Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Strange Story of How Nazi Germany Surrendered (and Then Kept Fighting)
http://nationalinterest.org/ ^ | 3/18/18

Posted on 03/19/2018 3:12:06 PM PDT by BBell

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last
To: yarddog

Their die hard guerilla warfare program was called Werewolf. To be implemented effectively it required three things 1) arms caches, 2) The National Redoubt in the Bavarian Alps & 3) True believers to carry on the fight.

It failed because very few of the arms caches were actually in place (Speer takes credit for that. Historians now think he was exaggerating!) The National Redoubt was never built. (I think Speer takes credit for that also! Again questionable!) Given 1) & 2) didn’t happen and it even became plain to True Believers that 1) & 2) didn’t happen so their numbers tailed off and the whole thing fizzled out in a few years.

Saddam did some similar in Iraq, much more successfully!


21 posted on 03/19/2018 4:05:57 PM PDT by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: BBell

The German resistance group Werwolf (werewolf) which operated in behind enemy lines during the war and later in post-war Germany against the Allies. They were recruited from the SS and Hitler’s Youth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIpmcDVMy1A


22 posted on 03/19/2018 4:07:00 PM PDT by lizma2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BBell

Two interesting books with stories about Wehrmacht soldiers holding out behind enemy lines are HITLER MOVES EAST and SCORCHED EARTH. Hundreds of thousands of them were cut off and trapped by rapid Soviet advances, many miles from the front in the late summer and fall of 1944. The front had had moved west into Polish territory and to the East Prussian frontier.

A few thousand made it back to the German side of the front with stories to tell.


23 posted on 03/19/2018 4:10:17 PM PDT by Combat_Liberalism
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: irish guard

I heard things like that


24 posted on 03/19/2018 4:13:12 PM PDT by redgolum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BBell

When Daddy was 89 he was in a nursing home and beginning to show signs of Alzheimers, actually pretty bad at times.

I brought a bunch of his photos from WWII hoping to jog his memory. Among the photos were some of the first Russian tank to enter Berlin.

It was a JSII and was on a roughly 10 foot high platform. He had photos of it being constructed. Some also of it completed.

When Daddy saw it, he chuckled and said it was believed his battalion blew it up in the middle of the night. I have confirmed that it was blown up but never knew for sure who did it.


25 posted on 03/19/2018 4:13:35 PM PDT by yarddog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: BBell

My guess is that any conflicts in the Soviet zone of occupation were quickly resolved by pepesha


26 posted on 03/19/2018 4:15:12 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SkyDancer

I think that Germany at one point still had a sizeable military that could easily be de-Nazified with Hitler dead to have linked with the Americans and kicked the GD Russians back to their borders. Revisionist but what would be a world without the Cold War and maybe destroying Communism after destroying Socialism and Fascism. Imagine no Korean War, Vietnam War, Iron Curtain, no Communist China and no a-bomb held by a Communist. Yes simplistic folly but what we have today would be immensely shocking to those in 1945.


27 posted on 03/19/2018 4:15:24 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SkyDancer

Why even fight ?

you really want to fight to defend the likes of Nancy Pelosi ?


28 posted on 03/19/2018 4:16:27 PM PDT by vooch (America First Drain the Swamp)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Reily

I have a 1943 p 38 luger that came from one of those stashes. I bought it at the px on Camp Lejeune around 90 or 91. It seems when the iron curtain fell and East Germany was starting to be developed some of these stashes were found. Some made there way here.


29 posted on 03/19/2018 4:20:44 PM PDT by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: shanover

post 18. My uncle’s story in brief.


30 posted on 03/19/2018 4:23:23 PM PDT by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: BBell

Yeah I head that too!


31 posted on 03/19/2018 4:25:00 PM PDT by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: vooch

The US is about three times the size of Europe; Germany about the size of Montana/Wyoming. Pelosi would be the first government official to roll over to an invader.


32 posted on 03/19/2018 4:25:28 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Reily

Back in the early 80’s I went to Germany and had a chance to talk to relatives who fought in the Nazi army.

They said they started the war on emotions and ended it in reality. I’m sure that is why the resistance failed.

One of my cousins said the best time he spent during the war was in an American POW camp. He as shocked at the American’s kindness.

They all learned after the war to speak English.


33 posted on 03/19/2018 4:26:04 PM PDT by lizma2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: shanover

The Germans may have still had at the time a sizable army but they were emotionally defeated, no longer had the will to fight; Truman just wanted the war to be over with.


34 posted on 03/19/2018 4:27:52 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: GreyHoundSailor

We would fight regardless of how our wimpy government would have rolled over; if it was a Democrat government I think they would. Regardless, our country is so huge no single country i.e. Russia could control all of it.


35 posted on 03/19/2018 4:30:43 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: BBell

History always ties the Germany army to it being a Nazi army when in fact the majority of them weren’t but it always was called the Nazi army when it’s mentioned. It’s always the Nazi army did this and that.


36 posted on 03/19/2018 4:32:40 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SkyDancer
Wolverines!
37 posted on 03/19/2018 4:33:27 PM PDT by Chuckster (There is no government solution to government corruption.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

I think the German population towards the end were fight for their self existence and not the Nazi government. I remember a great movie called “The Postman” with Kevin Costner.


38 posted on 03/19/2018 4:34:18 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Chuckster

Werewolves I think.


39 posted on 03/19/2018 4:34:46 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: lizma2

I am sure that wa the case too. The “True Believer” class was likely very small in number. Whose going to tell Hitler that?


40 posted on 03/19/2018 4:34:52 PM PDT by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson