Two Impressive Waffen-SS 1940 campaign photo albums SS “Der Führer”

This is one of the best photo albums I have had the chance to offer up to today. This photo album belonged to a member of SS-Standarte Der Führer. It depicts most of the important battles in the 1940 campaign. I have photographed all of the pages and photos so you can see how well documented the album is. The photos were added in the war and have not been removed, replaced or added. The images are not in chronological order but you can tell by the size, tone, contrast and border which photo belongs to which set. The photo album shows a number of interesting battles and campaigns indicating the owner whitnessed most if not all of these. I will make a list of photographed battles I see in the album below.

Battle for the Grebbeberg; Der Führer was tasked with taking the Grebbenberg neer Rhenen. This was one of the hardest fought battles in the whole 1940 campaign. Based along the Ijssel river this natural mountain was one of the main defence points on the Dutch Ijssel line. The Germans massively underestimated the fierceness of the defenders which meant taking the place took up to 4 times longer as planned. The album shows the area with buildings and also the bunkers on the dykes along the Ijssel. There are images of a German soldier climbing a Grove Den tree with a swastika flag which I believe is on the Grebbeberg. The Grebbeberg is the only place where this type of tree grew along the route of the regiment in 1940.

Battle for Zeeland and The Scheldt; There are images of the town and harbour in Breskens. There are images of knocked out French tanks which fought in this area. British, French and Dutch POW’s are seen. There are several images of the village of Vroenhoven, its Bridge and the Bunker. This was one of the objectives for the Fallschirmjäger dropping at Eben Emael which was next to the village.

The following French campaign shows many interesting places one could easily research by comparing the images with buildings along its campaign route using google streetview.

Needless to say this album is a sure treasure trove for future research. It shows all the interesting things a Waffen-SS photo album should have; tanks, planes, destruction, Dead soldiers, camouflage and lots of uniform photos!

EDIT! I have found a additional photo album of the same family with some of the same and a lot of portraits not in the other album. There are many great SS portraits in this second album. I added the two albums back together and I hope the buyer will keep them together too!