Operation Faust, 1945: the units and vehicles

[Bram G.]

In the operation the following unit's took part;

From the CRASC;

• 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade Company
• 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade Company
• 1st Canadian Divisional Troops Company
• 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade Company
• 2nd Canadian Medium Regiment, First Platoon
• No.32 Canadian Corps Troops Composite, Company
• Headquarters 1st Canadian Infantry Division Royal Canadian Army Service Corps

From the RASC;

• 118th Company
• 460th Company
• 482th Company
• 483th Company
• 930th Company General Transport
• 1542th Artillery Platoon
• 1578th Artillery Platoon

The depot's where most of the food came from where under the Britisch controle of the following unit's;

• No. 80 Base Supply Depot
• No. 192 Detail Issue Depot

I have put in the attachement the rapport of the Canadian Army about the Surrender of the German Force's, which is my scource for the unit's that took part in Operation Faust. On page 42 of the rapport (in the pdf 47) the unit's are listed. The other pdf is a overview of the unit's with there unit serial's, that I have put together so far.
The sources that used for the overview are listed below;

• Order of Battle 1st Canadian Corps http://www.pymes75.plus.com/history/wwii_cdnicorps.html
• Order of Battle XXX Corps (Normandie) http://www.pymes75.plus.com/history/...kxxxcorps.html
• Order of Battle R.C.A.S.C. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roya..._Service_Corps
• Britse Markeringen http://www.wdbsa.nl/division_markings.html
• 21st Army group Markeringen http://www.fireandfury.com/britinfo/divmarkings.pdf
• Unit Signs 1st Canadian Division https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/veh...ntryunits.html
• Order of Battle 1st Canadian Corps https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/org.../1stcorps.html
• Polar Bear Decals http://www.star-decals.net/35-964.html
• A Souvenir of 930th Coy (G.T.) RASC Author: 930th Coy
• World War 2 Military Vehicle Markings Author: Terence Wise

Greetings,

Bram
Member of the Organization Committee Operation Faust, Keep Them Rolling Association

[Alex van de Wetering]

Excellent idea for the event, guys!

I am not sure if the pictures attached shows actual "Faust" vehicles, as the pictures dates and locations are not really precise. However they do show trucks with the white flag attached to the front......and the absence of weapons, national flags, troops hanging from the trucks and civilians chearing with flags, leads me to believe the pics might be taken just before the liberation(?).

Pictures all taken in or around Utrecht. source: hetutrechtsarchief.nl

Het utrechts archief also has some pictures marked as "operation faust"....however they don't show the white flag, so I wonder if they are pics of the liberation in stead.
Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Some pictures from the Gelders Archief. I am not sure where these were taken.

source: www.geldersarchief.nl/

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Couple from https://beeldbankwo2.nl
The first three are dated "may 1945", the last two may 6th 1945.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Two more from https://beeldbankwo2.nl

the first is dated "early 1945".....the second "may 1945"....flags are already hanging from the houses in the last picture, so I think this might be just after this town was liberated.

Alex

[Bram G.]

Thanks for the post's of the photo's, I found some of them during in my research the past year.

The photo's in your first post:

• The first one is at Grave brigde and the Bedford belongs to 930th General Transport Company RASC.
• Second is in Utrecht at the Biltstraat, one of the Dodge D60L which where driven by the Dutch.
• Third photo is at the Van Asch van Wijcks Brigde, I think this truck is on his to the Korenschoof Factory on the Kaatstraat, which was one of the depot's in Utrecht.
• Fourth photo is at the foodmarket in Utrecht, which was the largest depot there. This was located at Heycopplein.
• Fifth photois the Biltstraat again around the crossing with the Kruisstraat.

The photo's in your second post are taken in Wageningen in the Hoogstraat.

The photo's in your third post;

• First one is at Nude Depot, second and third are in the Hoogstraat again.
• The last two I can't place them.

On your last post:

• Photo on the left is at Enka Factory in Ede, the truck belongs to the 438th RASC Company part of 49th West Riding Division (Polar Bear Division). At the Enka Factory was advanced food depot from where the depot in the Nude in 'No Man's Land' was supplied.
• Photo on the right is in Utrecht, I think it's before the liberation in some of the Dutch newspapers from that period these kinds of scenes are decribed.

Most of all thanks for research!

[Alex van de Wetering]

Canadian Army Newsreel 71

https://youtu.be/9w0N-S_MJQc?t=523

Alex