Talk:Delbert Philpott

Del Philpott was not at the Elbe River when the 69th Infantry met the Russians on 25 April

Del Philpott was not at the Elbe River when the 69th Infantry met the Russians on 25 April 1945. More specifically, he was not the tall solider in the center of the 3 American soldiers captured on film, and Del knowingly propagated this falsehood for years. With no intent to step on Del's grave, but the false honor took away the recognition of the actual military member, that being Barnard Kirschenbaum. Del even wrote a small paperback book on the topic, believed to be done in hopes to show association and ties to the event on 25 April 1945. I actually helped uncover the fact that Del was assigned to the 271st regiment of the 69th Infantry, and Kirshenbaum was assigned to the 272 regiment. The regiment at the Elbe River that historic day, was the 272nd. The 271st (Del's unit, was actually in Leipzig. This has been vetted, along with other photos and records of each, and the records were updated to reflect the corrective change of identity, that unfortunately went unchallenged, allowing Del to receive claim.

Other websites are being slowing corrected. (e.g. scroll down to the Hands Across the Elbe section of the link to see one correction The Faces of WW2 – Meet the Extraordinary People in 11 of the War's Most Famous Photographs - MilitaryHistoryNow.com

In that 2009 time frame when Del's claim was uncovered with authenticated documents, the authoritative principles for this event, Dr Uwe Niedersen (from the Torgau Information Center in Germany, and is the German Historian of the US-Soviet Elbe Linkup ), and Joe Lipsius (the 69th Division Association chair) concurred Del Philpott's was falsely making claim, after actually pulling up (independently) detailed military company, battalion, and regiment unit historical records (specifying unit location and movements of each during the period on/about 25 April 1945). Conclusion- Bernard Kirschenbaum was the actual American solider (center of the 3 Americans, smoking a cigarette). I spoke directly to Del's surviving wife in 2009 about the details of Del, and his WWII whereabouts and service. However, she could not provide any specifics or evidence which would factually support her husband's verbal claims made across the years, and she has remained silent on the topic ever since.

Unfortunately, Joe Lipsius passed away since the realization. However, Dr. Uwe Niedersen is still fully active, and supporting the 80th anniversary events this month in Torgau. (His email is ostwest@online.de <ostwest@online.de)

You may also contact Jeffrey Thau, Colonel USAF (retired) who uncovered most of the details, authenticated as correct by the two principles above. (Themail9@yahoo.com)

As noted above, once this determination was made in 2009, the 69th Infantry Division Association made the respective names changes across their websites where possible, correcting the named individual in the famous photo (second from the left) to that of Bernard E. Kirschenbaum.

Hope the above is useful to you, and justifies making corrections to your webpage article (this error is not due to your researchers or any fault of your staff, but rather, the false positioning and claims by Del Philpott himself)

All that is needed is to eliminated the respective claim being on the bridge and shaking hands as the center American on the left, in the 1st paragraph of Del Philpott's Wikipedia page Milwaukee911 (talk) 22:21, 8 April 2025 (UTC)