Berliner Illustrierte magazine - Part 1.

 

"Forward despite barrage! Pressed close to the snow-covered ground, the grenadiers lie in cover while the curtain of fire from the Soviet artillery rises in front of them."

This is how this photo on the front page of the German wartime magazin "Berliner Illustrierte" is described. published on February 25th, 1943.

Franz von Werra.

 Franz von Werra with his lion cub, “Simba,” in the cockpit of his Bf109E.

Werra was shot down over Britain in 1940 and was imprisoned. then he tried to escape but was recaptured then he tried to escape again and failed. then the British sent him to a prison camp in Canada: where he promptly escaped again. This time he made his way to the US and was taken into custody for illegal entry. The German government at that time was not at war with America and bailed him out. He quickly escaped to Brazil and from there made his way to Spain, Italy and then back to Germany!

a closer shot of von Werra's lion cub "Simba," who died due to disease while von Werra was in British captivity.

Hauptsturmführer Joachim Peiper at the Berghof, 1940.

 

SS MG42 Machine Gunner - Normandy, 1944.

 

SS-Oberschütze Klaus Schuh (MG Gunner) and SS-Unterscharführer Peter Koslowski in an alley in Rots, Normandy. June 9th, 1944.

Schuh received the Iron Cross for destroying a Canadian Churchill tank using only his MG-42 machine gun! With no other weapon at his disposal, he aimed tracer rounds at the fuel tank of the Churchill tank and took it out. Schuh was KIA on June 26th, 1944.

Then and Now: Rots, Normandy region, France.

Panzer IV - Normandy, 1944.

Panzer IV N°536 commanded by SS-Unterscharführer Willy Kretzschmar in Normandy, June, 1944.

Kretzschmar and his panzer crew destroyed at least 15 Allied tanks during the fighting in Normandy.

SS Das Reich - Kiev, 1943.

SS Das Reich non-commissioned officer signals his soldiers near a wall of a hut in a village near Zhitomir during the Second Battle of Kiev, December, 1943.

In the background you can see burning Soviet T-34 tanks.

Panzer IV, 1942.

Panzer IV of the "Das Reich" Division during a demonstration. September 12th, 1942.

The tank is commanded by SS-Untersturmführer Joachim-Günther Schöntaube.