Germany, Wehrmacht. A Pair of Private Wartime Photo Albums from a Soldier on the Eastern Front

(Wehrmacht Fotoalbums). A superb pair of private wartime photos albums to a soldier with extensive service on the Eastern Front, including:

1. One constructed of a heavy card stock binding with a faux red leather exterior liner, the spine performed with four holes reinforced with bronze eyelets through which is loop an adjustable leather strap which maintains the album’s structural integrity, the interior content consisting of 22 black card stock pages retaining 220 black-and-white photos, opening with studio images of the owner from childhood through to his entrance into the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service) and Wehrmacht (Heer), transitioning to images of the Rügen district (presumably close to the owner’s childhood home) and Bad Schwalbach (at the time of his service with the RAD), with the second half of the album depicting the owner’s time with 2. Kompanie, Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 234, initially on the homefront, with many scenes of personnel in uniform, subsequently transitioning to Finland, with further images of Heer soldiers at leisure, skiing and playing football, before concluding with combat operations on the Eastern Front, each page notably featuring hand-written captions providing detailed descriptions of the images, measuring 32 cm (w) x 22 cm (h), an interesting album in extremely fine condition.

2. A second one constructed of a heavy card stock binding with a faux red leather exterior liner, the spine performed with four holes reinforced with bronze eyelets through which is loop an adjustable leather strap which maintains the album’s structural integrity, the interior content consisting of 22 black card stock pages retaining 162 black-and-white images encompassing the owner’s experiences on the Eastern Front, opening with scenes of Wehrmacht positions in Finland in July 1941 (shortly after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa), with depictions of field graves featuring fully-legible names and dates, followed by extensive images of uniformed Heer personnel in the field in the Finnish/Soviet border region, with excellent images of ski troops of a machine gun unit in 1942, Wehrmacht vehicles struggling in the infamous Russian mud, and personnel in the field in both winter and marshy spring/summer conditions, concluding with shots of miserable life at the front in the concluding months of the war in 1945, similarly accompanied by extremely detailed hand-written captions provided by the owner, measuring 32 cm (w) x 22 cm (h), with three photos missing, an exceptional depiction of the campaign in the northern sector of the Eastern Front in extremely fine condition.