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Sunday, July 30, 2023

Capitulation of Ferdinand Heim


Generalleutnant Ferdinand Heim (right), commander of the German garrison at Boulogne, talks to Captain A. D. Grier of Montreal, his interpreter, after surrendering to the Canadian Army on 22 September 1944. Grier had provided Heim with a cigarette. When Heim was appointed to command German forces at the "fortress" of Boulogne in August 1944, he know that it was a "defend to the last" assignment. He was instructed to prepare significant defences but he arrived to find that nothing had been prepared and there were no suitable specialists to do the work. The ill-prepared and ill-suited garrison endured heavy bombardment and full-scale assaults when the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division launched Operation Wellhit. Heim surrendered to the Canadians and was sent to a series of POW camps (including Island Farm) in Britain and subsequently repatriated to Germany on 12 May 1948.



Source :
Hulton Archive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Heim
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lieutenant-general-ferdinand-heim-commander-of-the-german-news-photo/944558922
https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en/node/680240

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