Leros Operation Leopard

[Andreas]

It is not a usual German name, but not completely rare either. In the Berlin phone book, there are 37 entries under the name today, to give an example.

All the best

Andreas

[Fallschirmjäger]

Thanks for that info Andreas.

[Nemesis666]

The studio portrait from the Nasse book shows a buckle with an oval center. The photograph of the MG crew shows two men wearing buckles with round centers. The less distinct of the buckles gives off a reflection suggesting the presence of a Wehrmachtadler instead of a Luftwaffe adler. The buckle on the left is without any doubt a Heer buckle. One of the men appears to be wearing a drillich tunic under his jump smock. Might be a trick of the lens. You say Tony R is a creditable researcher. I never did hear about him but maybe he is. But he references Christopher Ailsby's FJ book as his source for saying that the photograph is from Monte Cassino, which is not taken very serious amongst serious FJ collectors and history enthusiasts because of all the errors in it. Yes, "Fallschirmjaeger", there was Brandenburger and Luftwaffe Fallschirmjaeger in Unternehmen Taifun.

[Fallschirmjäger]

Thanks for that info Nemesis666.

[Tony R]

Here are both belt buckles cropped from a HiRes scan kindly provided by Christopher Ailsby. Each has been modified to bring out the detail. Incidentally, I only mentioned that Christopher Ailsby’s book included the image - not that I had based my argument on this.

[Nemesis666]

Look round to me. This is only a scan of the image in that book. And it is modified. The buckles are from the Heer. Sorry.

[JonS]

You know ... round or oval, the buckles don't proove anything ... other than that the origin of the belt buckle.

[Peter H]

Given the quality of the photos the two buckles don't look the same.The top one looks concave,the other "bubbles" out.