Showing posts with label Military Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military Police. Show all posts

23 June 2020

General Alfred Gutknecht Captured by the US


Image size: 1213 x 1600 pixel. 638 KB
Date: Tuesday, 29 August 1944
Place: Near Fismes, France
Photographer: Snyder

This NARA (National Archives) photo collection, made by war correspondent Snyder, shows some time after Generalmajor Alfred Gutknecht (Höherer Kommandeur der Kraftfahrtruppen beim Oberbefehlshaber West) was captured by the US Army, on August 29, 1944. He was arrested when the vehicle carrying him crossed path with a convoy of American armored vehicles - which was advancing at high speed toward territory still controlled by Germany - near Fismes, France, which was located on the road between Reims and Soissons. You could say that this was the peak of the general's sadness and depression (clearly visible from the expression on his face, which was in sharp contrast to the grinning look of the Military Police next to him!). When he was transferred from his position as Officer of Staff Grenzabschnittskommando Nord to Staff 16. Armee on the Western Front shortly after the end of the German invasion of Poland, Gutknecht Beurteilung (Evaluation) document stated that he - who was still in the rank of Oberst - openly wept and asked to ask to remain stationed in the East in order to stay close to his sickly wife in the Ostpreußen region. His personnel were affixed with scathing comments: "If we cannot prevent the whiny colonel in our military, at least we can still prevent him from becoming a crybaby general!" While in Allied detention in the Berlin prison camp, Gutknecht received the tragic news that his beloved wife had died. Unable to bear the pain any longer, he later committed suicide on November 12, 1946.


Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=160170&hilit=leyser
https://wehrmachtss.blogspot.com/2018/10/penangkapan-jenderal-jerman-oleh.html

05 May 2013

Major A.S. "Jack" Kenworthy Escorts Lt. General Tomoyuki Yamashita to Trial


Image size: 1600 x 1303 pixel. 738 KB
Date: Monday, 29 October 1945
Place: Manila, Luzon, Philippine
Photographer: Unknown

Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya," is arraigned before the War Crimes Commission in Manila, pleading not guilty. He will be confined at New Bilibid Prison until his trial, October 29, 1945, in Manila. Here, Major A. S. "Jack" Kenworthy, Military Police prison officer, delivers Gen. Yamashita to the residence of the Philippine High Commissioner, where Yamashita was held for arraignment in the first step of the war-crime trials to be held in the Pacific. The arraignment was open to the public. Yamashita was brought from his cell in New Bilibid Prison in an ambulance for security reasons. The legitimacy of the hasty trial has been called into question by many, as considerable evidence pointed to the fact that Yamashita was either not aware of the atrocities that were committed, or was unable to properly control his soldiers due to communication disruption caused by the U.S. Army during their offensive. One of the atrocities in Manila was even carried out by a unit that disobeyed his orders to retreat. Following the Supreme Court decision, an appeal for clemency was made to President Truman. The President, however, declined to act and thereby left the matter entirely in the hands of the military. In due time, General MacArthur announced that he had confirmed the sentence of the Commission and on February 23, 1946, at Los Banos Prison Camp, 30 miles south of Manila, Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged.

Source:
National Archives (NARA) Identifier 292615
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_War_Crimes_Trials._Manila_-_NARA_-_292615.jpg
http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1021