Identify Photo 1944

Discussion in 'The Brigade of Guards' started by royal dragoon, Apr 20, 2019.

  1. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

    Hi trying to identify Tank Regiment.
    Amphibian and Troops.
    Possible Location.
    Suspect photo taken late July Europe 1944 to late September 1944
    any help appreciated
    John B COPY Tank.jpg
     
  2. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    Buildings look Dutch, there is alo a Dutch flag visible, flying from the building behind the Sherman … so Holland, September 1944: Market-Garden?
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2019
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  3. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    The Sherman has Guards Armoured Division insignia. It is named with a picture below which is very similar markings to 'Snow White' of Headquarters, 5th Guards Armoured Brigade. AoS number is in the same position and obscured by a soldier.

    Guards compare.png
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Nice find Guy - the left hand tank looks to have a single word title closer to the image than the Snow White writing, the image on the left looks like someone walking to the right with their back to us but looking to the right over their right shoulder.
    Wonder if they were all named after the 7 dwarves and that is one of them.

    All looks nice & calm in the photo so presumably some way back from the frontline, and minimal damage to the buildings

    TD

    Guards Armoured Division - British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum
    Karel Magry "Operation Market Garden Then and Now Vol. 1 p. 249; same photo but with markings sensored out. "The Sherman in the foreground belongs to 5th Armoured Brigade Headquarters. Their eight tanks were named after Snow White and the seven dwarfs, and each tank had its name and the appropriate face painted on it."
     
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  5. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Well - if you want to have a search through this document - http://mmpbooks.biz/mmp/tables/Vehicle_Names_V1.pdf

    TD

    If you look under the names there are some Shermans that are not designated to a particular unit and I can only guess they might be 5th Arm - HQ

    Examples
    SNOW WHITE 5th Guards Tank Brigade M4A4, Sherman Mk V

    SLEEPY M4A2, Sherman Mk III
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2019
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  6. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

    Hi Guy,
    Thank's for the info, I did not spot the Dutch Flag well done, My father was with the 1st Royal dragoons, during Market Garden, the armoured cars squadrons the Royals were split up between main XXX corp, 15/19 Hussars, Sherwood Ranger and 44th Tank Regiment, It's hard to trace where they would have been, I have Identified many places of the original photos I have, the info you have supplied will help.
    Royal Dragoon
     
  7. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    Royal Dragoon,
    Do you have the original photograph, can you confirm the name and character painted on the Sherman?
    Guy
     
  8. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

    Hi Trick Dicky,
    Thank's for the info,I have the Books you mentioned, will look at them a bit more closely! It appears that the Tanks etc are parked up ready to start an operation, possibly the amphibians going to have to cross a river/canal and the tanks by bridge or rafts! The vehicles and troop look in good order, I thought it may have been Holland they were in, The houses give the impression it is the suburbs of a large up market City/Town, with the identification of the Tanks it may narrow it down, I suspect the photo was taken Late July to Late September?
    Thank's, all helps to identify place,
    Royal Dragoon
    Hi Tricky Dick y
     
  9. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

    Hi Guy I have the original photo, however the insignia on the front of the tank in the photo is blurred and indistinct, looks like one of the Dwarfs names above the image, again the name is blurred.
    Royal Dragoon
     
  10. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    John,
    We've got seven to choose from !
    It does look like a dwarf to me
    Screen Shot 2019-04-21 at 21.15.46.png
     
  11. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I'd say it was Dopey.
     
  12. m kenny

    m kenny Senior Member

    Its not Doc and Bashful so you have 5 names left and I think it is a 5 letter name
     
  13. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

  14. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    I will plump for Grumpy - from the orientation of the head and shoulders

    TD
     
  15. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    No beard on the one on tank which is why I opted for Dopey earlier.
     
  16. Hello John,

    If you could re-scan the original photo at a higher resolution and with minimal compression, we should be able to read the markings on the DUKW, if not on the Sherman, and that could help.

    Michel
     
  17. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    I agree with Owen, I can't see a beard.

    Could the infantry riding the DUKW's be men from the 1st Battalion (Motor) Grenadier Guards, they were the motorised infantry attached to the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade?

    I wonder if anyone has a copy of their war diary?
     
  18. royal dragoon

    royal dragoon Junior Member

    Hi Michel
    Have scanned photo in at 600dpi, original photo 3x4 (not sure what is meant by minimal compression!)
    TANKS AND DUCKS 2.jpeg
     
  19. Thanks for the re-scan John. 600dpi should be good, however, it's still rather blurry, which I believe might come from the compression inherent to the.jpg format: the image dimensions (or definition) are 3787x2645 pixels = 10,016,615 pixels, at 24 bit per pixel (to define each pixel's characteristics such a colours, contrast, light etc.), which should result, without compression, in a "weight" of the image of 240,398,760 bits or 28.7 MB approx. Since the image weighs only 1.55 MB, the compression ratio is 18.5 : 1, which probably means some loss of information.

    If you scan in grey shades only (not in colour, which you do not need in this case and only adds weight to your image) at 600dpi into a format with less compression or even none at all (like BITMAP or TIFF), which you should be able to do by tweaking the controls of your scanner, you should obtain a sharper image, losing much less information while keeping the size or weight wtihin acceptable limits. And in case the resulting image is still too large, you can crop it to keep only the part with the vehicles so we can have a look at the markings.

    I hope this was clear, if not don't hesitate to ask :D

    Michel
     
  20. m kenny

    m kenny Senior Member

    If you scan a BW white photo twice, once in colour and one in grey scale you can see the difference it makes by comparing the size of the images.
     

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