As with so many war stories, this one is hazy and sounds like it’s ready-made for a movie. Particulars are hard to pin down, since the only person who might corroborate them has been dead since 1955. This is the story of a U.S. soldier whose “super-salesman” silver tongue persuaded German soldiers to surrender to U.S. troops. And he didn’t just do this once. He did it twice: 150 in the first lot, 12 in the second.
Lawrence Malmed, a silk salesman who resided at 1313 Spruce St. Philadelphia, entered the Army as a private in May 1942, then was later commissioned as a second lieutenant. After shipping out of Fort Benning, Georgia, he arrived in Europe with the 3rd Batallion of the 35th Infantry Division.
In Orleans (France), August 1944, Malmed crossed behind the German lines and, for 23 hours, talked to a German colonel. He then came back to Allied lines with 150 German soldiers in tow.
On September 29, 1944, during the Forêt de Grémecey battle, Malmed, wounded and captured by Germans, again crossed back to Allied lines. He had talked five Germans into surrendering, and along the way picked up another seven German soldiers.
Malmed was eventually awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart. After he was decommissioned, Malmed was employed in Gimbel’s adjustment department. Malmed died in 1955 at the age of 40. He left behind a widow and two children.
Many of the dates are difficult to match up. For instance, Malmed received his Purple Heart for injuries sustained on July 17, 1944, yet his first foray over German lines happened barely a couple of weeks later. Also, one of the lines uttered by Malmed sounds suspiciously like something you would hear in a war movie, though most likely it was cooked up by the newspaper writer (“OK boys, give me a gun and I’ll kill your officer when he gets here.”).
Malmed received a Silver Star. The commendation for Malmed’s actions of September 29, 1944, reads, in part:
Lawrence Malmed…had set up his command post in a captured German pillbox. Suddenly a strong German patrol confronted his position, attacking it with machine pistols and hand grenades. In the ensuing firefight, the two enlisted men who were with Lieutenant Malmed were wounded, and the entire group captured. At this moment, reinforcements, whom the Americans had requested from the battalion before their capture, arrived and forced all the men to seek shelter in the pillbox while the battle continued. Lieutenant Malmed then persuaded the Germans to release him and his men, become his prisoners instead, and render first aid to the wounded soldiers. At the conclusion of the engagement, he was thus able to return to his lines with twelve prisoners of war.
Lawrence Malmed was clearly a war hero. Malmed is interred at Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose, Pennsylvania.
Above, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 1944
The last we hear of Lawrence Malmed before his obituary is this, from Wisconsin State Journal, March 1, 1945:
When Lawrence Malmed…of Philadelphia marched off to war his uncle, A.T. Malmed, a cement manufacturer, promised he would give him $5 for every German Lawrence captured. Since then Malmed, now a captain, has bagged a total of 250 Heinies and Uncle A.T. wants to call the bet off.
