On this picture you can see the drivers of the 4th battery/Mobile Flak-Regiment 3 (towed 88mm-guns) somewhere in southern Russia. Notice that almost every soldier is decorated with the Ground Assault Badge of the Air Force, meaning they\'ve seen more than \"just\" flak-action. Further you can see the driver\'s badges on the left hand sleeves (forearm). My grandfather Obergefreiter (corporal) Rudolf S. is the third soldier from the right. (flamethrowerguy)

Driver squad of 4th battery/Mobile Flak-Regiment 3

This is the official obituary of my granduncle Arnold E. Mind the delay of the publishing: Arnold E. died in early december 1941, the obituary is from may 20th 1942. Remarkable as well: the circumstances of his death have been \"censored\", the fact that probably hundreds of german POWs had been killed by friendly fire was unacceptable to the poulation. So the official version on the obituary says: Arnold was captured by the british, freed himself from captivity and was killed in action in a new assignment. (flamethrowerguy)

Obituary of Arnold E.

Not family of mine but still an interesting and tragic story behind the picture I\'d like to tell. The man on the photo, Gefreiter Rudi Roscher (+24.12.1944), was the best friend of my grandfather during the war, they were comrades in the same unit. On Christmas Eve of the year 1944 (their unit was fighting their way back to Germany) they were resting somewhere in Romania when the CO gave the order to send out a patrol and find out how far the Red Army had already advanced. My grandfather was picked for the patrol by the officer. But because my grandfather was the better cook, his friend Rudi answered: \"You stay in and fix christmas-dinner and i\'ll go on patrol for you.\" Well, what had to happen, did happen. On patrol they encountered a russian counter-patrol and it came to fight and things got messy. When the russians had retreated Rudi was missing. They searched and found him dead lying in the snow, a dead russian soldier a couple of feet away. Most probably both pulled the trigger the very same fraction of a second and killed each other. (flamethrowerguy)