WSS Insignia on soldiers KIA, Nuremburg 1945

[jacquesf]

Fritz you are right, I was not lucky enough to see these scenarios on youtube or the tv. Wish that is where I saw it. Jacques

[Fritz]

Fritz you are right, I was not lucky enough to see these scenarios on youtube or the tv. Wish that is where I saw it. Jacques

Jacques, no need to get snippy. And yes, those that, unlike you, haven't witnessed the results of rifle fire first hand will have to rely on footage and images in order to understand what is happening there and what not and under what circumstances.

Unfortunately in default of volunteers I won't be able to set up an experiment for you. No one here doubts the possibility that you have first hand experience, just next time take a closer look at that wall.

The technical problem is that your idea of blood stains on some wall "that have to be there" after a scenario - that I imagine to be likely - is plain wrong. Period.

Cheers

[chrischa]

Chris:

No, you hardly will, anyhow from a picture like that. It depends a lot on the calibre and type of projectile. Usualy with normal rifle bullets fired directly at the torso you won't have a spectacle like in a movie.

Dumdum bullets, shrapnels, ricochets, explosive amuntion and so on is the stuff that mutilates bodies to various extents.

Cheers

Hello Fritz.

I just thought that we would see entrance holes. I think the bodies have been positioned so we don't see the wounds.


(I was a combat medic but only ever saw film/photos/diagrams of modern balistic wounds. Never the real thing which I don't regret).

Regards,
Chris.

[Remy Spezzano]

Hello Fritz.

I just thought that we would see entrance holes. I think the bodies have been positioned so we don't see the wounds.

Regards,
Chris.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your comments and speculative guesses as to how these poor young souls met their death. As a former Army veteran who served as a cameraman in the Signal Corps. I can tell you that the photographer was not playing around with the bodies piling them up this way or that way and playing around with hat insignia to make a statement for his photo.

I have spent countless hours researching the US Army Signal Corps photo collection and have also read some really excellent first person accounts written by former US Army still photographers. These photographers traveled in teams of two (one man shooting still photos and another man filming with a 35mm movie camera) and they pretty much just followed along with the advancing troops and documented various scenes of death and destruction or anything that was interesting.

In the last days of the war their was ALOT of senseless killing going on and sadly many a young soul lost his life for being in the wrong place at at the wrong time. Often when the photographer would come across these sad situations he would make a point to document it for others to one day see. Sadly most of the photos they shot have never been seen before until now.

There are so many possibilities to how these men died that day. Whether they were executed or caught in a barrage of rifle fire when they least expected it, we'll never know for sure.

This photo is a somber reminder of how men on both sides of the conflict lost their lives at such a young age and so late in the war.

[B-24 Liberator]

Well spoken, war is a dirty, deadly business!!

[enorepap]

I agree that we probably will never know what really happened. In any case, an easy fight with the recruits. I also think that this is an image of historical value and is not to be examined in terms of the uniform of the fallen.

[juoneen]

HERE IS THE LIKELY SENARIO...but don't ever forget what they did

http://www.truedemocracy.net/hj34/20.html

My apologies to those who hate to read.

[Remy Spezzano]

I also think that this is an image of historical value and is not to be examined in terms of the uniform of the fallen.

I totally agree with you. I may post a few more images soon or even start a new thread showing more examples of fallen soldiers photographed as they were found.

Too often we forget about how many people lost their lives. We're so focused on the uniforms and equipment that it's easy to be sort of in denial of what all this stuff was used for. Out of sight is truly out of mind. When you see the war dead in photos there's no denying it's a sad situation for everyone involved. We all know from the stories we hear over and over from the returning veterans who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq that what they witnessed will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

[Mil-Archive]

That is an excellent and very interesting photograph. I'd agree with the assessment that they were prisoners who were stood against that wall and executed. It is impossible to say for certain but that seems the most likely explanation.

[DaveNZ]

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.

sad photo: they were still kids when they met their death right at the end of the war


if their fate had been kinder some of these kids would have lived long enough to still be with us now....perhaps even answering letters from collectors who come from the very same country whose soldiers killed these kids.

the senselessness of war.

[Remy Spezzano]

Here's a photograph taken after a recent shooting where two SS soldiers were shot up along with their command vehicle. The building in the back ground appears to be some sort of a concentration camp even though there is not a single soul around the area. The front windshield has several bullet holes so we know what direction the rifle fire came from. The dead driver looks to have took a hit in the leg with a more powerful round. Perhaps from a .50 caliber MG? Unfortunately I do not have the original caption for this image.

[SJP]

Here's a photograph taken after a recent shooting where two SS soldiers were shot up along with their command vehicle. The building in the back ground appears to be some sort of a concentration camp even though there is not a single soul around the area. The front windshield has several bullet holes so we know what direction the rifle fire came from. The dead driver looks to have took a hit in the leg with a more powerful round. Perhaps from a .50 caliber MG? Unfortunately I do not have the original caption for this image.

That photo was taken outside a camp in Austria as I recall. There are more from the sequence.One shows the vehicles that shot up the car.They look to be an M8 armored car and M3 half track.

The pow's look to have been executed elsewhere and dumped there. Similar to photo's taken at Stalingrad

Cheers Steve

[A c h t u n g !]

http://www.truedemocracy.net/hj34/20.html

My apologies to those who hate to read.

"If captured in smaller groups, even the US Army policy was to slaughter the prisoners where they stood, especially if they were SS." explains why most combat-SS tunics have been stripped off their insignia

[Remy Spezzano]

Not all captured SS soldiers were shot on the spot.

Here is a photo of a Waffen-SS panzer crew being captured. If you look carefully you can see that the crew member all the way to the left is wearing the HBT dot pattern panzer wrap and the one second from the right is wearing the HBT dot pattern panzer pants. However what kind of jacket is the man all the way to right wearing? It almost looks like a British Battle Dress tunic. Or perhaps it's the German issue M44 tunic?

[Remy Spezzano]

Here is the reverse side of the photo showing the original caption with the location and date the photo was taken.