Original Item: One Only. A beautifully arranged German WWII Army Heer photo album with a wonderful green cover and silver eagle with the following embossed writing:
13. (I. G.) Komp.
Inf. – Rgt. 119
The opening page is marked with the phrase Erinnerungen an meine Wehrdienstzeit , which literally translates to “memories of my military service”, as is typical for these photo albums. Following this are prints of Adolph AH and members of the NSDAP German high command, such as Hermann Goering.
Features 25 pages with 40 photos original photos with 5 signed prints in front.
The 119th Infantry regiment served on the eastern front. They are cataloged in the Osprey book German Infantryman (2) – Eastern Front 1941 – 1943. The following is an excerpt
On 1 July 1941, nine days after the start of the campaign, 180 German soldiers belonging to the 119 Infantry Regiment and some artillerymen were captured in a sudden Russian counter-attack on the Klewan-Broniki road in the Ukraine. They belonged to two motorised infantry formations which blundered into a superior Soviet force of one and a half divisions and were overwhelmed. The prisoners, most of them wounded, were herded into a clover field alongside the road and ordered to undress. Gefreiter (lance-corporal) Karl Jager hurriedly began to pull off his tunic having ‘had to hand over all valuable objects, including everything we had in our pockets’. Prisoners were generally compliant in this initial phase of capture, in shock and concerned for their lives. The wounded soldiers had difficulty undressing. Jager recalled a fellow NCO, Gefreiter Kurz, struggling to undo his belt because of an injured hand. To his horror he saw ‘he was stabbed behind in the neck so that the bayonet came out through his throat’. Shocked, the other soldiers frantically removed their tunic jackets.