Schmidt, Wilhelm.

Schmidt, Wilhelm, born on 21-04-1920 in Dotzheim, Wiesbaden, the son of Adolf & Lina Schmidt, born Schaub. Wilhelm had two sisters and three brothers living in the Biebricherstrasse, now Erich-Ollenhauerstrasse. Wilhelm and his family were not fanatic Nazis and Wilhelm not a smart guy according his sister in law. He was a soldier in the Wehrmacht and set up in Operation Greif. Operation Greif was a special false flag operation commanded by Waffen SS commando Otto Skorzeny 

 

Operation Greif was a special operation commanded by Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. The operation was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, and its purpose was to capture one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. German soldiers, wearing captured British and U.S. Army uniforms and using captured Allied vehicles, were to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines. A lack of vehicles, uniforms and equipment limited the operation and it never achieved its original aim of securing the Meuse bridges. Skorzeny’s post-war trial set a precedent clarifying article 4 of the Geneva Convention: as the German soldiers removed the Allied uniforms before engaging in combat, they were not to be considered francs-tireurs.

There was an earlier Nazi military operation that used this name, namely an anti-partisan operation conducted by the German Army, begun on 14 August 1942, in the vicinity of Orsha and Vitebsk in the Soviet Union.

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 (see Alois),  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 Generalleutnant Siegfried von Rekowski . Rekowski died 09-05-1990, age 93 in Alterschrofen bei Schwangau. In Heckhulscheid he captured a Hauptmann of the 116^th Panzer Division “der Windhund”  he was carrying a bag with the plans and maps. The bag was sent to Section 2 of the division and the VIII Corps and the First Army were informed. 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 , the 12^th SS Panzer Division  and the 12^th Volksgrenadier Division , with the aim of moving around them when they reached the Hohes Venn. However, when the 1^st 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 supreme.

    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,and 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. Also buried here are the Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 530, Heinrich Wittkopf, Generalmajor der Kavallerie, Kommandant von Altengrabow, Konrad von Czettritz und Neuhaus

  

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