German PoWs with French Guide

Hi All,

I believe there may be a candidate location for the photo of the column passing the aid station field.

The field is, or rather was, as its now amalgamated with others into one larger field, just up the D14 road from the 'E3 Crossroads'. First lets look at a satellite view taken in 1997 before the amalgamation:

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Note the angled entrance at the southern corner off the D14. I would suspect the function of the angle was to allow horse drawn loads access and egress easier due to the lower level of the road when compared to the field level.

Now let's look at a high resolution copy of NCAP_ACIU_US30_4078_1004, flown on the 6th June, which I acquired many years ago in order to view the German battery field at nearby Brecourt Manor. As luck would have it, frame 1004 just clips the field which is the subject of this quest:

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Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

Note that the field surface is un-trodden grass, which contrasts significantly with it's appearance in frame 8010 of sortie US7GR_1857, flown six days later on the 12th June:

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

The D-Day aerial shows troops standing at the 'E3 Crossroads' as vehicles head through the junction on the present day D913 from Utah Beach.

There is however, a significant fly in my ointment; frame 1004 also shows a tree or bush at the left of the field entrance. This should show on the WW2 Radio photo but it does not. I am hoping this tree was removed to allow easier access for the medical unit trucks :s

Anyway, undaunted, I will crack on

There is a signification amount of footage and still photos shot at the 'E3 Crossroads' and below are three screenshots that I am particularly interested in. First, footage showing two M7 SPGs passing through the crossroads on the D913 and heading westwards:

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I am especially interested in the group standing on the end of the D14 as 'Apache' passes at speed. A better quality version of this footage might be able to tell us if the group includes the French guide.

Below is the same end of the D14 looking southwards where it becomes the D115 on the far side of the junction:

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Note the power pole on the western side of the road and the Horsa glider, which we know from other footage and photos, is marked 'E3' and from which I have taken the junction name. BTW, here is a link to the M7 footage on the PhotosNormandie Youtube Channel. You have to be quick to see the power pole as 'Apache' races through!

I then went digging to see what medical unit might be in the field, assuming I have the correct location). one of Ben Major's pages turned my attention to the the 261st Medical Battalion, which was attached to the 1st Engineer Special Brigade for the Utah Beach landing. Ben has a unit history here.

Below is an extract:

Hopefully, the '...crossroads just behind the flooded area' is referring to our 'E3 Crossroads'.

I pressed on and googled some more using the 261st Medical Battalion as key words and guess what I discovered embedded in this post by Johan Willaert on the U.S Militaria Forum

So, is the 261st Medical Battalion unit moving home just as the German PoW column is passing? We already know the column is marching on the 12th June from the date seen on the clapper board. Does that then explain the vacant field in the extract from frame 8010 of US7GR/1857, also flown on the 12th?

I eventually tracked down the original, un-cropped version:

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Note how the censor has removed the 1ESp-261M (star) C-5 unit marking from the jeep fender and also the 'Jackpot' sign in the hedge at left.

Does anyone know which unit used 'Jackpot' as a code word in Normandy?

The two photos are probably only yards apart. If you look at the two lines of GIs marching northwards(?) against the PoW column, some of them look to be similar in both photos.

A lot of loose ends and one big fly in the ointment, but I believe its still a good candidate location. More work though awaits...

Regards,

Pat

 

As per my recent FB post,

I am looking with intense interest at the footge in this archive.org film to see if its shot in the suspect clearing station field above the E3 crossroads.

The low hedge in need of a trim behind the medics standing over the wounded Germans looks like it could be the south west hedgerow along the D14 road above the junction.

The ambulance leaving the field seems to be going down a slope as it turns to its left to exit.

Best of all, look carefully between time marks 00:45 and 00:47 as the medics take the injured children from the horse trailer - is that the top of a truck moving left to right at the far side of the field adjoining? I have indicated the object with red arrows in the screenshot below:

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If so, could the clump of trees marked A behind that truck be the clump at the crossroads calvary?

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Pat

 

I found this today;

It appears one of the children in the horse drawn trailer has been identified as 'Genevieve Marie' from Audouville la Hubert. See this Pinterest entry.

The child's mother and brother had been killed during the pre-invasion bombing.

Anyone know the child's family name and/or able to confirm the information?

Still looking for that other mother and daughter footage...

Regards,

Pat

 

Thanks Hans,

I agree; its the same photo but the censor had got at one version of the print.

Looking through the WW2 Radio collection 'HOPITAL de CAMPAGNE - NORMANDIE - 1944' and I noticed this photo of a German medical officer treating a PoW:

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The pixels are a bit mushy in the archive.org film 'U.S. Troops, German POWs & French Civilians At Hospital Clearing Station, Utah Beach, 06/12/1944', but I am pretty sure the same man is visible in the centre at time mark 0min26sec:

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If such be the case and if I am correct regarding the location of this field, then the corner of the hedgerow marked with the yellow arrow in the WW2 still photo is that which is marked with the arrow in the extract from NCAP_ACIU_140_0334 frame 3125 flown on the 17th June:

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Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

Anyone able to confirm this man in the footage?

Thanks,

Pat

 

Thanks John,

That's him alright; and the hedgerow in the background at 06min09sec is the same one seen when the French horse cart beings in the injured children. There is also a concrete power pole with three insulators in the same scene which is in the correct line of sight for those poles known to be on the D14 as it runs down into the crossroads.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

I have been looking at the British Movietone footage in BM44914-2 on the AP site and a scene lasting 4 seconds commencing 05:59 has caught my eye.

It shows a column of men exiting an orchard through a gap in the hedgerow at right:

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The column moves between two apple trees which both have tents underneath. The scene immediately follows the footage showing the Horsa 'Edna' which we know to be a member of the Pond Field cluster of gliders. I had a look at frame 4052 of sortie ACIU US7GR 1857 flown on the 12th June by Lt. J.L. Campbell in his 27th PRS F5B '42-68196' which shows the Horsa 'Edna' protruding over the D129 road in the extract below:

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

I now believe the scene in the BM footage is just up the road aways in the triangular field at the junction of the D129 and D70. Its difficult to be sure the column of men comprises German PoWs, but if it does, then perhaps we now have the source of a prisoner column, perhaps even the one being the subject of this thread.

Anyone able to make out if the column comprises German PoWs?

Thanks,

Pat