29 Dec 2022 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

I'll say that is staged.

What informs you to make that conclusion? just curious.

Also, any idea if the square patch of bark removed from the tree serves any purpose other than firewood?

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Bill Hollinger]

What informs you to make that conclusion? just curious.

Also, any idea if the square patch of bark removed from the tree serves any purpose other than firewood?

Guys hanging around and guy on the tank with his back to the supposed targets.

[RAM1ALASKA]

Guy on tank looks pretty casual.
Nobody taking cover behind the tank.
White patch on tree, maybe a painted nighttime highlighter?
Didn't notice until looking at the photo several times,
There is a guy prone at the base of the tree and
maybe another just in front of the tank.(Feet sticking out ? )

[Flying10uk]

Also, any idea if the square patch of bark removed from the tree serves any purpose other than firewood?

Possibly to mark the gateway just out of shot and or to help not hitting the tree/gatepost when turning into the gateway under blackout conditions. (I am assuming that it is painted white, rather than bark removed.)

I say this because a large tree just outside my family home, in a similar position in relation to the gatepost, got marked presumably for the same reason, in the early war period. I don't think that we ever established who actually marked the tree but it was assumed that it was done to mark the side of the road, the tree and the gateway. The house was a warden's post during WW2 and so there could be vehicles coming in and out during the night. From memory of a wartime photo the marking was a white triangle. Fortunately this property survived the war undamaged. Some of my family, including my father, evacuated to a "safer location" in 1940 and it was this other property that was bombed which I have written about elsewhere on this forum.

A few years after the war the marking on the tree was getting rather faint and my father thought that it would be a good idea to repaint the marking on the tree as it was still a useful gate marker. We still had "pee-souper-fogs" because every Tom, Dick and Harry was burning high sulphur content low-grade coal. No sooner had my father carefully repainted the marking on the tree, some "helpful" person came along, pointing out, that in their opinion the marking meant that the tree had been selected to be cut down. The tree survived all through the war without being cut down and no-one ever came to cut it down after my father's repaint. The tree was still there when I visited the area a few years ago.