The following photographs were taken by Eric Cole during his time serving in the Army during WW2. Most were taken in Germany in 1945. They have been submitted to the site by his Daughter-in-law Doreen Cole.

Eric's story is listed on this site, and after seeing his photographs we thought that they needed to be shown. We have placed them here and hope you find them of interest.

What better way is there to see what happened than through the eye of somebody who was there.

We thank Eric for having the foresight to take these photographs.

                                                                       Bomb Damage in Hamburg, Germany

                                                       Munster, Germany buildings reduced to rubble

                                                                         Trucks going through Wesel, Germany

                                                       Hamburg, Germany. Pre fab houses beyond the trucks

                                                                                               Hamburg, Germany

                                                                               Hamburg, Germany. Autobahn

                                                                      Troops and locals in Munster, Germany

                                                                                        Hamburg Bomb damage

                                                                              Rhine bridge after being blown up

                                         Another photo of the Rhine bridge after its destruction

    Two Blurred photos. Written on the back of the pictures it says "Exploding bridge on the Rhine "

                                                                               The Rhine as seen from Holland

                                                                 The Rhine as seen from the Roosevelt bridge

                                                                                   Railway bridge at The Rhine

                                                                                                    Wesel, Germany

                                                                                         Hamburg Railway Station

                                                                                  Photo-Knuppel, D033, Busum

                             Watching a football match (in the rain) in Skipton. Eric is centre of picture

left to right

Back-Corporals Robins,Winward,Wainwright,Forbes,Bevington and Shackleton

Middle-Corporal McNair, C.S.M Yates, S/Sgt Davies, Sgt Sutcliffe, C.Q.M.S Rankin, Sgt Lister-James, C.S.M Spinner, Sgt Ross

Front-Corporals Smith and "Cole", C.S.M Stanford,2nd Lt Lewis, Capt Allbut, S/Sgt Franks,, Cpls Bodle and Townsend.

                                                                Eric Cole taken on the 10th of November 1943

                                                                              Eric again somewhere in Europe

 A German Iron Cross dated 1914. This was with Eric's things. The family have no idea how he obtained it.



                                                                  Below are a few items that Eric had kept hold of from his days in the Army

                                                                                                                                     Gas Alarm Rules

                                                                                                                       Casualty Notification Rules

                                                                                                                                Soldiers Service book

                   Eric's Release book. Noticed the stamp top left hand corner stating Cigerettes and Chocolate have been recieved.