pdf - WHALE

lown off the map by Allied bombers;
(2) Prague; and
(3) A region of the Harz Mountains in Thuringia known to
Germans as the Dreiecks or Three Corners," a region
encompassed by the old mediaeval towns and villages of
Arnstadt, Jonastal, Wechmar, and Ohrdruf. 7
One is informed by countless history books that this maneuver was
thought to be necessary by the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied
Expeditionary Force (SHEAF) because of reports that the Nazis
were planning to make a last stand in the "Alpine National
Redoubt", a network of fortified mountains stretching from the
Alps to the Harz Mountains. The Third Army's movements, so the
story goes, were designed to cut off the "escape route" of Nazis
fleeing the carnage of Berlin. Maps are produced in old history
books, accompanied in some cases by de-classified German plans -
some dating from the Weimar Republic! - for just such a redoubt.
Case settled.
However, there is a problem with that explanation. Allied aerial
reconnaissance would likely have told Eisenhower and SHAEF that
there were precious few fortified strong points in the "National
Redoubt". Indeed, it would have told them that the "Redoubt" was
no redoubt at all. General Patton and his divisional commanders
would most certainly have been privy to at least some of this
information. So why the extraordinary and almost reckless speed of
his advance, an advance the post-war Allied Legend would have us
believe was to cut off the escape route of Nazis fleeing Berlin, who
it turns out weren't fleeing, to a redoubt that didn't exist The
mystery deepens.
Then, remarkably, in a strange twist of fate, General Patton
himself, America's most celebrated general, dies suddenly, and,
some would say, suspiciously, as a result of complications from
injuries he sustained in a freak automobile accident soon after the
end of the war and the beginning of the Allied military occupation.
For many, there is little doubt that Patton's death is suspicious. But
7 Arnstadt is where the great German composer and organist J.S. Bach first
began his career.
7