Help me identify my Grandpa's old Luftwaffe unit and where these pics where taken

Factual Questions
1

This may be an almost impossible task, but I am curious as to what I can find out about these if anything at all.

I have come into possesion of my Grandfathers war photos from WWII. It is in an “official” Luftwaffe photo album.

The color of it is dark blue. On the cover it has what I presume is his units emblem… a flat head-on view of a skull of what looks like a moose to me, but I presume some kind of deer although with antlers similar to a moose. Underneath the skull is a plant of some sort. This all appears in a red triangular shaped crest. This emblem appears on a couple of the buildings in photos in the album as well.

The writing on the cover says (as best as I can possibly translate and read the old-style letters)

Meine Kreigzeit
bei der (If I can translate correctly - My Wartime in the)

1 battr - Orheinw - Abt. 118 (I am unsure as to the first letter of the second word, looks like a capital O)

Inside, the first few pages of the book are each photos of high-ranking Nazi’s, Hitler, Goering, then Wehrmacht and Kreigsmarine officials that I don’t recognize (although I am sure I’d know the names). Then it gets what I presume to be his unit commander and then on to the personal photos.

They appear to be mostly of a town that is near a coast, as there are several photos of the beach and sea. One of the “stores” in the town has a clearly visible Coca-Cola sign.

The unit must be some kind of AAA unit. There are several photos with them standing around searchlights and some AAA guns in the background. One of the crests on a truck looks like a Luftwaffe Eagle diving in a searchlight.

I guess what I am trying to figure out is:

What unit was this?
Is it possible to narrow down where they were? Maybe (longshot) a town near a beach and when they where there?

Then I could hopefully date them.

They appear to be placed in the album chronilogicaly as I can see that the last few pages his rank increased to Obergefreiter.

Grandfather died many years ago and didn’t talk about this very much so the family knows virtually nothing about them. Grandma actually had to rescue this album and his decorations from the garbage 40 years or so ago as he wanted to get rid of them.

2

Heh … looks like you’re in luck.

I’m guessing the badge is this one and that this would tie up to this unit: Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 118, an independent anti-aircraft searchlight battalion that served as a reserve unit from 1939 until 1942, then saw active service defending German airspace until it was disbanded in 1943. The parent Luftwaffe unit was headquartered in Hamburg, which suggests to me a home-defence searchlight outfit. Abt.118 were formed in Königsberg, although I don’t know if they remained based there.

It looks as though 1.Batterie joined Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 510 in 1943 and was based around Leipzig as part of 14. Flak-Division.

3

A bit more on the organisation and equipment of Luftwaffe searchlight battalions.

4

You are the best! That is it exactly. The middle one in is exactly the album, and the one on the left looks somewhat like to logo on the truck I mentioned.

On to do more research - Yippie!