Reply With QuoteThat's Mark Strong!
Just curious. We were watching a TV series about the rise of the nazis in Germany and this photo appeared on screen without any mention of their names. My wife says the bloke on the left looks just like me. I have to agree. Other people I have shown this too agree as well. I just want to know who he is
It’s going to be very difficult to tell, could be anyone that would have joined the SS - they are SS uniforms and rank insignia. I did think Gobbels initially (long nose) but he is wearing a Colonel collar tab
The others around him are mid ranking officers - Lt Colonel and Majors. Either way they are were all evil *****.
From the left: SS-Standartenführer Ludolf von Alvensleben, chief of the Selbstschutz inspectorate in Płutowo. SS-Obersturmbannführer Erich Spaarmann, chief of the Selbstschutz inspectorate in Bydgoszcz (till November 1939). SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Kölzow, chief of the Selbstschutz inspectorate in Inowrocław. SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Schnug, chief of the Selbstschutz inspectorate in Bydgoszcz as of December 1939.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley...28Bydgoszcz%29
edited to say I used tineye to find the photo - I'm not some massive Nazi expert!
Last edited by Lampoc; 2nd January 2022 at 12:01.
Hadn't heard of "tineye" before
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Brilliant - thank you. I also have not heard of tinyeye before.Originally Posted by Lampoc
That's Von ClockenVatcher - He invented the German factory time-card system .............
Great bit of detective work, Lampoc.
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Good effort, no idea about tineye
Haha!That's Von ClockenVatcher - He invented the German factory time-card system .............
Just googled other pictures of him and thankfully I look nothing like him - its just that particular angle on that one photo
It's always been a handy tool for spotting when someone has googled Rolex/etc photos for use in scam sales ads.Hadn't heard of "tineye" before
I met my "Doppelganger" in the former Jugoslavia. He was singing in an entertainment group and we were both quite shocked at the time at just how similar we were! I can hold a few notes too (usually tenners!). See what I did there?
Very goodThat's Von ClockenVatcher - He invented the German factory time-card system .............
Good story, not a regime to be doubled with. My ex’s family had Nazi’s among them. Looking at their family photo album’s felt very weird. Thankfully I am no longer related! Great sleuth work!
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Many years ago we visited some friends of friends in a Bavarian village on the Austrian border.
The (German) wife had inherited one of those big old Bavarian farmhouse/barns from an elderly great aunt and she and her Irish husband and their daughter were gradually doing it up.
We stayed a couple of days with them on the way to Venice for a holiday.
It was an idyllic spot, with the alps on their doorstep (we walked up to the church where they'd married and looked down on the village and out across the plain to Munich) and the house, while a bit dilapidated had scope to be a wonderful building to live in.
They'd already replaced most of the roof using trees from her father's own woods towed down by the Unimog the husband had bought (I expect some TZers will appreciate the Unimog reference).
On walking in, the first thing that struck me was a black and white photograph of a man (probably just a teenager) in Nazi uniform.
I asked about it and was told it was the aunt's brother who had died in the war.
While it's easy to think every German was a Nazi monster (and for all I know the ones in the photo absolutely were), but, as with British and other allied troops, most were just ordinary people, with no desire to fight a war, but dragged into it by people with xenophobic, nationalistic views.
Sadly, there seems to be an awful lot of that twaddle around these days, too.
If history teaches us anything, it's that people don't learn very much from history...
M
Last edited by snowman; 3rd January 2022 at 10:14.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I struggle with an irrational dislike of things German. I avoid German watch brands. I avoid German car makes. My wife survived a doodlebug attack.
On the other hand, I can't move for Japanese products in my house, and they come out of recent history much worse than the Germans. As I said - irrational.
Maybe because both my parents saw active service against Germany but weren't involved in the war against Japan.
No country can claim much in the way of moral high ground when it comes to wars. My irrationality is probably an age thing. Never mind, I'll be dead soon.
Many years ago, I had to set up an interview with Frank Pantridge. He was a great man who had invented the portable defibrillator. He had suffered under the Japanese in WW2, and went through all my gear asking where it was made. Fortunately I'd been tipped off, any Japanese gear and I'd have been out the door. Also irrational but very understandable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35160465
My dad served in the infantry during WW2 from 1940-1946 and he was in France, Holland, Germany, Italy and Egypt and I once asked him out of all the nationalities he met which did he like best and he said the ordinary German soldier in the desert as they were so like him and his mates, as far as he knew he never met any Nazi's, he also respected Rommel.Many years ago we visited some friends of friends in a Bavarian village on the Austrian border.
The (German) wife had inherited one of those big old Bavarian farmhouse/barns from an elderly great aunt and she and her Irish husband and their daughter were gradually doing it up.
We stayed a couple of days with them on the way to Venice for a holiday.
It was an idyllic spot, with the alps on their doorstep (we walked up to the church where they'd married and looked down on the village and out across the plain to Munich) and the house, while a bit dilapidated had scope to be a wonderful building to live in.
They'd already replaced most of the roof using trees from her father's own woods towed down by the Unimog the husband had bought (I expect some TZers will appreciate the Unimog reference
On walking in, the first thing that struck me was a black and white photograph of a man (probably just a teenager) in Nazi uniform.
I asked about it and was told it was the aunt's brother who had died in the war.
While it's easy to think every German was a Nazi monster (and for all I know the ones in the photo absolutely were), but, as with British and other allied troops, most were just ordinary people, with no desire to fight a war, but dragged into it by people with xenophobic, nationalistic views.
Sadly, there seems to be an awful lot of that twaddle around these days, too.
If history teaches us anything, it's that people don't learn very much from history...
M
He liked the yanks for there rations and he had nice words for the Italians (girls) :)
My father was a radio operator on a landing ship in WW2 and was involved in D Day and the subsequent trips across the Channel to re-supply. This involved transport of wounded and prisoners of war back to England. He never said much about it all and he's now long dead so can`t be asked, but he developed a deep-rooted dislike of the French for reasons I never established. Conversely, he was quite ambivalent about the Germans, having learned German at school and having some proficiency in the language I assume he got involved with the POWs, he did tell stories about giving them chores to do on the ship including helping in the galley! Many would be in poor condition and I suspect my father learned to see them as fellow humans in a situation not of their choosing.
As the number of people alive at that time diminishes rapidly WW2 is now slipping into a different category of history, once the first-hand accounts are lost it becomes far more distant. My dad was born in 1923 and my mum (who was a nurse in WW2) in 1924, both are long dead but through their first-hand accounts I can relate to WW2 in a way that I can`t relate to earlier history. Once my generation are gone WW2 will be as relevant (or irrelevant) in most people's minds as the Boar War or the Battle of Trafalgar, the only difference is the film footage available.
Despite being invited to stay in the Navy and go for a commission my dad couldn't get out soon enough and was demobbed in late '45. Likewise my mum, she was never suited to nursing and had little choice about joining, I think my granddad (a WW1 veteran) pushed her into it. She got out as soon as possible and took a 'normal ' job, dad worked for Prudential for the rest of his working life. My parents were typical of their generation, the war had interfered with their lives and they resumed normal careers afterwards without dwelling on the past. I do regret not learning more from them about WW2, dad in particular could've told plenty of stories but rarely touched on the subject.
I was curious as a young soldier in Germany in the late 70s and 80 and asked lots about how the war went for them, it was interesting hearing it from the other site. At one of the units I was at we had a driver that had been an SS tank commander who was captured in Italy by the Americans and loved his time in captivity. East Berlin even in the early eighties was such an interesting place with plenty of bombed out buildings.
On the opposite side my ex wife had an uncle that never came out of a dark room as the Japanese really screwed his head while in a prison camp.
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This is a tough thread to read. My grandfather died in one of the camps.
He fell out of the guard tower.
I'll leave now.
I know what you mean. Yesterday I was mucking around on a website that calculates the number of days between two specific dates.
I'm just 51, yet there are fewer days between my birthday and the end of WW1 than there are between my birthday and today. Something that I consider to be a primitive war, fought with ancient tech in the distant past actually happened just under twice my age ago.
Incredible how such a short period of time it takes for something to become ancient history.
I was thinking about this exact thing last week
I have been watching World at War on one of the history channels over the Xmas break. I had not seen the full series since I was a kid. It is such a powerful tv programme, the first hand accounts are harrowing and time being what it is, the number of people that can recount this events first hand is rapidly diminishing.
I am 41 and was fortunate enough to have time talking to 2 of my great grandfathers about their experiences in the trench’s, they both told fun and awful stores about ‘their war’ sadly their generation is now all gone.
My maternal Grandfather served in the Royal Marines towards the end of WW2 in the pacific including the occupation of Japan, he went on to serve in Korea, He would never talk about either war, only the good times he had on leave and the places he went on the way. Sadly he has been gone 10 years now.
When I first started drinking in pubs I got chatting to an old chap who used to come in for his early evening pint he served through Normandy and across the Rhine, we would chat about the good and the bad and generally laugh and joke he was a lovely guy. One day he came in with a bag and gave it to me. It was full of his ‘war trophies’ bits of German uniform, an iron cross, his rank badges etc. His family didn’t want them and had no interest so he gave them to me. I dug them out the other day after seeing this thread and replying at first.
Included is a set of (I think) Brigadier tabs along with quite a lot of other SS rank insignia. Where he got them from I have no idea, the stains on some do tell a frightening story though.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 5th January 2022 at 19:28.
6 part series on Netflix at the moment....WW2 in colour, unbelievably engrossing.
My uncle stood on a landline in the battle of Anzio and lost both legs below the knees, sadly he died when I was in my young teens, what I wouldn’t give to be able to talk to him now.
Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 6th January 2022 at 00:15.
Like you, my father was born in 1923 and mother in 1924. Father did flight training in Canada before being sent to the Fleet Air Arm on carriers in the Far East. Mother was in the Land Army and didn't like it much! Remember a lot of what they told me about those years, but wish I'd asked more questions. Still have his flight log and demob papers. They went through a lot but just got on with life after the war, wonder if we would cope as well?
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Two of my grandfathers fought in WWII. One was killed in action by German machine gun fire at Salerno on September 11, 1943, so my dad never knew his natural father, which was a loss he felt for his whole life.
My other grandfather scaled the cliffs at Omaha Beach on D-Day, at Pointe du Hoc, and then was shot in the back just as he pulled the pin out of a grenade. He was found by medics hours later with the live grenade clutched in his hand. He said he was on his back facing the sky and could not move, and he was not sure if he had died or was still alive.
In the mid 80s I visited Normandy with my grandfather, his first and only return trip, but I was just a young teenager, and did not know what to ask or say. I remember he said the beaches looked the same, and to me it seemed that he was still seeing the landings, as if they were still happening.
Last edited by williemays; 6th January 2022 at 05:18.
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