First of all, this has nothing to do with actual 1940’s German lycanthropes.
The Werewolves in question are the Nazi regime remnants who supposedly targeted Allied soldiers and other Germans who cooperated with the Allied forces, after Germany was defeated in WW2.
The sources I’ve found on the subject seem to be of very different opinions.
However, this one in which Perry Biddiscombe sums up his book called “The Last Nazis”, claims a very different version of history. By his telling, the Werewolves where quite the effective menace, post war.
So can anyone know, definitively, which accounting is true/ more accurate?
The Werewolves actually started late in the war, mainly using indoctrinated Hitler Youths. These guys fought dirty behind the lines of the Allies. While most German troops on the Western Front were kinda happy to be taken prisoner, the Werewolves were so naive they thought the war could still be won.
After the war, they and other die-hard Nazis continued to make trouble.
I don’t know, but in terms of general principle, when trying to make a credibility judgement between
1/ articles saying suggesting nothing much happened
2/ authors who will only sell their history book by convincing people that the book’s sensational tales are true
I have read they did a good bit of blowing up railways and other disruptive actions, and the reports of killings may be overstated. It was probably not something much talked about in the US during the period.
They were not a strategic threat, and were not able to significantly change much in the course of history.
(GER 45) An air battle that took place over the German coast near Steinhude between units of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and over 150 defending German fighters on 7 April, 1945. See NEROBEFEHL.
(GER 45) Plan to conduct guerrilla operations against Allied forces in occupied Germany. Never formally executed although some activities did occur.
In addition it is important to remember there were two unrelated things called Operation Werewolf. There most certainly was an attempt to position “stay behind” forces based upon HJ fanatics. In addition there was a radio service that dubbed itself “Radio Werewolf.” This radio service claimed to be broadcasting to insurgents behind Allied and Russian lines.
RW was not coordinated with the actual Operation Werewolf. In fact it seems that RW might have been an attempt to falsely convince the Allies that partisan bands did in fact exist.
This sort of propaganda did manage encourage some small insurgent activities, as well as several dozen suicides of Nazi officials who were convinced that they would be killed by the advancing forces.
I got to Schleissheim just north of Munich in July of 1945 and stayed there until the spring of 1946. In my opinion the werewolves were an insignificant footnote in the occupation of Germany after WWII. As Reeder wrote, they had little or no support among the populace who were just tired. This Munich street scene shows the conditions under which they lived. (For those who are familiar with Munich this is not far south of the Siegestor on the main street that runs down to Marienplatz.)
We were never briefed or warned to be cautious when out among the people in Munich and we circulated freely day or night. I didn’t go out much at night because there wasn’t a hell of a lot going on but several in our squadron did so without any incidents.
When we first got there the Eisenhower “no fraternization” policy was still in effect. This turned out to be a big mistake because there was a fine of, as I remember it, about $75 and some lost service time for any fraternization with the Germans. As a result guys wouldn’t get an anti venerial disease prophylactic kit on going to town and wouldn’t use the army operated prophylactic stations and the VD rate increased which brought a rather quick end to the policy.
We were not particularly loved but were not hated, or even disliked, all that much as far as I could tell.
[QUOTE=seriousart]
First of all, this has nothing to do with actual 1940’s German lycanthropes.
QUOTE]
True. Most lychanthropes in Germany in the 40’s were staunch supporters of the Kaiser. He didn’t like them, however. Wilhelm frequently complained about their shedding on his nice couch, and once they started killing his chickens, well…
My grandfather’s experience in Post-WWII Germany sounds similar to yours, David. He never had any run-ins with Werewolves–neither Nazi nor lycanthropic-- and according to my father (my source for this info), he never encountered anything like an armed insurgency.
That was a beautiful thread.
Using threads from an EZ messageboard as cites? Demanding that his opponents prove a negative? Pulling completely fabricated numbers (arrived at through incredibly dodgy arithmetic) out of the thin air?
All this lovely sniping aside, I remember reading about anti-Nazi resistance groups in Germany enlisting the the Werewolves specifically to reduce the effectiveness of those units. Some of them even turned their assigned weapons on Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht toops. For the reasons mentioned above, the werewolves were ineffective anyway, but I thought I’d toss that in.
Thanks for all the info, guys and sorry for getting on you about that link, FTG. In the time that you posted your 2nd post I was (very slowly) composing a response to your first.
:smack:
Seriousart, I am grateful that you started this thread, and David Simmon, I too am grateful to you for your participation. I lived in Germany for almost six years (1983-1988) and this is the very first time I’ve ever heard of this.
You’ve give me a lot to look into
