Werwolf - Hitler's Ukrainian Headquarters

[Music] hitler's eastern front headquarters the wolfshanza or wolfslayer is famous today popularized by films such as valkyrie because it was the site of the famous bomb plot assassination attempt on the 20th of july 1944. huge complex of enormous above-ground bunkers and chalet-type buildings in a gloomy dam pine forest in what was in world war ii east prussia and today is part of poland hitler spent over 800 days at the facility during the war demonstrating how vital the titanic struggle on the eastern front was to him and his regime but you may be surprised to learn that there was another wolfslayer type fury headquarters during the war located much further forward in the soviet union that hitler had constructed again on a similar forest setting this time in ukraine he was known by the interesting code name verwolf and today lies in ruins this is the story of the forgotten second wolf's lair in december 1941 work had commenced on hitler's most forward headquarters codenamed verwolf he was constructed 12 kilometers north of the town of vinitza ukraine on the kiev highway completed in june 1942 verwolf was another mini wolfe slayer the wehrmacht had established its regional headquarters in vinitza while the luftwaffe had a huge air base at kalanovka 20 kilometers from hitler's new lair once again the collection of buildings and bunkers were located inside a deep dark pine forest of the sword much favored by hitler his headquarters often appearing oppressive places lurking in the woods like some fairy tale grotto verwolf consisted of a modest log cabin village that was built around a private courtyard with its own concrete bunker for hitler and his intimates hitler's cabin or fuhrer house was very carefully guarded the reichs zika heidsteins the rsd hitler's personal bodyguard unit even searched the building's walls for microphones and explosives before he moved in surrounding the inner security zone were another 20 wooden cottages and barracks and three smaller concrete bunkers verwolf was equipped with a tea house a sauna a bath house a cinema a barber shop and even an open-air swimming pool the hitler never used the german company zeidenspinner established a large vegetable garden within the complex to supply hitler's dietary needs and fresh water came from two deep artesian wells hitler's obsession about his diet and his fear of poisoning led the rsd to enact some intense security protocols at verwolf hitler's personal chef had to go out to select the vegetables for hitler's meals himself any other vegetables destined for the furos plate had to be dug up under the eyes of an appointed courier who then brought the produce directly to the kitchen all the food was chemically analyzed before cooking and sampled by a taster before it reached his plate the water supply was sampled several times a day by the rsd mineral water had to be bottled in the presence of couriers and brought in even the laundry was x-rayed to ensure that no explosive had been concealed hitler was also frightened of the noxious vapors that were given off from his ferro concrete bunker walls at both the wolfslayer and werewolf so the rsd maintained oxygen tanks outside the bunkers ready to pump in fresh air these tanks were regularly tested the bunkers were also fitted with anti-gas chambers to prevent the enemy or any would-be assassins from pumping poison gas into the bunkers through the air ventilation system the usual concentric barbed wire fences and access gates at verwolf were strengthened with minefields anti-aircraft batteries an anti-tank ditch and a very well armed army detachment from the fbb the fuhrer begleit brigada a special guard detachment from the army that included tanks verwolf was built mostly using soviet prisoners of war working under organization tot supervision according to one account hitler ordered obersloidna thomas commander of the fbb to liquidate the workers on completion of the project hitler remarking quote they must all be shot there is not a moment to lose they know too much about my hq unquote thomas apparently carried out this order faithfully for their large grave pits in a nearby village the new headquarters was connected to germany by air and rail a daily three-hour flight connected berlin templehof with the air base at kalanovka while a train connection ran between berlin schultenberg to eichenbein station at verwolf with a journey time of 34 hours hitler who spent most of his time directing the campaign on the eastern front from the wolf's lair only stayed at verwolf for three short periods as compared to the over 800 days that he spent at rustenburg the wolf's lair headquarters location during the war he first arrived at vervul from the 16th of july 1942 and stayed until the 30th of october the summer temperatures were punishingly hot with daytime recordings of 45 degrees celsius during this first visit hitler contracted a very bad dose of the flu his own temperature touching 40 degrees hitler was not only feverish from his illness but also perhaps because he believed that the red army was about to collapse he was pressuring his generals to take the city of rostov as the panzer spearheads reached the don river deep in the soviet union it was while ill that hitler made the disastrous decision to split army groups south into two parts attempting to capture stalingrad and the oil fields and the caucasus simultaneously leading eventually to the german defeat at the great city on the volga and the demise of ganahal felt martial friedrich paulus's sixth army it proved to be a major turning point of the war hitler's second visit to verwolf between the 19th of february and 13th of march 1943 almost cost him his life the plot that came very close to killing hitler in 1943 was centered on the idea of destroying his fockevolf 200 condor aircraft while it was in flight over the soviet union it appeared that of all the methods of killing hitler a catastrophic high-altitude explosion was the surest but it was not the first method that was discussed general mayor henning von treskol one of the most serious plotters against hitler had come up with the plan as a result of several discussions he had had with the hardcore of anti-hitler plotters it was centered around general felt marshall gunter von kluger an army group center headquarters and smolensk in the ukraine von kluger's officers had carefully worked out three options to kill hitler the first idea was that an officer arm of the pistol would simply shoot hitler dead and lunch when he next visited army group center headquarters but the problem was that no officer could be found who was willing to do it ritmeister or cavalry captain baron von berzelaga the highly decorated 28 year old deputy commander of cavalry regiments in army group center suggested that he kill hitler using an entire unit of soldiers berzilaga a deeply religious man had come to believe that hitler was the antichrist and that it was his sacred duty to rid the world of this evil man and save germany from further destruction he was prepared to break his oath to hitler for the highest ideal of the fatherland berselagh formed a cavalry honor guard consisting largely of fellow anti-hitler officers his plan was to intercept hitler's fleet of cars as they drove from the airfield to the field headquarters near smolensk the cavalry would then overwhelm and destroy hitler's fbb and rsd escort and kill the fuhrer field marshal von kluger stymied this plan objecting to the idea of german soldiers fighting each other even if the other side were ss the british inadvertently made the third option possible the abfair german military intelligence whose head wilhelm canaris was sympathetic to the resistance had captured several british plastic sea time bombs from soe agents who have been dropped by parachute into france sympathetic up their officers pass some of this material on to the anti-hitler movement the bomb was ingenious but also so simple as to be virtually foolproof an acid fuse contained within a slim copper tube was inserted into a slab of plastic explosive using a pair of pliers the assassin simply crushed the fuse releasing the acid inside which slowly ate away at a wire when the wire snapped it released a spring-driven hammer that struck a small percussion cap setting off the explosive charge the length of fuse determined the time delay before detonation and for the attack on hitler's aircraft trescal selected a 30-minute fuse all going well hitler's aircraft will be destroyed somewhere over minsk the loss of the condor so close to the front could have been attributed to soviet fighters the plotters made their move on the 13th of march 1943 when hitler departed verwolf for the wolf's lair by air with a planned stopover at army group centre's headquarters near smolensk disguised as a parcel containing two bottles of cognac obviously brunt one of hitler's aids unknowingly took trescar's bomb aboard hitler's condor he intended to hand the package to ganahal mayor helmut stief on arrival in germany stief though sympathetic to the resistance was not yet an active plotter but he was trescar's friend so sending him the cognac as payment for a last bet looked perfectly normal ironically hitler disliked the 42 year old steve greatly a small man hitler called him a poisonous little dwarf the 13th of march 1943 should have been hitler's last day alive brunt handed the parcel to the plain steward who placed it with the other luggage in the unheated cargo hold this was in direct contravention of the accepted rules for loading hitler's aircraft as the two condors taxi down the grass strip one carrying hitler and his inner circle the other carrying hitler's bodyguards and also other members of his staff the planes lifted off into the clear blue sky and trescar and his aide lieutenant von schlaberndorf exchanged a look before settling into a radio truck to listen for news of the fuhrer's demise in 30 minutes with hitler dead they would institute a takeover plan general friedrich ulbricht in berlin would order the replacement army to seize the capital as well as vienna and munich the replacement army was a sprawling organization which provided reinforcements and replacements to the field army its garrison units would be used to overcome any ss resistance to the army high command seizing control the army's more junior officers being tricked by the plotters into using the replacement army forces to remove the nazis from power at the airfield outside smolensk the expected news that hitler's plane had crashed did not arrive something had gone terribly awry no word came for two agonizing hours but the two men could not understand what had happened the plan and the equipment appeared to be foolproof trescar was suddenly informed by phone that the furos plane had landed safely at rustenburg airfield near the wolf's lair it was almost unbelievable schlaberendorf hurriedly took the next plane to germany and retrieved the parcel before brunt became aware of its true contents when the bomb was examined it was found that it had actually worked perfectly the acid had released the spring hammer and struck the percussion cap but because of the intense cold inside the unheated cargo hold the percussion cap had failed to detonate and the bomb had not exploded hitler had been saved from certain death once again by the tiniest of floors if the parcel had been carried inside the heated passenger cabin everyone aboard the plane would have perished hitler left verwolf for the last time on the 15th of september 1943 and thereafter only minimal security was maintained at the facility as the red army began to advance on the reich hitler ordered that the complex be destroyed the ss carefully demolished all of the buildings in march 1944 leaving just huge chunks of concrete littering the site the only thing that survived intact was the open-air swimming pool stalin's secret police the nkvd carefully examined verwolf after its capture but no useful intelligence could be gleaned from the ruins the underground parts of the facility were subsequently sealed up and forgotten today a small museum interprets the site and there is a memorial to the murdered soviet workers who built hitler's other wolf's lair special thanks to filmhour for archival footage please visit their channel noted below for more fascinating footage from this period please also visit my other youtube channel war stories with mark felton details below and also you can help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details again in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,988,994

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Wolf's Lair, Werwolf, Werewolf, FW 200 Condor, Hitler

Id: YaC_ir_UXKg

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020