Excellent article Klaus. Thanks for the link. As for what really happened? Who really knows?
If I had to
guess I would say that someone panicked and started shooting, perhaps as the author suggested during a small escape attempt and then that things got out of hand. Perhaps it was a spur of the moment idea. But the suggestion that it was pre-meditated is less likely for at least three reasons.
- First, this wasn't the "norm" for German behavior on the Western Front. Even on the Eastern Front they generally exploited the prisoners or let them die from exposure. Those that they outright executed they often believed to be communist party members/commisars or had some other political reason for doing so.
- Second, they didn't want retaliation should they become prisoners. Both the US and Germany were signatories to the Geneva Convention and they didn't want to jeopardize that or their people.
- Last, and perhaps most important, is by this time they had to know that the war was not going well for them and that the best they were going to do is create a stalemate and hold onto some semblance of the Reich. They were being closed in upon from all sides. Had they actually spent any time thinking about this, I don't think that they wanted to risk the death sentences that were ultimately handed down (though never carried out).
Again, thanks for a good read.