WW2 Royal Marines photo's: German subject matter Dieppe raid

[tincankid]

These photo's have been handed down to me from my dad, they were a WW2 'bring back'(along with some other items) of my grandad.. who served in the Royal Marines. They have been stuffed away in a tin box, pretty much since the war. The story goes that my grandad and his company were in retreat from getting a pasting in Arnhem.. he and some of his company came across a farm house with German vehicles in the courtyard, on further inspection they found dead german soliders on the ground.. when they moved in they discovered some of the solidiers had had their throats cut.. my grandad always reckoned that British special forces had come across the farm before they had.. he also said that the soldiers were a SS division.. I have know idea whether the story is true or not (I have been told that the chances of the solidiers being SS are slim).. but as a child on the few times my grandad told the story, it was special.. I saw him as a war hero, guess like every grandson should see his (vet)grandad.
Along with the photo's were a wound medal and a SS 8yr, long service medal.

[Rommel1942]

Neat pics and story! My grandfather always tells me of his stories regarding his service with the canadian navy in normandy. Never gets old.

Regards,
Finn

[Richie B]

Interesting photos - some of them look like Dieppe 1942.

Always good to have some family history.

Regards

Richie

[CMc]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing them, and your Grandad's story, with us. As Richie says, the early Churchill tanks with snorkels on are probably amongst the tanks that were landed at Dieppe with the Canadians, a raid which ended with terrible Allied casualties and losses due to capture. If it helps to narrow down information on the dead men your Grandad found at Arnhem, Allied forces did encounter SS men during Operation Market Garden, amongst them two Panzer divisions. Having said that, the German troops in the pictures all appear to be Army rather than SS, so if those were the photographer's unit in the picture our photographer would also have been Army.

[Walkwolf]

The Dieppe beach shot is a reprint of a press photo or combat photographers
photo and has been in several publications. As well, the Stuka pic, and the
last shot of British/Canadian prisoners, and a couple of others - the
wounded boy being helped along, and the large group of Allied
prisoners sitting in the street - these were probably
included in sets of propaganda cards.


Your Grandfather is indeed a hero. Thanks for showing some
of his posessions that have been handed down to you.

[Aldo]

Great pictures. Love the Stuka. Thanks for sharing