by Mark Felton
In 1934 the Kommando der Wachtruppe was renamed Wachtruppe Berlin and a small detachment supplemented the LSSAH guards at the Reich Chancellery as well as continuing to parade and perform ceremonials throughout the capital. It was particularly visible during the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
In 1937 the unit was renamed again, this time becoming Wach Regiment Berlin, with soldiers posted individually to the unit from all over Germany for six-month tours of duty. Hitler decided to change the name one last time in 1939 to reflect the national character of the regiment – thus it became Infanterie Regiment Grossdeutschland.
At Bad Polzin in Poland in 1939 the Grossdeutschland Regiment provided three security groups. Group 1 guarded Hitler’s train and the Minister’s Train that joined it on 4 September. This group also manned an outer security perimeter for 500m around the station. Although local people were still permitted to use the station, they were subjected to intense security scrutiny and forbidden to gather in groups.11 Group 2 was held as a reserve while the Front Group comprised the troops who would travel with Hitler and his ministers by car. On the trip to the front in Poland in September 1939 Rommel’s men provided five motorcycle outriders at the front and rear of Hitler’s column, plus a signal corps platoon and an anti-aircraft platoon towing 20mm flak guns. The third and final part of Hitler’s huge column trailed along five minutes behind the flak guns and was labelled Column ‘M’ (Militarische – ‘Military’) and consisted of a towed anti-tank gun, more cars, another anti-tank gun, and elements of the signal troop, all derived from the Grossdeutschland. Such a formidable array of firepower was not just a show of force but was probably sufficient to have beaten off a determined attack by almost any group of assassins.
Hitler’s huge column of vehicles headed for the front at Topolno on the Vistula River. When he visited front line units his security was usually quite lax, to a degree that would seem almost incredible today. This was because neither Hitler nor his bodyguards believed that loyal Wehrmacht soldiers, riding high on victory, would try to kill their Führer. Only much later in the war, when the tide had turned against Germany, did Hitler become much more wary around his own men, and with good reason as it turned out.
In Poland in 1939 Hitler believed that he had nothing to fear from his generals and men. ‘During briefings, Hitler’s eight or nine bodyguards just stood about looking on, or talking among themselves, but not, as they should have been, facing out from where Hitler was, watching the scene.’12 This apparent break with procedure was startling considering that Hitler was within a war zone.
Any real danger in 1939 came not from fellow Germans but from the enemy. At one point Hitler’s convoy was stopped because Polish soldiers had ambushed a field hospital unit on the road only a few minutes before. After waiting for the all clear, the convoy drove on, meeting with another close call. The driver of an oncoming army truck was shot dead at the wheel by a Polish sniper, the vehicle smashing into one of the anti-aircraft vehicles guarding the Führer’s convoy.
As the convoy continued to the town of Pruszez, the Fieseler Storch plane that was flying reconnaissance for Hitler’s convoy was shot at by German ground troops who mistook it for being Polish. On arrival at Topolno Hitler watched German troops make an assault crossing of the Vistula before retreating to Plietnitz where his special train was waiting to take him back to Germany after Polish planes began bombing ground targets only a mile from where Hitler was standing on the riverbank.
On 9 September the Führersonderzug and its attached HQ units moved south to Ilnan, near Oppeln in Silesia. Each time the train stopped, the Grossdeutschland set up a security perimeter around the station and the headquarters was connected to the local telephone exchange. The next day Hitler paid his first visit to the Polish front by air. Shortly after 9.00am six Junkers Ju 52/3m trimotors took off from Neudorf with his large entourage and landed at Bialaczow. Six Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters escorted the Führer’s aerial armada. Travelling with Hitler aboard his plane was his usual retinue: Oberst Schmundt, adjutants Brückner, von Below and Engel, his doctor Brandt, driver Kempka and his valet Linge. Two Ju 52s each carried six bodyguards, one plane consisting of SS-Begleitkommando and the other RSD. The remaining three aircraft carried Keitel, Grossdeutschland Front Group commander Oberst Rommel, Oberst Bodenschatz (Hitler’s Luftwaffe aide), von Ribbentrop, Bormann, Press Chief Dietrich, Schaub, and Personal Adjutant SS-Untersturmführer Max Wünsche, Himmler and their several adjutants and bodyguards.13
At Bialaczow Hitler met with Generaloberst Walther von Reichenau, commander of the Tenth Army. The cars and other vehicles that made up the Führer’s Frontgruppe were waiting to take Hitler and his large entourage to Maslow where enthusiastic soldiers and a few civilians mobbed him. In a major operation, Hitler’s cars were driven from Germany to meet his aircraft, and this was also done throughout the war. Only the specially armoured Mercedes cars were used during Hitler’s visits to the war fronts.
Permitting the Führer’s car to be mobbed was a serious security breach, but one which Hitler tolerated and encouraged, feeling secure in the knowledge that his beloved soldiers would not harm him. As his convoy passed through recently occupied Polish towns and villages they were slowed to a crawl by huge numbers of soldiers, horse-drawn wagons and even trucks full of Polish prisoners-of-war that were being driven back from the front.
Hitler’s headquarters moved constantly during the Polish Campaign. On 12 September the Führer’s train Amerika arrived at Gogolin, 30km south of Oppeln. On 18 September it moved to Goddentow-Lanz near Lauenburg, 40km northwest of Danzig. Hitler returned to the Reich Chancellery aboard Amerika on 26 September.
Further steps were taken to create a dedicated Wehrmacht headquarters protection unit for the Führer. At the beginning of the Polish Campaign Rommel’s troops wore a cuff band on their right sleeve that read ‘Führerhauptquartier’, indicating that they were special headquarters troops working directly for Hitler. The Führer decided on 28 September 1939, with Rommel’s agreement, to change the name of the elements of the Grossdeutschland unit that guarded him to the Führer Begleit Bataillon (Führer Escort Battalion – FBB) and it was considerably expanded. The rest of the Grossdeutschland would continue as a separate army unit, eventually becoming a division. In January 1941 all FBB personnel were ordered to only wear their Führerhauptquartier cuff bands when not serving at Hitler’s HQ – for example, when on leave. It was important to maintain a high level of secrecy around Hitler and advertising the location of his headquarters was deemed unwise. Instead, when on duty, FBB wore a ‘Grossdeutschland’ cuff band on their right sleeve.14
Hitler now had four units providing him with protection. The RSD and SS-Begleitkommando provided bodyguards and valets, the LSSAH still had one company on guard duties at the Reich Chancellery and whenever Hitler visited the front he could expect a large FBB escort from the Wehrmacht. Four different units from two arms of service all dedicated to protecting one man and his inner circle of henchmen. Such multiplicity suited Hitler’s belief in ‘divide and rule’ perfectly as each of the protection agencies vied with the other for more influence and power as the war progressed.
Although during his battlefront tours Hitler occasionally exposed himself to danger, particularly ambush by cut-off enemy troops or landmines, the most serious plot to kill Hitler in Poland occurred while he was driving through the capital Warsaw on 5 October 1939. It was planned that Hitler’s car would cross today’s Charles de Gaulle Square in the city centre as the Führer made his way to a victory parade. Polish resisters, the cut-off remnants of Polish Army units stranded in the occupied capital, planned to hide a massive Improvised Explosive Device (IED) along the route and detonate it as Hitler’s Mercedes drew level. Fortunately for Hitler, human error meant that the IED failed to explode.
By the time Hitler started to visit the Western Front in 1940 security had been further tightened in the light of Georg Elser’s failed bomb plot in Munich. Oberstleutnant Thomas had taken comma
nd of the FBB since Rommel’s promotion to Generalmajor and transfer to frontline duty in France. The FBB became responsible for all luggages that were to travel with the Führer, conscious that this was an excellent method of infiltrating a bomb close to Hitler.
Three FBB men personally collected all bags and suitcases that were to travel with Hitler and his staff, whether by train, plane or car, from the hotel or apartment where the group was staying. Two fetched the luggage while the third man guarded the truck outside to prevent any interference. The luggage was always guarded and often kept under lock and key. The chance of someone managing to plant a device in any of the bags was extremely remote unless they used an inside man, and the FBB and RSD who guarded Hitler were totally loyal.
The car convoy also became more heavily protected than before. The Frontgruppe now consisted of fifteen Mercedes to carry Hitler and his entourage, protected by elements of an FBB infantry company, signals platoon, motorcycle platoon, armoured reconnaissance platoon (with radio car), two anti-aircraft platoons, two armoured cars each mounting 20mm cannons, two field kitchens, two fuel tankers and a supply section. Overhead was a Fieseler Storch spotter plane constantly moving ahead of the convoy looking for trouble and reporting on road conditions by radio.
Hitler made several visits to France during the invasion in 1940, but when Paris fell he cancelled a planned triumphal military parade on 20 July, a date that was to have great significance four years later, because he feared, rightly as it turned out, that the British planned a bombing raid. Sholto Douglas, Deputy-Chief of the Air Staff, proposed an attack in July 1940, only two weeks after the French capitulation. Donald Stevenson, Director of Home Operations in the Air Ministry, picked up the idea and quickly proposed attempting to kill Hitler, who could be expected to be standing on a saluting base near the Arc de Triomphe. A salvo of bombs dropped by low-flying RAF light bombers was predicted to cause carnage. However, the British eventually dropped the idea, considering it unsporting to bomb an opponent’s military parade.15 Stevenson remarked: ‘I am against the attack on Paris on this occasion. The triumphal march through Paris is in accordance with military custom – we did the same thing ourselves after the battle of Waterloo.’16 Later in the war the British would be less prepared to play by ‘Queensberry Rules’ when it came to Hitler and his acolytes.
When Hitler did visit Paris he did so secretly and his whistle-stop tour of the French capital was extraordinary for the risks that he took. The tour happened before the planned victory parade, which was cancelled. At 3.30am on 23 June 1940 Hitler’s party took off from an airfield in France and landed at Le Bourget Airport soon after. This time there would only be five cars – three for Hitler and his party and two for the SS and RSD bodyguards. The reason for the visit to Paris was primarily to indulge Hitler’s love of architecture and for this reason the Führer was accompanied by his two court architects, Albert Speer and Hermann Giesler as well as the sculptor Arno Breker. Hans Baur, his personal pilot, was also with the party along with Bormann, Schaub and Keitel, and with the usual smattering of aides and valets.
The five-car convoy drove into central Paris in the early hours of the morning, just when the first Parisians were beginning to get up for work. Oberst Hans Speidel, a staff officer from Paris headquarters who would later be involved in plots against the Führer in 1943 and 1944, accompanied Hitler.
Security for Hitler’s visit consisted of the bodyguards in the escort cars and nothing else. There were no cordons on the streets or troops presenting arms as he drove by. Nothing. Had the French known about this visit it is fair to say that Hitler would have presented an extremely juicy target for anyone with a rifle or a hand grenade. All of the Mercedes drove along with their roofs down, through streets lined with tall buildings. On several occasions Hitler got out of his car to stroll and sightsee.
The first building visited was the Opera, with Hitler actually leading the party around with the caretaker quickly unlocking doors. The Führer had previously studied the building’s blueprints in detail. Then the convoy drove down the Champs Elysées, past the Madeleine to the Trocadero before stopping in front of the Eiffel Tower. Hitler strolled around near the tower’s base, holding his cap peak and staring up at the great monument, deep in conversation with Speer and the other ‘experts’, and posing for photographs like any other tourist.
Back in the cars, the party next drove to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before Hitler alighted again at the Dome des Invalides where he stood deep in thought before Emperor Napoleon I’s tomb, the new conqueror of Europe paying homage to the old. Then it was on with the famous sights – the Pantheon, Place de Vosges, Louvre Museum, Palais de Justice and Sainte Chapelle. The convoy of large dark Mercedes cars powered down the Rue de Rivoli to the tour’s final destination – the magnificent white Sacre Coeur that overlooks Montmartre. By 9.00am Hitler had left Paris for his field headquarters, Wolfsschlucht I at Margival. As for the inhabitants of Paris, they had either ignored the tyrant with a Gallic shrug or run away from him. Hitler’s triumphal progress through the City of Lights had been unimpeded – it was probably the most insecure and dangerous visit Hitler ever paid outside of Germany and one of the greatest missed opportunities to have put an end to the man who was determined to expand the war on an almost unimaginable scale.
Chapter 4
Eagle’s Eyrie
‘I have striven, therefore, from the beginning to conduct the war wherever possible offensively. Wars are finally decided through the recognition by one side or the other that the war as such can no longer be won. To get the enemy to realise this is therefore the most important task.’
Adolf Hitler, The Adlerhorst
12 December 1944
The Führersonderzug pulled into Giessen Station in the German state of Hesse, a small, pretty town of large half-timbered houses. There were no adoring crowds awaiting the Führer – instead the platform was carefully guarded by SS. Outside, in the station courtyard stood a fleet of polished midnight-blue Mercedes-Benz limousines and more SS-Begleitkommando guards. Hitler stepped slowly down from his Pullman carriage, a black cape over his uniform tunic. It was blustery and cold and the Führer, walking with a slight stoop, headed straight for his car where Erich Kempka, his personal driver for so many years, sat waiting, the engine running. Hitler’s entourage settled themselves into the fleet of cars, turning up their collars against the cold wind. Twenty minutes later the procession of gleaming vehicles swept uphill through the tiny village of Ziegenburg towards a large, gloomy Gothic castle that stood on a hill above the houses, perched atop a lofty promontory. It was 11 December 1944 and Hitler had arrived at the Adlerhorst (Eagle’s Eyrie), his top secret Western Front headquarters. He was happy and excited, for he came with a new plan prepared that he hoped would win him a great victory against the Western Allies. As his car entered a narrow approach tunnel to Kransberg Castle, Hitler felt energized. As he stated to his generals that evening: ‘If forced back on the defensive, it is all the more important to convince the enemy that victory was not in sight.’1 At the Adlerhorst he would change the course of the war back into Germany’s favour.
Hitler would have several military headquarters for his campaigns in Western Europe. They were built and used during three specific periods: the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during 1940; the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944; and the Ardennes Offensive of 1944–45. Hitler spent most the war, over 800 days, at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia demonstrating that his strategic focus was primarily upon the monumental fight with the Soviet Union. When not at the Wolf’s Lair he was mostly to be found at his private house, the Berghof, in southern Bavaria. Because of this, his visits to the Western Front were often short affairs. But a considerable amount of money, effort and time was expended in finding and creating suitable headquarters for Hitler and his large entourage, the most significant but perhaps least known of the Führer Headquarters being the Eagle’s Eyrie in western Germany, hidden as with most of Hitl
er’s HQs, in a gloomy forested area with more than an element of the Brothers Grimm about the place.
On 10 October 1939 Hitler’s first Führer Escort Battalion (FBB) commander, Irwin Rommel, was sent West to find a suitable location for a new Führer Headquarters for the forthcoming campaign against France and the Low Countries. Hitler also dispatched his architect Albert Speer along with the Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition, Dr Fritz Todt, to help with the search.
Speer and Todt recommended Kransberg Castle in Langenhain-Ziegenberg, 35km from Frankfurt-am-Main. The castle, looking like something out of a fairytale, sits in the densely wooded Taunus Mountains and was codenamed ‘A’ for ‘Adlerhorst’ (Eagle’s Eyrie) by the Nazis. Originally constructed in 1170, the castle had fallen into dis-repair by the mid-nineteenth century. Extensively remodelled in the 1870s it was given a neo-gothic makeover in line with the then fashion for Germanic myth and legend. Acquired in 1926 by Austrian noble-woman Emma von Scheitheim, she used the castle for entertaining and society events until, in 1939, the government seized it for military purposes.