Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 1:48 pm Post subject: War Stories The 1st Div. Across the Rhine
Place: Somewhere in Germany
Date: Afternoon, April 15, 1945
My Father and two other guys were on patrol when they
heard a German tank coming down the road. He said it was
a Tiger tank. (Yea, I know, talk to any Vet and it was
always a "Tiger"). All three of them jumped into a ditch
beside the road. To make matters worse, There was another
tank coming down the same road in the opposite direction!
He said that the ground actually shook like in an Earth
quake when these tanks passed. Besides their M1's, an M2
"Grease Gun" and a few grenades, one guy had a bazooka
but had NO shells left! After both tanks passed by, they
all bolted into the nearby woods and made it back to a
secured road block between Tarfhous and Schierke where
the rest of the Platoon was stationed. Just as they arrived,
all Hell broke lose! First they were under intense sniper
fire, when the snipers withdrew, they came under heavy mortar,
tank and 20mm flak fire.
At this point, he jumped onto a empty foxhole, when seconds
later, a violent explosion blew him out of it and knocked him
unconscious. When he awoke, he was bleeding from the nose, mouth
and ears. Suffering from concussion, everything seemed to be a
blurry turmoil. When he got himself together, but was still groggy,
He ran deep into a nearby woods and was soon captured by three
young German Cadet replacements. (Lucky for him they weren't SS,
they would have shot him). He said these kids were about 14 or 15
(He was 19 at the time). They later they brought him to a staging
area for prisoners where there were men from the Co. G 26th Regt.
2nd plt, and two Captains and a Sgt. from the 16th Regt.
In this battle, here were appx. 50,000 German SS troops and Army
regulars surrounded by the U.S Army. Due to the fighting, prisoners
were moved from town to town because the Germans couldn't get
out of the pocket, they were trapped. Finally, all American prisoners
were taken to a school house in a town called Thale and were guarded
by an old police officer. This guy singles out my Father and starts
to break his nuts because he was small and looked about 16. He also
makes fun of the fact that Roosevelt had just died. My Dad didn't
say a word...First, the place was crawling with SS, second my Father
didn't like Roosevelt anyway and didn't give a s**t so he wasn't about
to get beat up or shot for such trivial matters...
On April 21st the Germans evacuated the town and left all the prisoners
unharmed. My Dad was rescued by the G.I.'s of the 16th Regt. 1st. Div.
A truck from the 26th Regt. Hq., (His Regt.) picked him up and brought
him to G-2 Hq. All the prisoners were interrogated, and sent back to
their outfits. Being wounded, He was sent to the Army field hospital,
then to France, England, and back to the USA.
but one remark... SS didnt kill POWs always! maybe in the end of the war its true , maybe on the Russian front its also true, but in all your stories you picture SS as beasts... they were tough bastards alright, but not all of them were inhuman... In the most cases SS or any other soldier killing POWs its either out of military necessity or combat fatigue, that lowers moral judgement to a point of barbarocity..
but one remark... SS didnt kill POWs always! maybe in the end of the war its true , maybe on the Russian front its also true, but in all your stories you picture SS as beasts... they were tough bastards alright, but not all of them were inhuman... In the most cases SS or any other soldier killing POWs its either out of military necessity or combat fatigue, that lowers moral judgement to a point of barbarocity..
Well by definition SS were Beast ... whatever units or army section they was in. Anyways SS was more inclined to be less bestial at the end of the war cos they knowed than SS was considered like beast soldierby enemis and were lot of time simply passed by the weapon quickly with or without judgement in some terribly end war battle like in the Ardennes and in German ground.
Tout est possible ... il faut juste connaitre quand.
you are right when u say that at the end of the war the SS soldier tried to restrain himself, cause he feared what might happen to him after his capture.
In my opinion, the SS soldiers in 1945 were not the crack troops they were the years before. Too young, too unexperienced and to desperate.
My main point was that the SS also took prisoners and didnt shoot them always.
Still in comparison to all other military fromations in WW2 (maybe together with NKVD) they were the worst in terms of humanitarian int. law.
and here is the point: SS and NKVD were both elite, but from birth no military units, but ideological internal police force. When thy became a military formation the didnt have the history nor tradition of regular armies and this made them
barbaric, fearsome, brave etc... Actually in terms of int. law (today) they are considerd as paramilitary organisations, who are not covered by any War Convention.
To brave men few words are as good as many
Last edited by Polemarchos on Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
Of course they didnt kill always prisoner, all depend the order they receved from the furher .... When the fuhrer said, no prisoner, we dont get the time for that like in Ardennes or in German ground or even in some russian campaign he called always the SS to do the job .. The regular German army never did that ... Remember and ask ppl around 80 years old who still alive now and ask them why they was so scared about SS or guestappo( who worked generally hand in hand) ....
In fact SS was made to be Furher bodyguard and after a year they be modified to be sort of country bodyguard
Tout est possible ... il faut juste connaitre quand.
Of course they didnt kill always prisoner, all depend the order they receved from the furher .... When the fuhrer said, no prisoner, we dont get the time for that like in Ardennes or in German ground or even in some russian campaign he called always the SS to do the job .. The regular German army never did that ... Remember and ask ppl around 80 years old who still alive now and ask them why they was so scared about SS or guestappo( who worked generally hand in hand) ....
In fact SS was made to be Furher bodyguard and after a year they be modified to be sort of country bodyguard
In Russia it usually was Feldengendarme, penalsquads and specialised wehrmacht troops responsible for attrocities like ethnic cleansing, raping and partisan search&destroy missions and so on, and hardly SS troops. And it wasn't just Hitler, but Allied generals as well that ordered "to take no prisoners". However as officers and gentlemen (and being very aware of the Genieva convention) they could not say "just shoot them" and had their subaltern officers interpret it as they see fit. You don't need to be Einstein to figure out what happend. It's just that the Germans got infamous for it, though all parties made themself guilty of killing POW's on equal level.
The SS (Schutz-Staffel) roughly translated as protection group was indeed formed out of the SA to protect leaders of the party. During the first years the SS was usually more used to beat the crap out of opposing parties during rallies and so on. But the SS did become country wide for awhile and eventually a military elite of the purest German Arians untill about 1943/1944 when the SS was forced to take none arian purebloods in their ranks to recover from their casualties of war.
During the times of occupation the Grune Polizei was responsible for daily razzia's, checking ID's and so on and were much more feared by civies then the Gestapo. The Gestapo was much more feared within military ranks, being sorta the political officers as were known in the Red Army. No German officer in his right mind would ever say he'd lost faith in Hitler if in the same room as a Gestapo officer. It would almost mean sudden death. Accused of being a traitor and defaitism, interrogation, torture and a firing squad. (if lucky that is)
but one remark... SS didnt kill POWs always! maybe in the end of the war its true , maybe on the Russian front its also true, but in all your stories you picture SS as beasts... they were tough bastards alright, but not all of them were inhuman... In the most cases SS or any other soldier killing POWs its either out of military necessity or combat fatigue, that lowers moral judgement to a point of barbarocity.
Have a look at the atrocities at Le Paradis and Wormhoudt in 1940 where captured British soldiers were murdered by the brave members of the SS. These actions only came to light at the end of the war due to the fact that there were a few survivors able to testify.........how many more of these occured to which there were no survivors one wonders?
It comes as some surprise that the Western Allies took any of these brave warriors prisoner at all..........maybe we should have followed the same set of rules that the Russians had for these criminals, who disgraced the German uniform and people.
my point was, and heeresarmee pointed it out right, that they got the fame of being bad and that escalated then to limitlessness. Eveybody comitted atrocities and its not the formation but the individuals that made the difference.
SS was worst not only by being granted sort of freedom to do what they want unpunished, but also by after getting this fame, unable not to continue to fight in that manner. Simple escalation ladder, mostly irreversible.
Also commands like "kill em all" was easier to order for fanatic SS than to regular german Wehrmacht, who would probarly protest or avoid full compliance with such orders. Different picture at the end of the war where Wehrmacht treated others and was treated like SS in 1942-43.
Americans also did "Take No Prisoners" events (especially Around Normandy) Most cases did it cause of loss of their soldiers. If you think of it every army of every war has cause some atrocities. @ Ernie_M if you ask anyone the first WW2 tank that would come to their mind they would say Tiger.
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