These photos were already shown in another thread here but I thought that they deserved a place of their own in the 1940 section. [For those of you unfamiliar with the story, my Dad brought these home from the war; he served with BLA in 1944-45 but some of the German units he encountered then - and from which he got most of the photos - must have been involved in the action in 1940 as well.]
And finally this photo which I haven't posted before. As a child I found it disturbing; now I understand more, well ... as they say 'A picture is worth a thousand words'.
Those unfortunate colonial troops must have been on the receiving end of the worst treatment that could be given. I have little doubt what happened next. Has the photo been trimmed or is it original size ?
I would agree - odds are whatever his unknown fate, he wasn't in for an easy time at all. The photo has been trimmed, as were many of them - by my father when he moved them from an old album to a newer one. Any attempt at trying to see if anything was originally written on the back is also hampered by the employment of copious amounts of UHU. This one however doesn't seem to have much cut off, going by its size relative to the others.
I noticed that it didn't appear quite original along the edges and wondered if it had been clipped by the original owner to remove the accompanying rifle butt before sending the the album home. It doesn't look like one of the souvenir photo sets that many of the German troops bought for their collections.
Rich all I can say is that the hue of the print is much the same as those for the unit which we tried to ID from markings on vehicles ... very much a personal record rather than anything 'official'. I doubt that Dad would crop out any other detail - more likely just more of the surrounding grass ... I remember this being done and his own photos received similar treatment.
As already discussed with Diane I suspect he had litterally just been captured due to the fact he is still wearing his bayonet and ammunition belt. I suspect he didn't live long after that picture was taken-Its in his eyes. Having recently read that Colonial Units were part of the only Allied/French offensive into Germany during the 'Phoney War' capturing abandoned German villages much was made of the this by the German propaganda machine stating that Black French troops (which were considered sub-human) were doing all sorts to German women. It is no wonder that their treatment fell far below that of other Allied prisoners of war.
Here's a few from my current read - Dunkirk 1940 'Whereabouts Unknown' Thought to be 51st Highland Div at St Valery. French and Colonials
Cheers for posting. Pic 1 looks like 1 QOCH's being that some are wearing kilts. If they are and the others are French I wonder if that is near La Bassee. Can you make out the sign on the building in Pic2? I'm wondering if its a Street Sign.
