The Werewolf Principal[Terrorist Attacks In Germany After WW11]

The Command Post ^ | July 20, 2003 | Alan E Brain

[Lady In Blue]

July 20, 2003

The Werewolf Principle

Lessons of History, Continued: From a review of "Werewolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946"

What did the Werwolf do? They sniped. They mined roads. They poured sand into the gas tanks of jeeps. (Sugar was in short supply, no doubt.) They were especially feared for the "decapitation wires" they strung across roads. They poisoned food stocks and liquor. (The Russians had the biggest problem with this.) They committed arson, though perhaps less than they are credited with: every unexplained fire or explosion associated with a military installation tended to be blamed on the Werwolf. These activities slackened off within a few months of the capitulation on May 7, though incidents were reported as late as 1947.

... Goebbels especially grasped the possibility that guerrilla war could be a political process as well as a military strategy. It was largely through his influence that the Werwolf assumed something of the aspect of a terrorist organization. Where it could, it tried to prevent individuals and communities from surrendering, and it assassinated civil officials who cooperated with the Allies. Few Germans welcomed these activities, but something else that Goebbels grasped was that terror might serve where popularity was absent. By his estimate, only 10% to 15% of the German population were potential supporters for a truly revolutionary movement. His goal was to use the Werwolf to activate that potential. With the help of the radical elite, the occupiers could be provoked into savage reprisals that would win over the mass of the people to Neo-Nazism, a term that came into use in April 1945.

And from an article on Minutemen of the Third Reich.(history of the Nazi Werewolf guerilla movement) 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. Although the Werewolves originally limited themselves to guerrilla warfare with the invading armies, they soon began to undertake scorched-earth measures and vigilante actions against German `collaborators' or `defeatists'. They damaged Germany's economic infrastructure, already battered by Allied bombing and ground fighting, and tried to prevent anything of value from falling into enemy hands. Attempts to blow up factories, power plants or waterworks occasionally provoked melees between Werewolves and desperate German workers trying to save the physical basis of their employment, particularly in the Ruhr and Upper Silesia.

Several sprees of vandalism through stocks of art and antiques, stored by the Berlin Museum in a flak tower at Friedrichshain, caused millions of dollars worth of damage and cultural losses of inestimable value. In addition, vigilante attacks caused the deaths of a number of small-town mayors and, in late March 1945, a Werewolf paratroop squad assassinated the Lord Mayor of Aachen, Dr Franz Oppenhoff, probably the most prominent German statesman to have emerged in the occupied fringes over the winter of 1944-45.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I have.....but not one provides the answer to this question: how many Americans were killed in post-war guerrilla action in Germany/Austria? Simple question.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Hey...you're the one who made the humanitarian argument. I merely asked you a question: Are you, are are you not, for a U.S. occupation of the Congo? I am against the Iraq war (though I supported the Afghan war). I have put my cards on the table. Why can't you answer the question?

[Austin Willard Wright]

Please note that your "training camps" were in Kurd territory.

[Petronski]

World War Eleven?

[Mr. Silverback]

Not the ones I read detailed accounts about. Please also note that

SALMAN PAK

"is located approximately 38 kilometers Southeast of downtown Baghdad," according to globalsecurity.org. Doesn't sound like Kurdish territory to me.

[ex-snook]

Sam - Sure would like to see the source for this. As one who was there, I can't recall a single guy who was shot in the Bavaria, Austria area. Maybe the Russians had this problem. Guys were killed in accidents, Patton included. I also checked my friends who were there. This may all be pure bunk to spin what is happening to our guys in Iraq with our WW II occupation. You are a very good researcher, did you ever find anything?

[aruanan]

They poured sand into the gas tanks of jeeps. (Sugar was in short supply, no doubt.)

Though sugar wouldn't have done anything since it's not soluble in gasoline.

[cibco]

I can't provide a link or a total for all US forces. I did read that one division lost about 47 men. The Russians also lost people.

I don't understand the need to have exact numbers for casualties. It brings back the Vietnam body count and weekly total of Americans lost reported with glee by the TV Networks.

I think the point of this all, is that after the collapse of a country and it's military, you are still going to have resistance from remnants of the defeated military. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, there was still a guerilla resistance by the ARVN for a number of years in the southern part of the country. It wasn't reported by the media, of course...

[Peach]

Thanks so much for your information. I'll check it/him out. AQ = Al Quada.

[Peach]

You keep wanting a number of American soldiers killed in post-war Germany. I've sent you many links that don't give numbers but rather tell how many ways they killed us. We weren't quite so into statistics in the post-war phase as people are now; same with poll numbers.

Would a high number of American soldiers killed in post-war Germany change your mind? I think not. It's a false argument you are making.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Yes, it *would* change my mind. I would think since you are advancing this argument, you would be the first to want hard numbers to indicate that the situations are comparable. Otherwise, nobody, not even people who agree with you on the war, will take you seriously. BTW, I have been willing to find the numbers....myself. I called up the Center for Military History in Washington D.C. (an arm of the federal government). I talked to an expert on the occuation and he dismissed the comparision as total nonsense. Unfortunately, he did not have numbers either.

[Austin Willard Wright]

47 men! Now...were cooking. Please send me the link that 47 or more men died in post-war guerrilla action.

[VOA]

bump

[Peach]

Then you did not read the article(s) I posted to you yesterday or this morning. They are written by scholars who did not "laugh" at the comparisons but instead detailed in grisly accountings of how our soldiers were targeted and murdered in post-war Germany.

[Peach]

Read this. Watch for a History Channel which is DEVOTED to the subject of how our soldiers were targeted in post-war Germany.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971040/posts

[Austin Willard Wright]

Thanks for the link. I have no doubt at all that some soldiers were killed. If a few people died from potshots, however, the situations are not comparable. Again, I would think that you would be the first to want to get the full facts on this. Am, I wrong?

I am perfectly willing to be persuaded....but facts are needed to nail down your comparison at least if want to claim that the violence was on similar scale.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I am really getting tired of your accusations that I "obviously" don't read your links. I have shown you the courtesy of reading them.....but do not think they answer my question. Now...if you could show me the *same* courtesy and answer my specific question instead of making false charges.

[ex-snook]

"Again, I would think that you would be the first to want to get the full facts on this. "

I want to know too. I wandered around Austria and received no warnings to beware. The fact that this is so 'buried' makes the whole matter suspect.

A division losing 47 men would be easy to find if it is true. Just ID the Division. All divisions published their history. The 101st had a whole TV series A Band of Brothers which included their occupation period. You are right to want documentation. This is beginning to not pass the smell test.

I wonder if the same undocumented stuff if circulated about the Japan occupation.

[Peach]

Considering that neither the History Channel, various news articles nor the organization you called were able to give firm numbers of American soldiers killed during post-war Germany, I can only conclude that - as I previously stated - numbers and statistics and polling were not as important during the mid 40's as they are today.

Speaking of being tired of something, I am rather tired of reading that you apparently refuse to believe that soldiers being killed in post-war Germany have no relevance to soldiers being killed in post-war Iraq.

How on earth can you claim no relevance, without facts at your disposal? The facts that I have at my disposal are that soldiers were killed. No one, not even you, have disputed that.

Considering that the History Channel and others have devoted entire topics to this matter, without giving firm numbers, and considering the huge numbers of soldiers in post-war Germany, I conclude that it wasn't just a dozen or so soldiers killed. I conclude that it was a considerable number or the topic wouldn't be so newsworthy. You will doubtless claim otherwise because it fits with your preconceived agenda.

And, by the way, what was the number of that organization you called the other day? I'd like to call them myself and will be willing to bet I can get a range number and will then post that.