| 3 German officers are escorted back from negotiating the surrender of the garrison of the French Naval Academy. 1 is wearing a Kriegsmarine uniform; another carries packs of cigarettes. A frontal assault on the Naval Academy was scheduled by Company E, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, for 1000 Hours on September 18, 1944. At 0745 Hours, a light fog began to fade, revealing a white flag from the Naval Academy window. Holding fire, 2nd Lieutenant Roderick L. Parsch (January 11, 1922 – February 19, 1990) could see 4 high-ranking officers emerge. They were wearing Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, and Heer uniforms. Only 1 of them spoke English. According to Corporal Arthur Plaut (November 7, 1922 – November 30, 2006), 115th Infantry: “When the German emissaries came into the lines, they demanded to see the general in charge of the troops to their front. They were informed that the attacking troops were commanded by Major [actually Lieutenant Colonel] Anthony J. [“Tony”] Miller [(October 22, 1912 – June 29, 1980)], the 2nd Battalion C. O.[Commanding Officer], and the Germans agreed to meet with him, although they expressed disappointment.” Miller ordered that the German delegation be brought to the 2nd Battalion Command. On arrival, neither the Germans nor the Americans were cordial, but everyone remained professional and exchanged salutes. The washed, clean uniforms of the Nazi Germans, who had shaved and smelled of perfume to Corporal Plaut, contrasted with the dirty grime of the month-long use of the GI-issued battle dress. Captain Frank T. “Tom” Steele (July 14, 1920 – September 12, 2008) Walker’s liaison from the 110th Field Artillery, blindfolded the 4 Nazi German officers. Later, a photo of Steele blindfolding the German officers appeared in the October 16, 1944, issue of Life magazine. Military Police steered them into waiting jeeps. They were driven behind American lines to meet Lieutenant Colonel Louis Smith (December 16, 1897 – November 4, 1967), commander of the 115th Infantry Regiment. Major General Charles H. Gerhardt (June 6, 1895 – October 9, 1976), commander of the 29th Division since July 1943, forbade anything but unconditional surrender at Brest, because the Germans were so hated after months of hard combat. But decisions had to be made about how the garrison would surrender. Smith would meet the Germans in St. Pierre, in a grand house reduced to rubble. As military police surrounded the shattered, 3-story building, the Germans asked for a token force to escort their garrison out, and for medical care for their wounded. The 15-minute meeting was over quickly, and Smith concluded with reiterating unconditional surrender. The Germans were blindfolded again, driven back to the perimeter of the Naval Academy, escorted to the front line as seen in this view, and delivered Smith’s terms. 7 staff officers of the 115th Infantry Regiment tore a strip off the Germans’ white flag during the parley. They signed it, and that simple piece of cloth is a treasured 29th Division memento at Maryland National Guard headquarters in the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Maryland. For 90 minutes, Miller’s 2nd Battalion held heir breath, prepared to renew their assault. But then small fires went up all over the German lines. They were burning documents and small arms. The 29th Division men were furious, seeing this as a violation of the terms struck by Smith. But they had no orders to stop it. At 1026 Hours, the 2nd Battalion journal noted: “Companies E and G reported a white flag flying from the École Navale, and that the enemy were breaking up their weapons and assembling on the academy grounds.” For the next hour that assemblage of humanity swelled so rapidly that the single rifle company Miller had alerted to guard the prisoners appeared wholly inadequate. As Plaut observed, “Instead of the two hundred or three hundred prisoners that we had supposed we would have to handle, we saw men from every branch of the German armed forces, running into the thousands.” The 29th Infantry Division’s provost marshal, Major Vern E. Johnson (March 21, 1916 – June 25, 1986), also commanded the Division’s military police platoon, and it was imperative that he get a sense of the enormity of his upcoming mission. He gamely plunged straight into German lines with an escort of only 4 men, 3 of whom were unarmed journalists, including a photographer from LIFE magazine. 1 of those journalists, Holbrook “Hobey” Bradley (1917 – 2010), remembered that moment as “one of the tenser moments in our lives…from where we stood it looked as if German soldiers, sailors, and marines were everywhere.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0406.jpg |
| Image Size | 570.72 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2936 x 2315 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 18, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Brest |
| State or Province | Brittany |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-6654(54) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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