D DAY Through German Eyes 2

by Holger Eckhertz

I was wrong about everything. I know today, ten years later, that everything I believed during the war was a mistake. I understand today that we Germans were not in France to protect the people, we were there only to exploit and persecute them. We should never have been in France, or Russia, Italy, any of those places. The things that we did were appalling . . . everything was wrong. Why would those Americans hate us so much? Why would they cut our throats and break our necks like animals, in the road, without a word? Well, because they knew the truth of what we were doing, that is why.

Editor’s note: the German word ‘Taifun’ (‘Typhoon’), when applied to German weapons of World War 2, causes some confusion. The name was used for an experimental ground to air missile, and also for a method of combat employed by the Wehrmacht Sturmpioner (Assault Engineer) units, reflecting their use of shock tactics and assault weapons.

What was Typhoon B? We had already learned to exploit the enormous explosive potential of mixing explosive dust or gas with air inside the target buildings, inside a closed space. Typhoon B was designed to use a similar airborne explosive system, but in a form which could be used out in the open, on the battlefield, against targets on the ground.

The vapour was launched by low-velocity rocket, using a rocket-firing vehicle of the ‘Stuka Zu Fuss’ (‘Stuka on Foot’ half-track) type, which was widely available. The rockets fired canisters which were designed to release their vapour as they descended onto the target. This was extremely difficult to achieve, because of the probability of the liquid base detonating inside the canister. A vacuum system was used to prevent this. When a number of these canisters had been launched, they filled a large volume of air with their explosive gas; this volume could be up to one hundred cubic metres. Essentially, the target had this complete volume of explosive vapour suspended over it. The volume then had to be ignited, and this was done by immediately firing a secondary bombardment of incendiary rockets. These incendiaries would simply detonate the complete mass of explosive vapour hanging in the air. The nature of the explosion was astonishing, because it created a blast wave which expanded across the ground for an enormous distance. We tested a small prototype version of this weapon on the Eastern front, in controlled conditions. I observed the detonation and the effects on the landscape, which were enormous. As you can imagine, the shock wave was

able to pulverise any structure immediately below it, and any Russians who were either in the target area or in a radius of many hundred metres were killed outright. The effect of blast wave is to remove the air from a man’s lungs and arrest his heart muscles, and death is almost immediate, although there are often no outward signs of injury. I am amazed that I did not know about this system. How often was this used on the Eastern Front? It was never actually used against Russian forces in the field, in combat. Then how were Russians killed by it? This was a controlled test. Do you mean that prisoners were there, under the blast? Let’s move on.