RARE Photos- LAH Pz. Rgt. in KURSK July 43

[Remy Spezzano]

While conducting photo research for the George Nipe book "Blood, Steel, and Myth" this past summer, I came across a roll of film that had some rare never before seen shots showing panzer crewmen and officers from II./SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 "Leibstandarte" during the Battle of Kursk July 1943.

The images were scanned from an original 35mm contact sheet. Unfortunately the quality of the images are not worthy of reproducing in a book due to all the scratches.
However they are of interest to share with fellow enthusiasts on line.

The photos were taken by Waffen-SS Kriegsberichter (war correspondent) Max Büschel who was attached to the LAH during the summer offensive. Büschel managed to capture a moment in time when the company commanders regrouped after an earlier tank battle.

The photos are shown in the sequence they were taken. If anyone has additional information to add to my captions please feel free to join in and add to this thread.
This way we all can continue to learn a little more. Thanks.

[Remy Spezzano]

LAH panzer crewmen from the 7th Kompanie refuel their Panzer IV.

[Remy Spezzano]

Having just returned from a tank battle a panzer crew member receives first aid
by having his forearm bandaged up.

[Remy Spezzano]

This shot is really interesting. On the right wearing glasses is 6.Kompanie commander Obersturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop. He was the son of Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbtrop.

On the left side holding the map is II./SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 commander Sturmbannführer Martin Gross.

Also note the panzer crewman who is still having the bandage applied to his arm.

[Remy Spezzano]

Regiment commander Martin Gross reviews a map with his men.

[Remy Spezzano]

Anyone recognize the officer in the center with the metal skull on his overseas cap?

[Remy Spezzano]

In this last shot from the sequence of photos SS-KB Büschel snaps a shot of tank crewmen loading 8.8cm shells on the deck of their Tiger tank.

[Fritz]

I came across a roll of film that had some rare never before seen shots showing panzer crewmen

At least the last picture has been published before:

[stgeorge64]

Remy

Regardless of the condition, these really are excellent images, no doubt about that. No matter how many photographs of SS-Panzer Regiment 1 are in circulation, new ones will always cause interest, and these are no exception. The first image is the pic of the bunch for me.

Is there any chance you could retouch these images as you have with similar topics?

Either way, thank you for taking the time to put these up.

Regards Richard.

[Remy Spezzano]

At least the last picture has been published before:

Fritz,

Thanks for posting this photo. The image you posted was definitely made from the original negative during the war. It's great to see a nice clean version of the image compared to the scratched up image made from the original contact sheet. Can you tell us where you have seen it used in a publication?

[Fritz]

Remy:

Follow the link and scroll down http://www.tiif.de/thread.php?postid=4183

Cheers

[S Ballantyne]

Personnel

Hi Remy,

Firstly thanks very much for tidying these up and sharing them. I recently got the scans of the sheets mentioned on this forum, and was astounded by the terrible quality of these particular photos, which were of great interest to me. (This fault lies with the sheets, not with the scans themselves).


Now, as Ribbentrop (6th Kompanie CO) and Gross (II Abt. CO) are present, and the Panzer IV G in the photo is 705 - the command vehicle of the 7th Kompanie (Ralf Tiemann at this point) this looks like a II Abteilung gathering of staff at Kursk (the Ist Abteilung was not present at Kursk as it was in Germany training to become a Panther Abteilung).

The full list of officers that might be visible are

Abteilung Co - Sturmbannfuehrer Martin Gross
Adjutant - Untersturmfuehrer Michalsky
OO - Untersturmfuehrer A. Fischer
Admin Officer - Hauptsturmfuehrer Pinkernell, Untersturmfuehrer Moehsle
Dr - Obersturmfuehrer Dr v. Guelfenberg
TFK - Untersturmfuehrer Grundmann
Signals Officer - Untersturmfuehrer Beckmann

Stabskompanie - Hauptsturmfuehrer Unger
5th Kompanie - Hauptsturmfuehrer Schmidt, Obersturmfuehrer Scharke
6th Kompanie - Obersturmfuehrer v. Ribbentrop
7th Kompanie - Hauptsturmfuehrer Ralf Tiemann
8th Kompanie - Obersturmfuehrer Amberger (8th Kompanie did not take part in Kursk offensive)

(From Lehmann/Tiemann, "The Leibstandarte, vol 4, part 1, page 306)

Now, Tiemann is well known and does not appear to be in any of the photos, despite his tank being in the background.

The man with the metal badge you ask about in the last one of the series before the Tiger photo looks like Obersturmfuehrer Walter Malchow to me, who would later become the commander of the 6th Kompanie, taking over from Ribbentrop who moved to the HJ Division. He may have been Ribbentrop's adjutant at this point?

The man in the centre of the first photo, holding the mess tin, appears to be Obersturmfuehrer Gerhard Scharke to me, commander of the 5th Kompanie.

I will look into this further, and hopefully someone else may have more info.

Thanks again for posting these images.

Cheers
Steve

[SJP]

Remy,Thanks for posting these photo's. It might be possible to have them

professionally restored. They are an excellent study

Steve, I think that is Malchow also ,he was Ribbentropp's EO in 6th k. At that point he was still an Untersturmfuhrer.
__________________________________________________ _____________
Cheers Steve