About These Photographs
These photos were taken by "Bill" G.B. Wren during his stint in World War II. The most interesting ones are those with people in them: Tent City and the Theatre, On the Train, At the Beach, Bill and Friends, and Bill at Sea. The rest are pictures of the sights they saw, but may be helpful in identifying the locations.
Bill gave them to his sister, who passed them to her daughter. The originals are now in the possession of his widow, kept in a red "J. & P. Coats" thread box.
They were in no particular order. As I scanned them, I sorted them into what seemed to be logical groups. I've arranged them as a series of events, but as of this date we have no way of knowing in what order they were taken.
Based on some pinups photographed in one of the photos, we know at least some of them were taken after Germany surrendered in May 1945. Based on the developing date of November 1945 stamped on the back of all of them, we know that all were taken before November 1945.
All of the original photos are 1.75" by 2" with this stamp on the back: "1st Class Finishing / Nov 3 - 1945 / McGREGOR STUDIO. D42" The address for McGregor Studio didn't come through clearly when the stamp was applied and is unreadable.
