     On this day, Baron Friedrich Augustus Frieherr von der Heydte, the commander of the ill-fated German airdrop, surrendered to the Americans in Monschau. His tiny force of paratroopers had wandered around in the American rear for four days. They had ambushed several small American columns and taken some prisoners, but they had to release them -- what could he do with prisoners deep in the enemy rear? 
   Von der Heydte was no Nazi. He was a professor of international law, an aristocratic German of the old school. He had been part of the plot against Hitler; his cousin von Stauffenberg had been tortured and executed as the ringleader. He had led the German paratroop school throughout the war and had agreed to command this last operation only out of a profound sense of duty to his country. It was doomed from the beginning and he knew it, but he could not ignore the call of duty.
   On Thursday the 21st, he ordered his starving men to break up into groups of three and make their way back to German lines. Some were killed; some were captured; and some of the captives were shot by Americans seeking revenge for the Malmedy massacre. But nearly 200 made it back to German lines.
   Von der Heydte was not so lucky. With a broken arm and frosbitten feet, he stumbled into a house in Monschau and wrote a surrender note which a boy took to the Americans.
   After the war, von der Heydte resumed his career teaching international law.
/Surrendering
     Colonel von der Heydte's surrender exemplified his entire career: professional to the core, leaving nothing to chance. Von der Heydte knew that surrendering is a tricky business; a great many soldiers get killed in the act of surrendering.
   The central problem with surrendering arises from the fact that modern weapons are lethal over great distances and short time spans. An enemy can kill you further away than your voice can carry and faster than you can say "I surrender." More important, he knows that you can do the same. Thus, that dim figure moving towards you might be a man trying to surrender -- but if you wait to find out, he can just as easily kill you. Why take chances? Shoot first.
   Even if the other side is disposed to be merciful, you can still get killed surrendering. A battlefield is raked by lots of loose flying metal from sundry sources; soldiers stay low and close to the ground. The only ones who stand up and run are those attacking and those surrendering -- and casualty rates for both are high.
   The other way to surrender is to let the enemy come to you. When he attacks, you just let him come and get you, with your arms raised in the air. Unfortunately, a soldier who has just wound himself up into the blood frenzy necessary to charge across the open through fire and death is not in a particularly humanistic mood. You will likely get a bayonet in the chest -- and this did happen several times during the Battle of the Bulge.
   Colonel von der Heydte's surrender was the last cagey act of a cagey old soldier./