Rare footage From World War 11 (color)

uvideo100 ^ | unknown | n/a

[Ken H]

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.

[NormsRevenge]

My ancestry lies somewhere in that area, Bohunk power :-!

Well, part of it anyway.

I hear ya on the music.

The victory at sea and world at war series have some very moving music..

Altho, I think I hear some more brewing in the distance..

A little hip hop punk

[Memphis Moe]

Fleeing the Russians. Lot's of impressive mechanized equipment held by the Germans; I see why Patton wanted to resupply them and fight the Russians with two armies: the American and the German.

Czech countryside in the spring. Saw a flowering tree in the footage. The land would fall under enslavement by Soviet communist totalitarian control for over 40 years.

[Memphis Moe]

Thanks for posting. Impressive.

[whodathunkit]

Did you notice how he started to salute and quickly changed it to a wave?

[NormsRevenge]

I reckun it depends on what counts as a war.. And who is it waged on? Is a conflict a war, do we need troops in the affair.., or do drone strikes now qualify? We can drop a hot loogey on anybody anytime these days.

WE may have missed a whole
Lot of wars
Pursuing the ring
Should have been practicing
At the range..

Peace and out.

[rarestia]

They got to go home. They didn’t die for hitlers false promises. I’d be smiling too.

[virgil283]

Thanks Ken... amazing film.....it’s like being able to see into the past...good show .`/%/%/%/~

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

April fools on them, we sent plenty of German POWs over to the reds as a form of appeasement, and a huge chunk of them were never heard from again.

Yet another reprehensible act of appeasement by FDR to his communist buddies.

[MuttTheHoople]

What I never understood, was why the Germans fought Americans and British so fiercely. If I were Hitler, I'd have had every mechanized division and elite Division in the East fighting the Russkies, while using Foreign troops and Volkssturm in the West.

Because Hitler was a strategic idiot, as well as a murdering thug, he did more to advance Communism than anyone in history (mainly because he gave the Communists the one thing they've never had before or since-the moral high ground).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I could understand missing two or maybe even three. But did I really miss 9 of them? How did we do?

[Ken H]

Given the subject, I wonder if we could dispense with the overused jokes.

[Born to Conserve]

The Germans are so happy to be surrendering to Americans. The alternative was unthinkable.

[Leaning Right]

I like the Kraut General smiling like it is all fun...

I remember reading about one such surrender ceremony. I wish I could find a link for it. Anyway, it was May 1945 and a German general was surrendering his unit to a British general. The German was all smiles as he handed over his sword to the Britisher.

The British general was so enraged over the German's attitude that he took the sword and broke it over the German's head.

[rlmorel]

That was amazing footage.

I did not get the footage in context before I watched. I should have, but it had an interesting effect on my perception. As I watched, I thought...this army looks pretty happy. There are women in some of the vehicles...and I was looking for some arrogance in the German troops, but...I didn't see much. They looked...happy.

No, that wasn't it. Then I came back and saw some posts and got the location in context and it hit me. They WERE happy...and relieved.

They DID have visible relief.

I am guessing it might have been something about this (from Wikipedia)

"The Battle of Slivice was the last large World War II battle in the area of the Czech lands. During 11–12 May 1945, German troops, trying to surrender to nearby American troops, defended themselves against local partisans and the Soviet Army. The Germans eventually capitulated during early hours of May 12. About 6,000 men were captured by the Soviet troops. On 7 May 1945, all German forces were ordered to remain in their positions and surrender. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, however, the commander of the Army Group Centre deployed in Bohemia, ordered his units to force their way westwards in order to surrender to American forces. The units reached the agreed demarcation line in western Bohemia and stopped there. Since the Soviet Army was still days away from the demarcation line, the partisans tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stop the Germans, who responded with reprisals against the local population. On several occasions, Russian Liberation Army units – also trying to reach the Americans – skirmished with the Germans.

On 9 May, a large formation of German troops reached the area between villages Milín, Slivice and Čimelice, near the demarcation line. Among them were parts of Kampfgruppe Wallenstein[3] and the 2nd SS Panzer Division's 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment; the formation was commanded by SS-Gruppenführer and General-Leutnant of the Waffen-SS Karl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauß. The soldiers were accompanied by fleeing German civilians. Because the road toward the Americans was blocked by local resistance units, von Pückler-Burghauß ordered the establishment of defensive lines. After May 8, the Americans returned any soldiers attempting to surrender to the Soviet side.

On 11 May, partisan groups led by Soviet officer Yevgeniy Antonovich Olesenski attempted to storm the Germans and were decimated. Soviet Army units arrived that afternoon and attacked the Germans.

The attack started with a heavy artillery and rocket bombardment. The Soviet bombardment was supported by 4th Armored Division of the U.S. Third Army's XII Corps. Later, troops from the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts attacked the German positions. During the night, the defense collapsed and, at around 03:00, General von Pückler-Burghauß signed the capitulation. The American negotiators refused to take the General and his family, so, fearing revenge from the Russians for military crimes executed by himself while he served as Waffen-SS commander in occupied USSR, von Pückler-Burghauß shot himself. About 6,000 soldiers and a large number of vehicles were captured."

[Leaning Right]

What I never understood, was why the Germans fought Americans and British so fiercely

One reason is that Hitler thought the Western allies were more vulnerable to a single knockout blow. That's why the Battle of the Bulge attack was aimed against the Americans and not against the Soviets.

Also, by late 1944 it was obvious that the Western allies were aiming for central Germany. Hitler mistakenly thought that the main Soviet thrust would be towards the Hungarian oil fields, not Berlin.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Isn’t strange that some Germans still carry weapons when surrendering

That was in case the surrender wasn’t accepted. ***

My dad was with Patton’s third Army. He said that in the last few weeks of the war, armed Germans were moving West, away from the mad Russians, as fast as they could and were trying to get the GIs to accept their rifles. They were told to take them on to the rear areas and surrender them there.

My dad was only disarming the officers of their handguns. He said one pistol could be traded for one pack of cigarettes.

[Ecliptic]

M’Arthur was like a boulder rolling downhill in reguards to invading Japan. He had a plan for invasion and a date for J-Day. The estimate of one million Americans being killed in the invasion led Truman to drop the bombs.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

All looked content to surrender - except for the one below as seen at about the 3:30 minute mark who chose to employ the very last of the Hitler Superweapons, the dreaded Wehrmacht Raspberry (leave it to a teenager...)

 

 

"THBBBT!"

 

 

[ApplegateRanch]

Not a kubelwagen to be seen. :-(

[itssme]

Thanks, Ken H, for the video and your comment. Let’s get serious about serious subjects...there’s a time and place for everything, and war is no laughing matter.
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