Funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Johannes Kummel Italy Late February 1944

[patches]

Very few actual photos are seen of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy, this one is the funeral  Oberstleutnant Johannes Kummel Commander of the 26th Panzer Regiment who died from non hostile causes in a car crash. Kummel seen a lot of action, Poland 1939,  France in 1940 in the 10th Panzer Division and in the Afrika Korps in the 15th Panzer Division,

 

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen13.htm

[Brian Keith]

Accidents causing death to soldiers has always been tragic. Particularly during war in a combat zone. No matter what side you are on, folks have families and friends that grieve, maybe a bit harder to accept in non-combat death. Patton died from an auto accident (?), he would not have wanted to go that way. I lost a National Guard friend to a British Military parachute training accident when he was in England just a couple of months after we spent about two weeks of Annual Training together,  sad. An other friend of mine, an E-9, flew to England to bring him home. We should respect the regular soldier, doing what he is called to do.

Nice photograph.

BKW

[patches]

23 hours ago, Brian Keith said:

Accidents causing death to soldiers has always been tragic. Particularly during war in a combat zone. No matter what side you are on, folks have families and friends that grieve, maybe a bit harder to accept in non-combat death. Patton died from an auto accident (?), he would not have wanted to go that way. I lost a National Guard friend to a British Military parachute training accident when he was in England just a couple of months after we spent about two weeks of Annual Training together,  sad. An other friend of mine, an E-9, flew to England to bring him home. We should respect the regular soldier, doing what he is called to do.

Nice photograph.

BKW

Yes it seemed to be endemic among combat experienced and combat survivoring fighter pilots of WWI and WWII, on both sides, just two more famous examples out of many for WWII, Richard Bong for our side, and Hans Joachim Marseille for the other.