The HORRORS Of General Dostler’s Firing Squad Execution JJ

He was the first German general to be executed by an American firing squad following the conclusion of World War II. General Anton Dostler was a senior ranking German officer who had a very long history inside of the military and the armed forces. But he was a man who was a flagrant war criminal and carried out specifically one illegal order that led to the deaths of many captured American prisoners of war.

He was a man whose trial would show that simply following the orders of a senior officer was not good enough to save someone from the firing squad. Anton Dostler’s execution now was ruthless. He was tied tightly to a stake and had absolutely no way of escaping his fate. And in one final small act of mercy by his executioners, the Americans gave him a blindfold so he could not see what was coming for him.

But why was his execution so brutal and how else did the allies show some small act of kindness in his rather strange final minutes? General Anton Dostler was born in 1891 and he was a career soldier. He joined the German army in his late teens and served as a junior officer during the First World War. His experiences in the trenches and on the Western Front would shape him.

But he remained inside of the armed forces when the German military was limited to just 100,000 soldiers following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the conclusion of World War I. But then as Hitler rearmed his forces in the 1930s and built up Germany’s military, the Führer relied on experienced soldiers and generals to oversee new recruits and younger men.

Dostler from the start of World War II served as the chief of staff of the Seventh Army and he was given command of different divisions. He commanded the 57th Infantry Division and then the 163rd Infantry Division. He was also appointed the commander of the 75th Army Corps inside of Italy, but then became known as the commander of the Venetian Coast as he was promoted.

However, General Dostler’s biggest crime would come in March 1944. 15 soldiers of the US Army landed on the Italian coast close to La Spezia. They were behind enemy lines and the established front. And their plan was to carry out what was known as Operation Ginny 2. The soldiers were all dressed properly in US field army uniform, and they were in no way in disguise or wearing civilian clothes.

That is very important. The objective of their mission was to demolish a tunnel at Framura and to disrupt railway transport between La Spezia and Genoa. The operation was ultimately to negatively affect German supply routes. The men were dropped in the wrong position and they then had to hide out for some time to await pickup.

The mission was a bit chaotic and the men discarded their equipment, but they were turned over to their enemies. An Italian fisherman reported rubber boats to the local fascist militiamen and they alerted the Germans who began to sweep the area. Quickly, all 15 US soldiers who were staying inside of a nearby barn were captured after fighting German troops.

They were taken to the German headquarters of the 135th Fortress Brigade for interrogation. And during these interrogations, one soldier revealed that they were carrying out a commando raid to blow up the tunnels. Now, the information including that it was a commando raid was sent through to General Dostler and he then informed his superior, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, about the situation.

Kesselring ordered that the Americans should be executed as per Hitler’s Commando Order of 1942, which stated that all enemy commandos or saboteurs should be executed without trial immediately.” Dossler then informed the troops on the ground that this was going to happen. The man in charge of executing the Americans, specifically Colonel Almers, did feel uncomfortable with this order.

The men were captured in uniform, meaning that they should have been taken prisoners of war, and they should have been processed in the correct ways, and been given legal protections that the prisoner of war status entitled. Colonel Almers tried to put off the executions, but General Dossler insisted himself that these men would be shot.

On the 26th of March, 1944, 15 American soldiers, still wearing their US Army uniforms, were lined up by the German Army on a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea, and they were then all shot by a German firing squad, and were then buried inside of a mass grave. At the end of World War II, General Dossler was taken prisoner of war by the Americans, and after they discovered what happened to the executed men, he was brought to a war crimes trial just days after the war had ended in Europe.

He was tried in Italy, and this was the first war crimes trial carried out by the Americans, and Dossler was specifically accused of carrying out an illegal order. He tried to maintain that he was only passing the order on, and that he hadn’t issued the order himself, blaming Kesselring for this. Dossler tried to claim superior orders, but this failed, and he had acted himself to ensure that the executions had taken place.

Specifically regarding the trial, Anton Dossler tried to claim that the men were saboteurs and commandos, but as they were wearing American uniform when they were captured, they should have been protected. It was legal during World War II to execute spies, saboteurs, or enemy troops disguised wearing civilian clothes, or enemy uniforms, but not those captured in uniform of their own army, like the 15 shot Americans were.

The trial found General Anton Dostler guilty of war crimes, and he was sentenced to death. It did take a number of months before his execution was carried out, and his appeals for clemency were ultimately rejected. On the 1st of December, 1945, shortly before 8:00 a.m. in the morning, Dostler was led from his prison cell, and he was taken to a firing range inside of Aversa.

There was a solitary, very thick wooden stake down the firing range, which was flanked by embankments, where many witnesses stood. The execution of Dostler was actually very public, and there were hundreds of soldiers and military officials, who were all stood around waiting for the execution. It was also filmed, and the images of the execution were actually shown in media back home in America.

Now, Anton Dostler was actually allowed a couple of small acts of mercy by the Americans. Specifically, he was allowed to walk over for his execution unobstructed, and despite being flanked by a priest, who would hear his final moments, and a number of soldiers, he was not dragged to the firing post, and he walked strongly and freely towards it.

He was brave in these moments, and his strides were very confident. He did not, at this point, have his arms tied behind his back. As he approached the stake and stood in front of it, his arms were secured behind his back, and were then tied around the wooden post. Another small act of mercy, or kindness, was that the Americans allowed Dostler to be shot in his German army uniform.

He wore his officer’s hat to begin with, but he was wearing his general’s uniform, which showed that this was very much a military proceeding, and despite being a war criminal, he was allowed to wear his uniform. The firing squad was also, of course, a very military execution. He was then blindfolded, and his final words were, “Long live Germany.

” The officials in charge of the execution then also pinned a white piece of cloth over his chest for the firing squad to aim at. And they then placed a blindfold over his head, a very thick black hood, which meant he could not see the execution squad. With him stood motionless, the firing squad made up of 12 men armed with their rifles stepped in.

One of them had a blank round. Half of the firing squad knelt down in front of the ones at the back. And they then took aim. They were ordered to fire, and immediately the shots rang out. And Anton Dostler’s body slumped. The bullets had gone straight through him, and had even splintered the wooden stake behind.

Smoke bellowed out from the bullet holes in his back, and there was no need for a final coup de grâce gunshot to the head to finish him off. After this, his body was cut down from the stake, and it was placed in a coffin as the crowd watched on. The coffin was then packed away, and it was buried inside of a German war cemetery near Lazio.

The execution of Anton Dostler showed how ruthless the Americans could be when it came to dealing with their enemies. His execution was a bit of a rarity when it came to the end of the war. The Americans did not tend to execute war criminals by firing squad. Instead, they hanged them like common criminals. And this was the way that prominent Nazis, such as those at the Nuremberg trial, went.

The fact the execution was filmed also showed the brutality of his final moments, with the bullets literally passing through his body and then splintering the post behind. It was quick and ruthless justice. And the power of the shots eventually caused the black hood to partially fall off his head. But Anton Dostler was a general who passed on an illegal order that he knew was illegal, and he still insisted that it be carried out.

For his actions, he met a fate which was ruthless on the end of the firing range, tied to a wooden stake. He couldn’t see his executioners, but he did go to his death very bravely. Thanks for watching. If you found this video interesting, maybe click subscribe. Once again, thank you so much for watching one of these videos.