Hitler's Last Days (6 page)

This lack of concern is mirrored throughout the highest levels of the Allied command. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery writes to a fellow British general that Hitler “is fighting a defensive campaign on all fronts. He cannot stage a major offensive operation.” Monty is so certain there will not be a surprise attack that he is making plans to return home to London for Christmas.

Colonel Oscar Koch is the only man who believes that the Germans are ready to attack. He ends his briefing. Patton's excitement about Operation Tink is temporarily set aside as he absorbs the heavy weight of this new information. The general knows that Koch is a cautious man and reluctant to speculate, preferring to speak in hard facts. So for the G-2 to insist that a major new German attack is almost certain means a great deal.

Patton does not rise to his feet for quite some time. He silently ponders another situation that has been nagging at him: Despite aggressive Third Army patrols into Germany's Saar region in the past few weeks, there has been almost no enemy resistance. This is very unusual. The Germans normally fight viciously for every inch of ground. Patton finds himself reminded of the story of “the dog that did not bark,” in which a cunning predator conceals himself before suddenly lunging out to fight his victim. Patton wonders if Hitler is playing such a deadly game.

But Patton is conflicted. He knows that the lack of clear-cut intelligence is easily explained. The German army is now based in its own country, rather than in a hostile nation like France. The local citizens are patriots who will not spy on their own soldiers, as the French resistance movement had done so successfully. And because German telephone lines are still largely intact, achieving radio silence is as simple as ordering all military officers to use the telephone instead of the radio. Seen from that perspective, the behavior of the German army is completely logical. The musings of Colonel Oscar Koch might be an exercise in paranoia.

Patton still has every intention of launching Operation Tink on December 19. It will be glorious, starting with the biggest aerial bombardment the Americans have ever poured down on the German army. He finally has the guns and the gas necessary for his tanks and men to make a winter offensive into Germany. With any luck, the war might be over by New Year's Eve after all.

But what if Koch is right? What if there is danger on the Third Army's northern flank?

Finally, Patton stands to leave. He orders that in addition to fine-tuning the last-minute details of Operation Tink, officers plan for emergency measures to rescue First Army should the Germans attack to the north in the Ardennes Forest. If that happens, “our offensive will be called off,” he tells his staff. “And we'll have to go up there and save their hides.” Koch is most pleased that General Patton wants Third Army to be “in a position to meet whatever happens.”

Patton's private sentiments are much more sympathetic. “First Army is making a terrible mistake,” he writes in his diary. “It is highly probable the Germans are building up east of them.”

But Patton knows he needs to do more than just make backup plans. His concern for the plight of First Army is very real, so he calls General Dwight Eisenhower and passes on Koch's assessment. Ike passes this on to his own G-2, General Kenneth Strong, who relays Patton's concerns to First Army.

Where the warning is promptly ignored.

PART TWO

THE LAST DESPERATE EFFORT

CHAPTER 6

GERMAN FRONT LINES

DECEMBER 16, 1944
5:29 A.M.

S
UNRISE IS STILL TWO HOURS
away. The morning sky is completely black, without moon or starlight. German artillery crews stand at their guns, making happy small talk and stomping their feet to keep warm. Their cheeks sting from the record December cold. They have been awake for hours, waiting for this moment.

Some day they hope to tell their grandchildren about the great instant when Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein—Operation Watch on the Rhine—began and how they were among the lucky gunners who personally fired the first rounds into the American lines, turning the tide of war in favor of the Fatherland, once and for all. They will tell their descendants about the brilliant deception that allowed a quarter million men, more than seven hundred tanks, and thousands of huge artillery pieces to remain camouflaged in the Ardennes Forest for weeks, giving the German attack an element of total surprise. And these young soldiers will talk about the glory of driving through the middle of the area separating the American and British armies, and then the relentless push to reclaim the strategically vital port city of Antwerp. Its capture will allow Adolf Hitler to successfully sue for peace with the west, thereby preserving the Third Reich and preventing an Allied invasion of the German homeland. With the Americans and British neutralized, Hitler will activate step two of Operation Watch on the Rhine and will launch a legendary second attack against Stalin and Russia that defeats the communist Red Army.

German soldiers pause to eat as they advance across France.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

That is the story they hope to tell.

But all of that is in the future. Right now these young Germans are eager, awaiting the command to rain down hellfire on their enemies.

At precisely 5:30
A.M.
that order is delivered. Up and down the eighty-five-mile German front lines, some sixteen hundred pieces of field artillery open fire. The silent forest explodes, and muzzle blasts light the sky as the furnaces of hell are thrown open. Screaming meemie rockets screech into the darkness, making a deadly sound that American soldiers everywhere find unnerving. And big 88mm guns fire their two-foot-long shells at targets almost ten miles away, hitting U.S. positions before they even know they're being fired upon. Every German soldier within a hundred yards is rendered temporarily deaf from the noise. Hand gestures replace the spoken word.

Otto Skorzeny has never fired an artillery piece in his life, but he has waited for this moment just as eagerly as those men manning the big guns. His life has been a whirlwind since his meeting with the F
ü
hrer less than two months ago. Operation Greif, as his special role in the offensive is known, has allowed him to scour the ranks of the German military for men who speak fluent English. He has outfitted these men in American uniforms and has captured American tanks, trucks, and jeeps to help them travel effortlessly behind U.S. lines. Their ultimate goal is to make their way through this rugged, snow-covered terrain as quickly as possible to capture three vital bridges over the Meuse River. But their more immediate task is to sow seeds of confusion throughout the American lines. They will spread rumors and misinformation, tear down road signs, and do everything in their power to mislead the Americans as the German army pours into the Ardennes Forest. No lie or act of deception will be overlooked.

The problem facing Skorzeny is that the Americans know all about Operation Greif. Shortly after his Wolf's Lair meeting with Hitler, someone in the German high command circulated a notice up and down the western front: “Secret Commando Operations,” the directive stated in bold letters at the top of the page. “The F
ü
hrer has ordered the formation of a special unit of approximately two battalion strength for commando operations.” It went on to ask all English-speaking soldiers, sailors, and pilots who wished to volunteer to report to Skorzeny's training center in the town of Friedenthal.

A German antitank company heads to the front in camouflaged vehicles.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

An irate Skorzeny went directly to Hitler to have the notice withdrawn, but the damage was already done. As Skorzeny knew it would, the paper fell into Allied hands. It was the sort of intelligence coup that G-2s like Oscar Koch lived for. And while Skorzeny insisted that Operation Greif be canceled for this blunder, the F
ü
hrer personally requested that it proceed. Having no choice, Skorzeny reluctantly complied. In the weeks of training that followed, his men lived in a special camp set apart from other German soldiers and were not able to leave. To brush up on their English, they spent time conversing with captured U.S. soldiers and pilots in prisoner of war camps. They learned how to chew gum like Americans, to swear, and to banter using American slang. One soldier who made the mistake of writing home about his whereabouts was immediately shot.

So it is that the sound of the big 75mm guns thundering up and down the lines fills Skorzeny with equal parts euphoria and dread. The legendary commando is known for his ruthlessness, which is just one reason the Allied army has named him the most dangerous man in the German army. But he is also extremely loyal, and fond of his men. As Operation Greif commences, he fusses over them, quietly worrying about their fate. Every mission has peril, but this one is especially dangerous, as every man in Skorzeny's elite commando unit is aware.

If captured by the Americans, they will not be treated as prisoners of war, as regular German soldiers would be.

By disguising themselves as Americans, Skorzeny's men are deliberately violating the Geneva Convention. If captured in German uniforms, they could expect to spend the rest of the war in U.S. captivity, but at least they would live.

But Skorzeny's soldiers will be wearing U.S. uniforms; therefore they will be classified as spies. And as they all know, the punishment for being captured while wearing an enemy uniform is a trial and perhaps death by firing squad.

Skorzeny gives the order to move out.

*   *   *

Confusion reigns. The narrow, muddy roads leading from Germany into the Ardennes are now clogged with German tanks, trucks, horse-drawn carts, and half-tracks as thirty German divisions flood toward the American lines. The front extends north to south through three countries, meaning that German forces are now on the attack in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Their movement was supposed to be lightning quick, but speed has not been possible. The biggest surprise attack of the war has become an enormous traffic jam because the roads are too narrow to handle all the German vehicles.