A Waffen SS Officer surrenders to a US Army Sergeant on the West side of the Elbe River bridge near Tangermünde Germany in 1945 LIFE Magazine Archives - William

A Waffen SS Officer surrenders to a US

Army Sergeant on the West side of the Elbe River bridge near Tangermünde Germany in 1945 LIFE Magazine Archives - William. Vandivert Photographer. That cals to mind the scene in Battle of the Bulge when Robert Shaw's character, an SS Panzer commander, is looking over the wreckage of an American unit. They find a birthday cake that had been mailed to one of the soldiers. He says something like, "I can't get fuel for my tanks, but the Americans can afford to ship cake across the ocean. The SS were like the most hardcore Nazis, so it took a lot for him to admit the Endsieg was a pipedream. How can a cake stay fresh for such a long time?

There's a first-hand source lI vaguely remember using in an essay once somewhere that described the Germans captured some American ration packs somehow, and it said a similar thing about the German being convinced the war was over when they saw that the packs had chocolate and tobacco and other luxuries in them. There's a first hand source I vaguely remember.using in an essay once somewhere that described the Germans capturing some American ration packs somehow and it saida similar thing about the German being convinced the war was over when they saw that the packs had chocolate and tobacco and other luXuries in them. On most of the islands, certainly Guadalcanal.and Iwo Jima, disease and starvation killed as many Japanese soldiers as bullets. In most cases, they were stranded with limited ability to be resupplied. The IJN could not even replace its losses in shipping as the war.progressed, while the USN was doubling and quadrupling the size of its fleet.

A great book called D Day Through German Eyes has a lot of interesting stories like this. One such is a German soldier realizing all the propaganda they were fed was BS when the Americans would simply push a busted Sherman off the road to bring in a fresh one rather than try and repair it.

It's remarkable that the US willfully threw.away the rules of war and then hid this for so long. No faction involved in WW2 is without sin if you dig deep enough. They all played dirty

at some point and to some degree. And to be honest: calling any of the big players the "good guys" just feels wrong if you know what they did. They were all to some degree bad. The SS were horrible slashers- not sure what the Rheinwiesen POW would make them any better. Ex-SS were treated nicely by the US (less nicely by other allies), and finally sent home to be treated by their local communities jurisdiction. Basically, if you were not top tier, you could live your life, and if you were, you went to Argentina. So far for justice. It's remarkable that the US willfully threw away the rules of war and then hid this for so long.

Back in the day, soldiers ran on next to nothing. Advance first, plan on seizing food, worry about supply lines later:.It's better now with modern supply lines and lessons learned from centuries of warfare for sure. By WW2, the concept of supply lines was well

established (and had been for a long time). The German military was no exception. Not that foraging didn't occur. All soldiers did it and still do it. But by that point in the war, Germany had all but lost. Resources were scarce, and it could be seen in all aspects of the German military. Their late war equipment was the worst it has ever produced. Probably because of "showing forbidden symbols. When the image has been shown in germany at some

time, there is a big chance someone blurred swastikas, ss symbols, or other nazi-related symbolism. It's a 100% strict policy here (in germany). It's not 100% given the exceptions for art, science, research, and teaching. Historical photos like these seem like they could justifiably fall under one or more of those. Plus, the Totenkopf and Parteiadler are both banned in the same way as the swastika but still feature in this photo unblurred. that's true, but the restrictions blur into each other. the SS-symbol is the most restricted symbol though. some videoreports blur them out aswell..thats why its a more than "good guess" to think it has been shown in germany at some point.

SS soldiers and officers had to get their blood.group (0, B+, AB+, etc.) tattoo'd on em. Regular soldiers didnt

Why?

It was a practice among the original Waffen-SS, as the organisation expanded with general ss members, transfers from the army, foreign

volunteers many didn't receive it and by the end of the war it was a rare thing. Moreover it was sometimes applied to ordinary soldiers

treated at SS hospitals. Many SS men managed to escape thanks to the belief that they all had this tattoo, Notable Josef Mengele and Alois.Brunner.

So if you needed a transfusion on the

battlefield and were out of it they knew what kind of blood to use. If you put B in someone who is O, you will kill then.

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