About "disguised German" during Battle of Bulge...

[Shc]

Hello!

As we all know, many Germans disguised themselves as an American during the Battle of the Bulge of '44 in which it caused great paranoia among the US ranks..

Anyway, I was just wondering how many of these "disguised German commandos" were discovered and captured by the Americans? What were their punishements?
How many Germans actually disguised themselves?
and how many half-tracks/tanks were disguised into American vehicles?

Thanks for the replies!!
It's just a question out of curiosity...

[Caesar]

Skorzeny had 2 Sherman tanks n Thelve Panthers who where disquised as Shermans.
In total he sended out 10 teams of 4 men.

[Gertjan]

If the Allies found German soldiers in Allied (mainly US) uniforms, they were treated as spies and executed .

The main unit was 150 panzerbrigade, divided into three kampfgruppen:
Kampfgruppe X, Cdr: SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Willi Hardieck,
Kampfgruppe Y, Cdr: hauptmann Scherff,
Kampfgruppe Z, Cdr: Oberstleutnant Wolff.

For "einheit Stielau" there were 10 reconnaissance commandos and two demolition commandos. In total 44 people. According to Skorzeny 36 of them returned to their own lines. They contained the best English speaking persons.

The troops were divided in four categories for their knowledge of American English:
1: speaking perfectly and some knowledge of slang (10)
2: speaking perfectly but no slang (30-40)
3: speaking fairly well (120-150)
4: school english (200)

The numbers between brackets are the number of people in that category. (Osprey elite 11: Ardennes 1944 Peiper & Skorzeny)

[Michael Emrys]

Skorzeny had 2 Sherman tanks n Thelve Panthers who where disquised as Shermans.

The Panthers were disguised as M10 Tank Destroyers.

[redcoat]

The Panthers were disguised as M10 Tank Destroyers.

here's a photo

[redcoat]

According to Max Hastings in his book 'Armageddon, the battle for Germany 1944-45', the American forces executed 13 Germans for wearing US uniforms.

[pdhinkle]

Gertjan has the closest numbers. The US first estimated about 200 troops with Gtto S

An aside to this story, In the first days of the bulge a US officer was taking the unit mail back to a postal unit when he was stopped by a German GI unit. Seeing what was up He declared the US Mail Must go through " Got back in jeep and drove on. Unchallenged by the Germ,ans

[Andy H]

According to Max Hastings in his book 'Armageddon, the battle for Germany 1944-45', the American forces executed 13 Germans for wearing US uniforms.

In JP Pallud's Battle of the Bulge:Then and Now, he also has 13 as the given number:-
7 were executed after being caught near Malmedy and executed at Henri-Chapelle on December 30th
3 were executed (pictures shown in said publication) at Henri-Chapelle December 23rd
2 were executed at Henri-Chapelle on December 26th
1 was executed at Henri Chapelle on January 13th 1945

However he states that this was the total figure from Henri-Chapelle who were positively ID as being part of PzBrig150, the actual figures may well have been higher.

The wall with the bullet holes still remain. It seems poignant that it still stands with houses around and yet I doubt that many know of the events that transpired there some 60odd yrs ago

Regards

Andy H

[zipper_mx5]

Hi!
The photo of execution (looks like it is a real photo...but I don't speak Nederland's nor Flandern's language... actually I don't even understand which is which ) of three german men from PzBrig.150 behind american barracks in Henri-Chapelle...



The whole site could be interesting..if somebody is confident with the two cited languages..


Here
http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ ... 001718;p=1
we have another interesting site, giving us more info (correct AFAIK) about the materials and vehicles involved.

S!

zipper

[Panzermahn]

I remember seeing the movie Battle of the Bulge long time ago (I think that's the movie, please correct me if i am wrong);

An american unit pass thru a small bridge where a group of American MPs were doing some engineering work. The MP who spoke excellent American English asked the Americans where they are going and then allowed them to proceed. Halfway going, one of the Americans ask the his friend that whether there is something strange about those MPs. One American answered, "those are not engineers! Those are MPs"

Also another scene from the movie Hart's War (starring Bruce WIlis and Colin Farrell)

Lieutenant Thomas Hart was driving his Captain to St. Vith when they came across a MP outpost manned by two American MPs. The MPs asked them where they were going and Hart answered that they are going to St. Vith. The MP said that they are going in the wrong direction while Hart shows them the map. But the Captain, who saw something at the outpost, knew something was wrong and was unholstering his 9mm when he was shot in the head but another MP.

[Michael Emrys]

Hi!
The photo of execution (looks like it is a real photo...but I don't speak Nederland's nor Flandern's language... actually I don't even understand which is which ) of three german men from PzBrig.150 behind american barracks in Henri-Chapelle...

I recognize two of the men in that photo. The one on the right and the one in the middle were photographed indendently as they were being tied to the posts and those photos ran in World War II magazine a few months back.

[Juha Hujanen]

The German soldiers are from left:

Gefreiter Wilhelm Schmidt
Oberfähnrich Günter Billing
Unteroffizier Manfred Pernass

And as Andy said,Pallud's book describes the execution in details.

/Juha

[deadly88mm]

Panzermahn 'Battle of the Bulge' isnt the best of movies so i doubt that its very accurate... (With American Tanks being called king tigers) But you wernt mistakin in your understanding of any of the movies. But in Hearts war the man was reaching for his 1911 as i recall then the driver hit the gas and came underfire from a hiden mg 42 trooper...
I wounder did these MPs have MG-42 support on there posts?

[Panzermahn]

Panzermahn 'Battle of the Bulge' isnt the best of movies so i doubt that its very accurate... (With American Tanks being called king tigers) But you wernt mistakin in your understanding of any of the movies. But in Hearts war the man was reaching for his 1911 as i recall then the driver hit the gas and came underfire from a hiden mg 42 trooper...
I wounder did these MPs have MG-42 support on there posts?

hi,

Yes, the Battle of the Bulge and Hart's War are just movies..But i think the portrayal of those English-speaking disguised Germans came close to the graphical representation of what really happened the German commando infiltration during the Ardennes Offensive

Just my 2 cents

[deadly88mm]

Yes i fullly understand and ment no offense. I was actually suprised that 'Battle of the Bulge' had that represented in it, because i have seen several horable war movies from that same time period. Also the sherman's turret geting blown of and no one died was rather funny to me.