Thanks for everyone’s help and all the info. Definitely a very knowledgeable group.
You re welcome.
WW2incolor forum: satisfaction guaranteed. 
Some were baseball questions, but by no means all. Here’s additional information on Operation Griffin from another board.
In December 1944 Adolf Hitler sent his favorite and most daring commander, Maj. Otto Skorzeny, on secret mission deep within Allied territory. Skorzeny was accompanied by 500 men from the 150th Panzer Brigade. They were wearing American and British uniforms, all of them spoke English and many of them had spent time in Britain or the United States. They also had control of twenty Sherman tanks and thirty trucks. Their mission was to spread rumors, change signposts, and generally spread panic among the troops. Their mission coincided with the German counteroffensive that became The Battle of the Bulge, so not only would the Allies have to deal with armed Germans attacking them from the front, but also worry that the man next to him might be a Nazi in disguise.
Once it was known the German battalion was behind the lines, the word traveled fast - trust no one. Soon a rumor was started saying that the main mission of Operation Greif was to assassinate Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and panic set in. Ike’s movements were restricted and was constantly surrounded by a cadre of bodyguards. The soldiers also spent an inordinate amount of time checking up on each other, the GIs questioned everyone, right up to Gen. Omar Bradley. Questions that could only be answered by a “real” American. Who plays center field for the Yankees? Who is Mickey Mouse’s wife? What is the capital of Illinois? General Bradley was detained for answering Springfield for the last question; the soldier who stopped him insisted it was Chicago. Another general was arrested because he said the Chicago Cubs played in the American League.
The “Greifers,” as they came to be known, had undergone months of training in order to properly act like American soldiers, but many were captured after inadvertently tripping up. One entire Jeep of undercover agents was captured at a gas station when the driver asked for “Petrol, please” instead of asking for “gas.” Another German officer was captured because his forged identification card was too good. All American servicemen carried an ID card that said “Not a Pass - For Indentification Only.” The German forger had spelled “identification” correctly on the fake card, and ended up costing the captured officer his life.
For all of the problems caused by the members of Operation Greif, they were unable to stop the Americans. As the bulge was pushed back, the Greifers fled to Germany with the rest of their retreating comrades. Hitler awarded Otto Skorzeny the Iron Cross for his efforts in leading the operation.
JT
Slovik was executed in 45 for desertion the 1st and only since the civil war.
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.
The US EMs also were ordered by their Officers to not take any SS prisoners (Of any sort: Waffen, Allgemein, etc.) But they wouldn’t be ‘formely’ executed like this.
Hm, it might have been a German dressed up as a American MP, during the battle of the bulge possible? I’ve seen a similar picture of a German being tied up, facing the camera, two Americans behind him where about to put a blind fold over his head. Not sure.
On this rare occasion PDF27 I think you are wrong. The Geneva Convention was alive and well at the time of WW2. See the chronology below from Wikipedia:
First Geneva Convention “for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field” (first adopted in 1864, last revision in 1949)
Second Geneva Convention “for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea” (first adopted in 1949, successor of the 1907 Hague Convention X)
Third Geneva Convention “relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War” (first adopted in 1929, last revision in 1949)
Fourth Geneva Convention “relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War” (first adopted in 1949, based on parts of the 1907 Hague Convention IV)
In addition, there are three additional amendment protocols to the Geneva Convention:
Protocol I (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. As of 12 January 2007 it had been ratified by 167 countries.
Protocol II (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. As of 12 January 2007 it had been ratified by 163 countries.
Protocol III (2005): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem. As of 12 January 2007 it had been ratified by nine countries and signed but not yet ratified by an additional 75 countries.
All four conventions were last revised and ratified in 1949, based on previous revisions and partly on some of the 1907 Hague Conventions; the whole set is referred to as the “Geneva Conventions of 1949” or simply the “Geneva Conventions”. Later conferences have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of warfare and addressing issues of civil wars. Nearly all 200 countries of the world are “signatory” nations, in that they have ratified these conventions.
No, international law required a trial before they could be executed.
It is my understanding that in these cases they did receive a short military trial before they were executed
Edward Donald Slovik (February 18, 1920 – January 31, 1945) was a private in the United States Army during World War II and the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the American Civil War.
Although over twenty-one thousand soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II—including forty-nine death sentences—only Slovik’s death sentence was carried out.
On December 9, Slovik wrote a letter to the Supreme Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, pleading for clemency. However, desertion had become a problem, and Eisenhower confirmed the execution order on December 23. The execution by firing squad, was carried out at 10:04 a.m. on January 31, 1945, near the village of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines. Slovik was twenty-four years old.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I agree
Operation Greif was a special false flag operation commanded by the notorious Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge. The operation was the brainchild of German dictator Adolf Hitler, and consisted of using specially-trained German soldiers in captured Allied uniforms and vehicles to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied defense. A lack of transport aircraft, uniforms and English-speaking soldiers limited this operation, but the confusion created by this so-called “Trojan Horse Brigade” was considerable.
About two dozen German soldiers, most of them in captured American army Jeeps, got through the lines in the initial confusion of December 16, 1944, and began changing signposts and creating panic among American troops they encountered. However, some of the saboteurs were captured by the Americans. Because they were wearing American uniforms, their interrogators threatened to execute them as spies unless they divulged their mission. Knowing they were likely to meet that fate anyway (they did), the Germans falsely told the Americans that their mission was to go to Paris to either kill or capture overall Allied commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. They truthfully told the interrogators that Skorzeny was their commander.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I don’t think the americans had steel helmets during their civil war:)
I know my post is a wee bit late, but i just had to say it:D:D
I have a book about this case; it’s diary excerpts from Slovik’s diary and makes a fascinating read. If you’re interested let me know and I’ll give you more details.
The MPs are just guards, that are there for the photo, I think. In the other photo you can see there are also others tied to posts and blindfolded with MPs beside them.
hmm im sorry, the picture doesn’t give me any clues. It could range from handing over information to well anything that the army saw fight to try as treason, which in war times, is a wide range.
All have been explained already in the early pages of this topic.
http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=103&category=people
also the stripes on the soldiers helmets in the picture look like those of MP’s
For the Dutch readers and the global people who want t see some recent pics of the place of ecxecution at Henri Chapelle (Belgium)
http://www.bodem-vondsten.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=614
http://www.bodem-vondsten.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4826
Kind regards,
Rico.
To reiterate:
The pic above is one of an English-speaking German soldier sent in US Army uniform to infiltrate the Ardennes right before the Battle of the Bulge…
Several were executed as spies since they fought using American equipment and while in US uniforms…
Battle of the Bulge … German spies behind Allied lines
From World War II: An Interactive Package of Media and Text (1989, pp. 320-321):
A feature of the attack was the activities of the so-called 150th Panzer Brigade, a unit of some 2,000 English-speaking German commandos who knew American service slang and customs.
Under Colonel Otto Skorzeny, using captured American Jeeps and wearing American combat jackets over their German uniforms, the Germans advanced far ahead of the main force, cutting telephone wires, turning sign posts, setting up false red minefield indicators and creating as much confusion as possible. Each was under orders, if captured, to tell their captors that thousands of Germans were loose in American uniforms, driving Jeeps.
The success of the first group was outstanding -- forty Jeeps got through the American lines to commit their sabotage, and all but eight got back again. Those that were captured duly carried out their orders and spread rumors of a vast force of Germans in U.S. uniform -- with the result that huge traffic jams developed on the narrow roads through the forest as Jeeps were stopped and checked. Hundreds of Ameican soldiers who failed to prove their American origin by answering check questions correctly were arrested. Many a GI had cause to reflect in the cooler that a little more attention to school day lessons about the height of the Empire State Building and the content of the Gettysburg Address might have saved him a lot of bother.
Later groups of ... saboteurs were less successful although one man captured on the 19th launched a fresh rumor of an attempt on Eisenhower's life which caused a rash of extra security precautions that did much to slow the Supreme Commander's progress for days.
Since the activities of the 150th Panzer Brigade were entirely contrary to the Geneva Convention, the Americans began summarily to try and shoot the men captured in U.S. uniform, and this ended their incursions.
http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/battle-of-bulge-german-spies-behind.html
Didnt the US recently conduct a secret mission to South American rebel camps to rescue hostages dressed as journalists and medics? I heared that combatants dressing as medics is against the Geneva Convention.
- It was the Columbian Government, not the US Government.
- It isn’t exactly secret - the Columbians had a TV crew along filming the whole thing.
- FARC are a terrorist group, thus not entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions.