Werewolves- the nazi guerilla movement

The Germans had seen how effective the guerilla movement can be ( Russia, Balkans, 1944 France etc ) and hoped to start a movement by themselves that would be as effective-the Werewolves.

So far I know the only meaningful deed by them was the killing of the mayor of Aachen ( operation Carnival ). Personally I see no major part for them during the war for instance to compare with partisans. What do you guys think? Was the end so evident that the Germans did not think it was worth it or what was it? Anyway, the terrorism after the peace in may 1945 at least was totally unnecessary as it did not pave any meaning except for pure terrorism. Nobody was coming to create a new nazi party and government for them whatever they were going to do.

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The Werewolves were originally organised by the SS and the Hitler Youth as a diversionary operation on the fringes of the Third Reich, which were occupied by the Western Allies and the Soviets in the autumn of 1944. Some 5,000 -- 6,000 recruits were raised by the winter of 1944-45, but numbers rose considerably in the following spring when the Nazi Party and the Propaganda Ministry launched a popular call to arms, beseeching everybody in the occupied areas -- even women and children -- to launch themselves upon the enemy. In typical Nazi fashion, this expansion was not co-ordinated by the relevant bodies, which were instead involved in a bureaucratic war among themselves over control of the project. The result was that the movement functioned on two largely unrelated levels: the first as a real force of specially trained SS, Hitler Youth and Nazi Party guerrillas; the second as an outlet for casual violence by fanatics.

The Werewolves specialised 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.

the Werewolves managed to make themselves a nuisance to small Allied and Soviet units, they failed to stop or delay the invasion and occupation of Germany, and did not succeed in rousing the population into widespread opposition to the new order. The SS and Hitler Youth organisations at the core of the Werewolf movement were poorly led, short of supplies and weapons, and crippled by infighting. Their mandate was a conservative one of tactical harassment, at least until the final days of the war, and even when they did begin to envision the possibility of an underground resistance that could survive the Third Reich's collapse, they had to contend with widespread civilian war-weariness and fear of enemy reprisals. In Western Germany, no one wanted to do anything that would diminish the pace of Anglo-American advance and possibly thereby allow the Red Army to push further westward.

the Allies and Soviets reacted to the movement with extremely tough controls, curtailing the right of assembly of German civilians. Challenges of any sort were met by collective reprisals -- especially on the part of the Soviets and the French. In a few cases the occupiers even shot hostages and cleared out towns where instances of sabotage occurred. It was standard practice for the Soviets to destroy whole communities if they faced a single act of resistance. In the eastern fringes of the `Greater Reich', now annexed by the Poles and the Czechoslovaks, Werewolf harassment handed the new authorities an excuse to rush the deportations of millions of ethnic Germans to occupied Germany.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1373/10_50/66157021/p2/article.jhtml?term=

http://www.carnwyffa.u-net.com/chapter11/werewolf.html

 

Here at the library that I work at, I found a copy of the werewolves manual with complete english translation!!! I'd never even heard of it before that!!

 

I thought that this was a myth. It never really went beyond the imagination of Hitler's cronies. Interesting.

 

Learn something new every day. I didn't know about Operation Carnival, but honestly what was the great victory in killing the mayor of Aachen?

All I knew of the Werewolves was that they challenged the Americans near Berchtesgaden, and soon after their leader, Gunther Hassler was made to uncover a weapons cache....Interesting...

 

And a werewolves manual-is there anyway you can photocopy some pages and show them on here Doc???
That would be most interesting to see...

 

Tha book WOULD be interesting to see......Hint hint......

All I know of the Wehrwolfs is that killing of the mayor and I think they killed a few G.I.'s when the G.I.'s had been driving jeeps down a road and not to their knowledge--the ere had been wire strung across at neck height and, when driving into the wire--the wire would decapitate the jeeps driver--and or occupants.

 

The wire traps were also reported by the US 2nd armored at normandy.

regards

 

Wire strung across roads to catch unwary drivers was fairly common. If you look at pictures of US Army jeeps around Normandy and after, you'll see most of them have a vertical bar attached to the front bumper. This usually had a sharpened cut out near the top to catch and cut the wire.

Yes, I've read about the Werewolves. Most of their activities were fairly minor. The occasional sniper attack, or a local ambush. Certainly nothing along the lines of the rumoured "National Redoubt" in the Harz Mountains.
I've even seen some photos of the firing squad execution of a couple of Werewolves, charged with sabotage. I didn't hear about the murder of the Mayor of Aachen though. That was interesting. I guess because he would have been a US sponsored Mayor he became a prime target.

But of course, with a war weary Germany, meaning no support from the locals, no effective leadership and tight controls on movement etc. the Werewwolf movement wouldn't have survived very long anyway.

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"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

 

Well, I don't have a scanner or any computer skills. I can post the info for the book if I can find it again today. Then if youse guys can't find it, you could probably go to an area university or I believe a public library and request an inter library loan. IU will send it out. I know the ILL people send books overseas even, so you should be able to get it.

There is also a website called OCLC that pretty much lists every book at every library in the states. Once I post the info you could look it up there and see if there is one near you.

 

Found her - available here at the IU main library

Title: SS Werwolf-Kampfanweisung. English & German.
SS Werwolf combat instruction manual / translation by Michael C. Fagnon.
Published: Boulder, Colo. : Paladin Press, c1982.
Description: xxxix, 80, 80 p. : ill., maps ; 18 cm.
Subject headings: Unternehmen Werwolf.
Guerrilla warfare--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Counterinsurgency--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements.

 

Interesting finds in archives....

 

Very interesting find. One of the things that the media and the public seem to forget. There was actually "insurgent" violence in occupied Germany and Japan after the peace treaties were signed. The violence today in the mideast is worse and better organized and more leathal, but it is not original.

 

The media didn't report on this because that is what that nazis wanted. I think the average person is better off not knowing these types of things. It is like the war in Iraq. I don't think they should show those video tapes of hostages taken by terrorists. It just gives the terrorists more credit. That's just my opinion.

 

I think that I have to agree with your opinion Col. Hessler. The Terrorists or insurgents just gain stature with media attention. I don't know how we can take it back now. Sometimes it gets used against them but mostly it works for them.

 

Very true. consider the airline hijackings of the 70's. The USSR only had one hijacking. The Army or police, went in and killed all of the hijackers. Some civilians too but their point was made. No further aeroflot hijackings took place. Yet the western countries who negotiated and publicized the hijackings had further hijackings.

 

Certainly heard and read about Unternehem Werwolf (Enterprise Werewolf). They weren't very effective thou, and when Doenitz told them to cease operations the order was immediately obeyed.
There's a book simply called 'Werewolf' by Charles Whiting that I own. It goes into detail about Operation Carnival and is an interesting read.

The reason they wanted to kill Oppenoff, the new Mayor of Aachen, is because he was seen by the Nazi's as an American stool pidgeon, and a traitor.

 

Yeah I find the Werewolves to be pretty interesting. They weren't terribly effective but guerilla warfare is something that always intrigues me.

 

An interesting book - The Last Nazis: SS Werewolf Guerrilla Resistance in Europe 1944-1947