US Mission to Rescue 6,000 POWs 1945

[Music] it was perhaps the worst prisoner-of-war camp in Europe with conditions of deprivation approaching those of a slave labor camp than an institution holding allied military prisoners Stalag 9b outside the pretties spa town of bad orb near frankfurt germany was by April 1945 and a hellhole massively overcrowded firstly by the unexpected influx of thousands of Americans captured when the Ardenne offensive in December 1944 and latterly by huge numbers of British and other Allied POWs evacuated from camps further east that were threatened with capture by the Red Army there were six thousand prisoners crammed into the wooden hazard camp on a forested hill above bad orb the food supply system never good had broken down to the point where the POWs were on starvation rations comparable to those in Japanese prison camps the main reason for the food shortages was Allied bombing of the German transportation system and the prioritizing of food stocks for German soldiers and civilians Red Cross parcels used in all camps to supplement the poor German food issue also did not often arrive due to logistical difficulties towards the end of the war fighters sought targets of opportunity anything and everything that moved on the German earth was either bombed or strafe it was only a matter of time [Music] dr. Sauer chief of the spear production ministry has stated at the moment and the attacks were carried on systematically against the railroads it was all over Field Marshal von Rundstedt the dislocation of Germany's railroad system by air attack his van of the principle reasons was a loss of savour reichsmarschall Goering a text on marshalling yards for most effective low-flying planes had terror effect and caused great damage to our communications disease was rampant and medical supplies were virtually non-existent with dysentery diarrhea pneumonia and hemorrhagic fever endemic and typhus reported the wooden barrel cuts completely overcrowded could not hold all the prisoners and many had spent the winter and the cold spring of 1945 in emergency tents in muddy fields visits from the Red Cross had been fairly regular and Geneva had reported to the State Department in Washington DC on the squalid conditions for among the 6,000 prisoners were 3364 Americans all in a bad way on the 9th of February of 1945 the Red Cross report raised alarm bells in Washington by mid-march the Red Cross reported that the situation at Stalag 9b had reached a critical status but what could be done the German army continued to resist along the length of the Western Front and though the Americans were advancing against diminishing German resistance the fear was the Germans might evacuate the camp before US forces reached it potentially killing many of the sickest prisoners in the process throughout late march as the battle for Frankfurt raged the Americans came closer to bad org until by the 3rd of March US forces were only 37 miles from the camp the battle for Frankfurt on the mine elements of the sixth Armored Division approached the one remaining bridge into Germany's ninth largest city we can by repeated shellings the span is impassable for heavy armor the Third Army tanks hold the bridge approached while infantry troops try to get across facing them as small arms fire and bazookas along with an artillery barrage from enemy points along the [Music] our men are forced back as the shelling continues unabated for six hours [Music] awaiting the signal for another attempt at a crossing they again approached the damaged bridge in single file and then dash across still under withering enemy fire the German resistance was still strong in places he would be a few days before a further advance was made in bad orb town the local via mocked commander had taken steps to defend the settlement establishing positions in fields and a stone building German assault guns and more infantry were also available and were waiting in a position behind the PIO wk-- at this point due to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Stalag 9b the US command authorized a daring rescue mission a force of infantry with artillery and tank destroyer support would break through the German frontline and race 37 miles behind German lines and liberate the camp and its starving inmates Lieutenant Colonel Walter de fettle II was selected to lead the task force consisting of his own 2nd battalion 114th Infantry Regiment from the 44th Infantry Division a u.s. rifle battalion consisted of about 860 or so men divided into a headquarters company three rifle companies and a weapons company plus a 30 man medical detachment as well as bazookas and medium and heavy machine guns the battalion also possessed 357 millimeter anti-tank guns feather Lee's battalion was reinforced by a platoon of two 105 millimeter infantry howitzers and a reconnaissance element from the 106 cavalry group consisting of a handful of m5a1 light tanks and m8 armored cars neither a which could stand up to German tanks or assault guns providing real hitting power was company c7 76th tank destroyer battalion armor the new m36 90 millimeter tank destroyer capable of dealing with almost all late war Panzers the reinforced medical section was provided with extra ambulances jeeps and equipment Fazoli's firepower was further augmented by a handful of Sherman tanks that'll ease orders were unequivocal break through the German outpost Lyon and advance swiftly to bad orb avoiding if possible fights with German forces and capture the POWs once this was achieved organized the evacuation of the prisoners back to us Lions a process that would take many days to complete task force fatally would be deep behind German lines and reliant on its own resources for a while and of course vulnerable to German attacks or attempts by the Germans to cut its supply and communication route back to the 44th Infantry Division on the 1st of April 1945 task force Vesely struck smashing through the improvised German front line held by scattered pockets of troops and pushed on the POWs camp the commander Colonel ziba realized that his camp was about to fall to the Americans and changed the routine as Fazoli's command drove Ford led by the 106 cavalry reconnaissance group the majority of the camp guards were allowed to leave the 106 fast-moving recon troops made it to their time only about five miles from Bad orb there were also divisions among the German soldiers defending bad orb as to what to do when the Americans turned up the commanding officer wanted to mount stout defense while the chief medical officer urged either surrender or withdrawal local resident Alfred Heim a one-armed veteran drove out to their time where the US had arrived he assured the Americans they would not face resistance in the town in the event this was not correct the 106 cavalry wasted at their time for the rest of Task Force Vesely to catch up and then resume the advance on bad orb by a six pm m36 tank destroyers of the 776 battalion reached the fields in front of bad orb has mentioned the town's chief medical officer wanted to hand over bad or without a fight he set off towards the American lines accompanied by a British and a French POWs tarrying white flags in order to open negotiations but the local Vermont commander had the doctor arrested shortly afterwards German troops opened fire on the American armor the m36 is returned fire along with the Sherman tanks in the meantime the 105 millimeter howitzers featherly had brought with him opened up on the town badly damaging several houses and causing fires as well as killing two civilians [Music] at the camp the prisoners could hear the battle raging below the hill and see gun flashes and explosions in the darkness then there came the sound of German tank destroyers and infantry moving past the camp and down the hill to join the battle but in the early hours of the 2nd of April the German forces broke and retreated past the camp in the direction of Manas at 6 a.m. white flags appeared in the town and fettle II as infantry move forward to take the surrender at this point the m4 shermans took the lead three of them started to cautiously climb the hill the top which the powa amp was situated they halted just below the wooded crest fearful of concealed anti-tank guns or Panzerfaust armed infantry after carefully weighing up the situation the platoon commander ordered them to advance again suddenly the tank's engines roared and they charged the last section of road to the camp's large wood and barbed wire gates the leading Sherman drove through the closed gate smashing down the inner gate as well followed into the compound by the other to close behind came dismounted infantry from the 144th and cavalry in jeeps and armored cars the reception party consisted of Colonel zebra and his deputy commandant who raised their hands before officially surrendering the camp to colonel fettle II most of the other guards had fled from the night riot of excited prisoners descended on the American troops who started distributing rations and cigarettes from their vehicles while medics went to work tending to the sickest prisoners he was a process that would take many days an elements of task force festerly guarded the road all the way back to us lines and also formed a protective perimeter around the camp in case of a German counter-attack but the Germans made no attempts to interfere with the rescue operation at Stalag 9b after ten days of hard work all 6,000 Allied prisoners including 3364 Americans were successfully evacuated back to proper hospitals and the long road to physical recovery though many would carry the mental scars well into old age the hero of the hour was the brave and resourceful Walter fatally in later life colonel fatally was active in the American Red Cross he passed away in his winter residence at Dunedin Florida in 1987 aged 80 and is buried in North Brunswick New Jersey on a side note of this story Stalag 9b was the scene of the controversial removal of 350 US prisoners to a concentration camp at Berger under Elster Gemma knee in 1945 these men were Jewish American POWs or men deemed troublemakers by commandant ziba and over 70 died as slaves of the SS or were killed during a late war death march is the subject of my latest book operations swallow available in all good book shops and on Amazon thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also help support my channels at PayPal and patreon also please visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 822,702

Rating: 4.929914 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Bad Orb, Sherman tank, POW Camp

Id: hWeLu7YuwUs

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dovakin422]

I can't even imagine how it must have felt as a prisoner to see a pair of Sherman's tearing down the road and blast right through the front gate of the camp. What an incredible story.

[u/PoonSlayingTank]

I love Mark Felton. He does great stuff, and he seems like a class act.