I was told this pic was an execution of one of our own for treason.
Is there any truth to this?
Any & all info would be greatly Appreciated…
Thanks for posting that picture. A couple of things:
1.) How do you know it’s an American?
2.) The US executed many people for war crimes at the late stages of the war, but especially around the Nuremburg trials and this could be a foreign officer.
3.) Why is the quality of the photo so bad? This looks like Civil War material.
I’d like to see/hear what others have to say.
I don’t no much about this picture. I’m only going by what I was told.
If someone know’s more let me no…
I’d like to hear more also.
Well I know for sure it is American soldiers because I have seen that picture in a book. The picture was not like a civil war picture like you posted. It was just a regular World War 2 picture. Then the picture right by it showed the bullets going through him and hitting the wood he was held up against. In the picture you could see some of the wood going everywhere. It was pretty cool, but not for him.:roll:
I was told this pic was an execution of one of our own for treason.
Is there any truth to this?
Any & all info would be greatly Appreciated…
Completely untrue, those were german soldier dressed on american uniforms in the Battle of the Bulge, the germans belong to an special detachment commanded by Otto Skorzeny wich had the task to create disinformation and panic behind enemy lines.
I believe they posed as MPs.
Another pic of the same day.
You have to wonder why they chose to execute them, and not the thousands of other German prisoners they got from the Bulge battle.
Because the use of enemy uniforms behind enemy lines make them spies, and teorically the Geneva convention allowed the execution of this marauding soldiers.
Spies…exactly.
How about that American soldier, Private Eddie Slovak, or Slovick, who was executed for cowardice. Anyone heard of this?
It was the 1907 Hague convention in force at the time IIRC - the Geneva conventions didn’t come into force until postwar. I think the use of enemy uniforms is defined as “perfidy” and as such should any people wearing enemy uniform be captured they have no protection from the Geneva or Hague conventions. Traditionally such people could be executed immediately after capture, and nobody would bat an eyelid.
It was the 1907 Hague convention in force at the time IIRC - the Geneva conventions didn’t come into force until postwar. I think the use of enemy uniforms is defined as “perfidy” and as such should any people wearing enemy uniform be captured they have no protection from the Geneva or Hague conventions. Traditionally such people could be executed immediately after capture, and nobody would bat an eyelid.
Okay, Thanks.
Why is the quality of the photo so bad? This looks like Civil War material.
This an actual photo. Not from a book.
Well, you have to recognize that is not in good shape :rolleyes:
What about the info ? Do you have any doubts?
Panzerknacker is correct. There were three German soldiers executed by firing squad on 23 December, 1944 - NCO Günther Billing, Sgt. Wilhelm Schmidt, and NCO Manfred Pernass. They were members of Skorzeny’s 150th Panzerbrigade. These people wore American uniforms and drove American vehicles during the Ardennes Offensive. It was called Operation Griffin.
JT
Thanks for providing the names, I was looking for footage of that day ( wich I had seen on TV) but found none till now.
Thanks for the link Dani.
Thus even if the principal share ultimately remained only one failure in the offensive, the few commandos who infiltrated under the American uniform succeeded in sowing the doubt and the disorder in the Alliés rows which then saw Germans disguised in American everywhere. Forgotten passwords usually employed with the profit of questions rather turned on certain rules relating to American football or even names of this time’s greats players.
I saw in History Channel that most of the question to confirm if one was U.S army or not were baseball related… in my case I will be shot at once, my english is fluent ( and I can simulate some accents) but that sport is chinese to me. :neutral:
yes, it was baseball, not football. I remember this now, thanks.