A Young SS Hitlerjugend Soldier Captured by the Canadian at Normandy

Image size: 1600 x 1530 pixel. 464 KB
Date: Wednesday, 9 August 1944
Place: Caen, Basse-Normandie, France
Photographer: Unknown

A captured Panzergrenadier of the SS-Panzer-regiment 25 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" taken by a Canadian Intelligence Unit during the fighting for Caen. The official Public Archives of Canada caption for this photo taken a month after the activities in question, contains no information about the prisoner other than his division. Note: both allied soldiers are wearing the British P-1944 "Turtle" Mk III steel helmet, which was introduced shortly before D-Day. The Mk III helmet was much superior to the conventional "Brodie" helmet normally worn by British & Commonwealth soldiers. The soldier nearest the camera is holding a .303" Lee Enfield rifle in his right hand.. Canadians have mistreated prisoners because: In June 7th (one day after D-Day), the 25th Panzer-Grenadier Regiment under the command of SS-Standartenführer Kurt Meyer (Kurt Adolf Wilhelm Meyer, “Panzermeyer”) in conjunction with the 12th SS Panzer Regiment managed to repel the Canadians, and destroyed 28 tanks, and infantry regiment “Highlanders Nova Scotia “(born Nova Scotia Highlanders) suffered heavy losses. In this case, the loss of the German divisions were only six people! During the operation, the soldiers of 12. SS-Panzer-Division executed 20 Canadian prisoners of war in the Abbaye d’Ardenne. The "Hitler Youth" Division itself had the lowest percentage of prisoners. Of the original 21,300 men, in Gosostava 1945 it survived only 455 officers and men! The average age of the member of the Division was 17 – 18 years old!

Source:

Public Archives of Canada image

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:12SSHJPOW.jpg

http://albumwar2.com/captive-ss-man-and-canadian-soldiers/

Korean Yang Kyoungjong Captured in Wehrmacht Uniform

Image size: 1306 x 1600 pixel. 521 KB
Date: Tuesday, 6 June 1944
Place: Utah Beach, Normandy, France
Photographer: Unknown US Army personnel

American paratroopers in Normandy in June 1944 thought they had captured a Japanese soldier in German uniform, but he turned out to be Korean. His name was Yang Kyoungjong. Yang (March 3, 1920 – April 7, 1992) was a Korean soldier who remarkably fought during World War II in the Imperial Japanese Army, the Soviet Red Army, and later the German Wehrmacht! In 1938, at the age of 18, Yang was in Manchuria when he was conscripted into the Kwantung Army of the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the Soviet Union. At the time Korea was ruled by Japan. During the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, he was captured by the Soviet Red Army and sent to a labour camp. Because of the manpower shortages faced by the Soviets in its fight against Nazi Germany, in 1942 he was pressed into fighting in the Red Army along with thousands of other prisoners, and was sent to the European eastern front. In 1943, he was captured by Wehrmacht soldiers in Ukraine during the Battle of Kharkov, and was then pressed into fighting for Germany. Yang was sent to Occupied France to fight in a battalion of Soviet prisoners of war known as the "Eastern Battalion" (Ostbataillon), serving in a battalion located on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, located close to Utah Beach. After the D-Day landings in northern France by the Allied forces, Yang was captured by paratroopers of the United States Army in June 1944. The Americans initially believed him to be Japanese in German uniform, and he was placed in a prisoner-of-war camp in the United Kingdom. At the time, Lieutenant Robert Brewer of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, reported that his regiment captured four Asians in German uniform after the Utah Beach landings, and that initially no one was able to communicate with them! He was freed from a POW camp in Britain on May 1945 and moved and settled in America in 1947. He lived near the Northwestern University in Illinois until he died on April 7, 1992. He lived as an ordinary US citizen without telling his unbelievable life story even to his two sons and one daughter! His amazing story was the subject of a recent Korean movie; "My Way" (2011).

Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153688/Second-World-War--German-Japanese-soldier-stories-change-perception-ever.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Kyoungjong
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/movie-tv-room/62237-they-making-movie-about-kyoungjong-yang.html

15 Year Old German Soldier Cries After Being Captured by the US

Image size: 1600 x 1590 pixel. 847 KB
Date: Tuesday, 3 April 1945
Place: Rechtenbach, Hesse, Germany
Photographer: John Florea

A fifteen year old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, cries after being captured by the US 9th Army in Rechtenbach, Germany, on April 3, 1945. He was a member of the Luftwaffe anti-air squad (Flakhelfer) who burst into tears as his world crumbled around him. His father died 1938 and his mother in 1944. He joined the Luftwaffe to support himself. When the war was coming to an end he walked 60 miles to try and reach American lines only to be captured by the Russians. Luckily, he and his two brothers all survived the war. He went on to live a full life and died in Finsterwalde, Germany, on 6 October 1997. Late February 1945 and 9th Army launched Operation Grenade, which was the southern prong of a pincer attack coordinated with Canadian First Army's Operation Veritable, with the purpose of closing the front up to the Rhine. By 10 March, the Rhine had been reached in all sectors of 9th Army's front. It was not until after 20 March that 9th Army units first crossed the Rhine itself. However, after doing so, the Army quickly struck east around the north of the Ruhr. An enormous pocket soon formed containing the German Heeresgruppe B under Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model. By 4 April, 9th Army had reached the Weser and was switched back to 12th Army Group.

Source:

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fifteen-year-old-german-soldier-hans-georg-henke-cries-news-photo/3242214

http://historicphotographs.blogspot.com/2013/03/hans-georg-henke-15-year-old-german.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19670326&id=KXssAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bcwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5816,4438263

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8800366.html

Adolf Hitler Congratulating Hitlerjugend Boys

Image size: 1600 x 1123 pixel. 390 KB
Date: Tuesday, 20 March 1945
Place: Berlin, Germany
Photographer: Unknown photographer from Heinrich Hoffmann Studio

Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Reich Chancellor") Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945) touches the face of Wilhelm "Willi" Hubner (1929-April 12, 2010) a Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth") during an awards ceremony behind the Reich Chancellery on March 20, 1945. This view was taken from "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" Nummer 755 ("The German Weekly Review" Number 755), which was the last newsreel circulated to non-occupied Germany in March 1945. To Hubner's left is Alfred Czech. To his right, two persons down, is Erwin Scheidewig. Reichjugendfuhrer "Reich Youth Leader") Artur Axmann had just presented twenty Hitler Youth with the Eisernes Kreuz ("Iron Cross") Second Class. Hubner was first decorated by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph P. Goebbels (October 29, 1897 - May 1, 1945) in Lauban, a German city retaken by the Nazis on March 6, 1945. Hubner was a messenger attached to the Fuhrer-Grenadier-Division and was decorated for bravery under fire in the city square on March 9. Hubner was flown to Berlin, given a new uniform, and after waiting a short time, was redecorated by Axmann. Hitler never actually awarded the medals. The scene was photographed and Hubner was compelled to tell his story for the cameras. Hubner told his story, probably heavily edited, for the cameras: "When the Russians were closing in on Lauban, I reported for voluntary duty as a messinger to the combat commander. My job was to take dispatches to the individual command posts. I also frequently took provisions and panzerfausts (literally "tank fists" a disposable anti-tank weapon) up to the front line under fire. I carried the panzerfausts in a wheel barrow under enemy fire." The son of a farmer in Goldenau, Silesia, Czech made two trips under fire with his father's horse cart rescue wounded German soldiers. He first brought out eight, then four soldiers. The next day, while hiding in their home, a General ordered Czech to fly to Berlin to meet Hitler. Arriving in Berlin, Czech could hear the Soviet artillery outside the city, which was not yet in range. Hubner and Czech and eighteen others were given a large breakfast and put on clean uniforms. They lined up outside the Chancellery's back wall in the garden. While they waited for Hitler, Axmann told them to be at ease and to not greet the Fuhrer with the Nazi salute. Axmann pinned the Iron Crosses on the Hitler Youth. Czech remembered his conversation with Hitler as "So you are the youngest of all? Weren't you afraid when you rescued the soldiers?". Czech responded "No, my Führer!" Decades later, Czech stated ""Even at [age] twelve, I was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler," After the ceremony, the Hitler Youth lunched with Hitler in the Führerbunker, and told him their combat stories. Hitler was especially pleased with Hubner's story, as it reminded him of his own time as a messenger during World War I. The Hitler Youth were given one wish before returning to combat; Czech asked for and received an accordion. He could not return to Goldenau; the Red Army had occupied it. Czech was sent to German-occupied Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and was shot in the lung. When he recuperated and returned to Goldenau, he found that his father was drafted into the Volkssturm ("People's Storm" the German Home Guard) and had gone missing during combat. His body was found in July 1945 with a bullet in his neck. Czech threw away his Iron Cross because of the taunting he received from Red Army occupation soldiers and Polish nationals. His sister was forced by the Soviets to consume the photo of Czech and Hitler that was hung over the family's mantlepiece. Germans were being expelled from Silesia and forced to move West. Czech was famous in his town as the Hitler Youth. Working as a miner while filing applications to emigrate to West Germany, he was finally allowed to leave when he joined the Communist Party. There he reacquired an Iron Cross and another copy of the photo for his living room. Hubner appeared in several documentaries after the war about the Hitler Youth, including "V Was for Victory" and "The World at War." He appeared with Erwin Scheideweg in a Netherlands Television documentary called "Die Hitlerjugend" in 1973. Nothing further is known about Erwin Scheideweg. Armin Lehmann (May 23, 1928 – October 10, 2008) often said to be standing with Hubner and Czech, wasn't present on March 20, 1945, but was decorated on Hitler's birthday on April 20, 1945 in an undocumented ceremony outside the Fuhrerbunker in the Chancellery garden.

Source:
Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 755 - 22 March 1945
http://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/10/foto-terakhir-hitler.html

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0265

The Youngest Soldier of French Legion

Image size: 1136 x 1600 pixel. 359 KB
Date: Between Monday, 1 December 1941, to Tuesday, 9 December 1941
Place: Near Golovbovo, Russia
Photographer: Kriegsberichter Momber from PK (Propaganda-Kompanie) 689

One of the youngest soldier of the French Legion (Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme), Léon Merdjian, 15 years old. He was born at Tbilisi, Georgia, and becaming a medic in Infanterie-Regiment 638 (Französischer). Merdjian and Léon Vatchnadzé are 15 years old when they enlisted in LVF in 1941 and were Georgian emigres to France (would be interesting to know about their fate!). In 15 November 1941, the French Legion arrived on the Eastern Front. Four battalions of French volunteers assigned to 4. Armee proved less hardy. Generalfeldmarschall Hans-Günther von Kluge (Oberbefehlshaber 4. Armee) addressed them on the field of Borodino and spoke of how, in Napoleon’s Grande Armée, Frenchmen and Germans had once before fought shoulder to shoulder against the common enemy. They eventually reached the extreme end of the German front, at 63 Km from Moscow. There, Infanterie-Regiment 638 joined the 7. Infanterie-Division under Generalleutnant Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz. On November 24, 1941, the 4 platoons of the 1st battalion are heading to the front line near the village of Djukovo. The regimental HQ reaches Golowkowo. The ground is frozen. After several days waiting in horrible conditions, attack order is given on December 1st in a horrible snowstorm, with temperatures that dropped 20 Celsius overnight, without winter equipment, with no Panzer support. On the opposite side, the 32nd Siberian Division, well equipped, well trained, supported by heavy artillery. Dead and wounded French are spilling the ground; automatic weapons are blocked by the frost. At the medical post, Doctor Captain Fleury struggles to treat all the wounded, the sick and the men with frozen members. After a week, the 1st battalion is almost dislocated and must be replaced. Lieutenants Dupont and Tenaille, the best platoons commanders have been killed by the same artillery shell, Captain Lacroix is severely wounded. More to the north, the second battalion is less afflicted by the battle, but as much by the climatic conditions. While the 7. Infanterie-Division remains on the front line, the whole 638 regiment is pulled out between the 6 and 9 of December. It lost 65 dead, 120 wounded, more than 300 sick or with frozen members.

Source:
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-141-1291-02
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-141-1291-02,_Russland,_15-j%C3%A4hriger_der_franz%C3%B6sischen_Legion.jpg

American Troops Stand Guard Behind German Soldiers Captured Near the Town of Le Gast During the Normandy Invasion

Image size: 1600 x 1081 pixel. 639 KB
Date: Saturday, 29 July 1944
Place: Le Gast, Basse-Normandie, France
Photographer: Frank Scherschel

American troops stand guard behind young German Heer (Army) soldiers captured near the town of Le Gast during the Normandy invasion, June 1944. Although the branch color seems to not match up (happened often), it's a high chance that these guys are from Panzergrenadier-Regiment 156, part of the 116. Panzer Division "Der Windhund". It is the fifth day of the Operation Cobra which, since the day before, seriously made progress the American troops which infiltrated with more than thirteen kilometers inside the German lines. On July 29, three principal axes of attack are distinguished: to the West, the 3rd Armoured division progresses in direction of the South of the town of Coutances, attacked the day before and liberated this day. In the center and the East of the opening, the 2nd Armoured division progresses towards Saint-Denis-le-Gest and Villebaudon. The Germans try to gather on the line more connecting the villages of Brehal and Cerences to the West and Percy in the East. This line is called the "Weisse Linie" (White Line). However, many soldiers belonging to the 84th Corps are encircled in the surroundings of Roncey by the 2nd and the 3rd American armoured divisions. Columns of vehicles try to escape from the surrounding and move towards Coutances but it is too late. Three American divisions attack the pocket and reduce it by violent bombardments. Nearly 1,500 German soldiers are put out of fight and 4,000 others are prisoners. The American forces wish to continue to attack the German troops and to destroy them. They also want to attack the "White Line" installed by the infantry and Panzer SS divisions. At the evening of July 29, the American forces reaches in the South the villages of Cerences, Cambry, Lengronne, Saint-Denis-le-Gast. The 2nd Armoured division attacks in direction of Percy.From D-Day until Christmas 1944, German prisoners of war were shipped off to American detention facilities at a rate of 30,000 per month! It’s no mystery why images of unremitting violence spring to mind when one hears the deceptively simple term, “D-Day.” We’ve all seen — in photos, movies, old news reels — what happened on the beaches of Normandy (codenamed Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold and Sword) as the Allies unleashed an historic assault against German defenses on June 6, 1944. But in color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE magazine’s Frank Scherschel captured countless other, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English towns; the French countryside, implausibly lush after the spectral landscape of the beachheads; the reception GIs enjoyed en route to the capital; the jubilant liberation of Paris itself. As presented here, in masterfully restored color, Scherschel’s picture feel at-once profoundly familiar and somehow utterly, vividly new. A note on the photographer: Frank Scherschel (1907-1981) was an award-winning staff photographer for LIFE well into the 1950s. His younger brother Joe was a LIFE photographer, as well. In addition to the Normandy invasion, Frank Scherschel photographed the war in the Pacific, the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth, the 1956 Democratic National Convention, collective farming in Czechoslovakia, Sir Winston Churchill (many times), art collector Peggy Guggenheim, road racing at Le Mans, baseball, football, boxing, a beard-growing contest in Michigan and countless other people and events, both epic and forgotten.

Source:
LIFE magazine
http://life.time.com/history/d-day-rare-color-photos/attachment/1268272/