miRS-tonpon - Sturmpanzer.com

Factors militating against complete evacuation of foreignOT personnel were:1* Lack of transportation fuel.2. Belated evacuation plans,3» Ignorance of date of invasion.4» Ignorance of Allied tactica l plans*5* Low priorit yschedule.rating of foreign personnel in the evacuation6m Unwillingness of a majority of foreign personnel to beevacuated.7« Difficulties arising from battle conditions,,One factor favouring complete evacuation:1. The concentration of Allied landings at one point which gaveOT personnel in other areas a chance to get away.Transportation was provided only for priority German personnelsuch as women, officials and employees in key positions. OtherwiseGerman personnel able to walk was assigned to the supervision of marchcolumns. Material was transported by train. The evacuation planswere circulated on the 18th to the 20th May throughout coastal areas- in Prance. Moreover the commanding generals of the individual sectorswere empowered to order a partial evacuation, if s in their judgment,Allied landing were a feint or a diversion.The foreign personnel were the last to be evacuated. Portionsof it were intercepted by the Allied advance across BRITTAHTand in the CHERBOURG peninsula. There were forced night marches.Most French personnel, comprising about 35/£ of all foreign workersin the West, deserted at the first opportunity. The total OTpersonnel in the West almost certainly numbered less than 300*000?of which about 85,000 were French. It is likely that the Germansmanaged to evacuate toward the Reich border between 100,000 ­150,000 non-German workers, especially as, excepting in Normandy,they encountered little Allied interference.B» After D-Day15. Manpower and Personnel in Autumn 1944SPEER, in a confidential declaration made on 9th November 1944*stated that the 0T had 850,000 workers at its disposal inside Germany,and that this number was expected to be increased to approximately1,000,000 men in the near future, most of the increase to consistof Hungarian Jews. It was not expected that the 3^1£)0,000iieirk,necessary for carrying out the construction programme contemplated atthe time would be reached. As can be gathered from these figures, the0T has been assigned an all-important role in German plans forcontinuation of total warfare.Composition of 0T personnel at the present time, can be describedin general terms only. It is estimated that of its approximately300,000 foreign workers in Einsatzgruppe West (EGW), the Organisationmanaged to evacuate about one third. Such personnel as was lost duringthe process, mostly French, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish, has beenreplaced by new forcible levies of^Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs, andItalians. It is furthermore estimated that the proportion of foreign