What conflict is this?

[Richie B]

Are there any clues from the dates written on the back of the photo and what does the writing say when translated ?

Appears to be April 1941 and 17.2 (17th February). Looks like snow on the ground.

Assuming they are German troops and they are not training can we find out where fighting was going on ?

Too early for Russia - Yugoslavia perhaps, invaded 6 April 1941 but then that doesn't explain the apparent February date.

[Styx]

Wow, thanks for all the replies everyone! Weirdly, the idea that they were bodies didn't occur to me. Okay, if it's too early for Russia... It's difficult, I'm not too clued in on details of the campaigns, and I'm trying to think when a full-out battle would be held + snow + this early date. Yugoslavia is possible, because the only other invasion going on at that time I can find is Greece and that definitely wouldn't be snowy. No one can read the description, I guess?

Robbie

[HPL2008]

No one can read the description, I guess?

Guess again

It says:

"[...] 4.41, tote Russen
nach unserem Gegen-
angriff auf das am
17.2. verlorene Sikowo
[...] im Hintergrund)"

...meaning:

"[...] April 41, dead Russians
after our counter-
attack against
Sikowo which had been lost on 17 Feb.
[...] in the background)"

Problem is - as has been pointed out above - Russian troops killed in a counter-attack undertaken in April 1941 to re-take a town they had taken in February 1941 does not make sense, since both dates are well before the start of the eastern campaign.

Maybe the writer somehow got the year wrong?

[Styx]

Where would we be without you, HPL2008? Your translations are always hugely useful, thank you so very much! And, I guess it must be something of the sort. It's definitely not a fake photograph; the writer getting the date wrong seems only likely. Could have only been annotated much later, perhaps, and the writer got confused over the year.

Still, I now have a huge amount of information about the photo! Thanks!

Robbie

[ToxicGas]

Does no one else think he's actually holding a PPS-43 rather than an MP40? It's a little hard to tell, but that's what it looks like to me... such little details will bother me until solved! It wouldn't be all that unlikely, with so many dead Russians around.

Mat

[ToxicGas]

Actually, I think I'm wrong- the guy's sleeve behind him gave the illusion of a curved magazine.

Mat

[sitges1990]

Excellent translation as usual sir! I would certainly go with wrong date enscribed by writer. It is hard to see Mat. The back of the thing definitely looks like an MP40 to me but the front is too fuzzy.

Jay

[Wagriff]

So....I'm reading the timing as the Germans had lost the town of "Sikowo" to the Russians on Feb 17 and had retaken it from them in a counter attack in April of the same year? The main mystery here then, I would think, would be where is "Sikowo"? I Assume that it could be the usual Germanization of replacing "V"s with "W"s, so that would make it Sikovo, Croatia. Perhaps this scene was from the early fighting in and around Croatia and the whole regional mess of the time?

[HPL2008]

So....I'm reading the timing as the Germans had lost the town of "Sikowo" to the Russians on Feb 17 and had retaken it from them in a counter attack in April of the same year? The main mystery here then, I would think, would be where is "Sikowo"? I Assume that it could be the usual Germanization of replacing "V"s with "W"s, so that would make it Sikovo, Croatia. Perhaps this scene was from the early fighting in and around Croatia and the whole regional mess of the time?

I cannot come up with a definitive answer as to where the location is, either.

An online search for places named "Sikowo" or "Sikovo" yields only two results: A hill named Sikowo in Kenya (obviously out of the question) and the aforementioned Sikovo in Croatia.
I can also find references to a Zikovo as a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway, but this is in the Krasnoyarsk region, and the Wehrmacht never got that far.

Problem is, Croatia does not make sense, either, as a) the dead bodies are clearly referred to as Russians and b) the Balkan campaign had not yet started in February 1941.

Personally (but this is just my opinion) I think a wrong year given is still the likeliest explanation. As for the geographical designation, it could be that this "Sikovo" was some small, obscure village that possibly does not even exist anymore.