I thought this must have been posted before but I can't find it. Never seen it before . Definately worth seeing.
Thanks for sharing Owen. You can almost feel the tremendous euphoria of the civilians liberated by US forces after 6 years under German rule but imagine their disappointment when the Americans withdrew and were replaced by the Russians. My father’s column of POW’s were liberated by the US troops who entered Czechoslovakia in early May 1945, having been abandoned “on the road” by their German guards in late April having been marched westwards from a working camp north of Vienna for 6 weeks or so. I think I spotted a bare headed British soldier at 9.12 in the video - immediately after the clip of the female (German soldier’s Czech girlfriend?) who had facial injuries - with a small group of helmeted US troops looking at a dead German soldier’s body lying on the ground. Steve
Owen - not a clue but he looks pleased as punch - odd considering the stuffing they had just had. He has spotted a mate, who is hanging from the truck door in 11:25. Looks as if he is either a sturmbannfuehrer or obersturmbannfuehrer. Perhaps further Waffen-SS officers on left of frame at 11:36? Any thoughts on his unit? Some interesting vehicles. Is that a jeep at 10:20? Any ideas where the film was taken? So many questions...
Pity the US soldiers on the vehicle behind him were looking the other way or perhaps they would have obliged!
I have a feeling that young woman was raped. Hope it wasn't the case but she had a defeated look on her face. That SS guy looked like he never even missed a meal or got dirty during the war. Just seeing the two in the same clip was upsetting.
Excellent film Owen The Yanks faces were great.They have seen it all and showed it in a good way The germans totally defeated The film gives off the air of war is over but something evil lies beneath
The US soldiers standing on the vehicle from approx 11:13 would seem to be a camera crew as tripod legs are visible in front of the soldier. It would seem that this crew took the higher level view of the retreat from 10:00 to 10:57; the shots of the Waffen-SS officer were taken by a second, hand-held camera. If the film was shot showing the withdrawal from Czechoslovakia then the civilians are probably Sudeten Germans.
Anyone else notice one of the armed Germans at 5:48 has the POA shield of the Russian Liberation Army on his left arm ? There are a couple more but cant get video to stop in right place my phone to get screenshots. Just seen there is a longer version. Over 33 minutes. There's a captured Scammell at 10:35 on the longer version.
My mate has just told me that on the first you tube clip are 4 links to the source with notes. Liberated Czechoslovakia; wounded and dead Germans; POWs - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Liberated Czechoslovakia: American troops greeted by joyful crowds - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Surrendered German soldiers; DPs; Liberation in Prague and Pilsen - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Surrendering German troops - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Do you think that was from Dunkirk? Amazing it was still in good running order with probably minimum maintenance after all that time. Good engineering.
The Germans were heavily dependent on British and French transporters acquired in 1940 and took very good care of them
I remember this footage being available on the forum some time ago from the plight of the distressed young woman. Prague was in turmoil during the closing stages of the war with the Czech resistance sensing victory and awaiting the Red Army from the East which drew them into an uprising against the Germans...fighting was fierce and eventually the Wehrmacht units agreed a truce.However SS units would have no part of the agreement and fought on but were overwhelmed by the arrival of the Red Army.Prague was in Russian hands and at the time, US troops had got as far as western Bohemia where their advance ceased from an Allied agreement with the Russians.Therefore I would place the film footage in western Bohemia and not Prague. As regards the Sudetenland Germans,they were only forcibly deported by rail, mostly, after the establishment of the ex London Czech government in exile.This government made the decision to deport 3 million German stock into West Germany with the West Germans under Allied occupation having no say in the matter, the Allies agreeing in principle to it in 1943 and ratified it at Potsdam in August 1945.Of course the Czechs took revenge on the German Sudetenlanders with incidents such as happened elsewhere in Western Europe to collaborators and no doubt those near to the German border were forcibly dispatched across the border. The Czech authorities made the decision on the grounds that there would never be a position again that the country would have inhabitants in Czechoslovakia with an allegiance to a foreign state.
I think the film is worthy of an depth look as it appears to be a mixture of different frames. That aside,having a look how far Patton's forces advanced into western Bohemia before the advanced ceased on agreement with the Russians,the last major town to be liberated in the west,roughly 60 miles SW from Prague appears to be Plzen...Plsen...home of the Pilsener beer. The Pilsen population, realising that US forces were within distance of the town on 5 May rose up against the Germans but it was not until the morning of 6 May that US forces entered the town and swiftly overcame the German garrison who surrendered after the engagement.....after signing a document of surrender,the German C/O committed suicide. It would appear that the so called Russian Liberation Army,renegade Russian POWs fighting the German cause,also rose against their German officers as they had done in Prague.(Owen has already drawn a note on the identification of what was a member of the Russian Liberation Army).This practice of Russians serving in the Wehrmacht rising up against their German officers followed the same situation in Eastern France where German officers were killed by their Russian subordinates,changing sides towards the end of the war when a collapse of German forces was all too apparent. Liberation of Pilsen
The last of the four links contains a mass of detail and on the spreadsheet (Film details) I have had a go at picking out points of interest. In general: the title ‘Surrendering German troops’ is correct as many are still armed. The vehicles are carrying a mix of Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe troops, plus civilians. The Waffen-SS troops belong to Das Reich, whose last act was to evacuate Germans remaining in Prague before retreating to Germany. All-in-all a fascinating film.
In some cases even surrendered troops kept their arms - at least for a while. For example in the low countries some German troops were allowed to retain their rifles, given arm bands and set to guard incoming relief stores which were in danger of being looted.