Das Reich (41 page)
I am indebted to many people whom I met or with whom I corresponded during the writing of this book. Some I have already mentioned in the Foreword. Here, I should begin with my wife Tricia and Alan Samson, my editor at Michael Joseph, who endured the trauma of gestation with characteristic patience and understanding. The London Library was as splendid as always. In England I also received generous help or suggestions from Joan Bright Astley, Len Deighton, Geoffrey Lucy, Charles Wintour and the RUSI Library. Without the intervention of David Irving, my inquiries in Germany about the whereabouts of survivors of the Das Reich would have continued to meet with courteous declarations of ignorance from the relevant veterans’ organizations.
In France, I am indebted above all to M. and Mme Louis Bach, M. and Mme Georges Bru, Marius Guedin, Baron Philippe de Gunzbourg, René Jugie, Pierre Péré, Marcel Racault, Marguerite Rollet, Rojé Raveux, Jean Razier, Julien Rouzier, Jean Sennemaut and Marcel Vidal. There are many others, too numerous to list, whom I had the privilege of meeting in southern and central France in 1980.
Among the former staff of SOE in Baker Street:
Sir Robin Brook, General Dick Barry, Maurice Buckmaster, Vera Atkins and Selwyn Jepson.
Former agents of SOE in France:
Annette Cormeau, the late Amédée Maingard, Peter Lake, Paddy O’Sullivan, Jacques Poirier, the late George Starr, Cyril Watney.
The Jedburghs and OSS:
Macdonald Austin, Prince Michel de Bourbon, William Colby, Geoffrey Hallowes, Henry Hyde, Tommy Macpherson.
The SAS:
John Fielding, Sam Smith, John Tonkin, Peter Weaver.
The SS:
Ernst Krag, Karl Kreutz, Fritz Langangke, Otto Pohl, Theo Sorg, Silvester Stadler, Albert Stuckler, Herbert Taege, Otto Weidinger, Gunther-Eberhardt Wisliceny, Heinrich Wulf.
Almost all of these received decorations from their respective nations for their services in World War II.
BCRA
Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action
, the Central Bureau for Intelligence and action set up in November 1940 by Captain André Dewavrin, alias Colonel Passy, at Free French headquarters in London. The BCRA assumed responsibility for all intelligence and sabotage operations in French territory carried out under General De Gaulle’s auspices.
Chantiers de la Jeunesse
A Vichy Government-sponsored organization which ran compulsory forest work camps for all twenty year olds, at which they were subjected to intensive political indoctrination.
Cheminots
Railway workers.
DMR
Délégué Militaire Régional.
De Gaulle’s headquarters in London appointed six DMRs to act as General Koenig’s on-the-spot representatives and deputies in the six Military Regions into which France was divided for the purposes of FFI direction and administration.
FFI
Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur.
The title given by Free French headquarters in London to all Resistance forces in arms in France under Gaullist command. The FFI allegedly included the men of the Communist FTP, but in reality these almost everywhere preserved their own command and title independent of the FFI. In March 1944, General Marie Pierre Koenig was designated FFI commander, a role he exercised from London. After the liberation of France, 140,000 men of the FFI were inducted into the French First Army. Most of them spent the last months of the war blockading the remaining German garrisons in the French ports.
FTP
Francs-Tireurs et Partisans
, the Communist
résistants
, who took their title as ‘free shooters’ from the roving bands of French guerillas who harassed the invaders’ lines of communication in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. Most FTP groups for most of the war accepted orders only from the French Communist Party, although they sometimes formed local tactical alliances with the
Armée Secrète
or agents from London in order to gain access to parachuted arms and money.
GMR
Garde Mobile de Reserve
, a Vichyite para-military force.
MUR
Mouvement Uni de Résistance
, a loose alliance of three non-communist Resistance groups that had developed in the Unoccupied Zone of France –
Liberation, Combat
and
Franc-Tireur
(not to be confused with the FTP). In the Corrèze the council of MUR included representatives of several other local groups.
Milice
Originally a para-military arm of the Vichy Government in the Unoccupied Zone of France. When the detested Joseph Darnand became Vichy’s Secretary-General for the Maintenance of Order – in other words, police minister – in December 1943, he expanded the
milice
into a national para-military force to combat the Resistance, and recruited some 45,000 French volunteers. The
milice
were especially feared by the Resistance because of their local knowledge, and especially detested for their ruthlessness and treachery, although many of their recruits came forward to avoid forced labour in Germany. Some historians suggest that in the spring of 1944 at least as many Frenchmen were working actively to combat Resistance as were working with the FFI and FTP.
ORA
Organisation de Résistance de l’Armée
, a Resistance group which was originally created within the Intelligence Service of the Vichy Armistice Army, and expanded after the disbandment of the Armistice Army when the Germans took over Unoccupied France in November 1942. It was a non-Gaullist body which accomplished little, but for a time enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the Americans. Many Frenchmen despised the ORA because of its overwhelming dependence on former regular army officers, whom they considered bore a large share of responsibility for the plight of France, and had no claim upon the support of civilians.
OSS
The American Office of Strategic Services created by General William Donovan in July 1941 to build a new Secret Service and sabotage organization to replace that disbanded in November 1942. OSS was the forerunner of the modern Central Intelligence Agency, and after some early blunders and mishaps caused by the absolute lack of experienced personnel, it developed into a useful weapon of war. Its senior ranks were dominated by lawyers educated at the great American universities – Harvard, Princeton, Yale. Allen Dulles, later director of the CIA, was probably the most successful OSS organizer of the war, running his networks from Switzerland. OSS was dissolved in September 1945.
Plastique
Plastic explosive, the soft, malleable putty-like substance developed by the British and widely used for demolition because of its power and flexibility; charges could be moulded into any shape. They were exploded by the insertion of a detonator which in turn was ignited either by electrical impulse or delay fuse.
RAMC
Royal Army Medical Corps.
Resau
Network, the standard word for one of the chains of agents created by SOE and the BCRA, meaning a linked group of people rather than a geographical area.
SA
Sturmabteilung
, the brownshirt ‘storm-troops’, the original elite strong-arm force of Hitler’s National Socialist Party, purged and broken in June 1934 when their leader Ernst Rohm was killed.
SAS
The British Special Air Service regiment.
SD
Sicherhéitsdienst
, the SS Security Service operating under the orders of Himmler. The SD possessed some 6,000 agents throughout Europe, and was closely linked with the Gestapo. Most Frenchmen referred to all German police agents as Gestapo.
SHAEF
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, the controlling staff for the Allied landings in Normandy and the subsequent campaign in North-West Europe, under the command of General Eisenhower.
SNCF
Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer
, the national railway organization of France.
SOE
The British Special Operations Executive, forerunner and counterpart of the American OSS’s Special Operations department.
STO
Service de Travail Obligatoire
. The detested forced-labour programme introduced in Occupied France in August 1942, and throughout the country from February 1943. Initially the Germans sought French volunteers to man their factories, but although they recruited with some success, the supply of labour was far below their requirements, and compulsion was introduced. By November 1943, 1.34 million Frenchmen were working in German factories (along with millions more Belgians, Dutchmen, Russians, Poles and other defeated nationals). In January 1944 the Nazis launched a new programme to recruit a further million Frenchmen, but they met with negligible success, since most of those eligible took to the
maquis
, or went into hiding.
p.
xv
Some 15,000 men and 209 tanks: The division’s total strength on 6 June 1944 was just over 19,000 officers and men. Of these more than 15,000 – it is impossible to be more precise – moved north on 8 June. The balance were either in Germany collecting new equipment, or remained at Montauban for training or local security duties. All elements were reunited in Normandy by early July.xv
Professor M. R. D. Foot wrote:
SOE in France
, pp. 397, 3991
Adolf Hitler and his staff discussed: See
Hitler’s Führerconferences
, OUP 19505
A British Intelligence assessment: PRO (Public Record Office) WO218/1146
It was a terrible mistake: Weidinger,
Kameraden bis zum Ende7
‘The military significance . . .’: Stein,
The Waffen SS
, p. 28810
‘They laughed at our rags . . .’: Author interview with Fritz Langangke, 23 April 198010
‘Our only concern . . .’: Author interview with Heinrich Wulf, 21 April 198011
‘They were so intelligent . . .’: Langangke
loc. cit.11
‘We asked him his unit . . .’: Author interview with Otto Pohl, 23 April 198011
Every
résistant
is a terrorist to his enemies, a guerilla to his allies. I have used each word according to the perspective from which the relevant passage is written.12
‘We thought of the Americans . . .’: Langangke
loc. cit.15
‘was in a state . . .’: Quoted Stein
op. cit.
p. 27117
‘After all, Lammerding . . .’: Author telephone interview with Stuckler, 11 October 198017
‘I had always wanted . . .’: Langangke
loc. cit.19
‘We were completely unsuited . . .’: Stuckler
loc. cit.20
‘On his last evening . . .’: Author interview with Karl Kreutz, 22 April 198021
Fritz Langangke said: Langangke
loc. cit.22
He described an evening: Sadi Schneid,
Beutedeutscher25
‘The French know . . .’: Tillon,
Les FTP
, p. 28426
‘There was no place . . .’: Author interview with Selwyn Jepson, 4 June 198027
‘a new organization . . .’: Quoted Foot
op. cit.
pp. 8, 927
‘I think that the dropping . . .’: Ibid. p. 15327
‘I am not at all clear . . .’: PRO AIR8/118729
One of the chiefs of SOE: Sir Robin Brook30
SOE’s agents were becoming: See Howarth,
Undercover30
‘Gubbins had all . . .’: Jepson
loc. cit.31
‘because the Allies . . .’: Author interview with General Barry, 4 June 198031
‘He believed that all . . .’: Private comment to author31
‘One would hear that . . .’: Barry
loc. cit.33
money, the last always: By December 1943 £250,000 a month was being dropped into France.33
‘There was no atmosphere . . .’: Hiller, unpublished notes34
‘Well, I hope . . .’: Author interview with Vera Atkins, 27 March 198035
‘It is unfortunate . . .’: PRO WO219/238836
‘Assuming 70 trains . . .’: PRO WO219/189236
Through Ultra they were reading: PRO DEF3/4437
‘It was unthinkable . . .’: Durand,
SNCF pendant la Guerrey
p. 43737
‘The weight of air . . .’: PRO WO219/8238
‘In the normal course . . .’: Author interview with Major C. V. Wintour, 20 May 198039
The Glières: The plateau in Haute-Savoie where German and Vichy troops attacked a concentration of
maquisards
in March 1944, killing 155 and capturing 175.39
‘Massigli handed me . . .’: PRO AIR8/119040
‘This plan gives . . .’: Lt. Gen. J. A. H. Gammell in PRO WO219/238740
Plan Vert: The principal architect of the railway sabotage plan was an enigmatic railway expert named René Hardy, who was acquitted, in an extraordinary French post-war trial, of betraying fellow-
résistants
to the Nazis.41
‘The immediate offensive . . .’: PRO WO219/238841
‘It cannot be foreseen . . .’: PRO WO219/238841
‘In view of the fact . . .’: PRO WO219/239742
‘We were,’ said Colonel Barry: Barry
loc. cit.42
‘It is probable that . . .’: PRO WO219/238842
half a million active Resisters: For details, see PRO WO219/238743
‘The Germans will ignore . . .’: PRO WO219/244245
‘The beauty of life . . .’: Hiller, unpublished ms.47
‘Her position . . .’: Brogan,
Development of Modern France
, p. 54347
An utterly dedicated minority: It is important to notice that even at the summit of Resistance activity after D-Day, only an estimated 2 per cent of the French population was taking any active role, measured by the numbers decorated after the Liberation: 130,000 as
résistants
, 170,000 deportees and the estimated 100,000 who died. It is reckoned that in the spring of 1944, substantially more French men and women were engaged in the struggle to combat Resistance than were working for the Allied cause. See Robert Paxton,
Vichy
.48
‘II y avait . . .’: Author interview with Pierrette Bach, 12 June 198049
‘Explain how very ordinary . . .’: Hiller notes
op. cit.49
‘A quality of . . .’: Ibid.50
‘We were working . . .’: Hiller ms.
op. cit.50
‘Limoges was a dangerous . . .’: Ibid.51
‘started fewer schemes . . .’: Hiller notes
op. cit.52
‘Organizing the
maquis
. . .’: Hiller ms.
op. cit.53
The Groupes Vény’s strength. For details, see the magazine
R4
, July 1979, article
Les Groupes Vény et leur Secteur du Lot53
‘tension and the light . . .’: Hiller notes
op. cit.54
‘The castle chosen . . .’: Hiller tapes56
‘Ha, ha, mon cher . . .’: Quoted from author interview with Peter Lake, 9 January 198057
across the Pyrenees: It is estimated that some 3000,00 fugitives successfully crossed the Pyrenees between August 1940 and the Liberation, about one-third of all those who made the attempt. Many reached Spain only to suffer miserably in one of Franco’s internment camps.59
‘They lunched on . . .’: Quoted Simone de Beauvoir,
The Price of Life59
‘Have you arms?’: Quoted Lacouture,
André Malraux
, p. 28860
‘a German defeat . . .’: Lacouture
op. cit.
p. 297, quoting Roger Stephane60
‘old man Churchill . . .’: Ibid. p. 309, quoting Pierre Viansson-Ponte60
‘the military chief . . .’: Malraux,
Antimémoires60
‘There are a few people . . .’: Author interview with Jacques Poirier, 21 March 198061
Poirier quoted . . .: Ibid.61
‘André, we must discuss . . .’: Ibid.62
‘Jack, you’re crazy . . .’: Ibid.62
‘I was always . . .’: Ibid.64
‘From February 1944 . . .’: Ibid.64
‘More or less . . .’: Ibid.64
‘The Dordogne air force . . .’: Ibid.65
‘Say nothing . . .’: Ibid.65
‘And now, mon commandant . . .’: Ibid.65
‘For a long time . . .’: Ibid.68
‘There’s somebody here . . .’: Author interview with Philippe de Gunzbourg, 11 March 198068
‘Because for me . . .’: Ibid.69
‘a farmhouse with twenty . . .’: Bergeret,
Messages Personnels
, p. 6670
‘the principal artisan . . .’: Ibid.70
‘We’ll follow you . . .’: de Gunzbourg
loc. cit.71
‘Oh, M. Philibert . . .’: Ibid.71
‘Un homme du métier . . .’: de Gunzbourg unpublished ms,
Souvenirs du Sud-Ouest72
‘Only if I choose . . .’: Author interview with George Starr, 24 April 198072
‘But I didn’t . . .’: Ibid.73
‘Building a network . . .’: Ibid.74
‘We used to discuss . . .’: Author interview with Yvette (Annette) Cormeau, 14 May 198075
Selwyn Jepson said . . . : To the author,
loc. cit.76
veteran named Tony Brooks: Information here from Foot
op. cit.
It is a matter of regret that the author was only able to have one brief meeting with Brooks.76
‘
AVERTISSEMENT
. . .’: see Durand
op. cit.
p. 44077
‘Which did more harm . . .’: Ibid. p. 44077
‘So English, so careful . . .’: Author interview with Prince Michel de Bourbon, 18 June 198079
‘Barricades are a great . . .’: de Gunzbourg
loc. cit.79
‘With immense enthusiasm . . .’: de Gunzbourg ms.
op. cit.80
‘In spite of the active . . .’: Durand
op. cit.
p. 43681
‘General reports indicate . . .’; PRO WO219/234282
‘We knew that every single day . . .’: Kreutz
loc. cit.82
OKW. It is pertinent to the story of the Das Reich to understand that orders descended from OKW – Hitler’s Supreme Command – to Von Rundstedt’s Army Group B (responsible for the defence of northern France) and Von Blaskowitz’s Army Group G (responsible for the south). Within Army Group G, the Das Reich was tactically subordinated to 58th Panzer Corps, also based in Toulouse, and later briefly to 66th Reserve Corps, based in Clermont-Ferrand. On moving north to Normandy, the Das Reich naturally transferred to Army Group B’s command, fighting chiefly under the orders of 2nd SS Panzer Corps.83
‘emphasized the desire . . .’: Quoted by Shulman,
Defeat in the West
, p. 10683
‘impression growing . . .’: Army Group G War Diary, Appendix 15384
‘The departments of Dordogne . . .’: Ibid.84
‘Subject: Anti-Terrorist Measures . . .’: Ibid., Appendix 339/44g Kdos85
‘The development of the . . .’: Ibid.94
‘The first we knew . . .’: Hiller tapes
op. cit.95
‘The men shoot too much . . .’: Report loaned to author by regional historian M. Pierre Péré.97
‘Un bruit infernal . . .’: Report loaned to author by M. René Jugie100
‘Reports coming in . . .’: Army Group G War Diary104
‘Laurent declared . . .’: Minutes loaned to author by M. René Jugie104
‘FTP forces . . .’: Ibid.105
‘Tulle will pay . . .’: Ibid.105
‘Pierre has just told me . . .’: Ibid.106
‘Some of Laurent’s friends . . .’: Ibid.110
‘leaders of a local faction . . .’: Brogan
op. cit.
p. 646111
‘orthodox communists . . .’: Noireau,
Le Temps des Partisans
, p. 141112
security police and intelligence: The Gestapo/SD had 131 local branches in France; the army’s rival intelligence service, the Abwehr, 69.113
‘Here’s one . . .’: Noireau
op. cit.
p. 149113
‘Those séances . . .’: Ibid. p. 158114
‘The first of May . . .’:
Maquis de Corréze
, p. 300115
‘We also know . . .’: Ibid. p. 343118
‘We are cut off . . .’: Ibid. p. 351118
‘I find a perplexed . . .’: Ibid. p. 352119
‘Towards 8 am . . .’: Ibid. p. 355121
‘This great devil . . .’: Ibid. p. 357
