Armageddon - Max Hastings [288]
Colonel Goode was appalled by the dejection and collapse of discipline he found in the new camp: “There was filth everywhere, the men were dirty and unkempt. An atmosphere of utter demoralization was easily discerned.” Goode seethed, and sought to take a grip. “Slowly, things began to shape up as the colonel tried to instil a measure of self-esteem in the men once more,” wrote his orderly. “He pointed out that becoming a prisoner-of-war was not a dishonourable thing, unless there had been cowardice, or a deliberate attempt to seek capture.” But Goode could not produce food, because the Germans professed to have none.
On 26 March, the prisoners heard a rumour that American forces were approaching. What followed was one of the most extraordinary tragic farces of the north-west Europe campaign. At noon next day, the Hammelburg prisoners heard gunfire. A Sherman tank opened fire on the guard towers. The Germans responded. The guards fired warning shots towards the prisoners, who fled into their huts. Shermans killed some Yugoslav prisoners, whom they mistook for Germans. Suddenly three American PoWs including Colonel John Knight Waters, Goode’s executive officer, walked forward carrying a white flag. They had been sent to negotiate with the American force by the camp commandant. A nervous guard raised a rifle and fired, wounding Waters. There was then an outburst of shooting from both American liberators and Germans. The wounded colonel was carried to the sickbay. Soon afterwards, the camp gates opened. Soldiers of Third Army poured in, mounted on jeeps and half-tracks. Colonel Goode conferred with the senior officers of the liberating force, Captain Abraham Baum and Major Alex Stiller, who identified himself as an aide of General Patton. Stiller said that he was accompanying the column “as an observer.”
Baum said that he lacked the vehicles to take away all 1,291 U.S. prisoners, but would carry as many as he could. The story behind the arrival of his column defies belief. Hammelburg lay some thirty-six miles beyond the Allied front, in country still defended by elements of three German divisions. Baum had been dispatched on the personal orders of Patton, against the strong objections of the responsible corps and divisional commanders. Patton told them: “I’ll replace every man and vehicle you lose.” “Task Force Baum” started out with 294 men in sixteen tanks, twenty-seven half-tracks and assorted support vehicles. Colonel John Waters, Goode’s executive officer, was Patton’s son-in-law. The Third Army commander afterwards claimed he had no reliable knowledge that Waters was at Hammelburg, that he merely wished to liberate American prisoners known to be confined there. There is overwhelming evidence that Patton lied. The sole objective of the Hammelburg raid was the liberation of his own daughter’s husband.
Baum’s column set out in darkness to return to the Allied lines, every vehicle jammed with PoWs. Jerome Alexis rode on the hull of the third Sherman in the column. They passed some German soldiers without being challenged, and began to congratulate themselves. Thirty minutes down the road, however, they met their first opposition—German infantrymen with a faust who inflicted minor damage on a Sherman. This was enough to convince Baum that he faced a battle. He halted the column and conferred again with Goode. He explained that he could not fight with the PoWs aboard. There were no weapons for them and no space. To the prisoners’ bitter chagrin, most were now marched back to the camp. They were soon followed by a thickening stream of wounded and stragglers from Baum’s column, which found itself locked in combat with German forces. The Hammelburg infirmary filled to overflowing, its medical supplies exhausted. At 1500 next afternoon, the Germans marched all the unwounded prisoners down to the rail station and evacuated them to Stalag Luft III, which had been transferred from Sagan to Nuremberg. They were finally liberated at Moosburg on 29 April, after the U.S. 14th Armored Division fought a brief firefight with their guards.