question about German General surrendering to Lipton

I didn't take it like that-- that Winters was trying to humiliate the German General.

My take was that the General and his troops came in to surrender and were met by HefFron or some other Senior NCO.

The German General balked at surrendering to a NCO so the troops on the scene either radioed or called in for instructions.

Winters back at HQ heard about it and he and Nixon plus some other HQ staff then drove over to the airfield with Lipton.

So basically the senior officers weren't there to begin with. They heard about it and then drove over.

When Winters pulls up, the German General see's he's a Senior Officer. Winters gestures at Lipton and the General is satisfied.

My take anyway.

Let me clear up something for the OP. Privates do the dirty work, like Lieutenants do for Major's and Colonel's. So to answer your question with my military background in the best way I can, it's simply a "Hey You" situation. Or an "I volunteer" situation. Make sense?

Military courtesy generally requires that an officer surrender to an equal or superior in rank, both literal military rank, and rank in the broader sense of social rank--officers are gentlemen, by tradition, enlisted men are of a lower social rank. It is a bit of an affront for a general to surrender to a private. Lipton was an officer, so, while not equal in rank, he was the next best thing.

At Yorktown, for example, the British tried to pull a similar stunt. Cornwallis, Washington's equal as commander, did not appear at the ceremony. One of his subordinates, General O'hara, was the senior British officer present. He tried to surrender first to the French General Rochambeau, which would have been a snub to the Americans, and then he tried to offer his sword to General Washington. That would have been a snub as well, suggesting that Washington was not of as high a rank as his opposite number. General Washington directed him to his own subordinate, General Lincoln. There was an additional play on courtesies here as well. The British were refused the traditional "honors of war", to march to the surrender under arms, with flags flying, in part because they refused the Charleston garrison this honor, when the Continentals there surrendered. And General Lincoln had commanded at Charleston.

I'm not sure that Winters set out to humiliate the German general. In a previous scene, we see him offer a generous courtesy to the German colonel who surrendered to him, allowing the colonel to keep his sidearm (in a previous generation, that would have been his sword). I think Winters' action is more a compliment to Lipton, as recognition for his record as a soldier.

The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.

I just watched that episode and my take is that after hearing that a stuffy General refused to surrender to an enlisted man, Winters couldn’t resist the irony of having the General surrender to Lipton, a former NCO.

All these posts miss the fact that Winter had a great deal of affection & respect for Lipton. That's why he did Lipton the honor of having him accept the general's surrender.