fknorr wrote:
WalterS wrote:
during the Bulge, against American commanders Eisenhower and Patton.
Can you please show me where to find data on this?
Sources, etc?
OK... Skorzeny and Operation GREIF during the Battle of the Bulge. The plan for the operation was to place teams of German troopers, dressed in American uniforms, behind enemy lines to create confusion and to seize key bridges. Some teams infiltrated with front-line troops, others were parachuted in. It should be noted that Skorzeny was concerned that his troopers could be shot as spies if caught wearing American uniforms. His legal advisers told him that it was acceptable to wear the enemy's uniform as a ruse, as long as one didn't fight it in it. This is why many of Skorzeny's troopers wore German uniforms beneath their American ones... to change quickly into German dress if they had to.
One team was captured near the Meuse river because they were wearing Nazi armbands beneath their uniforms and had German weapons and explosives. The team leader was a Lt. Gunther Schulz, who told interrogators that a principal goal of their operation was to penetrate SHAEF HQ and assassinate General Eisenhower and other senior leaders. Eisenhower's HQ put out an alert to Patton, who was leading an attack against the Germans near Bastogne, and to other Allied commanders.
Eighteen of Skorzeny's men were captured, and all were executed within 24 hours.
The source for this account is
"A Time for Trumpets: The Untold story of the Battle of the Bulge," by Charles B. MacDonald.
My original point was that targeted killing of enemy military and political leaders during war time is not a crime. Dressing up in the enemy's uniform invalidates POW status protection.