Featured Gen Patton Photo

Found in an auction box lot with some US and UK WWII items and a couple WW1 photos

The photo depicts Gen Patton standing in a Jeep in front of the 301st Combat Team, 94th Infantry Div, 3rd Army at Strakonice, CZ

The photo paper is Velox and the back has a full description including date 17 JUL 45 and the name of the photog T/5 William Norbie of the 165th photographic Co, US Army Signal Corps. A Sensor’s stamp is also present, but hardly legible, dated 20 Jul 1945

The Jeep he is riding in bears the name “War Eagle!” Presumably a search term that may help me discover more about this photo. I found the identical image as a curiosity among Auburn University chat rooms, since this image appears in a book pertaining to the University history and some folklore that the Jeep’s name was a hat tip to Auburn Univ Athletics “war cry”.

I also found that the photographer credited with the photo was mentioned in a biography about another WWII photographer. The book mentioned that William Norbie had been awarded the Bronze Star for actions in combat while serving as an Army Photographer

I present all this information, because that’s all I can find.

so I ask the antiquers military experts… do I possibly have an original photograph of Gen Patton?

it is definitely not a print, as it lacks the dot matrix

I realize there is an entire counterfeit market for war photos, and my assumption would lean towards fake just from a standpoint of caution. But yet there seems to be a bit of authenticity that keeps me wondering

photo measures 5-1/8” x 4”

thoughts?

 

It appears to be a press photograph. Don't know why it wouldn't be genuine. They were produced in multiples.

Debora

 

The original was called a negative. It could make many thousands of prints.

 

This is an old print for sure, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was printed in the Theater. It went brown. If you could find the original negative you could print a thousand more without much problem, all in black and white.

 

Given the detailed, printed description, it probably is a press release photo, and from a negative.

Velox paper was invented by Leo Baekeland, the inventor of Bakelite. If I'm reading the following correctly, it was a contact paper, meaning that the paper was exposed while in direct contact with the negative (no enlarger), so the negative had to be large format, which I believe press cameras tended to be.

https://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Kodak_Black&White_Printing_Paper.html

I don't think it went brown, but was intentionally sepia toned.

 

5x5 Medium format neg? That would make sense - Graflex probably. I never got to use one, but some of those straight load or sheet neg cameras could contact print some fairly large images. The biggest film I ever messed with was 120 - a 2x2 neg.

 

Thanks for all the input

 

I forgot to update this.

The photo was purchased by a collector in Czech Republic who focuses on American military memorabilia from the Czechoslovakian theater.

 

Too interesting! Thank you for updating us.

Debora