OK - I've just been looking through my collection of
Friends Of The Airborne Museum newsletters.
In June 2004, the Society published a copy of this photo, asking their members exactly the same question.
It is known to have been taken between 23 & 25 September 1944 by Sergeant Mike Lewis of the Army Film & Photographic Unit, and is photo #7 of his film reel #4.The other six photos on the reel were all taken near the Hartenstein Hotel.
In SFAM Newsletter #96, the response was collated. The only man to be positively identified is the one wearing the beret ; Staff Sergeant Mark Leaver, G Squadron, Glider Pilot Regiment. Mark Leaver passed away on 31st October, 2000.
More successful was the quest for the location of the photo.A key clue was the stockpiled building material seen in the photo : this had to be for German use as it was unavailable to civilians. At the time of the Battle, the Germans were building a communications bunker near the the present Kleine Hartenstein Restaurant ( then the coach-house of the hotel ). Next to the coach-house was an old orangery and an RAF recce photo taken in March 1945 shows this building, minus its' glass roof. Details of the building correspond exactly with those to be seen in the 'mystery' photo.
It's virtually certain that Sergeant Lewis stood just outside the main doorway of the building on the south side, having asked a group of Glider Pilots who were at the time charged with defending the Hartenstein grounds, to move toward him through the room inside the building as though on patrol ( yes, it's yet another posed 'action' photo
).
The remains of the orangery were demolished post-war , so when you visit the Hartenstein Museum today and park in the car park, you are standing virtually where the 'patrol' was.