Photo album of a Panzer trooper from Regiment 31 of the 5th Panzer Division

[avenger]

Have this posted in the new photo pickups thread, but I was told this album may be worth it's own thread, so here we go.

Bought a photo album that contains a good deal of photos from the campaign of a panzer trooper from 3rd company panzer regiment 31, which is part of the 8th Panzer Brigade from the 5th Panzer Division. Thought maybe some folks here might find a few of these early photos interesting. The last two pages, we're told, are supposed to be from this soldiers brother's time in Africa.

The 5th Panzer Division saw some heavy fighting through most of the war. 5th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht) | World War II
























And closeups of some of the pictures I thought were the most interesting. The ship pictured I've identified as a Deutschland class cruiser. The graves are of 3 of the soldier's comrades (as noted in the label):

[Paul D]

Lexikon der Wehrmacht - Panzerdivisionen

[Jerry B]

A very good album, well done on finding it. Gotta love the one near the end with him striking a pose in his wrap with scarf and beret in front of the window.

[avenger]

A very good album, well done on finding it. Gotta love the one near the end with him striking a pose in his wrap with scarf and beret in front of the window.

Thank you sir. That was one of the top photos that drew me to it. I wish the album had been completed with the organization it was started with so we could see the rest of the story, but I guess there wasn't much time to snap happy photos and stand in windows as the war went on...

I'm having a hard time translating the first page as a couple of words are throwing me. If anyone knows what that says, I would really appreciate the help with this one.

[Jerry B]

The tropical pics are also very good to see and in fact all of it is of a high standard, some good quality pics of early war panzers. Later I assume he was too busy staying alive to pose for the cameras. Is it named and did he survive do you know?

[Paul D]

You tend to find that early war , even early Barbarossa many soldiers had cameras and were snappng away hence all the early photos , as the war went on staying alive became more of a priority once the realities of combat hit home.

Very few albums contain many late war photos !

[Paul D]

Can you read the dates of death on the crosses ?

[avenger]

I'm not sure if he survived or not, nor his name. I have been able to identify him though, the one on the right I believe:

[avenger]

Can you read the dates of death on the crosses ?

The photo's pretty clear. I'll get out my magnifier when I get home and see if I can read them.

[avenger]

Can you read the dates of death on the crosses ?

These are pretty hard to make out, but I think what we have is (translated to US date configuration):

Karl Zimmerman - 10/15/1917 - 9/1/1939 (maybe 9/2)
Helmut Richter - 2/11/1917 - 9/2/1939

The last grave is hard to make out. I "think" it says:
Gerhard Kolfermann - 8/12/1912 - 9/2/1939