The HORRORS Of Captured D-Day German Executions JJ

As the allies landed on the beaches of Normandy on the 6th of June, 1944, Operation Overlord was in full swing. And it was the largest seaborn invasion in history. The success of D-Day began the fight for France to gain its liberation back from the German occupiers. And they had been relatively comfortable inside the country for a number of years.

D-Day took a massive amount of planning. And there were attempts in Britain to deceive the enemy and make it appear as if nothing was going to happen. It’s very well known that Omaha Beach saw the toughest and deadliest conditions of all the beaches on D-Day. As Allied soldiers landed and were met with machine gun fire and tough resistance.

The shores were mined and there were lots of barbed wire making things even more difficult. After hours of intense fighting, the allies did manage to get up the beach and capture positions and deal with their German enemies. And this was the first pivotal foothold in France for the allies to then continue to build upon.

However, in the midst of the chaos and brutality of battle, as many hundreds of men were killed on the beaches, the allies captured a number of German soldiers and also carried out brutal reprisals and killings of their enemies, including prisoners of war and men who had surrendered. Much of this was done out of the horror that Allied men had personally witnessed on the beaches.

And they wanted their enemies to pay for striking down their friends. But what specifically happened when German soldiers were executed in Normandy directly following D-Day? The fighting on D-Day was rough and the allies knew they were going to be fighting a very determined enemy. And many of the men who landed in the first waves and successfully made it off the beaches had seen their friends, comrades, and even family members being cut down right next to them.

Some didn’t even make it off the landing crafts and they never set foot on the sand. In the aftermath of this, some Allied soldiers wanted to carry out instant revenge upon the Germans. It was psychological hell. As the allies pushed up off the beaches, they were not in the business of taking prisoners as they had bigger objectives to achieve and they needed to maintain a foothold so further allied forces and equipment could then land safely.

They just simply didn’t have the time to take captives and prisoners. Soon German soldiers surrendered. However, they were shot by Canadian, British and American troops and in the Normandy region and specifically in the area around the beaches, there were some German troops who were executed. French eyewitnesses later mentioned how they witnessed shootings carried out by the allies and some paratroopers specifically shot German captives.

At the village of La Hergerie close to Andeville La Hougue Haye, a number of allied paratroopers who had landed prior rounded up around 25 enemy German prisoners. They took them to the side of a road in the afternoon following the landings and a number of these soldiers were then shot and were executed in cold blood.

These men were said to have been wounded fighting in the region close to Utah Beach and they had been specifically defending the beachhead. Specifically, these Germans were held in front of a farm for a number of hours until the Americans shot them with their weapons and took their lives. It has been allegedly attributed to the men of the 502nd Parachute Infantry who carried out the execution of captured Germans on the 6th of June 1944 and one reason why this allegedly happened was because of the anger the men felt.

They’d witnessed their friends dying and they wanted revenge for it. There was intelligence that got back to the Germans though that accused specifically some British troops of routinely of routinely executing their captured prisoners when they advanced throughout Normandy. The British were said to have been more disciplined than other units, but allied soldiers didn’t as mentioned, officially execute their prisoners.

One Canadian soldier claimed about the action he saw on D-Day that, and I quote, “The Germans weren’t too eager to surrender. We never took any SS prisoners, and sometimes dealt with the Wehrmacht formations in the same way.” So, there may have been more executions of SS men as the Allies had learned how brutal these men were and how many crimes the SS men committed.

SS officers and members were seen as prized targets for execution by Allied soldiers as they were considered to have been the most virulent and also brutal Nazis, and also some of the most dangerous soldiers. They often did not surrender and were unwilling to give up without a fight, without fighting to the death.

They also often faked surrender, so Allied soldiers were hesitant to take them prisoner. But stories amongst Allied soldiers did exist about their fellow men executing and shooting many of their enemies. There’s one famous case, specifically of one man, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Charles Speirs, assigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion before the Normandy invasions, and he became infamous amongst American soldiers for shooting Germans.

He later became the commander of E Company, and of course is part of the Band of Brothers miniseries. He had a storied career inside the army and parachuted into Normandy, and he met up with other American forces. He did gather a small group of soldiers, and they captured a German howitzer gun. His unit then spent the night moving and preparing for further battles, but during the early hours, he was allegedly involved in a number of ruthless actions that made him a very feared commander.

He accepted the surrender of three German soldiers in the hours before the landings began, and these men had willingly given themselves over to his group. However, Speirs then gave the order to allegedly execute the men who were prisoners of war, and it’s assumed he did this as he couldn’t risk taking prisoners with his small group.

Now, Speirs seemed to be someone who didn’t like taking prisoners. He also even shot a sergeant in self-defense once. An eyewitness, Private First Class DiMartino, claimed he was lying next to the sergeant and the order to hold a position was given. But, the sergeant refused to obey, and he wanted to advance to attack the Germans head-on.

Speirs repeated the order, but the sergeant refused and went to allegedly grab his rifle. Speirs then warned the sergeant, and he then allegedly shot him in what he claimed was self-defense, and a number of other American soldiers witnessed this. It was reported immediately to the commanding officer and was deemed to have been self-defense, and Speirs never encountered any further action.

He was viewed by his fellow men as a brilliant soldier, and it was claimed that he was a killer who gained that reputation, and that he did this sometimes for shock value. Speirs was also witnessed by Captain Richard Dick Winters allegedly shooting six German prisoners of war with his Thompson machine gun, and this was also never taken any further.

In the days following D-Day, there are even more examples of captured Germans being executed and shot despite technically being a prisoner of war. This was more common than has been documented, and much of this was carried out by individual soldiers, and they took it upon themselves to act like an executioner.

The Germans were not given a military tribunal and not given a trial either. But, this wasn’t official policy. It wasn’t specifically ordered by the Allied authorities to shoot German prisoners and was technically a war crime. On the 8th of June, 1944, a number of armored cars from the Inns of Court Regiment moved towards the south, and in their possession, they had a number of German artillery officers.

There were roughly around 10 men who were captured and seized. They were part of the Panzer Artillery Lehr Regiment and had been working out where to set up their artillery guns when they were taken prisoner. They were then interrogated and these men were ordered to march in front of Allied armored cars to always act like human shields.

It was hoped that the Germans would then think twice in firing upon the Allies if their fellow soldiers were marching in front. This technically also was a war crime and some of the Germans protested. One senior officer, an Oberst Luxenberger, was beaten by the Allies and was then knocked out. He was then allegedly tied to the front of an armored car, but then the anti-tank guns of the 12th Panzer Division fired upon the armored car and knocked one of them out.

Oberst Luxenberger was killed by his wounds after being taken to hospital. One problem with this story though, and this account, is it actually came from a captured German who was actually later tried as a war criminal. But the Allies were very much in no mood to take German prisoners of war on D-Day and they wanted to push through the fighting on the beaches and into the bocage and establish that key foothold in Normandy.

With this they could then push on throughout France and into Germany. Some soldiers who fought on the beaches were furious after seeing their fellow friends and countrymen cut down in a hail of bullets on the beaches. They wanted instant revenge for this. And that’s one reason why they shot captured Germans.

Another reason was that they believed there was no time or resources to take prisoners. Paratroopers, for example, couldn’t take prisoners after they landed and they needed to deal with their enemies quickly so the alarm didn’t go up amongst other German soldiers. Some SS forces were shot ruthlessly for the fact they had committed further crimes wherever they went.

But later following D-Day, there would be much more terror inflicted upon captured Allied soldiers as the Germans got their own back and large-scale executions would take place. For example, 158 prisoners of war from Canada were all gunned down by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth. But that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for watching. If you found this video interesting, maybe click subscribe. Once again, thank you so much for giving your time to watch one of these videos.