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The stories in Wir erobern die Krim, Soldaten der Krim-Armee berichten (We Conquer Crimea - Reports from Soldiers in the ‘Crimean Army’) are personal reports of German soldiers who were involved in Wehrmacht actions on the peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea in southeast Europe. Over the centuries the peninsula has been part of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, Ukraine, and in 2014 it was annexed by Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation.

The introduction of this 1943 German book mentions that while the war is going on, military and after-action war reports from the area are censored, but publishing personal experiences of members of the Wehrmacht is allowed. Material in this book was officially cleared by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht in Berlin on 13 February 1943, and published to honor the fallen.

This 6 x 9 inch, 304-page hardcover Nazi book was published by Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt of Neustadt in 1943. Wir erobern die Krim has 70+ rare photos many not found in other Nazi books of the period, graphics and is complete with the frequently torn-out 9 x 12 inch fold-out map produced by the Armee-Kartenstelle. This book is the perfect companion piece to any collector’s Krim Shield. In very nice condition, no odor.

Interspersed in the text are 70+ rare photos of Nazi soldiers in action, motorized troops, field equipment, Generals visiting the troops, Rumanian mountain troops, POWs, field hospitals and a soldier cemetery. There are poems and maps of the battle, as well as photos of beautiful coastal scenery, mosques and a even local market. Inside the back cover is a fold-out map of the Krim showing big cities such as Yalta, Simferopol, Sevastopol and Kertsch.

Wir erobern die Krim starts with a full-page portrait of Rumanian Marschall Antonescu and German Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein, and a foreword to his “comrades of the Army of the Crimea”.

Von Manstein (shown above), who had taken over the High Command of the German Army on 17 September 1941, honors the heroic deeds of his German and Rumanian soldiers, their eagerness to fight the enemy, a monument to their victory on the Kerch Peninsula, and at Sevastopol.

Stories and reports include the initial attack on the Kerch Peninsula, the Jaila Mountains, and Sevastopol, Knights Cross medal winners, fighting conditions, as well as the population, history and economy of the Crimea and southern Ukraine.