Click the image for a larger scan
Click the image for a larger scan
Once Mr. B... asked a query on Jason Pipe's (now feldgrau) forum about a series of photographs from an unidentified Flak unit in his property. The vehicles from the unit had two interesting markings - a charging bull and a key. It was unfortunate that back then he could not supply scans. Neither I nor anybody could give a definitive answer. Some time later I was fortunate enough to find the set he put for sale on ebay, and I made them! Here you can see the 8.8 cm Flak from the unit. The markings are barely visible on the mudguards. Some of the photographs are written on the back, and this is probably fall 1941. Here is a photo of bunker destruction at Ugotzki-Sowod. Spelled as Ugodskiy Zovod in Russian, it is just 100km southwest of Moscow. So this photo is from Operation Typhoon in 1941. A photo of Batallion's officers.
The key (Schlüssel) is the symbol of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The key was carried by I./Flak-regiment 26, as shown in this picture. As you can see, it carries another distinctive marking, an anchor. I acquired a couple of albums from this unit recently, and found the great similarity to the former photos. Because the installation of vehicles are exactly the same, I have to say that these two units are very closely related.
In February 2004, I received an e-mail from Herrn Thorsten Schnaars from Bremen. He runs an very informative site Historic.de, where he gathers lots of information regarding Bremen. According to him, the bull marking is from 3.Batterie, I./Flak-regiment 26! A mystery solved here, thank you Thorsten! Well, of course this leaves one question --- there were 5 Batterien in the Abteilung.What were the other markings? We'd appreciate if the readers could supply us with more information regarding other Batterien!
Another picture from the I./26. A very attractive scene for diolama builders! In the winter of 1941 in Suchinitschi, gun Caeser got 6 T34s (October 28 - destroyed 3 at the distance of 2,600m / November 14 - destroyed 2 and made 1 unrecoverable at 2,850m).
Recently I found a color slide taken by a soldier who belongedto Panzergruppe 2 - the slide shows the white unit marking of I./26 painted on a rightmost PKW.
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