It remains to be seen whether the idea of truly fighting down to the bitter end really was anchored in the frame of reference of mid-level officers and ordinary soldiers. Regulations governed nearly everything in soldiers’ lives, from the cut of their uniforms to the use of weapons and conduct in battle. But there were no regulations governing capitulation. No rules stated when and how one was allowed to surrender. The ideas of the military leadership remained largely abstract to low-ranking soldiers in the heat of battle. Defeat on the battlefield was a moment of disorientation, in which group behavior became especially important. Soldiers fought as one, and mostly they were captured in groups.
First Sergeant Renner of Luftwaffe Reconnaissance Regiment 7, for instance, was unwilling to fight down to the last bullet in the Battle of Cherbourg in June 1944:
RENNER: We still had any amount of explosive, we could have held out for at least three or even five days more. But I did all I could to prevent that… Then I withdrew and went out on to the battle field and went on firing again so to speak, but into the blue, of course. Then I seized the opportunity to get back to the “Bunker” where I started to “mutiny,” at least that’s what it’s called. I said: “Well, if things are going like this, comrades and gentlemen, whoever is married and loves his wife”—
Despite the intense bombardment I stood in front of the “Bunker” and started to talk…. “Do you want to die out there for a senseless fight, now that it is hopeless? Come on, let us get out.” Finally I led the way out in the heaviest of bombardments, carrying the white flag.”592
Renner repeatedly returned to German lines and saved the lives of 282 men, who became POWs. This case is a perfect example of how soldiers oriented themselves around how their comrades behaved. Renner had enough authority to assert himself against those who wanted to defend their positions to the last man. As soon as the first soldiers began to follow him, the ice was broken, and more and more began surrendering. Because the commanding officer was hiding in his bunker, Renner could exploit his men’s lack of orientation and show them a way out. This story would no doubt have turned out differently had a charismatic officer taken the lead and ordered the men to fight down to the last bullet.
Soldiers’ will to survive and the group dynamic of combat situations explain why, even during the early victorious phase of World War II, units of up to two hundred men sometimes surrendered, refusing, much to the dismay of the Nazi leadership, to fight to the last. Yet soldiers’ occasional violation of a military norm does not mean that the “last bullet” trope failed to establish itself.593 The surveillance protocols show that it was anchored as a central point of orientation in German soldiers’ frame of reference and did influence their behavior.
For example, a Captain Gundlach from the 716th Infantry Division reported the following about soldiers defending their positions in the village of Ouistreham in Normandy on June 6, 1944:
GUNDLACH: We were in the “Bunker” there, of course we defended ourselves and coped with the situation. I happened to be the senior officer there. So I took over the command and we defended ourselves to the last. When some of my men fainted, owing to the fact that we got no more air into the “Bunker,” and so they wanted to force us out with flame-throwers, I said: “No, we can’t have that.” Then we were taken prisoner.594
