Hi all,

New poster, so please be gentle with me

Am working on my family tree and my great uncle was supposedly a guard at the Numerberg Trials and i was wondering if anyone knew if there was any source of information thru which i could confirm if this was true or not please?

Many thanks
Tony

Do you have any information on your uncle's military service? such as which branch he served in... when he joined/was drafted... where he was stationed? Or are you just beginning your search?

__________________
It's not the number of breaths you take in life that matters but the moments that take your breath away.
Babs

Welcome tonyt,

great to have you here with us!

Also hope to hear more of your great uncle!

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Thanks for the welcome, great forum!

Sorry, have only just begun my search so currently know nothing about his service. Unfortunately he passed away some years ago.

All the info i know is his name was William (Bill) Edwards (still working on getting his birth date) and he is my maternal great uncle. I knew him fairly well (i thought) but he never spoke about the war and i never thought to ask.

The nuremberg story came about as myself and my parents were going to take him (and my nan, his dead brothers wife, they had shared a house after her husband died in 1954) on holiday to Germany. He refused to go due to his, lets say, "dislike" of the german people. This was apparently due to the things he witnessed as a guard at the trials.

He also took part in the normandy landings, and i'm told he landed at/near Dieppe.

He would of been living in (or around) Woodgreen/Tottenham at the time of the war. So maybe an essex or middlesex regiment?

Sorry, but that's all i have at the moment.

Many thanks
Tony

Just realised the phrase I was told was he "escaped from dieppe"

Would this be operation jubilee rather than the normandy landings?

Sorry, my WW2 history is pretty pathetic!

Thanks
Tony

Just got some information that means it was almost certainly operation jubilee as he went out to dieppe with "canadians"?

So I guess he was probably in No3 or No4 Commando? Or seconded(sp?) to a canadian division?

You're British, then? Yes, Jubilee predated Overlord (the Normandy invasion) by almost two years. If memory serves, the Allied forces landing at Dieppe (August 1942) in Operation Jubilee were: British Commandos and Royal Marines; Canadian forces; and a small number of US Army Rangers. It was not a successful operation for the Allies, who suffered about a 2/3 casualty rate -- out of 6,000 to 6,100 men.

Have you tried searching for it? Here's one link from my bookmarks to get you started -- but be aware that the Canadian sites might be best, as they had by far the largest number of troops in this operation --

World War Two -- scroll down about halfway and look for the links on the left -- Dieppe

As far as the Nurnberg Trials stuff goes, that started with the International Military Tribunal in about November 1945 -- with England, France, Russia, and the US. I know that the US Army had troops there -- I'm not sure which troops the Brits sent there -- but I doubt that it would have been the Commandos -- though don't quote me on that.

Again, you may come up with some info by searching online -- for example, is there a site online with military records for England?

Good luck, Tony -- don't hesitate to ask more questions -- there are lots of folks on this forum ready and willing to help get you off in the right direction.

__________________
It's not the number of breaths you take in life that matters but the moments that take your breath away.
Babs

Many thanks for the info

I don't think details of soldiers who served are available online as yet, and i believe you have to be a direct next of kin to get the info from the MOD. With a great uncle i don't think i'll get away with claiming next of kin

Until this info becomes more readily available i'll probably have to settle for adding a page on operation jubilee to my website and leave the nuremberg stuff as a footnote to follow up on

My maternal grandad Herbert, Williams brother, was on the barrage balloons in london during WW2 (having been recalled from the front in WW1 as he was under age) so will have to add a page on this too. Thankfully i have his Discharge Papers & Character Reference so at least i know a bit more about his service than Williams

Still need to investigate others like my Dad (fleet air arm) & his brother (RAF)

Unfortunately all of them have passed away, just wish i'd been more interested in my family history years ago!

Many thanks to everyone

Tony

I didn't realize that the barrage balloons had people on them -- I thought that they were just tethered up there, empty, cuz the tethers created barriers for the attacking planes. I guess that I just learned something new, here Never too old

__________________
It's not the number of breaths you take in life that matters but the moments that take your breath away.
Babs

LOL, I asked for that!

Couldn't resist! Thanks for being such a sport

__________________
It's not the number of breaths you take in life that matters but the moments that take your breath away.
Babs

hi tony, i am also new.
but, interestingly enough my uncle was a guard at nuremberg. he went to war at the age of 17. He is still alive and well living in Ontario. he doesn't talk about the war much to any of us, but we all know that nuremberg shattered something deep inside him. maybe we could start a list for genealogical purposes. i will contact him as soon as I can (i live in the west).......... but i am in the process of a move so unfortunately wont be able to get back on line for a bit. my dad just passed away at the age of 91.

patsy

I was given a swiss watch, supposidly from Rudolf Hess given to a Canadain guard at Nuremberg - I am trying to find rhis guard and verify the name brand of the watch

any help?

CV

Hello Tony--You might pick up a copy of William Stevenson's A man called Intrepid.
True account of the secret intelligence war and the real reason behind Operation Jubilee and why, although costly, it was a huge success in capturing Germany's radar secrets which helped saved countless lives at Normandy. Good luck on your quest--lots of work and time, but worth every minute.