1960s Afghanistan | The photographs of Bill Podlich

Hibbs

Hibbs

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http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/01/28/podlich-afghanistan-1960s-photos/5846/

Looks like surplus WW2 German army helmets!

V5lufZE.jpg


~ Hibbs
 
Wonderful -- thanks for sharing!

As far as the helmets are concerned -- given the level of Soviet influence in the late 1960s, they were probably then-current production East German helmets. Seems bizzare, but the NVA (East German army) continued using the 1930s-era style...
 
A friend posted these to me recently and many of my Afghanistan friends, Afghan and International, have found them captivating. Everything and nothing has changed. So many landmarks remain visible... its the same place, yet nothing like it. Those people are largely gone. The culture is gone. Quite painful. Its quite astonishing how much has changed and it goes far deeper than the images depicted. You could pick the German helmets and comment on that aspect of history, women's clothing, facial hair, male attire.... the list goes on.

I've just entered my eighth year here as I am still as fascinated, horrified, thrilled, perplexed and compelled as the day I arrived.
 
mbisc said:
Wonderful -- thanks for sharing!

As far as the helmets are concerned -- given the level of Soviet influence in the late 1960s, they were probably then-current production East German helmets. Seems bizzare, but the NVA (East German army) continued using the 1930s-era style...
Click to expand...

The NVA did not continue to use the M35/M40/M42 'Stalhelm', as it was a potent symbol of the German Army during WW2. The NVA first used the M54, which looks like a cross between a German and Russian helmet, but ultimately they settled on the M56, which the Germans had in the prototype stage as the M45 at the end of the war. The M56 (in 1945 called the M45) was rejected by Hitler, because it looked nothing like the traditional WW2 German helmet that dates back to WW1. The Germans only issued about 100 units of the M45/M56 during the final battle of Berlin in 1945, but they were never official issue.

In the picture we probably are seeing recycled WW2 helmets (unless they came from Spain under Franco or South America). In the 1960's the Germans were helping the Afghans with development and training a national police force, so there was some connection and there still was plenty of surplus laying around from the war that was picked up by developing nations.
 
Fascinating!

And interesting "... and I believe he used a small Olympus camera." According to his daughter, it was a half frame as well.
 
Harry Lime said:
The NVA did not continue to use the M35/M40/M42 'Stalhelm', as it was a potent symbol of the German Army during WW2. The NVA first used the M54, which looks like a cross between a German and Russian helmet, but ultimately they settled on the M56, which the Germans had in the prototype stage as the M45 at the end of the war. The M56 (in 1945 called the M45) was rejected by Hitler, because it looked nothing like the traditional WW2 German helmet that dates back to WW1. The Germans only issued about 100 units of the M45/M56 during the final battle of Berlin in 1945, but they were never official issue.

In the picture we probably are seeing recycled WW2 helmets (unless they came from Spain under Franco or South America). In the 1960's the Germans were helping the Afghans with development and training a national police force, so there was some connection and there still was plenty of surplus laying around from the war that was picked up by developing nations.
Click to expand...

That's correct. The West Germans sold sizeable quantities of refurbished wartime surplus abroad, especially in the Third World (but not many firearms). The only force in Western Germany that continued to use the M35/M40/M42 'Stalhelm' after World War II was the Bundesgrenzschutz or BGS for short (the Federal Border Guard), together with Nazi-era, obsolete (in the 1950s) Kar.98k bolt-action rifles which were eventually replaced by the FN FAL. They also used a camouflage pattern reminiscient of one of the several variations used by the Heer during WWII.

Another possible source of German helmets in Asia was China. The Nationalist Chinese government bought and issued German-made M35s in large numbers from the mid-30s onwards. I don't have any idea about what happened to the stocks of such under the new Communist management after 1948, but photos of red Chinese troops from the late Civil War period/early PLA wearing the 'Stalhelm' are very rare (though some Chinese stocks found their way to Vietnam).

But I digress! Hibbs, thanks for posting! Wonderful images and story. As oftheherd, I enjoyed the tidbit regarding the "small Olympus camera", an half-frame. A viewfinder, zone focus Pen or the more elaborate F or FT SLR?

The first photo is priceless, with the bunch of guys looking (but in a too glaring or rude way) at the blonde cutie. Such a sight - a young foreign lady with uncovered hair and a sleveless shirt or dress - would be impossible today. Some photos also remind us of the proximity to the USSR and the quite close and complex relationship between the two countries since well before the Russian Revolution. Soviet cars can be seen in more than one image (eg. a nice view of a GAZ-M-21U "Volga" at the gas station), as well as GAZ69A jeeps at a military parade.
Btw, on photo #10, one of the girls is about to take a portrait of her sister with a TLR (at least the device she's holding looks like one).

Alex
 
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