Captured German Photos - 1940 vintage

Sorry, but I do not think it is Artenay.
On the photo it's written Esternay which is well east of Paris and not to the south (?) Esternay is more logically on the road from Belgium to Normandy.
To get to Granville in Normandy, Artenay is too far south to forcing back after making this detour?
greetings
Eric

 

I can agree with your statement about the young girls and the beautiful soldiers, but the general mood of the luxembourgish population was definitely anti-german. In the early thirties there were some fascist tendencies with strong ties to the catholic church and in the beginning of Hitlers reign the catholic church and the right were pro-Nazi, as they saw a bigger threat in communism. But once it was clear that Hitler had ambitions in the west the mood turned and the vast majority of my countrymen had very strong feelings about the independence of the Grand-Duchy. This was proven by the extent with which the population participated in the 1939 festivities for our 100 years of independence.

You have to take into account though that from the late 19th century on there had been a great number of germans immigrating into our country, due to the need of skilled labour in the emerging steel industries. The more there had always been family ties across the border and cross border marriages never ceased. So there were quite a few people living in Luxembourg who had pro german feelings...but they were not Luxembourgers.

Even when there was a certain degree of apathy during the first days of occupation, there was surely not much love for the Wehrmacht, the more so as the story of Jean John spread like a prairie fire! John was a civilian murdered by Gerhard Brawek, the leader of a commando of the "Bau und Lehrbataillon zbV 800". This unit was a precursor of the famed Brandenburgers, an armed offspring of Canaris' Abteilung II of the Abwehr. Braweks commando operated with a degree of dilettance that, at least until the script turned sour, can only be described as comic. A few hours after they entered the country and had totally failed their mission, Brawek needlessly shot down Jean John, during the whole day he prevented fellow countrymen as well as Wehrmacht officers and doctors to tend to the wounded civilian who finally died after a days agony, when he was belatedly taken to hospital. So, even as in most cases the treatment of the luxembourgish civilians by the Wehrmacht soldiers was very correct, they had the name of savage murderers.

Later on when the germans offically annected our country and started forced conscription the mood turned into pure hatred.

 

I agree too. It was only a tiny fraction of the population, and it was the same throughout Europe, thanks God!
Eric

 

Eric, Esternay is possible, but why would the german have written South of Paris and not east of Paris then? Also Granville was two months after the armistice, so troops could have been assigned there during the Summer.

The Battle of the Loire took place on June 15th and many troops passed by Artenay which was a strategic crossroad for troops coming from Paris and Chartres and going to the Loire front. Esternay has smaller roads, so it would have been harder for Flak units to take that road there , I'd have more expected Panzer units and pionniers to go through that way.

Also the picture was taken after the Armistice (the refugees are returning home after the battle) so it was likely taken during the last days of June and it was logicial to have those Germans based in central France those days.

This is not Gospel of course, but hints and clues and the topography of the landscape, added to the chronology and geography of the battle gives it sense. Hope this helps.

 

Took my nap, Lou!

 

I´ve nothing to add, SKYLINDRIVE did a perfect job in translating!

 

Ppphhh, you are sold out to the Luxemburgian navy and this is propaganda Staffel , I translated the first part in post 4 .

 

Ooohh, i´m soo sorry, Skipper! Wait i´ll do it like the newspapers will handle such a mistake!

Sorry to all members, i´ve overlooked Skippers great translation to the texts!
My apology to Skipper for that!

Hmm, no smaller size?

 

Don't make me blush, do you have any idea what might be the sense of "Beschlagene Kruppen"?!? Or did I misread the caption?!?

The Moselle river CBG has everybody on it's knees .......and when it comes to lying through once teeths, nobody can teach Jean-Claude Juncker!!!

 

Mmmh he wrote a mixed Sütterlin style and it also could mean " Geschlagene Truppen!" There are some good examples for Sütterlin variatons at the internet so that this could be the meaning too!

 

You might be right there.....Sütterlin can be a PITA!

 

Geschlagenen Truppen looks good to me too. For those who don't speak the lingo it means: defeated troops.

 

Thanks for all of the input on the translations. With your help this set of photos has some context and something of a story line. I had forgotten they had captions on the back until I pulled them from an album to scan for this forum. I need to add these translations to the back so all of your input is not lost.

I don’t get to judgment about the Belgian gals pictured with the Germans especially in the context of the opening months of the war. For all we know they were just walking by. I do remember my dad saying something like “They were probably cheering us coming through in 1945”. He said that without any rancor against civilians. He knew his two sisters where safely backing in Strawberry Point, Iowa and didn’t have to deal with being in the middle of the war. As a combat medic he ended up treating a lot of civilians. Probably a story for another post.

Next time I am back down to my mother’s house in Iowa I will try and find the letter some Belgium gal sent my father mother back in 1945. It thanks my grandmother for the service of her son and even include a color pencil hand drawing of an American flag. As I work though my dad’s picture in the 980[SUP]th[/SUP] FAB thread I’ll get to happy civilians with our guys in 1945. That will take a while since I have a lot of photos to scan (and I don't want to spend ALL of my short Minnesota summer indoors scanning!)