I heard somewhere that MG gunners (the #1 man) had binoculars. Does anyone know if this is true?

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A Member of the 2nd Panzer Division
Jason "Axel" DeRocher

As far as I know--the team leader usually had some field glasses. Its difficult to tell from the few photos I have of MG teams in action of whether or not they have some of not due to where the phots were taken.

I think it would have been the SMART idea to have a set of glasses.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Carl is right, the team leader would have had the glasses. The No 1 would have been busy with the gun, while the No 2 is feeding the ammo. The commander would have been watching for other targets as well as for any enemy trying to snick up on the team.

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

I was looking through my photos of MG teams and found one that was taken of an MG team who were in the 21st Inf Div--somewhere in Russia in the summertime--I think this was an Operation Barbarossa photo. It was part of a set that an idiot decided to break up and sell on ebay about 2 years ago and the only 2 from the set I managed to rescue were soldiers in the 21st I.D. in russia. The other photo is an insignificant photo but I thought it was a neat one because it shows a column of soldiers marching past a pool of water--after a rain? and you see their reflections in the photo as well as themselves.

I didnt have the money at that time to try for the entire grouping of photos but I did manage to keep two of the 6 together.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Oh and I forgot--thanks Bish and if im not mistaken--I think I sent a copy of the photo for Otto to post here on the site. Soon to be also two photos newly bought, both are German Panzer photos--a PZ 4 and a light Panzer.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Not to sound daft, but where can I view these pictures?

I have a good deal that I would like to submit of my own, as well.

My grandfather's entire collection will eventually make it's way online, and a I have small budding Panzer Collection (mainly early war, Invasion of France - Destroyed Char B1, captured Allied vehicles, as well as assorted relaxing panzercrewmembers).

Thank you,

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- Modus -
modus@thmodus.com
Obergefreiter Hermann Van der Waal
25. Panzer Grenadier Division

Hello Modus: The webmaster (Otto) is going to try to email me about updates osometime on Wednesday. There will be a section of photos of Knights Cross Recipients (appx 50) so far.

There will also be a site showing many fotos from a U 181 crewmember--possibly 20 or so, and I have no clue as to what Otto might do with the 2 Panzer fotos I sent to him via email. All you have to do if you wanna contribute fotos--just send Otto an email at Otto@ww2n.com and send the photos by scanning them to him and he will save them and try to figure out where or how to use them. I think I have sent him around 80 fotos so far and he has that I know of about 40 photos from the 44th Inf Div. All contributions are greatly appreciated and welcomed.

If you cant send them through email--his snail mail address is listed on this site under contact-I believe.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I'll get into contact with him.

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- Modus -
modus@thmodus.com
Obergefreiter Hermann Van der Waal
25. Panzer Grenadier Division

Good deal. He might take sometime to get back to you depending on whether or not he is out of town because of his job. He does make an excellent effort to get back to you as soon as possible.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Modus, Carl and others......Yes, Modus, I think we would love to see your OPA's collection of fine militaria as it is available by on-line means. Hopefully Otto in his busy schedule can get things updated. I too know the feeling when there just doesn;t seem to be the time unless you are up into the wee hours of the morning like 2 a.m.....yuk but sometimes it has to be done. We will not update our site until the translation of the JG 300 book is completed which will be sometime in June we hope.......

Ok, back to the original posting. I have at least two pics of Luftwaffe mg teams with the mg 42, a three man team(s) and the mg's are equipped with the AA site rings. I only imagine for airfield defense, but personally I would rather be behind a quad 2cm or single 3.7cm weapon. Both team have binocs around their necks. Possibly Russia ? Now I've got to find the two photos just as my curiousity is up......

E

Yep--sounds like they are either a Luftwaffe Flak unit protection or either stationed near a coastal area. I have recently seen some nice Luftwaffe photos of MG teams in both places and as like you say--part of an airfields defense.

I couldnt afford the photos but did get one with some light Panzers in a small column--AND that one was very difficult to get!

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Interesting. and ya know I have seen also W-SS troops with the mg 42 and the AA site ring as well.......hmmmmmm

E

I too have seen Waffen SS with MGs with AA mounts. This one was a photo over looking a Fjord in Norway. I think I might have seen a Waffen SS MG team on an Armored Train-which was also equipped with the AA sight.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Yeah, the pic I was referring too actually two of them showed SS Grenadiers in Normandy....

E

Thats interesting--do you think they could have been from the 17th SS? Gotz v. B?

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

No absolute clue ! No cuff title worn. could be from any formation in Normandy. young chaps, but that doesn't mean anything either......rats !

E

My great uncle has a bunch of pictures of captured Waffen SS troops that he took around the end of the war. I'd love to get those pictures out because their wearing some sweet looking camo uniforms and other stuff.

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"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

And when do you think that might be if I may ask ? I would love to see them myself......

E

That would be a great deal Pg, if you can scan them at a copyie place like Kinkos--they wouldnt be expensive at all to copy and you might get 4-6 photos to a sheet for about $1.00.

I have sent Otto I guess about 80 photos or so and I aint broke yet.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

My great uncle is out in California, he won't be back till the end of the month. When he gets back I'll ask him and I'll see if he has more pictures I could look through.

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"Front leaning rest position"
"Move"
"In cadence, exercise....1, 2, 3" (My favorite thing to hear at 5 in the morning.)

Very good, please keep us informed. In the meantime, im going to try to get in touch with Otto to see about posting a few Panzer photos here somewhere. These are newly acquired photos. Im also going to hopefully have a few Gebirgejager photos and several Private photos of Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock.

Im also working on a small but growing collection of ww1 photos.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.