Some contact prints from Summer 1944, WWII, Germany

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Here some pics I found in the photo collection from the mother of my girlfriend (I'm currently digitalising all of them as an easter present)
These prints were made by the (deceased) gandfather of my girlfriend. Camera and film are unknown, but I guess some kind of a cheap 127 camera from Kodak was used as they were the most common cameras here at that time. All negatives are unfortunately missing.
There are many more but these might be some of the most interesting photos for you:

He was positioned one of a many antiaircraft defence bases somewhere between the Schlei (a fjord in northern Germany) and the bay of Kiel

They hit a plane while these shots were taken!

The poor british pilot survived the crash!

The pilot is in the middle. He came in captivity and survived

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Terrible time, war is always heart breaking Sad

, but nice to see pictures , thank you for sharing them.

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Here are some more complementing pictures I just found (~15min ago) which seem to be made a few days later.

I guess these guys are the soldiers which shot the plane down

They are getting a some kind of award for hitting the plane

Yes, it was a terrible time. My family had to suffer a lot from it. My grandpa was as soldier in Russia (Stalingrad) during the war and survied sveral years in russian compulsory labor in a mine in todays Estonia afterwards. He lost all his teeth, several toes and was in terrible overall condition when he came back. My other grandpa (still alive) somehow jumped off a train which was also on already the way to Berlin 1945 when he was 15-16 yrs old. After a time as fugitive he had to spend some months in prision. Luckily this happened at the end of the war as usually military service deniers were executed.

Yebisu · Joined: 13 Feb 2011 Posts: 1299

Very interesting historical records. Thanks for sharing.

ludoo · Expire: 2011-12-05

I love old pictures, and these are very interesting, from a time when awful and exceptional things were the norm. I too have a box full of my mother's family negatives, plates, and prints and among them are several showing the results of allied bombing of Milan, with several buildings burning and my grandparent's house with all windows blown. Luckily there are also happier ones...

Willem · Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Posts: 280 Location: Netherlands

This is great stuff. Very important to preserve to show that war is never good for anyone. Still this is how many of our (grand) parents lived in those days. You should also offer this to some museum or historical society. Thank you so much for sharing, i find it very intersting.