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Today i recieved pics from my granddad he took while being part of the Luftwaffe's ground personal in WW2. to my amazement there are pics from the Fall Blau campaign. There are pictures from around Voronezh and another place.

He got wounded during the campaign and returned to Austria. Later he served in Greece and never returned to Russia. I will post some pics later.

Cool. Looking forward to it.

September 1942, captured russian armored train at Voronezh:




13.7.1942, Russian prisoners at Kursk



August 1942, russian refugees


And my grandfather, in France 1940:

Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Must make the game extra good, when you can trace your family history back to that place.

it makes losing the war less painful as it is genetically tied to my family, yes

ORIGINAL: stonestriker

Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Must make the game extra good, when you can trace your family history back to that place.

+1..Thanks for the pics and story.

Family stuff like this is unique and therefore priceless. Thanks for posting.
Your Grandfather was darn lucky. Im not saying fighting elsewhere was a cake-walk but Russia was...well a deathtrap.

ORIGINAL: Keunert

it makes losing the war less painful as it is genetically tied to my family, yes

Damn, I wish I had a similiar good reason when I lose a game

Wow, is this the first time anyone sees these pics on the internet? Nice!

Keunert, my grandfather (Scottish - anti aircraft battery commander then Royal Engineer in Normandy) and my grand uncle (Jamaican - RAF) both served on the Allied side through the whole war. My grandfather sadly died when I was only 10, but I was fortunate to be able to interview my grand uncle and record it as audio for over 4 hours a few years ago. I have typed it up and added photos from his albums, and the UK National Archives are now interested in adding this to their collection. I am also approaching publishers to see if we can turn it into a book as the text runs to 60 pages.

Maybe you should try to do something similar? I know that there are some excellent online German official archives. Does your grandfather discuss the war with you? It could be good to write down what he remembers as well.

Yes schmolywar, first time.

When the war begun he was already 35 years old. he died when i was 4. And with all my grandparents it was the same: the war was a non issue. they lost the war and i think both men recognized that they were fighting for a criminal maniac.

the other grandfather died when my mother was 15. He was a truck driver in russia. In 1944 they stopped at a farmhouse to get milk. the farmer poisened all of the austrians stopping there. My grandfather was heavily poisened and
was sent back to Austria where he spent the rest of the war recovering. He suffered lightly from the poison for the rest of his life. The farmer and his family were all shot.

But again we do not know more stories.

once or twice i tried to talk with older men about their memories. and once it turned really ugly. i had to realize i was talking to a real Nazi, a guy that was talking and joking about Ausschwitz and who he would send there if
he was in charge...

i love first person accounts of such times and there are great books available in german that go through half the war day by day with numerous accounts by soldiers, wifes, daughters, generals, politicians, resistance fighters, soviets, germans and whatever. that is really interesting stuff.
so if you could give me some of the sites you mentioned i will look into it.

here is the rest of the pics:

Him on a french tank in 1940 (grandfather in the middle, Hitler on the right )



another french tank:


a downed French bomber: Bloch 210


and some pics from the airstrip in Greece:

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing these.

Hi

Thanks for these photos and for the story that touch me.

If war was not a drama, it could be nearly funny.
While your grand-father was making war in the german side, my own grand-father, captured at Dunkerque, was a prisoner in a german Stalag.
He has been correctly treated.

Very nice pics, thanks for sharing Keunert [:)]

Thanks for posting these! Very interesting. The photo of the Russian POW is quite a powerful portrait.

Great photos, nice one mate.

Thank you guys, i hoped you would enjoy these.

Here's the link: http://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/ It's a great site and well organised.

ORIGINAL: AKCLIMBER

Thanks for posting these! Very interesting. The photo of the Russian POW is quite a powerful portrait.

I was just about to post the same thing before I saw your post. It is indeed a very striking photo.

Thanks for posting these, Keunert --