Unknown German WW II pilot's photos

[Spider67]

An unknown German pilot made those photos, some of them are very good:

http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a6041/l0/l0/F.html#featuredEntry

Best regards
Des/Spider67

 

[Muggins]

Thanks for posting those, Des - they are real people's history, for want of a better phrase! And I love the gearhead presentation, with the sprocket holes and film data.

I need to get out more, though. I guessed the aircraft type from the first photo without reading the caption...

Adrian

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

thank you very much, this is very interesting =)

 

[Paul T.]

Beautiful photos.

The ones of the cities have an eerie duality about them. They look like tourist photos, but of course they aimed to obliterate the sights they were recording.

THis always reminds me of a French friend's joke; he'd stayed with me once in Hull, when I was a student, and happened to mention the city to an older, German acquaintance he'd met at over dinner: "Ah, Hull," the chap responded. "I have not visited it. But I have bombed it."

 

[user237428934]

Thanks for posting those, Des - they are real people's history, for want of a better phrase! And I love the gearhead presentation, with the sprocket holes and film data.

I need to get out more, though. I guessed the aircraft type from the first photo without reading the caption...

Adrian

It's not a gearhead presentation. They wrote something about photos from a contact sheet.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I need to get out more, though. I guessed the aircraft type from the first photo without reading the caption...

Heh, yeah, had the same thing identifying the FW-189.

Wonderful historical photos. Gonna show them to some other Historical nuts now.

Cheers,

Rick

 

[varjag]

No, they are not unknown. They were pretty widely circulated over Russian internet a few years ago.

Photos mostly in the area of Kharkov, Ukraine IIRC.

 

[Spider67]

Unknown: Not the photos but the photographer

Unknown: Not the photos but the photographer

No, they are not unknown. They were pretty widely circulated over Russian internet a few years ago.

Photos mostly in the area of Kharkov, Ukraine IIRC.

The photographer is unknown as clearly stated otherwise I would have written German pilot's unknown photos. The Unit and its members also have not been identified.

 

[Ducky]

Wonderful bit of insight. They could be any nationality, any air force, any group of young men. We were all young warriors once.

 

[johannielscom]

Question: I have shot quite a number of old LTM camera's, but have never had the image extend onto the sprocket holes.

How come I see this quite often with older shots, but not nowadays? Different film size?

 

[Arjay]

Interesting story: The authors of the website are trying to identify the photographer and his buddies.

Chances are that these people did not survive the war - there are indications that the squadron the planes belonged to were later moved to serve in the Stalingrad battle, which was one of the biggest defeats the German army ever had to suffer.

 

[paulfish4570]

they were fliers once, and young ...

 

[maddoc]

I have this happen with my IIIf, too. Only one side but there the frame extends into the sprocket holes.

Question: I have shot quite a number of old LTM camera's, but have never had the image extend onto the sprocket holes.

How come I see this quite often with older shots, but not nowadays? Different film size?

Interesting photos, though. I was astonished about the high quality.

 

[johannielscom]

My guess would be that the navigator is the original photographer. Seems to me him leaving his station in flight was the most likely without serious consequences. Also, there´s quite a lot of shots over the right engine, and if you look at the layout of the plane, the cockpit would be in line with the engine in those frames.

Pretty sure the guy sitting in the cockpit in the navigator seat is the navigator of that plane, if sending a snap shot home it would be most logical to send one showing every airman in their own station. The gunner shot looks kind of candid, given shadow and strong light.

Lovely shots. In the replies to the german thread there´s more links to other sites that show even more photos from the album.

 

[Olsen]

This Focke Wolf had two engines on two booms. Like on the US Lightning. The crew sat in a gondola in the middle. It was a rare aicraft in the West and mostly used on the Eastern Front.

Significant are the pictures of all the Sovjet POWs. In just 8 months in 1941 - 42, the Germans killed almost 3 million Russian POWs through starvation, exposure and sumary executions. Some 30.000 (possibly more) Sovjet POWs are burried on Norwegian soil only. What we see here is a genocide in making....

 

[Spoks]

Can anyone identify what kind of camera one of these flyers carries on his chest, at picture 19?

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I think I've got a shot of an FW-189 flying over Holland in early 1940 in one of my books somewhere. Don't recall if it was from just before or after the invasion of the low countries.

 

[Olsen]

At picture no 18 we can see 'artillery lined up' in the foreground by the destroyed church, according to the German text. Friend or foe...?

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I think that might be a Leica in 19, though it looks a little big

 

[Olsen]

Also a rare version of German WWII planes are pictured at no. 27. Most likely the version of the Ju 88 that had pressurized cockpit. The Germans had a large fleet of these at (the now international Airport of Oslo) Gardermoen. They were originally long range/high altitude reconnaisance planes. They were also used to evacuate troops from the Kurland Pocket to Berlin in the last days of the war. The crews of these flights had to scare off refugees with arms... In the last days of April 45' they gave up the flights. Which resulted in bitterness from the German troops that were taken prisoners in Kurland and sent to Siberia. Here most of them died or came home first in 54'.