They tried to cross the river Rur at Jülich/Western Germany but their boat entangeled itself in a barbed wire obstacle. The five G.I.'s became victims of german MG fire from the eastern bank. February 1945.

Failed river crossing

Execution

This photo shows one of 34 german soldiers of 9th SS-Panzer-Division &quot;Hohenstaufen&quot; that were captured by the Red Army in April 1944 in the ukrainian village of Kalasantovka. The mutilated bodies were found by their comrades during the german counter attack on the near-by town of Ternopil. A german eyewitness: &quot;That's not the way soldiers are supposed to act. The hands and the  feet of the dead were bound with the ropes of their own tentpieces. Partially the trousers were pulled down and genitals severed. With some the eyes were stabbed, ears and tongue cut off. Furthermore their own bayonet was rammed into the stomach from the downside. Dogtags and other ID's were removed to avoid an identification of the dead. Fortunately most of them had their last names sewn on the inside of their uniform pieces so that a list of the victims could be compiled. However this list was lost later on so that these 34 soldiers are considered officially as &quot;Missing in Action&quot;.