Hitler's Last Days (11 page)

T
HE MAN WITH
127
DAYS
to live can barely see.

The sun shines brightly on Adolf Hitler's pale, exhausted face as he stares up at more than one thousand Allied fighter-bombers that have come to destroy the Fatherland on Christmas Eve. The F
ü
hrer stands 123 miles east of where Patton knelt to pray, ensconced in a drab bunker complex known as the Adlerhorst, and the drone of the bombers has pulled him out of the dining room of Haus 1. As his lunch grows cold, Hitler surveys the danger above him.

“
Mein
F
ü
hrer,” gasps Christa Schroeder, his personal secretary, “we have lost the war, haven't we?”

Hitler assures her that this is not the case. So even as the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators continue their deadly journey into the German heartland, Hitler saunters back inside to eat, passing a well-decorated Christmas tree that will soon be lit by candlelight.

Bombs explode on Berlin's industrial area. This photograph was taken by one of the bombers.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

The F
ü
hrer's physical condition has continued to deteriorate from his drugged, highly stressful life. His unstable gait is that of an old man. Lunch is his usual fare of vegetables and fruit—asparagus and peppers are personal favorites—served with salad and rice. A dozen female food tasters have already sampled the fare to ensure that Hitler is not poisoned. Hitler is barely strong enough to hold the fork with his right hand, which has grown so weak that he can no longer sign official documents—leaving his staff to forge his signature.

Hitler's left hand is even worse. He cannot stop its palsied shakes, and so it now rests in his lap. The F
ü
hrer eats mechanically, even leaning his head over the plate to shovel the vegetables in faster. He runs his right index finger along his short black mustache between bites. The F
ü
hrer absentmindedly chews his nails; his table manners, in the words of one witness, “are little short of shocking.”

The F
ü
hrer has been holed up in the Adlerhorst since before Operation Watch on the Rhine began and directs the battle from this secret fortress. The elaborate collection of seven houses is actually a cleverly concealed military command post. Nestled in the crags of the Taunus Mountains, the Adlerhorst was built in the shadow of the medieval Castle Kransberg, which shields the Eagle's Eyrie from prying eyes. Each building appears to be an innocent German cottage, with wood exteriors and interior furnishings of deer antlers and paintings depicting hunting scenes.

But the walls are actually reinforced concrete, three feet thick. Antiaircraft guns are hidden in the surrounding forest, where Hitler takes his morning strolls with Blondi. It is to the Adlerhorst that Hitler brought his top generals on December 11 to lay out his counterattack strategy. In the underground situation room of Haus 2, an elated Hitler celebrated the operation's opening success on December 16. He was so overjoyed that he couldn't sleep—a condition no doubt enhanced by injections of glucose, iron, and vitamin B from Dr. Morell.

In the eight days since the offensive into the Ardennes began, Hitler has had much to cheer. His favorite commando, Otto Skorzeny, and the men of Operation Greif successfully roamed behind American lines, spreading lies and innuendo that caused widespread panic. A few of Skorzeny's commandos were caught and swiftly shot by firing squads for the war crime of disguising themselves in enemy uniforms. But by then the damage was done.

GIs everywhere became jittery as news of German soldiers wearing American uniforms and speaking English spread up and down the Allied chain of command. U.S. soldiers became distrustful of any and all strangers. Cases of mistaken identity led Americans to shoot other Americans. Vehicles passing through military checkpoints were halted, and the occupants were asked to prove their nationality by answering questions about American culture that only a real GI would know.

Hitler and Eva Braun in 1938.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

Those who did not realize the difference between baseball's American and National leagues or know the name of actress Betty Grable's last motion picture were often taken into custody. An American brigadier general who thought the Chicago Cubs were in the American League was placed under arrest and held at gunpoint for five hours. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery refused to answer questions, then ordered his driver to speed through a checkpoint, at which time the American guards shot out his tires.

When British film actor-turned-soldier David Niven was unable to recall who had won the 1940 World Series, he answered, “Haven't the faintest idea. But I do know I made a picture with Ginger Rogers in 1938.”

The sentry let him pass.

So great was the Skorzeny-induced hysteria that Dwight Eisenhower was placed under around-the-clock protection after one captured German commando confessed that Skorzeny planned to assassinate Eisenhower.

A captured German soldier is found in possession of a pair of American army pants.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

In the end, the damage done by Operation Greif was intense but did not change the course of the actual battle. Even the flamboyant Skorzeny admitted his subterfuge could not turn the tide.

*   *   *

Hitler paces around his underground command post, staring at the battle maps spread atop the long rectangular conference table. He stops now and then to nibble on the molasses-filled ginger pastry that temporarily appeases his insatiable sweet tooth. What he desperately longs to hear is some good news from the front. Instead, he hears that Bastogne has not yet fallen, and that the Second SS Panzer Division is just three miles from the Meuse River but has run out of fuel and can go no farther. Rather than waging war, the Second SS Panzer now hides in the forest, desperately covering its stalled vehicles with tree branches and heaps of snow to camouflage them from the American P-47 Thunderbolts that prowl the Ardennes sky.

But perhaps the most crushing blow is the fate of Hitler's great tank commander, Joachim Peiper, and the men of the elite First SS Panzer Division.

General Kurt Zietzler and General Joachim Rouff aid Hitler in devising strategy.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

Map legend is
here
.

A German panzer usually carried a crew of five men.
[Mary Evans Picture Library]

Peiper has been trapped in the small village of La Gleize, just two bridges away from crossing the Meuse River, and spearheading a fatal thrust through the Allied lines toward Antwerp. For three days Peiper has been using what little ammunition he has left to fend off American artillery and tank attacks.

*   *   *

Colonel Peiper does not want his men to die. Thus he hatches a daring plan that may give hope to a hopeless situation.

German tanks.
[Alamy]

Just after 5
P.M.
on December 23, Joachim Peiper radioes German headquarters and asks permission to destroy his twenty-eight remaining tanks and escape on foot.