What is going on on this photo? O.KIttel.

[Evgeny Velichko]

Hallo gentlemen.

What ritual ot tradition is going on this photo?

O.Kittel, late 1944. May be he is congratulating somebody with his first victory?

[RolandF]

That´s the so-called "Schinkenklopfen" ("ham-spanking"). The man on the receiving end has to figure out who is the spanker with eyes closed. Then this one has to take over this role. A very old game. Oftenly played it as a child.

Regards
RolandF

[Evgeny Velichko]

Thx for explanation.
First time I thought it is some kind of military tradition...

We have in Russian army a tradition of transition from newcomer to ordinary soldier.

For exaple in artillery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brGwOhPS1QE

New soldier makes his first shot, then smells a extracted cartridge, and then his commander spanks him. Thats all, "Now You are artillerist" Same thing happenes in tank crews, aviation e.t.c.

And first of all I thought the guy on "recieving end" must have shot his first enemy aircraft or something

[Milos Gazdic]

Might be the Slavic thing Eveny. In Serbia we do similar things, and even in peace times we like to slap each other's back & fist-bump the shoulders to show bro-relation... but whenever I do it to my friend Egmont (German) he looks at me a bit strange and "scared" (surprised) although he is 191 (12cm taller than me) and 100kg heavy... But maybe even in German army, this was a custom in war times when people becomes friends until grave and some boundaries are deleted (for sure guys who passed through military service or even worst, through war - would be able to confirm these things... as I've experienced it back in turmoil times of Balkan in early '90s).