gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #26 Posted April 30, 2020 Walking wounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #27 Posted April 30, 2020 Still marching in good order, heads held high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #28 Posted April 30, 2020 Troops and families. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #29 Posted April 30, 2020 And waiting. The soldier in the foreground looks like he is taking the opportunity to clean up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #30 Posted April 30, 2020 Heavier munitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #31 Posted April 30, 2020 New tenants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #32 Posted April 30, 2020 Close inspection. Film footage shows this to be a camera being removed from the prisoner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #33 Posted April 30, 2020 More clean up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #34 Posted April 30, 2020 Abandoned vehicles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #35 Posted April 30, 2020 Thanks for looking. Anyone who wishes to add to this thread is welcome to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted April 30, 2020 Share #36 Posted April 30, 2020 Gil, this is a fantastic collection of spectacular pictures. They were most likely taken at Tangermuende, Saxony-Anhalt, early may 1945. Elements of German 12th Army (Armee Wenck) and 9th Army escaped the Halbe pocket and tried to reach the western riverside of the Elbe. The partial destroyed Elbe bridge at Tangermuende was one of the few remaining opportunities to cross the river and get away from Russian war captivity. Finally these troops were captured by the 102nd U.S. Infantry Division. I did a quick online research and found a similar picture of the same destroyed bridge element taken by a British war correspondent, Frederick Ramage who was attached to 9th US Army during their advance. Maybe one starting point for further researches. Thanks for sharing these fotographs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcat1982 Posted April 30, 2020 Share #37 Posted April 30, 2020 On 4/29/2020 at 8:15 PM, gwb123 said: Liberated Brits, perhaps? From the uniforms I would suggest they are French rather than British. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #38 Posted April 30, 2020 6 hours ago, Proud Kraut said: Gil, this is a fantastic collection of spectacular pictures. They were most likely taken at Tangermuende, Saxony-Anhalt, early may 1945. Elements of German 12th Army (Armee Wenck) and 9th Army escaped the Halbe pocket and tried to reach the western riverside of the Elbe. The partial destroyed Elbe bridge at Tangermuende was one of the few remaining opportunities to cross the river and get away from Russian war captivity. Finally these troops were captured by the 102nd U.S. Infantry Division. I did a quick online research and found a similar picture of the same destroyed bridge element taken by a British war correspondent, Frederick Ramage who was attached to 9th US Army during their advance. Maybe one starting point for further researches. Thanks for sharing these fotographs! Thank you Lars. I figured some one would be able to identify this event. I was in a hurry to transfer these over. If I get a chance, I may redo this thread and put them in a better order. What confused me was there are two bridges shown in the photos. The troops and formations are marching away from one (while still armed) and marching towards the other. It finally came to me that these were two different bridges. Thanks again. I will pass your identification along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted April 30, 2020 Share #39 Posted April 30, 2020 I´m pretty sure that the bridge photos were taken at Tangermuende. The bridge had a length of more than 800 meters then (today 1400 m). Only the center part with the bridge arch was destroyed but could still be crossed by foot. Maybe theses pics were taken from different locations on both riversides? If you compare the last picture on this site with your pictures you´ll see the same distinctive bridge piles. http://tangermün.de/tgmd/elbbruecke/elbbruecke.htm I noticed the large advertisement on one of your pictures. Indeed a chocolate fabric named "Feodora & Falter" was located in Tangermuende. Still have to find out if there was a second bridge in the city once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share #40 Posted April 30, 2020 I went back to the source, combatcamera.be, and it had the following youtube video... What is a bit eerie is some of the footage in the video lines up exactly with some of the still photos in this thread. As far as I can tell, there is no sound track. And unfortunately, the watermark obscures some of the footage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted April 30, 2020 Share #41 Posted April 30, 2020 The last scene shows the capture of SS-Brigadefuehrer (Generalmajor) Juergen Wagner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikie Posted May 1, 2020 Share #42 Posted May 1, 2020 On 4/29/2020 at 7:51 PM, gwb123 said: Surrendered hardware. You are correct! These photos are fascinating for sure. Thanks for putting them up! Is that a camouflage helmet there at the bottom of the pile? I've never seen that pattern before. Mikie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted May 24, 2020 Share #43 Posted May 24, 2020 Interesting details in this photo, particularly the removed SS insignia on the visor. Anyone notice the "volunteer tab" of the SS-mann with the CCC? Member of the "Dirlewanger Brigade" of the 36th Grenadier Division...a penal unit that was reconstituted around 1942 with Russian/Ukrainians...and a unit with a notorious history of war crimes...there's a fair chance this guy didn't make it over that bridge.... Phenomenally rare tab to find in a period image https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirlewanger_Brigade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Posted May 24, 2020 Share #44 Posted May 24, 2020 Gil great series of photos. Having just listened to a lecture on American air power at the end of the war and the immobility of the German Army, note a lot of camouflaged vechicles. Also like Brig noted the guy that removed his insignia from his cap....not that it probably did any good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share #45 Posted May 24, 2020 Brig / Dirk: Thank you for your comments. There are tons of details in these photos. It would have been nice to of had a higher resolution set to work from, so we could enlarge some of this. The faces alone tell a thousand stories, let alone the equipment, gear and insignia. These photos are hopelessly out of sequence. I believe this holding area was on the other side of the bridge where the Americans held the ground. One thing that is very telling in this photo is you have a number of SS men all clustered together. That might be because they traveled as a unit or because they were segregated by their captors. If you notice in other photos, SS men were pulled from the group for the benefit of the photographers. You can also see that in the film clip that is attached. Keep in mind though that when the Allies were sorting things out, many of the soldiers and units that would have been captured by the Russians were turned over to the Red Army. I am sure that is when a lot of retribution took place. As for the individual who removed the insignia from his visor cap, he probably had other insignia that indicated who he was. Notice the way he is wearing his coat to hide his basic uniform. I have half a thought to redo this thread so that the photo sequence makes more sense. But thank you for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hudson Posted May 24, 2020 Share #46 Posted May 24, 2020 Lots of very young faces in these images. A couple of photos were not showing up but I was able to retrieve them (I hope). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share #47 Posted May 24, 2020 45 minutes ago, Bob Hudson said: Lots of very young faces in these images. A couple of photos were not showing up but I was able to retrieve them (I hope). I thought the same thing. Having lived in Germany, and having German heritage, I look at these photos and think "what a waste of youth, talent and manpower". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.ChrisKelly Posted May 19, 2023 Share #48 Posted May 19, 2023 Post#43... That's mind - shattering. Allegedly, some 700 members of the "Dirlewanger Brigade/36.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der ᛋᛋ" survived the war. Not sure what the source for that information is, and its accuracy is highly suspect. On closer analysis, this ᛋᛋ-Sturmmann is highly decorated with the 1939 Iron Cross First Class, a Close Combat Clasp (likely Bronze), and potentially an Anti-Partisan Badge (likely Bronze). This looks like a genuine photograph. I know of only one other well - known image in which a soldier is positively identified as part of the Dirlewanger Brigade (Warsaw, 1944). Anything related to this unit is super - rare. The second image below looks faked/staged. Source: https://www.quora.com/Is-Nazi-officer-Oskar-Dirlewanger-depicted-in-any-movie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.ChrisKelly Posted August 29, 2023 Share #49 Posted August 29, 2023 Aftermath, 1945: A unique capture: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/jakob-nacken-tallest-german-soldier-ww2-1944/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.ChrisKelly Posted August 30, 2023 Share #50 Posted August 30, 2023 Two very different outcomes: Sources: 1. 2.https://www.reddit.com/r/wwiipics/comments/ocwxiq/german_soldier_returns_to_his_wife_after_war/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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