Photos of German soldiers in the Balkans

A newly established airfield on the Greek-Bulgarian border. A fighter unit of Messerschmitt 109E's is stationed here.

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On the same airfield, a Stuka sits with it's engine covered, waiting to be scrambled in support of the army operations in Greece.

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Always forward, (forwarts!) Infantry columns and horses march to and over the mountains on the horizon into Greece.


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"To new horizons"

The never stopping German mountain troops march forward through the mountains of Greece during the balkans campaign of 1941...

The campaign would be over soon in just a few weeks, with minimal casualties.
The Germans would take some 233,000 Greek and 21,000 British prisoners.

German losses for the entire campaign would be 2559 dead, 5820 wounded and 3169 missing.

Soon the war with Russia would beginn.
It would be different and incomparable to anything they've seen before..
The war in russia would not last a few weeks but 4 bloody years..And the majority of those men seen in these photohraphs would not survive.

This post has been edited by Der Maresal on January 15, 2005 12:11 am

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No many cars in the wermacht those days..
On mules,horses,Donkeys and mainly by foot.
Oh yes a solitar Zundapp moto.......
We can see that there were no Ford GM and Chrisler in Geremany

This post has been edited by C-2 on January 15, 2005 03:36 pm

Actually, AFAIK there was. Ford trucks were manufactured in Germany during the 1930s (and in Rumania, too).

Gen. Dénes

Awesome pictures! Thanks for posting, Maresal!

Yes, in the first half of the war, the Germans relied mainly on horse-drawn supply and equipment carriages. It still surprises me when I see the pics., although I am aware of it. I think we all have this myth of a fully motorized, high-tech German army, which was not necessarily true.

Nice to see those "fully donkey motorized" German units . The quality of these photos is outstanding... Which is the source of these photos ?

Great photos!
With shining boots,national socialisn spirit and on foot.
That's the way they thought a world wil be concuerd

Yes, in the first half of the war, the Germans relied mainly on horse-drawn supply and equipment carriages. It still surprises me when I see the pics., although I am aware of it. I think we all have this myth of a fully motorized, high-tech German army, which was not necessarily true.

Good to hear from you.
Haven't heard from you in a while...

Maybe I'll post some more of these so that you and others get to see the >>reality<< of the second world war as it was, in color, and not the way it is told today. If a b/w picture speak a 1000 words a color photograph speaks, alot more.


It's either that, or we learn history from..Disney Land or Wiesenthaldotcom.

This post has been edited by Der Maresal on January 17, 2005 06:53 am

A few more pictures from the same set I have posted here, in the Bucharest forum. They are good too.
Color Images of Bucharest, 1941 from the same collection.
I should start with pictures of 3rd reich, of the march in sudetenland, of Anschluss in Austria, of the war in Poland, in France, Belgium, Holland, the Balkans and then the Russian Campaign.

I have color photos from them all, and alot more from the same collection.

This is the most profound of color images i've ever seen. I keep staring at it..


"It's dated, Russia 1942, bloody battles in the south. A Infantryman's hand has just been blown off (ripped off) by a Shell. It lies in front of him on the grass.
His comrades and a medic are doing all they can"."

I have this and others from the Russian campaign which I will post shortly here.
This will be very interesting to see and learn from . See you soon.

This post has been edited by Der Maresal on January 17, 2005 06:31 am

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Der Maresal, what is the source of the photographs?

It's mentioned in the first post.

Is it the soldier's left forearm lying in the grass?

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on January 17, 2005 03:13 pm

BTW I vote for this photo as the best ever posted on this forum!