Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler Read Free

jackboot and the tracks of the all-powerful panzers. Once occupied, these countries were unmercifully plundered of their wealth and cultural heritage to feed the coffers of Nazi Germany and satisfy the greed of its corrupt leadership. Between them, Adolf Hitler and Field Marshal Hermann Göring acquired the most extensive and valuable art collections of any individuals ever in history. Similarly, the national treasuries of the occupied countries were looted of their gold bullion and coinage to pay for the raw materials necessary to sustain Germany’s war effort. First and foremost, the Nazi Party was a criminal organization and its hierarchy acquired much of this wealth for its own dubious ends, let alone the gold and money extracted from the victims of the Holocaust before they were butchered in the gas chambers of the death camps. Large quantities of gold and precious gems were processed through the neutral countries of Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, with considerable individual fortunes secreted in the numbered accounts of Swiss banks. There is an old German saying that “ Money does not bring happiness unless you have it in a Swiss bank.”
    By 1943, Martin Bormann realized that the war was lost and the Nazi Party doomed to extinction. He instituted Aktion Adlerflug (Project Eagle Flight) to smuggle gold bullion, gems, and other valuables out of Germany to safe havens around the world, especially in South America. The amount of money was staggering. There was to be no repeat of the Treaty of Versailles, when Germany was stripped of all its possessions and wealth. At the same time, Bormann devised Aktion Feuerland (Project Land of Fire) to secure a safe refuge for the Nazi leadership. The chosen bolt-hole was in the depths of deepest Patagonia in Argentina. The price was high, but Nazi gold was a powerful inducement. Argentine gold reserves grew from 346 tons in 1940 to 1,173 in 1945—a sum of some $1.4 billion. Brazil’s grew from 50 tons to 346 in the same period—an increase of $350 million. As a comparison, the cost of gold in 1945 was $37 an ounce: it is now, at this writing, $1,360 an ounce. Similarly, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar in 1945 was approximately twelve times what it is today, so all sums quoted in this book must be multiplied by at least a factor of ten to appreciate their true value.
    By 1944, the Western Allies were poised for the invasion of northwest Europe with the largest amphibious landings in history on the coastline of Normandy in France. The Allies were well aware of the superiority of German military technology, from the Tiger 1 heavy tank to the Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter, as well as the world’s first ballistic missile—the V-2 “Vengeance Weapon.” Similarly, the Allies were highly fearful that the Germans might develop the first atomic bomb. Evidence of the extermination of the Jews and other minorities was becoming apparent, as was the plunder of Europe’s wealth and famous works of art. Accordingly, the Allies created a host of elite Special Forces units to address each of these problems. Teams of warriors and experts, such as 30 Advance Unit, Monuments Men, TICOM, and the Alsos Mission, were at the vanguard of every Allied army to uncover German military technology, loot, and hidden treasures. Their work was so secret that their extraordinary exploits can be revealed only now after many years hidden in classified documents. These elite units were crucial in the defeat of Germany, and with the subsequent emergence of the Cold War their roles became integral in the struggle against communism. Their quest for Nazi weapons and research projects proved invaluable in the postwar space race and the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, advanced submarines, and biological warfare agents.
    With defeat looming, members of the Nazi hierarchy, such as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, tried desperately to achieve a separate peace with the Western Allies, whereby