Now that's what I call surrendering with style.
Posted on 08/13/2021 7:36:02 PM PDT by PROCON
In April 1945, near Prague in Czechoslovakia, the German Wehrmacht was disarmed and their soldiers taken prisoners of war.
Indeed, the Russians would not have treated them very, shall we say, ‘kindly’?
I noticed a couple of vehicles full of Waffen-SS troops. After the Malmedy massacre we were not too well disposed towards them, but at this point of the war their only real choice was to surrender to the Americans because, as you said, the Russians would not have treated them very ‘kindly’?
I think these Germans were happy to be alive and out of the war. Incredible video!
US troops were a lot nicer to the Germans than the local Czechs were.
After that it became ever more difficult to find an adversary who was both capable and willing to fight us straight up with uniformed forces.
The North Koreans and Chinese managed to fight a war-weary US to a stalemate which still endures, but after that we never fought a regular army until Saddam’s laughable attempt to field one.
Now warfare is full-spectrum, information-based and continuous, not a moment of respite. The times of WWII seem almost idyllic in comparison.
I still don't understand why the US troops stopped right there, some miles from the German border. Were they sent to CZ just to save the German soldiers from Russkies?
Probably a Big Three agreement as to where all the converging armies would stop so they would not start shooting at each other.
The only way to Prague for USA soldiers was to first cross several hundred miles of Germany, or else north from Austria, which was a German ally.
Hitler killed himself the last day of April, so these films were taken within days or weeks of the collapse of the German Army.
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the average American GI didn’t particularly hate the German soldiers. Not the case with the men in the Red Army. Some of those soldiers had fought from Volga river to German and Austria. The had seen nothing but total destruction and ruin, no farm animal, few people, burned villages all the way. IMO had any of us been in the boots of those Soviet soldiers we would not have treated the krauts any differently than they did.
Should have shot the SS bastards.
A lot of the SS simply ditched their uniforms and came in civies or stolen Geman Army uniforms. American MP’s might not figure out ‘Fritz’ was SS until some US Interrogator got around to interviewing him and checking his story. Kind of hard to execute an individual who has been in formal custody for 3 - 4 weeks.
These Germans didn’t fare as well.
Not for the squeamish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IFfQdM7EI
Guess the beer was too good to leave :-)
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