Soldier's camera and photos found in WWII foxhole

oneANT · Jul 2, 2014

The Battle of the Bulge is known as one of the most deadly and influential battles of WWII. Taking place over the course of five weeks, this surprise attack by the Germans caught allied forces off-guard, causing massive casualties, especially among U.S. Troops.

Among the 89,000 casualties was a soldier named Louis J. Archambeau, a Chicago native who left behind an interesting surprise in a foxhole he had been taking refuge in during the cold weather and rough artillery fire.

..amazing

http://petapixel.com/2014/07/01/soldiers-camera-photos-battle-bulge-found-foxhole-70-years-later/

pbromaghin · Jul 2, 2014

Wow. I wonder how they developed 69 year-old film. D-76 with stand development?

Mr_Flibble · Jul 2, 2014

The camera and film was actually found a few years ago, as the photos appeared in a book concerning the 80th ID back in 2008...so make that 64 years ago..

It remains a pretty darn cool recovery though.

As to stating the Battle of the Bulge had no influence at all, I do have to disagree with that somewhat. It pretty much swallowed up Germany's reserves on the western front. The overal defense of the Reich could've lasted way longer if they hadn't wasted their resources on this gambit.

tony1 · Jul 2, 2014

thanks for sharing

Sirius Glass · Jul 2, 2014

Thank you for posting the thread.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 3, 2014

Interesting piece of history!

Jeff

benjiboy · Jul 3, 2014

In the British military taking photographs in combat areas and keeping diaries by serving soldiers is strictly forbidden.

wblynch · Jul 3, 2014

I didn't read what camera or film was found or how they processed it

Was that mentioned anywhere?

[Moderator's note: Off topic content deleted.]

ciniframe · Jul 3, 2014

On the technical side, it would be interesting to know the details of how they recovered the film. I thought it was amazing no one else discovered these items after all these years. I have always pictured this part of Europe as having a high density population with hardly no area of woods as being unexplored. Quite amazing.

Mr_Flibble · Jul 4, 2014

wblynch said:
I didn't read what camera or film was found or how they processed it

Was that mentioned anywhere?

Bill, here is a photo of the camera in question being recovered from the foxhole. To me it looks like a Zeiss Ikon Nettar (or a VERY similar 6x9 camera).

Dead Link Removed

wblynch · Jul 4, 2014

Mr_Flibble said:
Bill, here is a photo of the camera in question being recovered from the foxhole. To me it looks like a Zeiss Ikon Nettar (or a VERY similar 6x9 camera).

Thanks Mr_Flibble !

Mr_Flibble · Jul 5, 2014

Ahem

All the pictures supposedly taken from the film found on a luxembourgish hillside are official Signal Corps photographs and can be found in Andy Rawson's “Images of War - Battle of the Bulge - Rare photographs from wartime archives” on pages 11, 48, 55, 57 and 92!

The whole article was a fraud written to pull at people's heartstrings.

bdial · Jul 5, 2014

It's amazing that the camera and more so the film survived just buried in debris and exposed to the elements for all that time.
Kudos to the people who found it and took the time and effort to conserve what was there. The images could have so easily been lost for the rest of time.

pdeeh · Jul 5, 2014

Mr_Flibble said:
Ahem

The whole article was a fraud written to pull at people's heartstrings.

where are you quoting from Mr. Flibble ?

If the story is indeed fraudulent, or at the very least if the photographs are misattributed, it seems a shame to perpetuate it here.

Sirius Glass · Jul 5, 2014

Mr_Flibble said:
Ahem

The whole article was a fraud written to pull at people's heartstrings.

If it is a fraud, prove it! What are you basing your statement on? What you had for breakfast?

David A. Goldfarb · Jul 5, 2014

Ok, folks, please keep it to the photographic issue at hand and take the debate about the war to a WWII forum, of which I am sure there are many.

Mr_Flibble · Jul 5, 2014

All images are definitely from the Signal Corps archives, not from a recently recovered camera, some appeared in print in a book concerning the 80th Infantry Division back in 2008. (see my complete quote).

Same thing happened with an article by the ARC a few weeks ago. Where they showed a photo of 'ARC ladies jumping off a landing craft in Normandy 1944".....except that it was Southern France in January 1945...

AgX · Jul 5, 2014

What is ARC ?

Mr_Flibble · Jul 5, 2014

American Red Cross

Here's the Article with Update on Reddit concerning the '70-year old camera'
http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/29hd1a/my_great_uncle_was_killed_in_the_battle_of_the/

pdeeh · Jul 5, 2014

I also see that the site that the petapixel article linked to has removed the pages about the find (or "find")

Xmas · Jul 5, 2014

Mr_Flibble said:
American Red Cross

Here's the Article with Update on Reddit concerning the '70-year old camera'
http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/29hd1a/my_great_uncle_was_killed_in_the_battle_of_the/

Most of the films I get to salvage from cameras stored on normal temperate and dry UK houses don't unwind. So all I can develope is the portion of film in the camera gate.

And it is the norm with a folder that you wind on after exposure... so not had many image recoveries.

Indeed if you drop the camera into salt or fresh water get the film out of camera immediately if it is your camera.

oneANT · Jul 7, 2014

Mr_Flibble said:
Ahem
The whole article was a fraud written to pull at people's heartstrings.

Mr Fibble it turns out you were right

They were indeed a hoax according to this ....

A few days after posting the article, our Editor-in-Chief began receiving emails from concerned readers notifying us that the story was fabricated and that they had seen these photos before. Unable to confirm anything at the time, we kept our eye on it, reaching out to a number of people in regards to the situation.

Click to expand...

http://petapixel.com/2014/07/07/70-year-old-foxhole-photos-turn-out-to-be-a-hoax/

Mr_Flibble · Jul 8, 2014

A shame really.

Best luck I had with found film in a Box Brownie was from the 1950s with some early Ilford film. Two images clearly showed an elderly couple in their garden.
Another was a more recent film in an Agfa Clack showing someone's holiday snaps from Italy.

Gene M from westfordcomp has a lot of experience developing found film:
http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm
At some point he had two pages of results from some rolls of an Argus C3 taken by a GI who was stationed in Italy towards the end of the war.

Soldier's camera and photos found in WWII foxhole

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