A sad photo showing six young men shot dead shortly before the war will come to an end. Five of the dead men appear to be wearing a mix of WSS uniforms.
The photo was taken by a US Army Signal Corps photographer in the area of Nuremburg, Germany in April 1945
One can only speculate what really happened here. The official caption states these men were SS fanatics and fought to the death. However if you look at the wall behind them you can clearly see pocket marked bullet holes from small arms fire. Some men are wearing shoes while some just have their socks on and others are bare foot. But because of the way they are all lying on top of one another it appears these men were ambushed or caught off guard and were taken out all at once with a volley of rifle fire. Then again I will not be surprised if some members will speculate that these men were simply executed for being SS. Unfortunately we will never no for sure what really happened.
A few things worth pointing out which caught my eye. One of the men is wearing a black WSS panzer wrap with a cuff title for the "Totenkopf" panzer division. Were the TK in the Nuremburg area in April 1945? Most likely this man was part of some make shift replacement unit made up of men from all over the place.
Also one of the men is wearing mountain boots with the standard issue mountain shoe gaiters. And then the last interesting thing I noticed in this photo was the M43 cap insignia. The soldier pinned a metal Army panzer collar tab skull over the BeVo trapezoid skull insignia.
The photo was taken by a US Army Signal Corps photographer in the area of Nuremburg, Germany in April 1945
One can only speculate what really happened here. The official caption states these men were SS fanatics and fought to the death. However if you look at the wall behind them you can clearly see pocket marked bullet holes from small arms fire. Some men are wearing shoes while some just have their socks on and others are bare foot. But because of the way they are all lying on top of one another it appears these men were ambushed or caught off guard and were taken out all at once with a volley of rifle fire. Then again I will not be surprised if some members will speculate that these men were simply executed for being SS. Unfortunately we will never no for sure what really happened.
A few things worth pointing out which caught my eye. One of the men is wearing a black WSS panzer wrap with a cuff title for the "Totenkopf" panzer division. Were the TK in the Nuremburg area in April 1945? Most likely this man was part of some make shift replacement unit made up of men from all over the place.
Also one of the men is wearing mountain boots with the standard issue mountain shoe gaiters. And then the last interesting thing I noticed in this photo was the M43 cap insignia. The soldier pinned a metal Army panzer collar tab skull over the BeVo trapezoid skull insignia.
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