1940 Dunkirk France Belgium Related Pictures

Gun looks like an 18 pdr, or 18/25 pdr, on the Mk IVP (box trail and pneumatic tyres) carriage. French tanks are Somua S35. Truck looks like a 15cwt of some sort.

Chris

 

Nice pic , Is that a treelined hill in left background ?, and the 15cwt has a 'Mutley' bren mount .

 

Here's a pre war post card, to show where the Dunkirk train station was situated:





This is the station in 1940:





Jan

 

Back says, 'May 1940, captured French tanks in Dunkirk' - presumably some sort of weapons dump we've seen on photographs before. Such places must have been a magnet for occupying troops to go and have their pictures taken in front of stuff they probably never saw in combat. It's amazing how often the same image crops up in ordinary soldiers' war albums, they presumably passed them around and sent them home to copy.

 

Rather sad picture of a third division carrier and mortar that looks like it has a story , does location mean anything to anyone ' visitez grottes maours ' ?

 

It's still possible to vist the caves at Naours, between Amiens and Doullens but of course the advertising doesn't indicate the exact spot. It could be quite a way off.

http://www.grottesdenaours.com/

The carrier is from 2nd Infantry Division. Unfortunately no Arm of Service serial visible. Can anyone identify the mortar ?

 

Thanks Rich that N as opposed to M makes all the difference to googling it , had quick look on street view but can't spot it.
The carrier looks to me as thought its had a direct hit where the white square would be on front .
Craig

 

In September 2013 I want to visit the Dunkirk area to make a then & now make photo serie,
I hope you do not mind if I use information from this thread.

Of course I put the thread in this forum online

 

Rich

That is a British 3 inch mortar. You don't see many of those in photographs.

Andrew

 

Dear Sir,
I confirm that this is Malo-les-Bains. I was born here and this is a great emotion for me to discover these amazing photographs. Thank you so much for sharing ! (If I can be of assistance to identify other locations...I will be honored).

 

In September 2013 I want to visit the Dunkirk area to make a then & now make photo serie,
I hope you do not mind if I use information from this thread.

Of course I put the thread in this forum online

I'm looking for the locations of these photos

 

Thank you soo much for sharing these photographs ! For years I have been searching a photograp of my native Malo-les-Bains seaside resort city showing the sea front jammed with nazi armored vehicles and nazy troops relaxing and enjoying the view . I know such photograph exists (colorized) but I can't find it for the moment.
Cheers
Freddie

 

Hi Freddie and welcome to the best section of the forum - always nice to have more Dunkirk related chaps on here. I hope you are enjoying the 1940 section-I know there are quite a few pics of Malo -les-Bains on here.

 

Hello

A rare colour photo of some left behind vehicles amongst the crops in Ghyvelde; neighboring town of Bray-Dunes, a bit inland along the French-Belgian border



grtz
Jean

 

Great photo but a shame there is no Corps or Divisional sign visible to ID the battalion.

 

If it's contemporary tinting, then they made reasonable notes as the combination of red background and '14' fits the sequence.

Its either going to be 2 Coldstreams (Location seems wrong), 2 Norfolks (almost impossible), 2 Grenadier Guards (Quite possibly, I think), Probably not from 4th Division as they almost certainly used another sequence. 2 Inniskillings from 5 Div is possible. I'd be surprised if 6 Queens from 44 Div or 8 Warwicks from 48th Div got there in such good order.

Perhaps Drew could have a look at 2 GG's diary and see if they mention abandoning transport at Bray.

 

I looked in Andrew's book, saw the amount of possibilities and closed it again

2 GG was Furnes to La Panne and a separate mention of smashing up 3-ton lorries at Zuidcoote in the war diary. No mention of the carrier platoon. I'll check the regiments history in a bit.

 

some other interesting photo's possibly showing the same vehicle twice; small differences are the emblem and name near the shovel which lack on the first photo.
The car's name seems to be 'Janine'. The second photo was shot at Bray-Dunes according to the photocaption, the location of the first photo is unknown.

 

Very nice pics of the Citroen-Kegresse tracteur leger d'artillerie P17 (give or take a couple of accents which I am too lazy to insert). Many thanks.

Chris