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Taken at Beltring. The vehicles are parked up under trees. |
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Straw and blankets! |
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Digging in was number one priority whenever GD stopped. From rough shell scrapes to engineered trench systems, the front line troops of GD spent many weeks living in the ground. In the early summer of 1944, GD occupied permanent positions in Romania before its relocation to Bacau for a refit. |
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After the attempt to link with the Kurland pocket in August, GD settled down to a month of static warfare before a subsequent Soviet drive bottled the Division up in Memel from early October – late December 1944. Overhead shell bursts were deadly. The troops rapidly improved positions when time allowed. |
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Heavy MG Stellung. The cardboard cartons each held 15 rounds of 7,9mm ammunition. Based on a photograph found in ‘God, Honor, Fatherland’. |
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Stand to. Note the MG42 barrel lower right. |
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The same weapon pit but from the rear. Chalk is particularly hard work to chop into. A pick is essential. The spoilage needs to be camouflaged as it sticks out a mile, however the barrel blast from the MG continuously exposes the chalk. Note the semi-circular scrape for the weapon’s bipod (lowers the profile of both gunner and weapon) plus the Esbit stove in the slit-trench wall. |
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Hitching a ride with the Samaur Panther. |
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| Füsilier tank riders. |
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Catching up with the latest in ‘Die Feuerwehr’ (the fire brigade, the Division’s own newspaper). Again loosely based on a known original photograph. |
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Crewing the Samaur Panther Wet through, cold, slightly inebriated on French plonk and trying our best not to get press-ganged into the French Foreign Legion by a tough Para recruiting Sergeant from Scotland! Boy, what a weekend that was. |
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