| Original caption: “German Prisoner of War – Captured Nazi General.” Nazi German Heer (“Army”) Generalmajor (“Brigadier General”) Alfred Gutknecht (June 20, 1888 – November 12, 1946), Kommandeur der Kraftfahrtruppen West in Frankreich (“Commander of the Western Motor Corps in France”), sits in a Military Police jeep shortly after his capture on August 29, 1944, on the road from Rheims. After the fall of Paris on August 26, Gutknecht and his driver, were ordered to deliver a cache of papers on the status of 7th and 15th Army’s armored vehicles and repair capabilities to his superiors at Soissons, the town nearest to German High Command at Wolfsschlucht II in nearby Margival, at the time. As his car came around a bend in the highway at Fismes, halfway to Soissons, he ran into an American column. His driver attempted to turn around, but the car was stopped, and the General was captured. Gutknecht was slightly wounded in the incident. In this view he has been transferred to the Military Police. Gutknecht represented an important source of information about Germanmotorized vehicles and the Wehrmacht’s ability to replace and repair them. Gutknecht served with General der Infanterie (“General of the Infantry”) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (March 20, 1870 – March 9, 1964) in Africa during World War I, tying down thousands of Allied soldiers and destroying much of East Africa’s agriculture and infrastructure. Promoted to Oberleutnant (“Lieutenant”) on February 25, 1915, and Hauptmann (“Captain”) on September 16, 1917, he was 1st a prisoner of war in Africa from November 28, 1917, to November 21, 1919. Gutknecht joined the police after the war, serving from January 9, 1920, to March 16, 1936. Rejoining the Heer (“Army”) that same day, he was attached to the staff of the 26. Infanteriedivision (“Twenty-Sixth Infantry Division”) until August 22, 1939. He was promoted to Oberst (“Colonel”) on April 1, 1936. For the Polish Campaign, he was assigned to 3.Armee (“Third Army”) High Command. On November 7, 1939, He was assigned to 16. Armee/Armeeoberkommando 16 (“Sixteenth Army / Army High Command Sixteen”), but his wife was ill, and he had an emotional breakdown. Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Linnarz (August 19, 1894 – October 14, 1979) the Army Personnel Office recorded: “The Personnel Office took the position that if it cannot be prevented that we have crying colonels, then promotion to crying general is out of the question.” Gutknecht was assigned to the XXII Army Corps on March 5, 1940, for the French Campaign, and to 15th Army as Motorized Transport Officer on April 21, 1941. He then served various Heer commands in France as Motorized Transport Officer, promoted to Generalmajor on July 1, 1942. Gutknecht was assessed extremely positively by both the Commander-in-Chief of the 15th Army on March 10, 1943, and the Commander-in-Chief West on March 10, 1944. After his capture, Gutknecht was taken to Trent Park Prisoner of War Camp in North London, United Kingdom, where his cell was bugged. On September 1, 1944, General der Panzertruppe (“General of the Armoured Corps”) Heinrich Eberbach (24 November 1895 – 13 July 1992) was moved into Gutknecht cell at Trent Park. Eberbach had been surprised in his bed by British troops at Amiens. At Wilton Park, unbeknownst to both of them that they were being recorded, the Nazi Generals discussed the future of the war. “Above all they are counting on the V-3,” said Eberbach. Gutknecht, who had never heard of the V-3, corrected him — he must mean the V-2. “No, the V-3,” Eberbach persisted, knowing of the hyper-long-ranged artillery being developed to strike London. Eberbach went on to describe the operation of the supergun; how its projectile would be accelerated on a ramp for a 100 feet to achieve ballistic flight through the stratosphere, “which is said to have several times the effect of the V-1.” This was the 1st the British had heard of this weapon, which was never put into use; the Allies overran the site before it could be fired, partly based on this intelligence gathered from Eberbach and Gutknecht. In an interview with interrogators at Trent Park, Gutknecht admitted knowledge of the Holocaust. Gutknecht spoke of watching the Jews of Antwerp, Belgium, removed by cars pulling furniture vans. He knew only a few survived. “The general public will have to pay for things like that,” not specifying whether he meant the Belgians or the Germans. Gutknecht was transferred to Camp Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, on October 25, 1944, arriving in late November. There he exhibited signs of mental illness. Gutknecht displayed typical, albeit somewhat extreme characteristics of “barbed-wire psychosis” — the damage to a prisoner’s mental health after months of captivity. Clinton camp officials stated that by January 1945 Gutknecht “had reached the stage where, pacing the compound like a caged animal, continually crowding against the wire enclosure, he seemed in danger of being fired upon by some guard. He refused to accompany the other officers on their daily walks, saying that they ‘walked too slowly.’” Clinton medical authorities transferred Gutknecht to Glennan General Hospital in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, which had recently been designated as an asylum for mentally ill prisoners of war. He recovered enough to be discharged home in 1945. Little is known about the last few months of Gutknecht’s life. Occupation authorities thought it was likely that Gutknecht was participating in secret Nazi organizations. Sources differ as to the cause of his death. He may have been working for the Americans on histories for the United States Army Historical Branch. He may have thought he would be deported to the Soviet Union, or he may have received word that his beloved wife was raped and murdered by Soviet Red Army soldiers in the last months of the war. Or he may have never truly recovered from the “barbed-wire psychosis” of multiple wartime captivities. Whatever the case, Gutknecht committed suicide in Berlin on November 12, 1946. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0417.jpg |
| Image Size | 617.22 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2400 x 2910 |
| Photographer | Snyder |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 29, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Fismes |
| State or Province | Grand Est |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-6654(57) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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