War Damage of Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

Thank you for this photo !! In real color , it's very moving :-)

We can see again the ruined onion bulbs of the cathedral , and broken windows .

The Peterhof cathedral Saint-Peter-and-Paul just before the war :

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

And anothers photos of the Peterhof great palace between 1941 and 1944 :

1941 :



1941 or 1942 : Here a very rare photo showing the ruined great palace before the statue of Samson's theft by the Wermacht ( which was never recovered : today the Samson statue is a post-war copy ) :



Autumn 1943 :

Here we can see a german officer ( right side ) .



Winter 1943 :



1944 :



Winter 1944 , the back of the great palace , with russian soldiers -



Russian soldiers on horses -



And this photo , probably taken in spring 1945 : we can see russian soldiers ( ? ) unearthing a marble statue :

[Akira Takiguchi]

Thank you for the many images that will help my future acquisition :-)

Unfortunately no images of Samson statue is in Eugen Kastner's estate, but instead, I can show you the Poseidon (and the palace itself) in winter 1941/42.



Link to the original image: http://www.history.jp/images/EugenKastner-f11.jpg

[Akira Takiguchi]

The Peterhof pictures were probably taken in April 1941, when 212th replaced the predecessor in Peterhof area.

[Akira Takiguchi]

Oops, April 1942...

[edubs31]

Color too! Impressive quality there. Thanks Akira!

[Akira Takiguchi]

Apparently the painting shown in http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=6503.msg528564#msg528564 was drawn nearby.

Again from the estate of Herrn Kastner.



Link to the original picture: http://www.history.jp/images/EugenKastner-f27.jpg

[Akira Takiguchi]

Today I found a picture from my aerial photograph collection - Puschkin.

This photo is dated May 13, 1943.  What interested me is that roof of the main part of the Catherine Palace is mostly gone, while the rest appears relatively intact.



Link to the original image: http://www.history.jp/images/3021-031-Teil-a.jpg

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

Thank you dear Akira Takiguchi for this fantastic but sad photo !

And a Great Thanks to Antonio Caballero for this :

http://eng.tzar.ru/info/info-events/title/?id=3247

The photography of the palace Church ceiling is fantastic for the future restoration , and the photography of the Lyons Hall's chimney too !!! :-D

[Inok Nikolai]

Thank you for this photo !! In real color , it's very moving :-)

We can see again the ruined onion bulbs of the cathedral , and broken windows .

The Peterhof cathedral Saint-Peter-and-Paul just before the war :

Perhaps it's already known, but that military church of SS. Peter and Paul in Peterhof has recently been restored to its former glory:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog?from=20130324

Inok Nikolai

[Akira Takiguchi]

There must be a lot more photographs of such photographs in various collections.  I know a great set of Polizei Division color slides in a collection, so it may contain something too.  Bundesarchiv and other archives should have a lot to contribute.

Photography is THE media at the time in germany, it's about everything in life, not only excursions...  Germans wanted to record what they encountered and of themselves as much as possible...  And especially when they were risking their lives every day at war...

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

A new free admission exhibition On Tsarskoye Selo Preserve Museum : "And the Door Will Open One Day".

http://eng.tzar.ru/info/info-events/title/?id=3458

"The artefacts on display include those looted during the Nazi occupation of Pushkin town (Tsarskoye Selo) in 1941–4 and later returned at various times to the Museum."

Article with photos , from Paul Gilbert's blog Royal Russia :

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog/1467562/tsarskoye-selo-hosts-unique-exhibit-of-treasures-looted-during-wwii/

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

During a trip in Germany I bought recently an original old photography : it's a view of the Peterhof cathedral Saints-Peter-and-Paul .
In the back of the photo it's written with black ink : "Kathedral von Peterhof 1942" preceded by the number 35.
This number and the traces of adhesive or glue of the photography's corners indicate that it comes from an album.

We can see the cathedral's façade in winter with snow , with many bombing damages , especially right.
The plates of metal of the onion bulbs are damaged too.
In the foreground the metal gate is open.

[Alexandre Mikhaelovitch]

Anothers photos of war damages of Peterhof ( Great Palace):





These photos were taken in 1945 by russian soldiers (probably during spring and summer) .
On the left you can see wooden trusses which have been already placed to shore weak sections of ruined walls.

[JamesAPrattIII]

The book "IN Good faith The History of the 4th SS Politzei Panzer Grenadier Division Vol 1 1939-1943 by Friedrich Husemann has German battle maps of the area Puskin was right behind the German front line. 

Hi Akira I met you on other sites no doubt someone on either the axis history forum or missinglynx.com could tell you more about the KV-1s in the pictures.