A few pictures - Dutch Resistance fighters and Montgomery's Letter

Hi everyone, total newb here.

However, I think I have a couple unique items here that'll interest a few of you! I should probably also mention I don't have a scanner, so I had to use my phone camera, the pictures turned out decently.

The first is a picture my Grandpa took:

http://imgur.com/5ru3ncU (they were maple dip, by the way, if you were curious )

It features a small cell of Dutch Resistance fighters. On the back of the photo someone (presumably my grandfather) has written "Tomis Dutch Resistance Group Lith & Kessel - On the Maas River Jan. 1945". If anyone could shed some light as to who these individuals are, that would be amazing. I'm especially curious of the guy in the front far left kneeling on the ground; he can't be more than 16-17 years old.


The second is a picture of a framed document I found in some of the things my grandma left me after passing on last year. It's a message to the 21 Army Group and is signed by Montgomery. If I recall correctly, this was what my grandpa read to his troops just before the d-day landings.

http://imgur.com/vt79Otq

 

Great picture.

 

I can't shed any light, but I can appreciate. Thanks for sharing.

 

In the first picture, I really like the guy on the right wearing the bandoleers. It's all about the accessories.

 

Nice pictures, thanks for posting!

 

Sure do, I'll copy and paste the bit about his military service from his obituary.

Douglas Jordan entered the Canadian Army September 1939, in the 1st Canadian Division as a Bombadier. He served in England from 1940 to 1942 and returned to Canada in 1942 to receive a commission as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Artillery. In March, 1943, he returned to England and served in Europe with the 5th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment - 4th division. Doug returned to Canada in July 1945. As a career soldier, Doug also served in Korea with the 3rd R.C.H.A. He retired as a Major in 1969 and joined the Winnipeg School Division as a supervisor of purchasing, retiring in 1982.

While he was alive he didn't really talk about his war experiences so much, and when he did, he tended to recall his time in Korea more often (I think, at that time, he was a major and saw less action and was perhaps easier to talk about?).My family has somewhat of a history with service in the Canadian artillery; My grand father's father actually has an exhibit at the Royal Canadian [Horse] Artillery Museum.

http://www.rcamuseum.com/English/Great%20Gunners/jordan.htm

My cousin is the only one maintaining this particular family tradition, however.

 

I drifted slowly through the picture and stopped on that same guy you were referring. I laughed aloud, read your post and laughed again.

 

The picture is amazing. These men most probably found their supplies at a local Luftwaffe depot (Venlo, Maastricht etc...) . This can be noticed because at least one of them has a luftwaffe parade dagger with tassel included. These were not worn in combat. also the same guy has a Fallschirmjäger helmet (his gear would be worth a fortune today) . At least two of them have Luftwaffe Koppelschlösser belts and the two on the left even have the Mauser cartridges that go with it (including the young fellow with his Mauser rifle. There is also Wehrmacht weapons , including a bunch of Mauser 98 rifles , a 30mm (klein) Panzerfaust. I'm not sure about all the MG's but I can count at least 5 of them including a MG34 with trommel magazines. One guy has a British helmet with web bag . There are also a bunch of holsters, possibly a P-38 and the guy with all the bandoleers has a huge holster with possibly some ancient Reichrevolver type weapon. Hope this helps.

 

Me too! It's the hand on the hip that did it ... and the hat. What a great photo! Thank you for posting this. I'd love to know what they all got up to.

 

I have some more photos to post up, I've just been super busy with work. Expect some interesting stuff tomorrow or Saturday. Maybe you guys could let me know what you might be interested in seeing? I seriously have a metric ton of this stuff. I have knives, utility multi-tools, compasses, captured nazi paraphernalia (patches, buttons, one medal, coins, and a broken luger), officer equipment that was used in the field - But not that overly interesting; some maps and notes written while in europe contained within a sort of leather book of sorts that looks like it was dragged through the mud and back.

- I have a box of medals, I think most of them are to denote my grandfather's various tours of duty. Most are from Canada and England (ww2) and a couple from the UN (Korea).

- Just a ton of military patches - my grandfather collected these while overseas in Europe. In my possession right now I have a Canadian Black Watch patch, RCHA, an America airborne patch (forget which company if it even says), and an American Army Rangers patch, and some basic rank insignia patches.... There are probably tons more but are in boxes I haven't checked yet. I have no idea how common or rare these are, but I imagine they're not exactly hard to find.

-Dog tags (although once you've seen one set, you've seen 'em all)

- A parade sword, but I don't think there's any significance to this. IIRC my old man told me he simply bought it while on tour in Korea so he'd have a sword for parades.

- A WW2 era dress uniform (strangely this did not belong to my grandfather, I have no idea how he came into possession of it lol)

- More pictures like the Tomis Dutch Resistance Group. There's a lot of his unit, a lot of brit units a couple American units and officers he was close with.

 

If you have anything Commando-related that you want to give/sell cheaply to a very good home ... give me a shout please

Also, anything to do with Flushing/Walcheren, especially Flushing - I'd love to see it.