will see in 1941, June!":





One place in 1939 (church can be seen in the distance) - we can see German soldiers during combat:



And here the same place - the same church - today:



This is the church in Bojszowy - and those soldiers are soldiers of 5. Panzer-Division who were attacking there on 2nd of September - the area was defended by Polish II. battalion of 73. Infantry Regiment.

The Germans attacked at 14:00.

The Polish battalion was heavily outnumbered (like 10:1 in soldiers, in firepower - even much more) and had got support of only 1 howitzer.

The German soldiers - commanded by Oberst Schuckelt - didn't manage to break the Polish resistance - and lost their only chance for operational succes yet on the second day of war.

The Poles resisted them until the evening (until 21:00 - when the Germans finally stopped their actions) and during the night succesfully withdrawed, destroying the only bridge on the river Gostynka behind them - that is why the Germans could not cross this river for the long time since that moment.

If they had won, they would have been able to cross the river on 2nd of September and they could have even encircled the whole Army "Cracow" - or at least part of it. But they didn't manage to do this and Army "Cracow" was fighting untill 21st of September 1939.

German soldier captured by 10. Motorized Brigade - Polenfeldzug 1939:



Warsaw:



German pilots in Polish captivity:



Group of German POWs captured in Praga district (Warsaw):

[Domen123]

- "Reverse or tails? If reverse, Lithuania is ours and lands between Vistula and Bug are yours. If tails, lands between Vistula and Bug are ours and Lithuania is yours."

- "OK."

[Klaus_Arzt]

thx a lot for this info and for pics, you're seriously interested in Polish campaign 1939, i guess you know everything about it(such a rare material, texts and above all photos - it's always interesting), respect!
and thanks for the link but i'm afraid i'll be able to check it a lil bit later
All the best

[Klaus_Arzt]

about the last photo - great caption

[phylo_roadking]

"It's a text from Uncle Adi - "Don't take any wooden roubles""

[Klaus_Arzt]

I wanted to post some pics and than this emerged - 'Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached' - why can't i post any photos???? Can someone explain please?

[phylo_roadking]

Klaus, jason's looking into that issue now. In the meantime, you can use the "old" way of posting up pics - put them in a Photobucket or Imageshack account, then import the link to them and surround with the Img image markers.

[Klaus_Arzt]

Thanks phylo_roadking, i hope my problem will be solved soon.

[Klaus_Arzt]

still the same situation

[Domen123]

By the way:



Polish soldier who is staying second from the left, do not cast a shadow .

Vampire or trick photography?

[Klaus_Arzt]

difficult to say, may be the sun is shining right over him?

[Fish]

Guys, just thought I'd chime in here, In the last large group of photos, the photo with 2 russians and a german panzer officer holding a small piece of paper. That panzer officer is Hptm Ottens of Panzer Regiment 8 (10th Pzr Div). Its from a pretty popular set of photos taken on the Bug at Brest-Litovsk in 1939 when the Russians and Germans linked up.

Just thought some of you might like to know.

Cheers
Fish