| Original caption: “‘Frisking’ The Sniper. German sniper after his capture by forces of General Patton’s Third Army. In the exchange of rifle fire before his capture, the prisoner was wounded.” An American soldier with the 84th Infantry Division searches 2 Prisoners of War (POWs) for documents. This was called “frisking” the POWs for intelligence. 1 Nazi German, with his helmet on the ground in front of him, is wearing a Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) jacket. The other man is wearing a Zeltbahn 31 tent half/poncho. Koblenz was liberated in heavy fighting March 16-19, 1945, by the 87th Infantry Division. Photographer Byron “Beano” Heywood Rollins (April 26, 1913 – January 8, 1988) was 1 of 2 press pool photographers that accompanied the 87th Infantry Division as they invaded Koblenz. Rollins accompanied the 1st Battalion, 345th Infantry Regiment, as they cleared the village of Lay and entered the South of Koblenz. Several military and press photographers found Nazi German Prisoners of War guarded under the Güls Railway Bridge. Almost a 100 POWs were gathered there. As the Americans entered Koblenz, Rollins photographed Nazi German POWs carrying wounded comrades to an aid station. He photographed multiple American GIs killed in action; 1 photo, of a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) man lying dead with his weapons and grenades, was widely reproduced. Advancing beyond the Kemperhof Hospital, the 2nd Battalion of the 345th followed Moselweisser Strasse, which is the continuation of Koblenzer Strasse. Rollins pictured Gls dashing across an open space there. They approached the Mosel railway yards. A Sherman M4 tank from C Company, 375th Tank Battalion, fired down Moselweisse Straße, while infantrymen took cover from snipers beside it. Shortly afterwards, German soldiers come running out of the same building in surrender. After the fighting died down, Rollins went back to bomb-ravaged Göben-Platz. There Americans detained a cook, a woman and another man as suspected Gestapo agents. Rollins worked for World Wide Photos before World War II and joined the Associated Press for the Normandy landings. In March 1945, he was assigned to the 3rd United States Army as pool photographer. He had photographed the Orhdruf subcamp when it was liberated and followed 3rd Army to Buchenwald. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0853.jpg |
| Image Size | 488.58 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1440 x 1819 |
| Photographer | Byron H. Rollins |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 26, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Koblenz |
| State or Province | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | Allison Collection, City of Little Rock |
| Record Number | 7709683 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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