Gruesome British 49th Division Christmas card, 1944

[thorne83]

Hello all,

with Christmas approaching I thought I'd share this rather cheery Christmas card produced by the 49th (West Riding) Division, in 1944. It refers to Lord Haw-Haw's description of the division as "The Polar Bear Butchers" (the division's arm badge was a Polar Bear), following vicious fighting in Normandy. It's just one of many items that my grandpa brought back from his time with the division.

Cheers, Tom

[Gunny Hartmann]

That's brilliant i love it!....

[Woolgar]

I love it too!

Thanks for taking the time to post !

Nick

[Wagriff]

Charming Christmas Sentiment! lol

[Panzersaurus]

Does anyone still make these? I think I know what I'm sending around to the family this year...

[DougB]

Merry Christmas to you, you SS Bastard. What ever happened to subtle English humour?

[Jerry B]

Absolutely brilliant card, I wish I could find one of these. Best way to answer Haw Haws garbage was to kick nazi butt and then to put it in a cartoon xmas card, so cool.

[StefanM]

There cannot be many of these surviving thanks for sharing!

[Salzburg]

Wonderful item! I particularly like 49th Division items as my Grandfather was in 1st Batallion, The Leicestershire Regiment and went right through from Normandy into Germany.

Regards

Martin

[Scout]

A sentiment of the time - as far as those guys were concerned, both Haw-Haw and Tokyo Rose could go take a flying......., well, you know what.

Loads of detail in the drawing. A polar bear toppling a panther, that must be one heck of a big bear!