Fighting in Ukraine: A Photographer at War is one of the popular Images of War series. This was first published in 2016 but obviously has a particular resonance today. This is a very good example from the series with a wide variety of images illustrating this particular corner of the war. These are almost all from the German perspective, showing many different aspects of the Wehrmacht operating in the Ukraine - living and fighting conditions, transport, communications etc, each with a knowledgeable caption.
The following excerpt and images provide a representative sample.
[B]y November 1941 Hitler's southern thrust had captured most of Soviet Ukraine. The ensuing scale of destruction and suffering, more than in any other European country, was unparalleled. Approximately thirty per cent of the population, or 6.8 million Ukrainians, were killed or died of from the effects of disease or starvation during the Nazi occupation.
To alleviate the Third Reich's severe manpower shortage, some 2.3 million Ukrainians were deported to Germany as slave labourers (Ostarbeiter, or 'eastern workers'). Although Nazi policy initially forbade any form of collaboration with 'inferior' Eastern peoples, out of sheer desperation many commanders recruited Ukrainians wishing to fight against Stalin to bolster their thinning ranks (these local auxiliaries were known as Hiwis, from the German term Hilfswilliger, meaning 'willing helpers').
But the opportunity to harness the Ukrainians' deep-seated hatred of the Soviet system was essentially squandered. The forced deportation of Ukrainian Ostarbeiter (eastern workers) to the Reich particularly incensed the local population and encouraged many to join the Soviet partisans or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought against both German and Soviet forces.
Situation Map dated 12 January 1942 showing showing the German advance in Ukraine. Maps on a scale of 1:100,000 issued prior to the invasion were criticized for being old and of poor quality. One officer complained of a map dating back to 1870 with only the road running from Smolensk to Moscow shown. Captured enemy maps proved impossible for most Germans to understand with one officer in a panzer division complaining that they were only fit for toilet paper. Further confusion arose from villages within a small area having the same name. Units, naturally, became lost, which led to missed objectives, excessive fuel use and unnecessary vehicle wear.
A Wander W45 staff car is ferried across one of the 23,000-odd rivers that crisscross Ukraine. Powered by a 2.3 litre 55-hp engine, this vehicle was a competitor to the Mercedes-Benz 170V.
The retreating Red Army blew up the centre spans of the arched bridge spanning the Dnieper River at Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Note the Soviet trenches in the foreground.
Approximately 2.3 million Ukrainians were deported to Germany as labourers. Many of these Ostarbeiter (eastern workers) willingly volunteered at the beginning of the occupation hoping to escape famine and unemployment and learn a new trade. After news of their poor treatment reached Ukraine, the Germans began using force to meet their quotas with towns and villages forced to register eligible workers. A failure by individuals to report led to the torching of homes and villages or detention in concentration camps.
Stalino, what the Germans called the 'pearl of the Soviet Ruhr', fell to troops of the German XXXXIX Mountain Corps and Italian Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, or CSIR, on 20 October 1941. The massive steelworks, set up by the Welsh businessman John Hughes in 1872, became the administrative centre of the Soviet Union's largest European mining district. Originally named Yuzovka, the city was renamed Stalino in 1924 and Donetsk in 1961.
An honour guard stands before the coffin of their fallen Kamerad at the Hegewald 'Heroes cemetery'. Hegewald (roughly translated as game reserve) was an experimental Volksdeutsche settlement established in Ukraine by Heinrich Himmler in 1942.
