Відео

The railroad is the connection Nuremberg, Wuerzburg, Frankfurt. The first town seems to be Emskirchen, but I would have to do comparisons then/now to be able to say for sure.

Lest we forget.

Damn, I didn't realize how steep some of that area is.

Cripes, do they look miserable. Cold as hell AND wet, and they have to keep moving in it because it's a breakthrough.

Dont know how those ladies at 1:05 can look so happy? Sensing the end of the war I guess...

What is with the sailboat at around the 6:30 mark? It appears to have a fore and aft gun. I read that early in the early there were civilian boats converted to look for subs. But by 1945 I would have thought that they had all been replaced with modern warships.

I didn’t know that Higgins boats were used to cross the Rhine, and the U.S. Navy played a role there ..

End of war in the Westerwald. These villages are about 10 miles from my hometown.

I really find this video fascinating. Germersheim has remained largely the same from the war years, and it's one of the few places that is not blurred out for privacy matters on GE-SV, as much of Deutschland is. It's easy to trace the path of the U.S. Troops in this video, most of the buildings are still extent. As close as I'll get to walking in the steps of history! The GI's resting at the side entrance to St. Jacobi church, and in front of the Germania Guesthouse/restaurant (Restaurant Germania still open, but no longer a hotel) next door is sort of ghostly looking at the same site today.

That one Frau's a flirt and sure seems to be looking for a husband, and probably got one!

With the help of a commenter on Facebook, I was able to nail down that this footage was filmed in the Nilkheim neighborhood of Aschaffenburg at the "Panzer-Reparatur-Werkstatt" (Tank repair facility) at "Seibert-Werke" armament factory. Originally established as a steel and metalwork factory in 1922, it produced steel for buildings and bridges, as well as zeppelin/airship hangars. When the war began, it was converted to support the German war effort, becoming an ancillary tank repair facility for "Adler-Werke" from Frankfurt am Main and building Type XXI "U-Boote" (submarines) beginning in 1943.

NEVER FORGET !!!!!!! it needed the hole world and 6 years for made only one country down ,,, DEUTSCHLAND ,,, if they want back ,, they can ,, russians still fear german military ,, germans know how fight against russians ,, SO NEVER MESS WITH GERMANS ;; IT WILL HURT YOU

Thank you for keeping History alive.

Gracias! Siempre es un placer ver a la "raza superior" rendida brazos en alto, y sin animarse siquiera a mirar a la cámara de sus vencedores...

Repair depot abandoned as americans approached.

Great video. More 603rd TD Battalion, please!

Thank you so much for these videos.

Amazing record 😮

The name of the river is Ruhr, not Roer!

"It's Blowout Blitz Days at Crazy Karl's! Prices Slashed! Everything Must Go! Ja, We have Financing!"

Not a single DEI Woke one among these men!

In GE at the following coordinates (49°13'10"N 8°22'12"E) you will see the Church doorway the GI's are resting near today. At 4:10 in the video.

All you see in the German faces is "Der Krieg ist vorbei.

After 6 years of war and now it's all over: what were they thinking ? Goodby to all that ?

These are the details most historians gloss over because it's too mundane. I find this stuff fascinating because it tells the complete story better than after action reports.

Those VW Kublewagons are cool! VW actually brought those back (more or less) with the VW "Thing" in the early 70s. Check out the wheel bolt pattern, its just the same as any pre-1968 Beetle.

'The 9th Armored Division of the United States Army was sometimes called the "Phantom Division" during World War II. The nickname originated during the Battle of the Bulge.'

Cologne looking worse than Detroit

Were they allowed to go back home and try to reset after the lies of their leader? Can you be a prisoner of war after the war has ended? All those lives lost, and because of a complete nutter 😢

Looks like they are all receiving the bronze star medal from the look of the medal ribbon. Interesting that it appears just to be the ribbon that is being awarded rather than the medal itself.

1:40 : The sequence shows the commander of the 19th Army at the time, General Erich Brandenberger. The officer he is bidding farewell to is most probably Admiral General Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (successor to Dönitz, who had been appointed by Hitler as his successor after his suicide). If the photos were taken on 6 May 1945, then he had signed the partial surrender of the German armies in northern Germany on 4 May and was now on his way to Reims to sign the surrender document with the Western Allies as a negotiator on 7 May. He then flew to Berlin to sign the surrender document with the Russians. Von Friedeburg committed suicide two weeks later to avoid being taken prisoner. The other officer at 1:53 is most likely Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, known as ‘bloody Ferdinand’ because of his merciless ruthlessness, even towards his own soldiers - he was commander-in-chief of the army at the time. ‘Schörner's loyalty was solely to the Nazi rulers, not to the soldiers under his command, and unlike other troop commanders, he was not prepared to share their fate. This was made abundantly clear at the end of the war when he abandoned his troops’ (Wikipedia) - in other words, deserted. A person of highly dubious character who deserved much more to suffer the fate of Admiral Friedeburg.

Looks like the Battery CO is loader

Interesting footage of german troops the last day of war..rare and high quality

At 2:57, the small creek crossing is found at the following coordinates. I believe the original bridge was already mostly destroyed and the American are fording just the the right of where the bridge was. You will notice the small brick prayer house with the (49°53'19"N 6°27'50"E), it's still there. I would bet the video of the creek crossing was filmed from the remnants of the original bridge, which has been rebuilt. Pretty little town!

The Germans are thinking, "Gott sei Dank ist es vorbei und wir leben im Westen". Furthermore, it's a good bet many of the U.S. G.I.'s have german ancestry.

I assume that the US soldiers shot a flare into the dead German soldier's body. there's no other explanation for the sequence - it just makes for ‘good’ pictures.

The soldier at 0:44 has a German sidearm and leather holster.

The extremely bitter fight for this Atlantic port and the destruction of its port facilities would lead directly to Operation MARKET GARDEN, with the objective of securing the port of Antwerp as Brest's replacement as the main Allied logistics point.

Today that's like piles of gold.

Interesting

....considering that this area of ​​St.Tropez is now the place for the rich and beautiful!

Unbelievable footages! Breathtaking.

I was assigned to the 5th I.D. at Ft Polk Louisiana in the early 1990s, until the division was deactivated, it is sad to me that the memories of all the brave guys who fought and died wearing the red diamond are fading. Frankfurt is a wonderful city, and the ghosts of those guys are everywhere when I walk around it.

By the age and uniforms, most of the German prisoners look like Volksturm/reservists. Am I wrong?

The lead sprayed that day is still polluting the community’s ground water

At 0:17, the gunner says: 'Feed me, Mandrake!'

This film was made on April 19, 1945. If you've seen 'Downfall' (2004), then you'd know that Hitler's staff was preparing to celebrate his birthday, his last, on the 20th in the Fuehrer bunker in Berlin.

Would it be a benefit or an issue to be wearing an "Iron Cross" who captured?

Town is pretty worked over. Looks like a combo of arty and direct fire. Bridges were dropped by controlled det, too. I guess somebody thought the river crossing would be a good place to try and hold up the American advance.

Most of the German troops looked relieved to be safe and out of the war.