This Date in History: December 27

 

Hans von Seeckt (often nicknamed “The Sphinx”), Army Colonel General, born April 22, 1866 in Schleswig, ranking officer of the Reichswehr (Chef der Heeresleitung) until 1926, winner of the Pour le mérite in World War I, resigned after a conflict with the Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler, author of Thoughts of a Soldier, military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek in China, died on December 27, 1936 in Berlin, on his authority during the “Beer Hall Putsch” in 1923: “There is only one man in Germany in a position to organize a putsch, and that is me.  But the Reichswehr does not putsch.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)

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Master Sergeant John C. Woods hanged William E. Davis at Guiclan, France on December 27, 1944 for assault and the murder of a French woman.  At the execution, Lieutenant Colonel Henry L. Peck, as the officer in charge, read General Court-Martial Order Number 146 in its entirety. Private Davis made no statements; at 11:00 a.m. Master Sergeant Woods adjusted the black hood over Davis’ head and then the rope noose around his neck.  Technician Third Grade Thomas F. Robinson aided as the assistant hangman.  At 11:01 a.m., Peck signaled Woods, who cut the rope that released the weight and sprung the trap.  At 11:13 a.m., the medical officers pronounced William Davis dead.  Master Sergeant Woods then cut the rope and removed the body from under the scaffold.  Captain Poole Rogers of the 610th Graves Registration Company signed for the body and removed it.  (American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods, The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg)