Global InformationGerman prisoners of war in northwest Europe information
More than 2.8 million German soldiers surrendered on the Western Front between D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the end of April 1945; 1.3 million between D-Day and March 31, 1945;[1] and 1.5 million of them in the month of April.[2] From early March, these surrenders seriously weakened the Wehrmacht in the West, and made further surrenders more likely, thus having a snowballing effect. On March 27, Dwight D. Eisenhower declared at a press conference that the enemy were a whipped army.[3] In March, the daily rate of POWs taken on the Western Front was 10,000;[4] in the first 14 days of April it rose to 39,000,[5] and in the last 16 days the average peaked at 59,000 soldiers captured each day.[a] The number of prisoners taken in the West in March and April was over 1,800,000,[7] more than double the 800,000 German soldiers who surrendered to the Russians in the last three or four months of the war.[8] One reason for this huge difference, possibly the most important, was that German forces facing the Red Army tended to fight to the end for fear of Soviet captivity whereas German forces facing the Western Allies tended to surrender without putting up much if any resistance. Accordingly, the number of Germans killed and wounded was much higher in the East than in the West.[b]
The Western Allies also took 134,000 German soldiers prisoner in North Africa,[10] and at least 220,000 by the end of April 1945 in the Italian campaign.[10] The total haul of German POWs held by the Western Allies by April 30, 1945, in all theatres of war was over 3,150,000, rising in northwest Europe to 7,614,790 after the end of the war.[11]
It is worth noting that the allied armies which captured the 2.8 million German soldiers up to April 30, 1945, while Adolf Hitler was still alive and resisting as hard as he could, comprised at their peak 88 divisions,[12] with a peak strength in May 1945 of 2,639,377 in the US and 1,095,744 in the British and Canadian forces.[13] The casualties suffered by the Western Allies in making this contribution to the defeat of the Wehrmacht were relatively light, 164,590–195,576 killed/missing, 537,590 wounded, and 78,680 taken prisoner,[11][14] a total loss of 780,860 to 811,846 to inflict a loss of 2.8 million prisoners on the German army. The number of dead and wounded on both sides was about equal.[c] This, plus the fact that most surrenders occurred in April 1945, suggests that (unlike on the Eastern Front, where the number of German killed and wounded far exceeded the number of prisoners taken by the Soviets), most German soldiers who surrendered to the Western Allies did so without a fight. For instance, in the battle of the Ruhr Pocket, there were about 10,000 fatalities on the German side (including prisoners of war in German captivity, foreign forced laborers, Volkssturm militia and unarmed civilians),[16] whereas about 317,000 Germans surrendered. "Many a German walked mile after mile before finding an American not too occupied with other duties to bother to accept his surrender."[17] For comparison, in the Battle of Halbe on the Eastern Front from 24 April to 1 May 1945, over 30,000 German soldiers, out of a much smaller number encircled, were killed fighting the Red Army.[18]
- ^ 2,055,575 German soldiers surrendered between D-Day and April 16, 1945, The Times, April 19 p 4; 755,573 German soldiers surrendered between April 1 and 16, The Times, April 18 p 4, which means that 1,300,002 German soldiers surrendered to the Western Allies between D-Day and the end of March 1945.
- ^ Marley, David, ed. (1946). The Daily Telegraph Story of the War. Vol. 5: January 1st-September 9th, 1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 153.
The Allied armies in the West captured more than 1,500,000 prisoners during April.
- ^ The Times, March 28 page 4, headline ‘A WHIPPED ARMY, REVIEW BY SUPREME COMMANDER.’ … ‘Quarter of a million German soldiers have been captured since March 1,’ press release dated March 27.
- ^ Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1948). Crusade in Europe. William Heinemann. p. 421.
- ^ Marley, David, ed. (1946). The Daily Telegraph Story of the War. Vol. 5: January 1st-September 9th, 1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 127.
In the first fourteen days of April 548,173 German prisoners were taken.
- ^ Marley, David, ed. (1946). The Daily Telegraph Story of the War. Vol. 5: January 1st-September 9th, 1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 153.
- ^ The number of prisoners taken in March was approaching 350,000, SHAEF Weekly Summary No. 54 w.e.April 1st. PART I LAND Section A, ENEMY OPERATIONS. Thus the total for March and April was well over 1,800,000. (over 300,000 plus 1,500,000.)
- ^ The Times, May 1st 1945 p 4
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Heeresarztwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b The Times, Feb 23rd 1945 p 4
- ^ a b Ellis, John (1993). The World War II Databook. Aurum Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-85410-254-6.
- ^ Ellis, John (1993). The World War II Databook. Aurum Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-85410-254-6.
- ^ Pogue, Forrest C. (1989). The United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations: Supreme Command (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 542–543.
- ^ MacDonald, Charles B. (1993). The Last Offensive: The European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. p. 478.
Allied casualties from D-day to V–E totaled 766,294. American losses were 586,628, including 135,576 dead. The British, Canadians, French, and other allies in the west lost slightly over 60,000 dead
- ^ MacDonald, Charles B. (1993). The Last Offensive: The European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. p. 478.
- ^ Wolf Stegemann, Der Ruhrkessel: Ende der Kämpfe im Westen – Verbrechen der Wehrmacht, der SS und Gestapo an der Bevölkerung bis zum letzten Tag
- ^ MacDonald, Charles B. (1993). The Last Offensive: The European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 370, 372.
- ^ Beevor, Antony (2007). Berlin, The Downfall. Penguin. p. 337.
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