3 June 2024 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

[Timothy-R]

Paris Opera house?
Seems like the civilians want to lynch the German Officer? Wonder who he is.
And it seems that smile on the face of the Garand - toting soldier may be due to his trophy pistol?

[Mark in Rochester]

[QUOTE=Timothy-R;539258]Paris Opera house?

Yes

[CINDERS]

That pic reminds me of the German civilians treatment of the downed bomber pilots when they got hold of them, the German troops had to physically stop them killing them of no doubt I'm sure some perished.
All they had to say "Did not survive the parachute landing or dead when they landed".

[Terry Hawker]

That pic reminds me of the German civilians treatment of the downed bomber pilots when they got hold of them,

In a related, but contrasting incident... Mum was in the WAAF during the war, and she told me that at one point during the Blitz period she happened across a group of people in the street gathered around the body of a German aviator who had come down dead in his parachute. These folks were tossing coins on that 'chute to help towards the man's burial.

[oldfoneguy]

I see the police with their pistols drawn. But weren't the police required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Vichy regime? So didn't that make them as much the enemy as the nazis?

[Daan Kemp]

Cinders, could you please provide a reference to the mistreatment of downed aviators? I want to follow it up.

[CINDERS]

I read of instances it in a couple of my books and cannot remember which ones sorry Daan but it was definitely described by one individual that the crowd were out for blood as he was a British "Terror Flieger" that's when the German soldiers stepped in to stop it.

But I found this by a quick google ~ Rüsselsheim massacre - Wikipedia

[Daan Kemp]

Thank you Cinders. It doesn't seem to be widespread but the anger of the townspeople is understandable. I will lool further.

[Low & Slow]

Daan, Cinders may well be referring to a passage in Tom Clavin's "Lightning Down". He specifically mentions the epithet "terrorflieger" being applied to Joe Moser, a downed P-38 pilot who wound up in Buchenwald for some time.