Chapter 694: German-Soviet War (38)

That night, the 23rd Division of the Expeditionary Force marched towards the northern border of Ukraine.

Because of the roar of German aircraft engines that flew overhead from time to time, they dared not illuminate their night march and could only advance in the dark. What was worse was that they had to build fortifications before dawn.

As a result, they advanced less than 20 kilometers that night, and were still more than 200 kilometers away from the border. In other words, at this snail's pace, even if they walked for another ten days, they might not be able to reach the Ukrainian border. By then, the German encirclement would probably have been closed.

The chief of staff suggested. "Why don't we find a city to fight street battles?" As early as yesterday, they received an order from Marshal Budyonny, commander of the Western Front, to withdraw all troops to the nearest city to build fortifications, but they obeyed the order of Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower.

Division Commander Scott shook his head. "Our army has no experience in street fighting, and the Germans' street fighting strength is not weak. If we really fight street fighting, I'm afraid we will suffer."

In the original time and space, the first street battle between the US and German armies in World War II broke out in the "Aachen" battle.

In October 1944, the Allies assembled four infantry divisions and three armored divisions, and surrounded the German city of Aachen with superior forces. The 49th Infantry Division of the German Army was trapped in the city and could not break out. This German infantry division, which was just established in February 1944, could only engage in street fighting with the Allied forces alone.

The Allies repeatedly attacked Aachen with an absolute advantage in force, dispatched planes, tanks and artillery to bombard it. After 21 days of fighting, the 49th Infantry Division of the German Army in the city laid down its arms and surrendered. At this time, the casualties of the US Army had exceeded 5,000. The 1st Infantry Division and the 30th Infantry Division of the US Army suffered heavy losses, were exhausted, and even needed to be rebuilt.

The number of casualties on the German side exceeded 5,100, and more than 5,600 people were captured. Another result of the battle was that although the US Army occupied the city of Aachen, Aachen's resistance delayed the time for the Germans to flood the valley behind the Hurtgen Forest on the road to Berlin. This forced the Allies to find another way to Berlin, so the Battle of Schütgen Forest, which was more difficult than the Battle of Achen, began.

The U.S. military went to such great lengths, but in the end, the gains did not outweigh the losses. They used a hammer to smash eggs and got themselves into trouble.

Now that the encirclement of Belarus and Ukraine has been formally formed, the street fighting without follow-up forces will undoubtedly lose.

"We should follow the commander-in-chief's order and withdraw from Ukraine as soon as possible."

But the problem is back to the starting point. It is not easy to withdraw from Ukraine. What if the German encirclement is completely formed by then? Wouldn't their hundreds of kilometers of journey be in vain?

This is like an unsolvable problem. They can only follow the order of Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower and continue to move forward.

Berlin Palace.

"Tsk tsk, this Stalin is really a god assist."

After all, encircling Belarus and Ukraine is not a trivial matter. He was worried that many troops would escape before, but he didn't expect Stalin to issue an order of "no retreat", and no troops dared to retreat.

However, Budyonny ordered all troops to withdraw to the nearest city to build fortifications, which was obviously to prepare for street fighting. "Not a bad idea." That was the case, but he was still a little annoyed. Instead of fighting street fighting, he preferred to play annihilation war on the plains. But since Marshal Bubudyonny was fighting street fighting, it didn't matter. Even if he surrounded them without attacking, he could still trap them to death.

"What about the movement of the US military?"

The staff marked a few points on the map. "This is their current position. Their expeditionary commander-in-chief Eisenhower ordered all troops to withdraw from Russia and Ukraine, so they are retreating at full speed."

"This Eisenhower, tsk tsk." Yannick sneered twice in confusion.

It's interesting to say that this Dwight David Eisenhower is of German descent, and his ancestors immigrated to the United States in 1732.

Of course, this is not a rare thing. The United States is a country of immigrants, among which German immigrants have become the largest immigrant group, surpassing Ireland and Britain. German Americans account for 17% of the total population of the United States. However, after more than 400 years, the Germans who immigrated to the United States have long recognized the United States as their motherland.

Germans are warlike and good at fighting. In World War I and World War II, two overseas German descendants led the US military to join the war and beat the Germans in Europe when the local Germans were deadlocked with the British, French and Russians! (Pershing, the US commander who fought Germany in World War I, was of German descent)

Moreover, Eisenhower, a German, hated the Germans very much. He said that nations like the Germans who constantly launched world wars must be punished. He also personally established the infamous Rhine POW camp.

In early February 1945, the total number of German prisoners of war in the hands of the US military was about 300,000. Faced with so many prisoners of war, the original resettlement plan encountered a bottleneck in organizational work. Allied Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower ordered: to build an open-air camp and resettle prisoners of war on the spot, so the famous "Rhine Camp" in the history of world wars was born.

The first consideration for setting up such a prisoner-of-war camp was to use the Rhine River to block the prisoners' escape route to the German hinterland. The second was to make full use of the broad plains in the Rhine River basin to accommodate the largest number of prisoners in the most labor-saving way.

After the suicide of the mustache on April 30, 1945, the effect of monkeys scattering when the tree falls began to appear in the German army, which was once known as "invincible". Within a week after the suicide of the mustache, the German armed forces collapsed one by one like dominoes. Starting from May 9, more than 4 million German soldiers became prisoners of war.

The rapid end of the war in Europe caught the victors somewhat off guard. After the enemy disappeared, the first big problem the Allies encountered was how to digest the huge crowd of prisoners of war. Former opponents have lost all right to speak, and the level of compliance with the Geneva Conventions tests the international morality of each victor.

In this regard, the Americans gave a very different answer. On May 4, 1945, without reaching a consensus with the British army, Eisenhower unilaterally ordered the US military to treat German soldiers detained in Germany as "disarmed enemy forces" (Disarmed Enemy Forces) instead of "war" Prisoner of War.

In this way, the surrendered German prisoners were divided into two categories by the Americans. One category was German soldiers captured outside Germany and Austria, who could enjoy the treatment of prisoners of war stipulated in the Second Geneva Convention. The other category is disarmed enemies. Of course, the US military does not have to promise to give "Geneva treatment" to the enemies. It can completely prohibit the International Red Cross from providing living supplies to these people, and at the same time has the right to close relevant information about these enemies to the International Red Cross. All information about how a person is treated.

These prisoners of war, who were still "enemies" in Eisenhower's eyes, had actually completely lost their qualifications to be enemies of the U.S. military. Like animals left to be slaughtered, they were pulled by U.S. military trucks from various landing sites to the Rhine River, and then treated like animals. Dumped garbage is generally "dumped" into the "Rhine Camps". Each camp has many huge phalanxes separated by barbed wire. The main basis for dividing the phalanxes is the identity of the prisoners. The number of prisoners in each phalanx is between 5,000 and 10,000. The average number of prisoners in the phalanx is The area is 3-5 square meters.

German prisoners were sent into each phalanx in turn. After one phalanx was full, the barbed wire gate of the other phalanx was opened...

The US military usually does not provide food and water to newly arrived prisoners of war for 2-4 days. No one can tell what the Americans intend, but the objective effect of this approach is: the prisoners who are struggling with hunger and thirst can only maintain physical fitness by reducing all activities. They have neither the physical strength to escape nor the physical strength to escape. More importantly, a group of people who have become physically weak will be eliminated in this first round of survival test in the "Rhine Camp".

Once food and water were provided, the prisoners found supplies to be severely lacking. Normal people need 1,200 calories a day when they are inactive, and working people need 2,000-3,000 calories. The prisoners of war in the "Rhine Camp" could only get 400-900 calories of food every day. The food they obtained was mainly egg powder, milk powder, biscuits, chocolate, and coffee produced in the United States. When the drinking water supply was strictly controlled, such food quickly drained the body moisture of the prisoners of war, and many people suffered from severe constipation. There are no washing facilities, no medical equipment, no disinfection equipment, and no medical measures in the camp. The treatment and care of the sick and wounded are mainly handled by the medical staff among the prisoners of war themselves. There is only a simple ditch toilet in each square. Many sick and weak people often defecate in the shelter because they lack the physical strength to pass through the dirty and chaotic crowds to reach the toilet. As a result, the environment of the camp is deteriorating day by day. Dysentery, typhoid fever, and gangrene Diseases such as pneumonia and pneumonia began to spread in various camps, forming a final blow to the dying people.

The Swiss Red Cross tried to provide food, medicine and daily necessities to the "Rhine Camp". After arriving, Eisenhower ordered these items to be transported back to Switzerland.

How many prisoners of war died in the US military's "Rhine Camp"?

Prisoner of war Werner said in the book "Brizenheim Prisoner of War Camp" published in 1998 that residents living near the Brezenheim Prisoner of War Camp confirmed that during the four months from April to July 1945, Here, they can see 120-180 corpses being taken away every morning. Based on this, Werner estimated that about 50,000 people died in the camp that housed 130,000 prisoners of war. The mortality rate is 5%. If we include the dead who were buried alive in collapsed tunnels in rainy weather, the mortality rate should be 15%. In view of the fact that the conditions in other "Rhine Camps" cannot be better than the treatment in Brezenheim Prisoner of War Camp, Werner gave a terrifying calculation: 5 million people multiplied by 15%, which equals 750,000 prisoners of war in the "Rhine Camp" Death in the camp.

In 1989, Canadian journalist Bachchan published a book called "Planned Death", which caused an uproar in the field of "World War II" historical research. After years of reviewing archives and documents from various countries and interviewing people involved, Bachek came to a shocking conclusion: the total number of German prisoners of war who died at the hands of the Americans and who later died after being handed over to France was 800,000 to 1 million. The number of deaths that Americans are responsible for is approximately 700,000. This number coincides with the conclusion of Werner, the former prisoner of war. Bachce believes that the United States has the real data, but the documents recording such information have either been destroyed, modified, or are still kept strictly confidential.

Yannick felt that Eisenhower's behavior was very familiar, just like a traitor who wants to show his loyalty to his master, so he must show his cruelty to his own people.

And like most people, he hates traitors more than invaders!

"It seems that we have to reserve a place for this Commander Eisenhower as a special war criminal." According to generally recognized international standards, so-called war criminals are the initiators of aggressive wars, the commanders and executors of war crimes. Officers obey orders from their superiors, which is their duty as soldiers, and they should not be convicted for this. However, whether they are war criminals or not is still up to the victorious country to decide. After all, as a victorious country, it has absolute say.

"In the future, we will carefully screen those captured American prisoners, and throw all German American soldiers into Class C prisoner-of-war camps. Now that they are here, don't go back, and stay in their ancestral homeland forever."