WWII Photos and Documents

[permafrost]

Originally Posted by SSMN

Flying tiger.

If you like the planes, stay tuned. On April 23rd, CCB captured Cham airbase between Regen and Schwartzenfeld, a large and active base. 50 aircraft were captured. Not only that, but three fighters which had been out strafing allied forces were captured when they returned to their base! Field Marshall Kesselring's private train was there, as well as a large collection of captured allied aircraft.

And John (Forrest Gump) was there.

Here is one teaser. The inscription on this picture simply said "Duds", thinking they were unexploded bombs. But we know what they were.

You just gotta wonder how those wound up laying in a field. Any ideas?

[SSMN]

Sure....ME 262s were flying out of Cham. The OSS would have put them there for pickup after capture of the airfield.. I suspect they were gone within a few hours . He just happened along with his camera at just the right time once again.

[SSMN]

Sorry...Double post.

[permafrost]

Amazing!
Great info, thanks for sharing . i thought it odd they would be lying there together all nice and neat. i was looking all over for the plane crash.

[SSMN]

Cham Airbase...April 24, 1945

Here's something you don't see every day. A Liberator B24 with German cross and Swastika.

[SSMN]

Sundown at the controls of the B24 with an ever present cigar clamped between his teeth.

[SSMN]

Looks like a Piper spotter forced/shot down and brought here to Cham. John checking it out.

American markings visible in second photo.

[SSMN]

I am posting a number of planes photographed at Cham Airbase. Some of these may have been cannibalized for parts by German mechanics to keep other planes in the air and others blown up by CCB after capture of the airfield to keep them from falling into German hands in the event of a counterattack. I suspect both might be the case.

Note the fuel dump and staff car in the background of pic number 2.

I am not knowledgeable regarding WWII German planes. Please feel free to identify them if you can.

[SSMN]

More hidden and out of action planes.

[SSMN]

This one was a puzzle to me at first. But it clearly is a training glider. With John at the controls once again, you can see the stick and rudder controls with the cigar firmly clenched, he is ready for takeoff. (Note the B24 seen behind the glider and also the corrugated wing of the Tri-motor) It would be towed behind a vehicle, released and allowed to glide down the gentle slopes along the edges of the Cham runways.

In the second photo, you can see the skid on the front of the glider/trainer peeking out from under the Tri-Motor to the right of the liberator and also the pilots seat.

The third photo shows the thing in action with spectators along the sides. If you survived this, you may have been cleared for power. Notice the pilots foot beneath the wing.

[flyingtiger85]

I look at these pictures and see this air base is high in the mountains.You would most likely need to have a plane with a turbo-charger like in the ME-109 in the photo's.A modern civilian plane probalbly could only fly out of there in the morning when the air was cool providing more lift.Once I flew a friend to Utah to sign papers to by a cabin and landed at 8000ft elevation on a dirt road runway.On the way out I cleared the trees on the ridge by only a couple of hundred of feet or less with 1/2 tanks of fuel.I still see those trees in bad dreams.The cabin was in a community called Swans Creek/Duck creek in mountains above Cedar City.

[Big ugly]

My uncles that were in Germany during the war were Thomas, Karl, and George Mowell. I cant remember what unit Thomas and George were but Karl was Airborne Ranger. He was one of those wayword souls that missed their drop zone and wound up scattered all over. I remember him telling us some stories that Ironically wound up in both Band of Brothers and Private Ryan. One was when the German POW's were shot. Another was with the overloaded transport that was forced down.

He fell in with a unit and stayed with them for a while during the confusion. he was 502PIR if I remember correctly.

The only time he ever talked about the war was with my grandfather and his other 2 brothers. He had a silver or nickle plated PP that he took from a German officer that he shot who was in full parade dress. He had the cap papers and everything but unfortunately the pistol was stolen by one of his daughters boyfriends and sold to a pawn shop and the pistol was never recovered.

He passed a few years ago though, he was the oldest my grandfathers brothers. He had some pics but they are stashed away and being kept by his youngest daughter for safekeeping.


My grandfather was all over the place, he was with an engineer unit in charge of building airstrips. He spent most of his time in the pacific theater but he also spent some time in North Africa too. Tail end of the war found him in cold weather training up in a frozen place called Alert close to the north pole. He wound up in Korea and came home. For my grandfather Korea was his hell. But that is story for another thread.

Sorry bout the long post, keep the pics coming though. I showed this thread to my grandfather and it opened the flood gates for him. Thanx again SSMN

[SSMN]

"Town under artillery fire"

As I have mentioned earlier, when towns and villages were approached, word would be sent in to inform the inhabitants and any military present that they had several choices. The first was to surrender and put out white flags to indicate their intention. If no white flags were seen, the town would be approached cautiously. If any fire was received, troops would withdraw and word would be sent in warning that the town would be shelled and civilians should evacuate. Following that, artillery would open up, sometimes accompanied by tank fire until any military present surrendered.

I have no idea if this was official policy across the ETO, but it made perfect sense. Why send in infantry to fight and die for no reason when other lethal means which would prevent allied casualties could be utilized.

Second photo shows a typical white flag flying from a building window.

[SSMN]

This photo titled: "Liberated Brit PW's near Cham. Roadsides & fields were littered with concentration camp prisoners bodies from Flossenberg & Buchenwald"

I believe a rather well known death march was conducted by SS Concentration Camp guards in an attempt to hide the prisoners from being discovered by advancing allies. As they fell from illness or so weak that they could not keep up, they were shot. Allied military PW's (as the POW's were referred at the time) were treated much better than civilian concentration camp prisoners as can be seen.

[SSMN]

Civilians fleeing in front of (look like Soviet) troops.

[SSMN]

"Taking Coburg"

Our tanks entering Coburg after fighting had ceased. Note Nuns waiting to cross as one tank leaves the picture and another enters and white flags finally flying.

[SSMN]

This is an interesting photo for a number of reasons.
The inscription reads: "Getting my Peep windshield repaired after an ambush. Galneukirchen, Germany"

This is a photo taken by a Signal Corps photographer, apparently a friend of John's who provided a copy to him. It is stamped: "6-29-23G Confidential until reclassified by censor. Photo by Signal Corps US Army 166th Signal Photo Co."

In regards to the ambush...This is a story which he related to me and that I have written up separately as a short story. Basically, while out searching for parts, they took fire from a wooded area shattering the windshield and blowing the back seat gunner who sat up higher behind the Browning machine gun right out of the Jeep.

In regards to the Signal Corps stamp on the back of the photo, I suspect that all photos were marked as confidential/secret while the war was still going on. There is no way to determine what valuable information that enemy viewers might glean from any single photo to the detriment of allied armys.

Finally, please note the Jeep behind John. This is the private Jeep of Col. Wesley Yale, the Commander of the CCB. You can clearly see the pintle mount on the side of the Jeep next to the windshield. In an earlier photo where Yale was observing artillery fire, a machine gun was visible on this mount. This would solve the problem of the canvas top, when up, prohibiting the back seat gun from being mounted and utilized. I can picture the mild mannered Colonel leaning out of the passenger seat at full speed and taking on a strafing ME109....just blasting away.

[The Duke]

What a treasure you have...Thanks for sharing.

[SSMN]

Duke...Thank you.

I would like to hear from others who have thoughts on the photos.

There will be more.

[SSMN]

"Our maintenance halftrack" In this photo, you can see a large compressor mounted on the back of the halftrack and the .50 cal Browning at the front. The charging handle and dual grips clearly visible.

[SSMN]

This group of photos is not the best, but they will give you an idea of what happened and the surroundings.

Clearly they were more careful after an earlier ambush.
Titled "Lieutenant Graf and I captured 94 Germans after spraying the woods with a full belt of machinegun fire. Oberhof 6 am"

Lt Graf is seen here conferring with the ranking German officer. Clearly these were Heere and not SS.

Last picture marked " I tried unsuccessfully to get them to fall in and dress right, but no luck. We finally just marched them off to a collection point".

[SSMN]

"Captured Germans reaching PW cage"

[SSMN]

"Looking back over our column. Bazooka on our maint truck"

[SSMN]

"Waiting for artillery support on road into a German town that fired on our lead units. Note machine gun on my Peep"

[SSMN]

Ach, Germany 105mm anti-aircraft gun.