Description
Unsere Wehrmacht in Böhmen und Mähren
4. Januar 1944 • Heft 1
Herausgegeben unter Mitwirkung des Wehrmachtbevollmächtigten beim Reichsprotektor und des Befehlshabers im Wehrkreis Böhmen und Mähren — Wehrmacht-Presse-Verlag Reif & Co., Berlin SW 68
12 pages scanned
Cover Page
Caption: „Das Gesicht des deutschen Soldaten“ (“The Face of the German Soldier”) — accompanying text states that he is aware of the gravity of the times, but tells himself that cheerfulness makes everything easier to bear.
Subject: Close-up portrait of a smiling German Wehrmacht soldier in field cap and tunic.
Location: Not stated.
Photo credit: PK-Aufnahme Kriegsberichter Bauer (Atl.)
Major Headlines & Content
Sie knacken Bunker und Panzerwerke (They Crack Bunkers and Tank Defenses) — Photo report on a pioneer (combat engineer) unit training exercise in Böhmen und Mähren, showing troops breaching barbed-wire obstacles and using flamethrowers against bunkers. The article cites the French Maginot Line, the Greek Metaxas Line, and the Soviet Stalin Line as fortifications previously broken by pioneer assault tactics. Photo credit: Aufnahme Porsche.
Pelzwesten für die Ostkämpfer (Fur Vests for the Eastern Front Fighters) — Report on the manufacture of fur vests from rabbit pelts for soldiers on the Eastern Front, following the process from tanning through cutting and sewing by factory seamstresses. Rail wagons marked „BMB“ (Böhmisch-mährische Bahnen) carry the finished vests from a tannery town near the Bohemian-Moravian border. Photo credit: Aufnahmen Porsche.
Stabshelferinnen (Staff Auxiliaries) — First-person account by Hertha Petersen describing the training and clerical duties of Stabshelferinnen (women’s army staff auxiliaries) posted to Wehrmacht offices in Prag, including typing, stenography, and bookkeeping work after a three-month course. Off-duty sightseeing is described at the Hradschin, Veitsdom, and Karlsbrücke. Sixty women drawn from northern, western, and southwestern Germany are mentioned as the trainee group.
Der Sperriegel hielt (The Blocking Line Held) — Kriegsberichter Herbert Steiner reports on four days and nights of fighting near Witebsk on the Düna, where German Grenadier divisions, Panzer, and Sturmartillerie units repelled massed Soviet infantry and armor attacks that began on 19 December. Photo credit: PK-Aufnahme Kriegsberichter Jäger (H.H.).
PRAG — Hochburg der blanken Waffen (Prague — Stronghold of the Blade) — Feature by Helmut Sohre on the history and contemporary revival of competitive fencing in Prag, noting the city’s historic Fechtmeistergilde and a newly founded German fencing school at the Waldsteinpalais. Both men’s and women’s fencers are shown training in sabre, épée, and foil. Photo credits: Aufnahmen Porsche, Schirmer, privat.
Die Perlenfischerinnen von Toba (The Pearl Divers of Toba) — Fritz Schröter’s photo-essay on women pearl divers on the Japanese island of Toba, who dive for mussels collected on behalf of the pearl merchant Mikikoto. The piece describes the divers’ white linen work clothes, underwater goggles, and long hours retrieving shellfish from the seabed. Photo credits: Aufnahmen Schröter.
Disziplin als Grundlage des Soldatentums (Discipline as the Foundation of Soldierly Conduct) — Educational feature addressed to German youth on military discipline, citing a Prussian infantry company near Saarbrücken in 1870, the crew of the Graf Spee at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the First World War, and a 1940 assault group crossing the Maas during the Western Campaign. Photo/illustration credits: PK-Aufnahme Kriegsberichter v.d. Beke, PK-Zeichnung Kriegsberichter Grazioli.
Jugendappell des Standorts Prag (Youth Roll Call of the Prague Garrison) — Report on a Hitler Youth roll call held at the Wehrmachtkommandantur Prag, addressed by Generalmajor von Briesen, with appearances by Wehrkreis- und Standortmädelwalterin Schilling-Fischer, Mädelwalterin Frank (Berlin), Gebietsmädelführerin Ebel, Oberbannführer Gladrow, Oberfeldzahlmeister Junker, and Obersekretär Uhl. Photo credit: Aufn. Bilderdienst Böhmen und Mähren.
Die Schule der Panzervernichter (The School of Tank Destroyers) — Photo report from an army pioneer school in the West training soldiers in close-quarter anti-tank combat, using a scale model of the Soviet T-34 tank and live demonstrations with flamethrowers and explosive charges against a captured tank. Photo credits: PK-Aufnahmen Kriegsberichter Janke (Atl.).
Other Content
Prize competition — „Eine Preisfrage an die Rechnungsfürer“ invites Wehrmacht accounting officers (Rechnungsführer) in Böhmen und Mähren to submit short essays on assisting comrades in financial hardship, judged with book or cash prizes for the top three entries; submissions due 15 February 1944 to the Wehrkreisverwaltung Böhmen und Mähren, Prag XIX. Photo credit: Aufn. Porsche.
Advertisements — Böhmische Union-Bank, Kreditanstalt der Deutschen, Böhmische Escompte-Bank, Gewerbebank/Živnostenská Banka, Lebens- und Elementar-Volksversicherungs-AG, Bata, Mechanotechna, Sipek, Westmährische Elektrizitätswerke, Kittel & Co., Ing. Hejduk & Faix A.G.