A forgotten mass grave containing the bodies of 14 German soldiers was discovered by a local student in a forest near Villeneuve-Loubet, southern France, in 2006. The bodies were exhumed in colaboration with the German War Graves Commission. A long investigation then followed to find out who these soldiers were and the circumstances of their death. This video summerizes the results of the investigation and identification process.
The German soldiers were members of Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 372 who had been killed in combat against members of the First Special Service Force (Black Devil's Brigade, consiting of both American and Canadian soldiers) on August 26th 1944, with artillery support from the 602nd Pack Field Artillery Battalion.
All the events and people from this video can be found described in much greater detail in the book "Autopsy of a Battle, the Liberation of the French Riviera", by Jean-Loup Gassend. The book contains a report of the excavation, numerous first hand accounts of the battle by 1st Special Service Force veterans and local residents, as well as some German sources about the battle.
The author of this video is always searching for information, documents, photos, witnesses and witness accounts from Operation Dragoon and the fighting in the Cannes, Grasse and Nice area. If you have any information, please contact me at: jean-loup@gassend.com
For more information:
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We are still trying to contact the families of several of the soldiers found in this grave or who were present during the battle:
Allied
-Blackman Henry F 12183647 NY NY
-Bostrom Rodney W. 6858990 Vergas MN
-Boyle Walter B O-1175649 Sumter SC
-Brewster Jack H. 35012461 Ashtabula OH
-Crawford William H Passaic NJ
-Dodson Gerald L. 20734657 1915 Lyons Kansas
-Dyer Forrest L. 39384998 1917 Schatz Montana
-Erickson Carl 39025991 39025996 1906 Mammoth Utah
-Ibsen John H. 36368070 1912 Chicago IL
-Mothersell Don D. 20909552 Modesto CA
-Parker Maurice A 6154272 Lewiston Main
-Roach John D. 16125481 Detroit Mich
-Winchell Richard W. 32852974 Fort Anne Wash
Germans
-Konrad Blaschitsch / Blašić, 20.1.1926 in Gieshübl Klopce Slov. Bistrica
-Otto Forberger, 12.08.1925 in Kukele Zwittau
-Krafczyk Alois, 7.5.1926, Königshütte
-Josef Krzyzowski, 26.1.1925, Wyrow Kr Pless.
-Josef Lössl, 02.08.1909, Komotau / Raudnitz
-Hubert Pilch, 25.08.1926, Kattowitz
-Anton Kozik 1.1.1926 Kobielitz Pless
-Emil Prachowski / Praszowski 14.9.1919 Radlin Rybnik
-Josef Scholtyssek / Szoltysek 29.5.1926 Bismarckhütte
-Hauptmann Erich Heß 22.2.1901 Breslau
-Max Baron 31.3.1919 Ratibor
-Adolf Tann Tchorz 9.10.1912 Ostrosnitz
-Gerhard Pusch 15.10.1914 Sagan
-Otto Schöps 16.4.1914 Hartliebsdorf
-Norbert Negwer 7.10.1911 Ober-Neuland Neisse
-Hans Stange 10.8.1920 Oberhausen Düsseldorf
-Rudolf Werner 12.3.1914 Leimeritz Sud. Gau
-Siegfried Schön 17.7.1913 Johnsdorf Römerstadt
-Max Grehl 3.8.1912 Cosel
-Rudolf Danjek 30.7.1921 Söhle Neu-Ziethen
-Niedlich Hans 19.5.1893 Neusaltz Freistadt
Reserve Division 148, under General Otto Fretter-Pico, consisted of:
-Reserve Grenadier Regiment 8
-Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 7
-Reserve Jäger Bataillon 28
-Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 164
-Reserve Grenadier Regiment 239
-Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 327
-Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 372
-Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 444
-Ost Bataillon 661
A Crocodile Tear Productions documentary
World War II - Operation Dragoon anvil - Champagne Campaign - exhumation - helmets - identification tags - dog tags - battlefield archaeology - forensic archaology - forensic pathology -excavation - Wehrmacht - FSSF - 1st Special Service Force - First Airborne Task Force - metal detecting detector - digging - Invasion of southern France - 1939 - 1945 - Reserve Division 148 - Otto Fretter-Pico - General Robert T Frederick - anthropology - genealogy - ancestry - ID tags - Massengrab - Canadian army - American - Erkennungsmarken - First Special Service Force - Spearhead - The Devil's Brigade - The Black Devil's Brigade - 602nd Pack Field Artillery Battalion - D-Day Invasion - August 15th 1944 - forensic investigation - Cagnes sur Mer - Roquefort les Pins - Côte d'Azur - Villeneuve-Loubet - la Colle sur Loup - gunshot wounds - shrapnel fragment wounds - WWII - F. K. Robinson Vancouver 5-2 FSSF - forensic archaeology - 602nd Pack Field Artillery Battalion - problems with German ID tag coding - decoding identification tags - DNA identification - digging up - Katowice - Kattowitz - Regiment Schlesien - Silesia Poland - Volksbund - Bundesarchiv - WASt - German helmets - miliaria collection - glider troops - Grenadier Ersatz Bataillon - Gren.Ers.Btl.372 - Stamm.Kp.G.E.B.372 - oberstleutnant
