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Description
That were the comrades of my great-grandfather somewhere at the eastern-front. I´m not sure where exactly, because the picture has no notices on the backside. It looks like they were in Poland or Russia in summer.

I´m afraid the picture is a bit damaged, but I think that Kameraden still look cool^^

Information from my nice buddy "Lost in Desert":

UNIFORMS:

    To start, any military, especially under wartime pressure, has many variations and exceptions when it comes to uniforms. In addition, garrison wear and field wear often vary dramatically, especially in an age before ubiquitous cameras and when a unit could "get away” from the eyes of command. So take my opinions here for what they are meant to be: just a bit of help to piece together a story—but keep some skepticism.

    I think those are M36 tunics (Feldblusen). The collar (Kragen) appears to be darker than the tunic itself (hard to tell in B&W, so let me know your thoughts), but that alone would indicate M36 tunics. I cannot see if they are wearing Kragenbinden or not. They also have 5-button front, belt hooks in the front (usually attached to internal suspenders), and no y-strap leather harness (not used in the early war by some soldiers). In my opinion, the M36 is the sharpest looking tunic with a "bottle green" collar (flaschengrün), scalloped pocket flaps, and pleated pockets. (Please keep in mind M36, M40, M42, etc. are model numbers given by collectors from what I have heard. IDK what the OKW named the tunics--it's possible they did not name the different models and only allowed manufacturing shortcuts to be made as the war progressed. For tunic info, here is great link: www.atthefront.com/category-s/… )

    While M36s were worn, and even issued from old, forgotten stockpiles, throughout the war, they are much more common nearly 100% pre-war and through the earlier war years. This cannot date this photo for us, but it highly indicates early war.

    Another clue to date this photo: It seems as if the shoulder boards on the first man on the left (appears to be a Gefreiter) are dark colored (schwarz??) and again darker than the tunic AND they are rounded instead of pointed. This indicates the shoulder board style from 1938-1940. At some point in 1940, the shoulder boards were supposed to be feldgrau, same color as tunic. Do we have uniform carry-over or situations where the soldier is not wearing the latest uniform per OKW/OKH directives? Absolutely! There are many photos showing this. So we can only say these items cannot exist BEFORE a certain point. So we know this photo should be post 1938.

    Waffenfarbe - I cannot make out if they even have “piping” on their shoudler boards to indicate service, but infantry was white. I would think that color would show in a B&W photo (it does in others). If the Waffenfarbe is anything dark colored, it likely blends in. That being said, black piping usually indicated some type of combat engineers (Pioniere).

    The Schiffchen is in common use during the early war years but was seen less once the much more practical M43 style caps were adopted (Bergmütze). So this implies an early war setting but does not help us narrow it down.

    Bright (hell) Reichsadler and belt buckles (on field uniforms only, the going out and dress uniforms would still be sharp-looking) all indicate early war years too. These were quickly subdued as experience grew: Never stand out—the enemy might be low on ammo and picky! Again this points to early war uniform details.

    Most, but not all, are wearing gloves. The question is whether this is for a work detail or because of cold.

Other equipment:

    The Gruppe leader (front middle) is carrying on the right side of his belt a squad leader satchel used for documents, orders, maps, etc. This is further evidence of his position.

    The assistant Gruppe leader (AGL) and GL both have binoculars, fitting for their roles.

    They all carry the gas mask canisters. This was a required piece of equipmnet, but I believe some soldiers often ditched the gas mask to have a relatively weatherproof carrying space for more personal items and food. This was apparently a later war practice, and it could cause the soldier trouble because the gas mask was usually a piece of gear logged in your Soldbuch (meaning you took personal responsibility for the issued item). If you lacked that item during an inspection, it is likely you would suffer consequences (pay or rank reduction or work detail).
    Two men in the front row carry the gas mask canisters under their right arm. The normal prescribed position (at leats in Reibert’s Infantry Manua is to have it around the right shoulder and slip the carrying buckle under your belt between the straps of your breadbag (Brotbeutel). This would place the canister over your right rear, meaning it shoud not really be visible when viewed from the front. The fact these men also have 2 straps around their shoulders makes me think they are carrying some thing extra or are using extra gas mask canisters to carry something. But maybe they are simply holding it to keep it from banging around.

    Some men in the back have wider (4-5 cm)straps around their shoulders carrying some unidentified equipment. This is curious.

    The third soldier on the right appears to have an M35 helmet with Heeresadler decal. Other helmets are seen as well.

    I dont know what the cables or ropes are for, but again, pioneers, if that's what they are, would have this stuff.

    The yawning man far right , second row has an entrenching tool (Klappspaten or Spaten) on him. You can see the wooden handle. This is standard issue for every soldier, even today.

    Various other soldiers appear to have non-standard pouches and gear on their belts. I know one person said this might be an MG unit, and whiel I cannot refute that, I tend to think they are something else.

    Now, what is missing is important too. I do not see any "gas sheets” or “gas shields” (a thin cloth saturated with oil and meant to cover a soldier in the event of a gas attack). This was usually carried on the gas mask canister strap on the front chest. You can see this in many 1940 France photos. The gas sheet proved to be unecessary and was dropped from common usage after 1940 (“no longer used after 1940 as they had proven impractical and unnecessary.”, Alex Buchner, Das Handbuch der Deutschen Infanterie 1939-1945, published 1987). So if that information holds true, we can now say this is at least 1940 (assuming they were not given special permission to not have the gas shields which is unlikely).

The Soldiers:

    I also want to consider the demeanor of everyone in the photo. (I will assume the photographer is your great-grandfather. ??) One guy is smoking, another is yawning, and no one appears that that happy except the 2 in front. Only one has his helmet on already (the man on watch?).

    They don’t seem to be stressed or focused for battle, so I suspect this is a training photo or somewhere way in the rear. I think the first 2 men from left are the Gruppe (squad) asst. leader and the Gruppe leader. The first man has no NCO shoulder boards, but it appears to be a bit of a strip on his right sleeve peeking out. That would be the Gefreiter. The middle man definitely has tresse on all sides of his shoulder board. I cannot tell if he has any pips or not, so he is at least an Unterfeldwebel and in the role of Gruppe leader.

    The shoulder boards are dark compared to the tunic (schwarz und feldgrau). Sometime in 1940, the Army moved to gray on gray according to sources on Wikipedia. So the middle man is an NCO, but he's not wearing tresse. I have asked about this, and it could be that he just got promoted, is hiding the conspicuous tresse on the collar from snipers, or he grabbed a replacement tunic and simply placed the boards on it.    The men in the front row are holding MG Munitionkasten (held belts of MG34 ammo) or something similar looking. I do see an MG34, but mostly K98k's. I don’t see an MP38/40 as would be fitting for an NCO (maybe it’s on the ground or hidden). The two on left have binoculars, so that further affirms their Gruppe leader status. They also have better fitting tunics...the poor guy on the right has a horribly fitted uniform. lol

I am leaning more that these guys were Pioniere in a training exercise, and if you forced me to put a date on this, I woudl say it is 1940-1941. Looking at the gloves and the terrain (not terribly muddy, no snow), we might assume fall of 1940?

Description
That were the comrades of my great-grandfather somewhere at the eastern-front. I´m not sure where exactly, because the picture has no notices on the backside. It looks like they were in Poland or Russia in summer.

I´m afraid the picture is a bit damaged, but I think that Kameraden still look cool^^

Information from my nice buddy "Lost in Desert":

UNIFORMS:

    To start, any military, especially under wartime pressure, has many variations and exceptions when it comes to uniforms. In addition, garrison wear and field wear often vary dramatically, especially in an age before ubiquitous cameras and when a unit could "get away” from the eyes of command. So take my opinions here for what they are meant to be: just a bit of help to piece together a story—but keep some skepticism.

    I think those are M36 tunics (Feldblusen). The collar (Kragen) appears to be darker than the tunic itself (hard to tell in B&W, so let me know your thoughts), but that alone would indicate M36 tunics. I cannot see if they are wearing Kragenbinden or not. They also have 5-button front, belt hooks in the front (usually attached to internal suspenders), and no y-strap leather harness (not used in the early war by some soldiers). In my opinion, the M36 is the sharpest looking tunic with a "bottle green" collar (flaschengrün), scalloped pocket flaps, and pleated pockets. (Please keep in mind M36, M40, M42, etc. are model numbers given by collectors from what I have heard. IDK what the OKW named the tunics--it's possible they did not name the different models and only allowed manufacturing shortcuts to be made as the war progressed. For tunic info, here is great link: www.atthefront.com/category-s/… )

    While M36s were worn, and even issued from old, forgotten stockpiles, throughout the war, they are much more common nearly 100% pre-war and through the earlier war years. This cannot date this photo for us, but it highly indicates early war.

    Another clue to date this photo: It seems as if the shoulder boards on the first man on the left (appears to be a Gefreiter) are dark colored (schwarz??) and again darker than the tunic AND they are rounded instead of pointed. This indicates the shoulder board style from 1938-1940. At some point in 1940, the shoulder boards were supposed to be feldgrau, same color as tunic. Do we have uniform carry-over or situations where the soldier is not wearing the latest uniform per OKW/OKH directives? Absolutely! There are many photos showing this. So we can only say these items cannot exist BEFORE a certain point. So we know this photo should be post 1938.

    Waffenfarbe - I cannot make out if they even have “piping” on their shoudler boards to indicate service, but infantry was white. I would think that color would show in a B&W photo (it does in others). If the Waffenfarbe is anything dark colored, it likely blends in. That being said, black piping usually indicated some type of combat engineers (Pioniere).

    The Schiffchen is in common use during the early war years but was seen less once the much more practical M43 style caps were adopted (Bergmütze). So this implies an early war setting but does not help us narrow it down.

    Bright (hell) Reichsadler and belt buckles (on field uniforms only, the going out and dress uniforms would still be sharp-looking) all indicate early war years too. These were quickly subdued as experience grew: Never stand out—the enemy might be low on ammo and picky! Again this points to early war uniform details.

    Most, but not all, are wearing gloves. The question is whether this is for a work detail or because of cold.

Other equipment:

    The Gruppe leader (front middle) is carrying on the right side of his belt a squad leader satchel used for documents, orders, maps, etc. This is further evidence of his position.

    The assistant Gruppe leader (AGL) and GL both have binoculars, fitting for their roles.

    They all carry the gas mask canisters. This was a required piece of equipmnet, but I believe some soldiers often ditched the gas mask to have a relatively weatherproof carrying space for more personal items and food. This was apparently a later war practice, and it could cause the soldier trouble because the gas mask was usually a piece of gear logged in your Soldbuch (meaning you took personal responsibility for the issued item). If you lacked that item during an inspection, it is likely you would suffer consequences (pay or rank reduction or work detail).
    Two men in the front row carry the gas mask canisters under their right arm. The normal prescribed position (at leats in Reibert’s Infantry Manua is to have it around the right shoulder and slip the carrying buckle under your belt between the straps of your breadbag (Brotbeutel). This would place the canister over your right rear, meaning it shoud not really be visible when viewed from the front. The fact these men also have 2 straps around their shoulders makes me think they are carrying some thing extra or are using extra gas mask canisters to carry something. But maybe they are simply holding it to keep it from banging around.

    Some men in the back have wider (4-5 cm)straps around their shoulders carrying some unidentified equipment. This is curious.

    The third soldier on the right appears to have an M35 helmet with Heeresadler decal. Other helmets are seen as well.

    I dont know what the cables or ropes are for, but again, pioneers, if that's what they are, would have this stuff.

    The yawning man far right , second row has an entrenching tool (Klappspaten or Spaten) on him. You can see the wooden handle. This is standard issue for every soldier, even today.

    Various other soldiers appear to have non-standard pouches and gear on their belts. I know one person said this might be an MG unit, and whiel I cannot refute that, I tend to think they are something else.

    Now, what is missing is important too. I do not see any "gas sheets” or “gas shields” (a thin cloth saturated with oil and meant to cover a soldier in the event of a gas attack). This was usually carried on the gas mask canister strap on the front chest. You can see this in many 1940 France photos. The gas sheet proved to be unecessary and was dropped from common usage after 1940 (“no longer used after 1940 as they had proven impractical and unnecessary.”, Alex Buchner, Das Handbuch der Deutschen Infanterie 1939-1945, published 1987). So if that information holds true, we can now say this is at least 1940 (assuming they were not given special permission to not have the gas shields which is unlikely).

The Soldiers:

    I also want to consider the demeanor of everyone in the photo. (I will assume the photographer is your great-grandfather. ??) One guy is smoking, another is yawning, and no one appears that that happy except the 2 in front. Only one has his helmet on already (the man on watch?).

    They don’t seem to be stressed or focused for battle, so I suspect this is a training photo or somewhere way in the rear. I think the first 2 men from left are the Gruppe (squad) asst. leader and the Gruppe leader. The first man has no NCO shoulder boards, but it appears to be a bit of a strip on his right sleeve peeking out. That would be the Gefreiter. The middle man definitely has tresse on all sides of his shoulder board. I cannot tell if he has any pips or not, so he is at least an Unterfeldwebel and in the role of Gruppe leader.

    The shoulder boards are dark compared to the tunic (schwarz und feldgrau). Sometime in 1940, the Army moved to gray on gray according to sources on Wikipedia. So the middle man is an NCO, but he's not wearing tresse. I have asked about this, and it could be that he just got promoted, is hiding the conspicuous tresse on the collar from snipers, or he grabbed a replacement tunic and simply placed the boards on it.    The men in the front row are holding MG Munitionkasten (held belts of MG34 ammo) or something similar looking. I do see an MG34, but mostly K98k's. I don’t see an MP38/40 as would be fitting for an NCO (maybe it’s on the ground or hidden). The two on left have binoculars, so that further affirms their Gruppe leader status. They also have better fitting tunics...the poor guy on the right has a horribly fitted uniform. lol

I am leaning more that these guys were Pioniere in a training exercise, and if you forced me to put a date on this, I woudl say it is 1940-1941. Looking at the gloves and the terrain (not terribly muddy, no snow), we might assume fall of 1940?