Subject: WWII-L Digest - 17 Apr 1993 to 18 Apr 1993

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 00:00:18 -0400

There are 4 messages totalling 306 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. AMERICAN CEMETERIES
  2. Dispatch from OKW
  3. Around the world.
  4. REF: U.S. Army in WWII

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Date:    Sun, 18 Apr 1993 09:06:17 +0200
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: AMERICAN CEMETERIES

  Oslo, April 18.
  During a recent trip to the German-Luxembourg and German-Belgian border
area, where I spent a miserable winter in 1944-45, I visited the American
cemetery near Luxembourg City.  Could anyone tell me whether all the
American dead from the fighting in that area are buried there, or are there
other American cemeteries in Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine?
  I am particularly interested in where those who died in the fighting in
the Huertgen Forest near Aachen are buried.
        John C. Ausland CIS: 73240,2704
        Internet: [email-masked]

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Date:    Sun, 18 Apr 1993 08:20:45 EST
From:    Larry Jewell <[email-masked]>
Subject: Dispatch from OKW

The Fuhrer and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces
OKW/WFSt/Abt.L (I) Nr. 33 408.40 gK Chefs.

Military Secret (Geheime Kommandosache)
Top Secret (Chef Sache)
By officer only
Fuhrer's Headquarters
December 18, 1940

Directive No. 21
Operation Barbarossa

The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia
in a quick campaign (Operation Barbarossa) even before the
conclusion of the war against England.

For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available
units, with the reservation that the occupied territories must
be secured against surprise attacks.

For the Air Force it will be a matter of releasing such strong
forces for the eastern campaign in support of the Army that a
quick completion of the ground operations may be expected and
that damage to Eastern German territory by enemy air attacks
will be as slight as possible.  This concentration of the main
effort in the East is limited by the requirement that the entire
combat and armament area dominated by us must remain adequately
protected against enemy air attacks and that the offensive
operations against England, particularly her supply lines, must
not be permitted to break down.

The main effort of the Navy will remain unequivocally directed
against England even during an eastern campaign.

I shall order the concentration against Soviet Russia possibly
eight weeks before the intended beginning of operations.

Preparations requiring more time to start are to be started now
- if this has not yet been done - and are to be completed by May
15, 1941.

It is to be considered of decisive importance, however, that the
intention to attack is not discovered.

The preparations of the High Commands are to be made on the
following basis:

I. General Purpose:

The mass of the Russian Army in Western Russia is to be
destroyed in daring operations, by driving forward deep armored
wedges, and the retreat of units capable of combat into the
vastness of Russian territory is to be prevented.

In quick pursuit a line is then to be reached from which the
Russian Air Force will no longer be able to attack German Reich
territory.  The ultimate objective of the operation is to
establish a defense line against Asiatic Russia from a line
running approximately from the Volga River to Archangel.  Then,
in case of necessity, the last industrial area left to Russia in
the Urals can be eliminated by the Luftwaffe.

In the course of these operations the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet
will quickly lose its bases and thus will no longer be able to
fight.

Effective intervention by the Russian Air Force is to be
prevented by powerful blows at the very beginning of the
operation.

II. Probable Allies and their Tasks:

1. On the flanks of our operation we can count on the active
participation of Rumania and Finland in the war against Soviet
Russia.

The High Command will in due time concert and determine in what
form the armed forces to the two countries will be placed under
German command at the time of their intervention.

2. It will be the task of Rumania, together with the forces
concentrating there, to pin down the enemy facing her and, in
addition, to render auxiliary services in the rear area.

3. Finland will cover the concentration of the redeployed German
North Group (parts of the XXI Group) coming from Norway and will
operate jointly with it.  Besides, Finland will be assigned the
task of eliminating Hango.

4. It may be expected that Swedish railroads and highways will
be available for the concentration of the German North Group,
from the start of the operations at the latest.

III. Direction of Operations:

In the zone of operations divided by the Pripet Marshes into a
southern and northern sector, the main effort will be made north
of this area.  Two Army Groups will be provided here.

The southern group of these two Army Groups - the center of the
entire front - will be given the task of annihilating the forces
of the enemy in White Russia by advancing from the region around
and north of Warsaw with especially strong armored and motorized
units.  The possibility of switching strong mobile units to the
North must thereby be created in order, in cooperation with the
Northern Army Group operating from East Prussia in the general
direction of Leningrad, to annihilate the enemy forces fighting
in the Baltic.  Only after having accomplished this most
important task, which must be followed by the occupation of
Leningrad and Kronstadt, are the offensive operations aimed at
the occupation of the important traffic and armament center in
Moscow to be pursued.

Only a surprisingly fast collapse of Russian resistance could
justify aiming at both objectives simultaneously.

The most important assignment of the XXI Group, even during the
eastern operations, will still be the protection of Norway.  The
additional forces available are to be employed in the north
(mountain corps), first to secure the Petsamo Region and its ore
mines as well as the Arctic Ocean route, and then to advance
jointly with Finnish forces against the Murmansk railroad and
stop the supply of the Murmansk region by land.

Whether such an operation with rather strong German forces (two
or three divisions) can be conducted from the area of and south
of Rovaniemi depends upon Sweden's willingness to make the
railroads available for such a concentration.

The main body of the Finnish Army will be assigned the task, in
coordination with the advance of the German northern flank, of
pinning down strong Russian forces by attacking west of or on
both sides of Lake Ladoga and seizing Hango.

The Army Group employed south of the Pripet Marshes is to make
its main effort in the area from Lublin in the general direction
of Kiev, in order to penetrate quickly with strong armored units
into the deep flank and rear of the Russian forces and then to
roll them up along the Dnieper River.

The German-Rumanian groups on the right flank are assigned the
task of:

(a) protecting Rumanian territory and thereby the southern flank
of the entire operation.

(b) pinning down the opposing enemy forces while Army Group
South is attacking on its northern flank and, according to the
progressive development of the situation and in conjunction with
the Air Force, preventing their orderly retreat across the
Dniester during the pursuit.

(and,) in the North, of reaching Moscow quickly.

The capture of this city means a decisive success politically
and economically and, beyond that, the elimination of the most
important railway center.

B. Air Force:

Its task will be to paralyze and to eliminate as far as possible
the intervention of the Russian Air Force as well as to support
the Army at its main points of effort, particularly those of
Army Group Center and, on the flank, those of Army Group South.
The Russian railroads, in the order of their importance for the
operations, will be cut or the most important near-by objectives
(river crossings) seized by the bold employment of parachute and
airborne troops.

In order to concentrate all forces against the enemy Air Force
and to give immediate support to the Army the armament industry
will not be attacked during the main operations.  Only after the
completion of the mobile operations may such attacks be
considered - primarily against the Ural Region.

C. Navy:

The Navy's role against Soviet Russia is, while safeguarding our
own coast, to prevent an escape of enemy naval units from the
Baltic Sea.  As the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet, once we have
reached Leningrad, will be deprived of its last base and will
then be in a hopeless situation, any larger naval operations are
to be avoided before that time.

After the elimination of the Russian Fleet it will be a question
of protecting all the traffic in the Baltic Sea, including the
supply by sea of the northern flank of the Army (mine
clearance!).

IV. All orders to be issued by the commanders-in-chief on the
basis of this directive must clearly indicate that they are
precautionary measure for the possibility that Russian should
change her present attitude toward us.  The number of officers
to be assigned to the preparatory work at an early date is to be
kept as small as possible; additional personnel should be
briefed as late as possible and only to the extent required for
the activity of each individual.  Otherwise, through the
discovery of our preparations - the date of their execution has
not even been fixed - there is danger that most serious
political and military disadvantages may arise.

V. I expect reports from the commanders-in-chief concerning
their further plans based on this directive.

The contemplated preparations of all branches of the Armed
Forces, including their progress, are to be reported to me
through the High Command (OKW).

Adolf Hitler

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Date:    Sun, 18 Apr 1993 17:01:20 EST
From:    Larry Jewell <[email-masked]>
Subject: Around the world.

Every few months I take a look at the geographic distribution of the members
of this list.  The latest listing is enclosed.  I want to thank each of you
for making this one of the most trouble free list on the net, and to say
that we are all making the cause of understanding each other take another
small step.  We are dedicated to not forgetting the past so that we may
protect the future and we seem to be doing quite well.

Peace be with you all.

Larry J

*
*  Country        Subscribers
*  -------        -----------
*  Australia          6
*  Austria            1
*  Belgium            1
*  Brazil             2
*  Canada            14
*  Costa Rica         1
*  Finland            1
*  France             1
*  Germany            3
*  Great Britain      4
*  Greece             1
*  Ireland            1
*  Israel             1
*  Italy              1
*  Japan              1
*  Mexico             1
*  Netherlands        6
*  Norway             3
*  Poland             2
*  Saudi-Arabia       1
*  South Africa       1
*  Spain              1
*  Sweden             1
*  Switzerland        1
*  Turkey             1
*  USA              175
*  ???                5
*
* Total number of "concealed" subscribers:         5
* Total number of users subscribed to the list:  237  (non-"concealed" only)
* Total number of countries represented:          27  (non-"concealed" only)
* Total number of local node users on the list:    4  (non-"concealed" only)
*

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Date:    Sun, 18 Apr 1993 23:34:44 -0400
From:    [email-masked]
Subject: Re: REF: U.S. Army in WWII

How about a hyper-card type work?  The first hyper-card program I saw was a
CD-Rom covering the assassination of JFK.  It began as a documentary with
icons next to specific people and places.  You could click onto Gov. Connally,
Jackie, or even the secret service agent climbing onto the back of the limo.
You would then be given an explanation of who they were, and what was happening
to them.
Imagine a program like that about Pearl Harbor or Midway?  Click onto the
Arizona and find out its history, who the commander was and his background, the
ship's armaments, propulsion etc.  That would make an ideal learning tool.

                                        Richard Kaplan
                                        [email-masked]

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End of WWII-L Digest - 17 Apr 1993 to 18 Apr 1993
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