Mike T.

My dad, who was a surgeon in the ETO during WW2, stated that any US medic who was captured carrying a pistol would be summarily executed with his own gun and the pistol would then be left on his chest. Otherwise, the American medical personnel were usually treated with respect by the Germans (the slaughter of the medics after capture during the Battle of the Bulge being a notable exception). He mentioned one of his surgeon buddies after capture being returned to the American lines by orders of a Prussian colonel after the Dr. proved his medical knowledge to the colonel and a German doctor by accurately describing the steps of an appendectomy. My dad also had a great deal of respect for the markmanship of an Me-262 pilot he saw who shot up every vehicle in a convoy except for the four trucks with red crosses on the top.


The bottom line and ultimate purpose for this rambling is that I would doubt very much that German medics would normally carry sidearms in light of their attitude towards American medics who did.