A wartime hero
A man who i've always admired for his exploits during the war was an American paratrooper and officer.
Lt Colonel Ronald Spiers. Born in Scotland. Grew up in the United States. When Britain declared war on Germany he was one of those Americans who came and signed up with the British or Canadian armed forces so he could do his part. He joined a Scottish commando unit and shacked up with a woman who's husband was missing presumed killed in action. The British commandos did incredibly dangerous work, landing in occupied Europe and doing covert raids against German operations. Somewhat like the Soviet partisan forces in the occupied Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
In 1941 when the U.S finally got off its fat arse and joined the war he went back to the U.S and was commissioned as an officer in the American armed forces as a paratrooper. The concept of airborne infantry and warfare was a fairly new one. At the time jumping out of an aeroplane into enemy territory seemed somewhat outrageous. The airborne army's were all volunteer units, some doing it for the $50 extra a month, some because they were itching to take a crack at the Germans. A variety of reasons.
He was commissioned as an officer to 506th PIR in D Company. On D-Day he and a handful of men assisted E-company in their famous assault on Breacourt manor. A severely understrength e-company scratched together enough troops to assault an artillery position manned by about 40 Wehrmact troops with four 88mm artillery guns firing on American troops landing at Utah beach. It became a textbook case of assault on a fixed position. Speirs captured the final gun alone taking out all the men manning the gun position alone.
The most infamous incident occurred afterwards when he beat 6 German artillery men to death with the butt of his Thompson sub-machine gun. When a local French farmer accosted him and demanded that he stop. Speirs fired a burst into his back as he ran away and then ordered the MP's to hold him as a collaborator once he was released from the hospital.
The following day - June 7th he was involved in an assault on German positions that required a creeping artillery barrage. One of his squad leaders - a sergeant was suffering from battle fatigue and refused the order to hold until the barrage had passed. When he refused the order a second time. Speirs pulled his pistol and shot him between the eyes and continued on with the operation. Holding his men back to prevent loss of life from friendly fire until the barrage had passed. Despite reporting this information to his commanding officer, no further action was taken.
Speirs came to command E-company during the battle of the bulge. In December 1944, Germany threw the last of its offensive fire-power against the American lines in the Ardennes along an 80 mile front isolating Hodges and Simpsons 1st and 9th army with the British/Canadian 21st army group under Montgomery to the North and the bulk of the American army including Patons 3rd army to the south under General Omar Bradley. Hitler believed that the American army was a softer target than British and Canadian forces in Holland who were poised to strike at the Rhur. Insane considering its hard to fight a war once the enemy controls your primary industrial zone. Even more insane considering the red army was only a few weeks from sending 3 million men on a last drive against eastern Germany to finish the war.
The 101st airborne was deployed to the Belgian town of Bastogne to reinforce a position being abandoned by the 4th army and sporadic armoured units fleeing the Germans. The American airborne army's (101st and 82nd) saw significant action because they were the only American troops (besides the Army Rangers) of significant calibre to attack the Germans aggressively. Throughout the war rank and file British and American troops were not up to the same calibre as their German or Soviet counterparts.
In any case the 101st held the town of Bastogne through the brutal Christmas of 1944. A low fog and brutal blizzard conditions prevented the RAF Typhoons and USAAF Mustangs from providing close air support to the American forces. Never the less the German assault quite literally ran out of gas. Patons 3rd army busted through the German line on 26th December and relived the 101st. In any case, this last roll of the dice was a significant problem for the American forces. After the failure of operation Market Garden in September 1944 sporadic action had been fought all along the axis of advance primarily in Holland where the Canadian army captured Antwerp to open up a better supply line and in the south in the American zones which was mainly a blood letting exercise. To the south of the Ardennes, American forces had fought a brutal and futile campaign trying to dislodge motivated and dug in German defenders. For the most part the Germans were sitting comfortably behind the Rhine. Since it had already been determined at the highest level that the Red Army would be taking Berlin and ending the war, Eisenhower had determined that there was no rush to end the war, that it should be done with as little loss of life as possible given that Germany was all but finished.
The attack meant that the airborne armies were called into action across the line in Belgium and later France until February.
After the siege of Bastogne was over - the 506th was tasked to take the town of Foy just up the road to eliminate a company of Germans with Tiger tanks and 88mm guns. The divisions companies took up positions around the village to keep them from escaping but e-company would have to lead the assault, clear out the Germans and take prisoners. The commanding officer of e-company Lt. Norman Dyke was an incompetent officer, a 90 day wonder and connected back home. He lead the assault into complete chaos giving ridiculous orders. The assault got bogged down and the Germans being a clever bunch inflicted serious casualties. Captain Richard Winters - the battalion executive officer wanted to go and relieve Dyke but was ordered not to by Colonel Robert Sink the regimental commander. He just happened to see Speirs standing around and ordered him to go and take over. Speirs could see the assault was failing, Dyke had ordered most of the company to try and flank the town which was insane they were outnumbered and the Germans would have bashed through and escaped. Speirs ran right past the Germans who out of complete shock didn't shoot at him at first, issued new orders to the men and then he ran back through a hail of German bullets and lead the attack. They took 122 prisoners in Foy.
The 506th was again dragged into action in various towns in Allscace to hold a second German offensive there and to clear out pockets of resistance. Luckily for the 101st and 82nd who had been in hard action since Normandy were taken off the front lines in February. The 17th airborne and British 6th airborne spearheaded Operation Varsity - The airborne units helped secure bridgeheads over the Rhine for the American and British forces to cross.
He commanded e-company until it was stood down after the war.
Funnily enough throughout the war American soldiers as well as their British and Canadian counterparts undertook a significant amount of looting in Germany. My opinion is that looting is ok for civilians in uniform as compensation for being dragged out of civilian life to come and fight in Europe. By the time the war was over there were plenty British and Canadian and other commonwealth servicemen who wouldn't have seen home - wives/children/family in 5 or 6 years. The Americans being softer little snowflakes would only have been away from home for 4 years at most - generally 3 years on average.
In any case Speirs had been sending his loot to the woman he had shacked up with in England while he had served in the Scottish commandos and had lived with her when stationed in England prior to D-day. While he was away in Germany and the war ended her husband was released from POW camp and came home. So they kept all of his loot.
His men were well aware of his fearsome reputation which ranged from an exaggerated story about executing one of his own men for being drunk to gunning down 20 German prisoners on D-day with his Thompson sub-machine gun. They however respected him as a competent commander. After capturing Berchtesgaden in May 1945, Germany surrendered a few hours afterwards. The 101st were deployed to occupy Austria. It was there he saved the life of one of his platoon sgts who had been shot by a drunk replacement trooper. The bullet had lodged in his skull pressing on his brain. The aid station said there was nothing he could do, so Speirs put him on a stretcher loaded it on a Jeep and went and found a local German brain surgeon who was able to save his life.
He continued his service in the army after the war serving in Korea and the Laotian emergency in the early 60's. He ended his career in Germany as governor of Spandau prison at the rank of Lt Colonel. That he ended his career as only a Lt Colonel and not a General is pretty telling. The command authority was well aware of the atrocity's and brutality of his command but were desperate for aggressive and capable officers who weren't afraid to attack the Germans. Major Richard Winters said of Speirs in his memoirs that in the modern army Speirs would have been court marshalled for his atrocities.
Gunning down rank and file Wehrmact soldiers was a distasteful exercise if you ask me. I suppose Speirs judged it more important to build a fearsome reputation for himself. Certainly he wasn't the only man who shot German prisoners for shock value or out of vengeance.
Personally i've always appreciated the restrained but ice cold brutality of his leadership style. If I was a war time officer and one of my men disobeyed an order I would shoot him on the spot. That way no man would ever disobey my orders ever again. Depending on the savagery of the battle I might also make the determination that no prisoners were to be taken.