werwolf

The Werewolf Organisation

Werewolf was supposedly the brainchild of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , who conceived of it as a number of partisan units operating behind enemy lines in the event of parts of Germany becoming occupied. The Nazis were of course, well aware by this point of the kind of damage that could be inflicted on an occupying army by a well organised and trained partisan force. In an Autumn 1944 meeting at which HJ-Jugendführer Artur Axmann, SS-Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann, RSHA chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Waffen-SS Obersturrmbannführer Otto Skorzeny were present, Himmler oulined his plans for Werewolf. Prützmann was placed in charge of the organisation and given responsibility for recruiting volounteers and organising their training - which would be carried out by Skorzeny's SS-Jagdverband (Hunting Teams). Once trained, Werewolf units would chiefly be comprised of inexperienced Hitlerjugend (HJ-Hitler Youth) volunteers, with experienced officers - handpicked from the ranks of the German Army and Waffen SS - in charge

The Werewolf Order was an organization of guerrilla fighters set up in the closing days of the Second World War when Germany was on the verge of defeat. Its leader at the time of the surrender was SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Prützmann. The Werewolf Order was essentially a resistance movement who fought in uniform. They were also a paramilitary auxiliary of the Wehrmacht. They fought behind the Allied lines to create diversions. The Americans, who encountered these fanatical fighters of the Hitler Youth, were appalled to discover their age, which ranged from eight to seventeen; though this did not stop them executing many of them as spies. Most of the Hitler Youth trapped in the last desperate battle had no intention of becoming prisoners. They preferred to fight on until all of them were killed. Surrender was unthinkable. However, in his first speech as successor to Hitler, Admiral Karl Dönitz ordered all members of the organisation to cease operations. This order was obeyed by the surviving Werewolves. But when men of the 8th Parachute Division were sent in by Dönitz to end any possible defiance by the Werewolves, they found most of these Hitler Youth lying dead among the trees. Twenty-four hours earlier the Führer had committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin.

Hitler betrayed the ferocity and cunning of a wolf throughout his life. He became almost wolf-like during some of his speeches. His voice sounded gruff, as he barked at the adoring crowds. His favourite companion was a wolf-like Alsatian dog. Hitler’s pseudonym within his circle (or “pack”) was “Wolf.” Wolfsschlucht, or “Wolf’s Glen,” was the code name for Hitler’s headquarters at Brûly-de-Pêche from 6th to 25th June 1940. Wolsschanze, or “Wolf’s Lair,” was the name of Hitler’s field headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia, during the late days of the Second World War. Hitler obviously identified with wolves. It is hardly surprising to discover the last of his “pack” calling themselves “Werewolves.”

Werewolf staff HQ was set up at Schloss Hulchrath; a castle near the Rhinish town of Erkelenz. The first two hundred trainees arrived there in late November, and Skorzeny's men dealt out intensive lessons in sabotage, demolitions, small arms, survival and radio-communications. Prutzmann was also to set up training centres in the Berlin suburbs and Bavaria. At the same time, special bunkers were prepared for use by behind the lines werewolves - loaded with supplies and munitions, before being left to be overrun by the allies. Werewolves were issued false papers and passes by the Gestapo, so they would be able to mingle with ordinary German civillians during the day; assuming their Werewolf identities only at night. Despite these extensive preparations, however, Werewolf's actual effectiveness was limited, to say the least.

The assasination of the Allied appointed Bürgermeister of Aachen, Dr Franz Oppenhoff in March, 1945 was hailed by Göbbels and Bormann - broadcasting on 'Radio Werewolf' - as a sign of a mass uprising by the German people against the allied oppressors - signifying a great wave of resistance that would sweep the occupying forces back.

Göbbels was to say;

We Werewolves consider it our supreme duty to kill, to kill and to kill, employing every cunning and wile in the darkness of the night, crawling and groping through towns and villages, like wolves, noiselessly, mysteriously.

In reality however, the Werewolves had been led into action by one Herbert Wenzel, an experienced soldier from the ranks of the SS-Jagdverband. Indeed, it appears that the assassination was more or less orchestrated by the Jagdverband and several other military units, detracting somewhat from the Werewolves' supposed ability to act independently from the military. Werewolf can, however, be considered a highly successful propaganda exercise; especially when considered against the background of Allied paranoia about the 'Alpine Redoubt' from which the Nazi's would allegedly make their final stand.

Allied unease about the possibility of an 'Alpine Redoubt' in Bavaria had been gradually increasing since late 1944, when OSS reports predicted that as the war neared its end, the Nazi's would transfer key government and military departments to Bavaria - which was where the Nazi party had its origins - where a final stand would be made with Adolf Hitler at the helm (Intelligence reports would continually place Hitler in this region almost right up to the date of his eventual suicide).

OSS reports painted a frightening picture: An elite, 300,000 strong force of SS troops was said to be in the area; up to five long trains were arriving in the Alpine region every week, and all manner of exotic weaponry had been (allegedly) spotted aboard them. It was believed that the Nazi's maintained an underground factory, capable of producing Messerschmitts, and that a vast underground network of tunnels and railways connected the various fortifications that had been constructed. Given the terrain, assaulting these fortifications would be difficult if not impossible, and the existence of the Werewolf organisation was proof positive that the Nazi's would not be content to sit and stew in their mountain hideaways. The broadcasts of Göbbels and Bormann attributed to the Werewolves both a central command structure and support network they did not in reality actually have. Logically, the Allies reasoned - part accepting the broadcasts - this central command would be located in the Alpine Redoubt.

By March 1945, the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) were taking the possibility seriously enough for Eisenhower to downgrade the strategic importance of Berlin, instead focusing on Bavaria. Even those who doubted the validity of the original OSS reports accepted it was wisest to act as if there were an Alpine Redoubt - just in case.

These illusions came to an embarrassing end in late April, when three German soldiers crossed the Elbe near Magdeburg and surrendered to the Allies, one of which was Lieutenant-General Kurt Dittmar. When asked about the Alpine Redoubt at his debriefing, Dittmar laughed and called it "...a romantic dream. It's a myth". Although initially sceptical, SHAEF soon came to accept the truth of his words. Meanwhile, Stalin steamrollered his way towards Berlin. The Werewolves were largely unsuccesful due to the lack of the central command structure that the Allies and Propagandists attributed to them erroneously. Bormann and Göbbels talked as if they in some way controlled Werewolf's activities; the fact of the matter was, however, that only Prützmann exercised any kind of central control over the organisation, and the resources he had at his disposal were insufficient to establish the kind of support network the organisation needed. When Schloss Hulchrath was overrun in April, 1945, Prützmann moved to Mecklenberg, and Werewolf effectively ceased to exist as an organisation. Facing capture and execution at the hands of the advancing Allies, Prutzmann was to commit suicide in May, 1945. Sporadic Werewolf attacks would be made on Allied forces and German 'collaborators' for months to come - notably the murder of three American civilians in Passau, 1946 - but with little tangible success. Before long, even these died out, as the last remaining Werewolf partisans surrendered, were captured, or killed. Sources

Götterdämmerung

"The Death of Hitler" - Ada Petrova and Peter Watson
"The Werewolf Organisation" - Russ Folsom
"Werewolf" - Charles Whiting

The Werewolves specialized in ambushes and sniping, and took the lives of many Allied and Soviet soldiers and officers - perhaps even that of the first Soviet commandant of Berlin, General N.E. Berzarin, who was rumoured to have been waylaid in Charlottenburg during an incident in June 1945. Buildings housing Allied and Soviet staffs were favourite targets for Werewolf bombings; an explosion in the Bremen police headquarters, also in June 1945, killed five Americans and thirty-nine Germans. Techniques for harassing the occupiers were given widespread publicity through Werewolf leaflets and radio propaganda, and long after May 1945 the sabotage methods promoted by the Werewolves were still being used against the occupying powers.

There was some resistance by German soldiers behind the lines while the fighting was still going on at the end of WWII. Among these were the famous efforts by Otto Skorzeny in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, the assassination of the collaborationist mayor of Aachen after the Americans occupied that town, and the less known efforts by Volkdeutsch leader Andreas Schmidt in Rumania against the Red Army. These were commando activities directed by Reich authorities in Berlin.

The real Operation Werewolf had a little reality and a lot of myth. The reality was a plan to train troops in guerilla tactics and sabotage, to create hidden supply depots in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, and to make Germany ungovernable for the Allied occupiers. The reality was more like an unfunded Bush social program; the supply depots never materialized and the troops were mostly Hitler Youth boys who, as soon as the command structure vanished, ditched their guns and cyanide capsules and went home. In an ugly sequel, the Soviets, who had some understanding of partisan warfare, used the Werewolf rumors as an excuse to execute German POWs while the restored national governments of continental Europe used those same rumors to justify their expulsion of 14 million ethnic Germans from Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

Werewolf has lived on as a great plot device for a hundred Ludlum wannabes and not much more.