What Patton Did When Stalin Refused to Return the American Prisoners of War

In the winter and spring of 1945, as Soviet forces swept westward through Poland and eastern Germany, they were liberating American prisoners of war from German camps. Under the Yalta Agreement, signed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in February 1945, those men were supposed to be gathered at collection points, provided with food and medical care, and repatriated to American control as rapidly as possible. They were not being returned. They were being held in the liberated camps under guard. They were being moved eastward, deeper into Soviet territory. They were being processed through a military bureaucracy that was generating paperwork without generating access. George Patton received reports about what was happening to them and decided that the official channels were insufficient. He sent his own people in, without Eisenhower's authorization, without Soviet approval, into Soviet-controlled territory to find the Americans and move them westward. The Soviets complained. Eisenhower communicated his concern. Patton continued the operation. This video tells the full story of what Patton did when Stalin's generals refused to return the American prisoners they had liberated, why the official channels failed, and what the prisoner repatriation crisis reveals about the gap between the wartime alliance's rhetoric and its reality in the final months of the European war. We examine: #Patton #Stalin #WorldWarTwo #AmericanPOW #Yalta #AmericanHistory #MilitaryHistory #HistoryDocumentary #ThirdArmy #ColdWarOrigins #WW2History #PrisonerOfWar Disclaimer: Based on Carlo D'Este's Patton: A Genius for War, John Deane's The Strange Alliance, declassified State Department cables and War Department prisoner repatriation records, National Archives prisoner of war documentation, and verified historical documentation. For educational purposes.