Wiking Officers Strolling at Nurzec rail station

 

Image size: 1600 x 1246 pixel. 684 KB
Date: Saturday, 22 July 1944
Place: Nurzec-Stacja, Poland
Photographer: SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann

Three officers of the III.Bataillon / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 9 “Germania” / 5.SS-Panzer-Regiment "Wiking" stroll along a road near the Nurzec rail station on 22 July 1944 at the village of Nurzec-Stacja in eastern Poland. The tower shown in the background still stands in modern times. The three Wiking officers are, left to right: SS-Hauptsturmführer Friedrich Hannes (Chef 12.Kompanie), SS-Hauptsturmführer Helmut Schumacher (Chef 9.Kompanie) and SS-Hauptsturmführer Paul Scholven (III.Bataillon executive officer). The village had just been captured by the Germans that day and the fighting is over for now. Due to the presence of Scholven it may perhaps be that these men are on their way to a meeting with III.Bataillon commander SS-Sturmbannführer Paul Kümmel. The barefoot German Heer soldier is an officer of the Grenadier Battaillon z.b.V.("zur besonderen Verwendung" or For Special Employment unit) 560 which was established as a Bewährungs-Battaillon or a probationary battalion created for soldiers who had been convicted of minor crimes or disciplinary offenses. Presumably this officer had earlier been captured by the Soviets and stripped of his boots and uniform insignia. Only several thousand meters to the north of Nurzec-Stacja the Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 560 had been surrounded by Soviet forces in the small village of Zerczyce for three days and was the objective for Kümmel’s III.Bataillon ”Germania” and their attack that day, successfully relieving the trapped and battered penal battalion which had suffered heavy losses.

 

The tower near the Nurzec rail station in present time

Source :
"Kampfgruppe Mühlenkamp: 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking", Eastern Poland, July 1944" by Douglas E. Nash and Remy Spezzano
https://www.facebook.com/2ssPanzerPionierBtl5Wiking/posts/three-officers-of-the-iiibataillon-ss-panzergrenadier-regiment-9-germania-stroll/657866484397502/
http://www.wieze.geotor.pl/wieze_cisn/nurzec_stac_1/nurzec_stac_1.htm?fbclid=IwAR0060NkbNJUXfdvzuVJSXyUu9SZ2NnaGZ0MtlD5pR-i9O8-1TDoExSVM7Q

SS NCO Ferdinand Breitfelder with Captured British Weapon

 

Image size: 2048 x 1362 pixel. 687 KB
Date: Saturday, 22 July 1944
Place: Montenegrin-Serbian border, Yugoslavia
Photographer: Kriegsberichter Ernst-Alexander Zwilling

SS-Hauptscharführer Ferdinand Breitfelder examines a captured British submachine gun in the company of Albanian soldiers from the battle group SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 21 shortly after the arrival of a companies of recruits from the SS-Skanderbeg Division to help I.Bataillon / SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 14, on 22 July 1944. A few days later, unit of Breitfelder would be surrounded by Tito's partisans, and he himself will be mortally wounded on the heights south of Andrijevica and will die from the consequences of his wounds in early August 1944. This picture itself was taken by veteran Kriegsberichter Ernst-Alexander Zwilling during "Unternehmen Draufgänger" (Operation Daredevil), a German Wehrmacht military operation against the Yugoslav Partisans at the Montenegrin-Serbian border area, aimed at breaking the Partisan foothold on the Lim river which was a potential penetration point into Serbia.

Source :
ECPAD Archives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Draufg%C3%A4nger
https://www.facebook.com/groups/691098008051629/permalink/1025552444606182/?__cft__[0]=AZWtYgzBGoVpbdLbEaNS_viXPahYJmbQ2Rq0CpE0NBNpbGnJu7zX21dthnKGAn0vsXoM1-tXJP1xl4ReP2u9oYr666tMisoyZqDyCSliHUcZnjTWnToQWU_ZgODos7-L5n-gbSt9Q5Wle7lTHy0qijhE&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
https://reibert.info/threads/21-ja-gornaja-divizija-ss-skanderbeg-21-waffen-gebirgs-division-der-ss-skanderbeg-alb-nr-1.281809/

Max Wünsche and 12th SS Soldiers at Rots Normandy

 

Image size: 1186 x 1600 pixel. 484 KB
Date: Friday, 9 June 1944
Place: Rots, Calvados, Normandy, northwestern France
Photographer: SS-Kriegsberichter Siegfried Woscidlo

One of a famous set of photographs taken of the soldiers of 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" in Rots just after their disastrous assault on Canadian-held Norrey-en-Bessin on June 9th 1944. The photo shows SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (with his head bandaged), speaking to SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Boigk and members of III.Zug / 15.(Aufklärungs-) Kompanie / III.Bataillon / SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 25. From left to right: SS-Unterscharführer Peter Koslowski (Adjutant III.Zug), unknown, SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (Kommandeur SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 "Hitlerjugend"), SS-Oberschütze Klaus  Schuh (soldat in 3.Gruppe / III.Zug), SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk (in the background, soldat in 3.Gruppe / III.Zug), SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Boigk (Zugführer III.Zug), and SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop (Chef 3.Kompanie / I.Abteilung / SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 "Hitlerjugend"). The attack was undertaken by 12 Panthers of the 3.Kompanie / SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 with the 15th company of SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25 in support. "After leaving Rots on the southern road, the 3rd kompanie tanks passed beneath the rail embankment via an underpass and turned right facing west towards Norrey. They planned to use the embankment on their right as cover northwards as they moved towards their objective. Speed had been stressed by Wünsche as the highest priority. The Panthers quickly left most of the infantry behind in the dust. As they passed a linesman's cottage and crested the hill, they began to take accurate 6 pounder fire from the Canadian positions in Norrey. They had planned for this, angling their tanks appropriately and keeping up their speed. What they hadn't counted on was a squadron of Sherman's including Fireflies which had, by chance, taken a detour on their way to their defensive position, placing them a few hundred metres north of the panthers. Canadian fire from the 6 pounders and machine guns from Norrey was intense, but when the Shermans opened fire from their perfect ambush position, the 3rd Kompanie's Panthers began to brew up with horrific consequences. Burning crewmen hurling themselves out of their machines anyway they could. The Firefly commanded by Lt. G. K. Henry of the 1st Hussars accounted for 5 Panthers in that engagement. His gunner, Trooper Chapman, accomplished that feat with only 5 shots! Minutes later, the accompanying infantry of 15/25th arrived up behind the Panthers to support them. It became immediately apparent things had gone horribly wrong. To make things worse, as the attack began to stall, accurate naval artillery fire from Allied ships off-shore began to fall along the length of the rail embankment. A retreat was ordered and a few of the 12 original Panthers were able to fall back. The wounded crewmen and panzergrenadiers crawled back along the embankment towards the cover of the underpass and back up the road to Rots. The photos were taken as the exhausted men got back to the village.”


Source :
http://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/10/foto-12-ss-panzer-division-hitlerjugend.html
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158834881874890&set=gm.1114336335675141
http://www.historicalwarmilitariaforum.com/topic/11462-15-ss-panzer-grenadier-regiment-25/

Captured of General der Infanterie Ferdinand Neuling

 

Image size: 2048 x 1633 pixel. 183 KB
Date: Sunday, 20 August 1944
Place: Southern France
Photographer: Unknown

Captured German general smokes a cigarette. Official caption on front: "7/MM-44-25007." Official caption on reverse: "Sig Corps photo 20 Aug 44 (25007) France. German general surrenders. Cigarette-smoking Lt. Gen. (his rank is actually General der Infanterie) Ferdinand Neuling (Kommandierender General LXII. Armeekorps), 60 year old commander of the German 62nd Corps in Southern France, wears an expression of resignation after his capture by driving American forces from the new French beachhead". Since 1942 he commanded LXII ArmeeKorps in France. On 18 August 1944, his corps was crushed by advancing units of the US Army. Neuling was taken prisoner and transferred to the POW camp in Clinton, Mississippi. He returned to Germany in 1947 and died in Hildesheim in 1960. He never faced any charges concerning crimes committed during the war. Sig Corps radio telephoto from Italy #." France. 20 August 1944. The picture was taken from the service of Brigadier General Terence John Tully, a West Point graduate, Signal Officer during the African landings, Chief Signal Officer, Allied Force Headquarters Africa/Italy for all Mediterranean operations. Tully served with the Signal Corps in Italy and North Africa documenting the 5th Army specifically. Later he was Commander of Camp Crowder, Missouri.


Source :
https://www.ww2online.org/image/captured-german-general-smokes-cigarette-france-1944

German General Ulrich Kessler Reading American Book

Image size: 1587 x 2048 pixel. 376 KB
Date: Wednesday, 13 June 1945
Place: North Atlantic
Photographer: Unknown

Captured General der Flieger Ulrich Kessler (Chief of the Luftwaffe Liaison Staff Tokyo and, at the same time, Air Attaché at the German Embassy in Japan) reading the American book "After the War--What?" aboard a U.S. submarine. Official Caption: "Rome. 6/13/45--Captured German General reads--Maj. Gen. Ulrich Kessler, German Air Force Officer, reads a book written by an American as he sits in the galley of a U.S. Coast Guard ship after being removed from a German submarine which surrendered in the North Atlantic on May 13, 1945. The U-Boat gave up five days after Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. The 16-ton enemy vessel, bearing several other German Air Force Officers as well as General Kessler and its crew, was intercepted by U.S. surface vessels and then escorted to Portsmouth, a port on the northeast coast of the U.S. The vessel was reported to have been en route to Japan. The bodies of two Japanese, who had committed suicide aboard the submarine, had been buried at sea.--PPA Photo--Serviced by Rome OWI (A List out). Approved by appropriate military authority. 6690." Portsmouth, New Hampshire. May 1945. The photograph itself is the courtesy of Isaac "Ike" Bethel Utley, who was born in Smith Mills, Kentucky on 3 March 1920. Ike enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 January 1942. He was shipped overseas to the European Theatre and worked with a supply division based out of the city of Naples with an office set up in a residential villa. Utley worked with the Office of War Information and used their photographs in news articles to inform soldiers of the progress of the war. At war's end, Utley returned stateside. A trunk full of over 800 photographs from the O.W.I. arrived on his doorstep from his office in Italy, sender unknown. This collection consists of those photographs.

Source :
https://www.ww2online.org/image/captured-german-general-kessler-reading-american-book-new-hampshire-may-1945