Glad you all enjoyed this find as much as I did! I was particularly happy when I got word that it had been found, and if the find was not amazing enough, the only cost involved was for me to cover shipping! The finder did not wish to make a profit from memorabilia of an era that brought so much hardship to so many people, and only kept it from heading to the garbage because he knows I collect everything I can find from the war, but dont agree with that ideology. I completely see where he is coming from with that view, and as it has also been mentioned here, that decade was not without sorrow and hardship, my own family included and many of the members on here who have shared their stories in the past. However, I believe at this point in history, so removed from these events, these artifacts tell a story, and they should be preserved to be able to tell that story to future generations. Some times these stories are good, and sometimes these stories are bad - for me I would not avoid collecting something just because the greater political story associated with it was evil. The Russian communists caused quite a bit of death and hardship in my family's past, and yet I have no problem (well, maybe a little, they are commies after all) collecting artifacts from their involvement in WW2. Collecting and letting people see and touch these links to the past keeps the stories real and alive. And I completely agree with the sentiment shared that it is a shame when collections like this end up in a museum. Museums should just display repos and replicas of some items, firearms included!
To answer some questions, no these 2 brothers who set this stuff aside years ago are not related to me. The fellow who (litterally) pulled this out of his attic knew them though.
Actually what is going on there is all those pictures are from the book I showed previous to them, a propaganda piece by Fat Hermann
Thank you also to the member that pointed out the other soldiers in the photo were Romanians. I did not know that and was wondering.
As far as the year of the DC3 flight that is recorded, let me dig into that a little more and I will have to update the tread when I find that out. Log book one has a start date recorded, but not an end date. Log book 2 has both a start and an end recorded, but I am not sure if there is overlap. I tried counting years as each 12 months were recorded in the book, but I need to do it more accurately to be sure.
Can someone who knows about soldbuchs tell me, what was his latest company/division placement? It seems all the ones in the first couple pages are crossed out, as well as all the ones on the overflow page, #17.
Thanks to all who have added, I enjoy these little extra bits of knowledge contributed. When I get a chance I will also be posting it on some other military history forums to see what can be learned.