German Soldiers Never Knew America Had Unlimited Food, Until They Became Prisoners In 1943

Описание: Discover the astonishing true story of how 375,000 German prisoners of war experienced a psychological transformation that would reshape their understanding of the conflict.
When the first transport ships carrying captured Afrika Korps soldiers docked at Norfolk, Virginia on May 7, 1943, Wehrmacht prisoners expected harsh treatment and deprivation—instead, they encountered an industrial superpower operating at levels they'd been told were impossible. This meticulously researched 9,200-word historical documentary exposes how German POWs' firsthand witness of American abundance shattered years of Nazi propaganda and fundamentally altered their worldview.
Obergefreiter Helmut Hörner, captured at Tunis in May 1943, wrote in his suppressed diary that his first meal at Camp Ruston, Louisiana included more meat than he'd seen in six months of African combat. At Camp Hearne, Texas, Feldwebel Georg Gaertner documented that POWs received 4,000 calories daily—exceeding American civilian rations of 3,000 calories—while German citizens subsisted on 1,800. Lieutenant Werner Burkert observed B-24 Liberators flying overhead every 63 minutes from the Willow Run factory, calculating that America was producing bombers faster than Germany could shoot them down. By January 1945, over 511 POW camps operated across 46 states, holding prisoners who worked on farms earning 80 cents per day while witnessing American civilians driving private automobiles and shopping in fully-stocked stores.
From the shock of arrival at East Coast ports through daily work details on Midwestern farms to witnessing V-E Day celebrations from behind wire fences, this comprehensive narrative follows the psychological journey of captured German soldiers confronting the devastating gap between Nazi propaganda and American reality. Based on declassified War Department reports, uncensored prisoner letters, and memoirs of actual POWs including Reinhold Pabel, Georg Gaertner, and Helmut Hörner, while Wehrmacht officers struggled to maintain discipline among prisoners who could see their nation had challenged an opponent with virtually unlimited resources.
These encounters proved that ideology cannot overcome industrial capacity—a principle that remains fundamental to understanding modern great power competition, demonstrating how economic strength and productive capacity ultimately determine military outcomes more reliably than battlefield tactics or individual courage.