[MuttTheHoople]

The biggest mistake the Germans made- machine-gunning American Prisoners at Malmedy. When word of that got out, every foxhole became a fortress, and every GI became a savage angel of death.

For the rest of the war, Waffen SS troops had little chance of becoming prisoners....they were just shot for the principle of it. As those who fought alongside my dad in Vietnam said: Payback's a M***********.

[Bull Snipe]

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.