Gutenberg Monument

This is a picture of the Gutenberg Monument in Frankfurt, Germany. It is located in the area of the city known as the "Rossmarkt". In addition to Johannes Gutenberg, Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer, both popular names in printing history, are also cast in bronze beside him. My photo (top) has no date, yet from the severe damage of the surrounding buildings, this photo might have been taken sometime after the U.S. 8th Air Force bombing of Frankfurt on January 29, 1944.

The bottom photo, courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Rossmarkt-gutenberg-ffm018.jpg, is the monument as it is seen today. Although slight changes have been made to the Deutsche Bank building in the background, it is still fairly close to the original structure.

German Trench

I bought this photo at an online auction. It is a very small photo (2"x2") and appears to have had been once glued in an album. Although the glue distorted what was written on back , the written date "1940" can be seen. The other writing is too incomplete to make out.

Both soldiers are of the regular German army (Heer). The soldier in the foreground, based on the collar patches & shoulder tabs, is the rank equivalent to a private. In front of him, resting in the dirt, is his K98 Mauser rifle. On his belt (left side), you can just make out his K98 bayonet. He is wearing one of the early designed Heer helmets, the M1935, which was one of the first helmets to feature the Heer eagle holding the swastika.

The soldier in the background is looking through binoculars. He is wearing a coat which hides any information about rank. He appears to be standing in front of a corrugated pipe that has been set in the trench (perhaps a makeshift bunker?)

Based on the dirt pile in the far background, this trench must have been fairly long in size. In the background to the left, there appears to be a fence of some sort. If you look closely, there appear to be several "lumps" in front of the fence. I cannot tell if this is earth or perhaps livestock.

Mystery Wreck

My picture (above) is is full of mystery:

1)Based on the rank patch (private), I assume this is an American soldier. All other allied (or axis for that matter) chevrons during WW2 were turned the opposite direction. As for the unit patch, no amount of sharpening or magnification makes it any clearer. Whatever unit it is, it appears to have a large, light colored vertical stripe going down the middle of it.

2) The plane is obviously German and has severe rudder damage. The type of plane, however, is a bit difficult to identify. I am assuming it is a Focke-Wulf 190 based on the tail shape and rudder "peak" to which the antenna wire would be attached. There are no other markings on the plane except for a light colored fuselage stripe behind the soldier's legs. Being a black & white photo, this fuselage stripe could be white or yellow. The rudder color could also be red or gray. These colors, if known, would help further identify the plane. The fuselage appears to have a slight gray camouflage paint scheme.

3) The ammo belt around the soldier appears to be large in caliber. The Focke-Wulf carried 7.9mm machine guns and 20mm cannons. If this belt is from the plane, then it could be 20mm.

4) The wreckage behind the Focke-Wulf is a mystery. It appears as if it might be a wing? A wing light can be seen along with a white marking of some sort. The Focke-Wulf did not have this type of wing light. A gun barrel is also present. I cannot identify the caliber of the gun. If the wreckage behind the Focke-Wulf is from another plane, this picture could be dated towards the end of the war when allied forces began to discover Luftwaffe "graveyards" full of crashed or abandoned planes.

***The photo below mine is of a Focke-Wulf 190 (courtesy of Craig Murray @ http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/6/1/5/1209516.jpg).

Reims Cathedral WWI

My photo (top right), is of the exquisite, yet utterly destroyed (from artillery) Reims Cathedral in Reims, France.

The picture on the bottom right was taken at the moment that the destruction began (courtesy of http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kjg/wwi_mod/pics00.htm).

There is no date or info on my picture, yet there are various signs that could reveal the date:

The sailors, along with Yeomen (naval women who performed clerical duties), are American. Americans did not enter the war until April 6, 1917, so this picture dates itself after that. The weather also appears to be cold, which must be sometime in late fall or winter. In August-September of 1917, the German military retreated back and formed the famous Hindenburg Line (just to the north of Reims). In November of 1918, the war ended. The picture, therefore, must be from around the time the Germans evacuated Reims or at the end of the war.

I managed to find other interesting information regarding this photo. A picture found online shows Italian troops standing in the same spot in front of the cathedral. The brick building to the right of them has chimney stacks. In my picture, the chimneys of the brick building are gone. I also managed to find an article from The New York Times written by an American reporter on Christmas, 1916. In the article, he describes the condition of the cathedral inside and out. In his description, the stained glass circle on the facade still had glass on the right half. In my picture, no glass can be seen in any window.

The picture on the top left is the cathedral as it is seen today, taken from almost the same position (courtesy of http://image.rol.vn/Resources/2008/10/14_DOOL_081014_CD_L1_H1.jpg).


The New York Times article can be found at:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9800E7DC153BE633A25756C2A9649D946796D6CF

A New Hobby Emerges

Over the past decade, any place that has ever been deemed "home" has always been littered with my collection of various pieces of military equipment. Our current pillbox of an apartment has recently become one of the only, if not the only, military surplus establishments this side of the Medical Center (only because the 75th Infantry headquarters down the street recently became a barracks for weeds).

Tragically, much of what one finds when collecting militaria are pieces of dilapidated equipment, usually their purpose forgotten or disregarded (helmets used for holding water, or what seems to be once used as a flower pot, bayonets that served as machetes, mess kits harshly used as camping equipment and uniforms that became a moth & silverfish buffet).

I originally began this blog thinking that it would be a great way to showcase this equipment, from the moment items were bought, through the restoration phase and then the finished results. This was the case until yesterday, upon rummaging through a box of old photos in an antique store, that I found four brittle, unassuming snapshots taken from moments during both world wars. After purchasing these photos (all about $2-3 each), I began to ponder the notion that the pictures I had just purchased could be, and most likely were, the only copy of that snapshot in existence. Thinking more deeply, I may have just saved four moments in time that would otherwise disappear from existence completely.

Though I was simply able to add these to my militaria collection, these were, to me, a different kind of history. Just like each helmet, knife or Zippo lighter, each picture has a story to tell. Hence, this blog came into existence.

Many of these photos are not labeled. Consequently, a great deal of time and research is needed to decipher each snapshot. I shall do my best in this process. Through this blog I hope that, in some small way, these moments in time become remembered and animated once again...