saint venant 1940-------farm boulet

[ivor43]

Jim.
Good Morning.
A very interesting find , my friend.
I would never have considered that the US would have had any documentation from 1940. I suppose they just hoovered up anything in their path and never gave it back to mod. however this may account for their apparent lack of knowledge.
can we now get access to these documents. i have very little trust in MI and even less in USMI.

ivor

[Verrieres]

Jim.
Good Morning.
A very interesting find , my friend.
I would never have considered that the US would have had any documentation from 1940. I suppose they just hoovered up anything in their path and never gave it back to mod. however this may account for their apparent lack of knowledge.
can we now get access to these documents. i have very little trust in MI and even less in USMI.

ivor

Hello Ivor,

I am assuming that these were part of some war crimes evidence as the St Venant trials were overseen by American,British and Canadian personnel? Acces to these documents has been available (Im told) for some time now on an American History Research Site called `FOLD3` which is owned by `Ancestry` I will see what I can find out . Thinking aloud here are those `Grave cards` the ones now in `Private` hands?

Best

Jim

[ivor43]

hi Jim.
further thoughts re ''Grave Cards''.
the impression i have is that the Frenchman has 'files'.while our authorities may not be prepared to accept them i suspect that the US. JAG. may not have the same problem. It may well be that these '' Cards'' are 'index cards' with info extracted from the French files. We will have to see.
Good Luck.

ivor

[dcdl12976]

HQ BAOR also investigated war crimes, just possible any of the files have not yet been transferred to the NA.

[Verrieres]

Thanks to Tony we have viewed these `American records` The Mayors file is simply an instruction on what colour cards German and Foreign graves are to be recorded on and the procedure for viewing these there are no actual cards.
File two related to GERMAN graves at St Venant 40 cards showing original field grave, cemetery, name, unit and date of birth where known. From these cards the majority of SS Germania graves are in the region of rue de guarbecque (Royal Berks and D Comp 2 DLI). The other areas re- Rue de Busnes etc appear to be units associated with 3 Panzer Div. The FOLD3 search is a nightmare

Jim

[dcdl12976]

Thanks Jim so nothing of much use there then

[ivor43]

thanks guys.
typical.
but, if there is a procedure for viewing these cards that should possibly give a clue to where they are, and can the procedure still be followed.
with regard to FOLD 3 is this a possible '' we have to release this. but we don't have to make it easy '' thing. remember they didn't even tell the Germans who were investigating ''War Crimes '' about it.



ivor

[dcdl12976]

A little info on a possible perpetrators of the killings in the area

A little research comes up with Rudolf Dix "Ustuf (Untersturmfuher) (leutnant) with the LSSAH (Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler) they were attached to the SS VT division in France and would likely have been in the St Venant area at the time, They were responsible for the massacre of bout 80 POWs of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment nr Wormhoudt not far from Dunkirk.

[ivor43]

Dave.
this was the guy i wrote about. but i lost my link to him.
a very good candidate.


ivor

[dcdl12976]

Though so mate, just so happens he was OC 3 Zug (platoon) of 8 Kompany 2 Battalion under Otto Baum who was in command at the time of the Wormhoudt massacre for which he was incidently never brought to trial, was at some time member of the Totenkoph division and most photos of him show him wearing the deaths head collar patch rather than the SS runes (ring any bells from a previous post).
LSSAH was I reserve for Amy group B at this time and therefore would have been following up the Division as it moved forward to clear stragglers from the area.

A file sent to us mentions a man with a pistol and another with a bayonet it seems obvious to me the one with the pistol is likely an officer.