A friend of mine showed me this photo, I recognised it as Tunisia and Diepenne airfield, have seen two other photos taken during this moment, but this is by far the clearest photo I had seen. here is some background...
One of the outstanding stories from that period focuses on another instance where a group of British Paras were saved from execution. This event became something of an obsession in post-war years with one of those who were saved, a tough professional soldier named Gavin Cadden. The author makes no apology for breaking the general narrative to publish Cadden's recollections here in full for the first time...
...Anyway we were attacked by the tanks and the 5th German Parachute Regiment, and in charge of them was a Lieutenant Colonel Koch and his second in command was Major Jungwirth.
After a short battle - and some of us were wounded, including myself - we were forced to surrender for the sake of the wounded. They'd have all been annihilated. German paratroopers collected all the wounded and with their help we bandaged them as best we could. Lieutenant Colonel Koch meanwhile made off in pursuit of Lieutenant Colonel Frost and his party.
... And so now our party of wounded were left with Major Jungwirth while Lieutenant Koch attempted to catch up with our battalion, or what was left of it. Jungwirth, in turn, jumped on a tank and left us with a group of Italian soldiers. In due course a German staff car drew up from the road to Tunis and an SS Officer got out and surveyed our forlorn group and decided there and then that we should be executed although we had Parachute Regiment regulation dress on. We were marched into a farmyard and lined up against a wall and a machine-gun was placed ten yards from us, and a Garman or Italian got down and took aim at the first man - which was me - and was going to sweep right down the line.
At that moment, one of our officers, Lieutenant Buchanan, stepped forward and asked the German officer for permission to shake hands with us all before we were executed. Permission granted. So he shook hands with us all and said: 'Don't forget, when I step back into the ranks, give them the V sign and let the bastards see that we're not afraid of them'.
When he went back into line, we all gave the V sign and the German officer lost his temper and shouted at the gunner to fire. At the very moment Lieutenant Koch reappeared on the scene, to find out what had happened to his adjutant and the rest of the party. He saw immediately what was just about to happen and even before his armoured car stopped he jumped off, ran across to the execution party, kicked over the machine-gun and pushed the gunner aside, and turned round to the SS officer and shouted at him in German. He turned round to us and said: 'You've no need to be afraid, gentlemen, you are paratroopers and brave men and we'll look after you safely'.
Lieutenant Colonel Koch put us all onto a German lorry and he got on top along with us and told the driver to drive into Tunis.
...But we drove back into Tunis with the wounded and we were put into a fort there. General Nering came out to inspect us. We all stood in line and then we were put in a cell for that night. There were no windows about, so actually we were beginning to think that we were going to be gassed. But in fact the ventilation came through the big door. And after about an hour or so a German came down with a big container of food for us and we settled in for the night.
In the morning they took us in parties of five upstairs for ablutions and we washed and shaved the best we could. The German paratroopers' sleeping quarters were up there. And the first party were away so long that we began to wonder what had happened to them. The Germans came down for another party of us, the last of us and the officer, Buchanan, and as we walked up and we looked through into the barrack room here were our friends sitting round one of the Germans' beds - all the Germans were round them - talking about how many jumps they'd done. The Germans were boasting they'd done as many jumps as us. They were giving them cigarettes; they lent us their shaving gear and everything to get cleaned up. They treated us like honoured guests.
The next day we were taken onto an airport in Tunis to be flown to a prison camp in Italy.
...But that was not the end of the story, and to complete Cadden's account we must jump forward momentarily to the post-war years. He could not get out of his mind the bravery of the German officer who had saved him and his colleagues from the firing squad. Determined to try to make contact with Lieutenant Colonel Koch, he made enquiries, only to discover that Koch himself had been shot by the Gestapo for countermanding the order of a senior officer, so allowing the British Paras to escape the firing squad despite the fact that Hitler had personally ordered that raiding parties should be shot. When he found out about this, Cadden laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London and became the first British soldier, or indeed British man, to lay a wreath there in memory of a German officer. For years afterwards he sent anonymously a wooden poppy cross to the West German government to place on Koch's grave. Cadden never signed his name, but eventually the Germans identified him as the sender through one of the German soldiers involved in the original incident.
The German Embassy in London got in touch with Cadden. Koch's brother and sister visited him and in 1987 he was a guest of honour at the reunion of the German 5th Parachute Regiment, where he met some of the soldiers who had helped save him. Later he went to visit Koch's grave in Bonn.
Throughout those years Cadden also worked to establish and maintain contact between German, British and French ex-soldiers and, partly as a result of his efforts, British and German paratroopers initiated an annual meeting of friendship. As he quietly continued these efforts, he learned that he had been selected to receive the Order of Merit, one of Germany's highest awards, aswell as the European Peace Cross for his work since the war in establishing a bond of friendship between the soldiers who had once fought on opposite sides. He refused both honours: 'I asked them to withdraw my name. I didn't want any honours. All I wanted was the satisfaction of laying a wreath at the grave of an officer who gave his life for us, and that was a German officer'.
John Parker - The PARAS - The Inside Story of Britain's Toughest Regiment
One of the outstanding stories from that period focuses on another instance where a group of British Paras were saved from execution. This event became something of an obsession in post-war years with one of those who were saved, a tough professional soldier named Gavin Cadden. The author makes no apology for breaking the general narrative to publish Cadden's recollections here in full for the first time...
...Anyway we were attacked by the tanks and the 5th German Parachute Regiment, and in charge of them was a Lieutenant Colonel Koch and his second in command was Major Jungwirth.
After a short battle - and some of us were wounded, including myself - we were forced to surrender for the sake of the wounded. They'd have all been annihilated. German paratroopers collected all the wounded and with their help we bandaged them as best we could. Lieutenant Colonel Koch meanwhile made off in pursuit of Lieutenant Colonel Frost and his party.
... And so now our party of wounded were left with Major Jungwirth while Lieutenant Koch attempted to catch up with our battalion, or what was left of it. Jungwirth, in turn, jumped on a tank and left us with a group of Italian soldiers. In due course a German staff car drew up from the road to Tunis and an SS Officer got out and surveyed our forlorn group and decided there and then that we should be executed although we had Parachute Regiment regulation dress on. We were marched into a farmyard and lined up against a wall and a machine-gun was placed ten yards from us, and a Garman or Italian got down and took aim at the first man - which was me - and was going to sweep right down the line.
At that moment, one of our officers, Lieutenant Buchanan, stepped forward and asked the German officer for permission to shake hands with us all before we were executed. Permission granted. So he shook hands with us all and said: 'Don't forget, when I step back into the ranks, give them the V sign and let the bastards see that we're not afraid of them'.
When he went back into line, we all gave the V sign and the German officer lost his temper and shouted at the gunner to fire. At the very moment Lieutenant Koch reappeared on the scene, to find out what had happened to his adjutant and the rest of the party. He saw immediately what was just about to happen and even before his armoured car stopped he jumped off, ran across to the execution party, kicked over the machine-gun and pushed the gunner aside, and turned round to the SS officer and shouted at him in German. He turned round to us and said: 'You've no need to be afraid, gentlemen, you are paratroopers and brave men and we'll look after you safely'.
Lieutenant Colonel Koch put us all onto a German lorry and he got on top along with us and told the driver to drive into Tunis.
...But we drove back into Tunis with the wounded and we were put into a fort there. General Nering came out to inspect us. We all stood in line and then we were put in a cell for that night. There were no windows about, so actually we were beginning to think that we were going to be gassed. But in fact the ventilation came through the big door. And after about an hour or so a German came down with a big container of food for us and we settled in for the night.
In the morning they took us in parties of five upstairs for ablutions and we washed and shaved the best we could. The German paratroopers' sleeping quarters were up there. And the first party were away so long that we began to wonder what had happened to them. The Germans came down for another party of us, the last of us and the officer, Buchanan, and as we walked up and we looked through into the barrack room here were our friends sitting round one of the Germans' beds - all the Germans were round them - talking about how many jumps they'd done. The Germans were boasting they'd done as many jumps as us. They were giving them cigarettes; they lent us their shaving gear and everything to get cleaned up. They treated us like honoured guests.
The next day we were taken onto an airport in Tunis to be flown to a prison camp in Italy.
...But that was not the end of the story, and to complete Cadden's account we must jump forward momentarily to the post-war years. He could not get out of his mind the bravery of the German officer who had saved him and his colleagues from the firing squad. Determined to try to make contact with Lieutenant Colonel Koch, he made enquiries, only to discover that Koch himself had been shot by the Gestapo for countermanding the order of a senior officer, so allowing the British Paras to escape the firing squad despite the fact that Hitler had personally ordered that raiding parties should be shot. When he found out about this, Cadden laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London and became the first British soldier, or indeed British man, to lay a wreath there in memory of a German officer. For years afterwards he sent anonymously a wooden poppy cross to the West German government to place on Koch's grave. Cadden never signed his name, but eventually the Germans identified him as the sender through one of the German soldiers involved in the original incident.
The German Embassy in London got in touch with Cadden. Koch's brother and sister visited him and in 1987 he was a guest of honour at the reunion of the German 5th Parachute Regiment, where he met some of the soldiers who had helped save him. Later he went to visit Koch's grave in Bonn.
Throughout those years Cadden also worked to establish and maintain contact between German, British and French ex-soldiers and, partly as a result of his efforts, British and German paratroopers initiated an annual meeting of friendship. As he quietly continued these efforts, he learned that he had been selected to receive the Order of Merit, one of Germany's highest awards, aswell as the European Peace Cross for his work since the war in establishing a bond of friendship between the soldiers who had once fought on opposite sides. He refused both honours: 'I asked them to withdraw my name. I didn't want any honours. All I wanted was the satisfaction of laying a wreath at the grave of an officer who gave his life for us, and that was a German officer'.
John Parker - The PARAS - The Inside Story of Britain's Toughest Regiment
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