10 Large Color German cig. cards of the German Army, issued 1935

Description

Offered here are 10 beautiful and rarely offered large color German cigarette cards with embossed margins of the German Army in 1935, issued in 1935 by the Kosmos Cigarette Co. of Dresden for the album
Schutz und Wehr für Friede und Ehr!
(Protection and Defense for Peace and Honor!).
The cards have an embossed golden frame around each picture.
Pictured here are:
Group VI, Picture 51:
Our Leader and Commander.
On March 16, 1935, the day before the “Heroes Day Celebration”, general conscription was passed into law for all Germans. And on the day of the celebration it was formally announced. According to the new law, our Chancellor is also the Commander-in-Chief of our People’s Army. In his important speech before the Reichstag on May 21, 1935 he declared to the world his desire for peace and that of the German people, of which the new German People’s Army is the guarantor.
Group VI, Picture 52:
The Standards Company. When the transition of our army from a professional army to a people’s army was celebrated on March 17, 1935, it was important that all the old standards of the Imperial Army should be present. Like the Medal of Honor that the now deceased President and Field Marshal von Hindenburg presented to soldiers in the World War, so too, the old flags under which they served in the war should also be honored as a sign that the new army is a continuation of the glorious past of our military.
Group VI, Picture 53:
Honoring the Old Military Standards with a Special Medal of Honor.
To successfully defend a standard in battle was a sign of the bravery and sense of honor that characterized our soldiers. And sometimes an entire military unit would be honored by presenting its standard with a medal of honor. This honored tradition was renewed by the new Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He presented to the old military standards on March 17, 1935, the Heroes Celebration Day, the Medal of Honor that was designed by the now deceased Reichspresident and Field Marshal von Hindenburg. This presentation was to raise the standards as a model for the new army and to remind the army of its calling to serve for peace and the honor of Germany.
Group VI, Picture 54:
The Recruits Line Up.
“
Fritz stands at the barracks door, but can’t bring himself to go in. O, God, how strongly his heart pounds, well, don’t worry, just go in! The guard at the door just smiles and laughs, and who knows why he is laughing. He’s thinking: “As dumb as you look with your indecision, I was once that way, too.” Those are the words of an old song about the ups and downs of being a soldier. And what this particular verse describes, has always been the case, and will always be. Becoming a soldier and jumping into cold water have many things in common. Fritz tortured himself with indecision, but in the end he jumped right in. And once he is in, he feels much better, speaking with new acquaintances in the relaxed atmosphere and even begins to smile himself when he sees others coming in to join.
Group VI, Picture 55:
Return from Picking up Equipment and Uniform.
The first activity of the new recruits is to pick up their uniform and other equipment. It’s not exactly first-class made-to-order clothing, but it all goes by quickly and efficiently. The recruits are asked “Do they fit?” and a negative answer is not allowed. A steel helmet is placed on his head and before one can decide if it fits well or not, he finds himself in the courtyard for the first “dress rehearsal” with all his equipment.
Group VI, Picture 56:
In the Washroom.
In the old army it was like this: a soldier washed himself with a small enameled pot the size of a small salad bowl, which was placed on a stool, but not on the sitting surface. Today’s washing room has more generous spacing and is hygienically arranged. In every barracks there are washing- and showering rooms and the regulating of the water temperature is not as primitive as in earlier times. A Captain once asked the officer in charge of the showering facility how the temperature of the water was regulated. “Well, Captain”, said the Lord of the Floods, “if the boys squeal, the water is too cold, if they yell ‘Ouch’, then it’s too hot.”
Group XIa, Picture 101:
Flotation Sacks.
For a calvary soldier there is no obstacle that can hinder him; even the widest river cannot stop him. Once the horses are used to the water, they gladly go in and they are in fact quite good swimmers. However, weapons, equipment and the saddle have to be protected from the water and are therefore transported across the water by boats or other means. The cavalry soldiers either swim across next to the horse or go across in a boat. A particular favorite among the cavalry are the flotation sacks, also called rubber boats. The main component of these sacks are a sausage-like tube of rubber that is inflated with the help of a pump. These sacks first appeared in the military only after World War I. They are not a new invention, as they were depicted on ancient Assyrian reliefs. They were animal skins that were filled with air. Such flotation vehicles can still be seen today on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.
Group XIa, Picture 102:
Perseverance. Normally, when the Army has to build a bridge the commanding officer requests pictures of how the bridge is conceived in order to understand what his men have to do to build it. Sometimes a lieutenant draws a beautiful picture of the structure standing firm over a raging river with two small figures fishing from the bridge. The commanding officer of the engineers found the drawing quite nice, but was not pleased by the two men fishing from the bridge and sent the picture back to the lieutenant with the command: “These two figures must disappear from the bridge!” So the lieutenant redid the drawing and sent it back to the commander, this time with the two men sitting on the banks of the river fishing. Now the general was mad and wrote next to the two figures in the new picture: “Get rid of these two!” The obedient lieutenant once again revised the picture and sent it to the general a third time, but instead of the two fishermen on the bank of the river stood two gravestones.
Group XIa, Picture 103:
On the Pontoon Bridge.
If the Army has to transport troops across a river with the enemy on the other side, this is usually accomplished with boats. As soon as the first troops have established a bridgehead on the opposite shore and the enemy can no longer place the transiting troops under fire, then construction of a bridge can begin, in order to bring the bulk of the soldiers, heavy artillery, other equipment and necessary materials across. Since the time of Julius Cesear the manner of building such bridges has generally remained the same. Only the materials used have been greatly improved, and this of necessity because of the details of modern warfare. Today one increasingly finds rubber boats being used to float the bridge surface, instead of the heavy iron pontoons previously used. And the flexibility of movement of the new rubber pontoons is greatly improved by the use of outboard motors.
Group XIa, Picture 104:
Motorized Machine-Gun Units. The combination of light machine guns with the high speed of motorcycles has created an exceptionally strong weapon. The air-cooled machine guns are mounted on the side car and can be fired either from their mount or they can be dismounted and used by hand. Even the average person can immediately recognized the enormous effectiveness of such units, especially in combination with large-caliber artillery, tanks, and other armored vehicles. Thus, modern warfare relies more and more on such mechanized units, especially in conjunction with air support. We should be proud that thanks to our leader our military now has all the modern weapons necessary to defend our land.
Group XIa, Picture 105:
Motorcycles in Military Service. At the beginning of World War I the motorcycle was used primarily to transport communications among troops. Later, it was also used for reconnaissance. It was only after the war that it was conceived as a weapons system in itself. The skills needed to drive one of these motorcycles are extraordinary, as the driver must constantly move his packed machine forward on roads often affected by bad weather, across difficult landscapes, etc. Motorcycles have in large part taken over the role previously played by the cavalry. One could indeed call them the motorized cavalry. Many a soldier is pleased to see these “chattering Henrys” (nickname for the motorcycles) spring into action, just as the earlier military messengers would gallop through the lines on their trusty “Friedrich Wilhelm” (as these horses used to be called in the war).
Each card measures 4 and ¼ inches by 2 and ¾ inches.
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