Posted on 12/15/2015 6:15:43 PM PST by OKSooner
Actually for a while almost any German surrendering had little chance of becoming a prisoner. An acquaintance, who commanded a tank company during the war, said that after they heard about Malmedy, they killed every German they could even those with white flags in their hands. The practice seemed to be common in a lot of units. He said that went on for a about a month, when unofficial word came down from higher up to “knock that shit off” we need those prisoners for intelligence purposes. After that they started taking prisoners again.
Colonel Oscar Koch, Third Army head of G-2 (Intelligence) was top notch. He alerted Patton and Patton acted accordingly.
Patton always had ongoing contingency plans for every possibility.
During the Battle, Bradley was way behind the lines and basically detached from his Armies. Patton ran the show.
Yes that is one thing which struck me about Patton.
I have read 3 different books about him. It must have been tough being on his headquarters staff. He had them prepare 3 complete sets of plans each day. One for 3 different possibilities.
His staff earned their pay, for sure.
A little trivia:
Colonel Rufus Bratton who was portrayed by EG Marshall in Tota, Tora, Tora was on Patton’s Third Army staff in Europe.
Patton had known him and requested he be assigned to Third Army.
At the end of the war, Patton wanted a number of Colonels on his staff to be promoted to Brigadier General and Ike blocked many.
Too bad Deep in the Hurtgen Forest (DITHF) and Brian Williams are not here to give their accounts:
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Now that’s a reference to some old FR action. Sneakypete outed him/them good and hard
Blast from the past.
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