Throughout the Second World War, many secret missions and operations were conducted with
many different aims.
Some were conducted by resistance to bring about the end of Hitler and Mussolini, and
others were done to achieve military advancement.
But there was one mission conducted by the infamous Waffen SS commando Otto Skorzeny,
who helped to liberate Mussolini from capture, which resulted in the executions of a number
of German officers on a firing range.
Operation Greif was a mission thought up by Hitler himself, and the aim of this was to
capture a number of bridges over the Meuse River before they were destroyed.
Otto Skorzeny is considered a rather mysterious figure and was involved in other operations,
but what is the story of the executions of Operation Grief?
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Otto Skorzeny had become one of Adolf Hitler’s reliable commandos and go to men for secret
operations.
He had previously been involved in Operation Panzerfaust, a secret mission in which he
oversaw the kidnapping and seizure of the son of Hungary’s Regent Admiral Miklos Horthy.
When he returned to Germany, he met with Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair headquarters on the 22nd
October 1944, and after he received many accolades and congratulations he was briefed on the
Ardennes Offensive that Hitler planned to halt the Allied advancements.
He was told that he was to be involved in a number of operations, but the main plan
was for him to create a special brigade of soldiers, called the Panzer Brigade 150, who
would capture a number of bridges over the Meuse River.
The aim was to take these before they could be blown up, and Hitler said that to allow
this to be done quicker and with less losses, Skorzeny and his men would wear US Army uniforms
that had been taken from soldiers.
He said that by having a small detachment of German soldiers in enemy uniform that it
would cause chaos with the enemy, and that they would be hesitant to fire at what they
believed was their own men.
He believed the Americans would be in disarray at seeing some of their own uniforms within
the enemy, and Hitler said directly, ‘I want you to command a group of American and
British troops and get them across the Meuse and seize one of the bridges.
Not, my dear Skorzeny, real Americans or British.
I want you to create special units wearing American and British uniforms.
They will travel in captured Allied tanks.
Think of the confusion you could cause!
I envisage a whole string of false orders which will upset communications and attack
morale.’
However under The Hague Convention of 1907, this was considered rather controversial.
Otto Skorzeny and Hitler knew that if any of their soldiers were captured whilst in
the enemy uniforms, then it was most probable that they would be executed being deemed as
spies.
Other field marshals discussed this point, but the order was given for the unit to wear
US Uniforms.
But as the Ardennes Offensive was beginning rapidly, Otto Skorzeny had only a short window
of around 6 weeks to find his men for the job and also to train them for Operation Greif.
In the first 4 days of planning, he sent his plans for Panzer Brigade 150 to Alfred Jodl,
and he asked for 3,300 men and was then given the go ahead whenever he was ready, and Jodl
promised him all the support he needed.
The OKW then issued an order asking for suitable soldiers for the Operation who had ‘a knowledge
of the English language, and also American dialect,’ and this note was passed to all
the Wehrmachts headquarters, and also this was leaked to the allies.
As well as having US Army uniforms, the brigade needed American vehicles, weapons and other
equipment to successfully deceive.
There would be no point a German soldier walking around in American uniform if they were sitting
in Panthers with German army markings on.
They needed 15 tanks, 20 armoured cars, 20 self propelled guns, 100 jeeps, 40 motorbikes,
120 trucks and more uniforms.
They could not get all of this equipment and only had 2 Sherman tanks that were gathered
battered, and Skorzeny had to then use German hardware decorated with American markings.
The brigade had lots of Polish and Russian equipment also, and Skorzeny also had 10 men
who spoke good English and had knowledge of US lifestyle and turns of phrase.
Around 150 men spoke relatively good English, but most spoke none.
Because of this, the Panzer Brigade 150 was reduced from 3 battalion to 2, and the best
150 English speakers became part of a commando unit.
2500 men were gathered, and the equipment they had gathered was underwhelming.
The panther tanks were disgused to look like M10 tank destroyers.
Rumours were circulating in the brigade that they were to help relieve besieged French
towns such as Dunkirk, and would also capture Antwerpy.
But later the commanders were made aware of the plans to capture at least 2 of the bridges
over the Meuse River at Huy, Andenne and Amay before they could be blown up.
The commandos of the group had little time to train, but they were dressed in American
uniform, armed with American weapons and used US army jeeps.
They were given 3 missions, the first was that demolition squads of 6 men were to blow
up bridges, ammunition dumps and fuel stores.
The second was that Recon patrols would watch both sides of the Meuse River and pass on
fake orders to American units, and also take away minefield warnings.
A third mission was that the Lead commando groups would attack and disrupt the US Chain
of Command, attacking telephone wires and radio stations.
On the 14th December 1944, Panzer Brigade 150 were gathered at Bad Munstereifel, and
in the afternoon of the 16th they moved and advanced behind a number of attacking Panzer
divisions.
They aimed to move around them, but following being halted, the mission in Skorzeny’s
opinion was rather doomed.
The following day, he attended a conference and asked for the brigade to be used as a
normal fighting detachment, and this was allowed.
But on the 21st December, they tried to take the small village of Malmedy, and there were
many assaults made by the brigade before they were fought back by the Americans.
Skorzeny later talked about the plan after his surrender, and he said that a number of
German soldiers did manage to infiltrate American lines, and one team even managed to get a
US Army detachment to withdraw.
Because of the deceit, the Americans started asking soldiers questions that they belieeved
only Americans would know.
This included sports trivia, and some high profile members of the American Army were
later held at gunpoint for getting a question wrong.
Otto Skorzeny’s men had caused fear, and had caused unease in the American ranks.
With this, 44 German soldiers wearing American uniforms were sent through to American lines,
and all but 8 came back.
The Americans treated many with suspicion, but those who were captured were subject to
execution as mentioned earlier as they were wearing enemy uniforms.
There was one massacre ordered by German General Anton Dostler in Italy, who ordered the executions
of a number of American soldiers who had allegedly been caught wearing enemy uniforms, but this
was not the case.
The men who were captured by the Americans were shot dead and executed because of their
accusation of being enemy spies.
Three named Pernass, Schmidt and Billing were brought to a military trial at Henri-Chapelle
on the 21st December 1944 and were then sentenced to death for their work in sabotage.
Three more Germans were tried and sentenced to death on the 23rd December, 7 more were
tried on the 26th December, and three more were tried on the 31st December.
These were all found guilty, and were all sentenced to death to be executed.
The executions of the men of Operation Greif occurred in a rather similar manner.
They were all sentenced to death to be shot by firing squad, with the executioners being
the US First Army.
Firing Squads were gathered, and in different areas make shift firing ranges were made to
execute the German saboteurs.
In one execution of 3 German commandos, three wooden stakes were created against a small
concrete building.
The three men were then led to their place of execution, and were tied by the feet and
then their arms were tied behind their backs before they were secured by rope to the post.
They were dressed in their clothes that they were captured in, and then a market was placed
over their chests to show the firing squad where to aim.
The men were then blindfolded and then the American military policemen who accompanied
them stood back.
Around 20 metres away stood the firing squads, who were armed with their rifles.
They were then told to prepare and get ready, and when the signal was given they shot straight
into their targets, instantly killing the German soldiers who had been involved in the
deceit.
All of those men who were arrested and found in US Army uniform, and were sentenced to
death were executed in this manner using firing squads.
The team leader of Operation Grief Gunther Schulz was later tried in May 1945, and was
executed near to Braunschweig on the 14th June 1945, by a firing squad of the US Ninth
Army.
Otto Skorzeny was tried as a war criminal, and was accused of violating the laws of war
during the Battle of the Bulge.
He and 9 officers of Panzer brigade 150 were charged with improperly using US Uniforms,
‘by entering into combat disguised therewith and treacherously firing upon and killing
members of the armed forced of the United States.’
They were also accused of wrongfully obtaining Us Uniforms and Red Cross Parcels stealing
these from Prisoners of war.
But the defendants were acquitted of their crimes, and with this Skorzeny escaped any
further action.
The executions of the men of Operation Greif were ultimately killed for their involvement
in the deception attempts and the fact they were wearing American uniforms.
They were all shot by firing squads made up of US soldiers, but the mastermind behind
the whole of the operation escaped.
Otto Skorzeny is an interesting figure, and after the war he managed to escape from a
prison camp, and was eventually offered a job as a military advisor to the Egpytian
president.
He then became an advisor to Argentinian President Juan Peron, who allowed many former Nazis
to settle in his lands after the Second World War, with huge scores of nazi war criminals
settling in Argentina.
He was later apparently recruited by Mossad, and conducted operations for them, before
he died in 1975.
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