Jump to content

Surrender and the end of the war.


gwb123
 Share

Recommended Posts

And waiting.  The soldier in the foreground looks like he is taking the opportunity to clean up.

image.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Proud Kraut

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

Blackcat1982
On 4/29/2020 at 8:15 PM, gwb123 said:

Liberated Brits, perhaps?

image.png

From the uniforms I would suggest they are French rather than British.

 

image.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Proud Kraut

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.

 

fuF.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

On 4/29/2020 at 7:51 PM, gwb123 said:

Surrendered hardware.

image.png

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

 

image.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

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

image.png.194f9dc949fcf77224334f32a994301d.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

Bob Hudson

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

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

  • 2 years later...
S.ChrisKelly

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

dirlewanger(1).png

main-qimg-bdf06b06e7403440ce90af416c53fb1e-lq.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...