Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
An Amateurishly Planned German Secret
Operation Goes Completely Wrong ...!
In support of the German "Ardennes Offensive" (or Battle at the Bulge), a secret German command company began on December 16, 1944 under the code name "Greif".
Under the command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny ...
... a total of 2,676 members of the Wehrmacht and the SS - all of them volunteers - are deployed behind enemy lines.
Their orders:
At least to try to break the catastrophic balance of power (up to eleven Allies for every German soldier, up to eight British or American for every Wehrmacht tank).
In order to achieve this, bridges and allied supply stores in the Ardennes are to be captured and held until German front formations arrive, false orders issued to US formations, division command posts switched off and confusion caused to the opposing troops in every possible way.
The whole company is a completely illusory act of desperation by the German leadership - and, on top of that, poorly planned and poorly equipped!
Only 30 of the German soldiers deployed in "Greif" speak English - and that only very fragmentarily, but all of them wear Allied uniforms (mostly US-American) and are equipped with previously captured US material.
This exposes all of them to the risk of being shot immediately in the event of capture as "spies" according to the applicable international martial law (which they are not told beforehand, but many suspect).
That's why Skorzeny's against Hitler ...
... grandly promised "at least 3,000 volunteers" together, but actually almost 400 less!
Allied material, jeeps ...
... Ford-Trucks...
... and "Sherman" tanks with which one wanted to equip the soldiers, is also not enough in the back and front! For example, the troops had previously been promised 28 "Shermans", but they only get two - here you can see one that was previously photographed during tests with the later German crew ...:
So they make do with sometimes adventurous improvisations.
The strangest vehicles are twelve German "Panther" tanks, which are "camouflaged" as US M10 tank destroyers by means of welded-on steel plates ...
... whereby the telltale and typically German box drive for the chains cannot be camouflaged ...:
The German military bureaucracy even makes the effort (one won't believe it!) to properly typify this nonsense companion - and gives them the name "Panther G / M10 'Ersatz'".
German Sd.-Kfz 250 half-tracks are "camouflaged" as US M-110 halftracks by painting on a green-olive US paint and white stars ...:
Of course, no American falls for this nonsense!
None of the fake "M 10" get far - they are gunned down one by one by real US anti-tank defence ...:
Accordingly, the success of the company "Greif" is almost zero!
A US tank regiment is sent astray for a short time (to the next town where the mistake is quickly noticed) and an infantry company is encouraged to retreat through incorrect information. A command group captured an ammunition dump that was partially blown up.
Little by little the Allies catch one German saboteur after another. Quite a few die in a hopeless battle, most of them are captured alive ..:
Here is an excerpt from the list of arrested "Greif" members ...:
The Germans stand out for the fact that they only use US Jeeps in pairs - but the Americans usually have more people in them!
Here a fallen German soldier in US uniform in front of his destroyed Jeep ...:
The completely inadequately trained Germans can be convicted by asking the simplest questions, for example "What is the name of Mickey Mouse's girlfriend?" or "Which baseball team won the championship in 1934?"
The Allies show themselves - also for propaganda reasons, because word got around quickly! - Unexpectedly generous to the prisoners:
Most of them are treated as prisoners of war and are sent to appropriate camps.
Only five German commando soldiers - including the commander, Lieutenant Günther Schulz, were shot dead for "sabotage".
Here are three of them shortly before their execution - all still in US uniforms: Sergeant Manfred Pernass (with glasses) and Oberfähnrich Gunther Billing ...:
... and here Leutnant Schmidt…:
Much more confusion than Skorzeny's dilettante troop causes the "espionitis" triggered by the Allies!
After the "Operation Greif" was blown up, more than 2,500 US soldiers were briefly arrested by their own people as alleged German "spies" and "saboteurs" - but they were all released again afterwards.
Also two-star General Omar Bradley ...
... is briefly detained at a roadside check by the US military police, because he does not know the answer to the question "What is the name of the current husband of the actress Lana Turner?" .
**continued next post**
Operation Goes Completely Wrong ...!
In support of the German "Ardennes Offensive" (or Battle at the Bulge), a secret German command company began on December 16, 1944 under the code name "Greif".
Under the command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny ...
... a total of 2,676 members of the Wehrmacht and the SS - all of them volunteers - are deployed behind enemy lines.
Their orders:
At least to try to break the catastrophic balance of power (up to eleven Allies for every German soldier, up to eight British or American for every Wehrmacht tank).
In order to achieve this, bridges and allied supply stores in the Ardennes are to be captured and held until German front formations arrive, false orders issued to US formations, division command posts switched off and confusion caused to the opposing troops in every possible way.
The whole company is a completely illusory act of desperation by the German leadership - and, on top of that, poorly planned and poorly equipped!
Only 30 of the German soldiers deployed in "Greif" speak English - and that only very fragmentarily, but all of them wear Allied uniforms (mostly US-American) and are equipped with previously captured US material.
This exposes all of them to the risk of being shot immediately in the event of capture as "spies" according to the applicable international martial law (which they are not told beforehand, but many suspect).
That's why Skorzeny's against Hitler ...
... grandly promised "at least 3,000 volunteers" together, but actually almost 400 less!
Allied material, jeeps ...
... Ford-Trucks...
... and "Sherman" tanks with which one wanted to equip the soldiers, is also not enough in the back and front! For example, the troops had previously been promised 28 "Shermans", but they only get two - here you can see one that was previously photographed during tests with the later German crew ...:
So they make do with sometimes adventurous improvisations.
The strangest vehicles are twelve German "Panther" tanks, which are "camouflaged" as US M10 tank destroyers by means of welded-on steel plates ...
... whereby the telltale and typically German box drive for the chains cannot be camouflaged ...:
The German military bureaucracy even makes the effort (one won't believe it!) to properly typify this nonsense companion - and gives them the name "Panther G / M10 'Ersatz'".
German Sd.-Kfz 250 half-tracks are "camouflaged" as US M-110 halftracks by painting on a green-olive US paint and white stars ...:
Of course, no American falls for this nonsense!
None of the fake "M 10" get far - they are gunned down one by one by real US anti-tank defence ...:
Accordingly, the success of the company "Greif" is almost zero!
A US tank regiment is sent astray for a short time (to the next town where the mistake is quickly noticed) and an infantry company is encouraged to retreat through incorrect information. A command group captured an ammunition dump that was partially blown up.
Little by little the Allies catch one German saboteur after another. Quite a few die in a hopeless battle, most of them are captured alive ..:
Here is an excerpt from the list of arrested "Greif" members ...:
The Germans stand out for the fact that they only use US Jeeps in pairs - but the Americans usually have more people in them!
Here a fallen German soldier in US uniform in front of his destroyed Jeep ...:
The completely inadequately trained Germans can be convicted by asking the simplest questions, for example "What is the name of Mickey Mouse's girlfriend?" or "Which baseball team won the championship in 1934?"
The Allies show themselves - also for propaganda reasons, because word got around quickly! - Unexpectedly generous to the prisoners:
Most of them are treated as prisoners of war and are sent to appropriate camps.
Only five German commando soldiers - including the commander, Lieutenant Günther Schulz, were shot dead for "sabotage".
Here are three of them shortly before their execution - all still in US uniforms: Sergeant Manfred Pernass (with glasses) and Oberfähnrich Gunther Billing ...:
... and here Leutnant Schmidt…:
Much more confusion than Skorzeny's dilettante troop causes the "espionitis" triggered by the Allies!
After the "Operation Greif" was blown up, more than 2,500 US soldiers were briefly arrested by their own people as alleged German "spies" and "saboteurs" - but they were all released again afterwards.
Also two-star General Omar Bradley ...
... is briefly detained at a roadside check by the US military police, because he does not know the answer to the question "What is the name of the current husband of the actress Lana Turner?" .
**continued next post**
