John Grehan - The Wolfs Lair

The Wolfs Lair Headquarters on the Eastern Front An Illustrated Guide

John Grehan

AN IMPRINT OF PEN & SWORD BOOKS LTD

YORKSHIRE PHILADELPHIA

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

FRONTLINE BOOKS

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Copyright John Grehan, 2021

The right of John Grehan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-52675-311-3

ePUB ISBN: 978-1-52675-312-0

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-52675-313-7

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Hitlers Wolfs Lair was (and is) one of the most sinister Second World War sites. From there, he commanded the German armed forces in his attack on Soviet Russia. Hitler controlled all phases of the war in Russia from the Wolfs Lair from June 1941 to November 1944 (except for a period in 1942 when Hitler stayed at a field headquarters in the Ukraine), until the site was blown up to prevent capture by the rapidly advancing Russians in January 1945.

The Wolfs Lair became the most famous of Hitlers Fhrerhauptquartier (field headquarters). During the war it was a closely guarded secret, hidden deep in the woods in a remote part of East Prussia. Hitler demanded the ruthless conquest of Russia and pitiless reprisals against partisans while he was in the Wolfs Lair, and it was there that Colonel Stauffenberg and the German resistance tried to assassinate him with a bomb in July 1944. In all, Hitler spent over 800 days at the Wolfs Lair, directing his war on the Eastern Front.

John Grehans book details not only the layout and appearance of the Wolfs Lair, but also stories of daily life there such as bathing in the nearby lakes and the battles against the ever-present mosquitoes. Additionally, the book covers other associated nearby headquarters such as the Wehrmacht High Command headquarters at Mauerwald, Himmlers bunker at Hochwald, Grings Robinson headquarters, and others.

The layout of the Wolfs Lair and other headquarters is well described, showing the different buildings and bunkers, explaining how these headquarters sites were planned and built, with plentiful period and modern photographs to illustrate the text.

Stauffenbergs assassination attempt gets a chapter to itself, and it reads like a mystery novel. All the details are here the elaborate plans of the resistance members, previous attempts that went awry, Stauffenbergs plans and actions on 20 July 1944 at the Wolfs Lair, his route to escape the scene of the assassination attempt, and the aftermath at the Wolfs Lair and in Berlin.

When the bunkers and buildings were blown up in January 1945, the Wolfs Lair was abandoned for many years, but the Polish authorities have now opened the area up for tourists, who are well-rewarded by a walk along the many marked paths, among the ruined buildings and destroyed bunkers of a site that played an important part in the history of the Second World War.

Geoff Walden

The Third Reich in Ruins

Anyone who should wish to visit any of the headquarters sites described in this book should be aware that, just as in the 1940s, mosquitoes inhabit every bunker and every path. These are seriously aggressive creatures whose proboscis can even penetrate thin clothing and are at their most aggressive during the summer months. Some indication of their relentless pursuit of human blood can be gauged by an event that took place one day at the Wolfsschanze , as related by one of Hitlers bodyguards, Rochus Misch of the RSD: Less pleasant experiences were had with the mosquitoes. They plagued us and bothered us endlessly. Without the nets which covered our heads, we would have been eaten alive. For one of our colleagues, the mosquitoes provided quite another unexpected consequence. Adjutant Fritz Darges, previously adjutant to Martin Bormann, was standing one day with his hands in his trouser pockets close to Hitler awaiting his orders. I was not far away and saw Hitler leafing through a batch of papers. Suddenly a mosquito began buzzing about Hitlers head. Heavy-handed and angry, Hitler hit out at the mosquito with the paperwork but without the desired result. The accursed thing was appeared quite unimpressed, and after the wild gesticulations had ended, would always settle again on exactly the same spot from where Hitler had attempted to shoo it away. Fritz could hardly conceal his laughter at the Fhrer being second best in an aerial dogfight with a mosquito. Fritz had not moved a centimetre from where he was; his hands were still in his pockets, and he was grinning. This was not overlooked by Hitler, even in his excitement. He looked at Fritz sharply: If you are not even able to keep a thing like that off my body, then you have no business being here! Fritz understood at once and went off to pack his trunk. The same evening, he was on his way to the front.

Take heavy, long-sleeved tops, do not wear shorts, wear headgear, and apply copious and frequent applications of insect repellent. You have been warned!

The German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 shocked the world; it was though, hardly a surprise. Hitler had made his intentions quite clear many years earlier. After his failed coup in 1923, he had been incarcerated in Landsberg Prison, where he began work on his quasi-autobiographical book, Mein Kampf , in which he set out his political ideology and his future hopes for Germany. In this he wrote, with reference to the First World War: If new territory were to be acquired in Europe it must have been mainly at Russias cost, and once again the new German Empire should have set out on its march along the same road as was formerly trodden by the Teutonic Knights, this time to acquire soil for the German plough by means of the German sword and thus provide the nation with its daily bread.

Hitler was fixated with the acquisition of more territory for the expanding German nation the infamous Lebensraum , or living space and he made it quite clear where that living space would be found: We shall soon reach a point beyond which the resources of our soil can no longer be exploited, he wrote, and at the same time we shall reach a point beyond which our man-power cannot develop... If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarily have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states.