The Russian Front 1941-5

[Felix the Cat]

This (http://www.user.dccnet.com/russianfront/mainpage.html) was previously posted by 88mmFlak, and also deserves reposting

[cerberus]

I remember the post - nice photographs most of which seem to be from 41-early 42.
Well worth having up again.

[cerberus]

I recent bought some of a series of books published by RZM.
Taken from a series of reels of photographs showing the 1st SS Panzer Corps part in Citadle / Kursk salient in July 1943.

Over the years I have seen a lot of photos in various books etc , these are mostly new to me.
There are obviously ones taken for the pure propaganda value but in them are a number in which the photographers more natural instinct for a good photograph comes to the fore and its the battle and the experience of the soldier which is seem.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Tonns of new pictures are surfacing as Great Generation Grandfathers world wide croak by the thousands and their thankless offsprings auction the stuff right away at Ebay.
Then of course we still have te mistery of what really happened to about half of the picture and movie reels of the Wehrmacht (second half of the war) that disapeared while evacuating Berlin and the archives there. We know that about half of the divisional archives and log books of the Wehrmacht got lost in Potsdam due to Allied bombing but the audio visual part just vanished in thin air. Who knows if they sit in some murky storage in Moscow, Washington, London, abandoned German salt mine or just went up in flames. We know per example that the LSAH buried part of its archives, honor flags, etc...in Austria at the end of the war and its still "missing". Where is the "Blutfahne"? Some say it went up in flames in a Munich bombing run and others claim it hidden together with much of the Wevelsburg honor rings.

Stuff for future archeology I guess

[cerberus]

Ebus , alot of photographic and news reel coverage of the war through German eyes was lost beacuse of an insane order to destroy it.
Not all was lost , most of what is in the Bundesarchiv comes from the refusal by some to destroy , sadly a lot was lost.
eBay , a bit of a curse to be honest.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Thats not what I heard. The archive material was ordered west in a convoy bound to be burried somewhere like so much other archival material. Only two trucks were found by the americans abandoned out of gas. What happened to the rest, with all the missing stuff from 1943 onwards who knows.

[cerberus]

I had read in the PSl series of books that the order came destroy it all.
The decision was taken to try and save some the trucks went out and as you say only two surived .