I wonder who might want to be promoted to Rotten Führer rank? Well the next step on the ladder after that was Krappenführer! (no it wasn't I just made that up)
Hi All, according to my Engineer grandads diary, he was moved out the the line and moved to stalag 7 in March 45. This may be how he came across it?
The walls around the gate seem a bit robust for a POW camp. I would be inclined to go for some form of Barracks or Larger for the a unit of German troops in an occupied country.
Wow a lot to digest. Thank you all. Fairly confident he never went further east than Essen, as before that he was in France, Belgium and Netherlands - so where he came across this will remain a mystery! I'll attach a higher res image just in case it helps.
I'd vote for SS Sturmann too, for what it's worth. Appears to be a cuff title or foreign volunteer badge on his lower left sleeve (can't recall if SS wore trade badges?). Don't think it'll ever be clear though, & Zooming in, it may even be a photographic artefact. Can his M34 give any clues? Quite plain, and looks very black. Lord knows. I'd vote for the 'Ost' idea too, if only for the turfed roof - but then I suppose a lot of troops may have bought back building techniques from there. Bloke in the tower's the real challenge, I think he may have a moustache...
Bloke in the tower's the real challenge, I think he may have a moustache... O God - it can't be, can it???? :mellow: On a more serious note - OP, if it was a POW laager....then I would expect a chinmey in the main part of the building for heat; but the only (stove) chinmey is in the little rear lean-to hut....posibly a cook house or something. I would of course ALSO be a bit worried that the guard tower was inside a POW compound with the windows looking OUT!! Rather than on the outside of the fence (or any wire) looking in.... Is is just me - or does the gentleman on guard duty look a lot like Hugh Dennis???
Also a distinct lack of barbed wire , is it really a POW camp , or just a wayside stop of somekind , and the chaps just doing sentry duties
Kate is correct, the guard is SS. There appears to be a black collar patch if you look closely. Only the SS wore the Eagle on their left arm. Wehrmacht had the eagle over the breast pocket. Regards Tom
The roof angle and the rows of long wooden shingles add to the Eastern Front idea. It's certainly not a POW pen tho'....not with so low a wall, no wire....and the banked earth right up to the top of the wall on one side! A quick leg-up and POWs would be all voer the landscape! Right over on the left there's the end of a much higher and longer roof - with several chimneys along its length; the all-over idea I get from it is some sort of depot or even a major railhead - noting the two sets of rails. Interestingly - the beaten earth or fine gravel that's "ballast" beneath the rails is suspiciously clean - no coal dust, no oil stains, and no weeds Those two sets of rails have been very recently laid - during the re-gauging of railways in the East, possibly? Maybe the banked earth/ramp has been put there for Steve McQueen! :p
