Disarming of the 19th Army in the Landeck region on May 6, 1945
In the final days of May 1945, Wehrmacht soldiers stationed in the Prutz area of the Landeck district, Austria, surrendered without significant fighting. This peaceful surrender marked the end of the conflict for these German soldiers, as indicated by their location near Landeck.
The surrendering soldiers were primarily taken prisoner by the Western Allies, including the U.S. Army. This surrender followed the capitulation of the German 19th Army in Innsbruck on May 5th, which had been retreating through Austria as the war in Europe drew to a close.
The soldiers at Prutz and the surrounding Landeck district were generally disarmed and interned as prisoners of war. They were processed by the Allies and then transferred to POW camps, with conditions varying but many being held until the postwar occupation authorities organized their release or repatriation.
No major violent incidents or massacres involving Wehrmacht soldiers in Prutz at this time are recorded in historical accounts. Instead, the surrender was part of the broader collapse of German forces in Austria in May 1945.
After surrendering and handing over their weapons, the prisoners of war from this surrender sustained themselves using Wehrmacht food supplies until their evacuation to Bavaria. However, no information is provided about the number of prisoners of war from this surrender, their evacuation, or their camping locations after this surrender.
It's worth noting that records from the US Army in the Oberland region do not mention this specific surrender. Yet, records from the 44th Infantry Division of the US Army in the Oberland region show nearly 20,000 prisoners of war, some of whom may have been from the surrender of the 19th Army in Prutz.
These prisoners of war were put to work on road and field labor while they were camped in barracks and former training grounds until late May. Afterwards, the details of their repatriation or release are not clearly documented.
This surrender, inscribed as the end of five years of armed conflict for German soldiers, was just one piece in the larger puzzle of the end of World War II, which saw Germany fighting against nearly all of Europe and the United States. For more detailed local historical accounts, one may find them in Austrian regional archives or wartime memoirs related to the Tyrol area.
In the aftermath of their surrender, the prisoners of war from Prutz and the Landeck district were engaged in road and field labor, working in barracks and former training grounds, while their repatriation or release details remain unclear. This historic event, marking the end of five years of war-and-conflicts for German soldiers, is a significant part of politics, as well as general-news, offering insights into the end of World War II, particularly in the Tyrol area.
