The linguists that were on stream, geographers, and experts of military heraldry were involved in the counterintelligence operation. There was even a job for those who knew things about basketball, baseball, and American football. One time a jeep with four American Army soldiers stopped at the American block post. The military vehicles used were fourseaters but four fleshy Americans would not fit in them, which is why there were usually two or three in a car. Thus, a strange foursome looked suspicious to the orderly officer. When the driver took an empty 20 liter fuel tank and asked to fill it up, the suspicion increased. The “American” driver asked for petrol (not gas, as an American would say), which was immediately detected by the real American sergeant. While he was still talking to the suspicious men he made a secret sign to the patrol. The patrol disarmed the fake GIs.
That is when the training using the Vocabulary of German military terms and abbreviations, published in London in April 1943 for British soldiers, turned out to be useful. In that dictionary the term “petrol” was used as a translation of terms connected with fuel. It was left unnoticed while planning the Operation Greif.
In the US Army a lieutenant was called “the second lieutenant” and had a distinctive golden color stripe, while a seniour lieutenant was called “the first lieutenant” and had a silver color stripe. According to Skorzeny, who was used to the German ranking, everything had to be just opposite: a golden color stripe had to distinguish one of a higher rank. German saboteurs kept calling first lieutenant a senior lieutenant, alarming watchful American military policemen. On top of that, Skorzeny’s soldiers did not know the distinctive signs of major and lieutenant colonel in the US Army. Both had a maple leaf of the same shape but in a different color: golden for major and silver for lieutenant colonel. According to the Germans’ logic everything was vice versa. The linguists also had a job to do. The suspicious soldiers on Willies and Dodges were asked to say words, which had a very difficult pronunciation for foreigners, even for those who knew either American or British English very well. Those who did not pass the linguistic test were sent right away to counterintelligence.
The patrols began to check those who looked suspicious to them for knowing capitals of American states. Those who thought that the capital of California was Los Angeles, and the capital of Illinois was Chicago, were soon caught. For fairness sake, we should say that some American policemen did not know the answers either. The capitan of a military patrol stopped a car with a general. When asked what the capital of Illinois is, the general answered Springfield without any hesitation and was sent to the counterintelligence for that. But it soon turned out that the American Army general Bradley knew the answer better than his subordinate.
Instead, American military policemen had much better knowledge about baseball players. The question: “Who was the US baseball champion last year?” perplexed Skorzeny’s thugs, to the enjoyment of both military policemen and counterintelligence agents. However, the same question confused general Bradley. He was also unable to say where the place of the defender, between the center forward and the inside, was in American football. On some other occasion he could not name the current husband of the Hollywood star Betty Grable. The military policemen’s favorite questions were: “What is the name of the island where the Statue of Liberty stands?” — at that time it was Bedloe’s Island, now it’s Liberty Island; and “What is the last name of the US Vice President?” — which was Wallace. Such questions were not so easy to answer even for real Americans, Canadians, or Englishmen. Needless to say, German saboteurs easily got caught answering them. Dozens of Germans were arrested in just a few days. Soon almost all of them were caught. Skorzeny himself confessed in his memoirs, that he miraculously stayed alive and managed to get back to his troops. All the plans for bridges seizure were abandoned. The saboteurs simply did not get there and the airborne assault was completely defeated. Only 200 of nearly 1,500 parachutists stayed alive, yet even they were taken captive. The Operation Greif was a complete failure and Skorzeny fell out of graces with Hitler. There were even thoughts of arresting Skorzeny.
There is a legend in Soviet historiography that the Soviet offensive that began on Jan. 12, 1945 instead of Jan. 20 saved the Allied forces in the Ardennes. The legend says that Winston Churchill tearfully asked Joseph Stalin for it. In fact, it is nothing but a mere myth. Firstly, the Soviet attack was planned for January 8. All the preparations were made without any connection to what was happening in the West. It was not launched according to the plan because of non-flying weather and the uncompleted preparation of Red Army.
Secondly, Soviet command did not launch the attack to support the Allies, as everybody in Moscow knew that Germans had been defeated, and the Second Front did not need help. However, the troops of the Third and the Second Ukrainian Fronts, who were in a very difficult situation near Budapest, needed assistance. The German command organized three powerful counterattacks aimed at relieving the Budapest formation and renewing defenses along the Danube. To the south-east from Komarno Germans concentrated four panzer and three infantry divisions on a territory of only a few kilometers. They attacked Soviet troops that were coming through. At the same time Germans forced the Danube near Schutte, stormed ashore, and moved along the bank. The German units that were blocked in Budapest engaged in an attack and moved toward the approaching groups. Soviet troops had to battle with a much stronger enemy and suffered major casualties. The legend of helping Allies was made up to cover the failings of Soviet command. Moreover, the Panzer armies that were moved to the Ardennes from the Eastern Front were completely defeated and never came back. Thus, it was the Red Army that was assisted. Soviet propaganda never mentioned any of that, nor did it mention the fact that the Luftwaffe lost nearly 1,600 airplanes in the battles in the Ardennes. Those planes never showed up on our front.
We have to remember all those, who brought our common victory closer, with honor. When we underestimate the role of the Allies, we cast a shadow on the enormous efforts of our Army and people, which paved the way to victory.
