Did he kill all those Germans?

[rwsmith]

Even in movie like 'Band of Brothers'..,

I think in the context of that episode of Band Of Brothers it was clear Spiers killed all of the prisoners after giving them smokes. It is referenced later when some of the guys are talking about Spiers, and when he deliberately offers a new guy a smoke to rattle him a little.

I don't know if the real Spiers did the deed, though.

..I thought that was hilarious.


I saw WWII vets being interviewed, some of them said that they'd never talked about some of the things they saw, many were crying while they talked. I think they jumped at the chance to finally get it out after they'd held it in for 70 years. For some it was probably the last chance. They mentioned several situations where groups of prisoners had been shot en masse because the movement was only in one direction...Berlin, and they had no means to escort them back or manage them even if they could. There wasn't a man among them who looked happy about any of it.

 

[Watchdog]

One of my childhood friend's father parachuted into Normandy on D-Day with Fox Company, 506th PIR. Fox Company (Fighting Fox Company) fought alongside Easy Company throughout the war, and their final mission of the war was also the capture of Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Eagles Nest.

Herman knew all those guys in Easy, and was intervied by Stephen Ambrose several times, both for background on Band of Brothers and a public television documentary about North Carolina soldiers who went into Europe on D-Day.

My friend said his dad told him that there are some things that aren't talked about. I don't know if the term "illegal killing" was in use during WWII, but that would have been one thing that wasn't talked about post-war by a lot of veterans.

I attended his funeral years ago. His dress uniform was displayed and the jacket was festooned with ribbons and decorations, with the American Flag alongside. If you were a veteran looking at that, you unconsciously assumed the position of attention.

A side note: How is it possible that it's been eighteen years since Band of Brothers first aired?

 

[Abbynormal]

My Uncle was a Combat Medic with the 71sr Inf Div. He came home with 2 Bronze Stars and and no Purple Heart medals, because he was too busy helping the wounded to fill out the injury report that was sent from the front line medic to the nearest mobile hospital. He was wounded by bullets and shrapnel 3 times during the war and didn't report any and never received a Purple Heart medal! He said after the Bulge (Malmady), he never treated a SS soldier, but did treat Wehrmacht soldiers.

I asked why and he said: "There weren't any SS alive to treat".

He was later captured near the end of the war and spent 2 weeks in Dacau Concentration Camp. The GI's that freed him did a fully complete job on the Krauts that ran the camp.

 

[Absalom]

With all due respect, American soldiers coming back from Europe after WW II were just as prone to tall stories as any other soldiers in history.

The stories of "no SS being taken prisoner" or "Waffen SS being shot on sight" certainly have some anecdotal basis, but the actual facts, as in post-war survival rates, don't support any general conclusion. Overall, the Waffen SS had somewhat higher casualty rates than the Wehrmacht, but on the Western front, the vast majority of both made it alive into POW camps, and home within just a few years.

Attached picture courtesy of the Museum of the 12th Armored Division: US soldiers with captured Waffen SS.

Quite different from the Eastern front. A great-uncle of mine survived eight years in Siberia, and of the 90,000 troops of the 6th Army that surrendered at Stalingrad, about 5000 came back alive, some as late as 1955.

 

[REM 3200]

With all due respect, American soldiers coming back from Europe after WW II were just as prone to tall stories as any other soldiers in history.

I think it's called "War stories and other lies".

 

[Watchdog]

This photograph is the last official photograph of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion. This photo contains both original Currahees from the Camp Toccoa training period and replacement troops assigned to Easy Company throughout the war.

Photographed at Zell Am Zee, Austria in June of 1945. Photo is courtesy of 506th PIR 2nd Battalion Archives.

You'll see familiar names...Joseph Liebgott, David Webster, "Bull" Randlelman, "Babe" Heffron, Frank Perconte, and others.

Captain Ronald Speirs is 8th from the left on the third row.

All brave young lions who earned their place in history.

Click the photo to enlarge it.

 

[sigp220.45]

Whatever he did, he looks fine with it.

 

[jimbo728]

After reading all of this, Im thankful and amazed that 2 of my uncles, one ended up in a German POW camp after his aircraft was downed, and the other had been captured by the Japanese at Corregidor, both came home alive.
Jim

 

[Watchdog]

Whatever he did, he looks fine with it.

It's kinda hard to find a good photograph of Ronald Speirs. I came up with these. There's also a few of him as a Lt. Col. when he was Governor of Spandau Prison in 1958...but I couldn't copy them and didn't feel like messing with the screenshot process. I'm sure there are some more photos of him in the 506th archives...just haven't really searched them. Yet.

Interestingly enough, two of his nicknames were "Sparky" and "Killer".

His surname is actually spelled Speirs...not as you see it in the printing on the one photo below. That's something someone just stuck on it to show it online.

He passed away in Saint Marie, Montana on April 11, 2007 at the age of 86.

 

[Eupher]

Spiers and "Governor" of Spandau Prison

I've read numerous accounts that Ronald Speirs, who stayed in the Army after WWII and retired in 1966 as a Lieutenant Colonel, was appointed as "Governor" of Spandau Prison in the British Sector of West Berlin.

I was assigned to the Berlin Brigade in 1983 and left in 1991 in one long assignment. I was there when Hess committed suicide in 1987 and it took the Brits about 3 nanoseconds to completely raze the prison. They took the debris and either buried it or dumped it in the North Sea, according to these accounts, all of which was done to discourage the formation of a Nazi shrine.

At any rate, I have looked high and low for evidence that Speirs was named as "Governor" of Spandau Prison. I've never been able to find anything on that at all, except for somebody writing to say that he was.

This was not how Spandau Prison operated. Each of the four Allied Powers (France, Britain, Soviet Union, USA) took turns in guarding that prison. Each month, the guard mount was held and the reins would be passed in a small ceremony in front of the prison. A junior-grade officer would command the guard and a small contingent of soldiers was stationed at the prison during the month of their tour.

As best as I can tell, there was no "Governor" of Spandau Prison, at least during my time and until 1987. Certainly, the infantry battalions within the Berlin Brigade were tasked to come up with soldiers to serve as guards, but they were temporarily commanded by junior grade officers and only during their month of service. That duty was not permanent and the guards would change as soldiers rotated in and out of Berlin and to their availability. It's possible that an experienced NCO would serve as Sergeant of the Guard and supervise the platoon or so of soldiers serving and, as I stated, a junior officer was designated as Officer of the Guard, but no "Governor".

The implication of the term "Governor" is that this officer, Speirs in this case, was cited as being overall in charge for ALL of the Four Allied Powers, and that is certainly not the case -- at least I've not been able to find evidence supporting that theory.

 

[Thomas M. Black]

IIRC reading when Sobel died none of Easy Company went to his funeral.
Tom Black

 

[mark brewer]

I believe "Bitte" means 'Please!' in German.

Smithhound, you are correct. By the way, my late father in law was Wermacht (German Army) and a paratrooper. He told me once that the popular word to use when surrendering (he never did) was "kamerad", which means "buddy" or "pal". He was one tough old man, and I really miss him. Seeing him and some of his war buddies who were in their late 70s, I had to wonder, how in the hell did we beat those guys in two world wars?

Regards,


Dave

i've kind of wondered the same thing. the german soldiers were tough, intelligent, experienced and had great equipment.

a few years ago, some friends came over and we played a board game called "axis and allies" and it became pretty clear once we got into the game: germany was pretty limited in resources of every kind. i guess this is why the little guy with the moustache was so hot to commit strategic suicide by invading russia. he needed their oil fields and anything else he could get.

 

[30-30remchester]

While not in the Atlantic theater of the war, my uncle had the distinction of being one of the longest held American POW's of the war. When the Jap's invaded the Philippines, Mc Arthur knew he had to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula but needed covering fire so they had time to escape. He left behind the 200th and 155th Costal Artillery, to delay the enemy as long as possible with orders to fight to the last round of ammo which they did. They delayed the Jap's long enough for the army to escape. He had some interesting stories to tell.

 

[sheepdawg]

There's a great museum in Toccoa that has quite a bit of the Band of Brothers memorabilia, 10 miles east of my house. I see Currahee Mountain most every day. Been to the top, three miles up, three miles down. I can't imagine running it.

My dad was Wehrmacht, captured in October 1944 near Metz. It was tough to get anything about the front lines out of him but he told me about the P.O.W. camp. The captured Wehrmacht troops often would rat out any SS trying to hide amongst them. One morning three American MPs drug a guy out of the barracks and as soon as they were out of sight two gunshots went off. Americans simply did not tolerate SS.


While looking through some Life magazine archives I found this picture taken by well known Life photographer Ralph Morse of German P.O.W.s being marched off to the rear. My father is in front holding his lapels. Very lucky find.

 

[Smoke]

I have done a lot of reading on Ronald Speirs and I have yet to find a single first-person account of him murdering any German soldiers. I have not come across a single account where the person claims to be an eyewitness who saw him shoot.

The massacre at Malmedy would have had ZERO bearing on what Spiers may or may not have done the day after D-Day.

As for Sobel, when he died no one attended his funeral. If I understand what I read the nursing home that he was in didn't even notify his family that he had died.

In the book Band of Brothers EVERY single person they interviewed said that Sobel was a.jerk but they SPECIFICALLY credited his strict training regimen with making them the soldiers that they were.

Also his children all say that Sobel (for his age) was in excellent physical condition. He LEAD the runs up and down Curahee.

He also DID make the combat jump on D-Day, just with HHC not Easy.

After WWII he was recalled to active duty (as was Winters) for Korea and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

After the war he went down hill mentally. He ended up in an assisted living facility. He tried to shoot himself and only succeeded in severing his optic nerve and blinding himself.

 

[Muss Muggins]

I kinda figured we'd a settled this in 11 years . . .

 

[Smoke]

I kinda figured we'd a settled this in 11 years . . .

It would seem not

 

[sigp220.45]

I kinda figured we'd a settled this in 11 years . . .

But what a cast of posters! Five banned, two absent comrades, and one currently suspended!

 

[Rustyt1953]

But what a cast of posters! Five banned, two absent comrades, and one currently suspended!

I have to admit that "feral" had his good days.

 

[PALADIN85020]

I met this old gentleman quite a few years ago in an antique shop in Bisbee, Arizona. The shop was managed by unpaid volunteers, and he was one of them. An unassuming, modest and nice guy.

We got to talking about our service experiences, and what he shared with me was unexpected. He related that he served in the Pacific with the Army. Turned out that he was an actual survivor of the Bataan death march. We talked very briefly, as I did not want to stir any painful memories. I did ask permission to take a photo of him, and he assented.

This is a portrait of a true WWII hero. If the statistics are valid, he is probably gone now. May God bless his soul.

John