Nebelwefer photo album.

[Thomas Koulis]

Dear members,

I have seen a photograph album on offer belonging to a former member of a Nebelwefer unit - Nebelwefer Abteilung 8 . There are 341 photos in total.

Can anyone tell me how rare such albums are - and if the price tag of £890 is a little steep or not?

Many thanks!
Thomas.

Here is the item description:

A very large size album measuring 15 x 20 inches. Hard green cover, containing 341 excellent images of the movements, battles and life of a German Army Smoke Troop Unit all on the eastern front. Virtually every image in the album is annotated and most of the pages have indications of the area that the photographs were taken in. The album begins at Brest-Litowski dated June 1941. Life in Poland just behind the front line of the opening of Operation Barbarosa. All of the images are large format. Groups of officers around their quarters. Images which the page is annotated in German '22nd June 1941 3.15 hour in the morning' which shows the rocket launcher unit firing at night. One image dated 23rd June, officers sitting, the annotation 'Breakfast before the battle'. (Fruhstuck Nach Dem Angriff). The advance through Russian towns. Destroyed towns and villages. Dead animals. Eating food on the battle front. Many damaged and captured Russian vehicles and tanks. Destroyed Russian airfields. As the album proceeds it moves into the next month of the campaign in July 1941. German graves. Minsk on the 6th August. Some of the images are loose and it is possible to see their contemporary annotations on the reverse side. Life on the march passing through Russian villages. Destroyed Russian gun pits. Lines of Russian prisoners. German military field police. Image dated 24th July, after an Iron Cross award ceremony, the officers having a drink in the field. Statues of Stalin torn down. It would appear that this is Nebelwerfer Unit No.8. Field conferences of officers. An actual medal award ceremony. One page full of different Russian types of people dated 11th August 1941. More destroyed Russian columns. Some of the images are wonderful close-ups into the interior of German staff cars. German officers wearing all types of field caps. One very good shot of the Nebelwerfer unit preparing their rocket launchers for action, the troops are wearing an unusual camouflage one piece overall. Life inside Russian houses where the people are living on beds of straw. The first winter snow, images dated 19/26th October. Scenes of the Russian winter mud where vehicles are bogged down. Life on the front during the winter. One image dated 22nd December with the Commander of the 293rd Division visiting. Christmas 1941 celebrations. The year turns with groups of officers in the heavy white winter coats. Vehicles painted camouflage white. A Russian civilian funeral group of photographs. 26th January to 9th February with the heading 'Kursk'. Interior views of the town. The individual soldier who took these images and whose album this is, now heading home for leave 17th February 1942. Details of the journey with the images on trains. Back with the family in March 1942, then back to the Russian Front, by this time the winter has cleared. In June life at the front is slightly more comfortable. More statues of Lenin. Visiting Generals field conference with large groups of officers. Destroyed Russian aerodromes. Troops on the March between 9th July and 14th August 1942, all in many different types of vehicles. More prisoners. German soldiers bathing in a river, summer of 42. Bunkers in wooded areas. The album then jumps to August 1943, south of Leningrad. Trench lines with dead Russian soldiers. Germans in trenches with stick grenades lined up for use. The approach of winter 1943 with the first snows. Rockets being fired from the launchers on the back of German vehicles. A very comprehensive record of battle and life on the Russian Front by a very unusual unit. There is a second album that is with this group, which is all post WWII, but interestingly it would appear that the owner of the album has then joined a German Customs Service in the Alps region, the uniforms they are wearing are wrap over tunics very similar to the Panzer uniforms of WWII.

[Brendan Hunt]

Smoke Waffenfarbe was the rarest of them all. Also, that is quite a bit steep IMHO.