WWII Photos from Alton R Marcus

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Created 20-May-17

Modified 20-May-17

The nearly 200 photos and other images compiled in the 10 folders of this collection came home from the European Theater with my Dad, Alton R. Marcus, at the end of World War II. Prior to being drafted, Dad worked as a draftsman for Stinson Aircraft in the Detroit area and elsewhere. My mom told many times of following Dad from Ft. Worth, TX to basic training and then to the Boston area where Dad finally shipped off to Europe. During D-Day, Dad was aboard the ships that unloaded supplies for the landing troops. Reading his discharge papers while compiling these photos, I learned that he was trained and was part of the antiaircraft gun crew during his first 4 plus months in the Army, which would have included D-Day. Fortunately, his ship was not one of those sunk during D-Day. Following the successful invasion, he with others from his company landed in Europe where his discharge papers indicate he was transferred to be a longshoreman for the allied supply effort. I see from the photos and from his discharge papers that he traveled from the beach at Normandy to Paris, to Holland, and to Antwerp, Belgium, where he seemed to spend much of the war and after, including the period when Germany sent 1027 V1 and V2 rockets into Antwerp to disrupt troop supply effort, killing many Belgium civilians and allied troops, but not markedly interrupting the allied supplies. Fortunately not all of the rockets dropping on Antwerp exploded. Photos of some of those are included. But, most of the rockets did explode after dropping from the sky. Many of Dad’s photos show the destruction produced in Antwerp. Another set of photos from a postcard book Dad brought home show the charm of Antwerp before the war, before the city’s extensive destruction. The following photos also show some of the D-Day ships, troop supply efforts, war machines, captured Germany POWs, camp life behind the lines, and a few poor photos of General Eisenhower and President Truman arriving in Paris. The following photos were printed on a diversity of papers and come in a diversity formats, suggesting they came from different cameras. So, I don’t know how many of these photos were taken by Dad or by others and then shared. I am sure some photo trading and sharing occurred. Also, it is my guess that the bulk of these photos come from after the war when restrictions were relaxed on photography and when Dan and others were waiting to be shipped home, so had time to just be tourists. I provide additional introductory comment and a few memories from discussions with Dad for each group of photos presented. Many photos had descriptions penciled on their back that I provide as photo titles, for the many others lacking descriptions, I provide photo titles that seems to be reasonable, but may be incorrect ….