Capitulation of German Army Group South - July ‘97 World War II Feature

Staudinger abruptly burst through the office door, proceeded to the table, around which a number of high-ranking German officers were seated, and pounded forcefully on the table with his fist. To the astonishment of the German officers, the American soldier announced in German that he was indeed a U.S. soldier, that he was there to secure their surrender and that the officers were to issue orders for all troops under their command to lay down their arms immediately.

The German officers were stunned by this display. After several moments of complete silence, one officer got up and told the others to remain in the room. He then took Staudinger upstairs to another office. There, Staudinger was told to wait outside. The German officer–who Staudinger believed was a colonel–entered the office and closed the door. After several minutes, the German came to the door and motioned for Staudinger to enter. Once inside the room, Staudinger saw a very tall, immaculate German general wearing the traditional gray uniform with bright red collar markings and high black boots.

The general repeated the demand that Staudinger had issued to the group of officers in the office below. The American replied that the general had understood him correctly. To Staudinger’s astonishment, the general then asked if the American had the authority to accept a surrender. Staudinger, thinking quickly, immediately responded that he did not possess such authority, but his superior officer, who was located on the outskirts of town, not far from the castle, could handle it. The general called in an aide who was fluent in English, a Captain Bates, and told him to take Staudinger to pick up his officer and bring the officer back to Waidhofen. Bates took Staudinger downstairs and blindfolded him. Then the two of them got into a shiny black Mercedes Benz and drove away from the castle. They headed for the 1st Platoon, located just east of Aichen.

Staudinger was convinced that the castle he had just visited was the headquarters of a German unit larger than a division. In all of the discussions he had overheard, Staudinger had not picked up any German words that suggested the size of the organization. He had not heard the German word for division, corps or army, but he did hear reference to “a group of soldiers.” Staudinger knew it was important for him to learn the size of the unit, but he had been unable to find that out.

Meanwhile, back at the 1st Platoon area, several German labor battalion commanders had come out of the woods. The officers were neither arrogant or discourteous. They were curious about the status of the region; in particular, they were interested in the likelihood of the Russians’ taking the area. Samuell became convinced that he possessed information of value to the Germans. Samuell knew that his platoon was operating east of the line of demarcation between American and Soviet forces and that the Soviets might soon occupy that very place.

While the 1st Platoon leader was engaged in conversation with the German battalion commanders, the 2nd and 3rd platoons had made their way uneventfully from Neustift to the outskirts of Waidhofen. Arriving there at about 3 p.m., Burns encountered heavy German military traffic. Like Samuell, he was searching for the Soviets, but he was encountering enormous numbers of German soldiers directly in his line of march.

Burns’ troops eventually worked their way into Waidhofen and to the Ybbs River bridge. But the Germans had routed traffic in only one direction across the bridge, east to west. SS troops were serving MP duty on the bridge, and they were not letting any Germans go eastward over it. When Burns made an attempt to cross, the SS troop stopped him as well. He could see they would not give in, so rather than start a losing fight with the SS that surely would have been supported by the thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers in the immediate vicinity, Burns decided to return to Steyr. Burns saw this as his best option, since he was facing the same gasoline shortage problem that Samuell had.