Photos WW2 German Forces

[uktabber]

WOW.........once again, Great Photos--Thanks for sharing them!!

 

[guest0001]

U-111. Shore leave in Lorient!

 

[guest0001]

German tank factories in WW2

 

[guest0001]

 

[guest0001]

 

[guest0001]

Tiger assembly line.

 

[guest0001]

 

[guest0001]

"Hetzer" Production line at the Skoda works in Prague.

 

[guest0001]

Jagdpanther assembly lines.

 

[guest0001]

THE HUNT
North Atlantic
May 13, 1941.
My dads boat, U-111 was on patrol in the North Atlantic and had spotted a freighter. Here is what he told me of this, their first encounter.
“Upon sighting the freighter the order was given.....
“Both engines full speed ahead”.
The diesels roared and I immediately felt the sense of accelerating speed. The rythm of the engines, like the pounding of war drums, put the whole crew into the spirit of the hunter.
Now is your time, U-111, to prove that you are not a ‘pup’ anymore, that you have learned the skill to hunt, to chase......to kill. You know that your strengths are your invisibility and your perseverance. If you are detected you are no longer the hunter. You not only risk losing your prey, but you most likely would become the ‘hunted’ yourself!
So, keep your distance, young wolf.
Don’t lose your prey, and run.........RUN!!!
The plan was to swing out in a wide semi circle and come around in front of the freighter for the attack. The freighter was cruising at a speed about one knot slower than our top speed. Considering the longer distance we had to travel by making this wide arc it took more than half the day at top speed before U-111 reached the “right” position.
Finally, after several hours, it was time to strike!
We were in position.
We fired 2 torpedoes.
One made a direct hit and broke the ship apart.
One of my buddies was sitting beside me in the sound room, a stopwatch in his hand. We had the distance and time calculated. When the 2 “eels” left the boat he pushed the release of the stopwatch. After a few seconds he lowered his headphones and whispered “now!” and an explosion shuddered our boat as if he had triggered this with his word!
There were cheers throughout the boat. Then silence.
For a brief moment, my buddy and I felt a sense of success and triumph.
But then, as he looked over to me, our eyes met for a few seconds,and suddenly the cruel reality of war had touched us. We both felt sick to our stomachs as we realized what had just happened. How many men had just lost their lives. Without a word spoken he left the room.
“Baptism of fire” they call it. They also tell you that”you will get used to it”. None of us ever did.
Afterwards each of us was poured a couple shots of whiskey by the “old man” to help ‘take the edge off’, but each of us would have preferred to drink the whole bottle ourselves
War is destruction and death. War is madness. It is left to each individual to come to peace with god.
Pushing through boiling seas towards our newly assigned position, several mastheads suddenly became visible. We were directly in the path of a large convoy.
ALARM.....!!!
DIVE......!!! DIVE.....!!!

 

[NebrHogger]

Tank factories - all the money, technology, steel and labor needed to make one... it rolls into battle on the Eastern Front to run over a $75 (if that) mine and *poof* junk.

 

[uktabber]

Tank factories - all the money, technology, steel and labor needed to make one... it rolls into battle on the Eastern Front to run over a $75 (if that) mine and *poof* junk.

Yes, what a great observation!! 1,000's of those hulks all over N. Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe, and France and Germany wasted and we haven't even mentioned the U-boats! What a waste!

 

[BravoZulu]

Battle of Berlin in 1945

 

[BravoZulu]

An underground production line, deep inside a salt mine at Magdeburg in 1945. The Heinkel 162 'Volksjäger' (People's Fighter) was a Luftwaffe emergency jet powered aircraft, which did see limited and very brief operational service, in the last weeks of WW 2.

 

[BravoZulu]

A frightened horse (complete with cart) bolts across the Luftwaffe airfield, as a Junkers Ju 52 transport burns. This dramatic photo dates from Russia in 1942/3 and an attacking Soviet bomber (possibly a Tupolev Tu-2) is caught by the German photographer, escaping the scene.

 

[BravoZulu]

Pz IV Ausf H, 1945, Italy

 

[BravoZulu]

24th April 1945, Luneburg, Germany. Heinrich Himmler, caught on the run. The first of the high profile Nazis, to take his own life.

 

[BravoZulu]

April 26, 1945, SS-Gruppenführer Fegelein abandoned his post at the Führerbunker after deciding he did not want to "join a suicide pact". The Reichssicherheitsdienst found him drunk in his Berlin apartment, and was shot for desertion on 28 April 1945.

 

[guest0001]

Comparison shot of the 37mm Pak and 88mm Pak.

 

[BravoZulu]

February 12, 1939. Island of Tenerife, Spain. Heavy cruiser Deutschland takes a brief pause from fleet gunnery exercises. Note Heinkel He 60 reconnaissance seaplane at her stern.