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T/4 Walter E. Cummings 166th Signal Photo Corps


Hürtgenwald
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T/4 Walter E. Cummings was a combat cameraman with the 166th Signal Photo Corps. He was a friend of mine and he passed away in 2011. I recently was given access to the photos he had in a memory book and I wanted to share them with members of the site. He was with the 166th from about July 27th 1944 to the end of the war and was in Detachment #5 of the 166th and was assigned to 4th Armored. Much of the motion pictures on the 4th Armored was shot by him and he was the photographer that took the photo of "Cobra King" in Assenois Belgium/Bastogne. His friends knew him as William or Bill Cummings.

 

I'll start with one of the earliest photos I have of him in Ireland before they landed in France. He was a ladies man and a dancer prior to the war and this kept him in shape and led to his post war work. As with others in the 166th, like Russ Meyer and William Teas, he was quick to get the ladies on camera.

 

Bill with an Irish friend.

 

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There is one other early photo of Bill with some British women during the summer of 1943. I want to show all 80 photos because it shows what this man did during the war in a chronologic series. The Signal Corps Photographers were given a mission to take photos with a certain interest.

 

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I found a series of photos on-line at this site:

 

http://www.paduryea.com/PADuryea1940sByankJoeUSArmyCombatPhotographer/PADuryea1940sByankJoeUSArmyCombatPhotographer.htm

 

They are from a similar collection and two photos had Bill in them. Joe Byank and Bill Cummings were in the same unit. This one shows Bill and Joe together on the deck of a ship going to Normandy.

 

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Thanks CAPA I plan on posting all that I have including the photos of Ohrdruf concentration camp. Stand by.

 

Tank in Coutances knocked out by a mine.

 

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Reverse of that photo. Bill wrote on the back of some of the photos. Most of the collection is stuff that did not go to the photo pools and was probably split by the 166th at the end of the war while they were in Marseilles.

 

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Reverse of the above photo. Taken by Don Ornitz. He later worked for Playboy and took some early photos of Marilyn Monroe. I believe the number in parenthesis is for Detachment (6).

 

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Wow, keep'm coming...

 

Any pictures where you see photographers' insignia being worn???

Johan,

 

I only have one studio portrait of Ted Sizer wearing correspondent insignia. Bill wore what was available in combat and you will see the changes as I go on posting.

 

Brad

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Reverse of above photo. Bill may have been in Detachment 6 and later moved to Detachment 5. I am working on compiling the names of the members and which detachments they were in.

Detachment 1 for example was Lt. Weber, Ralph Butterfield, Billy Newhouse, Russ Meyer, Charles Sumners, A. C. Lubitsh, and P. E. Anders. The 166th had some casualties and reduced the number of men in each detachment. There were at least 19 detachments by the end of the war.

 

post-122270-0-73543700-1384569071.jpg

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