Why do you think Germans POWs did not go home much before 1947 in the West and 1955 in the East. Also all German civilians had to report for clean up duties to receive Allied occupation ration coupons.
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- Thread starter jwhc
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Why do you think Germans POWs did not go home much before 1947 in the West and 1955 in the East. Also all German civilians had to report for clean up duties to receive Allied occupation ration coupons.
Admiral Scheer lays capsized in Kiel, occupied Germany, in May 1945 -
After the war, the Allies extended the shoreline and just buried her where she lay.
And her location today - (the big curved outcropping of trees)
Brookwood
I wonder if he curve of the trees has anything to do with the remains. The shape is almost ship-like.
I also wonder if some day the remains will be dug ups as an archeological find. Then some yet to be discovered technology restores it back to its original condition much like they do with centuries old wooden vessels.
Not likely now, Had Germany continued the way it was going before Merkel it likely would have re-discovered some pride in the Wehrmacht and some interest in such restorations but now it is likely to become even less German........
Left from Bremerhaven in 1955, still lots of skeletal buildings and rubble piles to be seen. Apartment we lived in had been hit by a bomb, but repaired.
Grizz
" Amagi (天城) was a Unryū-class aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Named after Mount Amagi,[1] and completed late in the war, she never embarked her complement of aircraft and spent the war in Japanese waters. The ship capsized in July 1945 after being hit multiple times during airstrikes by American carrier aircraft at Kure Naval Base. Amagi was refloated in 1946 and scrapped later that year."
Brookwood
"Amagi was an Unryū-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy built during World War II. She was bombed and sunk by carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy on July 24th, 1945, at Kure Harbor, Japan. This video shows the wreck of the Amagi in Kure harbor."
I recall being in Xanten in 1992. The Cdn Army had fought through the town in 1945 and there was substantial damage. The cathedral was receiving the final restoration touches in 1992. I was there again in 2017 and the town looked somewhat different again. Xanten was well established Roman town on the Rhine and there is a lot of restoration work, excavations and artifacts to be seen there.
I worked on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea for a couple of years in the mid 1980's. It was amazing how much stuff was left around. We found stacks of old mortar shell, AA guns (one that was captured by the Japanese in Singapore), old tanks, crashed planes and many many other things. Once found a line of fox holes on a ridge in the middle of the jungle. Basically things just stayed where they fell with very little effort to clean up anything but in the towns.
At the time, the US was making so many aircraft that they didn't have enough carriers for them to fly from. It was probably easier for the Navy to bury at sea aircrew members in the plane they were killed in. As you can see from the initial part of the video, the plane wasn't that badly damaged.
RIP sailor.....
Another link says it was an anti-aircraft hit that did the damage.
The rear turret was crushed and mangled pretty badly, and there was a fairly large piece of fuselage skin removed from the spine. An AA hit close enough to do that, would have likely done a fair bit of damage to the internal skeleton of the aircraft.
My grandfather spent the war in North Ontario at the allied training bases as a welder cutting kids out of their planes when they failed their solo exams. Once the metal gets wrapped around the body like it was in that gunner's case, you have to cut up a remarkable amount of the aircraft to remove the body in one piece. Between the damage to the aircraft in this video, and the cutting they would have had to do to remove the corpse, they would have broken the spine of that plane to get the gunner out, at which point, even though not beyond the ability of the guys on an Aircraft Carrier's maintenance deck to repair (they can pull off miracles at need), it would have taken time and hanger space that they didn't really have. Much more straightforward to uncrate a spare that they either had in their own hold, or nearby on a supply ship.
Nazi Admiral Graf Spee, wreck puts Berlin at odds with savager
https://www.thelocal.de/20100312/25831
https://www.thelocal.de/20100312/25831
You can see the rangefinder from the Graf Spee in Montevideo harbor right beside the jetty used by cruise ships. As I recall the crew from the Graf Spee eventually made their way to Argentina where they improved the quality of Argentinian beer. 
Thats interesting .. my father had gone from 1st Div in Holland to CAOF and spent some time in Bremerhaven then Wilhelmshaven until CAOF was wound down .. Apparently most of the German troops who capitulated in Holland were subsequently sent to the Wilhelmshaven area for final processing ....
Dark Alley Dan
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Some background on this tank from Marco Hogenkamp over at Maple Leaf Up:
And from the same thread:
And from the same thread:
"Trooper J.L. Dumouchelle and Corporal W.L. Corn cleaning a Sherman tank of The Fort Garry Horse used as a monument in Fort Garry Park, Doetinchem, Netherlands, 22 November 1945
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Thanks for the links Dan it was a few years ago that I visited the place and Marco being the walking encyclopedia he is told me a lot about the tank, to which I should've written everything down!
Here's a couple more photos of the tank including a close up on the turret and Cpl William James MacDonald's resting place in Holten Canadian War Cemetery.
Here's a couple more photos of the tank including a close up on the turret and Cpl William James MacDonald's resting place in Holten Canadian War Cemetery.
