JaegerMeister Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 You guys will love this:- http://www.geipelnet.com/war_albums/otto/ow_011.html its a series of photos taken by an AT gunner in an infantry division, starting June 22nd 1941 upto about 1943 and shows great after action photos as well as terrain, weather and equipment. Great stuff ! enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaBellum Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Outstanding series of pics, thx for the link! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Fantastic pics! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdSober Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Superb link! Some of the best photos I've seen so far of war on the Eastern Front. Thanks for sharing it with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Bellator Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 The site is slow and whoever wrote the text obviously sympathises with the Germans, but bloody hell, those pictures are amazing. Thanks for the link, well worth spending time there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdSober Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 True about the pics being slow to appear, even with DSL. I still haven't got through them all. I keep having them load in another window whilst I'm doing something else, then popping back to look at the latest awesome offering :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Bellator Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Hehe - I know what you mean, I've been surfing the site for half an hour and have only reached 1942 I think we are overloading the server and someone needs to arrange a rota for viewing it. I suggest I get the next hour to myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal DI FOLCO Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Yes, a hidden gem indeed ! Now we have proof that the Germans defeated KVs in '41 with 50mm Paks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaegerMeister Posted December 5, 2002 Author Share Posted December 5, 2002 Glad you all like them!..i had no probs with the speed of photos, i was just more and more impressed as each one was revealed. Seems they KO'd even KV1's with the 37mm 'door-knocker' ? as thats what he was using till 42, when he got to use the 75mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splinty Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Great stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Potential Italian Player Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Thankx JaegerMeister. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbertles Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Interesting that the winter '42 "sturmgesutz brigade" (sic) picture shows Pz IIIs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbertles Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Further into pics (dial-up....arg!) - T-34 destroyed shows that the kill shot came from the rear quarter with turret slewed backwards. Makes you wonder what kind of situation that came in. Ambush by anti-tank screen? Also note early hated double-wide forward opening turrent hatch that caused so many commanders to be killed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaegerMeister Posted December 5, 2002 Author Share Posted December 5, 2002 Bumpski for the late shift/America Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewTF Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 As long as we're on this subject, here's another WWII photo site I found when researching my German uniform mods: Photosammler This guy has an amazing collection of what must be thousands of photos. They are an incredible combination of the fascinating, touching, and disturbing. Definitely worth checking out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Geipel Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Hi all, You are all chatting about my web site First off, I host the pages on one of my home computers off of a DSL line. That probably explains why the pages are loading slowly and why I am having trouble accessing my server from work! I normally do not have a large group of people hitting it all at once. The speed should get better once things slow down. I can answer your questions about the photos. Over the years, I spent hours with Otto talking about his experiences. Unfortunatly, Otto died early this year due to complications with the German socialized medical system. Some background on Otto first. Otto joined the german Arbietsdients (sp?) work group right after France '40. He worked on fortifications and clean up in France. He then enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Infantry Division as a Panzerjaeger. Equiped with the 37mm AT gun, they began the Barbarossa campaign on June 21, 1941. They fought thier way across Belorussia, Russia and to Moscow. They then held off the counter attacks during the winter slowly giving ground. The rest of '42 was quiet. The unit received the very rare 50mm Taperbore gun which fired Tungten cored ammo. This gun should not be confused with the standard 50mm which was not nearly as lethal. During 1943, they participated in the battle of Kursk as the extream right of the northen pincer. Right afterwards, the panzerJaegers were withdrawn to Holland for training on the Sturmgechutze IV. They did not have the vehicles to train on so they walked around the training ground, standing in there positions pretending to be in a tank. Otto said it was quite silly and no one took it seriously. They were then rushed back to the front to help stem the tide of the Soviet attack on Armie group center. They met up with thier Stug IV's and drivers and immediatlty went into action in the Pripet marshed. The unit perfomed very well and were the hero's for the rest of the division. During the next year, they slowly lost thier vehciles - mostly due to mechanical breakdown. Otto's tank was strafed by the Soviet airforce and the driver was killed. While waiting for new vehicles (Hetzers which never arrived), they continued fighting tanks on foot with Panzerfausts. Ultimatly, the unit provided read guard for the retreat of Gross Deutchland off the Kourland Penisula. They remained there holding until three days after the Germans surrendered - not having heard of the end of the War. They finally were informed and surrendered. because they were post capitulation surrenders, they revieved particularly brutal treatment in the gulags. The commander of Otto's Stug, Felix, told me how he was beated repeately with a steel pipe. He fiened death and a Russian guard took pity on him. Felix showed me the undentations on his head where he was beaten. Felix is still alive today. Otto and his group was finally repatriated in 1951. Otto spend a total of 10 years either fighting or in prision camps. During that time, he was only off the front for two weeks for training. Barry L. Geipel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Geipel Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Here is some more info based on some of your comments. The Panzer III photos are not from thier unit. These pictures were probably taken in December of 1941 as "Guderian's panzers advanced through our lines". The KV-I photos are of a machine that broke down. This is not a killed tank. Otto clearly recalled his first encounter with a KV-I - they lost. The KV-I literally ran over his gun crushing it. He also recounted the first encounters with T34's - also, not much success with the 37mm. All of the captions are direct translations of Otto's original captions. There are some errors he made, and some of the photos are clearly not in historical order (The picture of the downed lend lease hurricane for example). I have elected to keep them in his original order. I have many more photos, plus all of his decorations and documents which I will open the site with all of the new photos some day. Barry Geipel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kong Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Thanks JaegerMeister for finding and especially Barry Geipel for sharing/creating! Those are some fantastic pictures! Would love to read more about Otto's experiences during the War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWB Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Thanks Barry, great site. WWB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danzig Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Barry, that's some awesome stuff, my man! Thanks for getting that all up on a webpage so we can all share in this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbertles Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Barry, thanks for the pix and especially for the personal commentary. It brings a personal aspect of reality to what we play at so innocently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaegerMeister Posted December 5, 2002 Author Share Posted December 5, 2002 Bump again for those who may miss it and also thankyou Barry for the great photos and site, i never realised you frequented these forums or i would have praised you earlier! :cool: I knew they would go down a storm here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Geipel Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Originally posted by JaegerMeister: Bump again for those who may miss it and also thankyou Barry for the great photos and site, i never realised you frequented these forums or i would have praised you earlier! :cool: I knew they would go down a storm here!Actually, I was told about this discussion offline. I am a miniature wargammer - not much of a computer gamer. You can see my kind of games at http://www.command-decision.com. I have heard of battlefront, but have never played. Perhaps I will give it a try. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 Barry, Let me add my thanks for bringing us such valuable insight into Otto's personal view of the war. Whenever I look at the young faces such as Otto enduring extraordinary challenges of war, suffering, and weather, I'm just amazed at how they all did it, whatever nation they fought for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KG_SSpoom Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 Thanx Very Interesting photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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