“I have been nervous as a cat all day as every one but me thought it too great a risk. I hope it works.”
ON THE DAY that the Third Army was across the Rhine, on March 23, Patton wrote Beatrice: “We are headed right for John’s place and may get there before he is moved.”
He was referring to a prisoner of war camp at Hammelburg, some 60 miles to the east, where Allied officers were rumored to be held. But he was hardly so sure as his letter indicated that John Waters, his son-in-law, was really there.
Waters had been captured in Tunisia in February 1943, transported to Italy, and eventually moved to Poland. Early in 1945, he was known to be in a camp near Szubin. When Red Army troops overran the town, they found that the German authorities had evacuated the place and marched their captives to the west to prevent their falling into Russian hands. The Russian commander had been alerted to Waters’ confinement, and he notified higher headquarters that the prisoners were gone. Eventually the American Military Mission in Moscow received word, and on February 9 sent a telegram to Eisenhower for Patton passing on the Soviet report. Two weeks later, the news having reached Washington, Hull advised Patton of the Russian advance and said that there was no knowledge of Waters’ new location.
Since then, Allied intelligence had established that Hammelburg was a principal camp for captured Allied officers, that it held about 4700 inmates, among them some 1500 Americans, and that many of those at Szubin had been transferred to Hammelburg. Thus, there was a good chance that Waters was there, but no certainty.
Since the Americans were approaching Hammelburg, it was likely that the Germans would move the prisoners again. Patton began to think of rescuing a large number of Allied officers.
A month earlier, in the Philippines, MacArthur had gained much publicity by taking the prison camps of Santo Tomas and Bilibid in Manila, thereby liberating 5000 military prisoners and civilian internees. Patton was reported to have said that he would make MacArthur look like a piker.
On March 25, he told Beatrice: “Hope to send an expedition tomorrow to get John.”
This was shorthand of a sort. He and his wife were primarily interested in their son-in-law, but if he rescued John, he would also liberate other prisoners. In addition, Patton could hardly tell her about Hammelburg because of censorship.
On the following day, he flew to the XII Corps headquarters and, according to his diary,
directed Eddy to send an expedition to the east about 60 miles for the purpose of recapturing some 900 American prisoners alleged to be in a stockade there.
The thrust would have to be mounted by the 4th Armored Division, now under William Hoge, whose combat command had captured the Remagen bridge and who had replaced Gaffey in command of the division. Eddy and Hoge
were reluctant to do this because they said if I failed, I would be severely criticized. However, I do not believe that fear of criticism should prevent my getting back American prisoners, particularly as in the last death struggles of the Germans, our men might be murdered.
The corps and division commanders disliked Patton’s instructions because the mission was dangerous. Sending troops independently and deeply into enemy territory invited disaster. The men going to Hammelburg could be easily surrounded and quickly destroyed.
Eddy probably objected also on the ground that the XII Corps was to advance to the north – not to the east – in order to join units of the First Army in an encirclement of the Ruhr.
If he replied, Patton probably said that the thrust to Hammelburg would serve as a feint to deceive the enemy into thinking the Third Army was going to the east rather than to the north.
But there was no mention of this in the diary at the time.
Then arose the question of the size of the force to commit. Was a larger organization more suitable for a move that was essentially deceptive in purpose and only secondarily designed to rescue the prisoners? Would a smaller force be better on a hit-and-run operation executed to liberate prisoners of war and only incidentally to mount a deception?
Thus started a long-lingering controversy. Was Waters incidental to the Hammelburg mission? Or did he motivate it? Did the action have a sound military basis? Or did Patton’s personal interest dictate it?
He wrote to Beatrice on March 27:
Last night I sent an armored column to a place 40 miles east of Frankfurt where John and some 900 prisoners are said to be. I have been nervous as a cat all day as every one but me thought it too great a risk. I hope it works. Al Stiller went along. If I loose that column, it will possibly be a new incident, but I wont loose it.
In his diary on the same date, he noted:
I was quite nervous all morning over the task force I sent to rescue the prisoners, as we could get no information concerning them. I do not believe there is anything in that part of Germany heavy enough to hurt them, but for some reason I was nervous – probably I had indigestion.
Diary, March 28
We have no further information concerning the task force out after the prisoners . . .
There is still no news of the task force.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Frederick Ayer, March 29, 1945
Some days ago I heard of an American prisoner of war camp . . . so I sent an armored expedition to get it. So far I have not been able to hear what they did. It is possible that John may be among the prisoners. If so, I will be very delighted to take the place.
To Beatrice on March 29:
My rescue attempt is still unheard from though one air plane reported seeing such a column headed west with a lot of men walking and riding on the tanks.
To his son George on March 30:
The other day I sent an armored column out to recapture a prison camp . . . I am afraid that this was a bad guess, and that the column has been destroyed. If so, I lost 225 men.
Actually, 307 men had been dispatched to Hammelburg.
Of course, the majority of them were probably taken prisoners, but on the same day we took 22,000 Germans prisoner, so the exchange was not bad.
At a press conference that day, Patton said:
There has been a black-out on an operation we pulled about 60 miles from this point. There was a prisoner of war camp containing at least 900 Americans – mostly officers, both ground and air . . . I felt that I could not sleep during the night if I got within 60 miles and made no attempt to get that place. I felt by hazarding a small force I would confuse the enemy completely as to where we were going. It did work, for they thought I was going to Nuremburg. I don’t know whether that force has been captured or what. If they have the Third Army luck, they might get through.
Nuremburg was a Seventh Army objective, and Hammelburg now lay in the Seventh Army zone of advance.
That evening, on March 30, Patton noted in his diary:
The German radio announced today that the American troops that had been sent on a special mission to Hammelburg had been captured or destroyed. We have no confirmation of this state, but, on the other hand, we have not been able to locate them either from the air, due to bad flying weather, or by radio. It is therefore probable that they are lost.
Diary, March 31
So far I have only made one mistake, and that was when I lost two companies of the 4th Armored Division in making the attack on Hammelburg. I made it with only two companies on account of the strenuous objections of General Bradley to making any [effort] at all. Had I sent a combat command as I had first intended to do, this mistake would not have occurred.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, March 31, 1945
Just got your message that J. [John] was at Hammelburg. I had known of the camp there for a week but did not know definately he was in it.
Beatrice – or, more likely, Mrs. Waters – was probably informed by the Red Cross, perhaps by army intelligence, of Waters’ whereabouts.
I sent a force to capture it but fear that the force was destroyed. However, it was the proper thing to do as there were at least 900 Americans there.
What happened?
Once Patton directed that the Hammelburg mission be undertaken, Eddy and Hoge, perhaps Patton too, discussed the size of the unit and the number of men to be dispatched. A combat command, somewhere around 4000 men and about 150 tanks, with artillery and other supporting units, was well able to take care of itself on a foray deep into enemy territory. Was it foolish to send so large a force? Few German elements were in the area. Or, would a smaller group have a better chance of success in an operation designed to strike rapidly and come back? Fewer men and vehicles meant quicker movement, more surprise, and a larger possibility of escaping detection.
Stiller later recalled that Patton told him he had ordered Eddy “to send a task force on a mission behind the German lines – to create a diversion by a fast moving force to attack a prisoner of war camp” and at the same time to liberate the 400 to 500 Americans presumed to be there; but this, of course, clouded the fundamental issue.
Because Stiller knew Waters and could identify him, Patton asked him whether he would like to accompany the task force. Stiller understood this to be an order – “a request by a general is an order.” When Stiller assented, Patton told him to report to Eddy who would let him know which division would do the job. Eddy instructed him to report to Hoge, who said that the task force had yet to be formed. He would call Stiller when the troops were ready to go. Since Stiller “had not even seen a bed for some 48 hours” he found a cot and slept until Hoge sent for him.
Hoge gave the job to Combat Command B, headed by Creighton W. Abrams, who instructed Harold Cohen, an infantry battalion commander, to form a task force. Cohen designated the elements to go – 10 medium tanks, 6 light tanks, 27 half-tracks, 7 jeeps, 3 motorized assault guns, and a cargo carrier called a weasel. In command was Captain Abraham J. Baum, who was to drive directly to Hammelburg, liberate the prisoners, load as many on his vehicles as he could, and return.
Summoned by Hoge, Stiller learned the composition of the task force. He was somewhat surprised when Hoge asked him what he thought of it.
According to his later recollections, Stiller said he thought it was too small for the mission. Since there were several streams to cross on the way to Hammelburg, Stiller anticipated dropping off some men to guard each bridge to keep it open when the force returned. He thought that the group was strong enough to get to Hammelburg but not strong enough to return.
Hoge said he did not expect the task force to get back. He was opposed to sending anything.
Stiller then reported to Baum, who was suspicious of why he was there. Stiller was a major and therefore outranked Baum, but Stiller assured the captain that he was along merely “for the thrills and laughs.” Baum then invited him to ride in his command jeep.
Task Force Baum slipped out of the Aschaffenburg area under the cover of early morning darkness and in the confusion of an attack launched to the north. Hammelburg was only 40 miles away, and the vehicles traveled uneventfully for 20 miles. At Lohr, the task force met a small German tank unit moving westward. Baum’s men destroyed 12 German tanks and rushed on. A few miles beyond, they knocked out an antiaircraft train. At Gemunden, they shot up a dozen locomotives in the railroad yard. There too was a bridge defended and wired for demolition, and the small German unit guarding it blew the structure in Baum’s face.
This required a detour to Burgsinn, 6 miles to the north. Baum’s troops liberated 700 Russians, who raided the town and broke into food dumps and liquor warehouses. Baum turned over to them the 200 German prisoners he had taken. In the early afternoon, as the Americans were nearing Hammelburg, they drove off with machine gun fire a small German plane that had been looking them over.
Frantic messages had been arriving in the German area command headquarters to tell of Baum’s incursion, and the reports exaggerated his strength, some saying that a division was on the move. The pilot of the small plane verified the size and location of Baum’s task force, and the Germans set about to destroy it.
Yet it was pure coincidence that a German assault gun battalion entered Hammelburg from the east as Baum came in from the west. A fire-fight broke out and lasted more than two hours. The Americans finally smashed through and headed for the prison.
There the German commander decided to surrender, and he asked the senior American to carry the word to Baum. One of the four Americans volunteering for this mission was Waters. In the process of walking out under a flag of truce with a small group of Americans, Waters was shot and severely wounded by a German guard.
The task force knocked down part of the barbed wire enclosure, and several thousand liberated prisoners of war swarmed around the vehicles in a pandemonium of joy. There were almost 5000 men in the camp, among them about 1500 Americans.
A few hours later, after order had been restored, Baum loaded as many Americans as possible on his tanks and personnel carriers, then started to return to Aschaffenburg. The German assault-gun battalion was lying in wait, knocked out Baum’s lead tank, and barred the way home. Most of the prisoners silently returned to the camp.
To escape the ambush, Baum turned south to Hessdorf, which he reached close to midnight. There he and his men encountered other German units that had moved to intercept them. Withdrawing to the top of a hill, Baum discovered that his force was surrounded. His men siphoned gasoline out of the half-tracks, divided the fuel among the remaining tanks, then burned the personnel carriers. As day started to break, they tried to ram through the encircling Germans. The ensuing firefight only showed how hopeless the situation was. The Americans were well outnumbered. Baum called his men together and told them to try to slip back to the American lines in small groups.
Only a few made it. Most were taken prisoner. Some were sent to Hammelburg, among them Baum, who had been wounded three times that day. Some were marched off toward Nuremburg, among them Stiller.
Gay’s Journal, April 4, 1945
Two officers who had been at Hammelburg and liberated by Task Force Baum entered Third Army lines and told what happened. This narrative is of particular interest to the Army Commander because this was the first time he had news that his son-in-law, Colonel Waters, was one of the prisoners in the camp.
Diary, April 4
Patch called . . . Three other officers who had escaped [from Hammelburg] had reported to his Army and stated that Johnny Waters . . . had been badly wounded and recaptured. Apparently the wound is serious but not dangerous, as it is in the leg.
I believe that the Seventh Army will probably relieve [capture] the camp today or tomorrow.
I felt very gloomy over the fact that I may have caused Waters’ death, but I believe that I did the right thing, and I certainly could never have lived with myself had I known that I was within 40 miles of 900 Americans and not made an attempt to rescue them.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, April 5, 1945
My first thought was to send a combat command, but I was talked out of it by Omar and others . . .
The force started on March 26. I got the rest from two lieutenants who escaped . . . They both knew and admired J. They said he was the best looking and most military man in camp.
Last night Gen. Patch called to say that the column had been attacked . . . J was hit through the leg and recaptured and is back atH.
I feel terribly. I tried hard to save him and may be the cause of his death. Al Stiller was in the column and I fear he is dead. I don’t know what you and [little] B win think. Don’t tell her yet . . .
We have liberated a lot of PW camps but not the one I wanted.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to sister Nita, April 5, 1945
An expedition I sent out actually rescued Johnny and then got recaptured itself. When I sent it out, I did not know that Johnny was in the camp but did know that there were 900 American officers there. Actually, there were 1200. I am hoping that some of them got away.
To Beatrice on April 6: “The XV Corps, Haislip, is 4 kilometers from where J. probably is.”
Diary, April 6
The Seventh Army telephoned that the 14th Armored Division had recaptured the American prisoner of war camp at Hammelburg and found only a few [American] prisoners, about 70, among them being Lt. Col. Waters, who was seriously but not dangerously wounded . . .
Colonel Odom left . . . for Hammelburg to look into the case of Colonel Waters.
Gay’s Journal, April 7
Col. Odom returned with two cub planes, bringing Waters, shot through leg, bullet coming up through his buttocks and injuring his spine. Condition good, will live and probably not be paralyzed. In 34th Evacuation Hospital at Frankfurt.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to daughter Beatrice, April y, 1945
I called General Eisenhower . . . and requested him to notify you that Lt. Colonel John K. Waters was safe . . . I will now recount the sequence of events which led to this . . .
I learned through various sources that an estimated 900 American officer prisoners of war were in a prison camp in the vicinity of Hammelburg. . .
It was important to deceive the enemy as to the direction of the attack, and also I did not wish to miss the chance of rescuing Americans. I therefore decided to send a task force . . . to release the prisoners and transport back as many as they could carry. I had no trucks available to send with this column as I was using them all to move up infantry and supplies . . .
Sometime before our tanks entered the camp, the Germans decided to surrender. They sent a German captain, Johnny, and an American lieutenant and captain to arrange with the Americans to cease firing. They walked out of the main gate of the camp with an American flag and a white flag.
When they had gone a little way, Johnny saw three soldiers – who turned out to be Germans – behind a picket fence. Suddenly one of these thrust his rifle through the fence and at a range of 15 yards fired at Johnny, striking him in the left groin but below the peritoneal cavity. The bullet went through the rectum, knocked the end off his coccyx, and came out his left hip, and naturally at that range knocked him down. He was taken by the two Americans to the Serbian Hospital which was in the prison camp where he was treated, allegedly, with considerable skill by a Serbian Colonel doctor.
While this was going on, the German general in command of the camp surrendered to Colonel Goode [the senior American prisoner], and about the same time, somewhere around 7:30, our tanks knocked the fence down and the prisoners walked out.
Two hundred and fifty were loaded on the vehicles and the rest were told which direction to go, which was straight west, and advised to pull out.
The column then started back . . . They fought until all the ammunition and gasoline was exhausted and the casualties had amounted to about 50 men, including the officer commanding the column . . . They apparently then surrendered . . .
Yesterday . . . the 14th Armored Division of the XV Corps, got to Hammelburg . . . where they recaptured the sick and wounded, including Waters.
This was telephoned to me from the Seventh Army, and then Colonel Odom, who is assistant Army Surgeon and who lives at my mess, flew down to the XV Corps and from there proceeded by peep to the vicinity of Hammelburg where a battle was still going on. He was supposed to take a tank there, but being unable to find one, he continued in a peep and got to the hospital, saw Johnny, and noted his condition.
He then telephoned about midnight, and we sent two cub planes, one fixed to carry a litter, which lit in the vicinity of the hospital and picked up Johnny and flew him to . . . Frankfurt.
I visited him at 11:00 o’clock and found him just getting shaved. He looked thin but not as thin as I had anticipated and was perfectly coherent, and not in pain.
The first thing Waters did was ask his father-in-law whether he had known that he was at Hammelburg. No, Patton replied, not for sure.
The wound has considerable nuisance value but is not dangerous. It will be necessary to do a colostomy, namely, to open his gut at the side and use this as an auxiliary exit while his lower gut in the vicinity of the rectum is sewn up and cured . . .
[After four months] he should be perfectly well and have no disabilities of any kind . . .
I am asking Colonel Cutler, who is the head Surgical Consultant in Europe, and also Dean of Medicine at Harvard, to come down and look Jonny over. I believe it preferable that he should be fiown to Paris where they have an excellent hospital . . . Or it may be that Cutler will advocate his being flown direct to the U.S. I will let you know . . .
He has changed hardly at all, except that he is thin, his face is yellow, and his lips slightly blue. They cannot operate . . . until they have built him up, and since he cannot eat, this buildup has to be blood plasma and some kind of serum which they squirt into the veins.
He is very philosophical about his wound, as am I, for if he had not been wounded he would now be on his way to Nuremburg.
I think we should all be very thankful to God that after all these various tribulations, we have saved him and saved him so that he will be perfectly all right. It will simply be necessary to exercise patience until his various plumbing systems can be patched.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, April 8, 1945
Today Sgt Meeks, Willie, and I all went to see him. He is much better and had chicken and potatoes for lunch . . .
Al Stiller . . . will escape or be rescued soon.
Diary, April 8
Waters is much better, having had a blood transfusion and a hot meal.
Diary, April 9
Gave Waters his Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, which he did not know he had gotten. It is very peculiar; he has actually missed about two years of his life, but his spirit is unbroken and he is in fine shape. He left by plane [for Paris].
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, April 9, 1945
He kept saying how well he was being treated so I told him that it was not because of me but because of Ike’s speech which made him a national hero. I think that made him feel better. He looks fine but smells awful as he leaks all the time. Cutler took him to Paris where they will make a better examination and either operate there or send him to Washington by air.
On that day, Baum was being treated at the Evacuation Hospital at Frankfurt. Four days later Codman officially reported Stiller missing in action.
GSP, Jr., Press Conference, Herzfeld, Germany, April 13, 1945
The force which we sent over . . . was for the purpose of misleading the Germans and make them think we were going to Nuremburg, but actually [it] went to rescue the 900 American prisoners there, got to its objective. They met the 2d Panzer Division and two other divisions, which showed that our effort to mislead the enemy had its effect, because [had] he [the enemy] put these divisions up north, our efforts there would have been much slower.
Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, April 13, 1945
At the moment they are trying to make an incident out of my attempt to rescue John . . . How I hate the press.
They were saying that Patton needlessly sacrificed men and tanks merely to rescue his son-in-law.
He maintained that the Hammelburg mission was a routine reconnaissance and that Waters’ whereabouts was uncertain and incidental.
There was much talk among the soldiers in the theater.
Col. Cutler thinks John may not have to have the hole cut in his side. He is . . . in Paris having the best possible care. I will fly up and see him when I have a little leasure.
He flew to Paris four days later and had a long talk with Waters, “also saw several repatriated American officers, all of whom thanked me for the efforts I had put out in their behalf.”
Message, Eisenhower to Marshall, April 15, 1945
He sent off a little expedition on a wild goose chase in an effort to liberate some American prisoners. The upshot was that he got 25 prisoners back and lost a full company of medium tanks and a platoon of light tanks. Foolishly, he then imposed censorship on the movement, meaning to lift it later, which he forgot to do. The story has now been released, and I hope the newspapers do not make too much of it. One bad, though Patton says accidental, feature of the affair was that his own son-in-law was one of the 25 released. Patton is a problem child, but he is a great fighting leader in pursuit and exploitation.
On April 29, the 14th Armored Division liberated the Moosburg German prisoner of war camp containing almost 30,000 Allied troops, of whom about 14,000 were American. Stiller was in the camp, and on the following day reported to Third Army headquarters in good condition, although he had lost about 30 pounds.
Early in May, Eisenhower awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to Waters for his exploit in Tunisia. About the time the war was coming to an end in Europe, Waters was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. He would recover completely, continue his military career, and eventually be promoted to full general.
Most of the commanders involved in the Hammelburg operation, and particularly Hoge, remained convinced that Patton knew his son-in-law had been at the camp.
Task Force Baum disrupted the Aschaffenburg-Hammelburg area, damaged military trains, destroyed antiaircraft guns, upset troop schedules, disabled assault-gun units, provoked general uncertainty and confusion among the Germans, and showed how close the end of the war had come. But would Patton have sent a force to Hammelburg – whether to make a feint or to liberate the prisoners – if he had not thought that Waters was likely to be there?
Despite rumors and press reports, talk and speculation, all to the effect that the Hammelburg mission was a personal diversion of troops in the interest of family, the incident disappeared in the euphoria that came with the end of the war in Europe.