My grandmother's brother, IDK the unit but was with Patton. I never met him but my grandmother said that he told her he once went 30 days without a shower, but they were still required to shave which is typical military BS.
@@heywoodjablowme8120 thank you for sharing that! Patton certainly was a ‘different’ general. Very blood and guts as we all know but still kept up the barrack room bs like shaving as you say and his men having to wear neck ties! Certainly a man of contrast! Just glad he was on the Allies side!
Yes, my father was in the 13th Armored division. He has mentioned Patton and his time in that region. He specifically mentioned Munich and Innsbrook, Austria.
Angie, thank you for sharing that and thank you for your fathers service. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for your fathers generation to go through such tough fighting but to finish the war in such a beautiful area. They truly were the greatest generation.
Thank you! Lots more to come and still learning how to get the best from it to bring the best possible shots to RUclips but great to hear you’re enjoying it!
My great uncle was in the 14th armored “Liberators” Thomas Smith We lost him about 3 years ago. When I was in 6th grade I was honored with the privilege of interviewing him for 4hours to make a book report. The emotions of his testimony in his eyes and listening to his account, brought me there with him. These men were truly the greatest generation!
I bet that was an incredible project to work on and hear the account from your Great Uncle! Would be great if you were able to revisit the report and publish it as I know the 14th Armored Division page on Facebook is always looking for more information on the Division.
This is the first time I have seen your channel and this video was very special to me. I remember my Dad talking about the liberation of Stalag VIIA. He was one of the combat engineers in the 125th Armored Engineer Battalion that built the Isar pontoon bridge you mentioned. He told me a story of when he entered the camp and heard someone call his name. It was one of his friends in his unit that went missing and no one knew what became of him. It turned out he was captured and imprisoned in the camp. When he saw my Dad and his squad he yelled out "Well it's about damn time you guys got here!". It was quite the reunion. Thanks for making this video. I will be showing it to my kids. It is channels like yours that ensure that tomorrow's generation will never forget the war that changed the world.
Thank you for sharing that about your Father Bob! That’s incredible his friend was there and they were there to meet him!!!! I’ve done another recent episode about Moosburg (my latest video) which will likely be of interest to and I will feature STALAG VIIA in another specific video soon! Thanks again for taking the time to share you Fathers story as I really appreciate it!
Yet another brilliant video you have a great presentation style to show your knowledge and depth of research. Currently binge watching them and looking forward to many more.
Very informative. My father was an airman from the 15th who was liberated from Moosburg. I’ve visited there numerous times, the first was as a young boy with my father back in the mid 60’s when there were still numerous barracks still in existence along with the German camp HQ building. My father mentioned how lucky he felt when liberated as they were given food and medical assistance while the condition of the Russians was far worse and they just started walking east.
Thank you for this video (and the other) and information. It helps me to see where my father was. He helped to liberate the camp as he came in with the 99th ID. He commented on all the allied prisoners there - some wore turbins. He and another soldier felt sorry for some sick men (they were laying on the floor coughing) in a building and they started to give them their rations. An officer yelled at them to stop and told them to move on - so they did. Another 99th veteran, an officer, I spoke to at a reunion, said that when they drove through the gates in a jeep, the prisoners surrounded them and started pulling on their uniforms and trying to hug them. That officer said sadly that, "They looked upon us like we were gods . . ." and then he got quiet and said he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
Hard to imagine isn’t it what they witnessed during it’s liberation! The elation at seeing their fellow soldiers at the gates must have been hard to believe after all that time as a POW!
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying them and it’s great to know I can share these places with so many people who care about those events all those years ago! Thanks again!
You’re most welcome! I’ll be filming another more septic episode at Moosburg soon so keep an eye out for that as it’ll be a good one! And the camp should be featured in the new Hanks/Spielberg Master of the Air series about the 100th BG!
sterling work dad was just outside the camp at that time on the long march from Lamsdorf 8b mentioned Patton coming over the horizon and the guards disappearing during the night, captured at crete ,outstanding video
My only close encounter with Patton was was that the barracks next to us (in Hanau Germany) was missing about 1/4 of it- Pattons artillery from WW2. Yes, our barracks were reclaimed from the Wehrmacht😲
Another great video, good job, not sure why i haven't found this channel sooner, and thanks for the link to the Patton incident, many creators mention a link but then never add it. MG Smith looked like he was getting his butt chewed aswell as the troops.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! Moosburg is an interesting place to visit especially as it’s so late in the war. Quite something to walk in Patton’s footsteps around that area too! I think when Masters of the Air is released next year Mossburg POW camp will feature in the series as a lot of men from 100th BG ended up there. Thanks for watching!
@@WW2Wayfinder i visit Bavaria often and always glance up at the old Hitler youth barracks built in 1934 which is a large imposing building right within the town of Sontofen Bavaria, it still looks in immaculate condition and i always think about how the town was during WW2. It’s quite a huge structure but not sure what it is used for today but it’s a very prominent building.
Interesting to see these sites in Bavaria again. Spent several weeks down there on Snow Queen during the early 1980s, i.e. Mittelberg and Sonthofen. Nearly forty years after the war, the ideology and loyalties still showed a few times. Even to the point of wartime officer photos in shops ; and fairly vocal local veterans using the hostelries.
Me and my uncle “Bud” was at the Patton museum in California, someone ask him did he ever actually meet the General- I interrupted, “don’t you remember when he slapped you!” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Okay, at this juncture I think it is my duty to mention a few things I dug up in the course of my years of totally amateurish research of the 'other' version of that war, the different aspects surrounding it but mostly the reasons, motivations, justifications, explanations given by the accused about what they did and did not do, and why. Being a Canadian, a woman and of an age some call respectable, war was not a given part of my daily curiosities until one day, I realized that only Germans had been tried at Nuremberg. That made no sense to me, I needed to know so I looked and what I found was so unexpected, horribly vicious and so incomprehensible, I've been at it for about ten years now and I still haven't found the why of it all. First, the Soviet POWs: at the start of Barbarossa, a lot of red soldiers would not fight for Stalin so the Germans ended up with a lot more prisoners than expected. German HQ got in touch with the Soviets telling them the food situation didn't allow so many new mouths to feed, please send food for your men. Stalin replied our men are on the battlefield or six feet underground, nowhere else, and he hung up. Then, Stalin not having signed either Geneva or the Hague, the stories of Germans in Soviet captivity that eventually reached home were not pretty at all, so the Germans reacted accordingly, something I strongly disagree with, if the devil jumps off the bridge, you don't have to follow. Then, at the end of the war, and this is confirmed by the Red Cross 1948 Final Report on the Camps, the situation there became untenable not because of the evil Nazis, but because once the allies had acquired total air freedom of action, their pilots went on a shooting spree that knew no restraints, from moving trainloads of camp prisoners to farmers in their fields, the whole transportation infrastructure was destroyed, making deliveries of food and medications to the already overcrowded camps impossible for about two long months. And THAT's what we are shown again and again as proof of the monstrosity of the German character. This is misleading, wrong and the unbelievably bestial treatment such misdirected accusations and false claims have brought upon a civilian population who had nothing to do with the war, its crimes or those who committed them is intolerable and now, this has to be told. When we hear that the Germans did something horrific, we MUST always ask why, and where is the evidence, because if we don't, we become accomplices in the worst attempted genocide in human history. Articles 19 and 21 of the charter of the Nuremberg Trials eliminated the need for evidence in murder trials saying it would render the process too tedious, we need to correct that, and bring justice back to this world. This was too long, I know, I apologize, This being said, I can now stop talking, and enjoy your most interesting videos. Cheers.
A bit more on the famous Patton photo. YES, Patton didn't like the mechanical wear and the fuel consumption that the sandbags represented (for little real gain in protection). However, the 14th Armored Division was mostly a Seventh Army (GEN Alexander Patch). It WAS common practice in many Seventh Army units to use copious amounts of sandbag armor added to their medium tanks. In fact, MOST photos of the Shermans with the metal frames holding sandbags can be traced to Seventh Army units, among them the 14th Armored Division, 12th Armored Division, and 781st Tank Battalion (among others). The 13th Armored Div was under the command of MG Smith, who was just out of the famous photo. He chided GEN Patton for berating his men and Patton calmed down rapidly. Another detail, but Third Army shops DID have a program of adding armor to medium tanks. It involved scouring the Ardennes battlefield for wrecked M4A3 tanks. The donor tan's hull was cut and the receving tank got extra glacis armor, usually extending down onto the transmission. Many also got some extra armor on the front sides of the turret. The receipients were M4A3s with either VVSS or HVSS. At that time, the tanks also received .50 cal (12.7mm) co-ax machineguns and often an extra .30 cal on the turret roof. These tanks appear in photos of the 4th, 6th and 11th Armored Divisions from after March of 1945. The donor tanks can sometimes be seen in photos of Bulge tank wrecks that are missing parts of their side armor or complete glacis plates.
My father was in an I&R platoon of the 99th Infantry Division. I know they among the first to get to tje camp because they liberated their guys taken prisoner during the battle of the Bulge.
Oh wow! Thank you for sharing that! Earlier this year I was in the famous I&R Platoon positions of the 349th Inf Reg, 99th Inf Div led by Lt Lyle Bouck Jr. Incredible to think your Father was one of the first to Moosburg to rescue their guys there! Thanks again for sharing that!
Thanks Richard, always trying to learn news ways of telling these stories! The drone side of it has been fun to learn but still lots of room for improvement!
Only 317 likes?!? C'mon people. 3.8K views and only 317 likes is pathetic. You need to support this channel better than that. It takes ZERO effort to click the like button. Sheesh.
@@WW2Wayfinder My pleasure. Thanks for helping to keep he memory of the greatest generation alive. There are so few of those guys left so what you do is really important. I can't believe over 3800 hits and less than 10% bothered with the like button. They really ought to step up that much at least. Keep up the good work and I'll keep tuning in.
Yes, I remember the footage of Patton chewing out that tank crew! I guess the tank was designed for optimal efficiency- and that extra weight negated its advantages during a fight. At least that’s how it was explained to me. “Yeah, I’d rather have the extra protection, thank you very kindly General 🫡🤣”
The US Army tested the protective effects of adding sandbags, concrete, logs etc to the Sherman hull and found that it did not add any protection but did reduce speed and increased wear on the running gear.
I like your videos very much. One small correction: the 14th Armored Division was a “light” armored division which means that it did not have regiments but battalions as its units. So you probably meant the 47th Tank Battalion around 1:44.
No worries. I think it’ll feature in Masters of the Air when it’s released later this year as a good number of 100th BG men needed up in the camp and were liberated in April 1945
Do you have a family member that served with the 100th BG or who served under General Patton during WW2? Let us know in the comments below!
My grandmother's brother, IDK the unit but was with Patton. I never met him but my grandmother said that he told her he once went 30 days without a shower, but they were still required to shave which is typical military BS.
@@heywoodjablowme8120 thank you for sharing that! Patton certainly was a ‘different’ general. Very blood and guts as we all know but still kept up the barrack room bs like shaving as you say and his men having to wear neck ties!
Certainly a man of contrast!
Just glad he was on the Allies side!
@@heywoodjablowme8120 I can’t imagine the hardships those men had to endure! The Greatest Generation!
Yes, my father was in the 13th Armored division. He has mentioned Patton and his time in that region. He specifically mentioned Munich and Innsbrook, Austria.
Angie, thank you for sharing that and thank you for your fathers service.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like for your fathers generation to go through such tough fighting but to finish the war in such a beautiful area.
They truly were the greatest generation.
Thank you for your fathers service!
Loving the drone... I mean expensive helicopter shots. Gives your content great extra production value. Top work.
Thank you! Lots more to come and still learning how to get the best from it to bring the best possible shots to RUclips but great to hear you’re enjoying it!
My great uncle was in the 14th armored “Liberators” Thomas Smith
We lost him about 3 years ago. When I was in 6th grade I was honored with the privilege of interviewing him for 4hours to make a book report. The emotions of his testimony in his eyes and listening to his account, brought me there with him. These men were truly the greatest generation!
I bet that was an incredible project to work on and hear the account from your Great Uncle! Would be great if you were able to revisit the report and publish it as I know the 14th Armored Division page on Facebook is always looking for more information on the Division.
This is the first time I have seen your channel and this video was very special to me. I remember my Dad talking about the liberation of Stalag VIIA. He was one of the combat engineers in the 125th Armored Engineer Battalion that built the Isar pontoon bridge you mentioned. He told me a story of when he entered the camp and heard someone call his name. It was one of his friends in his unit that went missing and no one knew what became of him. It turned out he was captured and imprisoned in the camp. When he saw my Dad and his squad he yelled out "Well it's about damn time you guys got here!". It was quite the reunion. Thanks for making this video. I will be showing it to my kids. It is channels like yours that ensure that tomorrow's generation will never forget the war that changed the world.
Thank you for sharing that about your Father Bob! That’s incredible his friend was there and they were there to meet him!!!!
I’ve done another recent episode about Moosburg (my latest video) which will likely be of interest to and I will feature STALAG VIIA in another specific video soon!
Thanks again for taking the time to share you Fathers story as I really appreciate it!
Love these presentations so lively and descriptive
Yet another brilliant video you have a great presentation style to show your knowledge and depth of research. Currently binge watching them and looking forward to many more.
Thank you!! I’m hoping to go back to STALAG VIIA and film a special episode about the camp itself so keep an eye out for that one!
This 💯
Very informative. My father was an airman from the 15th who was liberated from Moosburg. I’ve visited there numerous times, the first was as a young boy with my father back in the mid 60’s when there were still numerous barracks still in existence along with the German camp HQ building. My father mentioned how lucky he felt when liberated as they were given food and medical assistance while the condition of the Russians was far worse and they just started walking east.
Thank you for this video (and the other) and information. It helps me to see where my father was. He helped to liberate the camp as he came in with the 99th ID. He commented on all the allied prisoners there - some wore turbins. He and another soldier felt sorry for some sick men (they were laying on the floor coughing) in a building and they started to give them their rations. An officer yelled at them to stop and told them to move on - so they did. Another 99th veteran, an officer, I spoke to at a reunion, said that when they drove through the gates in a jeep, the prisoners surrounded them and started pulling on their uniforms and trying to hug them. That officer said sadly that, "They looked upon us like we were gods . . ." and then he got quiet and said he didn't want to talk about it anymore.
Hard to imagine isn’t it what they witnessed during it’s liberation! The elation at seeing their fellow soldiers at the gates must have been hard to believe after all that time as a POW!
I just found your channel and WOW!!! I have been trying to watch everything... you are doing a great job and I love your videos!!
Thank you
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying them and it’s great to know I can share these places with so many people who care about those events all those years ago!
Thanks again!
Thank you so much for sharing and narrating this very informative and interesting video on WWII.
You’re most welcome!
You give us stories that I never heard of, and I thank you for that.
You’re most welcome! I’ll be filming another more septic episode at Moosburg soon so keep an eye out for that as it’ll be a good one!
And the camp should be featured in the new Hanks/Spielberg Master of the Air series about the 100th BG!
sterling work dad was just outside the camp at that time on the long march from Lamsdorf 8b mentioned Patton coming over the horizon and the guards disappearing during the night, captured at crete ,outstanding video
My only close encounter with Patton was was that the barracks next to us (in Hanau Germany) was missing about 1/4 of it- Pattons artillery from WW2.
Yes, our barracks were reclaimed from the Wehrmacht😲
That’s cool!
Another great video, good job, not sure why i haven't found this channel sooner, and thanks for the link to the Patton incident, many creators mention a link but then never add it. MG Smith looked like he was getting his butt chewed aswell as the troops.
Thank you for taking the time to watch!
Moosburg is an interesting place to visit especially as it’s so late in the war. Quite something to walk in Patton’s footsteps around that area too!
I think when Masters of the Air is released next year Mossburg POW camp will feature in the series as a lot of men from
100th BG ended up there.
Thanks for watching!
My uncle “Bud” served under Patton- don’t tell George S.
That “Bud” was gay 🤫🤣
Great content, I’m slowly getting through the rest of your channel 👍👌
Thank you! Glad your enjoying it!
@@WW2Wayfinder i visit Bavaria often and always glance up at the old Hitler youth barracks built in 1934 which is a large imposing building right within the town of Sontofen Bavaria, it still looks in immaculate condition and i always think about how the town was during WW2. It’s quite a huge structure but not sure what it is used for today but it’s a very prominent building.
I haven’t seen that one but in Füssen the barracks there still have the wartime mural of a Gerbirgsjäger on the front of the barracks!
@@WW2Wayfinder just checked google and Hardy Kruger did his training in Sontofen, it’s not that far from Fussen 👌
Interesting to see these sites in Bavaria again. Spent several weeks down there on Snow Queen during the early 1980s, i.e. Mittelberg and Sonthofen. Nearly forty years after the war, the ideology and loyalties still showed a few times. Even to the point of wartime officer photos in shops ; and fairly vocal local veterans using the hostelries.
Glad you enjoyed it and I know what you mean. The ideals are slow to die off!
Another excellent video. I wish I had found your site before this past June. Thank you for the mention of Hardy Krueger.
You’re most welcome!
I’m hoping to go back and properly document the POW Camp at some point!
Thanks again for watching as I really appreciate it!
I live in this particular area of Germany. Never knew much about the WW2 history in this area. Thanks for your work. Really interesting.
Me and my uncle “Bud” was at the Patton museum in California, someone ask him did he ever actually meet the General- I interrupted, “don’t you remember when he slapped you!”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Pattons famous quote, 'we defeated the wrong enemy.' History written by the victors , therefore never questioned.
Okay, at this juncture I think it is my duty to mention a few things I dug up in the course of my years of totally amateurish research of the 'other' version of that war, the different aspects surrounding it but mostly the reasons, motivations, justifications, explanations given by the accused about what they did and did not do, and why. Being a Canadian, a woman and of an age some call respectable, war was not a given part of my daily curiosities until one day, I realized that only Germans had been tried at Nuremberg. That made no sense to me, I needed to know so I looked and what I found was so unexpected, horribly vicious and so incomprehensible, I've been at it for about ten years now and I still haven't found the why of it all. First, the Soviet POWs: at the start of Barbarossa, a lot of red soldiers would not fight for Stalin so the Germans ended up with a lot more prisoners than expected. German HQ got in touch with the Soviets telling them the food situation didn't allow so many new mouths to feed, please send food for your men. Stalin replied our men are on the battlefield or six feet underground, nowhere else, and he hung up. Then, Stalin not having signed either Geneva or the Hague, the stories of Germans in Soviet captivity that eventually reached home were not pretty at all, so the Germans reacted accordingly, something I strongly disagree with, if the devil jumps off the bridge, you don't have to follow.
Then, at the end of the war, and this is confirmed by the Red Cross 1948 Final Report on the Camps, the situation there became untenable not because of the evil Nazis, but because once the allies had acquired total air freedom of action, their pilots went on a shooting spree that knew no restraints, from moving trainloads of camp prisoners to farmers in their fields, the whole transportation infrastructure was destroyed, making deliveries of food and medications to the already overcrowded camps impossible for about two long months. And THAT's what we are shown again and again as proof of the monstrosity of the German character. This is misleading, wrong and the unbelievably bestial treatment such misdirected accusations and false claims have brought upon a civilian population who had nothing to do with the war, its crimes or those who committed them is intolerable and now, this has to be told. When we hear that the Germans did something horrific, we MUST always ask why, and where is the evidence, because if we don't, we become accomplices in the worst attempted genocide in human history. Articles 19 and 21 of the charter of the Nuremberg Trials eliminated the need for evidence in murder trials saying it would render the process too tedious, we need to correct that, and bring justice back to this world. This was too long, I know, I apologize,
This being said, I can now stop talking, and enjoy your most interesting videos. Cheers.
A bit more on the famous Patton photo. YES, Patton didn't like the mechanical wear and the fuel consumption that the sandbags represented (for little real gain in protection). However, the 14th Armored Division was mostly a Seventh Army (GEN Alexander Patch). It WAS common practice in many Seventh Army units to use copious amounts of sandbag armor added to their medium tanks. In fact, MOST photos of the Shermans with the metal frames holding sandbags can be traced to Seventh Army units, among them the 14th Armored Division, 12th Armored Division, and 781st Tank Battalion (among others). The 13th Armored Div was under the command of MG Smith, who was just out of the famous photo. He chided GEN Patton for berating his men and Patton calmed down rapidly. Another detail, but Third Army shops DID have a program of adding armor to medium tanks. It involved scouring the Ardennes battlefield for wrecked M4A3 tanks. The donor tan's hull was cut and the receving tank got extra glacis armor, usually extending down onto the transmission. Many also got some extra armor on the front sides of the turret. The receipients were M4A3s with either VVSS or HVSS. At that time, the tanks also received .50 cal (12.7mm) co-ax machineguns and often an extra .30 cal on the turret roof. These tanks appear in photos of the 4th, 6th and 11th Armored Divisions from after March of 1945. The donor tanks can sometimes be seen in photos of Bulge tank wrecks that are missing parts of their side armor or complete glacis plates.
Another great vid
Thank you!
My father was in an I&R platoon of the 99th Infantry Division. I know they among the first to get to tje camp because they liberated their guys taken prisoner during the battle of the Bulge.
Oh wow! Thank you for sharing that!
Earlier this year I was in the famous I&R Platoon positions of the 349th Inf Reg, 99th Inf Div led by Lt Lyle Bouck Jr. Incredible to think your Father was one of the first to Moosburg to rescue their guys there!
Thanks again for sharing that!
Mine is traveling through Bordeaux region France and seeing the infamous hedgerows U.S. soldiers had to contend with when they landed on D day.
Incredible isn’t it to think what those young men had to fight through! Thank you for watching
Interesting video
Can WW2 Way Finder provide video documentary's for South England Battle Of Britain
I will be don’t worry. I know Kent and that area very well so it is on the list!
I don’t praise you enough of your drone footage- it make it very cinematic 👍
Thanks Richard, always trying to learn news ways of telling these stories! The drone side of it has been fun to learn but still lots of room for improvement!
Only 317 likes?!? C'mon people. 3.8K views and only 317 likes is pathetic. You need to support this channel better than that. It takes ZERO effort to click the like button. Sheesh.
Thanks! Every little helps to try and bring. The RUclips algorithm on side and push my content! Thanks again 😃
@@WW2Wayfinder My pleasure. Thanks for helping to keep he memory of the greatest generation alive. There are so few of those guys left so what you do is really important. I can't believe over 3800 hits and less than 10% bothered with the like button. They really ought to step up that much at least. Keep up the good work and I'll keep tuning in.
Yes, I remember the footage of Patton chewing out that tank crew!
I guess the tank was designed for optimal efficiency- and that extra weight negated its advantages during a fight.
At least that’s how it was explained to me.
“Yeah, I’d rather have the extra protection, thank you very kindly General 🫡🤣”
Exactly. I’d offer to removed the sandbags if he jumped in the drivers seat!🫣
@@WW2Wayfinder
🤣🤣🤣
The US Army tested the protective effects of adding sandbags, concrete, logs etc to the Sherman hull and found that it did not add any protection but did reduce speed and increased wear on the running gear.
I like your videos very much. One small correction: the 14th Armored Division was a “light” armored division which means that it did not have regiments but battalions as its units. So you probably meant the 47th Tank Battalion around 1:44.
Never heard of this- thanks for adding to my knowledge👍❤️🫡
My brain needs to make more room- Led Zeppelin music has taken so much space in there🤣
No worries. I think it’ll feature in Masters of the Air when it’s released later this year as a good number of 100th BG men needed up in the camp and were liberated in April 1945