Americans searching German Homes (at 3am)
This following is a good review. http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Occ-GY/ch18.htm
I had a friend in Toastmasters who was part of the occupation. He would tell stories of supervising German laborers. He had his Germans trained to be on the look out for American officers and bring him his unloaded gun if they saw one. Said most of the Germans were good people but he would never had done such with the Nazi prisoners.
Another occupation story.
I have an interest in jeeps(own too many).
During occupation, they would have the GI’s disassemble jeeps at one depot site. These parts would then be transported to another depot and reassembled. This is part of the explanation why finding a pure ford made jeep with all the bolts stamped with “f” is a rarity.
We offered these jeeps to some if the smaller countries to help with their ag production. They said, fine, we will take your jeeps but ONLY if you give us 50 gallons of gas with each jeep. So they would look for volunteers among the troops to deliver these jeeps. Only about half the jeeps made it to their destination. The other half went on a tour of Europe and were abandoned when the gas ran out..................
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Occ-GY/ch21.htm
“The question who is a Nazi is often a dark riddle,” Third Army G-5 reported more than a month after V-E Day, adding, “The question what is a Nazi is also not easy to answer.” 1 In official terms, however, the questions were not difficult to answer at all. SHAEF had long ago worked out automatic arrest categories ranging from the top Nazi leadership to the local Ortsgruppenleiter, from the top Gestapo agents to leaders of the Hitler Youth, the Peasants’ League, and the Labor Front. Furthermore, thousands of suspects were being arrested: 700 a day in May and June, and a total of over 18,000 in August. In September, 82,000 suspects were being held in internment camps, away from the political scene and available for possible trial and sentencing as members of criminal organizations.2 They were all presumed to be confirmed Nazis and, with some allowance for excessive zeal on the part of the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC), the vast majority doubtless were. Usually, of course, they did what they could to conceal their identities and their pasts. Some succeeded no doubt, but most were not hard to find. Capt. Arthur T. Neumann, whose detachment’s out-of-the-way Landkreis, Alzenau in northwestern Bavaria, was a favorite refuge for those fleeing automatic arrest, reported that nearly all suspects, once they were identified, could be brought in by postcards telling them to report to the detachment office at a specified time.3 Finding out who had been party members, whether important enough to merit arrest or merely rank and file, was also not difficult. The party had kept excellent records, which often passed into military government’s hands intact. The detachment at Wasserburg am Inn, for example, had twenty-eight lists and rosters covering everything from party and Hitler Youth membership to deliveries of boots and uniforms.4 The best evidence, the party’s entire central registry of 12 million cards with photographs, turned up in Munich in a pile of wastepaper waiting to be pulped.5
3 am search also looks like a great time to meet some good looking fräuleins.
wasn’t there still resistance attacks and stuff for years afterwards?
I have posted in the past about "Grandpa," who was the grandfather of a man my daughter dated and with whom I was able to discuss his WWII service. He resigned a judgeship in New Jersey to join. Eventually the Army figured out his highest and best use - civil affairs in running post-War Germany.
Grandpa was an officer assigned to the European Civil Affairs Division (ECAD). Specifically, he was assigned to Detachment H5D2. Decoded, that meant he was in the fifth "H" Detachment in Company D, 2nd Civil Affairs Regiment. H Detachments were assigned the military government of a Landkreis or Stadtkreis, rural districts or larger towns. Fully staffed, they would have five officers, one warrant officer and ten enlisted men. The Detachments were independent in their movements during the fighting, following line units going in the general direction of their assigned destination.
To recap for those not on the threads in those days, on December 16, 1944, Grandpa's Detachment was administering Manderfeld, Belgium, also HQ of the 14th Cavalry Group, then holding the left flank of the 106th Infantry Division sector on the Ardennes front. Grandpa awoke to the sound of gunfire. He reconnoitered and for a time shuttled ammunition to advanced positions of the Cavalry. Manderfeld was at the west end of the Losheim Gap, a pass through the Schnee Eifel which was one of the principle routes used by the German forces advancing in the Wacht am Rhein offensive. After witnessing history, the Detachment fell back along with the 14th Group, which was almost entirely destroyed. Two regiments of the 106th were also overrun. Manderfeld is in the small German speaking part of Belgium and Grandpa was very worried about possible retribution by the Germans against people who had cooperated with him.
"Today" the Detachment is administering Geissen, a mid-size university town in Hesse state, near Frankfurt. Geissen was also a rail junction and German HQ and was heavily bombed.
In the summer of 1945, the Detachment found a large collection of Jewish "church vestments," scrolls, etc., and archives, estimated at 20 freight car loads, stored at Hungen, near Geissen. One report mentioned three Rembrandts in the trove. The Detachment arranged for protection and shipment of the Nazi loot to Frankfurt.
On the way to Geissen, the Detachment administered other Belgian cities, including Raeren, across the border from Aachen. In March 1945 a university professor informed them of a large cache of books, documents and objects sent there for safekeeping. They arranged a convoy to take it back to Aachen.
Although Grandpa talked about his experience in the Battle of the Bulge, which obviously made a big impression on him, he was reticent to discuss details of his personal service. Aside from his experience in the Bulge, I had to piece together most of the forgoing from Army histories and some German sources.
The Army expected that if Germany had to be totally defeated the destruction would cause civil administration to completely collapse. They expected a prolonged period of U.S. military rule. The Germans being the very organized, disciplined people they are, however, kept civil administration relatively intact, even under those trying circumstances. The kreise Detachments were withdrawn in November and December. The first elections for local councils were held in January 1946.
Incidentally, there is a short wartime propaganda film called Mission to Geissen, directed by John Ford, about an OSS intelligence mission. I was not able to find out how much was true and how much was docudrama, but was able to find the OSS was active in the area as the Army crossed the Rhine and the closing days of the War began. It's definitely worth a view as it was made in John Ford's fine style.