General Alfred Gutknecht Captured by the US

Image size: 1213 x 1600 pixel. 638 KB
Date: Tuesday, 29 August 1944
Place: Near Fismes, France
Photographer: Snyder

This NARA (National Archives) photo collection, made by war correspondent Snyder, shows some time after Generalmajor Alfred Gutknecht (Höherer Kommandeur der Kraftfahrtruppen beim Oberbefehlshaber West) was captured by the US Army, on August 29, 1944. He was arrested when the vehicle carrying him crossed path with a convoy of American armored vehicles - which was advancing at high speed toward territory still controlled by Germany - near Fismes, France, which was located on the road between Reims and Soissons. You could say that this was the peak of the general's sadness and depression (clearly visible from the expression on his face, which was in sharp contrast to the grinning look of the Military Police next to him!). When he was transferred from his position as Officer of Staff Grenzabschnittskommando Nord to Staff 16. Armee on the Western Front shortly after the end of the German invasion of Poland, Gutknecht Beurteilung (Evaluation) document stated that he - who was still in the rank of Oberst - openly wept and asked to ask to remain stationed in the East in order to stay close to his sickly wife in the Ostpreußen region. His personnel were affixed with scathing comments: "If we cannot prevent the whiny colonel in our military, at least we can still prevent him from becoming a crybaby general!" While in Allied detention in the Berlin prison camp, Gutknecht received the tragic news that his beloved wife had died. Unable to bear the pain any longer, he later committed suicide on November 12, 1946.

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=160170&hilit=leyser
https://wehrmachtss.blogspot.com/2018/10/penangkapan-jenderal-jerman-oleh.html

Food Negotiations Between German and the Canadians

Image size: 1600 x 1205 pixel. 403 KB
Date: Monday, 30 April 1945
Place: Achterveld, Netherlands
Photographer: Ernest DeGuire

Food negotiations begin. German and Canadian negotiators arrive at a schoolhouse, where they secretly discuss supplying food to the starving Dutch people still in German-held areas. While 2nd Corps of the 1st Canadian Army was crossing the Rhine River in late March 1945, 1st Corps was on a massive redeployment from the Italian front — through the Mediterranean and up through the south of France — to join the 1st Canadian Army advance into Germany and The Netherlands. Moving into northern Netherlands the Canadians effectively cut off the 117,000 German troops in western Holland, leaving them with no means of escape. The Germans were defeated and the exhausted Canadian soldiers could see the end. Nobody wanted to be the last man killed in this war in the cold bleak months of early 1945. But the occupying Germans were still fighting, and the occupied Dutch were still suffering serious privation under them. The oppressors had flooded the farmlands of western Netherlands and blockaded food and supplies to civilians. The abject neglect of the Dutch by the occupying Germans caused the death of at least 18,000 civilians in the terrible famine known as the Hunger Winter. The picture was taken by Ernest DeGuire on 30 April 1945 at Achterveld, Netherlands.

Source :
http://www.mapleleafup.ca/ve1.html

Italian Refugees with New Zealand Soldier

Image size: 1600 x 1070 pixel. 601 KB
Date: Saturday, 3 June 1944
Place: Sora, Lazio, Frosinone, Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

Italian refugees are brought to the town of Sora, Italy, from heavily shelled areas in an ambulance jeep driven by C.P. Kerrisk of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 3 June 1944. On this day, the 2nd New Zealand Division (led bc charismatic Bernard Freyberg) captured the town of Sora after the advance from Monte Cassino up into the upper Liri Valley. The advance was hampered by lack of communication between the infantry and the supporting tanks of B Squadron, 20 Armoured Regiment, which were to work up the road from Sora. A Company claimed that it reached the road west of Campoli, but did not make contact with the tanks, which in turn reported that they could find no sign of the infantry. D Company also reported that it gained the road (on the right of A Company), and in doing so had taken 10 prisoners from 134 Regiment. A possible explanation of the inability of the infantry and tanks to join up may be that the tanks, proceeding in a compact bunch, had passed before the infantry reached the road. The picture was taken by George Frederick Kaye.

Source :
http://historyinphotos.blogspot.co.id/2015/04/george-frederick-kaye.html
http://www.newzealandersatwar.com/Timeline.html
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-2Ita-c2-2.html#name-001145-mention

British SAS Just Back From a Three Month Patrol

Image size: 1600 x 1426 pixel. 493 KB
Date: Monday, 18 January 1943
Place: North Africa
Photographer: Captain Keating from No.1 Army Film & Photography Unit

A close-up of a heavily-armed patrol of 'L' Detachment SAS in their jeeps with their twin-mounted Vickers K machine guns, just back from a three month patrol, 18 January 1943. Lieutenant Edward MacDonald sits in the wheel (foreground) with Corporal Bill Kennedy, while the driver in the second jeep is Private Malcolm Mackinnon. The crews of the jeeps are all wearing 'Arab-style' headdress (kafiyeh), as copied from the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). The officer at the wheel of the nearest jeep has a Sykes-Fairbairn commando knife on his left hip, and insignia on his shoulder and left breast, including the operational 'SAS' wings. The jeeps all have modified radiator/condenser systems rigged, and many jerrycans of water and petrol mounted on the bonnet, sides, and in the rear of the body. The patrol leader's jeep mounts twin Vickers K .303 guns; the central jeep, twin and single Vickers guns at front and rear; and the furthest one, a .50cal. Browning - apparently an aircraft weapon - at the front and twin Vickers at the rear. Note: They are using the American-built Willys Jeeps, instead of the far less-reliable British Land Rover! The famed Special Air Service (SAS) of the British Army was formed in July 1941 by David Stirling. It was a commando force designed to operate deep behind enemy lines,something it did very successfully. Specially adapted vehicles were used in North Africa, including the famous 4×4 1/4-ton Truck, though heavily modified for its behind-the-lines role. The vehicle began appearing in July 1942. They were generally stripped down to save weight and, for operations in the hot climate,the grill was removed and a water condenser fitted. Weapons such as Lewis and Vickers K machine guns were mounted for use against ground or aerial targets.

Source:

Photograph E 21337 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-32)

http://www.afv-news.com/2013/05/sas-14-ton-4x4-patrol-car/

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205196152