Photo album Panzerjäger Behnke

[Tim DC]

I know this photo is quite graphic but I wanted to show this because war isn't all about posing with local farmers or knocked out tanks. I'm not sure how this black French soldier died but the sight of the mutilation of his face and the pickaxe next to it makes my flesh creep.

[Tim DC]

Well, that was it for the Western Front. Back to the Heimat and a warm welcome in Aachen.

[Tim DC]

Behnke posing prouldy with his NSU and awards in Ulfborg, Denmark.

[Tim DC]

The summer of '41 ... to the East. Notice the unit emblem of the 131st ID on the truck.

[Tim DC]

Achtung Panzer!
(perhaps someone can tell me a little more about this tank? )

[Tim DC]

And the last photo. They got some good new equipment to face the Russians



Hope you like it; thanks for looking.

[AGFA40]

very nice pics you got here tim,cheers

[Simon O.]

The 'Small German tank' is a Panzerjäger I, a Czech 4.7cm gun mounted on a Pz.I chassis.


The 'French airplane' is a British Fairey Battle light bomber. By the looks of it a lame duck stripped of some spare parts before being abandoned.

The 'French recon plane' i think could be Belgian

The first French tank is a Hotchkiss H 35 i think

The small french anti-tank vehicle i think is also Belgian, a T-13 is it?

The panzer is an early Pzkpfw.IV

The stug is an early Stug.III

[Tim DC]

WOW Simon, thanks for your outstanding advice

The anti-tank vehicle looks like the T-13, but I think that the T-13 was smaller?
http://www.klm-mra.be/engels/collect...kken/top7.html

[Mark Mac]

Tim,

Fantastic photos! How do you know so much about Behnke?

Great photo of the tanks, especially the Panzerjager 1 and Stug!

On the mutilated French soldier. I suppose anything is possible, but...human bodies do things within hours of death that could cause that. Even in cooler weather they swell and distort from rigor. If he had a head wound then that wound would have become even more distorted after death and as more time elapsed. That body looks like it is not recently deceased, although it does not look to be more than a day old.

I would think if someone deliberatly disfigured the face with a pickaxe, the damage would have made the face/head unrecognizable.

[Jeroen44]

Stunning pictures!

[R MICHAEL]

Outstanding album, Tim!

[Maikäfer]

On the mutilated French soldier. I suppose anything is possible, but...human bodies do things within hours of death that could cause that. Even in cooler weather they swell and distort from rigor. If he had a head wound then that wound would have become even more distorted after death and as more time elapsed. That body looks like it is not recently deceased, although it does not look to be more than a day old.

I would think if someone deliberatly disfigured the face with a pickaxe, the damage would have made the face/head unrecognizable.

Yes, exactly, that is what I was also thinking. To be honest I found it rather offensive to immediatly think the German troops "mutilated" the soldier. You'll find swelling and disforming of hands and faces in any body that has been lying in the sun a few days, the wounds suffered in those areas will naturally also become affected by this sympthom.

There is not a shred of evidence that "the body was mutilated with a pick axe" other than the overactive imagination of some youngsters sparked by the gore and violence on tv reprojected to the things they see in these photos.

[Tim DC]

OK Maikäfer, this is the kind of reaction I was affraid of. Did you see me stating he was killed by the pick axe? No! I quote: "I'm not sure how this black French soldier died". Any normal person would consider a connection between the pick axe and the humiliated face. That is, those persons that realise these things DID happen ... and of course they did.
By the way, you didn't see the entire album. There are more photos which make me think that some guys in this unit were racist and agressive
I will not even comment your last personal attack on me. At least I don't hide my real name, adress and age.

[Tim DC]

It's been a while since I first showed this album but Antoine from chars-francais.net has offered me his help to identify my unknown Char B1bis tanks. As there are some more from this album I thought I would add them here

Solved thanks to Antoine: this is the B1bis Yser (37e BCC)