What's happening in this photo?

[jmark]

OK, that's all for now because my in-laws are coming for lunch. I'll post more photos later tonight.

Jason

[Akira Takiguchi]

What a fantastic album, congratulations on your acquisition!

Thanks Frederick for your info about the Truppenkennzeichen.

Camelus bactrianus are not in the North Africa, I think. In southern Russia you see many of these...

[Akira Takiguchi]

I had missed a gun identification question - the towed weapon is a 2,8cm Panzerbüchse.

[Tim DC]

Hello Jason,

Thank you for sharing this very rare album. I was barely aware of the existence of these Brandenburg troops but you sure caught my interest.

As for photo #29, I would say the bodies were collected from a larger area to be dumped in this mass grave. The cows would be "collateral damage". Imagine if you were dug in and experiencing an enemy infiltration during the night, you would quickly silence the cows in your line of sight as the enemy could get nearer unnoticed because of the noise.

As a sidenote, right now I am indexing a photo album to a Hungarian Unteroffizier in an Ostbataillon. Not as spectacular as this one but still pretty uncommon I think. Will post some scans (and questions) as soon as I can.

[bikerboyzx6r]

What great pics! I have a photo with cows and horses dead in a field after what must have been a heavy artillery battle... bits of cows everywhere! I find it strange that these guys are burying the cows though....! In my pic the bodys are gone but the animals remian.

[Bill Murray]

Hi Jason:
Sorry about the goof on the camel. In that case, it would seem to be some sort of field modification on a regular German Ford.

As to the other vehicle photos, not much to go on in the pics but I will give it go over the weekend.
Bill

[jmark]

OK, it's time for a few more Brandenburger photos. First up a Leutnant and Feldwebel of the unit...

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[jmark]

...and here's a close-up. Does anybody know the Waffenfarbe of the Brandenburgers in 1942? Look at the hat on the Feldwebel... the colour of the piping is darker than the black-white-red circle thingy. Waffenfarbe = black? Opinions?

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[jmark]

The Kompanie did not push into the city of Stalingrad itself. They reached the distant outskirts on 4 September but were then pulled back. I believe one of the dictates for the unit was to be employed to help an advance and not be used in built-up areas. The company then spent the next month or so south of Stalingrad in the Kalmuck steppe before being ordered back to Germany in early October.

Here the company's trucks are loaded aboard a train.

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[jmark]

And another shot of the vehicles being embarked.

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[jmark]

The men were also loaded aboard the trains.

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[jmark]

Here's an interesting photo. I'm no vehicle identification expert but I believe this is an ex-Soviet GAZ-AA. This would have been one of the vehicles used by the Brandenburgers to penetrate deep behind Soviet lines. Notice the inscription daubed on the side...

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[jmark]

...and here's a close-up. Can anyone decipher it? I can see the following:
W.H. (?)
Transport [xx xx]
Stalingrad-Rostov-Freiburg i.Br.
[xx] 3599(?) Kinder-Hunde u. [xxxxxxxx xxxxxx]

That's all for now. I'll post more later. There's also some more showing the unit in a sunnier clime, like Italy or Greece in 1943. I can post those too, if there's interest.

Jason

- - -

[Bill Murray]

Hi Jason:

Regarding today's trucks, the frontal shot on the train is a captured Chevrolet, likely Belgian, maybe Dutch.
The russian vehicle, if I am not mistaken is a Zis 5.
Bill

[Jean-Loup]

Those are some highly interesting photos you posted. Those guys that are going to be buried in the mass grave with the horses and cows are probably still in that exact same grave today somwhere in the steppe.

JL