It’s not against the Geneva Convention, they’re just not covered under the protections as soldiers as they’re acting as intelligence (Colombian Military Intelligence) agents…
The Germans tried to get around that in 1944 by wearing Wehrmacht uniforms underneath the American ones…
Definitely one of the execution photos of captured members of “Unternehmen Greif” (Operation Griffin) under SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. Within the Battle of the Bulge they were supposed to cause confusion behind american lines wearing G.I. uniform. German command new that these soldiers would be executed if captured so only volunteers were recruited. Another problem was the language: it is one thing to speak english perfectly but it’s damn hard for a german to speak english without the strong typical german accent Being a german I know about it). So they found only 30 soldiers with the adequate skills demanded. They were equipped with dogtags and pay books of captured or killed american soldiers. Even 12 Panzer V Panther were disguised as Shermans but easily recognized because of the typical track rollers. Altogether five german members of this unit have been executed. But the irritation on american side was enormous: 2500 G.I.s have been arrested temporarily because they were suspicious of being disguised germans.
Flamethrower guy is closest on the operations of 150th Panzer Brigade. The quote about 20 Shermans is unfortunately way off the mark. Skorzeny planned for a powerful brigade with 2 battalions. However he got no where near what was needed. Attempts to get tanks and uniforms were fairly unsuccesful. He may have received 20 Shermans but most were broken down and useless. Also the uniforms were mostly British battledress. Accounts vary but at most 2 or 3 tanks were useable and went into the Ardennes. They had Panthers disguised as M10’s and Stugs painted with US stars. A few Jeeps and scout cars were available and the balance was 250’s with stars on them.
There were a few fluent American speakers, a lot with some American and some with none. The force consisted of three Kampfgruppe X, Y and Z. X and Y had a Tank Company of 10 Panthers/Stugs. 3 motorised company’s (US and German trucks etc), 2 Mechanised platoons (US and German vehicles) and anti-tank, mortar, engineer and signals platoon. Included in these were 380 men from the SS Parachute battalion and 175 from the Commando unit SS-Jagdverbande Mitte.
There were two parts to the mission, the Greif teams disguised and in jeeps who were to carry out the disruption as described previously (one was the only German unit to reach the Meuse) the second was the main body of three Kampfgruppes who were to be released behind the lines once Peiper broke through. As the breakthrough never really occurred Skorzeny asked for his unit to be committed as ground troops. They attacked Malmedy, KG Y with the Shermans and Stugs attacked on the night 20/21st December nad failed. In the morning KG Z attacked with disguised Panthers and possibly a Sherman after some inital sucess they were driven off (proximity shells were used to great effect against them). Private Francis Curry received the Medal of Honour defending the Warche Bridge that day… Skorzeny was also wounded but not in the attack. The unit went home pretty much after this.
Interestingly one reason Greif crews were captured was the fuel starved Germans filled the Jeeps with 4 or even 5 men. GI’s with vehicles and fuel to burn almost never carried this many behind the lines. As a result crowded Jeeps were stopped resulting in several captures. The baseball password didn’t always work. One US General (forget who) spent the night locked up as he wasn’t a sports fan.
I found this list of 150 Brigade on a spanish website.
1 Sherman operational and 1 in long term repair
5 Panthers operational
5 StuG IIIs operational
4 SdKfz 250/1s operational
6 SdKfz 251/1s operational
6 M3 halftracks-american operational
6 SdKfz 234/1s operational
4 M8 armored cars-american operational
12 motorcycles with sidecar-german
1 motorcycle with sidecar-american
43 motorcycles-german
20 motorcycles-american
28 jeeps-american
6 light civilian type car-german
36 medium civilian type car-german
9 heavy civilian type cars-german
64 light trucks-german
56 medium trucks-german
8 medium trucks-american
6 heavy trucks-german
1 truck-american
1 truck-german
Weapons
226 light MGs
31 heavy MGs
24 8cm mortars-german
24 4.2inch mortars-american
5 3inch AT guns-american
14 57mm AT guns-american
The photo you see is from one of the executed German infiltraters in the US Military behind the American Lines in the “Battle of the Bulge”. They were executed because the Geneva Convention forbids soldiers to wear an enemy uniform, if they do they could be caught for spying/infiltrating. He belonged to a special command of Otto Skorzeny, to confuse the US Military behind her lines. Nevertheless it failed it was quite a succes. The US Military even killed 2 of her own troops.
Kindly Regards
www.winter-offensive.be
It looks like one of the Germans they shot, which was caught posing as an American in a US Army uniform, during the Battle of Bulge.
Hello,
My name is Rico from the Neterlands.
I was wandering where you got the picture from of the executed German at Henri Chapelle.
Kind regards,
Rico.
Commando Extraordinary" by Charles Foley, where it comes to Skorzeny’s trial in which (amongs the charges- one using poison bullets, which turned out to be wrong) from page 219: Skorzeny “I had the emphatic order that my men should not fight in uniform. Disguise should be worn only until they reached their destination.”
The next questions revealed the course Durst meant to take. He would make his way along the stepping stones of precedent -but for Allied precedent, which alone could take the weight of the defense. For it turned out that the victors had gone before them on this route, either the “rules of war” were obsolete or the Allies too were guilty".
And it goes on…
“The Germans came accross the notion that Intellegence reports on Allied operations. He recalled that British officers had been captured wearing enemy uniforms in Hungary, and were not shot. In both Italy and Yugoslavia German depots were often raided by partisans to get uniforms which they then wore in battle. The Polish patriot General Bor-Komorrowski used German uniform to start his Warsaw risin in 1944. Russians, to his knowledge, had frequently adopted this ruse. The Japanese had done the same thing. And so had the Americans.”
Looking around the attentive court, Skorzeny repeated what Hitler had told him of Americans in German uniforms at Aachen. There where other such instances, At Saarlautern, for example, Americans bluffed their way in a German tank over the bridge which led to Frankfurt. But it was the Aachen deception that had given Hitler the idea for this very Operation “Greif”. And in every instance he had mentioned the men were armed, and where neccesassry, had made use of their arms."
It then describes the legal side, the lack of papers etc…Then:
Durst anounces his last witness for the defense of Skorzeny (my italics) “Wing-Commander Forrest Yeo-Thomas
A short sturdy figure in the faded blue of the RAFwalked to the witness chair, sat down, and looked quizzically about him. Wondering what on earth a British officer might have to say for the defence, Skorzeny noticed that he wore some exceptional decorations, among them the French decorations for gallantry and the George Cross.”
Ok, I won’t retype the whole lot, but just to say the book goes into Yeo-Thomas’s experiences of jumping into France and with the name of the “white Rabbit” stole German uniforms etc, and he was questioned about the use of German uniforms and in most particular, the use of German insignia, he replied they did indeed use German uniforms and insignia…
He told the court :
“that he had never met Skorzeny or any of his compatriots, but he wanted to say that in his opinion there was nothing wrong in the “crimes” they were accused of - wether they had committed them or not. From all he had heard, the prisoners had behaved like gentlemen”…
He then goes on to tell the court of one instance where they wore German uniforms and insignia, and with the use of forged documents made their way into the prison at Rennes and rescued a collegue…Asked what they would do if caught -“bump off the other guy”…
As the Wing Commander stepped from the dias, Skorzeny gave a quiet order; the prisoners stood and bowed. Then they sat down again."
Skorzeny sent Yeo-Thomas a note of thanks to which he replied:
“You did a damned good war job. I’m sure you will get off. In any case I have a flat in Paris if you should need somewhere to lie up.”
The verdict was not in doubt: The accused where aquitted on all counts But then opened a strangely drawn out epilogue on which the curtain refused to fall.
The first envoi was Colonel Rosenfeld’s. He congratulated the prisoners: they must must understand that he had merely carried out his orders as a soldier. “Just like us” Skorzeny retorted. The colonel had an afterthouhgt which he imparted to the Press.
“I still think this skorzeny is the most dangerous man in Europe”"
