Patton by Michael Keane

Author:Michael Keane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery History
Published: 2012-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

The destruction of the bridge required that the task force improvise their plans. Baum detoured his men six miles north to Burgsinn, an old walled city with a narrow city gate and narrow streets. If the Germans had been alert, they could easily have obstructed the entrance to the town or its streets, but Task Force Baum continued unimpeded. On the way to the next town, Grafendorf, the task force liberated an estimated seven hundred conscripted Russian laborers who were constructing a bridge guarded by German soldiers. The Germans surrendered, and the Russians mobbed Baum’s jeep, shouting, “Amerikanski! Amerikanski!” Now armed with their former captors’ rifles, the Russians told Baum they wanted to take the town of Burgsinn, a proposal Baum approved on the condition that they wait until the task force had passed. He also handed over the two hundred German prisoners he and his men had captured.21

The thrust toward Hammelburg predictably rang alarm bells in the German area command headquarters. Many of the reports exaggerated the task force’s strength to the size of an entire division. A small private plane circling over Baum’s position, however, was able accurately to estimate the size and location of the American force, enabling the Germans to prepare their counter-attack.

When Baum came into Hammelburg from the west, by pure coincidence a German assault gun battalion also entered the town, but from the east. The two forces engaged in a two-hour firefight before the Americans overcame the defenders and headed for the prison, where the German commander decided to surrender. Four American prisoners, one of whom was Waters, volunteered to communicate the surrender of the prison to the task force. While the group walked out of the prison under a white flag of truce, a German guard shot and severely wounded Waters. At the same time, some of Baum’s tanks knocked down part of the camp’s barbed wire enclosure, and thousands of joyful, liberated prisoners streamed out, surrounding the task force. The camp held about five thousand prisoners, fifteen hundred of whom were Americans.22

A few hours later Baum loaded as many of the Americans on his tanks and in his personnel carrier as possible. The rest were instructed to wait at the camp to be re-liberated by a larger force that would presumably arrive within days, or to escape into the woods and attempt to make their way back to American lines.

But Hoge’s prediction was right. The task force would never make it back. Task Force Baum, surrounded by elements of at least three German divisions, was slowly destroyed in a series of increasingly desperate firefights. The last order Baum shouted to his men was “Fan out... make your way west in groups of twos and threes, and go your own way so you won’t be visible. Get as much distance between you and them before they get here. Get going!” With that, Baum himself headed into the woods. As he did he removed his dog tags and threw them into the forest. Baum

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