The Wehrpaß of bank clerk Werner Tietz who served in Landesschützen/Security Regiment 45, 221st Security Division. Between 1941 and 1943, he rose through the ranks from Gefreiter to Leutnant. In September 1943, he was killed by a direct hit from an artillery shell.

Today I received these photographs from Germany. The captions state ‘General’s visit to Barowitsche’ & ‘Pflugbeil’. This is Generalleutnant Johann Pflugbeil, commander of the Wehrmacht 221st Security Division, the focus of my thesis.

From the collection: A large amount of paperwork to A.J.Beckwith, who commissioned into the British Army in 1958. He served with: the Gurkha Division REME in the Malayan Emergency 1959-60; 42 Commando on HMS Bulwark 1961; and Forward Air Control.

A twig of Christmas Tree sent by Obergefreiter Munker to his daughter on 3rd December 1944. Munker was serving in a Wehrmacht communications unit at the time and would be captured by the Red Army in early 1945.

Munker served 1940-45 and returned from Soviet captivity in 1948.

An excellent photo of Cpl Cooper of the Durham Light Infantry ready for patrol in Korea, September 1952.

Mk.V Sten, extra magazines stuffed in his Battledress trouser pocket, Mills Bomb, jersey, cap comforter, and, most importantly for a soldier, a cig.

(D.R.O.)

A tragic memorial in Drax Church to Gunner Edmund Hutchinson, who served with 50th Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery. Despite the information on the stone, he his now buried 42km west in La Baraque British Cemetery, Bellenglise.

Heinz Reinefarth, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, and Colonel Willi Schmidt in Warsaw during the uprising, 1944. Schmidt was the commander of the Wehrmacht Security Regiment 608, which deployed alongside the Dirlewanger Brigade during the Wola Massacre.

Bert Greiser was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment, Michael Bachmann 20 months, in 'Bright Future' Juvenile Detention Centre in Halle. They were released 3 days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 20 years later, Bild newspaper brought them back together.

The shooter, Captain Karl-Heinz B., belonged to the Passport Control Unit (PKE). The PKE belonged to the Stasi Main Department VI, yet wore the uniforms of NVA border guards.
Was he informed of the ceasefire or did he ignore it?
Taken to court in 1993, he was not prosecuted.

This map was produced by the Stasi to understand their escape and the subsequent unfolding of events. As can be seen, the two managed to sprint through the rear security area, customs- and passport controls, before being arrested in the forward security area.
(BStU)

Bert Greiser und Michael Bachmann, both 27, had been training for months to prepare them for the sprint to the West. Unbeknownst to them, the DDR had repealed the "Shooting Order" on 3 April, after the killing of Chris Gueffroy. Then on, troops could only shoot in self-defence.

Thread: Around 9:30am on 8th April 1989, this East German border guard officer was photographed firing at two East German men who had just jumped over the barrier at the East-West border crossing at Chausseestraße, Berlin.
He missed.

A postcard to commemorate 25 years of the National People’s Army of East Germany, 1981.