2. Paul Carell, Foxes of the Desert: The Story of the Afrika Korps (1960; repr., Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1994), 168; Roger James Bender and Richard D. Law, Uniforms, Organization, and History of the Afrikakorps (Mountain View, CA: R. James Bender, 1973), 79; “Enemy Gets His First Taste of ‘Unconditional Surrender’: Germans in Bizerte Area Yielded to American General Who Offered No Terms and Vowed to Kill All Who Tried to Escape,” New York Times, May 11, 1943.
3. Bender and Law, Uniforms, 62; John R. Angolia, On the Field of Honor: A History of the Knight’s Cross Bearers (San Jose, CA: R. James Bender, 1979), 2:204–5.
4. Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943 (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), 371–72; Bender and Law, Uniforms, 89–90; Krammer, “American Treatment of German Generals,” 30; Meixner was promoted to Kapitan zur See (captain) on April 1, 1943, and then to Konteradmiral (commodore) effective June 1, 1944. Hans H. Hildebrand and Ernest Henriot, Deutschlands Admiral 1849– 1945: Die militärischen Werdegänge der See-, Ingenieur-, Sanitäts-, Waffenund Verwaltungsoffiziere im Admiralsrang (Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag, 1988–1990), 462–63.
5. Bender and Law, Uniforms, 79–80, 134; Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader (1952; repr., Costa Mesa, CA: Noontide Press, 1988), 107; Dermot Bradley, Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, and Markus Rövekamp, Die Generale des Heeres, 1921–1945 (Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag, 1993), 7:513–14.
6. Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Hitler’s Legions: The German Army Order of Battle, World War II (New York: Stein and Day, 1985), 409; John Thompson, “War Over in North Africa: Allies Capture 150,000; Seize Gen. Von Arnim,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 13, 1943; “Lecture for OATS Course,” MSg 1/4133, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (hereafter BA-MA).
7. Bender and Law, Uniforms, 68, 186; Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 229, 377; Bradley, Hildebrand, and Rövekamp, Die Generale des Heeres, 6:183–84; Karl Friedrich Hildebrand, Die Generale der deutschen Luftwaffe 1935–1945: Die militärischen Werdegänge der Flieger-, Flakartillerie-, Fallschirmjäger-, Luftnachrichtenund Ingenieur-Offiziere einschließlich der Ärzte, Richter, Intendanten und Ministerialbeamten im Generalsrang (Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag, 1990), 1:309–10.
8. Correlli Barnett, ed., Hitler’s Generals (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), 352, 335–41; Bender and Law, Uniforms, 127.
9. Barnett, Hitler’s Generals, 342–49.
10. Ibid.; Atkinson, Army at Dawn, 489.
11. Barnett, Hitler’s Generals, 351–52; Carell, Foxes of the Desert, 355, 362; Atkinson, Army at Dawn, 528–29.
12. Günter Bischof and Stephen E. Ambrose, eds., Eisenhower and the German Prisoners of War: Facts against Falsehood (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992), 30; Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 221.
13. Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (hereafter CSDIC) report, G.R.G.G. 2, May 24, 1943; CSDIC G.R.G.G. 3, May 24, 1943, WO 208/5016, TNA; Theodor Graf von Sponeck, Meine Erinnerungen, p. 173, MSg 1/3329, BA-MA.
14. “Gen. Von Arnim Taken to Palace at Gibraltar,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1943; James MacDonald, “British Bells Hail Victory in Tunisia: Celebration at Its Peak When von Arnim, Axis Commander, Arrives as a Prisoner,” New York Times, May 17, 1943.
15. Krammer, “American Treatment of German Generals,” 28.
16. Patrick Campbell, Trent Park: A History (London: Middlesex University Press, 1997), 36–43.
17. The Knight’s Cross was one of seven in a series of Iron Crosses awarded to members of the German military for acts of bravery. The first Iron Cross to be awarded for a single act of bravery would be the Iron Cross-Second Class, followed by the Iron Cross-First Class, for additional acts of bravery. Next came the Knight’s Cross for still further bravery, then the Oak Leaves, followed by the Swords, Diamonds, and the Knight’s Cross in Gold, each award contingent upon earning the previous one. Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 363–64; Angolia, On the Field of Honor, 2:17–18, 45–46; Bradley, Hildebrand, and Rövekamp, Die Generale des Heeres, 2:480–82.
18. Bender and Law, Uniforms, 101.
19. B. H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill: Germany’s Generals, Their Rise and Fall, with Their Own Account of Military Events, 1939–1945 (1948; repr., London: Cassell and Company, 1951), 243; Carell, Foxes of the Desert, 169; Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 223.
20. “Report of visit with General Crüwell, Cairo, September 9, 1942,” “Report of visit with General Crüwell, Camp No. 11, September 28, 1942,” PERS 6/114, BA-MA.
21. Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 221.
22. Ibid., 223; Sönke Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations, 1942–45 (Barnsley, U.K.: Frontline Books; St. Paul, MN: MBI, 2007), 26.
23. Richard Garrett, P.O.W. (London: David and Charles, 1981), 167.
24. Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 51–52; Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals, 20.
25. Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 52.
26. CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 1, May 16, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 5, May 16, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 12, May 16, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 18, May 16, 1943, all in WO 208/4165, TNA.
27. For further discussion of the guidelines issued by Ausland-Abwehr and the disregard for these rules by numerous German personnel, see Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals, 25.
28. CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 12, May 16, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 53, May 24, 1943, all in WO 208/4165, TNA.
29. CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 65, May 24, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 67, May 26, 1943; CSDIC, S.R.G.G. 89, May 31, 1943, all in WO 208/4165, TNA.
30. See Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals, 25.
31. Theodor Graf von Sponeck, Meine Erinnerungen, p. 176, MSg 1/3329, BA-MA.
32. “The Generals”: Views of German Senior Officer P.W.’s, January 5, 1944, WO 208/5550, TNA.
33. War Diary, June 1943, WO 165/41, TNA; Theodor Graf von Sponeck, Meine Erinnerungen, p. 173, MSg 1/3329, BA-MA; As of June 1, 1943, the following thirteen generals were interned at Camp No. 11 at Trent Park: von Arnim, Crüwell, von Thoma, Cramer, von Sponeck, Frantz, Bassenge, Krause, Neuffer, von Liebenstein, von Broich, Schnarrenberger, and von Hülsen. Report on the German Senior Officer P/W at No. 11 P/W Camp for the Month of June 1943, WO 208/5622, TNA.
34. Report on the German Senior Officer P/W at No. 11 P/W Camp for the Month of June 1943, WO 208/5622, TNA.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals, 15; Evaluation of Emil Ernst Schnarrenberger, February 12, 1943, Document No. 31, PERS 6/1876; Evaluation of Kurt von Liebenstein, October 1, 1942, PERS 1/294, BA-MA.
38. “The Generals”: Views of German Senior Officer P.W.’s., January 5, 1944, WO 208/5550, TNA; For more on the historical social status of the German officer corps, see Demeter, German Officer-Corps; and Preradovich, Die militärische und soziale Herkunft der Generalität.
39. “The Generals”: Views of German Senior Officer P.W.’s., January 5, 1944, WO 208/5550, TNA.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Index of Subjects Discussed by the Senior Officer PW at Camp No. 11, Published in the S.R.G.G. and G.R.G.G. Series from D-Day to December 31, 1944, G.R.G.G. 243, December 31, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
43. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 171, August 5–8, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
44. “Sattler,” MSg 109, BA-MA; Hildebrand and Henriot, Deutschlands Admirale,
59–60; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 156, July 8–10, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
45. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 152, July 1–2, 1944; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 156, July 8–10, 1944; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 159, July 15–16, 1944, all in WO 208/5017, TNA.
46. First Detailed Interrogation of Brig-Gen Bieringer, Ludwig, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 656, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NARA).
47. First Det
ailed Interrogation of General of Infantry Neuling, Ferdinand, and First Detailed Interrogation of Brig-Gen Bieringer, Ludwig, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 656, NARA.
48. On Schuberth’s and Badinski’s commands, see “Schuberth,” MSg 109, BAMA; Milton Shulman, Defeat in the West: Germany’s Greatest Battles as Seen by Hitler’s Generals (1947; repr., New York: Ballantine, 1968), 206–7, 213; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 180, August 25–26, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA. On Menny, see Bender and Law, Uniforms, 73, 140, 114; Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 101, 374; “Menny, Erwin,” RG 242, T-78, rolls 883–95, NARA.
49. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 180, August 25–26, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
50. Ibid.
51. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Is Paris Burning? (1965; repr., New York: Warner Books, 1991), 23–24; Telford Taylor, The March of Conquest: The German Victories in Western Europe, 1940 (1958; repr., Baltimore, MD: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1991), 200, 203–4.
52. Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 25; Roger James Bender and Warren W. Odegard, Uniforms, Organization, and History of the Panzertruppe (San Jose, CA: R. James Bender, 1980), 53–54; Kursietis, Wehrmacht at War, 302–3; Shulman, Defeat in the West, 219.
53. Michael Veranov, ed., The Mammoth Book of the Third Reich at War (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1997), 525–27; Shulman, Defeat in the West, 219.
54. Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 192–94.
55. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 183, August 29, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA; Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 180; Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from CS/211—General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz, G.R.G.G. 181(c), August 25, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
56. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 183, August 29, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA; Collins and Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, 312–14.
57. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 183, August 29, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA; Confidential report from the Directorate of Military Intelligence, September 7, 1944, WO 208/5622, TNA.
58. Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from Generals Gutknecht, Eberbach and Schramm, G.R.G.G. 187, September 10, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA; Report on Information Obtained from PW CS/221 Genmaj Gutknecht, S.I.R. 901, September 1, 1944, Report on Further Information Obtained from PW CS/221 Genmaj Gutknecht, S.I.R. 908, September 4, 1944, and Report on Further Information Obtained from PW CS/221 Genmaj Gutknecht, S.I.R. 929, September 7, 1944, all in RG 498, Entry ETO MIS-Y, CSDIC, S.I.R., Box 4, NARA.
59. First Detailed Interrogation of: Baumgaertel, Friedrich, CSDIC West, September 13, 1944, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 656, NARA.
60. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 189, September 8–9, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
61. Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 127; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 190, September 10–11, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
62. Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from Generalmajor Gutknecht, General der Panzertruppen Eberbach, Generalmajor Schramm and General der Infanterie Vierow, G.R.G.G. 187 (c), September 10, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA; Bradley, Friedrich-Hildebrand, and Rövekamp, Die Generale des Heeres, 1921–1945, 1:126–27; United States Army, Third Armored Division, Spearhead in the West, 1941–1945: The Third Armored Division (Frankfurt am Main-Schwanheim: F. J. Henrich, 1945), 88; Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from Generalleutnant von Heyking and Generalleutnant Seyffardt, G.R.G.G. 192 (C), September 18, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
63. Andreas von Aulock was called the “Mad Colonel of St. Malo” because of his refusal to surrender the heavily fortified citadel in St. Malo until the city had been largely destroyed.
64. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 200, September 22–23, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA; von Arnim to the Legation of Switzerland, September 28, 1944, RG 59, Entry 1353, Box 24, NARA.
65. Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from Generalmajor Bock von Wuelfingen and Further Report on Information Obtained from Generalleutnant von Heyking, Generalleutnant Seyffardt and Konteradmiral von Tresckow, G.R.G.G. 199 (C), September 17–21, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
66. Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 350; Richard Brett-Smith, Hitler’s Generals (1976; repr., San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1977), 146; James Lucas, Hitler’s Enforcers: Leaders of the German War Machine 1933–1945 (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1996), 119; Roger Edwards, German Airborne Troops 1936–45 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 151.
67. Lucas, Hitler’s Enforcers, 121–23.
68. Bender and Law, Uniforms, 151–54.
69. Edwards, German Airborne Troops, 151–52.
70. Shulman, Defeat in the West, 245; Lucas, Hitler’s Enforcers, 127.
71. Lucas, Hitler’s Enforcers, 127–28; Angolia, On the Field of Honor, 2:136; Shulman, Defeat in the West, 245. Ramcke would later claim that the United States treated German paratroops “shabbily” because it believed that only ardent Nazis would fight so fiercely; Lucas, Hitler’s Enforcers, 128.
72. Angolia, Field of Honor, 1:93; Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 417.
73. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 202, September 23–25, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
74. Preliminary Report on Information Obtained from General der Fallschirmtruppen Ramcke and a Further Report on Information Obtained from Generalleutnant von Heyking, Konteradmiral von Tresckow and Generalmajor Bock von Wuelfingen, G.R.G.G. 198 (C), September 24, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA; “Gen. Ramcke,” CSDIC (U.K.), October 12, 1944, WO 208/5622, TNA.
75. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 206, October 2–4, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
76. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 210, October 11–12, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA; PW Generalmajor Elster, December 5, 1944, WO 208/5622, TNA; Christian Leitz, Economic Relations between Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain: 1936–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 143; The Thunderbolt Division: Story of the Eighty-Third Infantry Division (U.S. Army, S.1, 1945), 7; Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 121; “Elster, Botho,” RG 242, T-78, rolls 883–95, NARA.
77. War Diary, September 1944, and War Diary, October 1944, WO 165/41, TNA; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 200, September 22–23, 1944, and Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 216, October 26–28, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
78. Mitcham, Hitler’s Legions, 86; Shulman, Defeat in the West, 257; Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 219, November 4–6, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
79. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 220, November 7–10, 1944, and Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 219, November 4–6, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
80. Saul Levitt, “Capturing a Gestapo General,” Yank 3 (January 12, 1945), 6–7.
81. Ibid.
82. Report on Information Obtained from PW CS/771 (Allgemeine) Brigadeführer (Major General) and General-Major der Polizei Anton Dunckern, S.I.R. 1613, April 13, 1945, RG 498, Entry ETO MIS-Y, CSDIC, S.I.R., Box 8, NARA.
83. War Diary, December 1944, WO 165/41, TNA.
84. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 2246, January 8–9, 1945, WO 208/5018, TNA.
85. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 240, December 27–28, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA.
86. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 238, December 23–26, 1944, WO 208/5018, TNA; Report on Information Obtained from PW CS/937 Genmaj Vaterrodt, G.R.G.G. 239 (c), January 2, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 639, NARA.
87. These examples are cited in Reports on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 147, 149, 151, and 152, WO 208/5017, TNA, as well as CSDIC, S.I.R. 483, RG 498, Entry ETO MIS-Y, CSDIC, S.I.R., Box 2, NARA.
88. War D
iary, April 1945, and War Diary, May 1945, WO 165/41, TNA. The War Diary for May 1945 in the British National Archives actually lists a “Rüdiger von Keyking” as one of the five generals transferred to American custody in April. However, considering that Rüdiger von Heyking had been at Trent Park for some time and there is no evidence of a “von Keyking,” it can be assumed that this was simply a typographical error and that the transferred general in question was indeed von Heyking. War Diary, May 1945, WO 165/41, TNA.
89. Neitzel, Tapping Hitler’s Generals, 18–19; War Diary, August 1945, and War Diary, October 1945, WO 165/41, TNA; Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 237.
90. Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 291.
2. Hitler’s Generals Come to America
1. Krammer, “American Treatment of German Generals,” 30; “v. Quast,” MSg 109, BA-MA; Prisoner of War Circular No. 11, December 3, 1943, Stephen M. Farrand Papers, Box 1, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Memorandum from Provost Marshal General’s Office to Commanding General, Fourth Service Command, November 2, 1943, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2477, NARA; Inspection of Camp Clinton, Mississippi, by Lt. Col. M. C. Bernays and Mr. Bernard Gufler, May 5–7, 1944, RG 165, Decimal File, 1942–June 1946, 383.6 Reorientation, Box 590, NARA.
2. Major General Davidson to Major General G. V. Strong, June 1, 1943, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 364, NARA.
3. Ibid; War Diary, March 1943, WO 165/41, TNA.
4. For more on the American interrogation programs at Fort Hunt and Byron Hot Springs, see John Hammond Moore, “Getting Fritz to Talk,” Virginia Quarterly Review 54 no. 2 (Spring 1978): 263–80.
5. Carol A. Jensen, Images of America: Byron Hot Springs (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2006), 103–14.
6. Memorandum for the Budget Officer, War Department, April 15, 1942, and Byron Hot Springs Project, August 12, 1942, RG 389, Entry 452C, Box 1410, NARA; Inspection of “Byron Hot Springs,” undated, RG 389, Entry 439A, Box 3, NARA.
7. “Interrogation Center, P.O. Box 651, Tracy, California,” Memorandum for Commander John L. Riheldaffer, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 364, NARA; Krammer, “American Treatment of German Generals,” 29.
Hitler's Generals in America Page 26