THE GERMAN OFFICER IN WORLD WAR II: all these images are available from Jim Payne, on CD - ebay account "throughtheireyes2" - or, throughtheireyes3@yahoo.co.uk or 07809 831411

Jim Payne says "I have recently added to my collection a couple of great original photo albums which belonged to Gustav Geller.  The albums contain many hundreds of photos (majority taken 1940-43) showing his military service from RAD in 1936 to the mid 1950s, by which time he has risen to the rank of Major.  This listing is for a CD containing approx 400 high resolution scans.

Gustav is featured in many photos, from a fresh faced young man to a battle hardened and scarred older man.

The albums have extensive written details throughout, but unfortunately I do not read German so can only pick out dates, locations and guess at other bits.

After his RAD training/service, it seems he experienced combat in Poland , and fought against the British and French in Belgium and France .  There are a fair number of photos showing damage to British and French tanks and plans (Spits and Hurricanes), and lots of photos of devastation including war dead and prisoners of war.  In this early part of the war (1940) he has taken photos at Beaumont , Rouen , Lille , Brest and St Valerie...lots of photos of heavy damage to buildings/towns.  At this stage of the war his rank seems to be Lieutenant.

After this early period of WW2, he seems to be in charge of a flak unit in Denmark .  Around this time he has taken 6 photos of what appears to be a downed/crash landed RAF Lancaster bomber; another photo shows RAF uniformed personnel (the crew?) with the planes.  During the later stages of the war he had involvement with the V2 rocket sites although I do not know if any of the photos were taken there - there are pictures of gun emplacements.  The V2 association is illustrated in a post war montage of his war service.

In the immediate years following the war he is seen in several shots working/dressed as a coal miner, some nice images of the coalface and photos taken above ground.

During the 1950s he is back in uniform and appears to be a member of the re-formed German air force and is now a Major.  There are 1950s photos of him being presented with a certificate by top brass.  I have scanned the original certificate to the CD also, but I don't know what it says.

I should think he had a pretty tough war...  In 1940 he is carrying a wound badge; in 1943 he is seen being supported by colleagues having suffered serious leg wounds; after the war he had marked facial injury, presumably caused at latter stages of WW2.

This is the most complete photographic account of one man's war that I have come across...it tells his story!"

The images here are very low resolution only, on the CD they print out to A4 and A3 really well. Jim is doing an amazing job, buying in these albums at auctions etc, and rather than keeping them to himself in his own collection, he is making them easily available to all, costs ?? with p&p, less than a £ tenner - an amazing buy. The more you buy off him, the more albums he will get and so the the more you will get, so do it!! I have because I want to see more.

ebay account "throughtheireyes2" - or, throughtheireyes3@yahoo.co.uk or 07809 831411

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