Task Force Baum
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Task Force Baum was a secret and controversial World War II task force setup by U.S. Army general George S. Patton and commanded by Capt. Abraham Baum in late March of 1945. Baum was given the task of penetrating the Siegfried Line into Germany and liberating the POWs in camp OFLAG XIII-B, near Hammelburg. Controversy surrounds the true reasons behind the mission, which may have been simply to liberate Patton's son-in-law, John K. Waters, a POW since being taken captive in Tunisia in 1943. The result of the mission was a colossal failure; of the roughly 300 men, 32 were killed during the raid for only 35 making it back to Allied-controlled land, with the rest taken prisoner. None of the 57 tanks, jeeps, and other vehicles made it back across the German Lines.
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[edit] Camp Hammelburg
Camp Hammelburg, located just outside its namesake town, was originally used as a military training ground before World War I and again before World War II. It was converted into two separate POW camps during the second war. One camp (Stalag XIII-C) was for Allied enlisted men, while the other (Oflag XIII-B) was used for Allied officers.
Originally, all of the Oflag camp’s occupants were Serb officers. The camp was later split into sections of American officers on one side and Serbs in the other. Most of the American portion of the camp was hastily upgraded in January 1945 after an influx of POWs from the Battle of the Bulge, which began December 16 of the previous year.
As Soviets continued a westward advance toward Germany in the winter of 1944, the POW camp Oflag 64 in Schubin, Poland was emptied of its prisoners on January 21, 1945. In the dead of winter, 1290 POWs headed west into Germany, then south toward Hammelburg. Among them was John Waters, husband of the former Beatrice Patton, General Patton’s daughter. Col. Paul Goode, the senior ranking officer at the camp, kept a list of the men in his ranks, which would have helped U.S. intelligence keep track of where the officers were. Traveling 340 miles—mostly by foot—in 7 weeks time, the men arrived at their destination on March 9.
By the time the men from Schubin, arrived at OFLAG XIII-B, the numbers in the officer camp swelled to over 1,400, though it was by far less than the estimated 14,000-man population in the enlisted men’s camp by that time.
Conditions at the camp were miserable for both the prisoners and their guards. The winter of 1944 was considered one of the coldest on record. Two hundred men each were crowded into seven 5-room buildings. One fifty-square-foot room was to house 40 prisoners on bunk beds, while coal was rationed out to heat the furnaces at a rate of just 48 briquettes per stove every 3 days. Although some men were able to scavenge for wood nearby, it still was not enough to keep the soldiers warm. The average temperature in the rooms at any time was estimated to be 20° F (-7° C).
Food was just as scarce as heat. Initially, the men in camps were given a diet of 1,700 Calories a day, well below the 2000 Calories recommended daily allowance for men doing no work. This was cut even more as supplies ran low and the camp population increased, until an estimated 1070 Calories were distributed daily. Many men in the camp suffered dramatic weight loss of more than 50 lbs (23 kilograms) and atrophy of muscles because of the lack of food and subsequent immobility. Dysentery due to unsterile conditions and utensils further weakened many men in the camp.
[edit] En route to the camp
General Patton assigned one company medium tanks and one platoon of light tanks of the U.S. 37th Tank Battalion and one company of armored infantry and command & support elements of the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion of the U.S. 4th Armored Division to the task force. Baum was tabbed to lead the task force, which set out on late eveneing of March 26th.
On the evening of March 26, the task force reached Aschaffenburg, encountering heavy fire that disabled several vehicles, including one of the Sherman tanks. It took until early the next morning to break through the bridgehead just past the German lines.
The largest problem facing the force going into the mission was a lack of maps—15 for 37 vehicles—and lack of knowledge of the exact location of the camp, which would have to be obtained through questioning of the locals en route. This slowed the task force considerably, forcing it to take on more fire than anticipated. Furthermore, a German spotter plane shadowed the column as it neared the camp, which would help coordinate resistance to the task force.
By the afternoon of the 27th, tanks had arrived in sight of the camp. Some of the guards in the camp put up resistance, though many of them fled or put up surrender. The Serbian section of the camp received the brunt of American fire as it approached—likely due to the gray uniforms they wore making them appear to be Germans to the advancing columns. Waters and several men, including one German officer, volunteered to exit the camp to notify the Americans of the mistake. While approaching the American column, a German soldier putting up resistance shot Waters in the abdomen. He was taken back and treated for his wounds by Serbian doctors interned in the camp.
Roughly half of Baum’s forces made it to the Hammelburg in fighting shape. Greeted by thousands of cheering prisoners, Baum quickly realized the camp contained far more than the 300 officers they were originally planning to liberate. After calculating losses, he determined no more than two hundred men would actually be able to be taken back to Allied-controlled land with their remaining fleet. It was decided that only field-grade officers (O-4 and above) would be allowed to ride back, while any remaining men who wished to march with the columns would be allowed to. Barely able to walk, the vast majority of disgruntled POWs decided to stay behind. Waters, unable to be moved, would have to be left behind as well.
[edit] Moving out
The task force left the camp at 8 P.M. local time to cross back across the German lines. By then, further complications had surfaced. There was no moon out that night, so only artificial light could be used for navigation, which could be spotted easily by the growing number of German troops in the area. Only one reconnaissance jeep was able to scout ahead of the column to find an escape route. Sometimes the tanks had to be turned off entirely to avoid detection by a growing German encirclement.
Nearing Hoellrich in the black of night, Task Force Baum ran into an German Ambush. The first tank was hit by a German Panzerfaust. Then the German drove this tank into a garden and used it against the other U. S. tanks. Four American Sherman tank were destroyed.
The remnants of the task force regrouped again after pulling back to a quiet area near Hill 427 in the early morning hours. Without enough fuel to make it back across the line by now, the task force waited for daylight to travel with visibility to maximize the distance they could travel. Goode, knowing most of the men would be unable to travel across the line on their own, advised that most of the walking wounded should head back to the Oflag. Colonel Goode himself decided not to slow the rest of the task force down and began the march back under a white flag.
Baum gave the order to move out shortly after dawn on March 28. Just as the column started up, they immediately came under fire from all directions. Germans, having surrounded the hill during the night, opened fire on the first sign of mobilization. Knowing there was no way of fending off the attack, Baum ordered every man for himself. Shrapnel sliced into his right leg, making him crawl through the woods to find safety. The battle lasted mere minutes before the survivors who hadn’t escaped into the woods were lined up as fresh POWs.
[edit] Aftermath
Like with the encroaching Soviets in the east, when Americans began to advance into Germany only days after the task force, the Germans began to mobilize the POWs away from combat zones. All those able to move were rounded up into unmarked boxcars and sent via train to Nuernberg, then to other prisoner camps away from the front lines. The remaining men were left behind at Hammelburg.
Baum was captured by German soldiers and shot in the groin after trying to continue fighting. He joined Waters in the Serbian hospital at the Hammelburg camp, which was liberated by the 14th Armored Division on April 5—just over a week after the failed liberation by Task Force Baum. Ironically, the task force did help set Waters free sooner; had he not been shot he would have been marched off to a camp further into Germany with the rest of the POWs.
Patton was alleged to have offered Baum a Medal of Honor for a successful completion of the mission. As a Medal of Honor warrants an investigation into the events behind the awarding of it, which Patton would not have wanted, Baum received just a Distinguished Service Cross. Patton awarded it to him personally.
It is disputed if Patton knew his son-in-law was being held at the camp, but many at the camp and Abraham Baum believed so. Patton sent a friend, Al Stiller, with the task force, purportedly to identify Waters to take back with them. Diaries that Patton made publicly available indicate he was unaware of Waters’ presence there until after the task force had arrived, but a letter written to his wife just after the task force left says otherwise.
- "I sent a column to a place forty miles east of where John [Waters] and some 900 prisoners are said to be. I have been nervous as a cat… as everyone but me thought it too great a risk…. If I lose that column, it will possibly be a new incident. But I won’t lose it." (The Longest Winter, p. 207)
A furious General Eisenhower reprimanded him for the incident. While Patton admitted the failure of the mission, he defended his actions due to fear that retreating Germans might kill the prisoners in the camp. Except for the Malmedy massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, the intentional killing of American prisoners was uncommon. According to Patton, the mistake was sending a force too small to perform the mission, saying, "I can say this, that throughout the campaign in Europe I know of no error I made except that of failing to send a combat command to take Hammelburg.”
[edit] Sources
- Alex Kershaw (2004). The Longest Winter. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81304-1.
- The Hammelburg Raid Military Magazine. By Herndon Inge, Jr.
- Task Force Baum and the Hammelburg Raid - Website by LtCol Peter R. Domes
- 60 years later, Task Force Baum succeeds – San Diego Union-Tribune
