12th 12th SS PK photo from Normandy (J.J. Weber)

[Höhe 112]

Isnt the house not visible in the map, just under the "D9"-mark?

right answer

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

all the houses changed (i passed hours on Google street view trying to check that), it is my guess too but the long house is not the same as the one of today.

Also if this is the same road, it will mean that a few Panther are stopped at the crossroad with the Flavacourt road heading to the North, which was the area from which the Martlet operation Allied units came from. Not very a smart move imo.

Also the Panther that is heading to the South is entering a farmyard, which again is a bit strange...

Only pictures from the 50's may help us...

See You

Vince

[Tom B]

Great pic's & info !

[Paul E]

Hello Paul,

i don't have info, do you have a picture of a link about this Tiger ?

It seemed that a few tanks were lost in the area, most of them seemed to have be evacuated due to technical problems ?

See You

Vince

As far as i know this was 334 commanded by Rolf von Westenhagen it was knocked out as you enter Rauray and close to SS Pz Regt 12 HQ at the Chateau de Rauray which is only a couple of hundred metres away.

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

thanks Paul, infact, the whole story of the various Tiger "lost" by the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 is available here :

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=172421

Incredible work by the various members of the Axis History messageboard.

Other very interesting pictures and infos i'm currently working on are available here :

http://panzer-war.com/page46.html

So the "334" was sent back to UK with the "114".

It seemed that no crew members from those three Tiger were "lost".

I will post more pictures and maps this evening.

See You

Vince

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

i was able to digest the infos on the two links i posted on my previous post.

I may have a lot of interesting new infos on the fights in Fontenay/Rauray from June 25 to June 27.

First, here is an updated map of Fontenay.

Here are my comments :
- the pictures of the Panther group (with the "219") may be located in the West of the city, but again, the houses and locations totally changed.
In my opinion, the SS-PK Paschnicke took the picture in the morning/late morning.

- the location of the destroyed Sherman, Panther and PaK 40 is said to be on the East of Fontenay, but maybe the Sherman is facing South, in the direction of Rauray. The destroyed Panther may be the Panther we saw a few meters away in the morning of the same day.
It seemed that the three were destroyed during the evening, but again it could be nice to get testimonies from British or German veterans.

- i don't know if the Kampfgruppe Wünsche also came from the South of Fontenay (maybe only the Fontenay - Rauray road was used).

See You

Vince

[Paul E]

Excellent work Vince , so to clarify the 334 Tiger is now believed to be that of Mobius nor Von Westenhagen ?

The only thing possibly against that was that Mobius was Chef of 1 Kompanie not 3 !!

I have the War diary of the SRY whcxih i'll gothrough again tonight , the Panther recovered intact in the Farmyard is intriqing , was this St Nicholas farm ??

[Paul E]

Here is a seldom encountered and interesting type of press photograph. Its a semi-glossed type paper very similar to what you see in recruiting booklets (i.e. SS "auch du") and the image is newspaper style dot printed.

Does anyone have any knowledge as to how these were used and/or distributed to the public?

Vince i have seen this suggested as the location , looking west along the road which leads to Caumont-l'Eventé, level with the intersection with the D139 which goes off to the left, running south towards Rauray,

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hello Paul,

actually i have MANY infos to post, i didn't had the time to check.

Most of the infos currently available on the net are just plain wrong unfortunately (especially the links i gave).

I have more plans and pictures and ideas.
I also recently checked the various bullsh*ts posted about the death of Wittmann, and i will need to post some maps and pictures...

About the Tiger in Normandy, the major problem is that only less than 10-20 tanks were available (at the very best !), so the real name of the commander is usually not known.

See You

Vince