Germany, Heer. A Private Wartime Photo Album to a Member of Infanterie-Regiment 475

(Heer Fotoalbum). A fascinating early wartime private photo album, constructed of a heavy card stock binding with a cloth twill exterior liner, the spine perforated with four eyelets which are reinforced with metal grommets, in turn accommodating a drawstring which maintains the album’s structural integrity, the interior content consisting of 23 card stock pages pasted with 228 small photographs (with some individual components containing multiple images) accompanied by detailed handwritten descriptions of individuals, places, events, and dates, opening with the owner attached to III. Bataillon, Infanterie-Regiment 475 on 31 August 1939, mobilized in Grimma (Saxony) as part of Wehrkreis IV the following day, with subsequent deployment for occupation duty in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 2 September until 30 November 1939, with numerous scenes of uniformed Heer personnel in annexed Czech territory, followed by scenes of what is described as a long and difficult winter of 1939/40, with images of soldiers on exercises and at leisure while on leave in Germany, followed by a combat deployment to Belgium, with numerous scenes of devastated towns and landscapes following the Wehrmacht’s advance, notably including shots of downed Luftwaffe aircraft and captured colonial troops, followed by scenes of celebrations following Germany’s successful conclusion of the spring 1940 campaign in the west (“Waffenstillstandsfeier”), followed by numerous tourist-style images of French towns and cities which depict full battle devastation, including a horse riding excursion to the Channel Coast, followed by images the owner’s family while on leave in late 1940 and further images of Heer personnel in the field, concluding with images of personnel in occupied Poland in the spring of 1941, prior to the impending advance into the Balkans and Soviet Union, measuring 24.5 cm (w) x 17.5 cm (h), a superb and unit-attributed chronicle of the war from a soldier’s perspective, in extremely fine condition.