Again we are putting together fiction from whole cloth. I have never heard of any such movement described here through France and it is still a year short of D day. And we should have heard of it.
Those magic giant subs do not exist either and are an unnecessary addition. The problem is simply hull strength and the technology needed to produce such a craft. We do not go there today. It did not happen.
Better yet, movement by sea from neutral Spain by merchant ship to the Argentine is viable and hardware can go as well. Any such contingent plan would have used that route and naval intervention would have been unlikely in 1943 because all available resources were fighting the convoy battles. And do you really think that anyone would care too much if Germans and resources were on a trip away from the battle front?
Anyway, at best it would have been plausible to send out 5000 to 15000 people in this manner and certainly not 250,000 even if they had magic subs. That also suits the known facilities available to them in South America at the time. Much more that that and security would surely have broken down.
This route slammed shut in the late summer of 1944 after D day. Later escapes were few and done by air.
.
Chapter VIII
Fatherland Evacuated in New
Aircraft and Giant U Boats
In the summer of 1943 the
French underground suddenly began advising London of nightly troop trains traveling over secondary
French railroads toward the Spanish border. The French estimated that
each train carried 500 German
troops. Allied intelligence was perplexed. There were several
reasons.
The enemy had been defeated
in Africa and was bogged down on the Russian front. Therefore) Supreme Allied Command was
desperate to know if the Germans were starting a second front or planning to invade North
Africa from Spanish bases. And was there some truth to the continuing
rumors from allied agents} that the
elite of the German army and her top scientists and technicians were preparing to evacuate their
European homeland - and, if so, to where? And even more disquieting,
the. British and the American OSS
had learned that Hitler had put much of Germany's scientific effort
into a new type of round wing plane
which was perhaps laser equipped to destroy London or New York in an hour. The American OSS
knew precisely the horrible possibilities of such a German
breakthrough. The question was asked if
the Germans were building those planes in some remote area of Spain
or South America.
Allied headquarters in
London sent 12 top agents into Germany, France and Spain and asked
the American OSS to infiltrate
these troop trains to ascertain German intentions. Three Americans were chosen, one of German
descent and a graduate of Princeton Law School, another an ordained priest who later became
Director of the CIA. They all spoke fluent German.
A fourth Spanish speaking
agent was sent to neutral Spain, where in Seville he established
himself for
three weeks to listen to
Spanish railway men and observe Germans in Spanish uniforms, changing
trains for a coastal destination.
Two of the agents managed to get their messages to London in spite of
being caught, and Allen Dulles got
behind enemy territory and back without detection. This story of
American espionage on German troop
trains is said to be legendary in intelligence circles, and for sheer
heroism it is one of the bravest and
most dangerous wartime episodes ever recorded.
In an Atlanta restaurant,
late one evening in April, 1976, the author sat with three survivors
of the four original agents who
penetrated the German railroad evacuation plot. The former agents, a
Catholic priest, a Presbyterian and a
Christian scientist, ate slowly. They talked and relived their train
ride with the German troops. After the
meal the priest, then a Cardinal, placed a bottle of wine on the
table.
Allen Dulles had brought it
back from the 1943 episode on the train. Each year they would have a reunion and to the last
survivor would go the German Wine. (In September, 1978 the heroic
clergyman died in Rome.)
The reports of these agents
began seeping back to London, and within 40 days, the allies were
piecing together a mystery.
Germans were cleverly
executing a contingency plan for their troops and certain civilians
to evacuate Germany for a second
stronghold after battle defeats in Europe were no longer reversible.
Although the war tide had
turned in favor of the allies, they had also been caught napping
about alternate German intentions.
But then, perhaps, never before in history had an army suffering defeat made contingent plans
to abandon its homeland and revive the military venture elsewhere.
The collective reports from
the American, British and French agents confirmed that crack German troops were being withdrawn
from all fighting fronts and shipped to Spain. Furthermore, the three agents who had infiltrated
the German troop trains reported that personnel on board comprised
the essential manpower needed
for a colonization attempt. These agents had identified a diversity
of professions, business
experts and workers disguised as soldiers and had actually spoken
with doctors, dentists, teachers,
architects, tool makers, machinists, etc., whose new oath on being
verified for the train evacuation trips had
required "unflinching and everlasting loyalty to the Third Reich
and its Feuhrer."
The last stop for the German
troop trains had been Hulva, and Aymonte, Spain. It would take
another
espionage effort for the OSS
to determine just what was happening at these Spanish ports, and on this
requirement allied intelligence would focus next.
In the meantime in 1944, the
reports of other agents, verified by aerial photography, also
indicated unusual activity in German
Baltic ports. Huge quantities of industrial equipment for overseas'
shipment were beginning to appear at
these docks. The allies wondered if the Germans were shipping their
new round wing planes abroad for
later use to strike from hidden bases.
About this time the Allies
learned of a secret meeting held in Stausberg on August 10, 1944,
wherein it was decided to remove all
the gold and precious metal reserves from Germany for over seas
shipment. Overseas, but to where?
Despite tight German
security, the American OSS began to discern some obvious intentions.
One, that there existed a German
master plan to evacuate personnel and wealth from the fatherland to
parts unknown during the height of
the war, and two, that secret weapons were being shipped out,
including an unconventional aircraft
which the enemy had not committed to the fighting. Those assessments provided by allied
intelligence left a major question unanswered. Why? And what secret
weapon, or weapons, were so advanced or
devastating that a determined Germany would not commit them when she was losing the war? And
were they so advanced that she could safely gamble her future on
them?
As the Allied Command also
pondered German intentions in Spain, it was aware that although Spain
was neutral, General Franco,
because of German threats, was under the German thumb.
London, therefore, concluded
that Spain's importance to the enemy lay in the use of her Atlantic ports.
It was in conjunction with
these intelligence summations that the first reports arrived
regarding a new fleet of giant German
submarines approximately 400 feet long and several decks high. Agents
reported sightings of these subs in
the vicinity of Aymonte and Hulva, Spain, and also at Baltic and
Norwegian ports.
In 1944-1945 it was
confirmed that the loading of these subs at Baltic potts with unusual
machinery and equipment was secretly being
carried on. The Norwegian underground picked up the super subs'
trail. These reports pieced
together told a tale. The giant underwater megaliths had left
Germany, thence to Norway and along its coast
northward to avoid Allied shipping lanes, and then west from Narvik toward
Iceland in the North Atlantic. From a point below Iceland the subs steered an oblique southerly
course which eventually took them to the Atlantic ports of Hulva and Aymonte, Spain.
At last the Allied command
had solved the 1945 puzzle of the disappearing Germans. The answer
was
obvious! The German troop
trains puffing through France and Spain at night were eventually disembarking their
passengers and other cargo at Spanish Atlantic ports, where from
another direction, German ingenuity had brought
together underseas transportation. Once the Germans had boarded the subs they were swallowed up
quietly by the sea.
By V-E Day, the allies
estimated over 250 thousand Germans had evacuated the country by
various means, including air,
submarines and even by merchant vessels flying American and British
flags. But the enigma of where the
unapprehended Germans were headed still eluded the Allies.
In April, 1945 the world
press was preoccupied with the forthcoming German collapse. In a
political agreement made by Roosevelt
and Stalin at Yalta, Allied armies were forced to mark time on the Western front while Russian
troops took Eastern Europe and half of Germany, including Berlin. The German armies on the western
front under Von Rundstedt fought delaying actions, their local commanders knowing that the
end was near. Rumors were rife among the German High Command that Hitler was about to unleash
secret weapons that would annihilate the enemy. And a similar German story circulated, that the
Western allies would link up with the Germans at the Elbe and
together, join the German army on the
Eastern front and race for Moscow to contain communism.
All of these rumors of
anticipated happenings circulating among the desperately besieged
Germans had a ring of truth. And, in
another way, and at another place, one of the supposed fantasies
became a frightening reality.
As usual, the Allies were
unprepared. When the tragedy occurred (gathered in 1977 from British
and German sources) it bridged
two eras. From that moment on, World War II became the last great chapter on mankind's history
of conventional armaments. As a result of the tragic incident that
followed, World War II may well be
known as the last of the lengthy super land battles using explosives
and gunpowder.
Involved in this terrible
drama was one of the giant German submarines. She was one of those
built secretly in 1944 and carried
a cargo of top secret German plans, documents and proto types of new inventions. The
sub was in the North Atlantic at an approximate position of 14° west
and 35° north when her oxygen
supply gave out due to malfunction of equipment. Unable to stay submerged, the leviathan
slowly ascended from a depth of 2000 feet and its 12" thick hull
of steel broke surface of the cold Atlantic
at midnight on 23rd of April, 1945, within a mile of two British cruisers. Up went
flares as the British ships opened fire on the German sub. Eight inch
shells straddled the huge craft to
get range, as an odd-shaped German gun appeared on the sub's hull. A pencil beam of laser homed
in on the cruiser Cambden.
There was no battle thunder
or fury from the sub. The ray silently pierced the darkness and
flares, and in seconds a 20 foot
diameter hole was cut from port to starboard through the first
surface ship. Like a toy boat suddenly filled
with water, the cruiser sank horizontally with a hissing of steam
from the white hot steel hull. Then the
beam moved onto the second cruiser, Hanover, and as another 20 foot hole was
opened, she burst into flames, and settled down in less than 30
seconds.
Most of the ship's
complement never reached their battle stations. Those on deck duty
jumped overboard. In less than two
minutes only some oil slick, air bubbles and flotsam appeared where
the cruisers had stood. The
German sub moved into range of the cruiser's former positions and
machine gunned the survivors. The
British flares settled into the sea and blackness again enveloped the
area.
The German "V-Boat"
Captain left his bridge and went below. Putting his head in his hands
he bent over and sobbed. An officer
consoled him with the words: "It was the enemy or us! Otherwise,
we were to scuttle!
At dawn the next morning in
the same area a British fishing trawler spotted three men on a piece
of wreckage. The sailors, numb
from exposure, were hauled aboard and three days later were landed in the Hebrides Islands. That
day at Allied headquarters in London a telegram was received from the Hebrides at British Naval
headquarters which shortly thereafter reached OSS General Donovan. As General Donovan read the
graphic story of the Germalaser that cut holes like a can opener in
the British cruisers, he put down the
cryptic message and said, "My God! Oh, My God!" A new war
age had just been bom. As a result of the
naval engagement, the joint chiefs-of-staff asked the question:
"Where are the missing German round
wing planes that disappeared out of Germany, and" are they too
equipped with lasers?" And from
where was the enemy intending to strike with his hidden force of
devastating new aircraft?
At combined Naval Operations
in London, Allied Intelligence pondered where one of the laser equipped monster subs might
strike next. Everything afloat on the sea lanes was now vulnerable.
But the enemy could not
wait.
The German plan had already
been released - they would use another of their twelve super subs in
a
devastating naval engagement
that, if it were successful, might bring the U.S.A. to its knees.
But an "accident of
fate" would alter the German plan.
Here's how the story
unfolds. Unknown to the allies in late 1944, the secretive and
orderly German evacuation was preceeding
well. Her top personnel which were needed to continue the Third Reich elsewhere were being removed
by round wing planes and the super subs, the chief vehicles used
among several withdrawal methods.
But, Germans like Von Runstedt from whose area round wing planes were evacuating key
personnel, refused to give travel priority to those Nazis responsible
for Jewish exterminations. The truth is
that most of the regular German general staff had disdain for these
Nazis who were not wanted in the
new Germany destined to rise in another part of the world.
Furthermore, German embarkation officers
in the Hulva and Aymonte also refused to place key Nazi killers on
board the super subs.
Major Otto Skorzeny,
Hitler's tough deputy, had gone personally to Von Runstedt in
December, 1945 and demanded seats for
himself and his top henchmen on the departing round wing planes. Von Runstedt had refused and
so had Von Schusnick, the chief pilot. Thus the Nazis had to find
their own way out of Europe to
escape allied vengeance in the coming Nuremburg War Trials.
Nazi interference was
forgotten by the architects of the German evacuation plan until April
18, 1945,
when on that day the Nazis
made their moves and an encounter occurred in Alexandria, Egypt between German Nazis
and German Naval personnel. A new super sub which had left the Island of Bornholm in the Baltic in
early February lay off Alexandria. Egyptian tenders had ferried out
regularly chosen escapees under the
sympathetic eyes of Egyptian officers named Abel Gamel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, each of whom
despised King Farouk and the British protectorate forces stationed in Egypt.
The giant war sub was full
and sealed orders were opened for departure to the southern
hemisphere when a German Nazi, Major
Hauptman Schaemmel, came aboard and put a gun in the ribs of Lt. Commander Hans Meyers. He
was ordered to disembark the 500 men. Another Nazi officer warned the naval commander that his
wife and daughter were being held hostage in Bavaria to be killed immediately if the sub
commander refused to obey. That night 500 German emigrants were
replaced by an equal number of Nazi
Germans who had made their way from Germany to Egypt via Italy by
various escape methods. By morning
the giant sub had slipped away and headed out through
the Straits of Gibralter to the open Atlantic. But she was not alone.
As the sub commander piloted
his ship deep under the surface of the Mediterranean he was kept under watch. Above, on the
surface, two British destroyers followed the underwater transport by sonar. As the sub neared
Gibralter, the British made no attempt to stop it. More ships joined
the surveillance and together
the giant sub (with the German navy crew under the duress of nearly
500 Nazi masters) and its silent
overhead escort, headed out across the Atlantic - revised
destination, New York. The sub's new mission,
unauthorized by the German Admiralty, was to be the most aggressive act of war the Nazis had
devised for their final hours.
On the sub's foredeck was a
long artillery piece with a 12" bore that could fire shells at
the rate of 30
second intervals. It was
claimed that explosives in the war heads (a triumph of German
research) would pulverize the city of New
York quickly and destroy a large part of its population. From New
York rubble the sub's new
directions were to take it into Chesapeake Bay where Philadelphia,
Baltimore and Washington would be
levelled, and then to Halifax or Miami to complete the destruction.
There was only one problem: the sub
commander had not been told of the plans, although British
intelligence was privy to the scheme from the
moment it began shadowing the sub out of Egypt. The dash under the ocean to the U.S.A. went as
planned. When the underwater giant reached American waters over 100 surface ships were waiting.
Across New York Harbor stretched a bronze net, and underwater bells with search lights were
suspended from barges. The net held. The lights shone down on the
sub. Depth charges fell astride her
thick hull. Impregnable even from the depth charges and torpedoes
fired from allied subs, the 376 foot
long monster backed off and headed out for deeper water.
"Where to now?"
asked the sub commander, under the gun of Nazi General Osker
Dirlewanger.
"To Miami. We'll shell
it off the map from far out in deep water." The sub commander
replied, "Indeed!
And how do I surface to man
the deck-gun when depth charges are tumbling onto our hull every minute?" Deeply
submerged, the sub quarry headed south into the Straits of Florida,
but she could not lose her 46 surface hunters,
including American, British, Canadian and French vessels out of Martinique.
Fifty hours later, the giant
German submarine found herself still being tracked in a channel which narrowed quickly. From fear
of being trapped, the commander attempted to turn around. Depth charges had dirtied the
water and visual directions were impossible to determine.
Reverberations against the hull were
continuous. Suddenly, the underwater ship stopped, unable to move.
She lay to for several hours. Outside
explosions ceased temporarily. An examination by divers showed she
was down 200 feet and washed by
turbulent currents. The long barreled gun specifically fitted to
destroy the coastal cities of America
was jammed into a crevice under the roof of a shark infested coral
shelf.
The divers' final words were:
"The sub can never be freed." In a few moments word spread
through the ship.
The depth charges became
intermittent. The enemy above had abandoned the chase. But the sub
was immoveable. The 500 Germans
began to reflect on death by starvation or lack of oxygen in a craft
that had become their tomb.
The commander made five
trips out of the sub in the next three days. Each time he took off a
Nazi, deposited him on shore and
and returned with provisions or medications provided by
collaborators. But the entombed men were
beginning to succumb. Some of the Nazis screamed obscenities, others
had nightmares. Murders were
committed to steal rations for survival. On the commander's fifth
trip back tothe sub, some of the victims
were reduced to crawling. Water and rations were almost exhausted.
After a conference it was
decided that in order to save lives the commander and one top Nazi
should surrender to the American
authorities. As strategy discussions continued, Nazi Major Schaemmel slipped away and relieved
the guard in the commander's control room. As the first guard
departed, Schaemmel put a gun to the
head of Commander Meyers and articulated forcefully: "You are my hostage. Obey every word or
I'll kill you! Move in a normal way to the lower escape hatch! You
and I
are going to leave - alone!"
So Lt. Commander Hans Meyers and Nazi Major Hauptman Schaemmel left the tomb on the small
two man escape sub. They were never to return. Within ten hours the
two had beached their sub off
Elliot Key, surrendered to an American naval unit, been transported
to Key
West under guard and had
boarded a plane for Washington. But time was running out for the sub commander. One of the five
escaped Nazis whom he had taken out a few days earlier had, on separating, threatened: "You
deliberately steered us into this trap. When I get to a short wave
radio, I'll signal our people overseas
to kill your wife and daughter. They are still my hostages."
The first morning after
their departure from the German sub, on April 29, 1945, the two
Germans were in the White House under
guard flanked by Navy Intelligence officers.
In front of them sat the
President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, in office since
April 13, 1945.
The sub commander spoke. His
sad blue eyes told of the human cargo left on board that would die if the Americans (whom they had
been sent to kill) did not rescue them. During the interrogation, the commander explained his
predicament: he had about 500 men with 'supplies exhausted; he had no passenger list. He explained
that the first sub load had been bumped in Alexandria. But
regardless, the sub commander asked that all
lives be saved. As President Truman deliberated, the Nazi, Major Schaemmel, asked to speak
without the presence of the sub commander who was then led out of the room.
Standing before the Naval
Intelligence officers (whose names are withheld for security reasons)
and President Truman, the
prisoner began to speak. Suddenly his diction sounded unmistakably
American.
As he continued, Truman's
jaw dropped in disbelief. These are the words he heard:
"I am not Major
Hauptman Schaemmel, a Gestapo agent. My official rank and name is
Col. Walter Schellenberg} and my secret
ass number is 78. General William Donovan, head of the OSS will
verify this. Please have an officer
make contact." Then, as the amazed President and intelligence
personnel looked on, the Nazi
impersonator saluted the President and withdrew from his sleeve a
list of almost 500 true names of the German
Nazi personnel from the stricken sub.
"I beg you, Mr.
President, these are the real names of those beasts in that God
forsaken sub. The sub commander is not aware what
terrible substitution of personnel was made in Alexandria. Under
direct orders from Hitler, I was
responsible for rounding up these infamous men and placing them on
that sub." "When did
you infiltrate the Nazis?" the President asked.
Col. Schellenberg replied,
"In 1942 I was dropped in Switzerland."
President Truman strode
around the desk before the OSS agent. "Only God could have
arranged your
being in front of me today
with this information. Welcome home and let me shake hands with a
brave
man." Then the
President read the partial list of those Nazis on the sub } and
handed it to one of the
Intelligence officers. Some
of the names and particulars are as follows:
No. 1. FRANZ NOVAK: Adolph
Eichmann's Transportation officer. It was his job to arrange
transportation for those
undesirable Jews from point of arrest to place of execution and
disposal.
No. 2. THEODOR DANNECKER: In
charge of deporting Jews of France, Belgium and Italy to then-
places of execution.
No. 3. HEINZ ROETHKE:
Eichmann's Deputy in Charge of disposing of undesirable Jews in
Paris.
He directed the others who
arrested and deported the Paris Jews. He is supposed to have
completely
eliminated all known Jews in
Paris.
No. 4. DR. ERNST WETZEL: He
operated a gas chamber in Poland. The official name was Elimination Camp for
Undesirables.
No. 5. WILHELM ZOEPF: In
charge of sending Dutch Jews to the gas chamber and was in complete charge of this operation
throughout the country. Boasted that he didn't leave a known Dutch
Jew alive; he was thorough in his
operations. He is known to have had over a half million Jews
exterminated from Holland alone.
No.6. HERMAN KRUMEY: In
charge of Jewish extermination in Hungary. Known to have sent over four hundred thousand Jews
to their deaths. In complete charge of operating gas chambers in
Hungary.
No.7. OTTO HUESCHE: Executed
100,000 Jews in gas chambers. Bragged about the number of Jews he executed.
No.8. MAJOR GENERAL OSKER
DIRLEWANGER: Before the war, a convicted criminal who committed sex crimes on
young boys, spending five years in a Bavarian prison for this. In
charge of the toughest S.S. men who in
return were in charge of the extermination camps for unwanted Jews.
No.9. LEOPOLD GLEEVI: Chief
of Gestapo in Warsaw. After the war he turned up in Egypt, was given an Egyptian name and
was in Nasser's service. One of the escapees from the Sub.
No. 10. LOUIS HEIDEN:
Translated Hitler's "Mein Kampf ' into other languages and
served the Fuehrer in other capacities.
No. 1 1. HANS APPLER: Killed
100,000 Jews in the gas chambers. Escaped from the Sub, was deported by the United
States and rather than risk being tried as a war criminal, made his
way to Egypt and is how believed to be in
the Egyptian diplomatic service.
No. 12. WILLIAM BOECKELER:
Killed over 100,000 Jews in the concentration camps.
No. 13. KARL HOLTER: A
former Gestapo Officer who was in charge of the arrest and
deportation of hundreds of thousands of
Jews.
No. 14. ALBERT THIELMANN: A
retired school teacher who joined the party after Hitler came to power and was responsible
for the gassing of over 100,000 Jews.
No. 15. BRIG. GENERAL WARNER
BLANKENBERG: Responsible for the murder of over 100,000 Jews in the gas
chambers.
No. 16. HANS BOTHMANN: Was
in charge of the ehmination squad in Poland and all gas chambers
there. Under his
jurisdiction over half a million Jews died.
No. 17. LT. GENERAL
FREDERICH KATZMANN: Murdered 434,329 Jews in Poland alone.
No. 18. JAN DURCANSKY: In
charge of all the Jewish extermination camps in Austria and
Northern Italy.
No. 19. DR. F. W. SIEBERT:
Invented and produced the six pointed metal star which Nazis required
Jews to wear. All who wore
this were liable at any time to be seized and sent to an
extermination
camp.
No. 20. DR. KARL STAENGE: In
charge of the death camps in Yugoslavia. Took over an old Brick
Yard in Belegrade and
roasted Jews alive in the kilns.
No. 21. FRANZ RADEMACHER:
Exterminated 15,000 Yugoslavian Jews. Listed as a dangerous
man.
No. 22. DR. HANS EISELE:
Exterminated over half a million Jews in the Ukraine by having them thrown in pits, spraying
gasoline over them and setting them on fire. After the fires died
out, the half
roasted bodies were used to
feed the hogs.
No. 23. LT. GENERAL HEINZ
KAMMLER: An expert on gas chamber construction having been a concrete construction
engineer before the war. Perfected the gas chambers for a four minute
kill. Later in charge of the round wing
plane plants.
No. 24. DR. MAX MERTEN: In
charge of Jewish extermination in Greece and under his leadership
over 60,000 Greek Jews were
killed.
No. 25. MATTIAS RAFFELBERG:
Had over a half million Jews murdered in Russia and Poland.
No. 26. MAJ. OTTO SKORZENY:
The most wanted man in Europe. Called the toughest man alive.
A Hitler favorite who
rescued Mussolini. Escaped from sub.
No. 27. DR. RUDOLPH MJEDNER:
The Gestapo Chief in Denmark, in charge of the elimination of
Danish Jews. Had over
100,000 executed.
No. 28. DR. PAUL WALTER:
Concentration camp commander in Poland. Was responsible for over
a hundred thousand Jewish
deaths by extermination and experimentation. Performed amputations
without anesthetics. His
favorite expression on recording a death: "So what! Another Jew
out of the
way!" The authors read
Walter's final page from his diary of a day's work written in Jewish
blood.
No. 29. DR. WJLHELM
WJTTELER: In charge of the gas chambers in Latvia, and collected Jews
for
deportation.
No. 30. KURT HEINBURG: Was
in charge of all Jewish extermination in Serbia.
No. 31. HANS HOEFLE:
Responsible for murdering over 100,000 Jews in Poland.
No. 32. WALTER CASPAR
TOEBBENS: A Dutch Nazi who made millions of dollars by making Jews work free of charge in
his factories. Those who became sick or incapacitated were killed on
the spot.
No. 33. ANDRIJA ARTUKOVIC:
Under his able administration over 80% of Yugoslavia's Jews were wiped out. The Jewish
population of Zagreb was 12,315 before the war and 1,647 after. From Mostar a train took six car
loads of Jewish mothers and children to the station at Sumaci. There
they were forced to walk up into
high mountains where they were thrown off steep cliffs. At Korencia,
Jews were tied in bundles and
rolled into pits, covered with gasoline and then burned alive.
No. 34. HEINRICH "Gestapo"
MUELLER: A policeman who rose to be Bavarian Chief of Police. Later rose to be a Lt.
General in the S.S. (Security Police). Organized the Gestapo on the
model of the Russian M.V.D. His
organization murdered most of Europe's Jews.
As the President perused the
list his face turned pale. He hurled invective across the room: "Die,
you evil bastards, and be buried
alive in your own tomb of the damned! I hope your crimes haunt you through Hell!" Then he
lowered his voice to a clipped tone of command and addressed a navy
officer.
"No attempt will be
made to save that infernal submarine. The death of those decent young
crew members may be accounted to
me in eternity. God forgive me for their sakes!"
The Lt. Commander was
brought back into the room and the President thanked him for his
honesty. "We must detain you,
Sir," said President Truman, "but is there anything I can
do for your comfort?" On that offer of aid, the
U-boat commander blurted out the dilemma of his wife and daughter
being held in a cave in Bavaria. Col.
Schellenberg concurred. Capt. Meyers begged for help. He told of the
threat to kill his family made by the
departing German escapee.
Truman acted immediately.
"Round up those German Nazis who escaped from the sub!" As
he spoke,
the phone call of General
William Donovan, OSS chief, was put through to the President. He
identified the American agent,
whereupon the President ordered a parachute rescue team to land in
Germany in an attempt to save the
commander's wife and young daughter being held as hostages. Two
nights later, with the sanction of Prime
Minister Churchill, a combined American/British team landed in a mountainous area of Bavaria.
As the German waited under
detention at a Washington officers' club, a messenger came to his
room and requested to speak to
the German in his own tongue. The intelligence officer began, "I
have a message for you from the
President of the United States: Your wife and daughter were rescued
last night and are safely in
Switzerland. There were several German casualties among those
guarding your family - but all our men
came back safely. We must intern you, but someday we hope you'll bere-united." The U-boat
commander broke down and wept.
Meanwhile, the cries of the
damned in the beached submarine would rise for a few more days before they would be stifled in
their underwater tomb off Florida.
American naval records,
captured German records, interviews with the super sub commander and OSS files were used in
preparing this episode. After 2-1/2 years-in prison, the commander
was acquitted at the Nuremburg
War Crime Trials in 1947 of any deliberate wrong doing while on the
sub of the damned. In 1953 he
emigrated to America with his family.
Col. Walter Schellenberg was
promoted to Brigadier General and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award
for bravery given by the United States. Great Britain awarded him its highest honour for valor,
the Victoria Cross. The French Ambassador to the U.S.A. pinned on him
the Legion of Honour. King
George VI asked Schellenberg if he would accept a Knighthood, but the American graciously
declined. After the war he settled down anonymously in an American
city with the abiding wish that he never
again go to war.
Many other details on the
OSS espionage action and the underwater trip of the "sub of the
damned"
have been omitted for the
sake of brevity.
By World War It's end, the
allies had enough information to comprehend Part I of the German evacuation plan, which, in
effect, was the removal of the elite of their armies and technicians, from Europe. As mentioned
before, by December 1944, enemy rail movements ending in the Port of Aymonte, Spain, had been
observed and verified. And in the north, evidence of the super sub
route was being carefully
examined. Any allied doubts that the Germans had not returned to the
Atlantic in underseas craft were cast
aside after the British cruisers were sunk.
Logic evolved from the
intelligence disclosures categorically sought the answer to this
question: Where are the vanishing Germans
disappearing to on their carefully planned exodus route? It was at
this juncture in the Allied
intelligence dilemma that OSS analysis from New York told of an
expanding
presence of Germans in
Central and South America. And from Brazil to Argentina unconfirmed reports began
trickling out of the southern hemisphere of unidentified flying
objects being seen in the air and on the
ground.
It was too early in 1944-45
to be certain of German intentions, but General Eisenhower and
General Donovan are quoted as
wondering if the official surrender of German armies in Europe might be only a gesture -
and that the many Germans who got away would fight again on another
day and at another place.
Subsequent to the actual
German surrender many questions were still unanswered such as the whereabouts of numerous well
known German political, scientific and service personnel. Too many were unaccounted for to be
lost in battle, displaced, or incarcerated in prisoner of war camps -
unless they had been taken to
Russia. Also, while searching for the missing, it was noted that many
German dependents and relatives
failed to show grief.
"Somewhere," said
General Eisenhower, "I feel another Germany is being bom, and I
would rather we were the confidants of these
Germans than the Russians."
Another key remark by German
Admiral Doenitz in 1943 almost certainly indicated a mass German emigration. Doenitz
declared: "The German underwater fleet is proud to have made an
earthly paradise, an impregnable fortress for
the Fuehrer somewhere in the world." The phrase "in the
world" was later to prove prophetic.
The authors have interviewed
many key witnesses including several former Nazis, the German Embassy in Washington, and high
intelligence sources in America, and all agreed that the German Chief
of State, Adolph Hitler, left Germany
alive. The only difference in telling of the planned escape was the
time of departure, the route, and
the method.
On December 15, 1944,
General Eisenhower called a most secret meeting of the High Command
in London, England. Present
were the Allied Chiefs-of-Staff including those from free France,
Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Norway,
etc. General Eisenhower's purpose was two-fold as he turned over the briefing to General William
Donovan and his assistant, who were asked to record and take notes.
The assistant was the same one
sent to Spain for observation of German troop arrivals at Seville.
General Donovan began: "Gentlemen,
for several weeks our agents have been watching secret movements of Germans through France to
Spain. Our first opinion was that the enemy was planning a surprise
attack on the coast of North
Africa. We diverted divisions of troops and kept them in readiness
for this anticipated attack - but, as
you all know, it never came.
"Now we are certain
that these untold thousands of German troops have used Spanish ports
to disappear in a way still
uncertain to us."
The General paused, looked
around at the group of Allied Chiefs-of-Staff, and then slowly
continued.
"Perhaps one of those
Germans who disappeared through Spain was the German leader, Adolph Hitler." The room was
hushed and the General's assistant looked up at a sea of astonished
faces. Then several individuals rose at
once to ask questions. The General stated he would answer only half a dozen, and those who were
not satisfied could personally have a brief audience with him after
the meeting.
The first questioned asked,
"Who's in charge in Germany" Answer: "Grand Admiral
Karl Doenitz is said to be the leader, but
General Von Runstedt seems to be the one making the real nuts and bolts military decisions."
Another assertion was made
that Hitler had been seen lately; therefore, would not the story of
his departure likely be a case
of German deception?"
Donovan's reply was cryptic.
"A double is in Hitler's place. Our Berlin agents say so, and
the British
and Russian governments
agree, that an imposter, instructed by Goebbels, Bormann and Ley
rules in
Hitler's place. The man is
not Hitler gone mad. He is a double under the control of others."
Donovan concluded the
meeting by saying he believed the disappearance of Adolph Hitler was
directly related to the dispersal of
entire German armies. He told his cabinet that when the German armies
were uncovered the real Hitler
would also be found. The OSS Chief said he was convinced of Hitler's personal and family exodus.
Our next task he told them will be to pick up the trail of the German
leader and his troops in South
America.
After the Allied briefing,
General Donovan flew back to Washington, On arrival he immediately called a special meeting of OSS
Caribbean Intelligence and his Brazilian Bureau. Donovan's earlier hunches paid off.
Into New York, the Wartime nerve center for America's western
hemisphere intelligence, the coded
reports of German arrivals throughout South America kept cable lines
busy.
Today, a confidential report
by the CIA concedes: "The body found in the bunker was not that
of Hitler, for among other
things, neither fingerprints, nor dental work matched Hitler's. Until
1974, the true Adolph Hitler, nor a
corpse proven to be his had ever been located." The words "until
1974" are significant, and will be
explained later.
The story of Hitler's heroic
last minute May 1945 flight out of besieged Berlin was a cleverly
contrived German ruse, in the opinion
of Judge Advocate General John P. Davis of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. Although Christina
Edderer said it was the real Hitler whom she flew to Norway, records
of the Nuremberg trials state that
Christina Edderer was a courageous woman, but an unsatisfactory
witness, jailed for perjury under
oath. When the authors questioned Edderer in 1975 they were not
convinced that the story she told was
valid regarding her version of the Hitler escape.
In retrospect, the reader
should recall that Hitler's master plan was to win World War JJ. When
this master plan was thwarted,
the alternate plan was to move their national endeavor to another land, free from enemy
intervention. Execution of Phase I in the alternate plan was begun
seriously in 1943, and when finished in
1954 saw three million Germans and other resources successfully evacuated.
Regardless of the low esteem
certain German Generals had for Hitler, he was revered and adored by the German masses. His hero
and leader image was never seriously challenged. His ability to arouse all the patriotic
emotions of German society was never in doubt. However, Hitler was
also an idealistic believer in a new
Utopia for Germany, and according to his close associates, that zeal to develop a new
Germany was such an inherent part of his makeup that it never waned —
even when Germany military defeat
was obvious.
Therefore, Hitler was the
key to the German evacuation, and this fact will later be proven to
be true beyond any doubt. In
addition to Hitler's prominent role in the evacuation another more human side of his life is
perhaps as important.
Hitler and Eva Braun were
legally married on April 29, 1945 but their first bom son Adolph
Hitler n, was bom in 1940, five years
before their marriage. Hitler was said to be the father.
Back in October, 1944, a
select German group, working from a schedule compiled on August 10 in
Saltzberg, decided to
implement operation "Get Lost." Hitler was to be the
catalyst.
All the art treasures,
scientific developments, and treasury bullion which Germany possessed
were first scheduled to be hidden or
removed. First to be safely removed, however, would be the Fuehrer. Over Hitler's
protests he was asked to pack immediately his personal possessions
and leave Germany for the new land. A
double stood by to assume the Fuehrer's role and he would continue under the tutelage and
surveillance of Bormann, Goebbels and Ley.
The Fuehrer's party left
Berlin by motorcade, travelling at night, and safe harboring during
the day to avoid Allied aircraft. The
party consisted of Hitler and his wife Eva, their four year old son,
Adolph n, and a twelve year old
adopted orphan boy, David.
Over widetrack French
railroads, still travelling at night, Hitler and his party reached
Spain. They were transferred to narrow
Spanish track railcars, eventually reaching La-Aljaferia Castle in
Zaragoza. There Hitler met his Spanish
confidant who was to act as advisor and escort. (It is from this
highly respected Spaniard, that the authors,
while researching in Spain, verified how Hitler left Europe.)
Hitler was outfitted in a
Spanish business suit, his moustache removed and his hair style
changed. His wife, Eva, was outfitted as
a middle-class Spanish woman, and the boy David became a Spanish
youth.
Spanish tutoring complete,
at 3:00 A.M. on the morning of November 5, 1944, Hitler and party vacated the castle by motor
car with his Spanish confidant as chauffeur. Through Valencia and on
to Seville they traveled,
resting the first night in the Colon Hotel. The next day the trip was
resumed to Hulvia and finally Aymonte
where rooms were provided in another hotel. The following night, November 7, after taking
leave of his Spanish guide and friend, Hitler and his family were
taken on board a super sub, along
with 500 other Germans. During Hitler's stay in Aymonte and for three
days thereafter, Generalissimo
Franco had placed the area under martial law. (Allied intelligence
never learned the secret of
Hitler's departure until long after World War H) As the super sub
slipped beneath the water she headed
southwest. For the next 18 days, in an 8 x 10 cabin, Hitler and his
family shared living and sleeping
quarters. Two leather covered chairs, four bunks and a radio for the
Fuehrer and his family were the
accessories." There were two doctors in attendance on board the
submarine for the 500 passengers, submarine
crew and Hitler and his family.
The Allies knew Hitler had
fled. The Nuremberg War Trials had created an unspoken climate of
official concern that he would return
incognito to Germany to become a symbol for Germany's renaissance.
In 1945 America decided to
go after Hitler. But the secrets they discovered in South America and
the Antarctic were so fantastic,
so seemingly incredible, that telling the details to the world was as
difficult as explaining that men from
Mars had already landed on earth.
Back in New York, more OSS
reports told of additional German arrivals in South America. The Germans were flooding into
Belem and other river ports, as well as air strips in Brazil's Amazon
Valley, Leticia in Colombia and
Georgetown, British Guiana.
The Germans always appeared
to be in transit. At that point General Donovan personally went to
Brazil to direct operations.
American agents posed as rubber, precious metals and timber buyers along the Amazon and Orinoco
Rivers. They learned an amazing thing. Germans were appearing from hidden staging camps 3,000
miles up the Amazon beyond Obidas and even Manaus. From here they were traced heading south
toward the headwaters of the Amazon where their trail often led up
the still navigable Maran River, a
tributary of the Amazon, but went cold in the vicinity of
Iquitos, Ecuador. As one OSS
Agent's report from Iquitos said, "The Germans arrive here in
local dress by the thousands - but
they never leave. They are literally being swallowed up by the
earth."
Neither local Brazilians, or
the Indians - if they knew could explain the "Kraut"
vanishing act. While at Manaus and Rio de Janeiro,
Germans in civilian dress also were seen departing by air for Buenos
Aires and Montevideo, where they
again were observed leaving in private and chartered planes for the interior of Argentina. One
agent reported in February, 1945, "that these VIPs in their
hauteur andarrogance were like a newly
formed German General Staff."
But World War U would end,
Allied troops would demobilize, and another two years would go by before just what had
happened for sure to Adolf Hitler and a core of hundreds of thousands
of select Germans who vanished from
the Fatherland.
***
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