The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

This lot consists of FIFTY-FOUR rare original Third Reich German photographs taken by a member of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD or Nazi State Labor Service) serving with the Wehrmacht in Finland and northern Norway during World War II. The photos have never been published and have never been displayed at a MAX or other militaria show. They have never been in the hands of a militaria dealer. We purchased this rare lot many years ago from an antique dealer in Vienna, who obtained them from the estate of one of the Operation Silver Fox veterans.

Operation Silver Fox (Silberfuchs in German, 29 June to 17 November 1941) was a very interesting but little-known German–Finnish military operation during World War II. The objective of the two-staged pincer movement offensive was to cut off and capture the key far Soviet port city of Murmansk (which was historically ice-free in winter) through attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory near the Arctic Circle.  

The operation included German Army and Kriegsmarine troops, Gebirgsjäger, Luftwaffe squadrons, Organisation Todt members as well as nearly 2400 men of the Reichsarbeitsdienst.

The first phase of top secret Operation Silver Fox was launched on 22 June 1941, to coincide with the start of the German Wehrmacht invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. Two divisions of the Nazi Mountain Corps Norway moved out from the northern Norwegian port of Kirkenes to the east and began deploying in the Finnish held area around Petsamo. German troops on their border came as a huge surprise to the Russians. The operation was partly successful and nickel mines were secured, but in the end Murmansk was never captured. General Eduard Dietl's mountain troops reorganized and prepared for the launch of Operation Platinum Fox. In the South, the units of Cavalry General Hans Feige's XXXVI Corps prepared for their attack at Salla (Operation Polarfuchs).

The rare photos in this unique lot cover the trip from Danzig to Northern Norway by RAD Abteilung K 1/361 and RAD Abteilung K 2/363. Many of the troops in these units were raised in the former Austria (part of Nazi Germany since the spring of 1938) and consisted in large part of experienced mountain men, very familiar with working in cold and/or high Alpine areas.

The men traveled on the German transport ship Adler that left Danzig for Turku in Finland on 21 May 1941. After arrival in Turku, a boat and train trip to Rovaniemi followed, a bumpy bus ride to Petsamo, and eventually their home became the Zeltlager or tent encampment at Kirkenes (arrival late 26 May 1941). After arrival on the arctic circle, these Reichsarbeitsdienst troops built roads between Kirkenes and Elvenes and in early July between Petsamo and Murmansk.

Photos show a Nazi submarine, the battleship "Tirpitz" in the Baltic, the tent encampment at Kirkenes, roadwork between Kirkenes and Elvenes, rifle training, an RAD man whose photo was taken against the Midnight Sun at Elvenes in June 1941, scenery around Kirkenes, the ice covered sea near Elvenes (in June!), visiting Nazi officers, a Nazi field kitchen near the Russian border, General der Gebirgstruppen Dietl (the "Hero of Narvik" and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords) visiting the troops and front line at Luostari (Russian border), road construction between Petsamo and Murmansk in early July 1941, the covered corpses and the graves of eleven Germans killed by the Russians (photo taken on 15 July 1941), captured Russian cannon, crashed Luftwaffe Me 109 airplane at Russian barracks on the road between Petsamo and Murmansk, bridge on the border between Finland and Norway, and much, much more.

What makes this Nazi photo lot even more special is that with it we got a neatly typed period list describing every photo! This rare list (last photo shown below) made it possible to identify the location of every photo and know the date it was taken, which makes these 54 Nazi photos extremely historic. While the list shows 60 photos, there are only 54 as six were originally doubles. For example, on the list photo 4 and 5 are the same (U-Boot im Hafen von Danzig 21.5.41 or submarine in the port of Danzig on 21 May 1941). There are no pictures missing, the original owner just removed the duplicates, but he did so after typing the list.

These rare 78 year old Nazi photos are in very nice condition. Only the photo of the Nazi soldier graves taken on 15 July 1941 on the road between Petsamo to Murmansk has minor yellow discoloration spots on it, but fortunately they are in the sky portion of the photo.

While we can't prove who took these photos, we strongly suspect that the camera and the photos belonged to the man with the pistol who had his picture taken eating at the field kitchen in the photo above. He is also shown in many other photos such as the man shooting the k98 rifle, the man examining the remains of the Me 109 and the man standing in front of a burned out vehicle and next to the Russian cannon.

Little has been written on Operation Silver Fox in the decades since the end of World War II (quite probably because of a lack of original photographic material) but these 54 photos alone should go a long way as an incentive for any aspiring author or university thesis writer to delve deeply into this fascinating chapter of under-reported World War II history.

This lot of historically significant original Nazi photos of Operation Silberfuchs is specially priced at $525.00 or less than $10.00 per photo.

The photos shown on this USMBOOKS web page are about half of the 54 photos in this lot.