02-21-2009, 03:08 PM
Dennis?Ruhl Wrote:The German officer surrendering in the picture toward the bottom of the page was never seen again. Canadian troops routinely shot prisoners, sometimes drawing straws to see who did the job. You don't read about that in the history books.
Reminds me of one of the few stories my dad ever told me about his time in Yorp during WWII.
Near the end of the war many German soldiers were fleeing westward so they could surrender to the Americans rather than get taken prisoner by the Russians. One fortunate fellow managed to get himself captured by my dad's squad, but they were on their way elsewhere and didn't want to be burdened dragging along a prisoner.
They searched him for weapons, then told him in English to keep moving west and he was bound to encounter someone else who would be happy to accept his surrender. But he didn't understand English and nobody spoke German. One of the guys in the outfit spoke French so they tried it again, but still nicht verstehen.
In fact the poor guy was crying, begging them to keep him, apparently fearful he wouldn't be so lucky the second time around. Nobody could get through to the guy that he needed to keep moving on.
Finally my dad pointed a tommy gun at him and said "Toughen sie Shyster!" The phrase itself is meaningless in German, just my dad's bogus-German version of "tough shit." But when combined with the threat of imminent use of automatic weapons it was instantly understood. The German stopped sobbing and promptly headed west.
Nothing improves international communication and understanding quite so quickly as looking up the barrel of a machine gun.
