Photo Album - Adolf Galland at Audembert base North France

Morlar

Here are some photos which belong to an album owned by a friend of mine that show Adolf Galland's ME109 squadron at Audembert (including the RAD crew construction/expansion of the base & barracks construction).

Here is some more background information on the album :

Luftwaffe Ground unit, Audembert, North France 1940 - PMD Collection

Approximately 150 pictures from a man who served in Reichsarbeitsdienst and later a Luftwaffe ground crew at Audembert, North France (Pas De Calais) beginning with his Hitler Youth days & continuing through Reichsarbeitsdienst service (from 1st April 1940 to 10th October 1940) & through to his time with a Luftwaffe ground unit. Included are pictures of his RAD service at the West Wall, pictures taken in the North Calais aftermath of an Air raid which cost 5000 lives. Also pictures of the construction of the camouflaged barracks of Adolf Galland's Messerschmitt Bf 109F squadron at Platz Audembert in 1941 & 5cm PAK 38 in service by the Luftwaffe ground unit. Vehicles include airfield steamrollers and refuelling trucks, jeeps and halftracks. Parade ground Photos of the Regimental Commander of Fliegerausbildungs regiment 22 (which in November 1942 became Luftwaffen-Jäger-Regiment 28 & then absorbed by the 3. and 5. Fallschirm-Jäger-Divisions on 9.9.44). These pictures appear to have been taken at the town square in Marienburg Ostpreussen. Also shown here are pictures of firing party at funeral & Luftwaffe ground crew & LW cammo uniforms. This album begins with many civilian and family pictures and includes locations such as Hamburg, Mosel, Wildeshausen, Waldeck, Westwall, Calais, Dunkirk, Audembert, Marquise and others. This album is from the P.McDonnell Collection.

Morlar

North Calais after air raid


ME109's

Morlar

More

Morlar

Pics showing the barracks construction :

Morlar

More Me109's

Morlar

These show the Fliegerausbildungs regiment 22 at Parade Square Marienburg, Ostpreussen



Highly decorated Regimental Commandant, Fliegerausbildungs regiment 22 at Parade Square Marienburg, Ostpreussen

Morlar

More Regimental Commandant, Fliegerausbildungs regiment 22 at Parade Square Marienburg, Ostpreussen


& unknown unit insignia

Morlar

5cm PAK 38 Christmas 1943 Mielau (now Poland)



Luftwaffe ground crew


5cm PAK 38

Morlar

Airwar



LW Ground unit camouflage uniform


& ending with some funeral pictures;


The rest of the album is online here if anyone wants to check it out :

http://www.militaria-archive.com/Albums/Private-Collection/PMD/LW-Audembert/index.html

HerrScheisse

That's quite an impressive set! It would be interesting to see a then and now comparison of some of those pictures!

Check out the detailed script of the handwriting!

arnhem44

Morlar your photo collections are second to none,truly impressive collection and thanks for sharing them with us,excellent stuff as always.

Morlar

To clarify I do not own this particular set - it's the first few I have posted here which I don't personally own. These are ones owned by another collector - I just digitised them and put them online.

paddywhack262

big thanks to Morlar for donig the pics of this album!funny thing is when i bought this album no one seemed to want it buy it as it has a cool stag on the front of it so its not in the classic military albums! also theres alot of pre war pics and post war pics so i reckon the guy survived the war,also its only missing 1 or 2 pics that arnt military so its pretty complete!!!!
again thanks to Morlar as my scanner couldnt have got such good pics of the album!!!:)

FiSe

Thanks for posting it up. Nice photos - as usual...

Do we know the unit he was in? I pressume it was some of the LW field/flak unit, judging by the PaK picture and those camouflaged uniforms.

Morlar

FiSe wrote: »

Thanks for posting it up. Nice photos - as usual...

Do we know the unit he was in? I pressume it was some of the LW field/flak unit, judging by the PaK picture and those camouflaged uniforms.

Yep - It is often difficult to say with albums so I normally either specify the Division (if known) or otherwise leave it vague if there is a lack of firm detail. Even posting them on specialist research forums you soon realise a lot of experts replies are 'on balance' and 'best guess'. Idenfitying locations, and units can help to narrow it down however often there is conflicting information. Another factor is that personnel were shifted either temporarily or 'permanently' into and then again out of units to cover shortages as they occurred during the war. Also, men swapped photos with each other and then included them in respective albums.

If you study Wehrpass/Soldbuch you can often see multiple movements per year. So in this case . . . . . . your guess is really as good as mine. Everything I know about this one comes from the photos all of which I have placed online. This is one of the reasons why I upload albums in their entirety - including landscape and civilian pictures. Sometimes albums come with accompanying documentation but in this case even though I don't own this album I am pretty sure there was none & the sellers description is only ever good as a guide really. Rarely albums are extremely well documented or the cover specifies the exact kompanie/regt/division etc - most of the time it is guesswork. I'd say he was RAD assigned to barracks construction, then moved to LW Ground crew with some gun duties.

I am currently working on the album from a man who was in Reserve Polizei Battalion 102. The reason I know this is because there is a field grave pictured in the album which clearly identifies several men of this Btn. In addition it is undoubtedly a frontline Police unit in Poland and Russia. Also the path of the unit appears to coincide with what I can find of Res. Pol. Btn. 102 through Peterhof to Leningrad etc. As always it's best guess and so when I do post it online I will ask for anyone with additional info to email it to me so that it can be updated if required - sometimes this happens but only rarely.