Posted by Allen on 3/8/2003, 9:41 am "At that time we had soldiers in the German army who were 14-, 15- and 16-year old boys. I called them 'babies' and 'boy scouts'; they were hardly grown up. ... On their way back home, a group of fifteen or so needed help and adopted me as their leader. I was with a couple of other privates from my unit at the time and agreed to have them join us. ... "Having to take care of the boys cost me personally enough time so that finally we were all captured by Italian communist partisans ... We were standing on the roads with our hands behind our neck, as they told us to do. The partisans could not agree among themselves who would have the honor of shooting us and argued for some time on what to do with their new captives. "Soon an American tank came along. Marching in front of this tank was an American sergeant, the first black man I ever saw, maybe 6 foot 3, a very big guy. He had a submachinegun, and quickly figured out what was taking place. He turned around, took the leader of the partisan group, lifted him up with one hand and then dropped him down with his fist. His men took us into custody, and we belonged to the Americans." Dr Frisch retired in 1998 as the Professor Emeritus of Engineering Management at the Defense Systems Management College, Fort Belvior, Va.
162.40.96.4
I've just finished Franz Frisch's memoir, "Condemned to Live"(co-authored by Wilbur Jones). He was an artillery private and served in Poland, France, Russia and Italy. It contains very many photographs taken by the author. His description of how he came to be made POW is very interesting.
"In April 1945, Vietinghoff went with SS General (Karl) Wolff to Switzerland to negotiate the surrender of our troops in Italy with American intelligence officer Allen Dulles. ... and they invented a marvelous method of capitulation. ... Suddenly, the highest command post was on the move and couldn't be reached. The next highest command post of the corps was on the move and couldn't be reached. The command post of the divisions was on the move and couldn't be reached. This meant they dissolved the entire German army by eliminating the command posts, and the troops were saying, 'What now? We can't reach anybody for instructions. Okay, let's walk home'. ... I know from experience. I was in an artillery command post: all higher command posts just disappeared. ...
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