Burke talks to a Swiss border guard at the Munster, Switzerland crossing. The same Swiss guard is seen climbing up onto a tank of the 752^nd Tank Battalion to talk to tank commander, First Lt. Herb Mann.

-- Photo by Donald Wiedenmayer,

196th Signal Photo Company

Army 1^st Lt. Herb Mahn explains to a curious Swiss border guard the operations of a hand held microphone used to communicate with crewmen inside. Wiedenmayer recalls climbing onto the tank and submitting the photo for consideration to Fifth Army headquarters. Mahn has a copy of the print in his Connecticut home ever since the war and was delighted to learn the photographer, Donald Wiedenmayer of the 196^th Signal Photo Company had captured the special moment for history.

Fellow photographer Don Wiedenmayer, 28, sits on the Italian-Swiss border gate at Munster, Switzerland, May 1945.

-- Photo by Burke O’Connell,

196^th Signal Photo Company