Posted on 01/03/2014 3:41:06 PM PST by navysealdad
Footage showing surrendering troops to US Army. southern Bohemia, Czechoslovakia 1945. Isn't strange that some Germans still carry weapons when surrendering plus a few shots from Prague.
(Excerpt) Read more at uvideo100.com ...
'11' ?
d;^) (and thanks for the clip)
Neat! Thanks.
Me too! LOL!
What a terrific film. The American troops are from the 16th Armored Division, can’t tell about the Germans but it’s a mixed bunch.
Note that the Germans are practicing good march order discipline, are still under control of unit leaders and are following instructions from the Americans. Many are still armed. Also note that the tires of the German vehicles are worn to the core, no tread in sight. Very common at this stage of the war.
für Sie ist der Krieg vorbei
Can only laugh at 5:30, where the German commander doesn’t even seem remotely bothered that they lost.
Not really, they were not treacherous, duplicitous Muslims.
Absolutely fascinating. The quality is surprisingly good too.
One of my favorite stories was from an American lieutenant who went out scouting with a driver in a jeep during the last days of the war. He came head to head with what was left of a German Panzer Corps, thousands of men, and hundreds of tanks and vehicles. He pulled up to the lead vehicle, got out, and demanded to see the commanding officer. After a bit a Major General came up and asked in English what he wanted. He told them “I’m here to take your surrender”.
The general said “You want all of us to surrender to you?”
The American told him, “Well, I have a whole division of paratroopers and tanks coming up the road behind me, and you have the whole Red Army coming up the road behind you. You can either surrender to me, or deal with them in a little while.”
The general opened the flap on his holster and pulled out his pistol, and the lieutenant thought he was going to die right there. The general turned the pistol around, handed it over to the lieutenant, and ordered his men to stack arms.
Great story!
My best guess is that this was filmed on the road from Pilsen to Prague. It may have been taken after the Germans surrendered on 8 May, but at that stage the Germans were desperate to surrender to the Americans rather than to the Soviets. That meant death and they knew. They were not going to do anything to piss off the Americans.
The Germans seem awfully happy to be surrendering to Americans. I wonder if they got to remain in American captivity?
It's over, they'll live, and they're in American rather than Russian hands. I read a fascinating memoir from a Gebirgsjaeger sniper who went to great lengths to be captured by the Americans, rather than the Russians. The American unit that his bunch surrendered to was sending prisoners back to the Russians, so he bolted and...just went home.
My father related his experience interrogating German POWs in North Africa and Italy during WWII. He said the Germans would often have their side arms and he would be unarmed. We asked him if that wasn't rather dangerous. His priceless reply, in an indignant tone, was "They were German Officers, they were quite correct."
They would probably not have remained in captivity for long. These German soldiers were fortunate. Most of those who surrendered to the Russians soon found themselves, in the words of Nikita Khrushchev, "in the cold Soviet ground."
What I meant was did the Americans turn them over to the Russians?
If that bit of quick thinking didn't grease the skids for his trip to about Major or so, it should have.
Although a Corps commander surrendering to somebody simply alleging that they represent a division kind of says 'tired realist' to me. No ammo resupply, no fuel, no med support, no rations or spares, no comm with higher, screw it. It's over. :-)
I once talked to an older German who was a POW in America.
He said “I loved it! All I did was farm potatoes in Idaho. I didn’t want to leave.”
I have read more than a couple of accounts of that- German POWs that got ‘farmed out’ to farms as labor, being as happy as they could be and wanting to emigrate as soon as they legally could.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.