Hello experts, I have a mystery to solve and I hope someone can help. The photo is of Troop A of the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. I always assumed that it was taken at Singleton, West Sussex, where the squadron was activated in December 1943. However, among the men is a Corporal Joseph Negri (the photo comes from his collection) who joined the squadron as a replacement on the day before the breakout. So it cannot be in Britain. I'm confident that he is there because his daughter has identified him. I do not have any evidence that the squadron was ever assembled together after its service in Europe, so it seems that this must be somewhere in France, Belgium or Germany. The background to this appeal is that I am researching the squadron's story, initially for a website at Home — 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized) 1943 - 1945 Thanks, Mike
Hi Mike, My guess is this photo was taken in Germany at the end of the War or even later during occupation duty. Do you know where the 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron were last stationed in April/May 1945? Regards, Pat
Thanks Pat - you're right. They were in Ballenstedt, Saxony, after hostilities. The photo is almost certainly from there.
Hi Mike, I think I have it... here Two of the five houses on the eastern side of the soccer pitch. Regards, Pat
Hi Pat, I really appreciate that. Did you just go to Ballendstedt on Streetview and start looking around?
Mike, When I noticed the goal post in your photo and you supplied the town of Ballendstedt for the Squadron's last wartime location in Germany, I just had a look round in street view to find the town soccer pitch. Note how the grass is worn in front of the goal mouth. Regards, Pat
Great - I need to get good at this because I have a lot of battlefield photos with no location details.
Here's another one. I used ChatGPT's o3 reasoning model to get a suggestion that this is in Belgium. The LLM says (after a long description of its 'thinking'.) 'I therefore place the pin near Emptinne / Sovet on the N 4, with a 30 km error radius in case the crossing is one of several similar bridges south of Namur.' I didn't tell it this, but that was on the route taken east by the 24th Cav Recon, so it seems plausible.
Hi Mike, I think this might be earlier that Belgium...too much foliage on the trees IMHO. Reading from your site today. Where were they after Cherbourg was captured in late June? Thanks, Pat
I'm still plotting their route after the Cotentin was cleared, but they first entered Belgium in early September. Here's the AI's reasoning: 0 · Set-up & Ethics No metadata consulted. I’m working only from the pixels in the photo you provided (small, black-and-white, WWII-era convoy scene). “Up” = camera forward. No Street View or maps consulted yet. 1 · Raw observations (literal, no interpretation) Cobblestone/paved road about 6-7 m wide; drainage curb of dressed stone blocks on left. U.S. armoured cars (looks like M8 Greyhound) driving away from camera, spaced on road centreline. Low stone parapet wall left side of road (~0.8 m high) with evenly spaced square posts. Concrete road bridge ahead (single-span, straight deck, simple guardrail) crossing the road; railway track visible on bridge deck. Houses left background: steep 55–60° gable roofs, dormers; masonry walls; one house has stepped gable shadow. Right roadside: grassy embankment sloping upward to rail line; no guardrail. Telegraph/utility poles wood, single cross-arm, three wires, insulators; poles roughly every 30 m on left verge. Flat to gently rolling terrain; distant silhouette centre shows windmill or silo-like tower. Sky overcast or bright haze; shadows weak (difficult to read sun angle). Surface beyond bridge looks like similar cobbles; no centreline markings. 2 · Clue categories Category Observations & reasoning Climate/vegetation Lush temperate grass, mature deciduous tree left. European mid-latitude climate plausible. Geomorphology Low relief, river plain or coastal plain. Built environment Cobblestone national road; rail overpass with concrete; Flemish-/Dutch-looking stepped gable possible; stone parapet style common in Low Countries, north France, west Belgium. Culture & infrastructure Driving right side (US convoy overseas). M8 vehicles indicate Allies in NW Europe 1944. Cobblestone main roads typical in Belgium/North France pre-war. Telegraph pole style European. Astronomical Shadow too faint; can’t extract latitude. 3 · First-round shortlist (exactly five) | Rank | Region (state / country) | Key supporting clues | Confidence 1-5 | ≥160 km gap ✓/✗ | | 1 | Wallonia, Belgium (Liège–Namur axis) | Cobblestone N-roads, rail bridges, stepped gables, M8 path of U.S. 2nd Armored & 4th Cav Aug 44. | 3 | ✓ | | 2 | Nord–Pas-de-Calais, France | Similar road/rail style, brick houses, U.S. push after Cherbourg. | 2.5 | ✓ | | 3 | North Brabant, Netherlands | Cobble roads, rail overpasses; but landscape slightly too hilly? | 2 | ✓ | | 4 | Lower Saxony, Germany | Possible, but houses look more Belgian/French than German; cobbles less common. | 1.5 | ✓ | | 5 | Luxembourg (north) | U.S. cavalry moved through; terrain fits; fewer cobbled main roads. | 1.5 | ✓ | 3½ · Divergent search-keyword matrix (placeholders for later) “1944 M8 Greyhound convoy cobblestone road Belgium rail overpass photo” “O5 national road cobblestones bridge stone parapet Wallonia 1940s” 4 · Tentative leader & alternative Leader: Wallonia, Belgium, roughly the main N4 or N5 cobbled route south of Namur. Alternative: Nord–Pas-de-Calais, France around Arras–Cambrai line. Why leader edges: Stepped-gable house plus Belgian-style stone parapet and prevalence of cobbled chaussée in 1944 Belgium. Disproof criteria: If bridge shows distinctive French road‐sign shapes or kilometre stones typical of France. If house styles turn out to be French red brick with ardoise slate, not Belgian limestone/brick. I’m ready to proceed to the verification/search step (no maps have been opened yet). Let me know if you’d like me to run those image-search strings and push further. Most likely location Wallonia, Belgium – on the pre-war cobblestone N 4 (Chaussée de Namur) just south-east of Ciney, where the single-track railway line 128 crosses the road. Approx. 50.314 ° N, 4.997 ° E (± 30 km). Why this fits best Evidence from photo Matches best in Wallonia Cobblestone two-lane national road with low dressed-stone parapet 1930s N-roads in Belgium (N 4, N 5, N 6) kept their granite setts and stone sidewalls until the 1960s. Simple concrete rail overpass, single track, no road markings Belgian provincial rail lines (e.g., Line 128 Ciney-Yvoir) crossing N 4 exactly in this style. Steep masonry houses, one with stepped-gable silhouette Characteristic of Condroz villages (Belgian limestone & brick mix). Slightly rolling farmland, shallow embankment right side Condroz plateau terrain around Namur-Ciney. U.S. M8 Greyhound convoy (4th Cavalry Group route Aug–Sept 1944) 4th Cav advanced along N 4 through Ciney → Hamois → Sovet on 7-8 Sept 1944. Residual uncertainty Northern France (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch North Brabant have superficially similar cobbled roads and rail bridges, but: stepped-gable + Condroz stone is rarer there; N 4 corridor aligns with documented 4th Cavalry Group movement. I therefore place the pin near Emptinne / Sovet on the N 4, with a 30 km error radius in case the crossing is one of several similar bridges south of Namur.
Hi Pat, good sceptical call - according to the trooper's daughter that photograph is from a series showing Troop A moving from Ballenstedt to Darmstadt. This should make it easier to locate. They first arrived in Ballendstedt on April 19. (I have all of the squadron's AARs up to May). I don't see any mention of Darmstadt or Frankfort in my docs, so I can't place the date of this convoy movement.