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Photo #1
Source: 18th FA Group Yearbook 1957
Known Information: photo is from 1957 or before; jeep leaving the installation has tactical markings of the 3rd FA Rkt Btry (7A 3F -- X 8); gate is identified as Gate #2.
Question: Which kaserne or training area are we looking at?
Response: (1) This is just speculation: the photo might have been taken at Grafenwoehr Training Area's Gate #2, which lies in the German community of "Tanzfleck". Today, as far as I know, Gate #2 still is located at Tanzfleck, south gate of GTA. (Oliver Geyer)
(2) The unknown picture number 1 is Gate 2 in Vilseck (Südlager) and it used to be the exit of the Grafenwöhr Training Area to Vilseck and Sorghof. Now it is the main gate of the "Südlager" and looks totally different. The gate at Tanzfleck is and has always been Gate 4.
Best wishes,
Frank Hummel (Germany)
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Photo #2
Source: Author's collection
Known Information: photo is from 1950's; location is most likely the football field at Coleman Kaserne, Gelnhausen; the Home team, the Warriors, are behind 0-13...
Question: Who are the "Warriors" (a unit team probably) and can anybody identify the year that the photo was taken?
Responses: (1) The 12th Infantry Regiment, with home station in Gelnhausen, in the early 1950s, were known as the "Warriors." So, the photo was taken sometime between 1951 and 1956 when the 4th left Europe and was replaced by the 3rd Armd Div.
(2) Your mystery pic of Coleman Kaserne at Gelnhausen Germany was probably taken either before 1953 or after 1956. My building was the one directly behind the post chapel. I do not recall there ever being a football game in the 35 months that I was stationed there and I don't remember the score board either. One of Mr. Thompson's pix of the post taken in May 1950 shows the football field as being close to the south perimeter fence (you can see the goal posts in the picture) and that area was the truck park and well graveled when I arrived there in the summer of 1953.
Thanks for all your hard work on a really nice site. (Harold Varney)
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Photos #3A, 3B & #3C
Source: Terry Burroughs, son of a veteran of Battery B, 580th AAA AW Bn
Known Information: photos were at a kaserne in Munich that was occupied by US troops in 1945 soon after the end of WWII; unit stationed there at that time was Battery B, 580th AAA AW Bn; this same kaserne was also used by Battery B, 398th AAA Battalion which operated PX Depot #198 from a large warehouse type building there; the soldiers knew the installation only as Saarkaserne and there was an airfield nearby; also, the kaseren was "generically" referred to as "SS Barracks" .
Question: Who can identify the kaserne and, possibly, provide more details?
Responses: Photos # 3A, # 3B, and # 3C are at Panzer Kaserne (later renamed Will Kaserne) located on Ingolstadter Strasse directly east the SS Kaserne Freimann, in north Munich. The location of Panzer Kaserne is shown on the map on your website for installations in north Munich.
I am unable to find much historical information relative to the Panzer (Will) Kaserne. Would appreciate any historical information about Will Kaserne anyone could send, and desire a possible confirmation of these photos from anyone who served a postwar assignment at Will Kaserne.
Terry Burroughs |
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Photo #4
Source: Terry Burroughs, son of a veteran of Battery B, 580th AAA AW Bn
Known Information: photo is from late 1945; location is a former factory or industrial plant named "Bayritex" in Munich. Battery D 489th AAA Battalion was billeted in this building or complex in late 1945; it is believed that the complex was located somewhere on Tegernseerlandstrasse.
Question: Who can identify the complex and provide more details?
Responses: (1) The location of the BAYRITEX building in photo # 4, is presently suspected to be near or possibly within McGraw Kaserne in southeast Munich. There were some wartime industrial production operations at the McGraw Kaserne complex. BAYRITEX could be one of these.
I am thinking BAYRITEX is a logo for a Bavarian or Bayern textile products manufacturing facility. There were some German military units responsible for the development, production, and testing of military textile items and clothing. Perhaps BAYRITEX was such an operation and located within the McGraw Kaserne complex.
I remain inconclusive about the precise location of the BAYRITEX building in the photo, but now think it to be relative to McGraw Kaserne. I am certain BAYRITEX is located on Tergernseerland Strasse somewhere between Mariahilf Platz and McGraw Kaserne.
Terry Burroughs
(2) Due to historical research I came accross the US Army web page. Regarding your missing info page, I have seen the picture (#4) showing the BAYRITEX building. The Bayritex GmbH was a company purchasing/selling cloth/textiles for distribution to sewing companies for different reasons during the time of the 3rd Reich and were located all over Germany in major cities. In the last years of WWII it was replaced by the Reichszeugmeisterei (RZM).
The Munich RZM headquarters was located in today's Tegernseer Landstrasse 210 backyard to the St.-Quirin-Strasse (entrance same street) and used by the US Troops in Munich. The building still exists but there are rumors that something new will be built on that area. When I find the chance, I will take a current picture to submit to you. I hope I have supported you with my information.
Klaus Hinkelmann, München, Germany |
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Photo #5
Source: photo album, unknown member of WOC, 97th Sig Bn
Known Information: comments written on back of the photo identify this building as the Headquarters Building for Seventh Army in 1954.
Question: Who can provide confirmation or details on which building this might be?
Response #1: That is Patch Barracks, yes. There were about five bldgs. the same. They were the G Sections: G-1,G-2, G-3, G-4. They looked much better in the early 1960`s.
All had basements for storage and snack bars (AYO), profits for little league and Pop Warner style football teams, for the dependent "brats."
All of us personnel were assigned as Clerks, paper pushers, were in Hq.Company.
Jack Dawes, US Army, Patch Barracks, Hq. Company, AG Printing Plant, 1963-1965 |
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 USEUCOM J-1 Bldg, 2007
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Response #2: I was looking at your mystery photos and saw photo #5 and recognized the building, as I work next to it. Its now the US European Command J1 building. I've attached two photos taken of the building this past Friday (April 2007). Please let me know if you have any other photos of Patch back in the 1950s. We would like copies to put on display here at HQ, USEUCOM is possible.
LTC David S. Jones, US Army, J-2, USEUCOM, present
If anyone has pics that they think might be of interest, please contact the webmaster. I will be happy to forward all information/pictures to David. David mentioned in a subsequent email that
they (USEUCOM) will hold the Army Ball there on 9 June - this is a great chance to display stuff related to the US Army history in Europe. |
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Image #6
Source: Author's collection
Known Information: identified as the crest for the USAREUR Communications Command Network.
Question: Who can provide confirmation or details on time period, organization of the unit(s) who wore this crest?
Responses: |
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Photo #7
Source: author's collection
Known Information: from comments written on back of the photo, this is a photo taken of the IG Farben Building in 1951
Question: Who can provide information on the antenna visible on the roof of the Farben Building? What type of communications is it used for and which unit would have been using it at that time in Frankfurt? (I have many pictures of various types of antennas used by signal units in germany through the years but never seen anything like this one.)
Response #1: The antenna atop the I.G. Farben Building. I am a ham radio operator and that antenna looks very much like what we call a cubic quad antenna. It is a directional HF (high frequency) antenna. Since HF was very much a primary means of command and control communications back when the picture was taken (I'm guessing sometime in the early 1950's) it would make sense that they were using this type of antenna.
By the way, I used to work in the I.G. Farben building (we called it the Abrams Building) back in the early 1980's for the V Corps Engineer Office. Absolutely fascinating place. The continuously moving Paternoster elevators were a constant source of amusement. We'd have people drive all the way from Fulda just to ride those things! Having pulled many a tour as staff duty officer for the headquarters I can tell you that building could get awful spooky late at night when the offices and hallways were empty. Your could almost hear the ghosts of all the soldiers that served in that building from 1945 on still going about their business.
I had the chance to take the family back to Frankfurt and drive around our old 'haunts' when we went back for a second tour in the mid-90's (I was stationed in Hanau at the time). It was sad to see what had happened to Drake Kaserne and the old Edwards Housing area. I really wanted to take them into the old Abrams Building, but by that time it was off limits to Americans. Virtually all the old US facilities in Frankfurt had been turned over to the Germans and many of them stood empty and vandalized. The old PX complex had been torn down to make way for, I believe, a German police facility.
Brian Haren
Response #2: My old stamping grounds . . . the I.G. Farben Bldg in Frankfurt.
Prior to being transferred to V Corps, which was headquartered in this building, I was an auditor with the Office of the Inspector General, Hq. 3rd Armored Div. at Drake Kaserne. I came there from Fort Knox KY with the I.G. advance party in February 1956. I do not remember with which division we rotated . . . could have been the 4th Inf.? Drake at the time became Hq 3rd Armored Div., Hq 3rd AD Artillery, and 3rd AD Band (at that time became known as the greatest military band in NATO).
Across the street was Edwards Kaserne with division Signal Corps and CIC (counter intelligence). In 1957 I transferred to Headquarters V Corps, Office of Civil Affairs/Military Goverment, as maneuver damage control officer. The Officers Club was located right behind the IG Farben Bldg.
Regarding the antenna on top of the bldg. It was erected during the 1956 period and it was "rumored" to be an MP radio mast (MP Hq was located nearby in a 1 or 2 story building). However within V Corps Hq the story went around that the mast had something to do with the G-2 (Mil. Intel.) section. While I was stationed there the mast remained subject to many speculations.
Joe Andreoli
Response #3: (Click here to read David Freed's lengthy response to Mystery Photo #7; David served with the 3816th Sig Svc Unit at the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt in the late-1960's.)
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Photo #8
Source: author's collection
Known Information: only know that this is Nellingen Post and possibly late 1950s. Could this be Post Headquarters?
Question: Who can provide confirmation or details on which building this might be?
Response: Photo #8 is indeed the Post HQ at Nellingen. The pic. was before
1966. I was there 1966-67. Your looking North, and when I was there the two other bldgs. were not there. I was in the 93rd Engr. Co. FB. assigned to post security police, and I raised and lowered that Post Flag everyday. Our VII Corps patch had roman numerals of VII in a circle.
Jerry McGinnis
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Photo #9
Source: author's collection
Known Information: only know that this was probably taken in 1954. Was found with other photos associated with the 95th AAA Bn in Sandhofen - but this is not Coleman Barracks, Mannheim-Sandhofen.
Question: Who can provide confirmation or details on which kaserne this might be?
Responses: The license plate that appears on the front of the Army
ambulance is correct for 1952-1954 at least, which helps confirm the
date of the photo as 1954 - same as the others in the batch where you
found it. The military vehicle plates beginning in 1952 no longer had a
year on them, just the legend US ARMY at the bottom. They were
black-on-white, or a very dark color on a light background....I haven't
seen a color photo from those years! The letter P as a prefix in the
serial number designates a truck under 1 ton in weight. This
designation began in 1949, the same year the letter J replaced P on
plates on MP Jeeps; from 1946 thru 1948, P designated Police (or MP).
Mike Montgomery, USAREUR
Response #2: Saw your most interesting article of US Army in Europe (USAREUR). Thank you for this historic almanach. The picture nr. 9 is most likely taken at Smiley Barracks, Karlsruhe, Germany. It shows the motor pool area located on the north side of the barracks.
W. L. Zahn, 1st Lt, 6970th LS Engr Construction Bn. |
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Photo #10
Source: author's collection
Known Information: This aerial photo came along with a pamphlet distributed on occasion of the 5th Anniversary of the Rhine Ordnance Depot, May 1953. I do not believe that this is "ROD" which later became known as Rhine Ordnance Barracks and is located in the western end of Kaiserslautern. However, I do believe the photo is a period photo (1952-1955) and shows an American kaserne in southern Germany.
Question: Who can ID this kaserne or location and provide details?
Responses: There are two casernes shown on this picture. They are in Esslingen am Neckar. In the foreground you have the Funker-Kaserne and in the background the Kaserne named Becelaerekaserne. The Funker - Kaserne is a typical WH kaserne layed out in a U-shape and was constructed in the 1930's. The Becelaere Kaserne is an older type of Kaserne and may have been built in the beginning of 1900th century. So that's all i know about the picture. (Location of kasernes --  .)
Ralf Beck, Germany
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Photo #11
Source: author's collection
Known Information: This photo was found among several other photos from a visit to the former Dachau Concentration Camp around 1953. My guess is that it shows part of the Dachau Kaserne, a US Army installation adjacent to the former concentration camp.
Question: Who can ID this kaserne or location and provide details?
Responses: This photo was taken from the second or third floor window of Eastman Barracks looking towards the former concentration camp. I was housed to the right off the picture. I was a military brat and was there in 1962-63 and part of 1964. At the time Eastman was the home of the 37th Arty commanded by Lt. Col. Harry Walters. Behind Eastman toward the ball field was covered with underground tunnels and bunkers. We lived in the last big house on the left side of the main street entering the main gate and turning right (Ave of SS). At the time the concentration camp was full of DP's and not a very safe place to hang out. Camp Dachau was just what a young boy needed for adventure and the place was left pretty much as the Germans left it. The corners of our home were still decorated with SS insignia.
Joe Jarosz |
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Photo #12
Source: author's collection
Known Information: This photo was probably taken in Munich or Bad Toelz in the mid-1945 to early 1946 timeframe. It might have been located near a train station - one of the signs points to an RTO (Rail Transportation Office).
Question: Who can ID this kaserne or location and provide details?
Responses: |
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Photo #13
Source: author's collection
Known Information: I am trying to find out where this photo was taken - it shows a US Army ambulance car attached to a German DB dining car at an unidentified German train station. The ambulance car is one of the 65 (Type WLB4üm-52) sleeper/ambulance cars built in 1952 for the US Army Transportation Corps by Linke-Hofmann-Busch GmbH in Salzgitter, Germany.
Question: Who can ID the Bahnhof and maybe provide some details on the hospital train that used these type of ambulance cars?
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