PzBefw.III of Oberst Richard Koll at the Battle of Vyazma

Image size: 1600 x 1402 pixel. 362 KB
Date: Thursday, 2 October 1941
Place: Vyazma, Smolensk Oblast, Soviet Union
Photographer: Helmut Ritgen

Photographed by Helmut Ritgen on 2 October 1941, during the breakthrough by Panzer-Brigade Koll north of Vyazma : the brigade commander's Panzerbefehlswagen III, with the white turret code 'RO6', on a typical Russian dirt road or 'rollbahn'. In front of it, a column of Phänomen Granit 25H ambulances; to the right, Soviet prisoners; and in the background, smoke rising from an oil dump bombed by German stukas. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, Vyazma became a battlefield between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht during the Battle of Moscow. It became the centre of a Red Army pocket after it was encircled by the 3rd and 4th Panzer armies. Vyazma was occupied by the German army between October 7, 1941 and March 12, 1943.

Source:

Helmut Ritgen photo collection
Book "The 6th Panzer Division: 1937-45" by Oberst a.D. Helmut Ritgen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyazma