German Field Marshal Beaten With His Own Baton!

[Music] under normal circumstances the surrender of a German field Marshall in World War II was a fairly dignified occasion as the war in Europe Drew to a close in early May 1945 many of Hitler's top commanders chose to surrender to the Western Aly and among a host of generals were some of Hitler's former Soldiers the commanders of his armies Hitler appointed 26 men to the exalted rank of field Marshal from military Geniuses like Irvin Rommel to military donkeys like vilhelm kitle one Herman guring was promoted one rank higher from field Marshall to reich's Marshall and

Hitler also raised two naval officers to the naval equivalent of field Marshal the rank of grand admiral of the 28 men who were made field Marshals or equivalent some died before the end of the war for example roml forced to dispose of himself because of his involvement in the July plot against Hitler or fedon Bach killed along with his wife and stepdaughter when his staff car was shut up by a New Zealand fighter near Hamburg on the 3rd of May 1945 Fon Bach dying of his injuries the next day the first German Field Marshal to

have been taken prisoner by the Allies was Friedrich palus at Stalingrad on the 31st of January 1943 who had defied Hitler's expectation that he end his life rather than surrender at War's end came a deluge of field Marshals falling into Allied hands Field Marshal K ring former commander of the German troops in Italy [Music] [Applause] field Marshall Fon rinstead former commander in the [Music] West Field Marshall Fon k one such was aard mil a key figure in the Luft faffer state Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation from 1935 to 44 and Inspector General the

Luft faffer from 1939 to January 1945 promoted by Hitler to field Marshall on the 19th of July 1940 milk was in charge of most of World War II German aircraft production and supply in World War I he had commanded a Fighter Wing though interestingly he had never qualified as a pilot and was instead an observer flying in combat on the Western Front and postwar was a businessman in the aviation industry eventually becoming a managing director of Luft hanza he secretly joined the nsdap in 1929 and took up his appointment as state Secretary in the aviation

Ministry in 1934 answering directly to guring but perhaps the most remarkable fact about milk was that he was half Jewish his father was a Jewish pharmacist in vilsen guring halted an investigation into milk's family background being conducted by the Gusto and protected his useful subordinate who went on to command luter 5 during the invasion of Norway in 1940 and again during the Battle of France under the terms of the 1935 race laws milk would not have been regarded as Jewish and sent to a concentration camp as at this time the Nazis had decided that jewishness

passed through the female line from mothers to Children however he would have been in some danger and his life would have been difficult but under ging's protection he flourished and prospered an example of ging's famous saying I decide who is a Jew milk worked closely with both Henrik himler and the wder SS to keep foreign workers under control in the aircraft factories and insisted that in the event of prisoner uprisings concerning working conditions and Mal treatment the SS should storm in and shoot qu this foreign scum end quot as milk called his workers he also

said quote every 10th man is to be picked out and every 10th man will be shot in front of the rest end quote it appears that milk had designs on ging's position as leader of the Lu ruffer and in 1944 he Allied himself with himler and propaganda Minister Gobles in an attempt to have Hitler remove guring from power but Hitler refused to sack him when guring discovered that one of the fingers on the trigger was his subordinate milk the man he had dutifully protected and promoted he retaliated by having milk removed from all of his

posts in March 1945 milk was put out to Grass permanently placed on the f resera a list of senior officers awaiting new appointments or being deliberately sidelined milk retired to his palacial hunting lodge outside Berlin but with the approach of the Red Army to the German capital in April 1945 made Hasty arrangements to save himself his family and his close staff members from an all expenses paid trip to Siberia by fleeing West by early May 1945 milk was in sconed in zagan Castle outside the town of noat a small settlement in sches holin in the

far north of Germany within easy reach of grand Admiral Carl der's new Nazi government next to the British occupation Zone a man with a reputation concerning the use of slave and forced labor would have done well to have avoided noat in May 1945 but milk either didn't know or more likely didn't care about what had occurred in the town in the harbor at noat were two ships the cap Arona and the Teck both vessels were crowded with prisoners from noen G concentration camp on the 3rd of May 1945 in a tragic accident British typhoon aircraft

had attacked both ships due to misleading intelligence reports the senior Nazis such as himler and others were trying to escape from northern Germany perhaps to Norway 4,600 prisoners on the cap Arona and 2,800 inmates [ __ ] the teal Beck were killed several hundred more who were on barges hadn't yet joined the ships and were landed by the SS before they fled but the citizens of noat along with the local vomm homeg guard militia and Creeks Marina Sailors drove these remaining prisoners together and shot around 300 in the town including women and children the remainder

being put on another ship itself a victim of Allied Air Attack noat also contained its own concentration camp British Commandos were rapidly approaching a town littered with dead dying and injured concentration camp prisoners and those who were not injured were badly off barely clinging to life the British first Commando Brigade consisted of units of both the Army and the Royal Marines some of the toughest and most effective troops in field Marshall Montgomery's 21st Army group in the Forefront to the British advance from the beaches of Normandy to der's rump Nazi state in Northern Germany the

Commandos had landed on D-Day famously Lord lit's first Commando unit which had relieved the gader troops that had captured Pegasus bridge and both Commando brigades had fought many engagements across France into the Netherlands and on into Germany crossing the river Ry in late March 1945 the Commandos now Advance towards the Baltic it was while the first Commando Brigade was acting as a mobile flank guard for the advancing British seventh Corp to the river Elba that their Advance took them past a town called Bergen bellson and its Infamous concentration camp bellson being liberated by the British

Army and many of the officers and Men of the Commando Brigade saw firsthand the pitiable conditions of the surviving prisoners and the piles of unburied corpses like the US troops that liberated daa concentration camp in Bavaria many were profoundly shocked by what they saw coloring forever their view of the Germans as a people and hardening their attitude to German troops particularly SS troops and Nazi officials who subsequently fell into their hands none was more affected by what he had seen than the first Commando brigade's Commander Brigadier Derek Mills Roberts had 36 years old an army

high flyer with a chest full of gallantry medals and a notoriously short fuse Mills Roberts was a lawyer by training but joined the Commandos by way of the Irish guards in 1940 the Commandos at the time were a new kind of force designed to conduct smallscale raids and harass German garrisons on the coast of German occupied France in March 1941 Mills Roberts took part in the largest Commando raid so far on the lon islands in the Norwegian Arctic the main objectives of the invading Commandos are Nazi ammunition stores protected by enemy Machine Gun Nest [Music]

[Music] [Applause] now the zappers lay down more wires with dynamite on the business [Music] end then in 1942 the disastrous deep raid in France earning a military cross for gallantry promoted to leftenant Colonel and given command of number six Commando unit he fought in North Africa receiving the distinguished service order in 1943 for his gallantry and distinguished services in that challenging theater during the Normandy Landings Mills Roberts unit captured the town of Westrom and linked up with the British sixth Airborne Division on the Eastern flank of Sword Beach promoted to Brigadier drwn the campaign across

Northwest Europe and given command of the first Commando Brigade he was horrified and upset again in May 1945 when his men captured noat and found it full of the same unfortunate concentration camp inmates that they had just seen at bson hundreds of corpses most of them victims of shootings lay unburied in noad concentration camp and around the town Mills Robert's nickname among the Commandos was Mills bomb after the standard British number 36 Mills bomb hang grenade a man not to be trifled with and one with an explosive temper when roused Mills Roberts had just come

from helping British Medics trying to sort out sick and dying concentration camp prisoners arriving at his temporary headquarters which had been set up in a restaurant in the town square at noat he was told by his staff that a German field Marshall had arrived and was wanting to see him that man was of course field Marshall aard milk who had driven into the town under a white flag in his staff car accompanied by some of his AIDS dressed in his full uniform and decorations and carrying in one gloved hand his badge of rank a Feld

old Marshall's baton not the heavy jewel encrusted ceremonial Batton used for very special occasions but what is termed an interim baton a more practical silver topped ebonized stick that resembled a riding crop with a tassel guring was often seen carrying his reiches Marshall's interim baton for everyday use Brigadier Mills Roberts was sat at his desk when milk stred in a black leather great coat over his Luft raffer uniform interim baton grasped in his right hand Mills Roberts said nothing and pointedly did not rise in milk's presence a military courtesy usually extended almost universally amongst friend

and foe when it came to very senior ranking officers he spoke English said Mills Roberts and his first words consisted of a self- congratulation that he had not surrendered to the Russians in fact he had been careful to move out of their area of occupation or influence and was glad to surrender to us Mills Roberts in a black mood after his experiences at bson and noat concentration camps cut him off and asked him pointedly about the prisoners in the camp milk was apparently very surprised by this line of questioning and also couldn't understand why Mills

Roberts were so upset according to Witnesses who were in the room and from milk's own diary things soon became very ugly according to milk he said that Mills Robert said to him qu all German generals are criminals murderers guilty of the concentration camps Etc end quot and according to other Witnesses milk retorted that he belonged to the Luft faffer and he had never had anything to do with the concentration camps before adding though this is highly contended the following in reference to the Concentration Camp inmates littering the town quote they are not soldiers but poles

or Russians they are not human beings by our standards end quote some have contended that the last line was made up after the events to provide some reason for Mills Robert's violent Outburst that followed and milk gave the impression in his diary that Mills Roberts needed no urging to start assaulting him whatever it was that triggered Mill's bomb the Brigadier went fully off and launched himself at the unsuspecting Field Marshal in the process gaining for himself a place in military history the only Allied Soldier to have ever struck a German field Marsh in fact Mills

Roberts said about not just striking milk but giving air hard milk a right Royal British thrashing during the exchange of words in the restaurant headquarters Mills Roberts had thumped an empty bottle of champagne hard on his desk several times to make his point while demanding answers from milk and milk had apparently tries to seize hold of the bottle presumably to stop the noise Mills Roberts at this point had leapt up grabbed milk's interim B from him and proceeded to beat him about the head with it milk was left bleeding from behind his left ear and

the rear of his skull and as the beating was administered milk shouted at Mills Roberts quote General I am an officer a field Marshal are you not ashamed General end quote the interim baton then snapped over his head and fell in pieces on the floor next Mills Roberts tore milk's cap from his head and threw it upon the ground ordering quote go fetch your cap end quote as milk Rose from retrieving his uniform cap Mills Roberts snatched up a champagne bottle and attempted to smash it over the field Marshall's head but milk stopped the blow

with his left forearm which was badly bruised in the encounter Mills Roberts then stopped his assault and gained control of himself and milk was led Away by members of Mills Roberts staff he was driven back to Castle zagen where British Commandos then robbed him and his entire party at gunpoint their valuables including milk's ceremonial field Marshals baton before he was taken to a camp in lunberg lunberg now being the headquarters of field Marshall Montgomery's 21st Army group Mills Roberts Batman retrieved the broken pieces of milk's interim baton from the floor of the office and kept

them as a souvenir passing them to Mills robbert's wife who had the Baton repair postwar now of course Mills Robert's Behavior was out of order of that fact there is no doubt physical assaults on surrendered enemy Personnel are not allowed and treating a very senior enemy officer in this manner broke just about all of the rules and customs of behavior but in Mills Robert's defense Commandos are by their very nature aggressive and direct men that is in the nature of both their training and their wartime experience and that aggression sometimes can be hard to turn

off Mills Roberts was was also a well-known hotthead he was known to have a very short temper hence his nickname and mil underestimated the collective disgust and anger shared by many Allied soldiers over the Concentration Camp atrocities do not forget that during the liberation of daau some American soldiers had lost control of themselves and had shot surrendered SS soldiers in a massacre which was a war crime so was Mills Roberts punished for his crime not quite sum see Montgomery the next day the British leader apparently jokingly covered his head with his arms as Mills Roberts

entered his command tent quipping I hear youve got a thing about field Marshals end qu Mills Roberts apologized for the incident but Monty said nothing more about it no action was taken against his fiery subordinate indeed a month later Mills Roberts received a bar to his DSO signifying a second award for his Gallant leadership of the Commando Brigade in the last months of the war aard milk was put on trial at nernberg and convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment his sentence was later reduced to 15 years and he

was actually released early in 1954 dying in dorf at the age of 79 in 1972 Mills Roberts passed away in 1980 age 71 his widow put milks restored field Marshal's interim Batton up for auction but the milk family had an injunction placed on the auction claiming the Batton was stolen however a British Court ruled that the Baton was legitimate War booty and it was sold at the auction to a collector in Florida I can't help thinking however at the Newberg trial that when guring found out about what Mills Roberts had done to milk the man

who had tried to remove guring I'm sure a rise smile crossed his face thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook Channel War stories with Mark Felton you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below