PRISONER SCREEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21580, 6 December 1944, Page 3

PRISONER SCREEN

NAZIS REINFORCE U.S. SOLDIERS’ ROLE SHORT-LIVED SUCCESS (9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 5. The Germans used 09 United States prisoners of war as a shield to protect their movements during a counter-attack on Übach, when the Allies first penetrated the Siegfried Line. First-Lieutenant Arn, ’ of the U.S. Infantry, told a Chicago Sun correspondent that the American prisoners were taken during a counter-attack in which the Germans recaptured some pillboxes. “The Germans marched the American prisoners into the woods with their hands over their heads. Of course, we held our fire. A few minutes later the Germans marched the prisoners out again and made them line up across the field. They were using them as a shield to get reinforcements to the pillboxes they had recaptured. “We could see Germans running along behind them, but there was nothing we could do about it. The prisoners were taken back to the woods when the Germans had brought up their reinforcements, The Americans immediately began shelling the pillboxes, and lighterbombers attacked with 500-pound bombs. The Germans then withdrew and the position was restored.”