1944 German Football Championship Final

Video size: 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) - 39.3 MB
Date: Sunday, 18 June 1944
Place: Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany
Cameraman: unknown

The 1944 German football championship, the 37th edition of the competition, was won by Dresdner SC, the club defending its 1943 title by defeating Luftwaffe team LSV Hamburg in the final, which were held on 18 June 1944.

The final years of the German Championship during the war saw many military teams compete in the championship, Luftwaffe teams, Luftwaffensportvereine, short LSV, and, Wehrmacht teams, Wehrmachtssportvereine, short WSV, became very competitive.

Dresden's Helmut Schön, who would later coach Germany to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, became the top scorer of the 1944 championship with 14 goals, the second-highest individual amount of any player in the history of the competition from 1903 to 1963.

It was the last edition of the tournament during the Second World War, with the competition not being held again until 1948. The thirty-one 1943–44 Gauliga champions, two more than in the previous season, competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion.

Dresdner SC became the last club to be awarded the Viktoria, the annual trophy for the German champions from 1903 to 1944. The trophy disappeared during the final stages of the war, did not resurface until after the German reunification and was put on display at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt until 2015, when it was moved to the new Deutsches Fußballmuseum in Dortmund.


Source :
Die Deutsche Wochenschau No. 720 - 21 June 1944
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-DzDJmt5F8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_German_football_championship

SS Soldiers Playing with Squirrel

Image size: 1600 x 1165 pixel. 131 KB
Date: January-August 1941
Place: Soviet Union
Photographer: Unknown

Two members of the SS-Division Totenkopf playing around and feeding a squirrel in their spare time. The book "Soldaten - Kämpfer - Kameraden. Marsch und Kämpfe der SS-Totenkopf-Division" volume 1 page 288 by Wolfgang Vopersal mentioned that the officer is SS-Obersturmführer Reinhold Wilhelm August Löw, while the non-commissioned officers who accompanied him is SS-Hauptscharführer Hamke. It also added that the squirrel was a pet of the company which they are assigned (3.Kompanie / SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 2). From the data on Löw we can note that this photo was taken in the period between January 1941 (promotion to SS-Obersturmführer) up to August 1941 (promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer and Chef 3.Kompanie / SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 3). The Officer that was born on May 30, 1913 in Kubach would fall a few months later (November 28th 1941) at Kirillowschtschina (Russia), just days after being appointed as a Chef of 3.Kompanie / SS-Kradschützen-Bataillon 3


Source:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=193566&p=1894247#p1894247

Hermann Göring and His Lion Cub

Image size: 1600 x 1146 pixel. 380 KB
Date: Sunday, 5 April 1936
Place: Carinhall Castle, Berlin, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

Hermann Göring (Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe) with his pet lion cub, Cäsar (some sources said as Mucki), pictured in his grandiose Carinhall castle, 5 April 1936. Göring and his wife Emma Sonnemann (known as Emmy Göring after married) lived in a castle outside Berlin named Carinhall after Göring’s first wife Carin Fock (imagine being Emmy and living in that house!). Göring’s lavish possessions there included a bowling alley, a train set appraised at $265,000 — and a private zoo that “required enough meat to feed a village"! In that zoo was a lion, or, rather, several lions, including the one in the picture. Therein lies another clue about Göring and the lion: Göring maintained close ties with zoologists and animal lovers, particularly those interested in big game animals, around Germany. Partly, this was because he was a big game hunter. But Göring’s love of animals went beyond his desire to kill them. In fact, Göring was a humanitarian when it came to large animals. He personally protected a herd of several dozen Polish bison, two thirds of whom survived the war as a direct consequence of Göring’s actions. In 1945, Berlin Zoo keeper Fritz Schneider complained that Göring had offered to evacuate the entire zoo to Carinhall in case of bombing, but had failed to do so (in fact, Göring couldn’t have saved the animals, since he’d already dynamited his castle). In addition, this website claims that Göring reintroduced buffalo and elk to German grasslands and threatened to send local townspeople to concentration camps if they killed large animals around Carinhall, including wild boars! We find ourselves at a surprising, but inescapable conclusion: Hermann Göring, the butcher of European Jewry, showed surprising tenderness, if not love, toward his pet lions. What are we to make of this? It’s easy to conclude that the strange difference in behavior is merely an example of Göring’s villainy, or, following Hannah Arendt, that it reflects “the banality of evil.” Alternately, we could agree with art curator Nancy Yeide, who concludes that the lions reflect a love of excess inherent in Göring’s character. Certainly, ownership and close contact with big cats is regarded today as a sign of extreme decadence.

Source:

http://herbertcroly.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/goerings-lion/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002716250/

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Captain Allen Leading a Group of Guadalcanal Natives in the Rendition of a Hymn in Pidgin

Image size: 1600 x 1191 pixel. 601 KB
Date: Friday, 11 May 1945
Place: Henderson Field, Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Photographer: Unknown

Captain Allen leading a group of Guadalcanal natives in the rendition of a hymn in pidgin. Captain Spencer M. Allen was formerly associated with WGN Radio, Chicago. The eight Armed Forces Radio Services (AFRS) stations set up in the south Pacific were called the Mosquito Network of the American Expeditionary Stations (AES). These stations were: WVUQ Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands (1000 watts, 690 kilohertz, second & key station); WVUS Noumea, New Caledonia (1000 watss, 975 kilohertz, first station); WVUR Esperitu Santo, New Hebrides (1000 watts 1040 kilohertz); WVUT Nandi, Fiji (50 watts 660 kilohertz); WVTI Cebu City, Philippines 500 watts (1340 kilohertz); WVTM Manila, Philippines 1000 watts (1300 kilohertz); WVUV Pago Pago, American Samoa 50 watts (1270 kilohertz); and Navy Radio Tutuila, Samoa 10 watts (1270 kilohertz). At Guadalcanal, the radio station studio and transmitter sites were in a coconut grove about one-half mile from Lunga beach. A dallas hut was divided into a control room and a studio. There was a large plate glass window and some sound proofing between the two rooms. AES staff dubbed their small studio shack in the coconut grove, Radio City, an ironic reference to the imposing headquarters of the NBC network in New York City.Mosquito's weekly broadcasting included 13 hours of U.S.-made AFRS transcriptions and 28 hours of decommercialized U.S. network shows—flown in from the States. The rest was local material, ranging from the reading of war correspondence in the area to burlesques such as McGoo's Booze Hour ("Next time you visit your PX take home a handy family-size container of McGoo's Old Man in the convenient 60-gallon drum") or the Atabrine Cocktail Hour to encourage the taking of anti-malarials. On the evening of March 2, 1944, AES-Guadalcanal, first broadcast a test signal. Regular broadcasts started March 13 and lasted throguh 1946. Two days before this photo was taken, WVUQ broadcast news of the German Surrender.\ Of the 300 AFRS stations in operation worldwide in 1945, only 60 remained in 1949. 

Source:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1082

Oberst Richard Koll in his Panzerbefehlswagen III 'RO6'

Image size: 1600 x 1108 pixel. 561 KB
Date: October 1941
Place: Vyazma, Smolensk Oblast, Soviet Union
Photographer: Helmut Ritgen

This picture was taken in October 1941, and showing Oberst Richard Koll (7 April 1897 - 13 May 1963), commanding officer of Panzer-Regiment 11 / 6.Panzer-Division, and at that period the combined tank strength of both 6. and 7. Panzer-Division, in a confident pose in the cupola of his Panzerbefehlswagen III 'RO6' - note detail of frame aerial. At the right is the CO's signals officer (Nachrichtenoffizier), wearing earphones (kopfhörer). A pole aerial rises behind the Gefreiter standing at the left. Koll received Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross) in 15 July 1941. In the last two years of the war, he was the Chief of Armed Forces Motor Transportation. This seems a bizarre posting for a highly experienced Panzer commander. According to Wolgang Paul (Brennpunkte), Koll was transffered to the desk job because of the failed Cherkassy relief attack in the early 1944. Someone had to take the blame and apparently this someone was Koll, although he did everything he could, was a 1st class panzer officer and admired by his soldiers and officers, which were dissapointed when he had to leave 1. Panzer-Division, his previous "normal" assignment. His corps commander, General der Panzertruppe Hermann Breith, relieved him of command with an unflattering evaluation on February 21, 1944, with Oberbefehlshaber of 1. Panzerarmee, Generaloberst Hans Valentin Hube, concurring.

Source:

Helmut Ritgen photo collection

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

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

Panzerkampfwagen III Crews at Rest and Playing Cards

Image size: 966 x 1600 pixel. 494 KB
Date: Wednesday, 9 April 1941
Place: Greece
Photographer: Unknown

The crews of a group of german panzers benefit from a pause during the advance to resume the never-ending card game, interrupted so many times. They were came from the 12. Armee commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Siegmund Wilhelm List during Operation Marita. Threatened by the possibility of the British entering Romania and cutting off his oil supply, and honoring the pleas for help by Benito Mussolini who had made little progress against the Greeks on the Albanian Front, Germany invaded Greece through Yugoslavia in April 1941. The invasion of Greece was the first operation in which panzer divisions and motorized infantry units were employed in distinctly alpine terrain. Despite the difficulties that were encountered the commitment of armor to spearhead an attack through mountains proved to be sound tactics. The two major successes during the first phase of the campaign—the early seizure of Skoplje by the 9. Panzer-Division (April 7, 1941) and the quick capture of Salonika (April 9) by the 2. Panzer-Division could not have been accomplished without armored divisions. The Greek command was paralyzed by the initial upsets, which were caused in some measure by "tank fright" of the rank and file soldier, as had been the case during the French campaign. The speedy capitulation of the Greek Second Army was the direct result of the sudden appearance of German tanks in the vicinity of Salonika. Unlike a few months later, when Russian prisoners of war died in captivity, the Germans disarmed the Greek soldiers and released the majority. 

Source:
Signal Magazine, June 1941 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii124

http://ww2colorphotos.webs.com/balkans.htm