Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Hi all,

I have posted this in a few groups on Facebook, the reason being someone else posted the photo as he had just bought it....however that forced me to find it mine as I have had it 20 years or more and came with a Soldbuch to a fallen Beobachter.....the aircraft of course is not his.

On the reverse, I think it says:

"Ju 52 vom ruß.(ische) jäger im Brand geschossen. Bolzi"

Trying to work out if Bolzi (Bolsi?) is the place name....as I can't identify the unit the aircraft belonged to at the moment....

Thanks,
Ian

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Bolzi is the place name. And that is some highly stylized handwriting.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Thanks for confirmation....But...where is it on a map :D:confused:


Will check Larry's airfield docs.....

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

That will be the hard part. The location may have been a tiny farm village at the time. Place names sometimes changed and sometimes place names were Germanicized. Gdańsk in Poland was Danzig for Germans.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Danzig was always Danzig to the Germans, as it was 98% ethnically German pre-war. Gdansk is a postwar, post ethnic-cleansing creation.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Maybe because it's Abol'tsy (Abolcy), 42km Northwest of Orcha in Bielorussia. (Obolzy in one loss report but doesn't concern your plane).
Not necessarily in Larry's airfield doc.
1/ Because no one said it was an airbase
2/ because there is no airfield doc for Russia in Larry's huge work!.. Which is a good reason to not find it.


Regards,
Franck.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Another possibility would be that the name of the place was written by ear. What about "Goltzy" in Belarus?

Regards
Rasmussen

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Thank you for bringing up another good possibility.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

I suggest looking at maps in Polish. Parts of Gdansk had to be rebuilt post-war, but it has been there for a very long time.

Re: Inscription on reverse of photo? Place name?
 

Danzig has a very long German - Polish history ... from the Slavs in the 11th century, the German Crusaders in 13th and 14th century, as free town republic under Polish rule in 14th - 17th century, Prussian rule in 17th - 19th century (with 6 years as free town republic under Napoleonic rule), as Free town from 1920 - 1939 with 95% Germans, 3 % Polish and 2 % Kashub... and the known history since WW2.