Partisan Attacks on FJ

[Perry Floyd]

Reading the Crete thread I noticed Willi mentioning the executions of FJ by locals. I've read this before but would like to compare it. Anyone know roughly the numbers of FJ that fell victim? Would it be comparable to the scale of executions by the FFI after the Allied landings in Normandy? I know alot of FJ/SS were made examples of by the FFI.

[ccmax]

There were large and well organized partisan groups operating behind the lines of all German divisions in the Apennines. The rugged topography favored guerrilla warfare methods.

Portions of terrain were considered "partisan republics" in late war Italy due to the control the partisan groups had over those areas. Since there were two FJ divisions operating in Italy until the very end of the war, it is certain they saw action against partisans in that particular theater of operations. I have a good bibliography about the war in Italy and can consult it for more specific data if you wish.


If you care to hear my opinion, probably most deaths of German soldiers by partisan hands, FJ included, ocurred after the cessation of hostilities. The treatment of German and Italian POWs by the partisans disgusted even the Allied troops.

[J.von Canon]

Executions in retaliation on Crete

The German Archiv(Freiburg im Breisgau))has extensive wartime photo negatives of Fallschirmjaeger wounded and injured who were butchered by Cretan militia.
For whatever reasons these terrible photos are under wraps and not for public release,including researchers and writers.

[Willi Z.]

JvC is correct in that there is photo evidence, that won't be released, of the atrocitiies committed against FJs during the invasion of Kreta. They controlled the battlefield after the battle, so it was relatively easy to confirm this. Since the majority of the history of the Battle of Crete in English is by British authors, this evidence is overlooked. In one account it mentions that the Germans "alleged" that wounded FJs and bodies were mutilated by Cretans. Anyhow......

In reference to partisans in Italy, one FJ veteran who lives nearby has told me that the majority of his time in Italy during the first 5 months in 1944 was spent on partisan patrols.

Willi

[SgtB]

Hi guys!

There can certainly be no doubt that FJ units took part in the
most savagely vicious, no-quarter battles of the war. Comparable
to SS units from deepest Russia all the way back to Berlin.

[jimuk]

Hi everybody-
I fear that this thread is going to turn out like the previous one on the Battle of Crete and hence from the outset I would like to say that I do not intend to spite anyone and I mean no one!!

Yes, it is true that atrocities were committed by the Cretans during the battle of Crete!! But atrocities were committed by the other side as well. Speaking to a Cretan resistance fighter a couple of years back he told me characteristically: "mercy was not sparred by either side" (Cretan-German)!! Evidence of atrocities by the occupying forces are well documented and as such I shall not delve further. As for the magnitude of the atrocities commited by the islanders, these shall probably never be known.

But again can you blame them for fighting for their homes and families at a time when your country has been overun by your enemies? I can't, even though I do condemn the atrocities that happenned.

I am half-Greek myself and I am proud that my forefarthers took up picks and shovels to fight the most elite force in the German army. At least they, when the rest of Europe was still coming to terms with the harsh reality of occupation, had the courage and sense of sacrifice to fight the aggressor before he even stepped foot upon their land.

Best regards

JimUK

[Willi Z.]

Hi Jim,

We could open this up into a very lengthy and unnecessary discussion of international law and the rights and responsilbities of non-combatants, which is what partisans are. Non-combatants, as recognized by international law, could not take up arms and could be dealt with very harshly when they did. It is easy to say they were defending their homes. I do completely agree that the courage of the Cretans was noteworthy and most certainly set the example for occupied Europe. Yes, the atrocities committed by the Germans was well documented...and since the battlefield was controlled by the Germans after the battle, they easily documented the mutilation of wounded FJs and the bodies of others, which occured before the occupation.

Willi

[jimuk]

Hi Willi-

Your points are valid. However, one of the reasons we are having this discussion is the fact that the authorities in Crete, prior to the invasion, did not distribute uniforms to the populace, essentially transforming them to "Home Guard" units! Do you think this would have made things different? Best regards

JimUK

[Prosper Keating]

Originally posted by jimuk
Hi Willi-

Your points are valid. However, one of the reasons we are having this discussion is the fact that the authorities in Crete, prior to the invasion, did not distribute uniforms to the populace, essentially transforming them to "Home Guard" units! Do you think this would have made things different? Best regards

JimUK

Surely there is not much difference, morally, between a man in civilian clothing and a man in military uniform committing dreadful atrocities against wounded and captured soldiers.

Nobody disputes the fact that the Germans had a bad record in WW2 where atrocities were concerned but we are perhaps forgetting something here: the reaction of any human being to the relevation of extreme mistreatment of his 'family'. If you find your comrades butchered in all sorts of imaginative ways, often while still alive, then you tend to lose the plot and run amok. That the Fallschirmjäger did not run amok on Crete does them credit.

They did shoot a number of Cretan men during and after the battle in summary executions. We all know the famous sequence of photos on one such execution. Bruno Brauer was hanged by the Greeks in 1947 for these 'war crimes' but it is interesting to note that an Allied commission at the time expressly absolved the Fallschirmjäger on Crete of war crimes, declaring that their actions against the civil population or, at any rate, those members of the population suspected of mistreating German prisoners were understandable and justified.

I think that it would have made no difference whether or not members of the Cretan home guard or militia were wearing uniforms when they tortured German prisoners to death with knifes and blowtorches etc etc. Even if the German government hides the truth because of imposed shame, British, New Zealand and German veterans well remember the depravities of the Cretans.

It should not be forgotten that the Greek army had surrendered so even if Cretan home guard units had been in uniform as they cut the genitals off screaming prisoners, or grilled them with blowtorches, or disembowelled them and played knives and flames along the intestines as the doomed men writhed in agony, they were no longer lawful combattants.

Personally, I think the Cretans got off lightly on the whole. The temptation to run amok must have been hard for the Germans to resist.

Prosper Keating

[merdock]

Hi,Attrocities are not confined the the locals,
A niumber of years ago i worked for a old spiecial opp's guy that was involved in the kidnapping of a high ranking officer [ss i belive]on if i remember crete,the officer was captured along with his driver who was wounded in the leg but not badly,now apparently it is well known that the driver was killed because he was considerd exess baggage because he was wounded what is not generally known according to the British officer was that the driver was BEHEADED by the greek guide's and the british did nothing to stop them.
Merdock

[J.von Canon]

"extend to the guerrilla no quarter"---

I have sometimes wondered if the line from "Ten Commandments of the German Fallschirmjaeger"concerning "no quarter to guerrillas"was in response AFTER the Kreta Campaign.
Anyone know the date of the Commandments?
Since the Cretans and Greeks had a long standing familiarity with former Turkish brutality it is perhaps not so surprising that their old habits of torturing prisoners would have continued after the German drop on Crete.
But it would seem to me that the Brits & Commonwealth troop commanders,who apparently were in some control of their Cretan allies,must bear some of the blame for such "misbehavior."

Some years back (in Honduras following the Nicaraguan war)I was giving a field lecture to some local troops about the importance of prisoner rights(Law of Land Warfare)and noticed some hostile glances from one soldado in particular.
During a break I mentioned this observation to a sargento and was told the boy's family had been "skinned alive"by Nicaraguan troops.
Completely abandoning my lesson plan I resumed the class with the tack of "needing prisoners to furnish information."
The previous theme would have fallen on deaf ears!

Seems to me that Gen.Freyberg and his cadres might have taken this into consideration with their Cretan militias that were under their control to some degree.Don't see how other civilians who "misbehaved"could have been controlled,however.
Guerrilla warfare is always a dirty business...

[Brian M]

I have several relatives who were in the Italian resistance. the men left their homes near Lucca and lived in the mountains, so that they would not be conscripted. My Italian is fairly poor, and so is their English, but I do know they would raid the German camps at night and steal weapons and grenades to fight with. they would also use the grenades to throw into the rivers to catch fish to eat.
I have one uncle who lost an eye to a piece of German shrapnel.
I had another who owned a very nice restaurant. when the Germans came they took it from him, and he died soon after, broken by the loss of his livelihood.
I wish I knew more of their stories that I could share.