# Private collection of WWII Europe photos now seen for the first time



## GrauGeist (Aug 22, 2015)

A private collection of photos belonging to Brig. Gen. Charles Palmer, U.S. Army Signal Corps (passed away 7 June 1999) have been published by his grandson for the first time.

It's a fantastic collection of photos of the latter part of the European Theater, some of them were taken during combat and most were taken immediately afterward.

They are still trying to identify some locations and equipment seen in the photos and there is one photo that has launched a debate over the identification of a crashed fighter - it was originally captioned as a German aircraft (with charred pilot on board) but has been suggested it may be a P-47.

I won't post any photos from the collection, as they belong to General Palmer via his grandson and I don't have permission.

However, the photo collection has been published in two parts at argunners.com and you can view part one here: Amazing WWII Photographs you've never seen before - Part 1 Argunners and part two here: Never seen before WWII Photographs show Horrors of War - Part 2 Argunners

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## fubar57 (Aug 22, 2015)

Great photos Dave, thanks for the link.




Geo

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## T Bolt (Aug 22, 2015)

That's definitely the canopy of a P-47 Razorback

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## Airframes (Aug 22, 2015)

Good find Dave, and yes, that's definitely a P-47 'Razorback'.

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## Gnomey (Aug 22, 2015)

Great photos! Thanks for sharing.

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## Argunners (Oct 5, 2015)

Indeed, heard it a lot that it is a P-47 only strange that on the reverse it was identified as a "German Pilot". Thanks for sharing!

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## GrauGeist (Oct 5, 2015)

Argunners said:


> Indeed, heard it a lot that it is a P-47 only strange that on the reverse it was identified as a "German Pilot". Thanks for sharing!


I did find that a little odd as well...

Even burnt, there shouldn't be a problem identifying the pilot, as the Luftwaffe uniforms and personal effects would be greatly different than a USAAF pilot's.

This leads me to wonder if that P-47 may have been a captured Thunderbolt being operated by KG200 and subsequently caught in the open and shot down by Allied aircraft. I don't recall right off-hand, if all of the German captured P-47s were ever accounted for by war's end.


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## Airframes (Oct 5, 2015)

Possibly a 'propaganda' type of title - not wanting the US public to know of Allied losses ?


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