German post-war secret army

[edwest]

Please move this if it's in the wrong place, but German veterans decided on an illegal undertaking to help defend a divided Germany from a Soviet push to the West.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-969015.html



Ed

[GuerraCivil]

Looked on that web source. I´m not sure if the title "Nazi veterans" can be applied to all men who may have planned to create some kind of guerilla army in case of Soviet invasion and occupation of West Germany. To be a veteran of Wehrmacht does not necessarily mean the same as being a hard-line member of National Socialist party. Anyway there was no need of this "secret army" once the Bundeswehr was created.

The German "secret army" project was not the only one of its kind. Also in Finland there was in post-war years a network of military officers and war veterans who hided arms and ammunition in different parts of country in order to wage guerilla war in case of Soviet invasion and occupation of Finland. This was discovered quite soon, but it did not harm seriously Finnish-Soviet relationships. Some Finnish historians have suggested that the incident actually served as a deterrent for Soviets to make serious moves toward Finland´s occupation.

Rather off the topic I would add that there were forgotten guerilla wars against Soviets during the post-war years. In the Baltic countries there were thousands of so-called "forest brother" guerrillas. In the Ukraine there was a UPA guerrilla army, which also fought against Soviets in first post-war years. In a way they were "secret armies" because Soviets did not make much noise of these guerrillas and they were rather ignored also in West.

[Nick Beale]

And there was the Gladio organisation in Italy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[ssg keay]

And that "Illigal" army might have been the only thing in the oppening phase of a Soviet push, to oppose them and give the rest of the West time to react.

And German press is full of idiots. Every German in WW2 was a Nazi if you believe the press worldwide. It is like saying all British soldiers are Conservatists and all Americans are Democrats.
It is another reason that German MIAs do not get recovered, no one wants to recover a Nazi. It is a bloody shame that German cannot get past that phase of their past.

Danny

[edwest]

Originally Posted by ssg keay

And that "Illigal" army might have been the only thing in the oppening phase of a Soviet push, to oppose them and give the rest of the West time to react.

And German press is full of idiots. Every German in WW2 was a Nazi if you believe the press worldwide. It is like saying all British soldiers are Conservatists and all Americans are Democrats.
It is another reason that German MIAs do not get recovered, no one wants to recover a Nazi. It is a bloody shame that German cannot get past that phase of their past.

Danny

There is a German who is recovering Soviet soldiers who died during the war. He found that their bodies were only covered with enough dirt to consider them buried. Proper holes were not dug since there was no time or the circumstances allowed for nothing else.

German MIAs have been recovered. I never believed most of what was an after-effect of the war: all German soldiers, pilots, etc. were Nazis and they should be regarded with hatred at all times. This was partly understandable but considering the actions of post-war West Germany, we should have realized that the war was not started by the average German citizen. The British did not want war with Hitler. Hitler gave the people jobs in the midst of a great depression and the demands of the Versailles Diktat. The enemy was the Bolsheviks in the East. Anyone reading Mein Kampf would know that.

Yes, I am aware of the various groups that fought the Soviets after the war. Yet Churchill was concerned about a Soviet push to the west and threatening England. He ordered an assessment of a plan called Operation Unthinkable.



Best,
Ed