Billing, Günther Joachim.

Billing, Günther Joachim, born on 09-04-1923, in Naumburg/Saale, son of the manufacturer of woolen goods Herbert Arno Billing, and his wife Louise Louise Auguste Friederike Billing, born Steinbach, started his career in the Navy in January 1940  Günther became a soldier in the Wehrmacht and set up in Operation Greif. Operation Greif was a special false flag operation commanded by Waffen SS commander  SS Obersturmbannführer , Otto Skorzeny,    Skorzeny died age 67, on 05-07-1975), during the Battle of the Bulge. The Operation Greif or Griffin was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler (did you know)(see Alois)

  (see William Hitler)

, and its purpose was to capture one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. German soldiers in captured US Army uniforms and using some US vehicles were to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines. It’s interesting to know that the plans of Operation Greif were captured on 16-12-1944, the first day of the Ardennes Offensive by 1^st Lieutenant William V Shakespeare of the 1^st Company of the 424^th Infantry Regiment in the 106^th Division  under command of Oberst Rintenberg, In Heckhulscheid, near Sankt Vith, he captured a Hauptmann of the 116^th Panzer Division “der Windhund” under command of Generalmajor Siegfried von Waldenburg ,  he was carrying a bag with the plans and maps. General von Waldenurg died 27-03-1973, age 74. The bag was sent to Section 2 of the division and the VIII Corps and the First Army were informed soon. Skorzeny’s plans were doomed to fail. A lack of vehicles, uniforms and equipment limited the operation and it never achieved its original aim of securing the Meuse bridges. On 14 December the 150^th Panzerbrigade was assembled near Münstereifel and on the afternoon of 16 December it moved out, advancing behind the three attacking Panzer divisions, the 1^st SS Panzer Division  under SS Oberstgruppenführer, Josef “Sepp” Dietrich,   the 12^th SS Panzer Division  under SS Obergruppenfüher, Kurt “Panzer” Meyer

 and the 12^th Volksgrenadier Division  under Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Gerhard Engel,

  with the aim of moving around them when they reached the Hohes Venn. However, when the 1st SS Panzer Division failed to reach the start point within two days Skorzeny realized that Operation Greif’s initial aims were now doomed. So great was the confusion caused by Operation Greif that the US Army saw spies and saboteurs everywhere. Perhaps the largest panic was created when a commando team was captured near Awaille on 17-12-1944. Comprising Unteroffizier, Manfred Pernass,

he was the driver of the jeep, Oberfähnrich, Günther Billing, and Gefreiter, Wilhelm Schmidt

  they were captured when they failed to give the correct password. They had Id cards with the following names ‘Charles W. Lawrence’, ‘Clarence van der Wert’ en ‘George Sensenbach’ but Pernass, Billing, and Schmidt were given a military trial at Henri Chapelle, sentenced to death, and executed by a firing squad on 23-12-1944. Captain J. Eiser (medic) of the 633^th Medical Clearing Station pinned the white target patches on their chests, Schmidt’s glasses were taken off before he was shot and fanatic Billing  shouted “Long live our Führer Adolf Hitler” at the moment suprime.

See the original film of the execution of Billing, Pernass and Schmidt in the Henry Chapelle, US forces headquarter.Barrett, Charles Dodson.

Death and burial ground of Billing, Günther Joachim.

   Thirteen other men were tried and shot at either Henri-Chapelle or Huy, Wilhelm Wiesenfeld, Manfred Bronny  , Hans Reich , Arno Krause , Günther Schilz, , he is born in Holland, Erhard Migel , Horst Görlich  , Robert Pollack , Rolf Benjamin Meyer , Hans Wittsack, Otto Struller , Alfred Franz and Antoni Morzuck, Billing, Pernass and Schmidt are buried next to each other on the largest German war cemetery in West Europe, 39.000 graves, of Lommel in Belgium, near the Dutch border. Close neighbours in Lommel are the Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 530, Heinrich Wittkopf,  Generalmajor der Kavallerie, Kommandant von Altengrabow, Konrad von Czettritz und Neuhaus,  Generalarzt der Wehrnmacht, Dr. Wilhelm Dietrich,  the Vice Admiral Robert Schall-Emden,   the SS Obergruppenführer, Kommandeur Fallschirm Jäger Regiment 9, Friedrich Alpers  and the brother of the General der Flieger and Flying Ace, Adolf “Dolfo” Galland, Major, Wilhelm “Wütz” Galland.  

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