Hello Steemit People!
Welcome back for another round of previously unseen WWII photos from my grandpa Joe’s collection. If you are new here and would like to know more about the story behind these photos please check out my original post here.
You know the interesting thing is while I am researching these photos on the internet, I hardly see any other images from that period that are of this good quality. It is just amazing to me how well these are preserved and I am so happy to share them here on Steemit.
For today's series, we travel south-west from Nuremberg, Germany (check out my last post) to the French, German, and Swiss border. How do I know that? Well since my grandfather passed away nearly 30 years ago, all we have are these photos to go on. But as you will see he left many clues in the images he captured and the photographs tell a thousand words.
Our first photograph of the day, we are taken immediately to the battlefield. Here we have this ol’ Sarge acting funny like he took the damn tank out himself. “Hands out of your pockets soldier!” Thing is, all these years later and American soldiers are still pulling off nonsense like this, I should know I was one!
Thanks to the contribution from @torsten to this post, we now know this is a Jagdtiger tank destroyer. As always, if you are interested I encourage you to check out more here. If you look closely on the right side you can see damage to the track with an accompanying crater in the ground (John Wayne here has half his leg in the crater). That to me looks like the disabling shot.
Post Edit: I originally thought this was a Panther tank.
From @torsten
"That's a Jagdtiger. A tank destroyer with 128mm main gun, but a gun in a barbette. So the "turret" can't turn which means one shot into the tracks already disables it." Please see comments for more information.
In the photo above, we have a terrific side angle photograph of the tank! Unfortunately, for us, it is not the side with the impact. I would have liked to have seen that but at least with this angle, we have a lot more information to go on figuring out what kind of tank this was. Since he didn't photograph the impact we can assume the tank may have been destroyed by the Germans to avoid capture. Laying on the ground on the side of the tank looks like a piece from the roof armor plate as well as the "blende" (piece of the turret by the barrel) slid forward, indicating an explosion from inside. -Information from @torsten.
Another shot of the Jagdtiger this time from the front. Now we have a better angle of the iconic machine gun sticking out the front that you would see in all the old WWII movies mowing American GIs down. It is impossible to know if this particular one was ever used in combat, the only thing we do know is that the tank was destroyed and left behind. Also, we have a little better shot of where the tank was damaged, again on the driver side there.
And immediately following the tank photographs, we have a shot of the battlefield. I am thinking that the tank was up on the ridge and after taking a few pictures of the tank, grandpa Joe turned around and snapped a quick landscape of the battlefield. With the German tank sitting on the ridge overlooking these crossroads, they would have a good sector of fire to stop any advancing enemies. Unfortunately for them, the tank was destroyed and the rest is history.
I’m guessing before the battle this was also somewhat of a forest terrain judging by all the downed trees. If you zoom in on the wood line on the right side you can see some debris, possible cover for troops. There is a drainage ditch near there too, and I can only imagine soldiers using that as cover as they moved on through.
Look here folks, a literal sign left by my grandpa showing us exactly where he was. This sign brings us to Weil am Rhein, the German border town on the border of France and Switzerland. This was only a few photos away in the role of film, leaving me to believe that this destroyed Panter was relatively close to the town.
There are many more photographs, so please come on back next Monday and join me on this amazing journey through Germany during World War II!
Thanks, everyone for stopping by and please upvote and Re-steam this post! I am really enjoying all the comments and feedback from all you folks, thank you very much! If you have any information on any of these photographs, please, please share it in the comments.
I own all of these photographs so please respect my family history and ask permission prior to use.
