The fate of soldiers, sailors, airmen, et al., in stock footage photos

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Whenever I see stock footage (typically WW2), I frequently wonder: what happened to the people I am seeing? Examples include: the various 101st paratroopers Eisenhower visited before D-Day, the three guys coming ashore on Omaha and the guy on the far left falling (you see the bullet impacts around him ), or the landing craft full of Commonwealth soldiers about to land on Gold, where one guy is being patted on the back by his friend just before the door/ramp opens. I don't even really need to try to describe this scenes beyond this bare information, as I'm sure they're scenes we've all seen innumerable times, before.

When I do know what happened, it's usually not for the better. An example of this would be the B-24 (viewed from 1030 high) being hit near the root of the port wing by either flak or possible ordinance dropped by a bomber higher up in the formation, the wing buckling, and the Liberator falling to earth. I heard no one got out. Another example would be footage of a Tiger rolling around among hedgerows. I recognized Michael Wittmann as the commander, and thus realized this was likely from a newsreel crowing about he and his crew's achievements of 13 June '44 at Villers-Bocage. I know at the very least Wittmann would be dead inside of two months, though I know some of his crew from the Villers-Bocage action were reassigned before he was killed.

So, what are some ways to find out what happened? Do any of you know anything?

EDIT: subject line - there should be a hyphen between footage and photos

Why can't we change this ourselves?

[Sailor Steve]

Good questions, and ones I've never considered. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find any answers, but some of them must be available.

As to editing the thread title, I don't know why we can't.

[Oberon]

When I see footage of lads going over the top in the First World War...I try very hard not to think of their fate...

[Stealhead]

Fate is fate I would say obviously not every last one died in the ensuring battle over the top.My step father he had a great uncle this man managed to survive WWI just fine only to die in the influenza pandemic in 1920.

I have seen in books about the Australian military in WWII they seem to have kept very good records as in some books they say the fate of every man in each photo(at least the ones that died in battle at some point).

Never put much thought to it to be honest not for lack of caring though I just have the view that your fate is your fate may as well embrace it and keep on going about you life be you in a war or driving down the road you life might come to an end at any time.Many people that have survived combat and extended combat also feel that luck certainly played a part in their surviving sometimes you are the one that the enemy did not notice or something else was in your favor.Others like E.B Sledge said that they actually heard a voice or had an undeniable feeling that let them know that they where going to survive.

You can probably find out more than you might think though for example the B-24 you mention you could find out what unit it was a part and even the date of the mission though it can be hard to saw they may have been listed as MIA.Others like Whittman probably had it coming seeing as the amount of combat many Germans saw the odds of getting killed really go up and Whittman was in an action that got a lot of attention from allied assets which sealed his fate.And that to me was a weakness of the Germans they had too much faith in highly skilled people and overly complex weapons two things that will harm you in a war of attrition where numbers is the factor that wins.

[magic452]

I have often though the same thing watching these shows What ever happened to these guys and did they survive.

Well one time I did know or at least may have known.

A very long time ago I was watching some WWII show about Patton's drive through France. There were two guys standing in front of a tank and the interviewer ask their names, something almost never done unless the person was some sort of a top ranking officer. One of them was a Joe Brady. One of my friends in school was a Jerry Brady and his father was a tank commander under Patton. Might be coincidence but I'll always think that Joe was Jerry's father. He did survive by the way.

Magic

[Jimbuna]

When I look at photos and movie footage of those who are killed I tend to think of their relatives and what they must be going through as they view the same material and recognise the victims.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

When I look at photos and movie footage of those who are killed I tend to think of their relatives and what they must be going through as they view the same material and recognise the victims.

I can tell you if I were such a relative, I'd avoid such material at all costs. If I were in a theater showing a newsreel of something like that, I'd scrunch my eyes shut until the serials or cartoons started.

[vienna]

When I look at photos and movie footage of those who are killed I tend to think of their relatives and what they must be going through as they view the same material and recognise the victims.

During the Vietnam War, there were some reports of family members seeing there sons, etc. wounded or killed in action...

...

[Stealhead]

I am pretty sure that that happened during the Tet Offensive in '68 they had camera crews all over the place because much of that was in populated areas like Saigon while most battles/incidents where out in the rural areas where it still would have taken a few days to get the footage back.

There is a lot of film from some battles between mostly Army MPs(they took higher loses than experienced infantry unit would have suffered being used to arresting drunks not to combat) and VC around Saigon someone filmed troops placing dead into the back of an APC that probably got filmed and was on TV just a few hours later.There was also alot of Marine activities filmed in Hue that probably got broadcast soon after.I cant say for sure but I do not think that the ones filming this stuff really thought about what they where doing in the full extent to be honest they also might not have known that certain footage was or was not going to be cut so I blame those whose where in charge of editing.I also suspect that some of these film crews might have been used to filming in the rear at official meetings and where not like the crews that went out normally and would had a little bit more respect.Another aspect to be blamed on the military at the time was that there was almost no attention paid to where these reporters went or what they wound up publishing they pretty much just had to get permission from a unit to tag along there was little attention paid to it unlike today.WWII was also very strict about showing dead troops it was very rarely seen by the public until the Battle of Tarawa Roosevelt himself was so shocked by the carnage he felt that people needed to know what their troops where experiencing and that footage was not made public until very late 1943.

I think its a fine line to be walked show too little and people think nothing of a war and do not relate with the troops show too much and it will fuel those with antiwar feelings even though sometimes it is out of context for example morale for US troops actually was quite high during Tet because the enemy was fighting in a manner that allowed troops to see that we were hurting them badly.People should see something though because if they see nothing then they see what is shown on TV and in games like COD which makes war seem fun I was actually reading an article in the VFW magazine about the impressions that most people take about warfare are from films and video games because many people do not know anyone personally that must fight or has fought if more people really knew what war is like they'd only support the idea as a last resort.