Y1806

WIESBADEN, Germany — An SS captain who demanded that only fellow military officers judge him for the massacre of 89 French civilians instead found himself staring down the survivors of his own atrocity after Gen. George S. Patton personally intervened in a preliminary war crimes hearing here in July 1945. The confrontation, detailed in hearing … Read more

LUXEMBOURG — A 20-year-old private with no combat experience and no operational planning credentials halted a three-day planning effort by the Third Army in December 1944 when he raised his hand during a briefing and told General George S. Patton that the river crossing plan as presented would fail at the second crossing point. The … Read more

German prisoners of war who crossed the Atlantic convinced they were headed for starvation and cruelty instead sat down to meals of fresh bread, roast meat, and real coffee — and the propaganda that had sustained them through years of war collapsed one plate at a time. The transformation, documented in camp records, prisoner letters, … Read more

American military authorities withheld all rations from two hundred German prisoners of war for three consecutive days in April 1945 after the captured soldiers of the Wehrmacht’s 116th Panzer Division refused to eat standard United States Army food, declaring it beneath their standards — a standoff that ended only when Lieutenant General George S. Patton … Read more

BAVARIA — A formal Allied reception meant to celebrate victory in Europe erupted into a direct confrontation between Gen. George S. Patton and Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the late summer of 1945, when the Soviet commander accused Patton of performing bravery rather than practicing it, and Patton responded with a calm, devastating challenge that stunned … Read more