Why was the 1944 surrender of 20,000 Germans on the Western Front remarkable?
score:15
Let's tackle the two questions you have separately:
The Context for Elster's "Unbelievable" Surrender
From the American perspective, the number of troops involved in the surrender was large. U.S. experience in Sicily in the summer of 1943, for example, was that German surrenders were rare and relatively small in number, versus large numbers of Italian surrenders (See Atkinson's Day of Battle here (Google Books: http://goo.gl/C7V3s) for example.
Elster's forces were not in a position which dictated immediate and urgent surrender, as indicated by the surprise and disbelief at the surrender "without a shot" in the 2 October, 1944 Life magazine article after the surrender which popularized this particular incident (Google Books: http://goo.gl/ob1If). While this surprise may be natural on the U.S. side, in fact, this hides the fact that Elster was not in command of a coherent body of organized units. Instead, "Elster's column" was a ragtag group of extremely mixed units (including Indian volunteers in the Indische Legion, and Ukrainian and other volunteer forces) who were following orders to retreat from the southern French coast and nearby areas. More than half of the total 100,000 or so escaped. It was a long, some 30 mile string of forces under daily harassment from Allied air attack, and what remained of it surrendered when Elster lost contact with his screening force (see Retreat to the Reich by Samuel W. Mitcham, p211)
Largest Number of Germans to Surrender Before Elster
The question of what was the largest number of Germans to surrender is a bit trickier. This might be counted two ways: Total troops who surrendered at one moment as an act of their overall commander, or troops of various units who surrendered in the course of some chronologically limited "battle" and geographically delimited area. The latter is probably more important from a broad historical perspective, but very arbitrary to define, while the former has little historical significance while being easier to determine.
- If defined as troops collectively surrendered by their commander, the answer is, as pointed out by (@Kobunite) most likely the Stalingrad surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus on 31 January, 1943. Anthony Beever quotes the number 91,000 men, and 22 generals (Beever's Stalingrad, p396), but elsewhere notes that this number was "proclaimed by the Soviet government" (p399) and thus should be seen as highly suspect. Also, there is no clear indication how many of these 91,000 include German units that surrendered long before Paulus officially surrendered (examples of this on p360), and unclear how many of these include non-Germans (several thousand Romanians, for example). It seems likely, however, that whatever the exact number, it far exceeds the number, and certainly the importance of the Elster surrender in 1944.
Other places, you may find more details:
- Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene des Zweiten Weltkriege by Rüdiger Overmans
Upvote:4
The quote is from the London Times obituary of Sir Thomas Macpherson who died on 6th November 2014.
After capture in the North African campaign (during the failed assassination attempt on Rommel) and subsequent escape he joined the SOE and was parachuted into France.
"The Jedburgh team of which Major Macpherson was in charge, codenamed “Quinine”, was flown from Blida in Algiers and dropped near Aurillac, in the Cantal department, on the night of June 8, 1944. Accompanied by Aspirant (officer cadet) Prince Michel de Bourbon of the French Army and Sergeant Arthur Brown of the Royal Tank Regiment, Macpherson — a proud Scot — wore his kilt for the occasion. The attire caused some confusion and the first report to reach the local maquisards claimed “a French officer has arrived with his wife”. In order to swell partisan numbers, Macpherson drove around in a car — still wearing his Cameron Highlander tartans — openly flying the Union Flag pennant and the Croix de Lorraine, much to the astonishment of his comrades. After establishing contact with the Gaullist FFI (Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur), he urged them to disrupt railway lines and to destroy a number of locomotives at Capdenac. Attempts were made to trap Macpherson and it was said that a 300,000 franc price was put on his head.
He became known for leading large-scale guerrilla operations — including one against the Das Reich Panzer division shortly after his arrival in France. Macpherson and the “Jeds” demolished a bridge the Germans were hoping to cross, and defended another for six days against their attacks.
He turned his attention to the communist FTP (Francs-tireurs et partisans) who, at his suggestion, stole two Citroën cars from the Vichy-French police to enhance their tactical mobility. Macpherson later moved Quinine to Toulouse and became part of a French Resistance force known as the Groupement Mobile du Sud Ouest, which moved north of Clermont- Ferrand.
Whether through bravery or chutzpah, Macpherson won the surrender of 23,000 Wehrmacht troops by spouting a series of brazen lies. He presented himself to the commanding officer, Major-General Botho Elster, and assured him that heavy artillery, 20,000 troops and RAF bombers were waiting for Macpherson’s word to attack. In reality he had only the aid of another Jedburgh team. Surrender or die, he urged Elster; the bluff worked. Elster and his troops eventually passed into US Army captivity."
Obviously a brave and courageous man.
Upvote:7
On 13 May 1943 the last Axis resistance in Africa ended with the surrender of over 230,000 prisoners of war. At least some of them were Italians though.
ADDED: 157000 Germans and 87000 Italians according to the book "Mussolini Warlord: Failed Dreams of Empire, 1940-1943" found in Google Books
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