Execution of German Spies During the battle of the bulge in the Ardennes in Belgium, some German soldiers were caught wearing US uniforms. A US court martial sentenced them to death. A U.S. military policeman prepares the firing squad for German spies: Corporal Wilhelm Schmidt, 24, Officer-Cadet Guenther Billing, 21, and Sergeant Manfred Pernass, 23, after a court-martial by American authorities in Belgium during the Ardennes offensives. Three Germans were captured wearing American uniforms, armed with American weapons and driving an American jeep during the ill-fated enemy offensive in December 1944. They failed to give the password of any proper identification when stopped. They admitted their mission was to locate and sabotage communications and reconnoitre (survey) bridges and roads over the Meuse. Specially trained for espionage, the men had familiarized themselves with the American accent by mingling with U.S. prisoners of war in Germany. Related topic The Battalion ...

Joseph Lewis - for the murder of a gamekeeper. Joseph Lewis came to trial at Glamorganshire Assizes, before Mr. Justice Wills, on Tuesday the 9th of August 1898 for the murder of game-keeper 39 year old Robert Scott at Margam in South Wales on the evening of the 9th of June. Scott was head keeper for a Miss Talbot who owned Margam Abbey and on the fateful day he and an under-keeper named Kidd and a constable named Hawken were looking out for poachers. They spotted a man in dark clothing coming down the mountain.  Scott sent Kidd to fetch Hawken and Kidd then heard a shot.   A witness by the name of White testified that he had seen Lewis and heard two shots fired from a 12 bore shotgun.  Scott did not return home that night and so a search was made for him the next morning.  He was found dead in a ditch, having been shot in the face and had his skull smashed. Lewis was seen making for Tailbach and the following day sent out for fresh clothes.  Several witnes...

THE EXECUTION OF THE GERMAN GENERAL ANTON DOSTLER  BY FIRING SQUAD. German General Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad in the Aversa stockade. The General was convicted and sentenced to death by an American military tribunal after ordering the execution of 15 US soldiers on 26th March 1944. General Anton Dostler was a general of the infantry in the regular German Army during World War II. In the first Allied war trial after the war, Dostler was found guilty of war crimes and executed by firing squad.  He ordered and oversaw the unlawful execution of fifteen captured U.S. soldiers. The soldiers were sent behind the German lines with orders to demolish a tunnel that was being used by the German army as a supply route to the front lines.  They were captured and upon learning of their mission, Dostler ordered their execution without trial. The U.S. soldiers were wearing proper military uniforms and carried no civilian or enemy clothin...

Bulgarian soldier and poet Geo Milev who lost his right eye in battle, 1918. Georgi Milev Kasabov was born on January 15, 1895 in Radnevo, Bulgaria to parents who were teachers and owners of a book store. . In 1912, Milev studied philosophy at Sofia University, before continuing his education at Leipzig University in Germany, where he took up poetry inspired by German expressionism. His first set of poems were published in a Bulgarian magazine in December 1913. . Upon the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, Bulgaria stayed neutral, and Milev moved to London to develop his poetry and improve his English. Milev returned to Leipzig on October 18, 1914, but was detained in Hamburg on suspicion of being a British spy. He was released after 11 days due to a lack of evidence. . In August 1915, Milev returned to Bulgaria, who entered the First World War with the Central Powers on October 14, 1915. Milev's father was soon mobilized, forcing Milev to take over the family's...

Chinese Guerrilla Fighter Cheng Benhua  Smiling Moment Before Execution By The Japanese, She Was 24. (Late 1938) Chinese guerrilla fighter Cheng Benhua smiling moment before execution by Japanese. (Late 1938) She led a local resistance movement during Nanjing Massacre, was then imprisoned and gang raped before being executed by bayonet. This photo is primary reason she is remembered. she was a Chinese soldier who was just gangraped by Japanese soldiers. To show her contempt for them, she posed for some pictures. Later they killed her by firing squad. The name of the woman in the picture is Cheng Benhua, a guerrilla fighter from Anhui during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945). She was captured, raped, and executed by the Japanese invasion force in May of 1938 at a young age of 24. Chinese revolution, as it is commonly used in the English world, refers to the second-half of the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1950. Cheng Benhua’s death was not a part of the Chinese Civil ...

The Heroic Story Of Major Henry Alexius Courtney, Jr. of Duluth, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions During The Battle Of Okinawa. U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Major Henry Alexius Courtney, Jr. of Duluth, Minnesota, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on May 14-15, 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa. Courtney received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve in February 1940 and was placed in command of the Duluth unit of the Marine Corps Reserve in March of that year. At Guadalcanal, he participated in the first U.S. offensive of World War II, commanding a company of the 1st Marine Division. His next combat action was the Battle of Okinawa, for which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  While serving as executive officer of a battalion of the 22nd Marines, 6th Marine Division on Okinawa, he was killed in action after exhibiting great courage and self-sacrifice, leading to a successful night attack against...

The  Franco Haitian Who Died Fighting the Nazis in WW2 Tony Louis Marie Edmond Bloncourt was born on February 25th, 1921, in Jacmel, Haiti, to a French mother and a Guadeloupean father.  In 1939, he was sent to France to study medicine at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris, and there he was active in the Union of Communist Students. After the Germans invaded France, he participated in a demonstration against the occupation at the Arc de Triomphe on November 14th, 1940. In August 1941, Tony Bloncourt became group leader of the Youth Battalions and was one of the first members of the French resistance. He is the author of numerous armed attacks against members of the occupying army. On January 5th, 1942, he was captured and turned over to the Germans. Tony Bloncourt is one of the seven accused in the trial at the Palais Bourbon from March 4th to 6th, 1942. This first trial was to send a message against anyone considering resisting the German occupation.  He was found gui...

The Terrible Death Of John Joseph McVeigh of Philadelphia, Honoring Him For His Heroic Actions  Near Brest, France, WWII. John Joseph McVeigh of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on August 29, 1944, near Brest, France. McVeigh worked for a rustproofing company before joining the Army in September 1942. By August 29, 1944, he was serving as a sergeant in Company H, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Shortly after dusk on Aug. 29, 1944, McVeigh's platoon was near the town of Brest and had just begun to assume defensive positions along a hedge when the enemy counterattacked.  Since McVeigh's platoon wasn't dug in, part of their defensive line sagged briefly under heavy fire, leaving a section of heavy machine guns with a lot of space in front of them and no rifle protection.  The Germans moved quickly and were almost on top of one of the machine gun positions where McV...

Josef Jakobs - the last to be executed by firing squad on British soil. Jakobs was an entirely unsuccessful spy.  On Saturday the 1st of February 1941 he was flown over England and parachuted into Huntingdonshire, where he landed hard at Dovehouse Farm, Ramsey Hollow, breaking his ankle.  He fired three shots to alert people to help him and was rescued by two farm workers who were also members of the Home Guard.   When found he had a wireless transmitter, a map with airfield locations marked on it, food, a spade and a large amount of money, some £498.  He was turned over to the authorities and charged with espionage under the Treachery Act of 1940 which stated that :  "If, with intent to help the enemy, any person does, or attempts or conspires with any other person to do any act which is designed or likely to give assistance to the naval, military or air operations of the enemy, to impede such operations of His Majesty's forces, or to endanger life, s...

The Painful Execution Of "Pierre DePreter" In  Breendonk Torture Camp, near Brussels, By Firing Squad. Today is Monday, Memorial Day; a federal holiday to honor those who lost their lives in military service to the United States of America. I have one relative -- Ralph Tuthill of Tacoma, Washington -- who died in 1948 from war wounds received in Europe near the end of World War II.  His wounds overwhelmed him with infection. Doctors would beat back the infection, then it would return. Infection took his life in 1948, three years after WWII ended. Alas, I have no photo of Ralph Tuthill. He married my aunt during the war. My late brother, Ralph Vogel, was born months after Tuthill died and named for him. In place of a photo of Ralph Tuthill, I submit wartime photos involving the Vogel family. Photo 1: Pierre DePreter a lieutenant of the Belgian Army, 1940. Before the war, he was a teacher in Brussels. DePreter was my mother's first husband. He was a Prisoner of War...