[Modeldad]

I also understand that there may be another issue in that certain legal rights are not granted to photographs taken by German and Japanese combatants of WW-2.

Let us not confuse the issues of one who owns a "picture" and one who owns the copyright to that picture. They are not one in the same.

I strongly doubt that most pictures taken of WW-2 German aircraft have any copyright protection what so ever. Possibly a British or American soldier, or the estate ther of, who took a picture of captured aircraft could assert a copyright claim.

Copyright claims are often used to do nothing more than to try to intimidate other people, e.g. copyright claims of the Ethell Estate to pictures that were taken by the US governemt.