Photos WW2 German Forces

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December 13, 1939: Damage to the Admiral Graf Spee after the Battle of the River Plate

 

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WWII. Battle of France. 10 May – 25 June 1940. German soldiers using the Flammenwerfer 35 attack a French bunker on the Maginot Line.

 

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Italian tanks in use by the Wehrmacht.

 

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The famed Desert Fox Erwin Rommel next to a captured US made M3 Half Track with motorcade in North Africa during WW2.

During the initial battles American forces were inexperienced against German troops and were quickly wiped out from blitzkrieg tactics such as at Kasserine Pass where the Army 1st Infantry was defeated.

 

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A Hornisse / Nashorn 88mm tank-destroyer KO'd by Allied forces during the assault on the Gothic Line, Italy, September 1944.
The fresh graves in the foreground were probably dug for its crew?
The Nashorn mounted the very powerful 88mm PaK 43/1 anti-tank gun in an open superstructure on a chassis which utilised components from the Panzer IV.

 

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WWII. Eastern Front. Summer 1941. German Generals Heinz Guderian and Hermann Hoth.

 

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WWII. A German Panzer IV Ausf. F2 in action somewhere on the Eastern Front.

 

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Tunis fell to the Allies on May 7th, 1943.
Thus ended the war in North Africa.
Approximately 250,000 Axis troops were "in the bag"... a number comparable with Axis losses in Stalingrad.
Here are just a few of those prisoners. In the Kfz.15 Horch field car a group of Afrika Korps officers and in the background, on foot, a line of Italian troops.
Note the large balkankreuz painted on the hood of the Horch for the purposes of aerial recognition, rather than the usual draped Nazi flag.
(IWM)

 

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Unpublished recordings by Field Marshal Günther von Kluge in Russia, 1941 / Source MM zu Hartum
The professional black and white photos were taken in the summer of 1941 in the Minsk area.
In action on the Eastern Front from June 1941, von Kluge's 4th Army played a key role in the battles of Bialystok and Minsk, Smolensk and Vyazma, and proved itself excellently in the heavy winter defensive battles off Moscow in December 1941.
Because of the suspected involvement of Kluges in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, the Field Marshal General committed suicide on August 19, 1944. An important defensive strategist of the German Wehrmacht, an intelligent military leader and a talented tactician was dead.

 

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Tiger 1 "131" soon after its capture in May 1943....and 77 years later in August 2020.

 

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WWII. Russia. Battle of Kursk. 5 July – 23 August 1943. German Panzer IV's on the move.

 

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Field repairs of the Tiger 1 were extremely difficult. Its suspension system consisted of interleaved roadwheels mounted on axles attached to torsion bars, along with a drive sprocket and idler wheel over which traveled the track.
A broken torsion bar for example may mean the removal of up to 9 roadwheels each side (18 in total) simply to gain access.
The Tiger 1 had a total of 16 torsion bars, with 8 bars running transversely through the hull on each side of the tank, being anchored in a socket type housing on the opposite side. The torsion bars were 5 feet 4.75 inches long (1644.6mm) and either 55 or 58mm in diameter with splined ends. On the outer end of each torsion bar was a swing arm and on the end of each swing arm was the axle.

Torsion bars being inserted through the hull during assembly.
Note the swingarms waiting to receive the roadwheels

 

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'Enigma' machine used in the communications room of a German troop train . The Enigma machine is on the left. 1940s.

 

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Balkans campaign 'Operation Marita' from 6 April 1941 - 30 April 1941.
German motorcycle troops advancing along the railway line after the break through the Servia and Olympus mountain passes to the south (Thessalia) c. 18 April 1941 (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

 

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Admiral Graf Spee in flames after being scuttled in the River Plate Estuary off Montevideo, Uruguay. December 1939

 

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Disabled SdKfz 231, Saint-lô, Normandy. 29 july 1944.

 

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Invasion of Poland September 1939. German cavalry detachment.