End of the Journey for a German Officer : A German officer carries his personal luggage into prison compound after his commander, Major General Erich Elster, surrounded his army of 20,000 soldiers, marines and airmen to the U.S. Ninth Army south of the Loire River in Southern France on Sept. 17, 1944. General Elster, admitting he had realized six months earlier that the war was lost for Germany, blamed the German High Command for his defeat. The Surrender, affected with full military ceremony, swelled the ranks of the more than 450,000 other enemy troops who had quit their losing battle in western Europe since the Allied landings in Normandy, on June 6. October 13, 1944. (Photo by U.S. Office of War Information).