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Das Gesicht des Krieges (The Face of War) is in many ways one of the very best photo documentaries produced on the subject of war, in Germany during the Third Reich. The big 7-3/4 x 10 inch, 204 page very, very heavily illustrated book was produced in November 1940 as the 31st annual German Camera Almanac or yearbook. Since the war was the topic of every conversation in Nazi Germany, it was also the subject of this entire book.

The 128 mostly full-page Propagandakompanie (PK or War Correspondent) combat photographs used to illustrate this scarce book are the very best Germany had to offer from the military campaigns in Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, France, Denmark and Norway in 1939 and 1940. They are well shot, perfectly focused, nicely cropped, properly printed and explained. They depict personnel and equipment of all branches of the Wehrmacht, from paratroopers to pilots and Gebirgsjäger to a Waffen-SS man sleeping in his motorcycle sidecar.

At the back of the book are the technical specifications of the photographs: who shot them, on what film, using what camera, when, etc. Following the specifications are full-page illustrated advertisements from the most important still and motion picture photographic suppliers in Germany like Agfa, Leica, Kodak, Gossen, Exakta, Steinheil, Rolleiflex, Voigtländer, Zeiss, etc.

This example of Das Gesicht des Krieges is from the 6th Edition of 10,000 copies printed in November 1940 by Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft in Berlin, Germany.

The dust jacket (shown left) is a 76 year old original with minot scotch taping on the inside, and the linen hardcover book itself is in very good, little used condition.

There are tanks, ships and planes, railroad guns, wounded Germans, submarines, the destruction of battle and enemy prisoners all up-close and in sharp focus. Dignitaries like Adolf Hitler, Reichsminister Dr. Fritz Todt and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring are shown visiting combat troops near the front.