Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (39 page)

Your loving mother.

Why are Tante Ilse and her boys coming to live in Stuttgart? And I never got the package with the pillow and the cigarette.

Not content to let things settle down and take advantage of some much needed time to regroup after his successful defense against Operation Market Garden, Hitler planned a major offensive, his last ditch effort to destroy his enemies in the west so he could concentrate fully on his enemies in the east. His heroic plan was formulated to spur the disintegration of the Allied coalition and to re-take Antwerp so as to destroy the source of Allied supplies, all while buying him time to perfect his secret weapon, the V-2 Rockets, and to strengthen the resolve of his war weary people.

Hitler called upon veterans of his 5
^th
and 6
^th
SS Panzer Armies, plus two new armies created from wherever he could find men and materiel. He began amassing his troops in the Hürtgen Forest where they fought to keep the Americans from controlling the Roer River dams and the Roer Industrial Valley. The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. As the Allieds fought and died there, Hitler planned. He thought a single massive drive through the Ardennes Forest would allow him to push to the port city of Antwerp cutting off the Allieds’ supply lines. This offensive would also trap the British troops in the north behind German lines and destroy the American positions further south. Hitler once again thought his best chance of success was against the inexperienced American troops rather than the hardened British soldiers to the north. Against the advice of virtually all of his generals, Hitler launched his final offensive of the War: Operation Wacht am Rhine. Notwithstanding that there were simply not enough resources to carry this offensive to victory, Hitler willed there to be enough strength to defeat his enemy but even his iron will could not deliver the victory he needed. At an overall loss of about one quarter of the 400,000 German soldiers involved in this Offensive, the Germans also lost about 1,000 aircraft and 800 irreplaceable tanks. Hitler gained no ground and his failed Ardennes Offensive sealed Germany’s doom.

There were now not enough troops left to defend the Fatherland. The Allieds drove further into Germany, aiming for the two major industrial centers in the Ruhr and the Saar Valleys. During the battle around the Ruhr Valley, General Walther Model committed suicide rather than be taken as a prisoner by the Allieds.

The winter of 1944 has to be one of the worst, at least in my life. Temperatures are low and the snow is high. It’s made fighting even more horrific. After our great success in defending against the enemy at the Rhine River in Belgium, we’ve been moved further east and are now behind our West Wall fortifications which we are depending on to protect Germany from these invaders.

My unit has been ordered to report for another operation being led by General von Manteuffel who commands our 5
^th
Panzer Army and General Dietrich who I know from when I worked with General Rommel. General Dietrich is in command of the 6
^th
Panzer Army. I cannot imagine what kind of operation we can undertake in this weather which I am told is the worst in living memory. I have read books about Napoleon and Frederick the Great and I’ve heard stories about the men on the eastern front facing bitter cold but this weather has to be as terrible as what they’ve faced. I’ve heard how “General” Freeze and “General” Hunger have won more battles than any other military general and I can now understand why. Our winter clothing is not sufficient to keep us Landsers from freezing and the lack of warm or even adequate food is making us weak. Still, we are now ordered to begin what we are told is going to be the last great offensive of this war in the west.

I have heard that some Americans have crossed our German border. They are not progressing though, because obviously it is not only the Third Reich that experiences fuel shortages. Or maybe they have just outrun their supply trains. Whatever the reason, the rest of the Americans don’t seem to be racing towards Germany. I am sure that der Führer is devising a plan of genius proportions now that they are stopped so close to our western borders although I know he also has the quickly advancing sub-human Russians to worry about as they march ever closer to our eastern borders.

A couple of months ago, der Führer ordered all able bodied non-military men to join into a Volksturm to protect our homeland. This Home Front Army will add even more protection than our Wehrmacht and Hitler Jugend can provide and from what I’ve heard, we are going to need it. I finally found out why my Tante Ilse left her home to live with my mother. Mutti tells me that her sister, who lives in Prussia along the old Polish border, fled her house because the Russians had actually crossed into this part of Germany. Mutti did not go into any great detail but she said my Tante Ilse told her how brutally the Russians treated our people and how women actually jumped off bridges rather than face this enemy who rapes young and old alike. She told me that Tante Ilse and her two children are coming to our house to live and that she hopes they make it in spite of all the difficulties they will face on their journey. She sent me one of Tante Ilse’s letter so I could read for myself what my Godmother was facing. She tells me to fight fiercely so the Russians do not reach our country.

29. Nov. 44

Liebe Frieda,

For the last two weeks, we have all been listening and watching carefully to track how much progress the Russians are making towards our town. We kept waiting for our planes or soldiers to stop them but the Russians are getting ever closer and closer. I do not know what is rumor and what is fact anymore but we have all been told of the raping and killing the Russians do when they find German women and old people defenseless to stop them. Of course der Führer has surrounded us by our People’s Army for protection, but Frieda, I see boys of 13 or 14 in this army along with old men in their 60s! I am sure this Army will protect us the best they can but I cannot take any chances and so I am leaving today with Werner and Peter. We are going to try to go to Stuttgart where I hope we can live with you. Werner is a good boy and Peter is just a baby. He turned 4 just yesterday. There will not be any way you can reach me so I am leaving with only my blind faith in your goodness and mercy to find you. What has become of our country, Frieda? We will start by walking. I have the old pram of Werner and I hope both boys can fit in there along with all that I can pack around them. I have a suitcase as well and I worry most about food and drink. I know there are long lines already of people fleeing this nightmare and when it looks so bleak for me, bleak enough that I don’t know how I will make it even for a day, I look into the faces of my two boys and I know what I must do to save us and keep us safe. Please tell Rudi to do whatever he can to save us from our enemies.

I will post letters to you as I can and I pray they find their way to you. Please pray for us, Frieda as I pray for you and my brave godson, Rudi.

Ilse

My aunt’s letter makes me wonder what is becoming of our country. I see what it is like fighting as a soldier but I have a weapon and someone to lead me into doing what is necessary. She is a woman alone with only my little cousins and I fear for their safety especially as I’m aware that more and more enemy airplanes from both the east and the west continue to drop bombs all over our country. Stuttgart has been heavily bombed because of its Daimler Benz factory which fabricates engines for airplanes and tanks. The Bosch factory which makes ignition systems used in every combustion engine for trucks, tanks and airplanes is also in Stuttgart as is the piston manufacturer Mahle, the bearing manufacturer SKF and dozens of others. I know the city of Schweinfurt has a big target on it but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stuttgart is going to be even worse off. I worry constantly how Mutti survives and if I let myself think about it, I wonder if she will survive. It must be very bad for Tante Ilse if Stuttgart is where she thinks she will find safety. But I can’t be of any help to them except by winning this war.

It was last August, just around the time General von Kluge took his own life instead of letting der Führer take it from him, when General Walter Model was brought in to stanch the flow of enemy soldiers into Germany. I’ve heard it said that General Model is der Führer’s “fireman” because he puts out the fires of looming disaster. General Model was brought in presumably because of his spectacular and fearless leadership of our Panzer troops in Russia where he held every last meter of ground possible. I heard that he rewove our broken front not just once but several times when he was in Russia. Because of his skill and bravery, General Model led us to victory in Kharkov in 1943. Since General Model made the Russian enemy claw for every centimeter of ground they gained, he’s been ordered to do the same to the advancing enemy.

He has been defending the Hürtgen Forest and the dams just beyond it for more than two months now, and as the enemy approaches the Ardennes Forest, we are counting on the general who snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat at Kursk on the Eastern Front to do the same here. He is a tough old man whom nobody likes. I hear he has a family and I cannot believe that he found someone who could love him enough to marry him. His men say he is intolerant of the slightest infraction and is a curmudgeon even when he is happy which is not very often. Nevertheless, he is a master at war and he cares for the poor foot soldiers who serve under him. I am grateful we have such a general on our side because it now seems to me that der Führer might need all the help he can get in order to win this war.

And speaking of der Führer, it is only a genius who sees that with the great number of enemy soldiers approaching our borders, we can still win the war. Hitler now knows that Antwerp is the key. The port of Antwerp fell into enemy hands in November and the enemy is using it to bring in even more supplies. Before it was the ports at Cherbourg, Brest, Saint-Nazaire and Lorient that were critical for our success in winning the war but since the enemy took those ports months ago, now it is the port at Antwerp that must be recaptured at all costs. Since der Führer has also called General von Rundstedt back into service, he’s been put in charge of some part of the plan der Führer has for regaining Antwerp and stopping the enemy cold. Hitler must really have a Love/Hate relationship with that old goat as he’s come and gone more times than a full moon.

Ever since we received news that the American President Roosevelt (or Jewsevelt as der Führer refers to him) told the world that he and his communist allies would accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of Germany, no one is willing to allow them to gain even a centimeter more of territory. If there were a way to sue for peace and still fight the Soviets, I’ve heard talk that that was an option some generals would try to get der Führer to consider. But an unconditional surrender is something too dire to even contemplate so we fight on, moved now with a new fear of what the future may bring if we capitulate even a little.

Just yesterday, we were issued our orders to attack through the Ardennes Forest next month, at Christmas time no less. Is Hitler really a genius? Who would ever expect such a crazy plan? Der Führer knows that our enemy cannot be beaten if all we do is defend so he has apparently come up with a Schwerpunkt of our own: the Ardennes Forest which is the same forest through which we so magnificently rushed to victory over the French in 1940. However, it’s not 1940 anymore and for this 1944 Schwerpunkt, we are not going to attack the weak French again. This time we are to attack the American army in the south and the British Army in the north. We were told the Americans were tired and exhausted and we were to isolate them from any reinforcements. Others in our battle group were to drive to Antwerp and recapture that port city so that the enemy could no longer use it to bring in supplies. (Where are our Unter See Boats I wonder? These U Boats used to do so much damage to the enemy supply ships but now I rarely even hear of them.)

Der Führer’s plan, we were told, was named “Wacht am Rhine” and it was devised in order to cut off the British Army from the American Army thereby destroying the alliance so that we will have more time to complete and launch our new secret weapons program. After we were briefed on what this Watch on the Rhine would establish, we had fire in our bellies at the thought that this plan alone would win the war for us and we could be home before spring. Our action would not just be “watching,” it would be fighting; fighting an offensive action which could defeat our enemies once and for all. The plan was given this name to fool the enemy so that when they saw the movement of all our tanks and men, they would think we were moving into defensive positions after their push towards the Ruhr. We were told we would be launching a counter-attack but at first I didn’t grasp just how grand a counter-attack der Führer’s plan encompassed.

We are to break through the front line between Monschau in the north and Echternach in the south. We are to breach enemy positions after an initial artillery barrage weakens and disorients our foe. Our Panzers are then to proceed northwest on various routes through Belgian towns followed by our infantry troops, all towards the objective of Antwerp which, for some units, is more than 200 kilometers away. We are to reach Antwerp, no matter how far away, within four days. Der Führer’s explicit orders were for us to drive to the city and secure its ports to deny the enemy any use thereof.