By Christopher “Moon” Mullins.
During the coldest winter of WWII, as American soldiers huddled in the frozen forests of the Ardennes, a bizarre and paranoid rumor began to spread: German commandos, dressed in American uniforms and driving American jeeps, were operating behind their lines. The fear was real. Sentries began quizzing unfamiliar GIs on the latest baseball scores and the names of Mickey Mouse’s friends. This wasn’t just paranoia; it was the result of Operation Greif, one of the most audacious and desperate special operations of the war, led by Germany’s most notorious commando, Otto Skorzeny.
A Desperate Gamble
In late 1944, Hitler planned a massive, last-ditch offensive through the Ardennes, known to the Allies as the Battle of the Bulge. The goal of this operation, codenamed Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine), was to smash through the thinly held American lines, seize vital bridges on the Meuse River, and capture the port of Antwerp. Hitler hoped this stunning blow would cripple the Allied supply chain and fracture the Western coalition, allowing Germany to focus its full might on the Soviet Union.
To spearhead this attack, he authorized a critical and clandestine component: Operation Greif (Griffin). The plan was simple yet audacious. A special unit, the 150th Panzer Brigade, would be disguised as an American armored unit. Small teams of English-speaking commandos would slip through the lines to create chaos—misdirecting traffic, cutting communication lines, and seizing the Meuse bridges ahead of the main Panzer advance. To lead this daring mission, Hitler turned to SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, a man already famous for his dramatic rescue of Benito Mussolini.
A Mission Fraught with Problems
Skorzeny was promised the best of everything but received a logistical nightmare. Given less than two months to prepare, he faced immense challenges that plagued the operation from the start.
- The Language Barrier: Out of 3,300 men, Skorzeny found only about 10 who could speak English fluently with a command of American slang. Another 150 spoke it fairly well, but the vast majority knew only a few words. His best speakers were former merchant seamen or Germans who had lived in the U.S. before the war.
- The Culture Gap: German military discipline was the opposite of the casual demeanor of the American GI. Skorzeny’s men had to be trained to stop clicking their heels and saluting, and instead learn how to properly chew gum, flick a Zippo lighter, and curse convincingly. It was a difficult transition.
- Equipment Shortages: The promised wealth of captured American equipment never materialized. Skorzeny received a mismatched pile of soiled Allied uniforms, many taken from POWs. Worse, he was issued only two functional Sherman tanks. To compensate, German Panther tanks were disguised with welded metal plates to crudely resemble American armor—a deception that would only work from a great distance. The bulk of the 150th Panzer Brigade would have to ride into battle in German vehicles hastily painted olive drab with American star markings.
Adding to the chaos, the German High Command sent out an uncoded message requesting English-speaking volunteers, a massive security breach that alerted Allied intelligence to a potential commando operation.
Chaos and Paranoia Behind the Lines
At 5:30 AM on December 16, 1944, the Ardennes front erupted as 2,000 German artillery pieces opened fire. As the offensive began, however, the 150th Panzer Brigade was immediately caught in the massive traffic jams of the 6th Panzer Army. The plan for a swift, stealthy advance to the Meuse bridges fell apart before it even started.
Realizing his main force was stuck, Skorzeny sent a few of his best commando teams ahead in captured American jeeps. While they failed to capture any bridges, these small teams were remarkably effective at their secondary mission: creating psychological havoc.
Their success was far greater than their numbers. The commandos cut telephone wires, swapped road signs to send American reinforcements down wrong roads, and spread rumors of a total collapse at the front. As American MPs began capturing some of these imposters, the news spread like wildfire. A “poison rumor” campaign, which may have been started by the commandos themselves, claimed that a special team was on its way to Paris to assassinate or kidnap General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Security around the Supreme Allied Commander became so tight that he was essentially a prisoner in his own headquarters for several days. The fear of German infiltrators turned every checkpoint into a high-stakes trivia game, frustrating countless real American soldiers and officers who couldn’t name the winner of the last World Series.
One of the most notable captures occurred on December 17th, when a team of three German commandos was stopped on a bridge by African American MPs. A search of their jeep revealed pistols, grenades, a radio, and large sums of Allied currency. Their German paybooks sealed their fate. As spies captured in enemy uniform, they were executed by firing squad a few days later. In total, eighteen of Skorzeny’s commandos would meet the same fate.
The Final Act in Malmedy
With his primary mission impossible, Skorzeny requested that the 150th Panzer Brigade be used as a regular combat unit. On December 21st, he launched an attack on the strategic town of Malmedy, Belgium. Unknown to him, the town was now heavily defended by veteran American infantry and combat engineers. The German attack was a bloody failure, repelled by overwhelming American firepower. Skorzeny himself was wounded by shell fragments soon after.
Legacy: A Strategic Failure, A Psychological Annoyance
Operation Greif was a military failure. It did not capture its objectives and had no major impact on the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge. The German offensive ultimately failed, costing them over 100,000 casualties and shattering their remaining armored forces.
However, the operation’s psychological impact was undeniable. For the cost of a few dozen commandos, Germany created a wave of fear and confusion that reached the highest levels of the Allied command, diverting attention and resources at a critical moment. While it will be remembered as one of WWII’s most bizarre footnotes, the story of the German GIs serves as a powerful reminder of the chaos and paranoia of the Battle of the Bulge.
The Commando Behind the Chaos
The choice of Otto Skorzeny to lead such an unconventional mission was no surprise. By late 1944, he had earned a reputation as Hitler’s go-to specialist for high-stakes, seemingly impossible missions. His international fame was cemented in 1943 with the daring Gran Sasso raid (Operation Oak), a glider-borne assault to rescue a deposed Benito Mussolini from a seemingly inaccessible Italian mountaintop hotel. Just before the Ardennes Offensive, he led Operation Panzerfaust in Hungary, a successful mission involving the kidnapping of the Hungarian regent’s son to prevent the country from surrendering to the Soviets. While not all his missions succeeded—an attempt to capture Yugoslavian leader Tito failed—Skorzeny had proven himself a master of subterfuge and special operations, earning the moniker “the most dangerous man in Europe” and making him the natural, and perhaps only, choice for a gamble as desperate as Operation Greif.
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Author: Christopher “Moon” Mullins is a former paratrooper with service in the 82nd Airborne Division. He also served with the 5th Special Forces Group in a communications support role on a “B-team”. Chris retired from the U.S. Army after 20 years service. He is the author of several books and writes an online blog on military topics.
Image: Otto Skorzeny In Brandenburg visiting the 500 SS Parachute Battalion in February 1945.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R81453 / Creative Commons, Wikimedia.