[1930artdeco]

If you look on top of the engine you can see the cover they use to keep the engine warm while the heater burns under it. I "think" what is happening in the first pic. is this:
-Hand crank the starter on the engine
-Then attach the external crank starter to the prop on a cold engine to assist the internal starter.

Either that or the hand crank is the starter which would be normal. I have seen many pics. and movies of the German AF hand cranking ME-109's at the beginning of the war.

Mike