Editing Werwolf (section)

===Wartime capture of Werwolf personnel===
On 28 April 1945 [[Staff Sergeant]] [[Ib Melchior]] of the US [[Counter-Intelligence Corps]] captured six German officers and 25 enlisted men dressed in civilian clothes, who claimed to constitute a Werwolf cell under the command of Colonel Paul Krüger, operating in [[Schönsee]], [[Bavaria]]. The group was captured while hiding in a [[tunnel network]] which contained communications equipment, weapons, explosives and several months' food supplies. Two vehicles were hidden in the forest nearby. Documents discovered in the tunnels listed US military commanders as targets for assassination, including General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref>[http://www.90thdivisionassoc.org/afteractionreports/PDF/XIICorpsHist.pdf George Dyer, ''XII Corps: Spearhead of Patton's Third Army'', XII Corps History Association, 1947; Chapter 16, section 4.]</ref><ref>Melchior, Ib. ''Case by Case: A U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent in World War II''. Presidio, 1993; Chapter 8, pp.&nbsp;135–53.</ref> Krüger stated that in 1943 a school was created in Poland to train men in guerrilla warfare. On 16 September 1944, it was relocated to the town of Thürenberg, Czechoslovakia.<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/doc/174205409/Counter-Intelligence-Corps-History-and-Mission-in-World-War-II Counter Intelligence Corps History and Mission in WWII] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223122916/http://www.scribd.com/doc/174205409/Counter-Intelligence-Corps-History-and-Mission-in-World-War-II |date=2014-02-23 }}, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA (undated); p. 51.</ref> Krüger claimed that a total of 1,200 men completed Werwolf training in the school in less than two years. On 1 April 1945, the school was moved to Schönsee and a subterranean base was constructed. The students were instructed to "stay behind, evade capture, and then harass and destroy supply lines of [[United States Armed Forces|United States troops]]&nbsp;... Special emphasis was put on gasoline and oil supplies."<ref name= "G-2">[https://www.scribd.com/doc/122123682/Order-of-Battle "G-2 Periodic Report No. 262, 3 May 1945, XII Corps HQ,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223123009/http://www.scribd.com/doc/122123682/Order-of-Battle |date=23 February 2014 }} reproduced in full in ''Order of Battle: Hitler's Werewolves,'' by Ib Melchior, epilogue, pp.&nbsp;900–17.</ref> According to the G-2 report:

{{quote|"Operations were to begin three or four weeks after being overrun by US troops. The plan was for each unit to receive designated targets from the headquarters. Bands of from 10 to 20 men were then to be sent out to destroy the target and to return immediately to their unit. No targets were to be located nearer than {{convert|15|km|spell=in|sp=us}} to the unit. Secrecy and [[camouflage]] were relied upon for security and all personnel had strict orders to conceal themselves if US troops came into their area and under no circumstances to open fire in the bivouac area. No routes of escape had been planned. Members of the unit usually wore the Wehrmacht uniform, but a few members disguised themselves as [[forester]]s and were used as outposts to report any approaching danger. Their ordnance supplies consisted of mortars, machine guns, sub-machine guns, rifles, and various types of side arms. Each man was issued a [[Liliput pistol]] which could be very easily concealed on the person. The ammunition supply for each type weapon was ample for four months of ordinary operations. The unit had one civilian type sedan and one Wehrmacht motorcycle which were well hidden in the woods, and 120 horses which were dispersed on farms throughout the vicinity. Food consisting of canned meat, biscuits, crackers, chocolate, and canned vegetables was sufficient for over four months. Additional food supplies such as bread, potatoes, fresh vegetables, and smoked sausages were obtained from local sources. The unit was supplied with water by a brook passing through the area. [[Dugout (military)|Dugouts]] were constructed in such a manner as not to destroy the live trees around them. The dugouts were located on the slope of a hill which was densely covered with [[Conifer|fir trees]]&nbsp;... The entrance to the dugout was a hole approximately {{convert|24|in|cm}} in diameter and {{convert|4|to|5|ft|spell=in}} deep. Approximately {{convert|2|ft|cm|spell=in}} down, this hole extended horizontally to a length of {{convert|8|to|10|ft|spell=in}}. The dugout has a capacity of three men and has a wooden floor and a drainage ditch. Walls and roof are reinforced with lumber."<ref name="G-2"/>}}

The following day a CIC unit led by Captain Oscar M. Grimes of the [[97th Infantry Division (United States)|97th Infantry Division]] captured about two hundred [[Gestapo]] officers and men in hiding near [[Hof, Bavaria]]. They were in possession of American army uniforms and equipment but had decided to surrender.<ref>Kurt Frank Korf, quoted in Patricia Kollander, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FX0Ip-n-Tc0C&q ''I Must be a Part of this War: A German American's Fight against Hitler and Nazism,''] Fordham University Press, 2005; {{ISBN|0-8232-2528-3}}; p. 109.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archives.explorebaltimorecounty.com/community/6003301/obituary-notices/ |title=Obituary: Oscar M. "Mel" Grimes Jr., 80, ''Catonsville Times,'' 14 May, 2001. |access-date=2014-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222065429/http://archives.explorebaltimorecounty.com/community/6003301/obituary-notices/ |archive-date=2014-02-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/13096335/ "Bemedaled Ex-Nazi Youth Home from Europe Wars,"] ''The Salt Lake Tribune,'' 16 July 1945, p. 6.</ref>

In May 1945 CIC Major John Schwartzwalder arrested members of a Werwolf cell in [[Bremen]] whose leader had fled. Schwartzwalder believed that the Werwolf never constituted a threat to Allied personnel:

{{quote|"...the Bremen group of the [[Hitler Youth|Jugend]] had received its orders to organize as a Werwolf cell only about four days before the fall of the city. By that time the Wehrmacht had taken all but the halt and the lame, and the [[Volkssturm]] had taken most of the rest. Nevertheless an organization had been started using the younger boys but it had not progressed to accumulating either weapons or supplies before the entry of the Allied troops...The only remaining fraction of the Werwolf that was of any importance was a residue of veterans of the last war who were physically ineligible for service in this one and who had weapons concealed here and there. These were not too hard to dispose of."<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Schwartzwalder |title=We Caught Spies: Adventures of an American Counter Intelligence Agent in Europe |publisher=Duell, Sloan & Pierce, Inc. |location=New York |year=1946 |pages=262–63 }}</ref>}}