Ghost Riders

At the end of World War II in Europe, things started getting pretty chaotic.   On two separate occasions, US and German forces wound up cooperating.   The earlier occasion, as described in The Last Battle, a castle housing high profile POWs came under attack by Waffen SS forces and was defended by a joint force of US troops AND regular German Wehrmacht, i.e. US and German forces fought alongside each other against the elite Waffen SS forces – successfully.   

The second occasion involved the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, which had been moved from Vienna to Czechoslovakia to escape Allied bombing, only to come under threat of winding up in the Soviet sphere of occupation.   The bigger issue was that the riding school had fancy Lippinzaner horses, Europe’s finest, but by that time in the war the Soviets were 99% likely to simply kill and eat the horses, which many considered suboptimal.

A dialogue opened between the Germans and US forces nearby coming under the command of Patton himself.  The complications were that remnants of the Second SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” were in the neighborhood, as were advance elements of the Red Army, and the latter were, by prior agreement, to have exclusive control over Czechoslovakia. 

Fortunately, conflict was avoided between US and Red Army forces.   Moreover, by this time what experience the SS had was compromised by its Tigers and Panthers being out of gas, reducing them to an infantry unit with zero air support.   US forces briefly scuffled with them, but unlike the other incident, did so without any regular Wehrmacht units fighting by their sides.   The horses were saved, “and there was much rejoicing”.

Remarkably, they made a movie of the incident the early 1960s, by Disney (!), featuring Roger Taylor and Eddie Albert. 

The Miracle of the White Stallions (DVD).  Ghost Riders helpfully noted that the events in question were dramatized in a Disney movie from 1963, this one.  It doesn’t follow exactly the same parties, but the story is essentially the same:

 

1.         The fancy horses are in danger

2.         Conscientious German officers (e.g. Robert Taylor as Pojhadsky and Eddie Albert as another high ranking German officer, identified as “Rider Otto”) move them out of Vienna,

3.         They determine that the Soviets will most likely end up with them and at the very least reduce them to pack animals (affected shudder of effeminate disbelief), if not actually eat them as juicy, delicious horse steaks washed down with vodka;

4.         Germans meet up with Americans and reach an agreement, including an appearance by General Patton himself who appears unimpressed with a horse show but eventually decides that the whole endeavor is still worthwhile;

5.         brief encounter between US forces and Waffen SS;

6.         No sign of Russians (not on best terms with them as of 1963)

7.         Horses successfully moved out of Soviet zone to safety in US zone, Bavaria

8.         1955 Horse show after everything sorted out.  Look!  Lippinzaners! 

Note that the only combat occurring in this whole business was between US forces and the Waffen SS (Second SS Panzer Division “Das Reich”).  I never thought I’d see the Waffen SS appear in a Disney movie.   The dot cammo uniforms are not authentic but close enough – only Waffen SS nerds like me are liable to notice, let alone care.  Bu they did have Mausers, MP40s and MG42s, which was nice and authentic. 

What’s funny was that although technically many of the German units still alive at this time – mid-April 1945 – still had some Panther and Tiger tanks, they were almost all out of gas, so they couldn’t go anywhere.  Around this time Hitler sent his remaining forces into Hungary, when Berlin itself was under siege by the Red Army, because with Romania long gone, the depots in Hungary were his last remaining source of gasoline for the German armored units.  Oh, and the Germans had long lost any air cover, so in the unlikely event they did scavenge enough gas for a tank to move anywhere, Allied fighter-bombers would blast them to oblivion.

 

Obviously the Americans in the movie are heroes, including Patton himself (not played by George C. Scott, though his “Dr. Strangelove” role was about this time), but it’s odd that with the exception of the brief appearance of the Waffen SS units in one combat scene, all the Germans in this film are effectively heroes as well.  Not only that, when they’re transporting the horses to St. Martin, the train comes under attack by fighters.  These are almost certainly Allied.  So we have the Germans as good guys and the Allied air forces as bad guys.  D’oh!