Sicily or Anzio. eBay. "From the estate of veteran of the army Obergefreiter Günter Schlosser. "1941 training as Kradmelder at d. III. Department of Artillery Teaching Regiment 1 in Jüterbog. After a brief assignment on the Eastern Front in 1942, he came to the Artillery Regiment 29 (mot.) of the 29th Infantry Division (mot.) in the re - installation to Stalingrad in 1943, later renamed 29th Panzer Grenadier Division. He fought with this unit from the middle of 1943 as a crew member (2nd gunner) of a Marder II Jagdpanzer in Sicily (July 1943 in and near Messina) and Italy (including Anzio) until 1945." Resized to 1200 dpi and auto-sharpened to post here. Dave
Cisterna was in January. The shorts on the one man point to Africa. They would be original 1st Btn Rangers. I'm a Ranger historian and might be able to get their names if you would be interested.
You are mistaken. The 29th Panzer Grenadiers were not in North Africa. This photo is either Sicily or mainland Italy. Dave
Thanks for the correction. I am completely ignorant about Axis movements.. If I did know about 29th Panzer positions I would have a better idea as to which Ranger Btn they might have engaged. I suppose one could search weather records from southern Italy for Sept/Oct and see it it was warm at any time. . For my second guess, I'd say Sicily in August of 43. I would be happy to post that picture on the Ranger descendants Facebook page for their input.. One of those guys might be someones dad. You never know.
If you can find out who they are you maybe able to better date and place the photo. From the other photos Sicily would seem to be a good bet although Southern Italy wouldn't be impossible. Ground looks dry and rather barren not much in the background either.
I confess I am baffled that you infer the two Americans are Rangers and not ordinary infantrymen of Seventh Army (Sicily) or Fifth Army (Salerno and Anzio). Dave
The leggings made me suspect that they could be Rangers. All the Rangers wore them. I'm not sure how widespread the use was with other units.
Leggings were pretty standard in the US Army field uniforms of the times, not a Ranger exclusive article of uniform. The folks with the different footware were the airborne types.
