ID needed for US vehicle and unit in Holland, 1945

[Hanno Spoelstra]

David, Ed,

You could well be right that the Americans moved in with the Commonwealth forces on a special mission. It was planned to march off the German Army up North through the province of North Holland, across the Afsluitdijk into the provinces of Friesland and Groningen and onwards into Germany. The hunt for high ranking nazi's was on and they could hide well among the masses of German Wehrmacht PoW's. But would the Commonwealth troops not have been capable to carry out such a mission themselves?

5-8 May was mostly about disarming the German Army and re-establishing local government, the fact that troops were welcomed by thousands of civilians who were desparate to be liberated does not mean it was a celebration as such. A series of Victory demonstrations took place in the weeks after 8 May.

But, would a special ops team use a Command Car? I guess they would use a number of Jeeps and/or a Weapons Carriers. Command Cars were relegated to non-frontline units, so a more leisurely unit like a news reporter could be likely. Also look at the Chevrolet Woody, defintely a non-frontline vehicle as well. OWI, or a press/media team is one option (OWI seems to have been a sort of marketing team).

Lots to ponder over, but I am leaning towards these being press/media vehicles, or maybe from a liaison officer.

What would the link with Op Eclipse be?

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

A little wild and crazy perhaps, Hanno, but at that point in time, could the Americans have been moving teams into possible exit routes to be on the lookout for known, missing, high ranking German Military and Government officials? Maybe there is more to these OWI Teams than we know.

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

There are any number of potential reasons why an American would be photographed caught up in the Amsterdam VE-Day Celebrations; and these range from a media team covering the events to a liaison officer from one of the Allied formations taking in the celebrations to an Op Eclipse Team carrying out their assigned task. Could be as simple as someone on a joy-ride.