What Patton Did When Task Force Baum Was Surrounded and Destroyed at Hammelburg
Warfront Files
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On 26 March 1945, with the Rhine crossed and the German army in the west collapsing, General George S. Patton ordered a raid sixty miles behind enemy lines to liberate a prisoner-of-war camp at Hammelburg in Bavaria.
Major General William Hoge, commanding the 4th Armored Division, objected. He said the force was far too small, could not be reinforced, could not be supplied, and would be lost. Major General Manton Eddy at XII Corps wanted a full combat command. Patton overruled both of them and made the force smaller.
Task Force Baum consisted of 314 men, 16 tanks and 57 vehicles, commanded by Captain Abraham Baum, a 27-year-old from the Bronx who had been cutting patterns in the New York garment trade four years earlier. Patton also attached his own aide, Major Alexander Stiller, who had no operational role in the division — and who knew Lieutenant Colonel John Waters by sight.
Waters was a prisoner inside Oflag XIII-B. He had been captured in Tunisia in February 1943 and had just arrived at Hammelburg after a winter forced march out of Poland. He was also married to Patton's daughter.
This video covers the whole operation: the blown bridge at Gemünden, the drive east, the moment Waters was shot under a white flag by a German sentry before the column even arrived, and what happened when Baum reached the camp and found 1,500 American officers instead of the 300 he had been briefed to expect.
At first light on 28 March 1945 the task force was surrounded on Hill 427 near Höllrich and destroyed. Nine men made it back. Baum was wounded and captured, and woke up in the infirmary of the camp he had been sent to liberate.
On 6 April 1945 the 14th Armored Division reached Hammelburg in the ordinary course of the advance and opened the gates without losing anybody.
Also covered: why Patton denied for the rest of his life that the raid was about his son-in-law, and what he asked Abraham Baum to do when he pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on him in hospital.
#Patton #TaskForceBaum #Hammelburg #WW2 #4thArmoredDivision
What Patton Did When Task Force Baum Was Surrounded and Destroyed at Hammelburg
Warfront Files
96 views
On 26 March 1945, with the Rhine crossed and the German army in the west collapsing, General George S. Patton ordered a raid sixty miles behind enemy lines to liberate a prisoner-of-war camp at Hammelburg in Bavaria.
Major General William Hoge, commanding the 4th Armored Division, objected. He said the force was far too small, could not be reinforced, could not be supplied, and would be lost. Major General Manton Eddy at XII Corps wanted a full combat command. Patton overruled both of them and made the force smaller.
Task Force Baum consisted of 314 men, 16 tanks and 57 vehicles, commanded by Captain Abraham Baum, a 27-year-old from the Bronx who had been cutting patterns in the New York garment trade four years earlier. Patton also attached his own aide, Major Alexander Stiller, who had no operational role in the division — and who knew Lieutenant Colonel John Waters by sight.
Waters was a prisoner inside Oflag XIII-B. He had been captured in Tunisia in February 1943 and had just arrived at Hammelburg after a winter forced march out of Poland. He was also married to Patton's daughter.
This video covers the whole operation: the blown bridge at Gemünden, the drive east, the moment Waters was shot under a white flag by a German sentry before the column even arrived, and what happened when Baum reached the camp and found 1,500 American officers instead of the 300 he had been briefed to expect.
At first light on 28 March 1945 the task force was surrounded on Hill 427 near Höllrich and destroyed. Nine men made it back. Baum was wounded and captured, and woke up in the infirmary of the camp he had been sent to liberate.
On 6 April 1945 the 14th Armored Division reached Hammelburg in the ordinary course of the advance and opened the gates without losing anybody.
Also covered: why Patton denied for the rest of his life that the raid was about his son-in-law, and what he asked Abraham Baum to do when he pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on him in hospital.
#Patton #TaskForceBaum #Hammelburg #WW2 #4thArmoredDivision