German troops removing roadblock in the Ardennes

Roadblock

Exhausted german soldiers are falling back with their wounded comrades. Leaving back the wounded was bad for the morale. The fall of 1943. 

Retreat

Unterscharfuhrer of the 21st Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg", playing a traditional musical instrument.  This strange unit was composed of men of Albanian ethnicity (mainly from Kosovo), supplemented by drafts of Volksdeutsch from Austria and from the Balkan Volksdeutsch SS Mountain Division, "Prinz Eugen".  The NCO wears the early type of the SS issue traditional Albanian skull cap.  One would have thought that Albanians were pretty far out on a limb as far as SS racial categorisations were concerned; however, Himmler relied on wacky Italian racial "research" (suggesting that Albanians were really "Pure Aryans") to justify the recruitment of an Albanian SS division.

"Skanderbeg's" record as a military unit (mainly in 1944) was not at all good; however, they proved extremely effective in conducting what were essentially murderous "ethnic cleansing" operations in Kosovo and Serbia proper.  Wracked by desertions and disciplinary problems, the remains of the division was absorbed into "Prinz Eugen" early in 1945.  Best regards, JR.