Photo diary of a German soldier on the Eastern front 1941-45

[OldRecon]

Attach some photos taken during the war on the Eastern front from 1941-45 by German Otto Willnauer.
Otto Willnauer served in 3rd Company, 7th PanzerJaeger Battalion (Later 1007 Sturmgeschutz Abteilung), 7th Bavarian Infantry Division (Munich).

The man himself:
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow01_1.jpg


June 22, 1941 - 4:00am - Beginning of the war with the Soviet Union
German airplanes fly at high altitude across us. At 4:15 the marching order was given. We leave our assembly area heading east. The line of bunkers is being bombarded and an armored train assists. We drive around the line of bunkers and form the advance column with the objective to push a wedge into the Russian Army. The advance unit consists of

3 PanzerJaeger Companies
1 Engineer Platoon
1 Bicycle squadron
4 15cm Guns of the motorized artillery
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow02_1.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow02_2.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow02_3.jpg


June 23, 1941 - Second Day of the war
We made good progress and the surprise was the success. The civilians to a large degree did not even realize that a war had started. There was hardly any contact with the enemy until noon at which time a battle began that none of the participants will ever forget. Ten dead an 16 wounded comrades within a few hours.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow03_1.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow03_2.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow03_3.jpg


During the following days the advance continues crossing the Narew river. Passing Minsk, the capitol of White Russia. In spite of heavy losses and harsh conditions, the fighting spirit of the advance party is not broken.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow04_1.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow04_2.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow04_3.jpg


At the airport of Minsk, these planes were not able to leave the ground fast enough.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow05_1.jpg
A Hurricane? Doesn't look like either a LAGG-3 or a Yak-1.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow05_2.jpg


We went past Minsk, capitol of White Russia, to the Beresina River.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow05_3.jpg


The rivers Narew and Berisina were major obstacles in our advance since most of the river crossings had been made unusable.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow07_1.jpg


We PanzerJaegers of an Infantry Division were being granted a short break after days of hard battles and uninterrupted advance over deep sand roads which considered streets here.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow07_2.jpg


Vehicles, weapons and equipment are being repaired and in the dirty brown water of the Beresina river the soldiers seek recreation.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow07_3.jpg


Bullseye! One of the first T34's
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow08_1.jpg


Even these gigantic 54 ton Panzers (KV-I) could not escape
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow08_2.jpg
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow08_3.jpg


Our well camouflaged field kitchen in the middle of the forest
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow09_3.jpg


Russian kids work to wash our vehicles
(Those look like some pretty undernourished kids indeed)
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW10_1.JPG


Difficult river crossings
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW10_2.JPG
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW10_3.JPG


River Crossing
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW11_2.JPG


1942
The winter comes with full strength, hardly a way left to advance without missing winter equipment. Even the winter clothing is missing.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW12_1.JPG


The Panje Horse
The only reliable means of movement is this time.
At midnight the temperature dropped to a new reported low point - On January 24, 1942, -56c degrees was measured at our division observation post.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW12_2.JPG


Anti-Tank position
During many weeks of cold temperatures around -40 to -45 degrees and the maximum down to -52.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW13_2.JPG


A flame thrower unit.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW13_3.JPG


Nothing works anymore - and in addition, always the Russians in our back.
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW16_1.JPG
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW16_2.JPG


Medal for Battle Wounds 1944

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attack Medal 5/22/1942

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iron Cross 2 6/22/1942

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medal for Winter Battle Eastern Fron 7/31/1942

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iron Cross 1 7/26/1942
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW18_3.JPG


A shot up T-34 Tank
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW20_1.JPG


and it's crew
Warning quite graphic (http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW20_2.JPG)


Russian 54 ton tank (Thought its weight was more around 47 tons?)
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW20_3.JPG


New clothing, new weapons for a new winter


New 7.5cm Pak (Pak 41?)
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW22_1.JPG


In the spring we received our new winter clothing
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW22_2.JPG
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW22_3.JPG


Hacker Felix standing guard wearing the new protective clothing
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW23_2.JPG


Our new Sturmgeschutz...
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW25_1.JPG


The new Sturmgeschutz uniform
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW25_2.JPG


The old PanzerJaeger uniform
http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/OW25_3.JPG

More of Wilnauers pics can be found Here: (http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/ow_011.html)
It seems like the site is run by an American relative of Otto W.

Wonder if there are similar sites out there about "My granddads war", with regards to former Soviet soldiers also??

[1Cie GevGn]

Nice post woot

[Obergefreiter]

More more more!

Yes, that is a PAK 41. A pretty rare piece.

[Delta Niner]

Old Recon,
Thank you for the nice post, hoping that you have more of the same.

[Obergefreiter]

The aircraft is a Yak-1. It does look like a Hurricane in that picture though.

[DE_Six]

Good pics! :)


http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow05_2.jpg

That's a Hurricane, no doubt. The fuselage line aft of the cockpit, the rudder, the fuselage frame, it's a dead givaway.

http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/history/timeline/hurricane-1990.jpg
http://www.flash.net/~larryd55/hurr3.jpg

The Yak-1 is quite different.
http://home.att.net/~historyzone/Yak1.jpg
http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/yak-1/yak-1_yellow-44.jpg

Sorry, no decent pic of the Yak-1. The bottom one is Litvak's, though.

[DE_Six]

Double post

[Sergei]

From the Russian part the closest you get is reading memoirs of different soldiers from different army branches.

http://www.iremember.ru/others/others.htm

Regards,

[Obergefreiter]

Good pics! :)


http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/jpg/Ow05_2.jpg

That's a Hurricane, no doubt. The fuselage line aft of the cockpit, the rudder, the fuselage frame, it's a dead givaway.

http://www.abbotsfordairshow.com/history/timeline/hurricane-1990.jpg
http://www.flash.net/~larryd55/hurr3.jpg

The Yak-1 is quite different.
http://home.att.net/~historyzone/Yak1.jpg
http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/yak-1/yak-1_yellow-44.jpg

Sorry, no decent pic of the Yak-1. The bottom one is Litvak's, though.

After looking closely, I think you are correct. They look very similar in this condition, but the Hurricane has a"hump" brhind the canopy where the Yak is "thicker"

I knew of Spitfires being sent to the Soviets, but now Hurricanes.

[FDF_Hemppis]

From the Russian part the closest you get is reading memoirs of different soldiers from different army branches.

http://www.iremember.ru/others/others.htm

Regards,

Hey, thanks for the link! I was very surprised on what I found there...

i.e.

I read this story of one Dmitri Krutskikh, and in the end it says:



What can I say about the Finnish War? Politically - it was a defeat, militarily - a disaster. The Finnish War had a deep impact on us. We saw a lot of grief. We suffered huge losses - which do not even closely compare with theirs. Our dead were left to lie in the foreign land.


I didn’t really expect to find this kind of text. Well, seems like the era of soviet censorship has really come to an end.

[Samed-ogly]

;)
http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v197/Granit/Tiger_konoplia.jpg