I'm looking for the possibility to obtain the list (if that exists of course) of Germans and possibly other nationals who surrenderd to the U.S.Army on 8/05/1945 and were in the Festung Lorient.
Does such a list exist and if affirmative where can that be found
Festung Lorient was not Lorient only, but also Groix Island, Etel River, The coast between Lorient and Port Navalo, Quiberon peninsula, Belle-Ile island, and had connection with the Saint Nazaire pocket.
Surrender took place in many points along these lines, quite often to french FFI units. The lists you are looking for are proably in french archives. You should try at the Château de Vincennes, the french army historical department SHAT, Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre.
I highly doubt that such a comprehensive list exists.
Both the Lorient and St.Nazaire pockets contained about 53000 German troops at the time of surrender. The Lorient pocket alone had over 25000 German troops.
These forces surrendered to the US 66th Infantry Division with a number of attached French units.
While Allied Forces kept relatively good records about POWs during the operations in Europe, it is a fact that as war went on, prisoners were taken in huge numbers and they did not have the time or personnel to keep detailed records. In addition, these troops were taken after the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany, so they had little reason (intelligence, etc) to keep details about these POWs.
Based on your other post, I assume that you are looking for the O.T. and Wehrmacht members who helped save your grandfather in Lorient. Even if you had a name and unit, it would practically be impossible to locate such a person.
Understand that I am not trying to sound discouraging; however your quest may well never be fruitful.
The Atlantic Front, as the French called it, caused a great deal of controversy in France.
The German garrisons were largely sealed off by under-equipped former resistance units incapable of mounting an assault themselves. Nevertheless, De Gaulle wanted all French soil cleared of the Germans before the final surrender for prestige purposes. He therefore ordered an attack using French forces withdrawn from the main front in Alsace to be mounted in December 1944. However, the Battle of the Bulge and its associated attacks prevented the necessary French units being withdrawn. I have never seen it remarked elsewhere, but the Battle of the Bulge probably saved the German garrisons in Lorient etc. from annihilation.
In the last days of the war De Gaulle ordered another attack. One of the famous French generals (Leclerc?) was ordered to send his armoured division to take part. He refused to go personally because he thought that his formation would have been better employed on the main front and because he believed it wasteful of French lives to attack the Atlantic Fortresses in the last days of the war for purely prestige purposes when they would have to surrender with Germany anyway. He was over ruled and the attack went in.
The southern German enclaves were over run, but the others held out to the final German surrender. Thus De Gaulle's hopes were foiled, armed German forces were still in the field on French soil when Germany surrendered and several hundred French (and German) lives were needlessly wasted on a prestige project of absolutely no military value.
In addition, these troops were taken after the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany, so they had little reason (intelligence, etc) to keep details about these POWs.
Christian
Hello Christian,
What if among those POWs there were SS troops as well? I believe there would be plenty of reasons to sort them out. Remember that Germany still had Naziism present in its society.
When I am speaking of records, I am primarily talking about individual interrogations, etc. Of course, Allies would record names, military identifications, etc. for all POWs (SS or Heer).
Early during the European operations, Allies would seek a lot more details from POWs in for intelligence purposes. Later in the war, POWs were taken in such great numbers that only in rare cases (high profile POW) they would interrogate them.
